Courage Stolen

by R. Scott Mackey

“He didn’t have a buyer lined up. They tried shopping it, but they were terrible at explaining the science and technology. They needed me to help them sell it to the technical people at the companies.”

  “So why didn’t you?”

  She shrugged. “I was thinking about it, but it would’ve exposed me. I wasn’t sure if one of the Chinese companies might blow the whistle on me. Then Thomas and I broke up as a couple, and I told him I didn’t want to do the deal anymore. I was done.”

  I thought about the first time I saw Thomas Chan outside the Granderson café. He’d stood out there, his palms up, questioning Candace. I’d thought he was playing the jilted lover, but now I realized it was something much more.

  “Did you know he was doing business with the Golden Dragons?”

  She nodded. “Not by name, but I knew he’d borrowed a lot of money from loan sharks. He was counting on the Monarch deal to get the cash to pay them back. Then that fell through. He was under a lot of pressure to pay them back. Then he kept pushing me to stick to the plan to sell off the project. That’s when we broke up. He became this total asshole.”

  “Benzer was trying to sell Monarch just a couple of days ago. To SMUD.”

  “He was?” She looked surprised. “Dumb shit. I don’t think he knew about what went down already with the project, the ransom and all. He must have panicked because he needed to pay off those thugs and still thought Monarch was in play.”

  “Do you have a cell phone on you?” I asked. I hadn’t noticed one in her purse when I checked it. It was time to call Trujillo and wrap things up.

  “No, I was in a hurry. I left it in the car.”

  She looked again at the cabin door, in the general direction of the parking lot. “I have to use the restroom.”

  “Good luck with that. It’s stuffed with money.”

  “I’ll move it. I need to go bad.”

  I thought about any downside to her locking herself in with the money. She didn’t have a weapon or cell phone in her pockets or anywhere else I could see. The head didn’t have a window or other means of escape. I nodded my approval, and she stood and walked to the front of the boat. I turned and watched her as she approached the head when I heard the door behind me open with a bang.

  “Drop your gun, asshole!”

  I dropped my gun at my feet and turned around. Jerry Langford was aiming a gun at the middle of my chest.

  thirty-eight

  “Jerry,” I said, relieved. “I found the money. It was Candace all along.”

  He smiled. “Candace, pick up his gun and walk over here.”

  My relief evaporated. Candace grabbed the gun and walked over to Langford, who took it from her and stuck it in the empty holster on his belt. He took a step forward, shutting the cabin door behind him. They stood side by side evaluating me. Langford lowered the gun to his waist, the barrel still trained on me.

  “I thought you said it was Thomas Chan’s idea,” I said to Candace.

  “It was,” Langford said, answering for her. “But then I saw an opportunity and a way to sweeten the deal for Ms. Symington here.”

  “I’m not following.”

  “When we first met, you said something to the effect you were surprised I didn’t know what was going on in Wiggin’s lab. I had to bite my tongue not to tell you I knew everything. About Monarch. About Candace and Thomas. And I know everything else that happens on campus.”

  “You knew about Monarch? You and Candace orchestrated the theft and the extortion?”

  “Of course. I saw Candace and Chan on camera one evening arguing in a Sieboldt lab. Most people don’t know it, but I’ve also got audio monitoring in most of the classrooms and labs. At first I thought it was a lovers’ quarrel, but after a minute or two of listening it was obvious they’d been planning to steal Wiggin’s research project and sell it overseas. Candace was frustrated Chan couldn’t sell the project and kept dropping the price to potential buyers. They broke up then and there, and any plan involving Monarch was over. That’s when I contacted Candace with a sweeter deal than her ex-boyfriend could ever offer. Under my plan, she could have her cake and eat it, too.”

  “You got twenty million dollars and the safe return of the project,” I said.

  Candace would not meet my eyes.

  “Ten million apiece,” Langford said. “Not a bad pension, considering the shitty salary and lack of respect Granderson shows me.”

  Candace looked uncomfortable standing next to Langford. I couldn’t tell if it was what he was saying or if she just didn’t like him.

  “What are you going to do to me?” I already knew the answer but wanted him to say it.

  “Candace is quite the skilled boatsman, excuse me, boatswoman. You should have seen her navigate this thing onto the beach. Fifteen minutes later we were back on our way here. Mission accomplished. You’ll see for yourself in a minute; she’s going to take us for a little cruise.” He glanced at her.

  Candace seemed a little surprised at the news we would be going somewhere in her dad’s boat. “Can’t we just pay him to go away? I’ll give it to him out of my cut.”

  “Don’t be naive, Candace. Even if we gave him some money, even if he took it, he’s not going to let this go. Am I right, Ray?”

  I thought about playing with him and saying I’d take hush money, but I knew he’d see through it. There was no point in doing that little dance with him. I did want to delay our departure as long as I could while I scoured my brain for something—anything—to get me out of this mess.

