Damage Control

by Gordon Savage

  “You mean the vacuum chamber?” I grinned.

  I couldn’t wheedle anymore out of him, which was exasperating since it was my idea. All he would say about it was “Sorry.”

  Chapter 30

  Lester “Tex” Houston, Channel 12 News: Mr. Doyle, what evidence do you have that the explosion at Duncan Reid’s lab was a matter/antimatter explosion?”

  William Doyle (head of Homeland Security): We are still gathering evidence and don’t have enough to determine conclusively one way or the other whether the explosion was caused by a matter/antimatter interaction. At this time, we can’t confirm the authenticity of the video showing the explosion originating away from the teleportal. Until we can do that, we will continue the moratorium on experimenting with teleportals. There is serious concern that an even more powerful explosion is possible.”

  Houston: I’ve seen the slow-motion video. The explosion clearly started below and to the side of the teleportal. How can you explain that if the explosion was caused by the teleportal?”

  Doyle: “Let’s move on to someone else. Ms. Ha, your question.”

  Beverly Ha: Sir, I’d like to hear your answer to Mr. Houston’s question.

  Doyle: Mr. Cannon, your question.

  Homeland Security News Conference

  Day 13, 7:30AM

  The next morning my cell phone rang as I was finishing breakfast. “Good morning, Phil.”

  “Hey, I think I’ve located Caldera,” he said.

  “Think?” What did that mean?

  “Yeah. Some of the informants on Homeland’s list are less trustworthy than others. This guy seems reliable.” He gave me the address. “When can you meet me there?”

  I did a quick calculation. “Give me 45 minutes.”

  “Sounds good. … Oh, by the way, Hank’s dead. His whole place blew up last night with him in it.”

  “Ouch. Do you think it had anything to do with our investigation?”

  “It has to be. The police are calling it an accident. But it’s too much of a coincidence. It’s a safe bet someone was getting back at him for giving up Caldera.”

  I got up from the table, leaving the dishes for later. “Hank wasn’t exactly a good guy, but somehow I feel responsible. Are you going to talk to the police about our involvement?” I headed for the front door.

  He answered, “It probably won’t help any, but they need to know.”

  I reached the coat rack. “Okay. See you in 45.”

  When Phil and I met at Caldera’s place of business, to no surprise he was a no-show. The hole in the wall office had been completely cleared out. Someone had even gone to the trouble to scrub all the walls, windows, and doors. The place was bare of fingerprints.

  As we left the office, Phil glanced back inside one last time and said, “Well, that was a waste of time, but it pretty much confirms Hank’s ‘accidental’ death wasn’t an accident.” He pulled the door shut and shucked his nitrile gloves. “Caldera must have heard someone was looking for him and traced it back to Hank and then had him put out of business. That has to be why this place was bare.”

  I pulled my gloves off, and when Phil reached for them, I handed them over. “Thanks. Now what?”

  “I’ll report this and my impressions to the police and Homeland. We’ll keep looking for Caldera, but for now you might as well go about your own business until we actually find him.”

  That suited me fine. I wanted to know more about Bednarik’s dealings with Reid, and from what I had found out so far, it was pretty obvious Reid had a superiority complex – he’d certainly displayed one when it came to the teleportals. Because of that I also supposed he wouldn’t be concerned about his roommate understanding anything he gave away and wouldn’t have been particularly careful about what he said in front of him. That made me certain that as Reid’s roommate McKenzie Gardner would have heard or seen something Reid had let slip. Since I still hadn’t gotten around to talking to him about it, as soon as I got back to my car, I called Gardner.

  When he answered, I got straight to the point, “I need more information about Reid’s tutoring. Are you going to be available sometime today to talk to me?”

  He snapped, “Look, I kept my nose out of Duncan’s business. I don’t really have any more to say.”

  I tried to sound understanding. “I know you don’t want to associate yourself with his cheating, but I’ll bet you couldn’t help hearing some things that may be useful in my investigation. I’m not looking to cause you any trouble, but I really need more information. I won’t take a lot of your time.”

