Life's a Beach Then You Die

by Falafel Jones

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I changed out of my bathing suit into street clothes and drove over to the A. V. Designs campus again. When I got to the gate, the same uniformed guard I saw last time greeted me. He stepped out of the guard booth, smiled and looked in my car window.

  “Afternoon sir. How may I help you?”

  I knew from last time he was unlikely to let me in without an appointment or at least a good reason. I also knew two groups comprised the world. One was “Us”. The other was “Them”. Folks bent the rules for “Us”, but not for “Them”. If I wanted to get past the gate, I just had to be one of “Us” and not one of ¨Them¨. “Hi, I’m Max Fried. I’m here about a job. I’m looking for the personnel office.”

  He paused for a moment. “You were here yesterday. You lost your ID.”

  I got out my wallet and showed him my P. I. license. “Yes. I’m sorry. I met with Chief Howard and now I’m here to see someone in Personnel.”

  I didn’t feel too guilty about my story. It was true I was here about a job. I was doing a job for Ed. It was also true I had met with the Chief yesterday and I came here today to see someone in Personnel. I wanted to talk to Personnel about Ray. I figured if the guard wanted to conclude that the Chief had hired me and sent me to the Personnel office, then that was his mistake.

  The guard stepped back inside and I couldn’t see what he was doing. I held my breath and studied the campus map posted on the side of the security booth. After a few moments, he stepped back out of the booth. He bent down next to my window and handed me a new photo ID card. It looked like the one I had yesterday, but it had today’s date and I was now a day older than my picture.

  “This is your temporary ID card,” he said “Please don’t lose it. You’ll need to turn it in when you leave and losing it could affect employment with A. V. Designs. It’s only good for today.” He handed me back my license and a paper tag to hang from my rear view mirror just as he did yesterday. “Personnel’s in Building One, just follow this road to the right. Park in any space marked ‘Visitors’. Have a good day sir.”

  As I drove down the road, I took a closer look at the landscaping. Sure enough, there were a few plants on the lawns with pretty trumpet shaped flowers. I parked in the Visitor’s lot and walked up to Building One. From the outside, it looked exactly like Building Two. I was willing to bet that inside, it was also the same layout. Why pay someone to design two buildings when it’s cheaper to design once and build twice?

  I entered the building and went up to the semicircular reception desk. I half expected to see the same receptionist I saw in Building Two. This receptionist wasn’t the same man but he wore the same dark business suit and could have been his brother. “How may I help you sir?”

  “Hi,” I smiled, I’m Max Fried. I’m here to see the Human Resources Director.

  He looked down at something hidden behind the reception desk. “Is she expecting you sir?”

  “No. We don’t make appointments. We’re investigating the death of one of your employees.”

  “Oh, well, I’ll call ahead and let her know you’re coming up.” He stammered. He must have been new there. A pro would have asked to see a badge first.

  He made a call and then put down the phone. “Take the elevator to three. The receptionist there will direct you.”

  “Thanks.” I rode the elevator to the third floor, enduring an orchestral rendition of the Beatles “Come Together” that featured violins. Grateful I didn’t have to ride to the top floor, I stepped out of the elevator into the third floor reception area.

  A woman in her early twenties looked up at me from her elevator-facing desk. She had her phone to her ear. She put her hand over the mouthpiece and looked at me. “Sir?”

  “Hi, I’m here to see the Human Resources Director.”

  “Just a moment, please, sir.”

  She uncovered the mouthpiece, said, “He’s here now. I’ll send him in as soon as she’s free,” then she reached for her telephone cradle and pressed a button. I guessed the folks in the lobby wanted to make sure I went where I said was going.

  After a moment, she spoke softly into the phone. I couldn’t hear what she said. Then she hung it up and stood. “This way please.”

  As I followed her down the hall, I wondered what would happen if someone else get off the elevator. Was someone else staffing her desk while she escorted me? Did they have a closet full of folks standing by; making certain all visitors always had an escort? Security seemed tight here. My experiences at A. V. Designs so far, indicated they didn’t tolerate folks strolling around without authorization. I wondered how Ray, a sales rep, could get his hands on a prototype. From what I had seen of the campus map at the entrance gate, Sales was in a different building from Research and Development.

  My escort led me into a large office. A woman in her late 40s with short blond hair rose from behind a desk and offered her hand. She looked slim, but it wouldn’t take much weight for her to lose that distinction.

  “Hi, I’m Bev Ryan, Director of Human Resources for A. V. Designs.”

