Dr. Caldwell's Melting Pot Part 2

   "Why, yes, offcer," Dr. Caldwell said as she sat in a confrence room chair at Blaine Research Laboratories, "I did see Amelia Pendelton. She was here a week ago, I believe it was a Tuesday. She came in for an interview to be my new lab assistant." She calmly and cooly recalled the events from the previous week and recited the whole evening. Well, most of the evening, up to the point where Amelia left the building under her own power.

   Dr. Caldwell entered her place of employment at the same time she does every morning, with a large cup of hot coffee in one hand and her briefcase in the other. She normally walked in, signed in with the security guard on duty, then went sraight down to her lab. This morning was different. Today, she was greeted at the security desk by John Decker, the lab's office manager, and two police detectives, sargeant Ken Tinker and sargeant Olivia Banner.

   The two detectives came to ask Dr. Caldwell about a missing person, Amelia Pendelton. She hasn't been seen since she left work last Tuesday night, and she told some friends that she had an appointment with Dr. Caldwell that same evening. The doctor expected the police to come knocking, and was ready for them. John suggested that all four of them talked in private, and ushered everyone into an empty conference room.

   "The security guard here that evening had already confirmed that," Sgt. Tinker said matter-of-factly, "So, what happened after she arrived?"

   "I showed her around my lab, told her of my experiments, and asked her if she was comfortable working with test animals. Some people tend to not like handling mice and rats, let alone harming them!" Sgt. Tinker wrote something down in his notepad that he had sitting in front of him since the beginning of the interview.

   "You like harming animals?" Sgt. Banner asked coldly, "Does that make you feel good?"

   "Oh, my, no!" Dr Caldwell exclaimed, "I wish I didn't need them at all! Unfortunately, they have to be used to further medical science. Their small sacrifices benefit the entire world, but I take no joy in it."

   "Okay, enough of that," Sgt. Tinker said as he looked at his younger partner. He turned back to Dr. Caldwell and continued, "So, you met with her. Then what happened?"

   "Well," Dr. Caldwell started, "I'm a little embarrased and ashamed about what happened next. You see, I found Amelia attractive, so I made a pass at her." Sgt. Tinker wrote in his notepad again.

   "You did what?!?" John exclaimed, as he sat straight up in his seat, "When this is over, you and I will have a little talk about acceptable behavior."

   "Oh, so you're a lezzie, huh?" Sgt. Banner proclaimed with disgust in her voice, "You hit on her, she told you to fuck off, so you killed her, right?"

   "That's enough!" Sgt. Tinker yelled at Sgt. Banner as he spun his chair around to look her directly in the face, "When we're done here, WE'RE gonna talk about acceptable behavior!" He stared down his partner until she meekly slumped back into her chair.

   "I apologize for my partner's behavior," he explained, "She was promoted to detective a few weeks ago, and this is her first real case. She's a little excited. Now then, you propositioned the woman. Then what happened?"

   "She acted almost the same way your partner did, except she yelled a bit more," Dr. Caldwell mocked at Sgt. Banner, "She then ran for the door. I mean, literally, she ran for the door. Once there, she took off her shoes and ran down to the elevator. I didn't chase after her or anything. I just watched her get on the elevator, then that's it. I assume she left the building. Didn't she?" Sgt. Tinker wrote some more in his notepad. Once he finished, he flipped back a few pages and reread to himself something he had written earlier.

   "According to the security cameras, Ms. Pendelton was seen leaving the biulding, with her shoes in her hands, at 7:51 PM. During that time, the security guard on duty was in the restroom. She did not sign out, but she was clearly shown leaving the premesies. Those same cameras show you leaving at 8:29 PM, even signing out in front of the security guard. Can you account for your whereabouts for the rest of the evening, doctor?"

   "I went home, like I always do. I live alone, and don't go out much. I usually put on a DVD until I fall asleep."

   "Then you have no alibi?" Sgt. Banner exclaimed, coming out of her slouched stance.

   "I didn't know I needed one to live my own life," Dr. Caldwell coldy replied.

   "Don't worry, you don't," Sgt. Tinker explained, "We interviewed the driver of the bus that runs not far from here, and he said that he picked her up that evening and dropped her off only a block away from her apartment. Her landlords say that she turned out her lights almost at the same time. Her front door was locked and all the windows were closed. For all we know, she could have just gone back out for the evening. There's no evidence of foul play. I think we're done here." He closed up his notepad and started to stand up. He motioned for his partner to stand as well. John and Dr. Caldwell also stood up, and all four headed fro the confrence room door.

