No Way to Die

by M. D. Grayson

  “How old was he?” Toni asked.

  “He was forty-one.”

  “How old are your children?”

  “Our daughter, Erica, is thirteen, and Steven is ten.”

  “When did you get married?”

  “We got married in 1998 in Palo Alto. It would have been fourteen years this summer.”

  I nodded as I quickly jotted down her answers in my notebook.

  “I know this is hard on you, Katherine, and I apologize,” Toni said. Katherine nodded. “But,” Toni continued, “I’m afraid I have some sensitive questions that I need you to answer for me. Is that all right?” Katherine nodded again. Toni said, “Okay. First, were there any problems at home? Problems between the two of you?”

  “Absolutely none,” Katherine said.

  “Any recent fights?”

  “None.”

  “I don’t mean to imply anything at all by this, but were the two of you faithful to each other? Is it possible that Thomas might have had an outside girlfriend?”

  Katherine thought for a minute, and then she said, “Toni, are you familiar with W.H. Auden’s ‘Funeral Blues’?”

  Toni nodded. “Certainly,” she said. She paused for a moment,thinking, and then added, “I understand what you're saying.”

  I didn’t. “Please explain it to me,” I said.

  “Auden wrote a poem that perfectly describes losing someone you love,” Toni said. “Go watch Four Weddings and a Funeral. They used it there.”

  Katherine stared down at the table. “That’s how we felt about each other. The very idea of doing anything that would have hurt Thomas would have been the same as if I were hurting myself. I could never have been unfaithful to him. I’m sure Thomas felt the same way.”

  Katherine looked up at Toni. Toni nodded that she understood.

  I looked at Toni. She nodded now to me. She was satisfied with that line of questioning. I took a deep breath. “Let me change directions,” I said. “Was Thomas healthy? Had there been any recent bad news regarding his health?”

  Katherine looked up, relieved to have left the previous topic. “He had a physical at Swedish Medical Center just this past January. Everything was fine—normal,” she said. “He was very healthy. He was a dedicated runner. He loved it. He ran almost every day—much of the time at Discovery Park where they found him. He didn’t smoke.”

  “Any drug or alcohol use?” I asked.

  “None whatsoever.”

  “Anyone else in the family have any serious medical conditions?”

  “No. We’re all in fine health.”

  “Prior to the time of Thomas’s death, had you noticed any changes in his personal appearance? Any weight gain or loss?” Toni asked.

  “No, nothing like that,” Katherine said.

  “How about a change in the way he dressed—anything out of character?”

  “No. He was a runner. He always wore running shoes and blue jeans, usually with some sort of polo shirt. Every day, same thing.”

  I made a note of her answer in my notebook. “Okay,” I said. “Tell us about the business.” Business problems are one of the primary factors leading to suicide.

  “Our business is called Applied Cryptographic Solutions. We usually just say ACS. Thomas founded the company four years ago.”

  “What does ACS do?” I asked.

  “They write cryptography software,” she said. “They write computer code for use on websites that allow transactions to be sent over the Internet securely. Have you ever seen ‘SSL’ mentioned when you order something online? ACS does a lot of work with that.”

  “How does the business do, financially speaking?” I asked.

  “So far, we’re still in the ‘investment’ phase. That means we lose a little money every quarter. We haven’t turned a profit yet. There’s a lot of competition, and it takes quite a long time to bring a successful new product to market.”

  “Is that a problem—losing money every quarter?”

  “No. I was left quite well off when my parents died. We’re able to provide seed money to the business indefinitely, as long as we manage our overhead like we’ve been doing. There are only six full-time employees.”

  “Have there been any recent changes at the business?”

  “Oh yes, definitely,” she said. “Thomas worked hard over the last two years, but he just recently finished developing new cryptographic processes that he thought could revolutionize the whole field of cryptography.”

  “Was it something that could have paid off for you guys?” I asked.

  “We were recently offered ten million dollars for the first phase alone,” Katherine said.