  He still sounded reluctant, but he answered, “Okay, meet me for lunch. I’ll give you half an hour if you buy.”

  The café he chose was doing booming business when I arrived a little after noon. It was one where you order at one end the counter and pick up your order at the other. I stayed out of line until Gardner showed. As we joined the queue, I said, “You realize the time we’re in this line doesn’t count unless we talk.”

  “Fire away.”

  Not wanting Gardner to hold back, I glanced at the people around us. Everyone was either talking to someone else or staring at their cell phones. We could talk without anyone paying us any attention.

  When I had first interviewed Gardner, we’d talked about his disagreement with Duncan Reid. An argument that made it hard for me to completely rule him out as a possible suspect, but this new information about Coach Bednarik had to be looked into. If I could keep the conversation limited to Reid’s cheating and steer clear of Gardner’s animosity toward him, Gardner might provide some additional useful information. I chose my words with care. “I’ve come up with some additional questions since the last time we spoke. I’m hoping to find out some more about Duncan’s tutoring. Were you present any time Coach Bednarik talked to him about tutoring players?”

  Gardner snorted. “Tutoring? Like I told you before, it was outright cheating. Duncan hacked into the faculty computers and downloaded their tests. Normally he just sold them, but some of the football players were a little slow. He had to hold them by the hand and walk them through the tests. Yeah, I was there the first time Bednarik talked to him.”

  Good. We were getting somewhere. “Do you remember what they said?”

  “They talked around the tests like Duncan was really tutoring. I could almost see the winking going on. It was clear Bednarik knew it was cheating. In fact, he used some not so subtle hints about it to twist Duncan’s arm to get him to work for free. That really pissed Duncan off. I have to admit it felt good to see him reminded he had made his own choices that got him into that situation.”

  McKenzie changed the subject. “I understand you checked out my alibi. Disappointed?”

  I shook my head. “Not in the least. My goal is to find out what really happened. The explosion definitely wasn’t matter/antimatter, but Homeland has clamped a lid on investigating it because they were told to write it off as an accident. I want to get the explosion reclassified as a possible murder and get it properly investigated. The police should be looking for the bad guys.” Something flashed in his eyes, but it was gone before I saw enough to tell what it was. Had I hit a nerve?

  I continued, “The government has put a hold on any further experimenting with teleportals, and it has tight control of the ones we have that work. The way it is we can’t do much more than wave at the Alternates. Which means anything useful we learn from them has to just sit there until the government lifts that prohibition, and for that to happen someone has to prove the explosion wasn’t caused by the teleportal.”

  Realizing I was giving him more than I was getting, I returned to my more or less prepared questions. “You were at the party when the coach confronted Duncan. Did you hear any of the argument?”

  “You’re talking about the threats he made to Duncan, aren’t you? How did you hear about them?”

  I nodded but said nothing. Instead, I waited for him to fill the dead air.

  We paused to give our ord
ers, and while I was paying, Gardner broke the silence. “From where I was I couldn’t hear much of what the coach said. The room was awfully noisy until he started yelling. Folks started shutting up to listen to him. When he grabbed Duncan by the throat and slammed him against a wall, it got really quiet. The coach stopped yelling when he saw us all looking at him. He dropped Duncan and walked away with both hands clenched into fists. Duncan just stood there gasping for air. If you want to talk to someone who heard it all, go find Duncan’s latest girlfriend. She was right next to them.”

  “Does she have a name?” I winced, knowing by saying that I might have lost any rapport I had with Gardner by being sarcastic.

  He stared at me without answering for just long enough to make me uncomfortable. “I was going to give it to you. You’ve never heard of pausing for effect?”

  I deserved that so I kept my mouth shut.

  He started to turn but glanced back at me. “Her name is Jo Collier. She’s a cheerleader.” He gave me her number and moved down the line.

