Link to beginning of story:
@justephen/justin-time-chapter-1-an-original-novel
Link to Chapter 9: Business Partners
/@justephen/justin-time-chapter-9-an-original-novel
Chapter 9 Review:
Mark Hannity convinces Mabel Lidcow to co-invest in PPC before they go public. Through surveliance video at the hospital and medical reports, Detective Armstrong is building a case against Katherine.
Chapter 10: The Evidence
Katherine Time was at work and knew she had many pressing items on her agenda. First of all, she needed more chimpanzee test subjects for her new cure. It would take at least five years before she would be approved by the government so that her procedure can be applied on humans. She needed as many test subjects as possible and she knew there wasn't a huge supply of chimpanzees in comas. It was unfortunate that she couldn't document her procedure on Justin and that it had already worked.
As she was thinking to herself, a man walked into the laboratory and introduced himself.
"Hi. Are you Katherine Time?"
"Yes"
"I am Detective Winward, and I was just assigned to investigate the break in at your house about a year ago."
Detective Winward was a 64 year old white haired man with a short goatee. He is due to retire in two months.
"Unfortunately Officer Quintez who I believe you know, was very very late in submitting his police report which makes this investigation almost futile." he said. "That being said, I still need to go through the motions."
Katherine was very taken back by the detectives total lack of interest. "But what happens if this intruder comes back? You also have the fabric where you may be able to trace his DNA to a data base." , said Katherine.
"He hasn't been there for a year. He won't come back. He almost got killed by your husband. We ran a DNA test on the fabric. We found items of interest. One was a fiber of hair and the other was blood. We ran them through our data base and found nothing on either. The reason why I am here now is because we need to get a hair sample from your son Justin. We figure after all the probing and shall I say 'contaminating' of our best evidence by your son, we will find Justin as one of the matches. Like I said, I have to go through the motions and any good attorney..hell..even a bad attorney would make this fabric inadmissible in court due to this contamination."
"I will have the hair sample of Justin here tomorrow." said Katherine who now lost all hope of finding this man.
Although he was probably right, she thought why did they have to assign a washed up old man for her case.
The next day Detective Winward entered Katherine's laboratory and asked for the hair sample.
She walked over and reached into her bag and pulled out a sandwich baggie.
"You will find the sample in the baggie. I got it from his brush. I sterilized the tweezers before I pulled it out of his brush so as to not CONTAMINATE your evidence." she said sarcastically.
He took the baggie and said, "Too late. And by the way", he continued, "Here is your fabric, we took what we needed from it. Evidently moron..I mean Officer Quintez promised your son he could have it back. It certainly is no use to me."
"I think a toast is in order Mark.", said Mable on Tuesday evening.
"To your retirement Mable!", cheered Mark Hannity as they clinked their champagne glasses together.
"Thanks to you Mr. Hannity. I was pretty sure we would do well, but I had no clue we would get rich.", said Mable with a big smile.
"$100,000.00 isn't what I would exactly call 'rich'", winked Hannity.
"My share was $100,000.00 and for me that is rich. I had it all calculated. I needed to save $81,000.00 more to retire. You made almost $200,000.00. What are you going to do with your share?", inquired Mable.
"Probably invest it."
"Do you have any ideas what you may invest it in?"
"No. But I have a contact who may help me."
"If it was your contact that brought us together, then I would say it is a very good contact."
When Detective Armstrong knocked on the Times door, it was 7:00 pm in the evening. Katherine and William had invited Blair and his parents, Francis and Leon over for dinner. Francis was talking about what a treat it was to have a home cooked meal by such an extraordinary chef. Blair and Justin were playing upstairs in Justin's room.
"I wonder who that could be?", said Katherine as she excused herself from the table.
As Katherine opened the door, Detective Armstrong showed his badge and said, "Are you Kathrine Time?"
"Yes. That would be me."
"My name is Detective Armstrong and I am sorry for visiting you at this time, but I was wondering if you could answer a few questions?"
In reality, Armstrong was not at all sorry for interrupting at that time. In fact, he knew it would be the best time to reach her.
"What is this regarding?" inquired Katherine thinking that name sounded familiar.
"I need your expert opinion and I was told you were one of the best in the field of neurology."
It was not uncommon for Kathrine to be asked questions by authorities regarding neurology and often she had testified as an expert witness.
