Bleeding Heart
Chapter 9 23 and More

After only a week of removing the wine from the menu, the customers at Di Geronimo’s were getting restless. It as a week to the day when Giselle called Victoria. “I’ve got some information for you,” was the only message she left on Victoria’s answering machine.

“Come on into the office, Giselle.”

Giselle carefully placed her brief case on the desk. Her usual smile and sunny demeanor were replaced by a tight lip and creased brow.

“Larry told me that most of your and Daphne’s blood donations are being kept under lock and key. He said he had to get ‘a little chummy’ with Clyde Wiggins, the lab director to get into the locked cabinet, but he was okay with that, Larry likes ’em creepy.”

“I’m anxious to know what you’ve found.”

“Yeah… I know. At first, Larry couldn’t replace anything unusual in the samples, but he took it as far as an analysis of the DNA.” She opened the brief case and took out the results of the labs.

“That’s when he found the commonality in the blood and the wine.”

“What? What are you saying?”

“Your blood and the wine have a common DNA component. It’s a component that’s not found in any other blood sample. Larry did some random sampling of some of the other blood in the fridge and they were all pretty unremarkable, they all had the same number of chromosomes; 23 pairs.”

“So?”

“Yours have 24. There’s an extra pair. It’s in your sister’s as well. Larry isolated the 24th pair and it matched the component in the wine.”

“So, what the hell is it?!”

“Don’t know; Larry couldn’t tell me either. What about your doctor? Has she ever mentioned anything to you about your blood?”

“Well… no… but come to think of it, I’ve never had any bloodwork done.”

“Not even when you were pregnant?”

“No, I had two natural child births. I had no complications during either of my pregnancies.”

“Have you ever donated blood to the Red Cross or anything?”

“No, I’ve never donated. Neither has Daphne.”

“What about childhood diseases? Ever had your tonsils out?”

“No. As a matter of fact, Daphne and I have never had any childhood diseases. Not even a cold. Not a cough or a sneeze. No measles, no mumps, no chicken pox… and no vaccinations… I’ve never really thought about that… until now.”

“What about your kids? Any of them been sick or donated blood?”

“No. All healthy as hell. All of us except for poor Cosimo and Leonard.”

“Where did you get the wine?”

“It’s a boutique wine, made by Ben Cojocaru. My friends have been buying and stocking it for their restaurant.”

“Ben Cojocaru?! He’s the big cheese at the nursing home! He’s the owner and Le Fleur’s boss… and apparently, her lover.”

“Seriously?”

“I’ve seen them together; in her office. She was ripping the belt off his pants as I was walking back to the front desk. I’m sure they didn’t see me, but that door just slammed shut. He came out after about 20 minutes, wiping what looked like blood from his mouth. They must really like it rough.”

“Ugh… thanks for the visual. We need to replace out what that extra gene is.”

“Where are your kids? Can we get samples from them?”

“They’ve all scattered to the four winds, living their own lives.”

“It would be good if we could get samples from them, too, to see if they have the extra gene as well.”

“I’ll see what I can do. I’ll tell them it’s urgent that they see their fathers and we need to replace out if they’re a match. Hopefully, they still have that much of a bond to their dear, old dads to put their busy lives on hold; for a short while, anyway.”