  I had run out of questions so I started up a casual conversation when we sat down. It ended up with him grilling me about my progress in the investigation. When his half hour was up, he got up and left, just like that. His information about Jo Collier gave me something to think about. She might know something useful. I’d have to look her up – and soon.

  Before I went to my car, I sat at the table and flipped through my notes again, still wondering about Quincy’s defensiveness. Since I had told him I wasn’t concerned about the cheating and he seemed to accept it, he shouldn’t have been uncomfortable about his connection to Reid. It had to be something else, but what?

  As I wondered what else it could be, something Gardner had said earlier tickled my memory. What was it? Oh yeah, he said he had footed the bill. For some reason that had set off an alarm. He had paid for developing Reid’s teleportals? That had to have cost a bunch. I’d never really looked into the Teleportal Trio’s expenses, but I was certain building teleportals from scratch wasn’t cheap. Where had Gardner come up with the money? He didn’t strike me as being from a rich family. I wondered if there was some way I could check into Gardner’s finances. I couldn’t justify a warrant, so that was out.

  Wait a minute. What about Quincy’s defensiveness had triggered this? My subconscious had connected them some way. Maybe I needed to talk to Quincy again.

  With that in mind I decided it might be helpful to bounce ideas off someone who had investigative training, Jake. I headed for my car. As soon as the engine started, I dialed his number and put the phone on speaker. He answered before the first ring had finished. “Coffee.”

  Without preamble I asked, “Jake, do you have some time around two o’clock? I need some advice.”

  He didn’t hesitate. “I’m doing paperwork all afternoon. Come on in anytime. I could use the break.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  ◆◆◆

  Day 13, 2:00PM

  “So what can I do for you, Sam?” Jake leaned back in his chair, templed his fingers, and studied me.

  “As I said on the phone, I need some advice. I have a gut feeling that a couple of students aren’t telling me all they know. I’m looking for suggestions on how to pry it out of them.”

  “It’s pretty common for people to avoid talking about things they know they shouldn’t be ignoring. Could you be more specific?” He leaned forward and put his elbows on his desk.

  “This one student, Hiram Quincy, became defensive when I asked about his involvement with Manny and Coach Bednarik, even after I told him I didn’t care that he knew about the stolen tests. It felt like he was hiding something else, possibly related to what happened to Reid.”

  Jake sat up straight. “Whoa. Wait a minute. Who’re Manny and Coach Bednarik?”

  “Sorry. I forgot you haven’t been keeping up with my adventures.” I gave him a summary of what was happening.

  When I finished Jake leaned back again. He was beginning to look interested. “I see, but that’s still pretty vague.”

  “His defensiveness got me to thinking about something Gardner said. He said he had footed the bill for Reid’s teleportal experiment. That had to be an awful lot of money. You don’t build prototype teleportals on a shoestring budget. But I didn’t see anything in Gardner’s dorm room that suggested he or Reid had money, so where did it come from? Does he have a side business?”

  Jake was definitely interested. “You mean like selling drugs?”

  Of course! That had to be it. I answered, “Maybe that’s what my subconscious was trying to tell me. It could certainly be a possibility.”

  Jake hmmmed briefly. “I have something you can try, but you need to give me a better idea of what you think they’re up to.” He leaned forward again and eyed me intently. “What else is your subconscious telling you?”

  I thought about Quincy, an athlete in top physical condition. From what I had seen he pushed himself to be in the best possible shape. Was he into steroids? Surely not. Drug testing was the order of the day. Of course, there were still stories on the news about labs that falsified results. I ran the idea by Jake.

  “Could be,” Jake said. “But drugs are unfortunately all too common on campus. Maybe Gardner is selling and Quincy is one of his distributors.”

  “That doesn’t fit with my impression of Quincy. He doesn’t strike me as someone who would sell drugs. He’s too devoted to maintaining his own body, so I can’t imagine he would be a part of endangering another person’s health. But he might use steroids or HGH or some other performance enhancing drug if he thought he wouldn’t get caught. If he’s like most people, he probably takes the attitude of ‘that’ll never happen to me’ when it comes to possible side effects.”