  This caused me to look up. “Wow! What happened?”

  “It sounds like a big number, but I don’t think Thomas wanted to sell—at least not to those people. He did have our company lawyers check out the purchaser, though. It’s my understanding that for technology like ours, the U.S. Department of Commerce has to approve the buyer. Thomas said the sale couldn’t happen because the group was foreign and not approved. The U.S. Department of Commerce wouldn’t allow the sale to go through.”

  “But still, eventually, it could be sold to someone domestically?” I asked.

  “Definitely. That’s why Thomas was so excited recently. He wanted to sell to a big tech company—a U.S. company.”

  “And even though this foreign outfit didn’t seem to fit, at least they established a market—they let you guys know the value of the product—is that it?” I asked.

  “Exactly,” she said.

  I nodded. “That makes sense.”

  I went through my notes, looking for holes in my questions. I was pretty satisfied for now. I glanced at Toni.

  Toni caught my look and took over. “Just a few more standard-type questions to round things out,” Toni said. “Any unusual mood changes?”

  “No. Thomas was very even-tempered. He rarely got upset.”

  “So no depression or anxiety, nothing like that?” Toni continued.

  “Nothing like that. On the contrary, he was excited about work. He was enthusiastic.”

  “Did he feel guilty about anything? Did he have reason to feel like a failure?”

  “Just the opposite,” Katherine said. “He’s been pretty much on top of the world. Even though we couldn’t accept the offer we got—couldn’t even negotiate it—he was looking forward to being able to sell to someone in the U.S.”

  Toni paused and looked at her notes, and then she looked up at me. “That’s it for me,” she said.

  “Okay.” I turned to Katherine. “Katherine, if your suspicions are right, then that means Thomas was murdered.”

  She nodded.

  I continued. “Since most murders are committed by someone the victim knows, who do you think should be on the initial suspect list?”

  “I’ve thought about that,” she said. “And the short answer is—no one. I don’t know anyone who’d want to hurt Thomas.”

  I nodded. “I phrased that wrong,” I said. “Let me put it another way. At this early point, it’s not so much about who you think might have wanted to kill Thomas. If Thomas was murdered, it’s quite possible that the crime was committed by someone he knew. That person might not stand out as someone we know he had a beef with. If I were investigating this as a murder,” I said, “I’d build a list. Right now, everyone’s on the list—whether they seem like they might have had a reason or not. In fact, I’ve got to say that the top spot on that list is, unfortunately, always reserved for the spouse.”

  Katherine stared at me hard. “Wait a minute,” she said. “You’re not implying that I might become a suspect in my own husband’s murder?”

  “No, I’m not. Actually, if Thomas has been murdered, I think you’d be the last one to suspect,” I said. “The police already think it’s a suicide. If you were the murderer, you’ve pretty much already gotten away with it. Why would you want to hire me to dig up evidence that would make the police reopen the ca
se? This dismisses you, in my book. If we get the police to reopen the case, I imagine they’ll eventually come to the same conclusion. But what I’m saying is, you will be the first one they want to interview. If they thought a murder had been committed, you’d be the first one they’d want to sit down and talk with. If we get that far, they will almost certainly want to make themselves comfortable that you had nothing to do with it, as we have just done. They’ll work you over pretty hard—they’ll want to seriously test your conviction.”

  “Katherine,”Dad said, “if it comes to that, we’ll bring in the best legal advice for you. You’ll be ready.” She nodded.

  “It’s just a heads-up,” I said. “Anyway, after the spouse, I’d want a list of brothers and sisters, then of business associates—particularly those connected with the company or anyone who had an ownership stake in it.”

  “He has no living relatives,” Katherine said. “There’s just one business partner.”

  “Who’s that?” I asked.

  “Holly Kenworth is—was—Thomas’s assistant and main business associate. Holly is a bright young mathematician. She’s very smart. Thomas always felt that Holly could handle much of the same work that he did. I doubt if she’s that smart, but I know Thomas always thought highly of her. She has a small ownership interest in the company as well. In the technology business, you often reward people with stock options in order for them to be willing to pour their creativity into a project.”

