The Journey Home, Part 2 (Ch 14)
Chapter 14
When they left the XO’s office, Mark and Isabel went to supper in the Bridge Lounge as they had planned.
As they ate, Joe Stapp and Millie Severin came in and took a table nearby.
Mark eyed them, then looked at Isabel. “Instead of waiting ‘til tomorrow, what say we start testing our people tonight?”
Isabel shrugged. “Works for me. Joe and Millie are right there.”
“That’s what gave me the idea. We can let them know we won’t be in to work in the morning. We can get swabs from them right after supper, and then start testing others.”
She nodded. “Let’s do it. We can probably get a lot done tonight.”
When they were through eating, Mark went to the infirmary to get test swabs.
When he left, Isabel approached Joe’s table. He was working his way through an open-face roast-beef sandwich with french fries and brown gravy on the side. Millie’s plate contained a small rectangle of meat loaf, mashed potatoes and brown gravy, and green beans.
Isabel leaned down beside his chair and, her gaze on Millie, said, “Forgive the interruption. Could I maybe join you? Something’s come up and I want to explain it to you before Mark gets back from the infirmary.”
Joe gestured toward a chair. “Of course. Please.”
As Isabel seated herself, a waitress came up. She looked at Isabel. “Miss?”
Isabel smiled up at her. “Coffee, please. Cream and sugar. And a glass of ice water?”
“Yes ma’am.”
As the waitress turned and left, Millie leaned forward and said, “Is Mark all right? Why’s he gone to the infirmary?”
Isabel smiled. “He’s fine, thanks. But like I said, something’s come up. First, Mark and I will have to take a day or two off. Hopefully only one.”
Joe frowned. “What’s going on?” Both he and Millie set aside their forks and knives.
Quietly, Isabel said, “Everyone who was on board more than a month before we left lunar orbit is being DNA tested again. Because of the incident earlier. The XO wants to be sure everyone on board is who they say they are. And it’s up to Mark and me to test the bartenders and the wait staff. That’s why we’ll need some time away from our regular jobs.”
Joe said, “Ah, I understand. That makes sense.” He glanced at Millie, who nodded. He looked at Isabel again and, barely above a whisper, said, “We heard the incident might have been connected with a bomb threat. Is that right?”
The waitress came up with Isabel’s coffee and ice water and set them on the table. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like anything else?”
Again Isabel smiled at her. “No, this is perfect. Thank you.”
The waitress turned and left, and Isabel leaned toward Joe. “I really don’t know. I guess they’re keeping details pretty close to the vest. We figure the best thing we can do is what the CO and XO want us to do.”
Joe sat back. “I understand. And Millie and I will be tested too?”
Isabel nodded. “You’ll be our first. We’re working from the top down. It would just take a second to get a swab from each of you, so—”
Millie looked past her. “We can do that right now.” She smiled.
Mark touched Isabel’s shoulder, then sat down beside her. He looked at Joe. “Isabel explained everything?”
Joe nodded and grinned. “So where’s my swab?”
“Right here.” Mark pulled two swab kits from his right trouser pocket, handed one past Isabel to Joe and slid the other across the table to Millie. “Swab the inside of your cheek, then insert it in the tube and touch the broad side with your thumb. I’ll get swabs from the other bartenders while you’re doing that.” He got up and headed toward the bar.
*
When the door closed behind Mark and Isabel, the colonel remembered a new message had come in on his tablet. He picked it up and swiped the screen to bring it to life.
As he expected, it displayed a synopsis of three separate DNA tests.
Schaeffer was clean. And there was a timestamp was 1642:33. So the good doctor had accepted the results at 33 seconds after 4:42 p.m. as he was finishing with Mark and Isabel.
But he frowned. He hadn’t noticed a timestamp on other, earlier messages. Probably it was to effect a chain of custody, since it reported the confidential results of a medical test.
He skipped down one line. Wilson was clean too. He thought that was a little odd. Then again, when he and the CO had talked with the men in the infirmary, they hadn’t really seemed culpable. So he wasn’t really surprised that both results came back clean. Still, maybe he should ask the doctor to run the tests again just to be sure. He glanced at the timestamp alongside Wilson’s name. It read only a few seconds later: 1642:39. So the results had been accepted separately, one after another. That made sense.
He skipped down to the next line. That one was different, if only because Posey’s name was highlighted. And on the right, the word MISMATCH flashed in all uppercase letters. Well, no surprise there either.
He tapped on Posey’s name, then read the full report.
The man was actually Jeffrey Louis Dingle. Next to that name, career petty criminal was highlighted. Dingle had resided in Las Vegas, Nevada for much of his life. He was born the same year and month as the real Roger Posey, and Posey was also from Las Vegas, but apparently he was a model citizen. Single, 32 years old, hired once and never fired though he had resigned his job as a janitor to come accept his assignment to the cleanup crew of The Ark. No arrest record.
He tapped on the highlighted career petty criminal and Dingle’s rap sheet came up.
The man was the polar opposite of the real Posey. He had dropped out of school in the 9th grade and had been nabbed multiple times—the first time at the age of 14—for shoplifting, vandalism, and even cruelty to animals. He’d spent time in juvenile lockup, and later he had two convictions for burglary, two for armed robbery, and a few conspiracy charges. He was currently on bond for two charges: attempted grand theft of an automobile and second degree murder.
The information didn’t include the name of the suspected victim, but probably it was Posey himself. How else could Dingle have so easily taken his place?