  “Sounds like you’ve figured out what you need to be looking for. Here’s an idea of how to find out if he is using. Surprise him by acting as if you know he is. Mention it casually, not accusingly.” He focused on my face, waiting. It was a little bit unnerving, but I figured he was trying to see how I reacted to his suggestion.

  “But I don’t know anything. I’m only guessing?” Jake could probably see I was uncomfortable with his idea.

  He acknowledged my discomfort. “Yes, if you guessed wrong, you’ll be embarrassed. … Or he might be ready for you and deny it. So what? Let’s face it, if you want answers you’ve got to take risks and ask the hard questions.”

  “You’re not helping.” But I was already thinking of what I could say.

  He continued, “For this to work you’ll need to come across as if you know more than you do, and you’ll need to act – make that be – confident that you have the right information. Oh, and you’ll have to be general enough that he has to assume you’re on to whatever he’s doing. Try it on me.”

  We went back and forth for nearly fifteen minutes, first deciding what I would say and then practicing it until I sounded convincing.

  By the time I left Jake’s office, I felt reasonably confident I could pull this off. He sent me out the door with “Go get ‘em, tiger.”

  ◆◆◆

  Day 13, 6:00PM

  Before I caught up with Quincy in the weight room, I did some research on performance enhancing drugs and on Quincy himself. He was working out alone when I came in and was clearly surprised to see me again. “Do you need something else from me?”

  I used my Marine Corp voice like I would if he were one of my subordinates, confident and clearly in charge. “I’m working to put together everything I’ve learned so far, and I realized I needed to find out more about the stuff you’re getting from McKenzie. From the looks of you it seems to be working well, but the one thing I don’t know is how you pass the drug tests.”

  His face went white. “The stuff I’m getting from McKenzie…?” he stammered. “I’m not getting stuff…”

  “Oh, come on now. Do you realize how many people know?” I gave him just enough time for it to sink in. It seemed I’d gotten through to him so I push
ed on. “You know all of these things have side effects, don’t you? And the longer you take them the worse they become. How’s your temper been lately?”

  “What? My temper…?”

  “That’s one of the side effects. I hear your girlfriend, Alicia, told you she never wanted to see you again because you got rough with her.” That had been the clincher in my research, finding out about his girlfriend and their breakup.

  Aggressiveness is common in sports. It’s what makes a player competitive, but when it carries off the field, it hints at other things. I didn’t really believe Quincy had been taking steroids long enough to have developed symptoms, but his latest girlfriend had broken off with him. Suggesting he was already developing symptoms put him on the defensive. “So how do you pass the drug tests?”

  He looked sheepish and pulled a small glass bottle out of his gym bag. The liquid inside was a telltale yellow. I cocked my head and asked, “Somebody else’s?”

  “We get a fresh one every day when we’re playing.” He hung his head.

  “You should stop taking the stuff. You don’t need it. Maybe your temper will improve.” The power of suggestion, I thought. “Anyway, I’m not looking to report this to anybody, but I do need information.”

  For the next half hour we talked about how he was getting his supply and who was involved. Quincy wasn’t into the hard drugs, only steroids. As I had suspected Gardner was his supplier, and Coach Bednarik wasn’t involved. I left, wondering where Gardner was getting the stuff.

  ◆◆◆

  Day 13, 7:00PM

  My next task was to find Reid’s latest girlfriend, which turned out to be easy. All I had to do was ask students I ran into around the campus. I hit the jackpot on the third try. The coed pointed me to a coffee shop. When I entered it and looked around, I quickly spotted a slender brunet wearing jeans and a turtleneck who fit the description I had been given. I walked over to her table. “Hi. Are you Jo Collier?”

  Jo closed her laptop and smiled at me. “How can I help you, ma’am?”