   Once through the door, Sgt. Tinker shook both Dr. Caldwell and John's hands. He thanked them both for their cooperation and handed them both his card. He asked them to give him a call if either of them remembered anything else. Sgt. Banner stood silent, staring daggers at Dr. Caldwell, until Sgt. Tinker started towards the front doors. Once they got there, he turned to his partner and said something to her. She shook her head 'no' in reply. He said something else, yet much more sterner. She meekly shook her head 'yes,' turned back and started walking back to the other two.

   The young detective trudged back reluctantly to Dr. Caldwell. Her shoulder length brown hair swayed slightly with each step she took. Her tight denim pants accentuated her legs perfectly. Her breasts, which were partially obscured by the confrence table they were all sitting at, were now in full view. Her blouse was a little loose on her frame, but her breasts pushed against the fabric, taunting their perkiness. If she hadn't insulted Dr. Caldwell earlier, she would've asked the detective to dinner.

   "I want to apologize for my behavior," Sgt. Banner said as she extended her hand to Dr. Caldwell, "My comments were uncalled for and unwarranted. I let the excitement of my first case get the better of me."

   "Don't worry. I'ts okay. Just don't make a habit of it," Dr. Caldwell replied as she took the detective's hand. John smiled and walked over to the security desk as they reconciled. Sgt. Banner watched him go, and, once he was far enough away, she pulled violently on Dr. Caldwell's arm. She stood on her toes to reach the doctor's ear.

   "I know you did it," Sgt. Banner whisered angrily, "I know you killed her, and I'm gonna prove it!" Dr. Caldwell took a step backwards, careful not to lay a hand on the detective, to get some space from her.

   "There's nothing to prove," she simply said. She then turned and walked over to John at the security desk. Sgt. Banner then caught up with Sgt. Tinker, and both went out the front doors.

   "That woman has it in for you, Denise," John said when Dr. Caldwell joined him, "Did you see the way she looked at you when you said you were gay?"

   "I've seen it a thousand times before," Denise Caldwell replied, "You tend to get used to it. Except my father's. Maybe she was annoyed that I didn't ask her out."

   "That reminds me. I won't put it on your record or anything, but you can't go around hitting on the lab assistants, despite your sexual orientation. This is a place of business, not a bar. If you wish to seek another employee's company, ask them outside of office hours, then inform the HR department if you hook up. Is that understood?"

   Denise stood at attention and saluted John. "Sir! Yes, sir!" she exclaimed, military style. John gave a little laugh, then headed for his office. Dr. Caldwell headed for her lab, a large cold coffee in her hand and her briefcase in the other.

   It was a little after seven in the evening when Dr. Caldwell left the lab. She walked over to her car in the half empty parking lot and put her briefcase in her trunk. As she closed her trunk, she noticed an unfamiliar car in the parking lot, over by the exit. She calmly climbed into her own car and drove home, frequently checking her rear view mirrors. The car she noticed in the parking lot was following her!

   She made her way home at her normal pace. She thought about speeding to get a patrol car's attention, but was afraid of possibly getting into an accident. There weren't any stores with parking lots to pull into along her route, so she decided to call the police from home. She would immediately pull into her garage and use her cell phone while still in the car. She dumped out her purse on the passenger seat as she drove so she could get her phone quickly.

   She opened the garage door while she was still a half a block away. She pulled in without stopping, and hit the 'close' button when her wiper blades lined up with the garage door. She slammed on her brakes almost immediately afterwards, and the car screeched to a stop mere inches from the back wall. She quickly grabbed her cell phone from the passenger seat and dialed 911. She told the officer at the other end what was happening, gave a brief description of the car, and that she was hiding in her car in her locked garage. The officer told her to stay put and a patrol car would be there shortly. A little over ten minutes later, there was a knock on the garage door.

   "Police! Open up!" a man's voice yelled. Dr. Caldwell climbed out of her car and triggered the garage door to open. Once it was open, there was a very large police officer with broad shoulders standing in her driveway. Across the street, there sat the car that was following her. Standing next to the opened driver's door was another large male officer and Sgt. Banner.

   "I didn't hear any sirens," Dr. Caldwell said to the officer as she emerged fom the garage, "Otherwise I would have met you out here."

   "You did the right thing," the officer replied, "Keep as much distance from your stalker as possible, and stay behind anything solid that locks until help arrives. In these situations, we approach the area without sirens, in the hopes of catching the perp still in the vicinity, and not alerting him that we're coming. Anyway, you were in no real danger. The person following you was a detective from our precinct. She says that you're part of a case she's working on."