  “Anyone else?”

  Katherine considered it for a moment, and then shook her head no. “That’s it. If I think of anyone else, I’ll call you.”

  Dad said, “I have some of the company paperwork—the LLC organization papers, for instance. But I’m not sure if I have the latest set.”

  “Who’s the LLC manager?” I said.

  “Originally, it was Thomas,” he said.

  “And now that he’s gone?”

  “I’m not certain if the company had a succession plan. Certainly, Katherine is far and away the majority owner—90 percent, I believe. But for real information regarding ACS, you need to talk with the company attorney directly,”Dad said. “I only represent Katherine in this matter, not the company. The company itself has a relationship with Meiers-Day.” Meiers-Day was one of the larger law firms in Seattle.

  “Who’s the contact?” I asked.

  “I think it’s one of the partners over there—a guy named John Ogden.”

  Toni’d been writing this down in her notebook. At the mention of the name, I glanced up at her. I caught her pausing as she digested the name, maybe the slightest hint of a smile on her face until she realized I was looking at her. Then, any trace of a smile quickly vanished.

  “We know him,” I said. “We’ll give him a call. Toni, do you have anything else?”

  “Not for now,” she said.

  “Okay,” I turned to Katherine,“Katherine, this has been really helpful. Again, we’re deeply sorry for you and your kids having to go through this. Initially, I’d say we’re very interested in helping you get to the bottom of what really happened.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “I would be very grateful.”

  I continued. “What we’d like to do is talk to the police and find out why they’re so convinced it was a suicide. If they don’t mind us rooting around, then I want to run this past all of my work associates to make sure it’s an assignment we can really help with.”

  She nodded.

  “I’ve already explained your rates to Katherine,”Dad said.

  “And they’re acceptable?” I asked.

  She nodded. “If Thomas was murdered and you can get the police to reopen the case,” Katherine said, “I’ll consider your fee a bargain. As a matter of fact, if that happens, I’ll double your fee.”

  “That’s very generous,” I said. “We’ll go to work and try to figure out exactly what happened. We’ll be in touch,” I said, and Toni and I stood to leave.

  * * * *

  The windshield wipers worked in a slow, intermittent pattern to flick away the drizzle as I drove us back up Highway 99 to the office.

  “What do you think?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Toni said as she flipped through her notepad. “I think it’s too early to say. I’m eager to see what the police have.”

  “Me, too. Presumably, it could be a case of all the physical evidence pointing to a suicide and all the background evidence pointing to a murder.”

  “What she said made a lot of sense,” Toni said. “She seems pretty sincere—pretty convinced.”

  “Yeah, it does. But I’ve got to say, I’ve heard similar stories a few times before. When I was in the army, I had to investigate suicides. In all cases, what we thought might be suspicious turned out to be exactly what the evidence said it was—a suicide. We couldn’t always tell the motive, but I’m confident we never let any murderers skate away.”

  “Could be that way this time, too,” Toni said. “We’ll have to dig in to find out.”

  I nodded my head in agreement.

  We drove in silence for a few blocks. My mind bounced around with thoughts about Katherine and Thomas Rasmussen.

  “Here’s something to consider, Danny,” Toni said.

  “What’s that?”

  “If Katherine is right, and Thomas was murdered, someone—someone who’s highly skilled, by the way, and not afraid to actually murder people—was able to kill him and manipulate the evidence so as to fool the police.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Whoever that skilled murderer is, he might not appreciate a couple of PIs nosing around in his perfect murder. In fact, he might get pretty damned annoyed at us. I’m just saying.”

  I thought about this for a minute. Then I said, “You know, the thought of a murderer being pissed at me—even at us—doesn’t bother me.” I shook my head. “I’ve had homicidal idiots on my ass before. Fuck those guys. If I’ve got you watching my back, I’m good. Their mistake. In fact, they’re the ones that need to watch out for us.”

