Part 17 (2/2)
”Is there anything else it could be?”
”Well ... lots of things. I don't know. Where'd you find it?”
”Uh, well ... in an alleyway.”
”In an alleyway? In that case, it could be ketamine, which is quite popular these days. It's also known as Special K, Kit Kat ...”
”Which is ...?”
”An anaesthetic. Veterinary and medical.”
Samira looked puzzled. ”Oh, maybe that's what it is.”
”At lower doses it has dissociative and psychedelic effects-it's used to produce the 'near-death experience.'”
”Really?” Oh, I get it now. It's one of Norval's hallucinogens.
”It's usually combined with rohypnol. It's a date-rape drug.”
Samira's jaw sagged. So I was right about that man. He's worse than the populations of Sodom and Gomorrah combined. ”Oh s.h.i.+t. You're not serious. So Norval's a date rapist.”
”Norval? What's Norval got to do with-”
”And maybe I was next.”
”Next? Oh no, I think you've got the wrong-”
”I found it in a drawer beside his bed! Maybe that's how he gets through his freaking alphabet! Hold on, I'll be right back.”
[image]
”Look at this,” said Samira, minutes later. She set down the vial on Noel's bed table, hard.
”Really, Sam, I don't think-”
”I knew there was something ... satanic about him. The party I went to a few weeks ago ... somehow Norval is behind all that. It wasn't just a coincidence he stepped into that elevator.”
”But ... that doesn't make any sense. It's not his style. He doesn't need drugs to seduce women.”
”And at JJ's party, that line about 'excess and the palace of wisdom'- I think I heard it as I was being drugged. Or when I came to. Maybe it was Norval who said it-it's something he would say, isn't it?”
”Well ... possibly.” He has said it before, Norval recalled. More than once. He picked up the vial, which he recognised as one of Dr. Vorta's, and held it up to the light. ”And that's all you remember? Was it Norval's voice?”
”I ... I'm not sure.”
Noel unscrewed the vial, inserted his baby finger. He looked closely at the colourless crystals before putting them lightly against his tongue.
”Special K?” Samira asked.
Coloured C C's and H H's and the numbers two and three began to bounce inside Noel's head like lottery b.a.l.l.s. ”Chloral hydrate.”
”What does it do? Make women unconscious, comatose?”
”It's a sedative. And hypnotic.”
”I knew knew it!” it!”
”It's being used in one of Dr. Vorta's studies. He thinks that it may be the future for treating certain types of brain cancer.”
”Brain cancer? I don't get it. Why would Norval keep a bottle of ... He doesn't have cancer, surely to G.o.d?”
”Not that I know of.”
Oh h.e.l.l. She remembered his words about ending his days in water. After Z, I'm dead ... After Z, I'm dead ... She looked again at the Polaroid of him in the frame of the oval mirror. ”But why was it ... next to his bed? And why does it say 'K' on the label?” She looked again at the Polaroid of him in the frame of the oval mirror. ”But why was it ... next to his bed? And why does it say 'K' on the label?”
”Klor ortanca. It comes from a lab in Istanbul. I'm pretty sure he just uses it for insomnia.”
Samira nodded slowly, her face strained.
”I wouldn't worry about him. It's also sold on the street as an aphrodisiac. It's big in France.” Maybe his mother told him about it, Noel silently conjectured.
”Oh. Maybe that's it. It's none of my business anyway. Sorry, I ... I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. And, well, mistrusted a friend of yours.”
”I've made worse mistakes.”33 In the silence that gathered Noel could hear his own heart beating. Chloral hydrate was a nightmare. In severe overdose, death occurs within five to ten hours. He'd have to tell Dr. Vorta about this ... theft. He looked at Samira's face. It's obvious she's in love with him. Or is she? Why don't I simply ask? He cleared his throat and cursed his own cowardice. It was a perfectly easy thing to say. It would be over quickly, like a dentist's hypodermic. ”Are you in love with him, Sam?” he finally asked, in a near-whisper. ”With Nor?”
”No!” she replied, with a quickness and force that surprised them both. ”Not at all, I mean I'm ... I don't know, physically attracted and ... intrigued or something, like being on the edge of the cliff and this voice is telling me to jump off ... I've done that kind of thing before in my life, but it's something I'm trying to ... put behind me.”
”It's really none of my business ...”
”But it is. I mean, I want it to be. I'm pretty mixed up about him, I can't figure him out at all, and thought maybe you could help ... clarify things.”
”I wish I could, believe me. But he's a mystery to me too. He just won't talk about himself, about personal things. His past is full of blanks and gaps. 'Don't expect me to tickle your idle curiosity,' he once told me.”
”Do you think he was ever in love? With someone who dumped him, or died? Do you think he's capable of love?”
”I don't know, I really don't.”
Samira thought of the ring she had discovered. ”Does he ... could he, well, prefer men? s.e.xually, I mean?”
”That would surprise me. But you never know. Byron had male lovers-which for Norval may be a seal of approval.”
”Every heard of Terry?”
”No, who's Terry?”
”He's just ... a name I saw somewhere.”
<script>