by Alec Peche
“From my research, the problem is extracting trace evidence from surfaces; it’s done in a very labor intensive manner. Imagine a shirt comes in with three blood stains. A tech will spend several days extracting the evidence in a sterile environment. If the item is old and covered in dirt, that makes it more difficult. Or if it is wood, it will absorb evidence differently than cotton.”
“Got it,” Ariana said. “So you want to make a device that senses what the surface is and then technically extracts it in a correct manner. Better still if the machine extracting the sample could also run the sample.”
“Maybe you should be an engineer, because that is exactly what I’m pursuing.”
“Do you want some help with it?”
“How so?” asked Damian, now the puzzled one in this conversation.
“You know I do start-up companies - funding, advising, and finding staff to support someone who has a brilliant idea. You’ve been a one man show for a long time but if you had help you might finish this work faster.”
“I’ve an interest in solving engineering issues and I haven’t felt a sense of urgency to be first to market as I always seem to be first. But this latest idea is different. It’s biomedical which is something I haven’t dabbled in before, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to figure it out on my own. I’ve also met some people I’d like to work with - Natalie’s son’s fiancée and Angus Walsh, the ex-Aryan Brotherhood guy. In the case of a DNA test machine, I have an urgency to process test results, it’s not about creating a new invention. Maybe it’s time I built a research and design facility in Richmond or Oakland and hired a small group of people to help me pursue some ideas swirling in my head.”
“I can help if you do decide to go down that path,” Ariana said as she pulled up to the school where Hermione’s swim meet was.
Hermione was swimming in three different races this time. Her last meet qualified her for one of the regional meet races and today she wanted to nail the other two. She wasn’t swimming for a place but to meet a time standard for qualification. Ariana and Damian had the numbers she needed to meet and were anxiously watching the clock with each lap. As she neared the last lap and appeared to be within reach of hitting the time, they stood on their feet cheering her on. In the end she nailed one of the races but not the other. Still as a fourteen year old, with a very disrupted life, they were thrilled that she’d even qualified for two races. The regional meet would occur over the coming weekend, so they discussed how they would get there. It was nearly two hundred miles away so it made sense to get hotel rooms. Depending on how far Hermione advanced in the competition, they could be there all weekend. It would be a nice introduction to spending time with Ariana and Hermione for longer than a few hours at a time.
“I’ll make reservations. Do you want to bring Miguel?” Damian asked.
Ariana looked around the area they were sitting to watch the meet, and decided it wasn’t a great place for dogs. The dog would sit in the bleachers or the hotel room. If she took him to the river for a swim, she had no way to clean him up afterwards.
“No I don’t think that’s a great idea. I’ll get my friend to dog sit him.”
Damian nodded and they checked their watches expecting Hermione to come out of the locker room at any moment. She was nearly the last kid out carrying her gym bag, her short hair nearly dry.
“Did you see my time? I qualified for two events at regionals! My coach had all of us that qualified stay behind to arrange additional training this week. We weren’t supposed to have practice after today.”
“Congrats, Hermione! Damian and I just made reservations for a hotel in Fresno for this weekend so we can cheer you on.”
“This is going to be so cool. My old school didn’t have much in the way of coaching for swimmers and Mr. Bowman really helped me improve my start times and I bet I could shave some more time off of my start with some more practice. So there’s a decent chance I’ll swim even faster this weekend.”
“That’s really cool. Do you need our help? We could time you going off the platform at Ariana’s house,” Damian suggested.
She thought for a moment, then shook her head, “Mr. Bowman has a lot of suggestions to improve my ability so it’s more than just reacting to the starter pistol.”
“Do you want to go out to a restaurant now to celebrate your victory?” Damian asked.
She shook her head no and said, “I have a project due in two days and I had three weeks less than the other students so I’m cramming a lot in this week between my project and now extra swim practice and an away meet on Friday.”
They went back to Ariana’s home and she invited him to stay for dinner. Hermione would be studying upstairs, but the two of them could enjoy a glass of wine.
Damian debated then shook his head and added, “I guess I’m like Hermione in that I was on a tear earlier thinking about my DNA test machine design and I’d like to get back to it. Besides I want to think about your earlier comment about setting up a company to manage my inventions.”
Ariana nodded and they soon parted ways. She returned into the house to get some work done and eventually cook dinner. He was speeding across the bay in his zippy little two seater boat; his mind on adding some more items to his white board on the DNA machine. He was about two hours from sunset on a very windy day, so his boat was being tossed around on the white caps of water.
Chapter Forty
With his life planned for the next three weeks between swim meets and the vacation to Cozumel, he decided to make a list of the pros and cons of setting up a company.