  Toni smiled. “Hooah,” she said.

  “Damn straight.”

  Chapter 3

  WE ARRIVED AT the Logan PI office at about ninethirty and immediately went straight to my office to call our contact at the Seattle Police Department. I didn’t know Detective Inez Johnson, so I was hoping a detective I knew would put in a good word for us. Otherwise, she might not even talk to me—some cops don’t like PIs. I pulled the speakerphone into the center of the desk and dialed.

  After a few rings, a curt voice announced, “Special Investigations, Lieutenant Brown.”

  “Dwayne, it’s Danny Logan calling.”

  “Danny Logan,” Dwayne said, his voice brightening. “How you doing, man? You getting anybody killed this week?”

  I laughed. “Trying not to,” I said. “But it’s only Monday—the week’s young. Who knows?” He laughed. “Dwayne, I’ve got you on speakerphone because Toni Blair’s here in the office with me.”

  “Ah—the better half,” Dwayne said. “How you doing, Toni?”

  “I’m fine,” Toni answered, smiling.

  We both genuinely liked Dwayne—he was one of the “good guys.” I’ve known him for several years—since I was stationed at Fort Lewis. He and I worked several cases together—me as an army CID special agent, he as a Seattle Police Department detective. Last summer, we worked on the Gina Fiore disappearance together.

  “Wait a second,” Dwayne said. “I’ve got to switch you over.” A couple of seconds later, he returned to the line, which now echoed like he was speaking from the bottom of a barrel. “I’ve got you on speakerphone now too, because there’s someone in my office you may remember. Then again, maybe not. He’s not all that memorable.”

  “Gus?” Toni called out.

  “Live and in person,” said Goscislaw “Gus” Symanski, Dwayne’s partner. “How’s my favorite PI?”

  “I’m fine,” I said.

  “I wasn’t talking to you, moron,�
� Gus answered.

  Toni laughed. “I’m good, Gus. How about you? Is Dwayne working you too hard?”

  “He always does,” Gus answered.

  “Good,” Toni said. “I don’t want you getting into any trouble.”

  “Never happen,” Gus said.

  “To what do we owe the pleasure of this phone call?” Dwayne asked. “You’re not hunting for another one of our missing persons, are you?”

  “Not this time,” I said.

  “Good. We haven’t fully recovered from the Gina Fiore case yet.”

  “That was a tough one,” I agreed. “This time, though, we’ve been asked to look into the apparent suicide of a guy named Thomas Rasmussen.”

  “Hmm,” Dwayne said. “That’s the tech guy that shot himself a couple of weeks ago, right?”

  “Yep. We met with his widow this morning, and she presented a credible case that it might not have been a suicide after all.”

  “Really?” he asked. “Why’s she feel that way?”

  “Conflicting behavior,” I said.

  “You know, somebody wants to murder someone and disguise it as a suicide, there are easier ways than using a gun.”

  “Assuming you don’t want to get caught,” Gus added.

  “Right,” Dwayne said. “Assuming you don’t want to get caught.”

  “I know,” I said. “We’re just going to run through some of the facts of the case—try to develop an understanding.”

  “Who handled the investigation for SPD?” Dwayne said.

  “Inez Johnson.”

  “Whoa!” Gus said.

  Toni and I looked at each other. “What do you mean, ‘whoa’?” I asked.

  “Inez is a ballbuster,” Gus said. “She’s mean.”

  Dwayne laughed. “That’s bullshit. Inez is—Inez is bythebook. She’s hard-nosed, and she’s tough. But she’s fair. Gus just rubs her the wrong way.”

  “I try not to rub her at all,” Gus said.

  “Do you want me to put in a call to her, so she’ll talk to you?” Dwayne asked. “Otherwise, she may not get back to you for a while.”

  “Yeah, a while—as in five years or so,” Gus added.

  “Seeing how you’re offering, that would be great,” I said. “Will she be okay with you doing that?”