Fragmentation Read online

  “Yes, I asked about it this morning and there’s no problem.”

  Beep, Beep, Beep… “Looks like some idiot has set his car alarm off.”

  “Don’t laugh. I do it all the time. My car is really strange about that. If it’s locked up and the alarm is set, you cannot open the passenger side door, even with the key. The thing starts to beep and you have to run around to the driver’s side, lock it again and then unlock it to make it stop. The first time it happened, I had to read the manual while it was beeping in the Neshaminy Mall.”

  “You would think by now the person would have gotten it turned off.”

  “I hope it’s not your car.”

  “Ha, why would my car be beeping? I mean we have been in here for at least twenty minutes. It hardly seems necessary to even consider it but I’ll have a look anyway.”

  Privately, David thought it sounded like his horn so he decided to hazard a look. From the door of the restaurant, he could see his BMW with both the driver’s door and the trunk wide open and it definitely was his horn beeping. He ran to the car but there was no one near it. David finally got the alarm turned off, then took a quick look around and found nothing missing. The only unusual thing was the rug in the trunk was pulled up as though someone was searching for something. He re-locked the car and went back into the restaurant.

  “I see the idiot finally turned his alarm off; did you see who it was?”

  Looking out of the corner of his eyes at Colleen, David quietly said, “My car was broken into.”

  “Is it all right?”

  “Yes and as far as I can tell nothing is missing, not even my cell phone which was on the center console. They were also in the trunk and looked under the mat and in the spare tire well. You don’t suppose it’s the same people that are so interested in the DeCosta report?”

  “The two might be related or this could just have been a random incident.”

  “You know, not much ever happens to me I’m sorry to say; but, ever since we’ve been together, it’s been one weird adventure right after another. Is your life always this exciting Colleen?”

  “Ha, I was just about to ask the same thing of you.”

  She glanced at her watch. It was almost a quarter to one and if David was going to get the lab straightened up and ask permission to take three days off, they had better get going.

  “Do you want me to help you with your apartment tonight? After that, we could get a quick bite to eat.”

  “The apartment idea sounds good but how can you possibly think of food when we just finished eating salad, a sixteen inch pizza and couple of Cokes?”

  “Okay, eventually we will have something to eat and I’m sure we will be hungry, especially after we’re finished straightening up your place.”

  “All right, I’ll pick you up after work. This afternoon I will ask George about getting the days off.”

  David dropped Colleen off at her building, parked the car and went back into work.

  Chapter 13

  George called David into his office and, waving his arm around the room revealed, “David, we are going to get some help in here to straighten up this mess. They are sending over Jonathan, an intern from another division to help out. He should be here in a few minutes.

  “We definitely need some help; it looks worse than my apartment. Which reminds me, do you think I could take a few days of vacation this week, say Tuesday to Friday?”

  “If you two can get this place back in order I don’t see why not. In fact, even if it’s not quite complete, you can have the days off. I know you have a similar mess at your apartment and I can’t even remember the last time you used some of your vacation.”

  David and Jonathan worked most of the afternoon and by a little after four; the laboratory was up and running again. They were lucky the electron microscope and some of the other valuable pieces of equipment were not damaged. The worst mess was the files and Jonathan did a Herculean job of straightening them out.

  David thanked Jonathan and said good-by to George, saying that he would be back first thing Monday morning and ready to start a new project. He was waiting at the entrance to Colleen’s building by a little after 5:00 PM. Colleen hopped into the car and they were off to face the mess at David’s.

  David unlocked the door. After looking around, he went to his computer and turned it on. While he was waiting for it to boot up, they began to straighten the living room furniture and pick up the lamps that were on the floor. One bulb was broken and David retrieved a new one from a kitchen drawer. He went back to the computer and, noting that it would not fully boot up, tried shutting it down and doing a restart.

  Colleen busied herself getting things back into the drawers in the kitchen while David continued to fool with the computer to no avail.

  “It looks like my computer has been wiped clean. Everything is lost and I’m not even sure if the recovery disk will work. I’m going to have to reload Windows to start, then AOL and all the rest of the programs I had on it. These people sure didn’t miss much. I don’t know what they were looking for, but if all of this is related to the DeCosta job, they wasted their time because I didn’t have anything here.”

  “Why don’t you leave it for now and come help me in the bedroom with your clothes and stuff?”

  They just stared at the mess for a minute. Even the mattress was pulled off the bed. All of David’s clothes were scattered about the floor while the dresser drawers seemed to have been haphazardly thrown about the room. The only piece of furniture left standing was the nightstand with the telephone on it.

  Colleen and David began to wrestle the mattress back onto the bed when Colleen dropped her end of the mattress and knocked over the nightstand and telephone.

  “Well, now everything is on the floor,” laughed Colleen

  David went to pick it up and immediately saw something taped to the underside of the nightstand.