He suspected he would be helping Natalie on additional cold cases and he wanted to create a better technique for DNA analysis as that seemed to be the only way that cold cases were cracked. He had his wave technology targeted for helping third world countries and saving the earth by reducing greenhouse gasses. He was working on improving a drone to do bigger things like lift heavy packages over a longer distance, such as lifting a water hose to a roof top for firemen. He also had his pepper spray water gun that he’d like to promote to more people.
If he was to hire people to help him, what talents would he be looking for? Electrical engineers, physics majors, someone who could start manufacturing each of his gadgets? He’d need legal expertise both to set the company up and to deal with any laws governing the use of his gadgets, and then he needed a smart person who would just be a routine devil’s advocate to push him and the team on by telling them it wouldn’t work. Of course he would have to like all of these people and they had to get along. Heck maybe he should host an event at Pete’s and invite all of his target future employees to see how they all got along with each other.
He also needed an HR expert and software to set salaries and benefits and pay people. He could privately fund the company for several years, as he didn’t think he’d ever be ready to have outside investors telling him what to do. Maybe this weekend he would run his thoughts past Ariana and see what she said. She didn’t know engineering, but she did know a lot about getting a company going.
He decided to head outside to fish for himself and the two cats. Nothing like a stiff bay breeze to blow the jumble of thoughts out of his head and since the fish were really biting today, he caught all the fish he and cats could eat for the next two days. He’d liked his idea of hosting an event at Pete’s as a deciding point of whether to move forward. There was an upcoming Warriors playoff game and he could have Pete reserve a large booth that could sit as many as ten. He would invite Ariana, Trevor and Haley, Angus and a significant other if he had one, one other person he’d met while working on another invention. His question was what to do with Hermione. He’d like her to be there, but this was an adult gathering. She was old enough to stay home without a babysitter, but he wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that and the day he had in mind was two days from now and she might still be working on her project.
He decided to check in with Ariana and her thoughts as she had a better handle on the
girl. She texted back that the assignment was due Thursday, so Hermione would be free that night and would likely enjoy the event as she followed the Warriors. He reached out to the others and they wanted to join him both because of Pete’s and the game at hand. He reserved the booth with Pete and sent a formal invite to all.
An email arrived from Natalie. It read,
An update on the Debbie Altman case - we got the DNA results back from the state lab and it’s a family match to Debbie’s brother. The DA was willing to issue an arrest warrant for John Avery. The SJPD have him under surveillance at the convenience store waiting for the arrival of Detective Shimoda and his partner. In fact they should be there as I write this email. I’m going to sit in on his interview. We may be close to cracking this case as well. SJPD is very happy with me and want me to continue working the cold cases.
Damian wondered if all of the car’s evidence trace had been processed. Sure they found a single hair, but it would be so much better if they found blood in the car. He asked Natalie that question and her email said,
They finished processing the car. They found blood in several spots in the car, but it’s not that unusual to find blood in a car; because there were ten different areas of blood trace, it will take the lab longer to process those samples, the SJPD can hold him during that time.
Good enough thought Damian; they’ll have this guy eventually for a murder he committed thirty years ago. What would be even better was if Mr. Avery confessed and told them where he’d dumped the body. Maybe he was hoping for too much. He also guessed that Natalie would be coming back to him for more help with her cold cases. After all, he’d first picked five cases for her to go after so at some point he’d need to circle back to those other three.
He enjoyed helping her on these cases both intellectually and personally. Perhaps as a side business of his future company, he’d invent stuff to make law-enforcement’s job easier. Natalie was young - perhaps in her mid-fifties so she could work these cases for another decade. Certainly there were enough cold cases to keep her busy for quite some time.
He peered into the California prison network for the first time in about ten days. Looking at the prisoners expected to be released, he checked their original sentence and compared it to today’s date. All seemed to be in order, then he checked into the Brotherhood to make sure they weren’t re-assembling a hit list that included he and Natalie. So far so good; the only names on the hit list were the prior leadership both inside and out of the prison walls.
He also took another look at identifying Hermione’s parents. He’d spend the odd moment now and then looking for their identity, but hadn’t come up with anything so far. The kid had not let anything slip so far as to their identity and his facial recognition and fingerprint searches likewise turned up zip. He thought that if they were in a witness protection program, that someone would have snatched Hermione by now. Were they part of an organized crime group that had them disappearing off the edge of the world? The kid was in a great place now but he couldn’t imagine her parents not finding their way back to the kid.
Damian spent the remainder of the week devoting himself to all of his inventions. It was very freeing after the distractions of the last two or three weeks; really since the seventh anniversary of his family’s murders. The worry about Hermione and the Aryan Brotherhood released his mind from dwelling about the loss of Jen and his two girls. He still grieved for them but like the wreaths floating on the water that grief was floating farther away as new people entered his life.