"At this time? Well okay." , said Katherine.
Detective Armstrong began, "I have been doing a good amount of research and I understand that you made a medical break through regarding comatose patients. And to make a long story short, you have been recently working on chimpanzees as subjects to see if you can wake them out of a coma."
"Yes. I have." said Katherine now remembering her phone conversation with Kyle.
"Have you been successful?" asked Armstrong directly. That direct question caught her off-guard and she started stutter. "Wha what do you mean?"
"Have you been successful in bringing a chimpanzee out of a coma?"
"Actually, it has been inconclusive.”, Katherine lied, “I am still doing more testing.
"Inconclusive? Are you saying that your chimpanzee named Katie may or may not be out of a coma?"
"I don't appreciate your sarcasm, Detective Armstrong. But there is a scientific term called cause and effect. Just because Katie came out of a coma, that doesn't necessarily mean that it was because of my procedure."
Katherine realized her last statement may have proven her point, but it did not benefit her in the long run.
"By any chance does your PROCEDURE have anything to do with Phenobarbital? To clarify, the same phenobarbital that was found in your son's system after he awoke from his coma?"
OUCH! Katherine felt her heart sink and she immediately knew she was way over her head. Her mind started getting cloudy and she could say nothing.
William who was listening in, hurried over and said, "Excuse me, but this conversation has to wait. I have a very important guest over for dinner, so if you will excuse us."
Detective Armstrong smiled knowingly and said, "Of course. I am sure we will see each other again Katherine.", as he walked out the door.
"What was that about?", asked Francis.
"I am not really sure, but I wasn't in the mood to let him ruin our dinner and good time."
Quickly changing the subject Leon said, "Yes! Let's toast to good times, with good people and a fantastic meal.", as he raised his wine glass.
During this time in Justin's room, he and Blair were having a philosophical conversation while his dog, Ruffus, rested on Justin's bed. They were discussing if in the future, man would be able to fly. Blair argued that without wings or some sort of rocket boosters it would be impossible.
"And besides", Blair said, "You don't even have an idea yourself on how people could fly."
"I don't have to have an idea.", said Justin, "People create many things and nothing is impossible."
"That's not true. Lots of things are impossible. You can't be a dog right now."
"I could if I wanted to.", said Justin defiantly.
"Ruff ruff", barked Ruffus.
"See, even Ruffus agrees with me.", Justin said sticking out his tongue.
"Also", Justin continued, "Flying would just be for fun, I am going to travel in time."
"What's that?" asked Blair.
"You don't know? I could go back to the past and see Abraham Lincoln or go to the future and see any President that we will have in the future."
"That is even stupider than flying.", Blair said rolling his eyes.
"Guess what I have.", said Justin changing the subject.
"What?", asked Blair.
Justin proceeded to pull something out of his pocket.
"What is so special about that? It is just a piece of fabric." Blair said.
“This fabric came from the thief who entered my house last year. The policeman wanted it and I just got it back from him earlier this morning. They call this 'evidence'."
"What's evidence?", questioned Blair.
"Mommy explained it as important information that is used to solve a crime."
"Do you remember what the thief looked like?" asked Blair.
"I don't, but I am starting to remember many more things. Like him jumping through the window and Ruffus barking."
When Ruffus heard his name, his ears perked up and he gave a short bark.
"I think this fabric came from a sweater, but I am not sure." guessed Justin.
"The thief better not come back here when I am here because I know Kung Fu.", said Blair with a serious look on his face.
"You do not.", argued Justin.
"Yes I do.", retaliated Blair.
"Notice how the darker and thicker tea leaf is lying directly on top of the finer lighter tea leaf at the edge of your cup. This means...Oh hello Mr. Hannity.", said Madam Clearvision as Mark Hannity walked through the door.
"I didn't realize the time, we need to continue this next week Mrs. Elder.", Clearvision said to the retired librarian. "That will be $75.00 plus an additional $10.00 to cover the costs of the special tea leaves."
"Thank you very much and how are you today Mr. Hannity?"
"I am doing great. Your last recommendation went perfectly!"
“It did? Of course it went perfectly”, she recovered.
"Excuse me for a moment Mr. Hannity.", said Clearvision as she went back behind her curtain.
