For Tuyet, Katrina, KaSandra, and Luc
my inspiration
Chapter Ten
Ahmanson Bio Research Center, USC…Tuesday, Feb 17, 2009…6pm
Judy Looney pulled off her specs and tossed them wearily onto the desk in front of her. Glancing quickly at her wristwatch she groaned audibly. It was 2am and she couldn’t believe that she had been working non-stop since lunch, again! It was the third time this week and she was beginning to feel every one of her forty something years. Thank God for Maxwell House and Folgers she thought; the lab’s java choices. Choices based entirely on cost versus taste of course. Lab rats are predominately poorer than the average rodent, a sad fact of life. But who cares, after the eighth or ninth cup nobody really tastes anything anyway. Hot, black and strong are the only criteria for double and triple shifts.
Sure, the teaching gig paid the rent, but that only accounted for 6 of the 18 hours she put in most days. It was her passion for research that kept her in the lab until the wee hours. Students would come and go but finding a cure for the big “C” was what she was all about. Being a Fellow at this school was a big deal. An even bigger deal was being a part of the Regenerative Medicine/Stem Cell Research team at USC; now that was a huge honor! It was what put the spring in her step and the shit eating grin on old Edward’s face, her traditionalist Scots/Irish old man (father). He was a "tough as nails" retired longshoreman who emigrated from Glasgow to the United States during the cold war, 1962 to be exact. He brought his blushing new bride straight from the Chapel in Edinburgh proper to the Port of Los Angeles where he put in thirty five years loading and unloading containers from all around the world.
The young couple called San Pedro home, settling into a small five room cottage within spitting distance of Ports of Call. Sure, it was a little dicey fitting into their Cabrillo St. neighborhood with its thick Yugoslavian population but they managed to weather the ticklish transition by respecting their new home as much as the one that they left behind. In May of 1968 Edward's wife Trina bore him a daughter, the apple of his eye, his pride and joy. They named her Judith Theresa Looney, after his great Aunt who'd raised him. His own parents had been killed in 1943 during the Nazi blitz of London, a tragic way to begin one's life. Tragedy seemed to follow Edward to the new world as well when two years after Judith, Trina died giving birth to their second child, a wee girl he called Cassie (short for Cassandra). She too would pass at the tender age eight, after a short and fierce battle with consumption, an old world term more commonly known as cancer.
That was the defining moment in big sister Judy’s life. It changed her forever. It's what drove her to medicine and inspired her Looney Tunes nickname. I should probably explain that. You see, prior to Cassie’s death Judy could have been best described as a wallflower, shy and reserved to the point of appearing autistic. For whatever reasons, reasons only she could know, "wallflower Judy" was buried along with her sister. The pre-teen reborn at the gravesite became a hellion of legendary proportions. The shy little girl whom Edward sometimes worried about became a fearless woman-child who filled him with pride one minute and something between terror and anger the next. Fast forward a few decades and here she sat, thirty miles from where she grew up, still Daddy’s little girl, when she allowed it, and working non-stop on the cure that would fulfill a secret promise she'd made to her kid sister.
Judy punched off her desktop computer and watched as it powered down, then swiveled her chair 180 degrees to make her getaway for home. Standing slowly she yawned and did a big girl stretch, both of her arms reaching high for the ceiling as her lungs filled with air. In mid-exhale the phone rang loudly, startling her into a freakish leap, like a garden gnome on crack.
“SHIT,” she shrieked, spinning around quickly and lunging at the offending piece of office equipment! She picked up the handset and screamed into the receiver.
“PISS OFF!" she hollered, slamming the handset back into the cradle as she sat back down to catch her breath. She waited for the phone to ring again. She knew it was me; nobody else would be calling at this hour expecting to get an answer. Judy also knew that I wouldn’t sleep until she told me what I needed to know. She watched the phone with an unblinking stare, drumming her fingers on the desk impatiently. I didn’t disappoint her, and she picked up a millisecond after the first ring.