   "Oh, really?" Dr. Caldwell replied, "Well, I'm not. Talk to Sgt. Tinker. He'll straighten this out right now. Better yet, I have his card. I'll call him and then you can talk to him." She went back to her car and got Sgt. Tinker's card. She called him on her cell phone and told him how his partner was following her. He went ballistic! He asked Dr. Caldwell to give the phone to the officer. She did so, and the officer talked briefly to the sargeant. The officer then walked across the street and handed the phone to Sgt. Banner. After a little yelling of obscenities and some animated hand gestures, she angily hung up the phone. She gave the phone back to the officer, jumped into her car, and tore off into the setting sun. The officer came back to Dr. Caldwell and gave her back her phone.

   "We're sorry about this," The officer apologized, "Olivia...er...Sgt. Banner has always been a little too gung-ho for most of us. She was trying to keep you under surveilience without authorization. Sgt. Tinker told me to tell you that you won't see Sgt. Banner again. If you wish to file a complaint, I can get you started..."

   "There's no need," Dr. Caldwell interrupted the officer, "At least, not right now. If this does happen again, tell Sgt. Tinker that I will file anything and everything that's available to me. There's a difference between enthusiaism and zealousness. I can understand one, but will not tolerate the other."

   "I understand perfectly, ma'am. Have a good evening." The officer walked back to his patrol car, where the other officer was already waiting in the passenger's seat. He buckled up, then they both drove away. Dr. Caldwell closed her garage door. She felt angry, and a little violated. She decided to retreat to her secret room behind the stairs in her basement, and have a little fun with her five collectables.

   Two weeks went by, and Sgt. Banner refused to let it go. She was positive that Dr. Caldwell did something to Amelia Pendelton, and she was going to nail that lezzie's butt to the wall. Last week she tried to get a search warrant, without her captain's permission, to search Dr. Caldwell's house. She was given a formal reprimand for not following the chain of command. Sgt. Tinker personally reprimanded her because there was no evidence that anything criminal has even happened to the girl, let alone that there was anything to suggest that Dr. Caldwell was guilty of anything. Sgt Banner tried explaining her 'gut feeling' to him, but he didn't care. Without evidence of a crime, she had to leave Dr. Caldwell alone.

   Olivia Banner would have none of this. She decided to search Dr. Caldwell's home anyway, search warrant be damned. She parked her car two blocks away and walked to Dr. Caldwell's house. She watched the doctor leave, then waited thirty minutes to make sure she didn't make a sudden return. Once satisfied that she wouldn't, she walked around to the back of the house and let herself in by popping the lock on the back door.

   She put on a set of latex gloves then quickly but carefully rummaged through the house. She checked every closet for clothes that looked like they wouldn't fit. She rifled through every pile of documents she could find, hoping something would tie the doctor to the missing girl. Most of the documents were scientific notes in nature, and were pure Greek to her. She searched the basement for recent excavation, like a shallow grave. She did all of this over the period of three hours, and found nothing. Frustrated, she left the house the same way she came in. She did a quick repair to the back door's lock, then she scurried away like a thief.

   She walked back to her car with a mix of frustration and anger. She knew Dr. Caldwell caused the girl to disappear, but how? How can she prove it, and show the District Attorney so she can get an arrest warrant? This doctor is too smart to keep evidence in her home, so she probably wouldn't keep anything in her car as well. That only leaves her lab. That's it! She would have to search the lab! The problem is that she definitely wouldn't be able to get a search warrant for the lab, so she would have to break in there as well.

   The next day, Sgt. Banner spent her lunch hour down at city hall, looking over the building plans for the Blaine Research Laboratories building. She noticed thatt here were security cameras only on the first floor, and nowhere else. 'These people are either very trusting or very gullible,' she thought to herself. She noticed that she could get in through the second floor window of the manager's office, walk down to the elevator, ride it to sub-basement level 3, then walk right into the doctor's lab. If she did it after office hours, no one would see a thing. She decided to do her daring scheme this evening, right after dark.

   Again, the detective parked her car two blocks away from her target and waited. Once it got dark, she removed a small, collapsible ladder from her trunk. It was one of those 'Magic Ladders,' the kind that's 3 feet tall folded but expands to 12 feet fully opened, but only weighs fifteen pounds. Also, she grabbed a bath towel and tied it around her waist. She tucked the ladder under her arm, put on another set of latex gloves, and headed for the lab's parking lot. There were only three cars still there, and one was Dr. Caldwell's. She had to wait until the doctor left, or this was all in vain. She didn't have to wait long, because the doctor exited the building five minutes later. Once the doctor drove out of the parking lot and sped out of view, she headed for the window she picked out on the blueprints.