  “Why did you hire me to look into the theft of Monarch when you didn’t really want the truth to be known?”

  He laughed.

  “Did you think I couldn’t figure it out?” I asked.

  “Nothing personal. I didn’t think anyone would figure it out. I had to make it look like I took the whole business seriously. I didn’t want to bring in the police. I thought about handling the investigation myself, but it would look more credible by hiring an independent contractor. Besides, you made a terrific bagman.”

  “Hell of an act you put on on my porch the other day,” I said. “Pretending to be pissed off because of the twenty million and not keeping you in the loop. You convinced me.” I wanted to stroke his considerable ego in hopes he might let down his guard. They both stood more than ten feet away. I stood in the small galley and looked for something I might be able to throw at him. There was a woodblock with five or six knives in it well beyond my reach. The only objects I might be able to grab were wooden salt and pepper shakers.

  Langford smiled smugly. “I thought the follow-up phone call after you’d been on campus was a nice touch, too. ‘What part of not setting foot on campus do you not understand?’” he said in an exaggerated voice, repeating the line he’d given me the other day on the phone. He laughed.

  “And how did you set up the whole thing with Forrester?”

  “I told you I know everything going on at Granderson, including that crazy fuck Forrester. I knew he and Seth Seeger, the little prick, were up to something. I didn’t know what because they used these little code words. Thought they were clever. Anyway, I wanted to keep you busy and take your eye off the ball so to speak. So I made it look like SCS was behind the extortion. They were perfect for my misdirection.” Langford relished telling me the details of his plan, wanting me to marvel at his brilliance.

  “I was telling Candace implicating SCS and the Golden Dragons worked against you. It didn’t make sense they would both be involved in Chan’s and Benzer’s murders. It helped me put it together.”

  He bristled at the suggestion he’d made anything approaching a mistake or a misstep. “The Dragons cut the fingers off of Chan on their own. I had nothing to do with that. It helped my cause. My plan all along was to make it look like SCS was behind it. The Dragon angle complicated things, which was good. It kept you and the police looking in the wrong direction.”

  “And you killed both Chan and Benzer?”

  He nodded.<
br />
  Candace turned and looked at him. “Wait a minute. You killed Thomas? I thought the Dragons—”

  “Had to be done. He wasn’t going to back off hounding you for Monarch so he could pay off the Dragons. He would have wrecked the whole thing.”

  She looked a mix of surprise, disbelief, and anger. Her breathing deepened and quickened. She looked like she might hyperventilate, her eyes glassing over, turning inward in thought.

  “I like the way you staged Chan’s death, by the way,” I said. “Stabbed on his bed, like maybe he knew the killer, like maybe they were intimate. Sure, you had the SCS written on the wall. And the Golden Dragons were in the mix. But if the cops ruled them out for any reason, the next suspect might have been a woman. Maybe a recent girlfriend.” I looked at Candace to see if my words were stoking her anger. “Benzer you just shot. No need to stage anything. You had the money. You were home free. He was a loose end because he knew about the original plan to steal the project. If he found out about the ransom payout, who knows what he might have done. You couldn’t risk having him around.”

  Langford nodded.

  “You killed Adam, too? You son of a bitch! I didn’t get into this to kill anybody. I just wanted what I was due.”

  “Not only that, Candace,” I said. “But after he’s done killing me and dumping my body into the river miles from here, my guess is you’re next. Twenty million is a lot more satisfying than ten.”

  “You bastard!” she screamed, slapping him hard on the face.

  Stunned, Langford turned to look at her. “Candace, it’s not like that. I—”

  She slapped him again, harder even than the first blow, turning his face and body to one side. I bolted towards him as fast and as low to the ground as I could. He saw me when I was two steps away, and he fired his gun, his aim just over my head. My shoulder drove into his solar plexus, and he groaned as we fell against the cabin door, which sprang open on the impact, sending us sprawling onto the narrow back ledge of the boat.

  I had the advantage since I was on top of him, and I wrested the gun from his grip. It slipped from my hand and cartwheeled in the air. I heard it splash in the river. He heaved and jerked so violently I knew I couldn’t hold him much longer. If he broke free, he’d be able to reach for my gun in his holster. Releasing my grip on his left wrist, I brought my cupped hand above my shoulder and walloped him as hard as I could on his left ear. He howled with pain. I reached down to his belt and grabbed my gun, rolling off him.

  I scrambled to my feet and pointed the gun at him as he rolled over and tried to stand.

  “Stay down,” I commanded.

  He started to stand again, and I fired. The shot shattered the fiberglass six inches from his right foot. Langford went down to his knees in surrender. Candace stood, slack-jawed, a couple of feet away inside the cabin.

