Chapter 21

Sebastian got them each a couple of beers from the fridge before settling back down in the living room.

"Now it's time for you to tell your story." He said to Felicia as he handed her one of the bottles of beer.

"Just promise that you won't throw me in the insane asylum after I'm done telling you."

"Your story can't be that far-fetched…can it?"

Felicia showed him her arm. "This all started with a bite from my cat."

"You're shitting me."

"I wish that I was." Felicia told him the whole story from start to finish.

"And your friend thinks that what, that food was the start of all this?"

"Apparently. I thought that it was a crazy idea, but when I found out that every animal we know of that's been affected has been eating the same brand of food from the company Pet Provisions."

"Of course." Sebastian sighed. "We warned them the last time that they got in trouble, we would be sending someone to do a full investigation on them."

"I'm assuming that was in relation to the whole horse meat situation."

"It was, yeah. Interestingly enough, the employee that said that disappeared soon after."

"They what now?"

"They disappeared, without any trace. No signs of foul play, but they haven't made contact with any of their loved ones, so we're not sure if they purposefully went off the radar, or if someone made them disappear."

"What do you think happened?" Felicia asked.

"From what information I was able to gather on them, they weren't the kind of person to vanish and not tell anyone."

"You keep saying 'they'."

"Technically, I'm not supposed to reveal anything to you. Confidentiality and all of that."

Felicia raised an eyebrow. "Sebastian, I think we're past that point, and if it has anything to do with what I'm dealing with, then I kind of need to know."

"You've got a point there, but you breathe a word of it to anyone, I'll hunt you down."

"I live with you, it's not exactly going to be that hard for you to find me."

Sebastian chuckled at that. "His name is Akira Fujikawa."

"Asian?"

"He hails from Japan. He had turned fifty shortly before his disappearance. Hang on."

Sebastian went into his study, which was right next to the living room. Opening a filing cabinet, he rummaged through it before pulling out a manila envelope. He then walked back to Felicia.

"This is what I was able to gather about him."

Felicia opened the envelope, pulling out a few papers, along with a photograph. "His parents immigrated here from Takayama in the sixties. He went to MIT, graduated at the top of his class. What the hell was he doing with a sleazy company like Pet Provisions?"

"I don't know." Sebastian replied.

"Maybe he was working for someone else?"

"Maybe, either as a spy or a whistleblower."

"But who would he have been a whistleblower for?"

"I don't know, I wasn't able to find out anything about his life after he graduated. No social media, nothing."

"Now that's definitely suspicious." Felicia took a long sip of her beer. "No Facebook, Instagram?"

"Nothing. Even my grandfather uses Facebook, and Fujikama went to a tech school, so you can't tell me that he wouldn't know how to use social media apps."

"Exactly. So if he doesn't have any kind of online presence, then it would be because he doesn't want to risk people finding out certain things about him." Felicia's finger ran across the top of her beer bottle. "Just another thing to add to the list. By the way, you wouldn't happen to know any0ne that has a lab, do you?"

"What the hell do you need a lab for?"

"I'm a scientist, remember? I need to find a cure for whatever's going on with me."

"I actually might know someone. Depends on how you feel working near a morgue."

"At this point, I really couldn't give a shit. If I don't figure this out, then you might be putting me in that morgue."

"Just promise me something."

Felicia looked at him quizzically. "What's that?"

"If you turn into a zombie and start eating brains, leave mine intact."

She rolled her eyes. "And you called me the asshole."

"I'm just trying to look out for my best interests, here."

"If I turn into a zombie, I don't really think that I'm going to be able to recognize anyone."

"Well damn. Worth a shot, anyway."

"Are you actually cracking jokes?"

"I'll have you know that I'm not always a super-serious cop." Sebastian had a playful smirk on his face.

"You could have fooled me."

"I do have a reputation, after all."

"As what? Someone who's all work and no play?"

"Only way to get the job done."

Felicia scoffed. "It's a wonder that you have any friends."

"Says the woman who only has a gay couple as friends."

"That's not true." She retorted. "I have Hank and Sabine, too."

"Wow, a grand total of four friends."

"All right then, smartass, how many friends do you have?"

"Definitely more then four. The person that has the lab that you need just so happens to be one of them, so I suggest that you play nice."

"Fine, fine." She held her hands up in surrender. "So who's this friend of yours?"

"Her name is Noelani Tuigamala, she's 0ne of the best medical examiners that I've ever worked with."

"When you said that I would be working near a morgue, did you mean in one?"

"Well…not exactly. The dead bodies are kept in a different room."

"Lovely." Felicia repressed a shudder.

"Do you want a lab or not?"

"Fine, but those bodies had better stay dead."

"I thnk that someone has been watching one too many horror movies-"

There was a harsh knock on the door, causing Sebastian to jump up out of his seat. "Go to my room and stay there until I come and get you."

"Sebastian-"

"Just shut up and go."

Another harsh knock.

"Lock the door." Sebastian ordered her. "And whatever you hear, don't come out, you understand me? Now go."

Felicia looked at him for a moment before running to his bedroom, locking the door and even pushing the dresser against the door for good measure. She heard the front door open, and after that, what seemed to be an eternity of silence.

Finally, she heard Sebastian's voice call out to her. "Felicia, I think that you're going to want to see this!"

Shoving the dresser away from the door, she slowly crept out. What she saw in the front hall caused her to freeze. "Holy shit…"