  “Well, what do we have here? A bug,” he whispered as he removed it and held it up to the light. He held his finger to his mouth to signal to Colleen not to say anything, then took it into the kitchen and carefully placed it into the freezer. He motioned for Colleen to follow him into the bedroom and did another quick look under the bed and the other nightstand. Satisfied there probably were no more bugs in the bedroom, he said to Colleen, “The house is bugged and they know what we are saying.”

  “Can we talk now?”

  “Yes, I put it in the freezer, but I think there might still be additional ones. Let’s not discuss anything important, like where we are going tomorrow. Follow my lead and I’m going to bring it back in here so we can feed them some false information.”

  David removed the bug from the freezer and carefully re-taped it to the bottom of the nightstand adding, “We have to get this room straightened up if we are going to sleep here tonight.”

  They finished picking up all the furniture; then, while Colleen was making the bed, David did a room-by-room search for more bugs. He found two more in the living room and another in the kitchen. He placed purple Post-it notes at the location of each bug. He handed Colleen a note saying they should pack their bags and head for the Poconos tonight. She wrote back that she needed to go to her place and get some things. He gave her the okay sign and began to write out his plan as follows:

  “There is a car rental place not too far from here and I think my car is probably bugged; maybe even a GPS tracking device on it. I’ll say I am headed to the store to get some food for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow. You will reply that you will just stay here and watch some television while I’m gone. Then I want you to turn on the TV. Turn the volume up loud, go out the sliding glass door and climb over the rail. Follow the path to the other side of the pool area and wait between the clubhouse and the tennis courts. Before you go out, I will say good-bye and mention I will be back in tw
enty minutes. I will pick you up and you will have my clothes with you.”

  “We will go and rent a car and you will drive it back to the area where I picked you up and wait. I will return in the BMW, with a grocery bag; go into the house and announce I’m home. Once inside I will notice you are in the shower and say I am going to watch TV, change the channel, leave by the patio door, lock up and meet you at the tennis courts. After that, we will drive to your place to get your clothes and be on our way to the Poconos.”

  “Somewhat complicated plan,” she wrote, “and we better get rid of these notes when we leave.”

  David said, “I’m going to finish putting the clothes away,” as he packed his suitcase. He emerged from the bedroom and set it by the patio door.

  “Colleen, do you want to come with me to the supermarket to get some items for dinner and breakfast?”

  “No, you go; I’ll just stay here and watch TV.”

  “All right, I’ll be back in about twenty minutes or so, bye.”

  David left got into the BMW and roared away with the radio blaring. He drove quickly up the street, executed a quick one hundred and eighty degree turn and seeing no other cars, continued down the street for another mile. He made another ‘U’ turn and drove to the tennis court area with the radio off.

  Colleen threw the bag in and mouthed, “Where were you?”

  David held his finger to his mouth and quietly pulled her door shut.

  They drove in silence, to the Budget Rental office and rented a Chrysler Sebring Convertible. As arranged, Colleen drove the Chrysler back to the tennis courts. A few minutes later, David arrived home in the BMW with the radio blaring, parked in his usual spot, ran up the steps and opened the door.

  “I’m home!” he announced, “What, you’re in the shower already? I’m just going to watch the Philly’s game; we can eat when you get out, all right?”

  He put the game on, adjusted the volume reasonably loud and slipped out the patio door, carefully locking it.

  Colleen was waiting in the convertible. He kissed her and said, “To the Poconos”

  “We’re going to need reservations, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, why don’t you call Angela and see if they’ll go to the desk and reserve us a room for two nights?”

  “Two nights? Then what?”

  “I thought you wanted to go to Washington, DC?”

  She gave him a kiss on the cheek and leaned her head on his shoulder. It was a little after 7:00 PM on a very warm summer night.

  “How do we get there?”

  “First, we have to stop and get my clothes, then; we will head towards New Hope.”

  On the outskirts of New Hope David stopped the car, lowered the convertible top and gave her a long, lingering kiss. Back on the road, Colleen’s long red hair was blowing in the breeze as the radio played a mix of soft rock. They followed Route 32 north along the PA side of the Delaware River past Upper Black Eddy to the town of Easton, where they went up the ramp and onto Route 22 west. Three miles later, they connected with Route 33 north and followed it to the Sciota exit. They were now in the Pocono Mountains, which David thought looked very much like the scenery in the North Georgia Mountains. Colleen explained they would be on State Route 115 for a while and past the town of Broadheadsville, they would take the right fork staying on State Route 115. There were rolling hills and farms on both sides of the road, then the road began to rise rather quickly for the next five or six miles as they ascended the side of a mountain. With the temperature dropping, David adjusted the heater control to add a little warmth to the open car. Near the top now, the road began to level off and David noticed the trees were stunted, almost as though they were very near the tree line on the mountain. The road dipped a little and then continued up some more, slowly reaching its final summit. Along the right side of the road, signs began to emerge for Pocono International Raceway. Less than a mile past the track’s entrance, Colleen instructed David to turn left onto Route 903. The mountain greenery was everywhere now, distinctly different from what you would see in Philadelphia. There were several kinds of pines and spruce trees, all surrounded by either Mountain Laurel or Rhododendrons. Large rocks and boulders filled the remaining spaces along the road’s embankment.