  “This thing has a radio, doesn’t it?” I asked.

  She nodded, a hand covering her mouth, eyes wide, tears streaming down her face.

  “Use it to call the police. Ask for a Lieutenant Trujillo.”

  epilogue

  We cruised up Howe Avenue, unsure of what to say to each other. We’d not said a word since we both entered the new Lexus ES 350, and I drove it off the lot. Danny Cashmore called me back after three weeks. Our telephone conversation had been brief. He asked if I could meet him at the dealership, and we picked a time. When I knocked on his office door, he stood, tossed me the car keys, and said we were going for a drive.

  “You got my messages?” I asked.

  “Yeah, why do you think I called you? You’re a long-winded bastard, I have to say. Damn near filled up my voice mail box.”

  We drove in silence for a few more minutes. The car handled beautifully, and I could get used to the all-leather interior and how quiet it was inside, even as we drove down one of Sacramento’s busiest streets.

  “Some of the standard interior features include a compass and tach. It’s got a memory moon roof and automatic temperature control. Eight speakers. You can get an integrated navigation system and heated steering wheel for a few extra bucks.”

  “Does it have a blind-spot warning?”

  “Check it out.” Danny pointed to the passenger side mirror. On cue, a car moved into my blind spot on my right, and a red light in the mirror started to blink.

  We hit a red light at Hurley, and I eased the car to a stop. “I like it.”

  “You know, Jolene and I split up.”

  “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not mad at you, Ray. I overreacted. Once Jolene calmed down a week or so later, we had a good conversation. In the end, she just didn’t think I was the right guy for her. And maybe she’s right. I am still a little immature for my age. I admit it.”

  “You? Nah?” And I couldn’t help but laugh. “Impulsive maybe. Immature? I don’t think so.”

  “Anyway, she told me what happened with you two. You didn’t hit on her. So, I’m sorry I got ticked off at you.”

  “You don’t need to apologize. I handled the whole thing badly. Should never have—”

  He stopped me with a wave of his hand. “Just so you know, if you want to ask her out, I’d be okay with it.”

  “No.” I shook my head. “Besides, I doubt she would answer the phone if I called.”

  “No, she would. She likes you. And you’re both really good people. Go for it.”

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  The light turned green, and we continued up Howe towards the interstate. I looked over my right shoulder, signaled, and moved the car from the left lane to the middle.

  “I read about your work at Granderson. If I’d known you were neck deep in all that shit, I wouldn’t have bothered you about looking into Jolene. The college chick and the security chief stealing twenty million bucks and killing those two guys.”

  “Yeah, it was something.”

  “When does the trial start?”

  “Not for a while. They’ve got conspiracy charges, extortion, grand theft, and on top of it all, murder. Candace deserves everything but the murder rap, but I guess that’s what she gets for playing with fire.”

  “Is their project as great as they said on the news? They made it sound like it was the biggest thing since the Internet.”

  “We’ll see. The investors think so. And so does the professor leading it.” Turned out Wiggin did have a sister on Delta Queen Avenue. I never made the effort to see if he was housesitting there the night of the drop, but I assumed he was. I left him a voice mail apology but never heard back from him.

  “Pretty nice ride, don’t you think?” Danny asked. “I’d be glad to sell you this one, or one like it, for my cost.”

  “I don’t want you to lose money on the deal,” I said.

  Danny laughed. “You shouldn’t believe half the stuff any car dealer says, especially me. I’m still making money selling the car at cost.”

  I gave him a quizzical look.

  “Don’t ask,” he said.

  We reached the onramp to westbound I-80. I made a left turn and hit the accelerator to see how the car would respond.

  “Lots of giddyup, huh?”

  “Yeah,” I agreed.

  “Were you really there when those greenie terrorists blew up the Voncabo building in Woodland?”

  “Yeah, I got there too late. They go to trial in six months. Between them, Langford and Symington, I’ll be spending half of the next year or so in depositions and testifying in court.” I pulled into the fast lane and eased my speed up to seventy-five. “And I almost forgot about Wu and Bo—the two Golden Dragons. They moved them down to LA for trial. But if they ever try them in Sacramento for assaulting Benzer, I’ll have to testify in that case, too.”

  We continued down the freeway without talking for several minutes. Danny took a call from one of his salesmen and approved a deal on a GS 460. He then called his finance manager to tell him about the price he’d approved so he’d be ready with the paperwork
.

  “You seeing anybody new yet, Danny?”

  He smiled. “Yeah, you know me. I’ve got to have something on the line all the time or I go crazy. The assistant golf pro at the club. Thirty-five years old. Tight little—”

  “Okay,” I said. “I don’t want any more information. And I’m not going to check this one out for you.”

  “I wasn’t going to ask,” he said, and we both laughed.

  The End

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