Madam Clearvision reached into her blouse and pulled out another piece of paper. She took a moment to read it again and placed it back inside.
As she stepped back through the curtain she said, "You were saying?"
"I was saying that it went great! PPC did go public and I am a little wealthier. Thank you. I wanted to see your next recommendation.", he said in anticipation.
"No promises Mr. Hannity, but let's sit down and see. I have been doing very well with tea leaves lately. I think we should try that. But, I have to tell you, it will be an additional $10.00 to cover the costs of the special tea leaves."
"That's fine as long as it works.”, said Hannity.
The boiling pot was already hot from her last appointment. Madam Clearvision poured the hot water into a tea cup. Then she handed Mark Hannity her tea leaves.
"Take these tea leaves. Put them in the tea cup and lightly swish them around. Good, now I need you to drink the tea. Careful not to burn yourself, but I cannot read the leaves until you are through."
Although the tea was very hot, Mark was impatient and finished the tea in a couple minutes.
"My! Are we in a hurry today?", asked the Madam.
"Kinda..not really..I guess I am just eager.", replied Mark.
"Okay. Give me a moment while I read this. Hmm...aha...I see...interesting...", she muttered.
"What? What?", he asked.
"Horses! I see lots of horses."
"Let me look.", said Hannity as he grabbed the cup.
"I just see a bunch of leaves."
"That is because you are not trained like I am. Please be patient Mr. Hannity while a read the leaves and channel my energy.", she said as she grabbed the cup back and looked inside.
"Have you heard of Misty Mountain?", she asked.
"No.", he replied.
"Oh interesting", she said as she continued to stare inside the cup. "Have you heard of Preakness?"
"Yes. That is one of the horse racing events. Wait...are you saying that Misty Mountain is the name of a winning horse and it will be running in the Preakness?", he asked with enthusiasm.
She looked back down at the cup and said, "Hmm...I believe that is exactly what I am seeing. No guarantees of course. Reading these tea leaves can be very tricky."
"Anything else?" asked Hannity.
"I believe that is it for now. That will be $75.00 plus an additional $10.00 for the cost of the special tea leaves."
"Yeah. I know. I know. If you are right, it will be well worth the extra $10.00."
It was a week later and it was the first day of school. Katherine dropped both Blair and Justin off at school and then went to work. Not only was she doing well with the continuation of legalizing her medical procedure, she also re-investigated the recurrence of the man who was slipping into animal cages during Katie's tenure. What she found was that this man is currently in a psychiatric ward. Evidently he was not only terrorizing the animals, but he fed them toxins to save them and 'kill the evil spirits that possessed them'.
She walked over to Katie and said, "Now I know why you don't like zoos. You had a lunatic working there. Let me see if I can arrange something else for you. I think you have fully recovered and you should enjoy the rest of your life."
Katie smiled and said, "oo oo aa aa."
Later than evening, William was still at the restaurant hosting a business banquet for the Millionaire Moguls. Katherine was at home making dinner, while Justin was down stairs watching TV. Then there was a knock at the door.
Ruffus started barking and Justin said, "I will get it mommy."
Justin opened the door and said, "Mommy, there are two police men here. They probably want to ask us more questions."
"Okay honey", she said as she wiped her hands with a towel and started walking towards the front door.
"Hi officers. Have you found out who broke into our house?"
"Mrs Time?"
"Yes"
"You are under arrest for the unauthorized practicing of medicine, conspiring to....".
While the officer continued to dictate several other offenses, he took out his handcuffs and then proceeded to read Kathrine her Miranda Rights.
As he put her hands behind her back and slipped on the cuffs, Justin starting balling. "Mommy mommy. What are they doing? Don't hurt my mommy.", he said crying frantically while tugging on the policeman's arm.
Then he grabbed his mom around the hips and pulled back. "You can't have her. You can't have her.", he cried with tears pouring out in desperation.
"What are you guys doing? You can't do this in front of my son. Oh my god Justin. I'm so sorry.", cried Katherine.
"Mommy mommy they can't take you. Don't leave me here. I want my mommy.", he said in total frenzy.
"We will leave an officer here and call your husband Mrs. Time. He will be safe.", said the officer as he escorted her out of her house and into the police car.
The other officer had to rip the grip of Justin's hands from his mother and said, "We will call your daddy. He will be here soon."