The Abacus Equation

by Peter Stremus

  Chapter 38

  Nervously Iveta sat in front of the two men. She hesitated before she formulated her answer: “I was with Marsha.”

  Pieter looked surprised: “you guys really start early. It must have been five thirty when Ian tried to reach you.”

  Iveta fidgeted on her chair: “I was with her the whole night. We are together. We are a couple.”

  Pieter's mouth stood open for a while which gave him a rather stupid appearance.

  Irritated by his reaction she bit: “never seen a lesbian maybe? Do you want me to make a drawing?”

  “Sorry, Iveta. I did not see that one coming,” Pieter stammered clumsily.

  Abdi saved the awkward situation by returning to the questioning: “so you called Vince on his mobile. Than you talked to Jonathan and a bit later he was picked up by a car. What did you exactly tell Jonathan?”

  She shook her head: “but I have never talked to him. I remember that I had left my phone in Vladimir's office for a while. I had been there attending a meeting with Ian and Marsha. I recall that I had to run back to fetch the thing.”

  Abdi took out his hand: “can I have a look at it?”

  She unhooked the smartphone from her belt, typed the release code on the touchscreen and handed over the device to Abdi. He put on his reading glasses and started to fiddle with the menus. After a while he gave it back to her.

  “So someone else must have called Vince, “ Abdi concluded.

  “Must be.”

  “You have any idea who this person could have been?”

  She shrugged her shoulders: “what do you want me to say? I assume Marsha. She is the only one who knows my security code. We had arranged our work in such a way that we could serve as each others back-up.”

  “So you are the PA's of Ian and Vladimir. How long do you know each other already?” Pieter interjected.

  “A couple of years. We have met each other for the first time at a gala dinner in Milan. Marsha was already the PA of Vladimir. She introduced me to Ian and so I became his assistant.”

  Abdi continued: “honestly, I never understood why someone wants to become the assistant of a CEO. Certainly not someone with your palmares: doctor in computer sciences from the polytechnic universities of Milan and Prague. Georgia Tech. Fontainebleau.

  She reacted violently: “Mister Abdi, the assistant of a CEO is not someone who makes coffee. It is his trusted representative, his advisor. It is someone who ensures that behind the scenes all functions like clock-work. I take decisions on his behalf so he can concentrate on the important topics for the company and its share holders. By the way, Marsha holds the same degrees and certificates. In companies like ours the job of the PA is a step into the direction of general management.”

  “That is very well put, Miss Iveta,” Abdi soothed. “We have no more questions. In any case, there she already comes, Marsha. Thanks for your cooperation. We will no longer keep you from your duties.”

  She raised but Pieter remembered to ask one more thing: “did Ian call you this morning? Around five thirty?”

  “Yes he did. I had a missed call this morning. I called him back a bit later.”

  Iveta went to Marsha and hugged her in a supporting gesture.

  “I though that you already had interrogated Marsha yesterday while I was wading through the rain towards Vince?” Pieter asked Abdi.

  “No, but I did have an interesting talk with Juergen instead.”

  Marsha joined them at their table. The dark sunglasses hid her swollen eyes and part of her pale face. She put the glasses up in her dark long hair and blinked against the sudden sunlight.

  “Are you OK, Marsha?” Pieter inquired a bit worried. She really looked terribly.

  “Awful headache,” she complained while gobbling from one of the bottles of water on the table. “And as if that is not bad enough, there is no trace of Vladimir's computer.”

  “No, really? Highly interesting and also very convenient. Did you talk to Jonathan that afternoon and used the telephone of Iveta to do so?” Abdi started. Apparently he was not too worried about the disappearance of Vladimir's computer.

  She looked at him in surprise: “No, I have not done that.”

  “Iveta claimed that she had forgotten her mobile. And that just after a meeting with you, coincidentally around the same time. The timing is correct in other words.”

  “Iveta forgetting her mobile? Haha, that will be the day. No, she is hyper careful. Don't forget that in that phone all confidential information of Ian's company is stored. She went to sleep with that thing because she wanted to be available for him around the clock. She even had a special ringtone for him at night. Other numbers would not give a signal, only his. And in addition, she changed her passcode twice a day. Just to be sure that if she lost the thing, nobody would be able to use it."”

  “How long do you know each other?” Pieter asked.

  “A couple of years. We have met at a party in Milan where the big consultants have their yearly get-together. She was really stealing the show in her long black dress with the breathtaking uncovered back. The whole who's who was staring at her. For me it was love at first sight. You know, I actually introduced her to Ian.”

  Pieter asked another question: “if the whole who's who was there, were there any other people who are now here?”

  Without thinking Marsha confirmed: “Juergen of course. He just had his promotion. He was the youngest of all CEO's but without any doubt the most brilliant.”

  Marsha blew up her cheeks and released the air in short bursts: “oh dear, I really don't feel well today. I never thought that Vladimir's death would have had such an impact on me.”

  “Why do you think that Vladimir drank so much, days before his transplantation?”

  Abdi looked surprised at Pieter which gave the latter a winning feeling. “One-nil for Pieter,” he cheered internally.

  “Vladimir was a strong character. It is hard to believe. If only you knew what he had to go through to get this far. His diet was his religion. I am really puzzled about what happened that made him drink. And in such large quantities.”

  “Did you drink a lot yesterday?” Pieter asked, “it is obvious that you are suffering from a hang-over.”

  “It certainly feels like one, but no, I did not drink too much last night.” She was truly confused: “I must have eaten something wrong, that must be it.”

  “Was Iveta with you last night?”

  “Yes she was, till we were called this morning to receive the news about Vladimir.”

  “Did you hear Iveta's phone around five thirty or a quarter to six?”

  “No, I did not. Apparently Iveta had to shake me for five minutes before I woke up.”

  Abdi gestured that the conversation was over and Marsha stood up. She put the sunglasses again for her eyes. “I wished that I could take the rest of the day off and sit under those trees. But I still need to trace back that damned computer. No idea where he has put that thing. Can I take those bottles of water?”

  She left the terrace and Pieter shouted after her: “oily fish eat a lot of fat salmon. It is the best way to get rid of a hangover.”

  “Pieter, I think you should take a look at this.”

  From his worn briefcase, Abdi pulled out a slim laptop: “I assume you already know this is from Vladimir.”

  * * *