  I shook her hand. “Max Fried.”

  “Please sit. I understand you’re here about Ray Kenwood’s death.”

  I followed her to the sofa across from her desk and we sat. “Yes, how did you know that? I didn’t mention his name.”

  “Yes, but you did say ‘employee death’. Fortunately, there’ve been no other recent company deaths. Why are the police investigating?”

  “I don’t know that they are. I’m working for Ray Kenwood’s family. We need to settle his insurance claims and his estate and there are a few loose ends. Ray’s family lawyer asked me to see if I could tie them up. You see, he bills at a higher hourly rate than I do.”

  She smiled. “Yes, I can imagine. I’m familiar with the payroll over in legal. How can I help?”

  “Can we start with some background? Like how long did Ray work here. What was his job title…?”

  She hesitated. “I guess so... Ray was one of our sales reps. Worked here about a year.” She typed something on her computer, then read the screen. “Thirteen months. Started November 15th last year.”

  “Was that long enough to qualify for company life insurance?”

  A smile formed on her face. “Oh, I see. When we learn of an employee’s death, we have an informational package we send out to the beneficiaries. It contains all of the information about pensions, 401K, survivor’s benefits, final pay, life insurance... The package details all of the benefits the deceased may have had. I don’t believe we sent anything out yet in Ray’s case. We just learned of his death yesterday. It should go out tomorrow.”

  “By the way, did you know Ray?”

  “Oh yes. Boy, did he love to tell bad jokes. Her smile disappeared. It’s hard to imagine him gone. He certainly seemed to enjoy life. I met him when the Chief brought him in.”

  “Chief Howard, from Security?”

  “Yes,” she nodded. “You know the Chief?”

  “We’ve met.”

  She shook her head. “It was very unusual for the head of Security to bring a salesman onboard.” She raised an eyebrow. “There were a few noses out of joint. Corporate turf wars.” She shrugged. “The Sales VP thought the Chief was overstepping. The Chief placated him by hiring the Sales VPs brother in law… security guard. Quid pro quo and all was fine.” She held her hands in front of her, turned the palms up and shrugged again.

  “That does seem odd. I guess Ray and the Chief must have been old friends from somewhere else.”

  Her eyebrow went up again. “I thought so, but if you saw them together, they really didn’t seem to even like each other.” She let out a breath. “Well, Ray seemed to like the Chief, but the Chief didn’t seem to like Ray. I remember one incident when Ray first started. Saw them both in the cafeteria.” She lowered her voice as if divulging a secret. “Despite their apparent friction, they ate together once a week on Fridays. At first, I thought they liked sushi. Friday’s
sushi day, but I never saw them at the Sushi station.” Her expression brightened for a moment. “I love the Negihama, don’t you? You know the yellow tail and onion roll? Yum.” Then she went back to her soft voice. “Anyway, Ray had called the Chief, “Skipper” and the Chief became upset with him.”

  She leaned forward in a conspiratorial fashion, “I thought the Chief’s reaction was extreme.” She leaned back. She paused, then leaned forward again and in a stage whisper said, “I thought it was harsh. He should have understood how a new employee could confuse the titles.” She sat back with a smile as if she were pleased to have made her feeling known.

  I felt like I had been watching a bad actress audition for a part. Her exaggerated mannerisms were wearing me out. I cringed when I realized I was in the presence of an effusive “people person” who apparently took great pleasure in personal interaction, but all I said was, “Sure, it takes time to get used to new surroundings.”

  She waved a hand in the air as she shook her head. “I never got it. They just didn’t seem to be all that buddy-buddy. Ray was always jovial, but there seemed to be tension between them. It didn’t seem the Chief really cared for Ray, but yet they ate together on a regular schedule.” She shrugged.

  I added, “Plus the Chief ruffled feathers to get Ray hired. Strange...”

  “Yes, but I’m talking too much, as usual, and I’ve got work to do.” She slapped her hands into her lap palms down.

  Knowing she was finished brought me a sense of relief but I had to press on. I had only one last question and then I could go. “I’m sorry. One last question, please. The family is going to go through Ray’s things, probably sometime next week. Did he have anything we have to return to the company? A laptop, sales materials, samples, stuff like that?”

  “I don’t think so. He used his own computer. All we gave him were flyers, handouts, things like that for public use. You need not return those. Though ever since ‘the incident’, we started keeping the Sales Reps informed about R and D specs. For security reasons, we don’t allow Sales staff in the R and D building, but we do provide them the ability to view that information here by computer. However, Sales is limited to viewing that information here. Taking it off campus is not allowed and we don’t provide samples of R and D products to the sales reps until they’re released to market.”