   She extended the ladder and effortlessly opened the window. She climbed into the office without a sound. She then pulled the ladder up into the office and closed the window, leaving no evidence of her entering. She listened at the door for the cleaning crew. With no noise outside, she quietly left the office and made her way to the elevator.

   She pressed the call button for the elevator, and the doors opened up after a brief while with an audible ding. Hoping that no one heard the noise, she ducked inside the elevator and pushed 'SB-3'. The doors closed, then reopened a minute later into a long corridor that ran in two directions. Most of the lights were out due to the time of day and lack of employees, but it wasn't dim enough to warrant a flashlight. According to the blueprints, and the other information she and her partner had gathered, she had to turn left.

   She walked down the hallway to a heavy wood door. She tested the handle, but it was locked. She pulled some lockpicking tools from her pocket and was able to jimmy it open. She pushed it open and quickly entered. She closed the door behind herself and relocked it. She removedthe bath towel from her waist and stuffed it into the gap between the bottom of the door and the lab's floor. Satisfied that no light would shine through underneath the door, she then searched for the light switch.

   Groping around on the wall near where the doorknob was located proved to be fruitful. She found a row of switches, and clicked them all on. With a low, electric hum, all of the overhead lights slowly illuminated the room. Upon a cursory look around the room, shesaw several tables and desks with drawers all around the room, not counting lclosed cabinets and shelving.

   On the far wall to her left were two doors, one was marked "Bathroom/Eyewash Station," and the other wasn't marked. On the far wall to her right was what looked like an office, due to the large window showing a large desk inside. She figured she'd start her search there. The door to the office wasn't locked, so she went immediately to the desk. There was a closed laptop sitting under a bunch of loose papers, but that could wait. She started going through the papers, then through the desk drawers. She looked over every scrap of paper there. She physically examined everything else, be it a stapler, tape dispenser, or even a yo-yo that was in the bottom left drawer.

   Not finding anything, she turned her attention to the laptop. She knew that it would take a while to hack into it, so she set herself a deadline. She looked at her watch and saw that it was 9:30. She set the alarm for a half hour. If she couldn't get into her files by then, she would give up and move on to the rest of the lab. She opened up and turned it on. Nothing happened, except for the low battery indicator flashing. She looked around for a power cord, and finally found it still plugged into the outlet in the wall right in between the left side legs of the desk. The doctor must've forgotten to plug it in before she left for the night. She pulled the cord up, but it would only reach the laptop if it was sitting on the pull-out extension board on the left side. So she did just that, but was uncomfortable because this meant her back was to the door.

   She plugged the laptop in and it sprung to life. After the startup screen faded away, the password screen appeared. The detective started with the most common passwords first, hoping to get lucky. They all failed, so she started using some of the doctor's personal information she had gathered over the past few weeks. She was on her seventeenth attempt at guessing the password when she felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder. She immediately threw her left hand over to where the pain hit, and was surprised and extremely shocked on what she found. She pulled out a tranquilizer dart. She barely had time to recognize what it was before she passed out.

   The next thing she knew, she was coughing like she was trapped inside a burning building. She forced her groggy eyes opened, and they slowly focused on pink smoke surrounding her. Her training taught her to stay low to the ground and to crawl to a window or away from radiating heat. She got up on her hands and knees and started crawling in a random direction. She didn't get far until she hit her head against a metal wall. Feeling up with her hands, she felt that it was cold, smooth, and slightly curving inward.

   The smoke started to dissipate, and the wall came into focus. It appeared to be made of copper, and it was curving around the interior. She looked around the room, and noticed that she was inside a large round copper chamber, roughly fifteen feet in diameter. There was only one door on the wall, and it looked like it separated water tight compartments on warships. She looked down and saw a metal grate floor, and, underneath that, a downward spiraling funnel also made of copper.

   "Oh, good, you're finally awake," a voice came from an overhead speaker, "I thought you might sleep through the whole thing."

   Sgt. Banner looked up and saw Dr. Caldwell's face looking at her through the window on the door. She jumped to her feet and rushed at the door, hoping totake the doctor by surprise. Unfortunately, the door was locked tight, and she bounced backwards onto her butt. It was at this point that she noticed that she was naked.