On Thursday, he had his informal gathering. It was really a very odd collection of people when he thought about it. A variety of ages, a newly minted college degree, an ex-Brotherhood member, an Assistant district attorney, a female venture capitalist, a teenager, and a Berkeley Professor in the African-American Program, Nikki, who was Angus’ date. What they all had in common was brain power and a love for Warriors’ basketball. He quietly watched the conversation drift between referee calls during the game to the upcoming elections to gun control legislation. Yes, he thought to himself, he would enjoy working with Haley, Ariana, and Angus. Hermione, when she turned sixteen would make a great summer intern for the company he was thinking of starting. She hadn’t been intimidated by the adults and discussed basketball stats with Haley and queried Nikki about life as a Berkeley professor. Over the coming weekend, he would use Ariana as a sounding board for his thoughts about setting up a company.
Friday evening found the three of them in Fresno for the swim meet. Throughout the weekend, Hermione advanced all the way to the finals in one of her races losing to an older girl. She was pleased with her performance and the thought she would do better next season; if she had a next season. She liked her school, but not knowing the status of her parents left her in emotional limbo; on one hand she was doing well academically and athletically and she would love to see how well she swam next year, but on the other hand that meant she would still be living with Ariana rather than her parents.
Damian spoke with Ariana over the weekend about his ideas for the company. Ariana showed her insight by asking if he was considering everyone that had been at the Warriors party and she laughed when he said he was even considering Hermione as a summer intern. She outlined for him the steps he would need to take and just like that he hired her and made her chief operating officer and gave her authority to march forward with everything she’d outlined.
“Thinking and acting so impulsively will get you into trouble in the start-up world. People want you to consider a wide range of options before making decisions; you’re running with your gut which is a big no-no,” Ariana said.
“Oh, come on, Ariana, you mean to tell me that all of those companies of yore that started out in someone’s garage were successful because they considered a wide range of options before pursuing their passion? Bull shit.”
“It’s not bull excrement if you’re spending other people’s money. If you’re planning to go at this entirely on your own, you are of course free to do what you please.”
“I’ll be a one man show with my money.”
“Ok, in that case, I’ll be happy to accept your title of chief operating officer. What’s my salary?”
“I don’t know. Figure that out and while you’re at it, figure salary and benefit packages for everyone. Oh and can you find me a warehouse of about 20,000 square feet for our headquarters.”
She laughed and shook her head at his cavalier attitude. They spoke at length about what he envisioned each person doing and what he wanted to do with the large warehouse. She had to admire how he jumped all in when he committed himself to something.
On the drive home, the three of them discussed Hermione’s race results, her upcoming finals, her scuba lessons, and the announcement that they were taking a long weekend to visit Cozumel.
“Really? That’s cool and now I’ll have something to brag about to the other kids. They’re really very spoiled and haven’t hesitated to tell me that they’re going to this place or that over the summer. Like I care, but that’s teenagers for you.”
Damian and Ariana had to laugh at her long suffering comment about her fellow teens. They spoke about her aspirations for college and it was too early for her to know what she wanted outside of a swimming scholarship to UC Berkeley as that was the school of many Olympic swimmers. She didn’t know what she wanted to study academically and she still had two years to decide. They spent the remainder of the drive thinking up names for Damian’s new company.
Finals went off without a hitch for Hermione and she earned straight A’s despite joining the school in the final third of the quarter. Damian took her to Monterey for her scuba lessons that Saturday. Since she was an excellent swimmer and she’d completed the online course, she was an adept student at scuba diving as well. A few days later they were boarding a plane for Mexico, excited to share with Hermione the wonders of the deep.
Chapter Forty One
Hermione was having a blast in Mexico. They w
ere doing four to five dives each day and compared to Monterey, this water was clear and beautiful. The house Damian had rented had a pool in addition to the beach. The three of them swam laps in the ocean as well, with Hermione winning many races; the kid was fast in the water. They dined out at night and enjoyed breakfast and lunch prepared by the three of them.
Slipping into an exhausted slumber was easy each night with all of their exercise during the day. Still Damian had taken precautions when they arrived at the house; as much because Mexico had a reputation for kidnapping as for any worries about Hermione or the reach of the Aryan Brotherhood. He really hadn’t thought the brotherhood would be a problem for a while as he periodically checked into their communications and they were fully focused on the new leadership. Natalie had sent him an email before they left on the vacation with the news that John Avery’s vehicle that they had obtained from the salvage yard had trace blood in it belonging to Debbie Altman. Both the SJPD and the DA were thrilled with the case as it took a long time predator off the street, cleared a cold case, and disrupted a drug ring. Natalie was embarrassed to take credit for Damian’s sleuthing, but that was the way it had to be.