  I didn’t want to witness her performing another story for my benefit. I didn’t think I could take it, but I knew I had to ask. “The incident?”

  “Yes,” she grinned. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this but it’s such a typical corporate screw up. It’s like a Dilbert cartoon.” She smiled widely, too widely as she shook her head from side to side. “We had an embarrassing situation when our Sales Reps were out in the field, selling our product, knocking the competition for using an alternative technology.”

  Uh oh. She raised her eyebrow again. “Unfortunately, our R and D staff was switching to the same alternative technology for the next year’s model. Ever since then, we make sure to keep the sales staff informed.” She laughed and clapped her hands.

  I smiled politely and stood. “Thank you for your time.”

  She got up and escorted me to the elevator lobby, shook my hand and smiled. “Good bye, Mr. Leeds. If you need any more information, just let me know.” Her demeanor became somber, her lower lip protruded slightly. “Oh, and please, tell the family I’m sorry for their loss.” She smiled at me -- again, turned back towards her office and left me under the watchful eye of the third floor lobby receptionist.

  I went downstairs to my car and drove to the Security Gate. When I got there, the barricade was down blocking my exit. The guard stepped out and I handed him my ID card. He smiled at me and nodded, apparently taking the fact I didn’t lose this one as a personal triumph.

  “How’d it go?” He asked.

  It took me a minute before I realized he was asking me about what he thought was a job interview. “Gee, I don’t know. Who can tell with these things?”

  “Yeah. I hear you. Good luck.” He vanished into his booth. The gate opened and I drove off. In my rear view mirror, I saw him waving goodbye. Like I always say, “The world is made up of Us and Them.”

  I drove back home, anxious to look again at Ray’s computer disk. It’s a lot easier to find something when you knew what you were looking for and now I had something.

  When I pulled into the driveway and Mariel’s car wasn’t there, I wasn’t too surprised. I didn’t expect her back until this whole thing came to an end. I pressed the button on my garage door opener and crept forward to navigate the tight fit between the lawn mower and my motorcycle. I liked to keep my car in my garage. It lessened the need to clean off bird shit and made the car tougher to steal. I locked the car and entered the house from the garage. I was thankful there were no signs of unwelcome visitors. I went to my office and turned on my laptop computer. My replacement desktop computer wasn’t due to arrive until tomorrow.

  Now, I knew how Ray had gotten the product information he sold to Horton and he didn’t need any help to accomplish that. He just copied it off his computer. On the other hand, I also knew he couldn’t have gotten the prototype on his own. The campus map showed Research and Development was in a separate building from sales and Bev Ryan told me R & D shared nothing beyond specs with the sales staff.

  Ray would have needed the help of someone with the appropriate security clearance to get the prototype. That meant Ray had an accomplice at A. V. Designs for at least that part of the theft. My problem was that I found had no reason for anyone with access to help him. Unless I could find a reason, I’d have a hard time making a case for an arrest.

  I loaded the image from Ray’s notebook into my forensic software and narrowed my search to cash deposits in Ray’s money market accounts. I saw them earlier, but couldn’t make any sense of them. Each of a series of deposits was the same amount. The records showed one deposit each Friday evening starting in November of last year. November was when Ray started at A. V. Designs and the deposit pattern matched the Sushi schedule in the A. V. Designs cafeteria. These were the days Ray had lunch with the Chief. The Chief who got upset when Ray called him “Skipper”. I could probably come up with a theory why Ray would pay the Chief, but I had no idea why the Chief would pay Ray. All this effort did nothing but confuse my case theory and raise yet another question, “Who was paying Ray and why?”

  I wanted to investigate further but after Horton’s death and my M. E. visit, I knew I was getting too close to a murder investigation. It was time to call in the pros so I looked forward to tomorrow’s meeting at the D. A.’s office. I didn’t want to surprise Ed at the meeting so I called and told him what I had learned.

  I was facing yet another dinner alone. I missed Mariel, but now that Horton was dead and I suspected that Ray was possibly murdered, I was glad she wasn’t here. It seemed likely whoever killed Horton and Ray planted the bugs and broke into our home. It was good that she was somewhere else. I didn’t even want to call her. It made no sense, but I believed that if I ignored her, maybe the killer would too.

  I tried to get excited about dinner. I love to cook and here was another opportunity to make whatever I wanted. I had no appetite, so I nuked a veggie burger, poured some wine and called it a night.