   "YOU SICK LEZZIE!!!" she screamed, "LET ME OUT OF HERE!!!"

   "No."

   "I'm gonna make sure you spend the rest of your miserable life in jail!" Sgt. Banner yelled as she got back to her feet. She rushed att he door again, but this time she slowed up and got as close to the glass as she could without touching it.

   "Gee, that's a real good incentive to let you out," Dr. Caldwell sarcastically replied. She then put a piece of popcorn into her mouth.

   "Sgt. Tinker knows I'm here! He's gonna rush in here any minute!"

   "I doubt that. Yesterday, someone broke into my house but didn't take anything. Today, I left here and headed to the store, which is in the opposite direction of my home. On my way, I saw your car parked nearby, so I came back here just in time to see you climb through John's window. While you were out, I found your gun but no badge or radio. Your cell phone was even turned off. I severely doubt anyone knows that you're here." Sgt. Banner's expression went blank. She decided to change her demeanor from confrontational to friendly, in hopes of convincing the doctor to let her out.

   "I'll give you credit," Sgt. Banner said in a calm manner while wiping some sweat from her forehead, "You snuck up on me real good. How did you do that?"

   "Easy," Dr. Caldwell explained, "The former scientist who had this lab needed some exra money, so he started making crystal meth, crack cocaine, LSD, anything the local drug lord wanted. To help this enterprise, the drug lord had a hidden tunnel built from this lab to an old machine shop not too far from here. I can come and go as I please without anyone seeing me. That's how I got Amelia Pendelton back in here."

   "I knew it! I just knew it! So, what did you do to her?"

   "Well,Olivia...May I call you Olivia? Look down at your feet."

   Olivia looked down, and what she saw was impossible. It looked like her feet had sunk into the metal grating by about two inches. Oddly enough, she didn't feel anything. No pain, no numbness, nothing. She also noticed that her entire body was covered in sweat, and it was starting to pour off of her body in steady streams. She tried to take a step, but her feet were stuck firmly in the grate.

   "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!?! Olivia screamed.

   "The same thing I did to Amelia, duh." She munched down on another piece of popcorn.

   Olivia tried to launch herself at the doctor's face, still tantalizingly close through the window. She became free of the grate, or so she thought, as she flew through the short distance of air to the door. She hit the door with a loud, wet 'Splurt' sound, and slowly slid down. She didn't land on her feet, but she landed on her lower legs. She looked back to see the remainder of her feet and ankles as they dripped down through the grate.

   She slid with her chest against the door all the way down to the floor. As she slid, she was leaving a large wet streak along the way. Once on the floor she rolled around to rest on her butt. She looked down to see both of her breasts were gone, and so was most of the skin on her stomach. The only thing she saw was her shiny rib cage and her stomach muscles.

   She screamed in horror, and slapped her hands to the sides of her head. This caused both of her ears and all of the hair in the area to melt away, as well as all four of her fingers on both hands. Her legs were now gone below the knees, and she felt her nose hit her upper lip. She rolled over and lifted herself up onto her knees. She slowly turned back to the window to see Dr. Caldwell eating more popcorn. She clasped her hands together, as if in a praying stance, but this only made her hands melt away to the wrist.

   "Please! Hellllggggghhhh....," was all she was able to mutter before her lower jaw melted off. She started to fall forward as her legs went down the drain, and threw her wrists forward to break her fall. Her arms instead sploshed through the grate due to the weight of her torso. Her face went forward and clanged against the metal door, causing her forehead to cave in. Her still working eyes no longer had eyelids, so all of the melting liquid from her head was rolling into her eyes. The color peach from her skin, the color white from her bones, the color red from her blood, the color pink from her muscles, and the color gray from her brain.

   'How can this be happening?' Olivia asked herself, 'I'm a good person! I help anyone who asks! I had a great life ahead of me! I don't deserve this! I don't wanna die!' If she still had the ability to cry, there would be buckets worth on the floor right now.

   "Oh, before you fully melt," Dr. Caldwell explained, "You're not going to die. I'm collecting all of your fluids into a glass jar. You'll lose consciousnees in a little bit, but you'll regain it in about two hours. By that time, I'll add you to my collection, and you can meet Amelia, as well as all of my other pets. Over time, I think you'll like having a lezzie running her fingers through your liquefied body."

   'Collection? Amelia? Lezzie?' were the last thoughts that ran through sargeant Olivia Banner's melting mind before she went fully down the drain. She would soon awake to a whole new life in a jar.