  After a mile or so, they turned onto a smaller road and followed the signs for the Big Boulder Ski Area. As they wound their way along, Boulder Lake greeted them on the left. It was mostly uninhabited except for a restaurant and a lodge. Another half mile took them past the entrance to Big Boulder Ski Area. Numerous chalets and condominiums now dotted the roadside. They passed a small restaurant called Tight Tables. The road had a sharp bend to the left and brought them face to face with Lake Harmony.

  “David, pull into the Lake Harmony Lodge. We’ll get a bite to eat and I’ll call Angela about our reservations.”

  Chapter 14

  Lake Harmony, PA: Tuesday evening, June 12.

  Lake Harmony Lodge sat at the very end of the lake offering a view of almost the entire body of water from its deck. Beyond the deck were some docks used by people who came to the restaurant by boat. The hostess showed Colleen and David to a small table with an umbrella advertising several kinds of Italian wine. It was about twenty minutes to nine and the sun was setting. Purple shadows cast by the mountains blanketed the cottages on the western shore while those to the east basked in the last of the sun’s orange light.

  Colleen dialed Split Rock Lodge on her cell phone. While she was waiting for the connection, she whispered to David that Split Rock Lodge, where she hoped they had a room, was at the other end of the lake, just beyond their view.

  “Split Rock Lodge, may I help you?”

  “Room 114 please.”

  “Hello.”

  “Angela, its Colleen.”

  “Where are you? We were barely able to get you a room. You’re lucky there was a cancellation because they are always fully booked this time of year.”

  “We should be there in about an hour, maybe sooner.”

  “Okay, just go to the desk, it’s under your name. I had to use my American Express to guarantee it so you will have to tell them to change that or just give me the cash.”

  “Thanks, we will give you a holler when we get in, bye.”

  “We were lucky, there was a cancellation and we have a place to stay for the next two nights.”

  The waitress came and they ordered Bloody Marys. There were a number of boats cruising in a counter clockwise procession around the lake. Houses dotted the length of the shoreline on both sides of the lake; the majority were smaller cabins, nothing like the ones in Mantoloking. In front of each house, was a dock or two, where either a ski boat or some kind of a pontoon boat resided. David guessed the age of the owner determined whether there was a ski boat or a pontoon boat docked in front of the house.

  The menu had an interesting story about the Lake Harmony Lodge. Originally named The Ice House, it was built in the late nineteenth century to harvest ice from the lake in the winter and store it for the warmer season. The owners of the Ice House built a small dam at the end of the lake to increase its depth and allow for harvesting more ice during the winter months. After refrigeration came into widespread use, the area gradually turned into a resort and The Ice House became a lodge and restaurant.

  Colleen ordered a dish of shrimp and stir-fried vegetables, while David chose the steak and mashed potato. As darkness fell, the speed of the boats circling the lake slowed and their number diminished significantly, but the parade continued. Lights from the houses reflecting on the water acted as a guide along the shoreline. Ducks occasionally scurried whenever a boat passed and the night slowly settled into a rhythm of sights and sounds. In the distance, you could hear muted conversation mixed with music being carried over the water with amazing clarity.

  “How did you know about th
is place?” questioned David.

  “When I was growing up my best friend’s parents had a house on this lake. Several times each summer, she would invite me up for the weekend. I would then invite her ‘down the shore’ to our house in Ocean Beach. The best time here was the Fourth of July. We would go out in the boats and watch fireworks over the water. I remember there were a couple of guys that would dress up as the Statue of Liberty and ski around the lake holding a lighted torch. They would do it just before the fireworks started and we would all clap when they came by.”

  Dinner was served and the waitress lit the candle. They each ordered a glass of wine and ate at a leisurely pace as someone near the far end of the lake began to shoot off fireworks. They agreed it felt good to relax a bit and not have to keep looking over their shoulders. Dessert consisted of a refreshing mango sorbet.

  Afterward, David put the convertible top up and they drove along Lake Shore Drive toward Split Rock Lodge. The drive was short and within ten minutes, they were in the hotel lobby. They checked in and found room 144, which had a nice view of the lake. David put their suitcases on the stand while Colleen called Angela to say they were checked in and agreed to meet them around nine for breakfast. The bed was already turned down and there were two mints on the pillow. A single, indirect light softly illuminated the wall opposite the bed.

  “David, let’s check out the place.”

  Colleen slid open the door to a small deck. Out on the deck was a view of almost the entire lake. The light from a three-quarter moon highlighted several boats still on leisurely journeys around the lake. The warm night air and the moon over the water produced a romantic setting as pleasant music flowed from the patio bar area.

  David turned to Colleen and as they kissed, he could feel her breasts pressing against his chest. He slowly began to unbutton her blouse. She responded to his desire with an increasing passion and touch, then pulled away slightly and softly murmured, “We better go inside.”