“What Whitey, WHAT?”
“Take it easy doll, don’t get your panties in a bunch,” I replied defensively.
“Hey, leave my underwear out of this DICK! Why are you bugging me at this hour anyway? Didn't I tell you to call me in a day or two? ”
“Hey, hey, just because you coaxed that family secret outta me in a weak moment doesn’t mean you can throw it back in my face whenever you please. Besides, you promised never to call me that Judy. A promise is a promise!”
That felt a little pathetic and I could tell by the silence on the other end of the line that Judy picked up on my self loathing. I heard her stifle a giggle and waited for her sarcastic come-back line. I didn’t have to wait long.
“Awww, sorry bout that Nancy, maybe we can chat more about that when you’re done with your period,” she said with a grin that I could feel through the phone.
“Come on Whitey, I just want to go home, feed my cats and crash for a couple of hours before the freaking alarm screams at me to get up and do this all over again!”
“Funny Judy, you’re a real riot! Look, just tell me what you know about the threads I left you this morning and we can both call it a day!” I snapped.
“Alright, this is getting boring anyway. So, about the threads, well you were right. They’re off a LAPD uniform. Whoever was wearing it was a male with O positive blood. He is likely over forty and is graying slightly. I can’t tell you height, weight, or shoe size, but I can tell you that he smokes and that he likes his sandwiches with brown mustard. How’s that for a freebie? This is a freebie, right Whitey?”
“Ahhh, natch on the freebie doll, I’ll have to owe you for now, you know how it is.”
“Yeah, I know, gumshoes don’t make dick, no pun intended.”
“Okay, I deserved that. But I have to know, how did you glean all of that from three tiny threads?”
“It’s not rocket science Whitey. The threads must have been off a shirt sleeve, near the cuff I’m guessing. Since it's winter time the LAPD is dressing out in their winter gear, right? I figured near the cuff because the hands are next to almost every action we take. Like for instance, eating, smoking, drinking, washing up after taking a leak, or mixing it up on the job with a feisty perp. Am I right?”
“Sounds plausible, I guess that makes sense?”
“Trust me, it makes perfect sense.”
“Still, humor me,” I pleaded.
“Sheesh Whitey, you’re a piece of work,” replied Judy! I could hear her squirming in her chair looking for a more comfortable position. She yawned deeply and then began her dissertation.
“Alright gumshoe, by the numbers then. ONE, three blue cotton fibers, no great stretch, easily traced to the manufacturer, who by the way has an exclusive contract with the city for the fabric; which I identified by lot through the dye in the material. TWO, blood type recognition, also a no brainer. The fella may have got a paper cut issuing a citation or maybe cut himself shaving, I don’t know, but the samples tested as O positive and had traces of testosterone in the sweat also found on the fibers. THREE, the gray hair was a lucky find as one of the fibers had a small follicle on it, likely from his arm. That was another indicator that we are dealing with a male subject here, well that and the testosterone. FOUR, the age is an educated guess based on the follicle. FIVE, traces of nicotine were on the follicle as well as the threads. And finally SIX, the fella must have gone to the same charm school as you did because this little piggy likes his deli with spicy brown mustard. Just like you, right Whitey? There, is that enough detail for you?”
I offered up my praise with a long and low whistle over the telephone line and I could hear her snicker tiredly on the other end.
“Very impressive, you’re just too cool for school Miss Looney, why aren’t we sleeping together anyway?”
“You’re a class act Roode, unfortunately you’re also an asshole. Besides, I’d rather do the deed with your ex, you know that.”
“That’s right; you two are still thick as thieves aren’t you. Thanks for rubbing it in.”
“My pleasure, on both counts,” she replied softly.
“On that note I’m hanging up and going to bed,” I said, half hoping she felt like talking more. I always had a soft spot for Looney Tunes even if she was a rival of sorts.
“Okay, I’m doing the same. G’nite Whitey, hope that helps you earn a buck or two.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll see. G‘nite…”
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