Chapter 10

"What do you mean he came back" Sarah asked dumbfounded "he told me he slept through the whole night"

"well according to this, after he left with you that evening, he came back here in the middle of the night. here, take a look, it's his ID" Austin said handing her the document in his hands.

"That's impossible, Adam doesn't have a reason to come back here." she told her brother who seemed to already have his own track of thoughts. But that wasn't possible, Adam wouldn't lie to her, he didn't need to, especially about something like this.

"We have spare IDs that we keep in the office, it could have easily been stolen. if someone has access to the lab, "

"Does P.wattani know where you put them?"

"it's not like we advertise it, but he could've easily found them. we didn't need to hide them since no one could come inside the lab anyway." she paused looking at her brother as he started eyeing the document in his hands once more, sighing she told him "i'll check if the spares are still in the lab when i get back."

"yeah, do that and let me know ASAP. we can't leave any holes in this investigation, it will be too late if something happened to you."

"i know. But something could happen to Adam too, he's the suspect." Austin didn't say anything, he just looked at her with an impassive expression, "i don't know why you doubt Adam so easily."

"because he's the closest to this conflict, and he has a lot to gain if the research was left to him" Austin responded and she glared at him, realizing that he said too much he sighed and said " I'm just doing my job, Sis. If Adam is suspicious, then i will investigate it until it's proven otherwise"

"if that's what you're doing, then why don't you investigate Elias," she said feeling a seething rage grow within her, suddenly all of her anger was directed toward him, all of her frustration and anguish at what was going on was threatening to explode.

"Sarah, we both know that Elias isn't a suspect in this" her brother continued unaware of her turmoil "i know that this stress is getting to you, but perhaps you need to think more about your assumptions toward him"

" are you saying that this is getting to my head? are you trying to say that i can't think rationally anymore." she asked barely toning down the anger in her voice. Why didn't her own brother understand, why didn't he take her side, why was he making things harder.

"Elias is a traitor," she told him her voice wavering, "And even if he wasn't there's a possibility of him becoming one, or being used against me, and i'm at a situation where i can't afford that."

"is this research that important? so important that you discard someone like Elias so easily."

"it is" she said somberly refusing to look at her brother's face, she knew what he must be thinking about her, and she was afraid of seeing it in his face "there's simply too much at stake,"

Austin sighed taking a step toward her and she did her best not to look up

"Listen," he said reluctantly, "I know that I've been nagging you about this, and so has mom and dad. but we simply want you to be happy. We saw that you were happy with Elias, if I thought for a moment that he had any bad intentions toward you, i would've been the first to kick him out of your life. But, we both know that he's not a suspect. no matter what's your reason for doing this, please, reconsider, Elias loves you and losing him like this will hurt you more than anything, you know that you'll ever find someone who you will have the same connections with,"

Sarah couldn't say anything, she kept looking own not daring to look into her brother's face, after a while he sighed and resumed walking toward the door in silence, as they reached the institute's entrance he reached out hugging her.

"I will send an officer to stay with you as soon as I can, but it would be better if you considered other options..." He said "you still have the handgun I gave you,right? carry it everywhere you go." her brothers wasn't suggesting, his tone didn't leave that much choice. he had given her the gun at her 20th birthday when she moved out of their parent's house. being seven years older than her, he already made his way into the criminal world and knew what it as like outside, so he insisted she had a way to protect herself.

"I do, but still, it's not like i will have to shoot someone"

"just keep it on you to give me some peace of mind," he said "Elias told me about the offer he made you when I met him on campus this morning, maybe you should accept it..."

she was glared at him ready to start another argument when he raised his hands in surrender taking the easy way out.

"what were you doing in campus with him anyway, is that why you were late?"

"kinda, i was leading a separate investigation and ran into him there. we chatted for a while and he told me that he just came back from meeting with you." He said looking into the parking space.

"Did you find out something about Kinsley," she asked raising her eyebrow and eying the supposedly detective in front of her,

"I really can't lie to you" he said with a defeated smile his shoulders sagging

"Sometimes i wonder how you made it as a detective." she told him wryly

"yeah, well apart from you and mom, i don't seem to have a problem with that." he said then turned serious "you can't sleep in your apartment for a while, come and stay over with us, it's safer. we will talk about the details then"

Sarah nodded feeling off kilter. After seeing her brother off she went back to the lab, her mind in jeopardy, she didn't know what to think anymore. Her personal life seemed to take up residence in her professional space, making her feel as if she had no privacy anymore. She entered the code making sure to change the password to the door, the lab was dark Adam was still outside, a red blinking light. she locked the door behind her in a hurry making sure that the alarm was, then headed toward the machine, she took the piece of paper holding the results of their earlier experiments and tried to read with trembling hands, she read the results again and again her mind refusing to process what she was seeing. Her mind became blank except of the chemical formula she just saw on the paper, it kept dancing around in her head until it was all she could think about.

"It's cocaine" She whispered fear gripping her heart, she sat down needing something to anchor her before gravity pulled her down. "The Queen contains Cocaine. Oh my god what have I gotten myself into."