by Nick Vellis
“Tetrodotoxin?”
“Yeah, that’s it, tetro-something. Here it is,” he said flipping through his spiral notebook. “I’ve been to the library, searched on line, even called a street dealer I know…”
“Oh, I can’t believe it. You know a drug dealer?” I said in mock shock. He shot me a bird and continued.
“I checked with a ‘supplier’ I know. Don’t ask any questions about that…but I found out there is only…”
“I know, only a handful of places to get it,” I cut in. “I’ve been looking too.”
“But did you look in the right place? There’s only one source in Florida.”
Roscoe had my attention now. I listened intently, but he was going to make me ask.
“Ok, I’ll bite. Where?” I asked.
“Right here in Orlando, in fact. It’s out by the airport.”
“You don’t mean Perimeter Marine Research!” I shouted, as I sprang from my chair.
“I think it’s time we paid that place a visit and spoke to Dr. Sharon Greer,” Roscoe concluded.
“Again, with the we,” I said. “You are not going anywhere any way,” I insisted.
“Why can’t I go?” he said. “I can take care of myself.”
“Sure you can. I’ve already gotten two people killed, that detective and the tennis coach…”
“Those weren’t your fault.”
“An old guy like you with a bad leg is going to run down these…”
“And I suppose a broken down alki like you is…”
We both stopped, glowered at each other a moment and broke out laughing.
“What are we arguing about,” he asked. “Let me go with you. I’ll drive and keep quiet.”
“No, I’m not going to be responsible for getting you killed.”
“At the first sign of trouble I’ll make like the I-talian Army and beat it,” he said.
“No you won’t. I’ve been in combat with you remember? Thanks Roscoe, but I can’t take that chance. I have to go it alone. Besides, it’s just an interview.”
Roscoe crossed his arms and scowled.
I sat back and chuckled.
“What’s so damn funny?” he demanded.
“Nothing, I guess. It’s just you look like the little kid on that old Life cereal commercial. Remember,” I made a high and squeaky voice and said, “Let’s give it to Mikey, he hates everything.”
“Hey, that’s not fair.”
“I know you just want to help, but I couldn’t bear it if you got hurt. Please…”
“OK I give, but you be careful!”
“Thanks,” I said.
I shuffled through the paper in the files again and after a moment slapped them on the desk. I lapsed into silence as my mind whirred. I gently bit my lower lip again, this time trying to force a memory forward. “I have an idea, Roscoe.” I tore through my files until I found the folder I was looking for. I paged through it until I found a single piece of paper and held it up for him to see. “Roscoe, I think we should find this woman,” I asserted.
Roscoe took the article on Dr. Nancy Cameron’s sexual harassment case from me, scanned it, and looked up at me with a smile.
“Sharon Greer thought I knew something and she let the name Nancy slip. The name of the woman who sued Greer is...”
“I think you may be on to something there Captain,” Roscoe offered. “She worked at the Marine Institute too, where my source says they have this toxin you’re hunting.”
“Exactly!” Greer didn’t want me to find this Nancy. She might be the key.”
It took some digging, but we located Dr. Nancy Cameron. She was working at a Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, only a two-hour drive from Orlando. Roscoe used a connection at the phone company to get Cameron’s home number and I called her since it was still early. The good doctor was in.
“Dr. Nancy Cameron,” I said.
“Yes.”
“My name is Mac Everett. I’m a private investigator,” I said. I tried to sound official. “I believe you could have some information on something I’m investigating in the Orlando area.”
“What are you investigating, Mr. Everett?” she asked. “What do you want to talk about, the thefts at the Marine Institute?
“I don’t want to discuss it on the phone. Could we meet sometime tomorrow? It shouldn’t take very long.”
“Am I in trouble, a suspect, or something?” she asked.
“No ma’am you aren’t in trouble. Besides, I am not the police, just a plain old a PI,” I chuckled. “I could see you first thing in the morning, if that would suit you. We could meet at your home or someplace public if you prefer.”
“I will be in the lab early tomorrow. I have an experiment I'll need to look after. I’ll be tied up most of the day,” there was a pause while she thought, then she said, “I usually get off work by five or five thirty, then I go straight to my gym. Could we meet when I get off work, say around five forty-five? There’s a Cracker Barrel on Cortez Rd. in Bradenton I pass on my way to the gym. That’s SR 684. It’s not far from I-75.”
“That would be fine, ma’am,” I agreed. “Thank you Dr. Cameron. I’ll see you tomorrow. Good night ma’am.”
I put my cell phone on the desk and leaned back “She’s anxious to talk to me,” I smiled.
“What did she say?” Roscoe asked.
“Well…she asked if I wanted to talk to her about stuff stolen from Perimeter Marine Research. That could be only one thing.”
“Tetrodotoxin?”
“That would be my guess,” I replied. He downed his Dr. Pepper and as he picked up the bottle he said, “Sail again?” as he refilled his glass.
I made some notes and jotted down some questions with Roscoe’s input. He left around eleven and I hit the sack. I spent a sleepless night wondering if the general wanted to see me about the murder or my abortive affair with his daughter. Either way it was going to make for an interesting morning.
I was up early, made easier by the lack of booze the night before. I cleaned up, dressed, and headed out the door. I grabbed some breakfast at the Taco Bell drive thru and hit the road. I blew through Campbell after only forty minutes and made it to Live Oak House about nine thirty.
Norris met me at the door. “Good morning, Captain Everett.”
“Good morning Norris,” I replied. “It’s good to see you.”
“Thank you, sir,” he replied. “The general will be down directly. You may wait in the library.”
“Sure, lead the way,” I replied.
I followed Norris through the foyer, down the familiar hall and past the gym. He opened a pair of double doors to a large bright room. White bookshelves lined three walls. The fourth wall was all glass. Comfortable looking sofas in a U stood in front of the shelves giving every seat in the room a panoramic view of the lake in the distance. The room smelled of leather and knowledge. Sunshine streaming through the windows and a circular skylight in the middle of the ceiling made for a bright, inviting room. There in front of the massive window stood Ashton Hunt. Dressed in white pants and an aqua sweater she looked like a dream.
“Mac,” She said as she rushed to me. I took her in my arms, and kissed her hard.
“Mac, Mac, I’m so sorry. I…I love you Mac,” she said.
“Your father will be here any minute,” I said, but I continued to kiss her. I didn’t love her, but I sure had a case of hot prickly lust.
“Norris won’t let him know you’re here for a bit,” she replied.
I kissed her again, then with herculean effort, gently pushed her away. “Look Ashton, wait,” I said. “I have to work this out.”
“What is there to work out,” she said. “We love each other.”
“Yes, but there are a lot of unanswered questions. I can’t work…”
“But Mac…it will all be OK,” she said.
“Ashton there’s a pile of bodies tied up in this mess. The cops think I’m in it up to my eyeballs. I have to work it out or my life
isn’t worth…”
“That’s all arranged. You don’t have worry about anything. You’re going to work for my father,” she said. “That’s what he wants to see you about.”
“So he didn’t pay the blackmail?”
Just then a sound made us both turn towards the door as General Hunt strode into the room.
“Yes Captain Everett, I paid. I’d pay nearly anything to suppress a scandal of this sort. I don’t know exactly who was involved, but near the center of it was my daughter-in law. When I paid the money the problem disappeared.”
“And she was killed soon afterwards. You assumed no honor among thieves?” I asked.
“Something like that.”
His smile was plastic, the worst kind of fake. A person can make up a fake story, but can’t give a fake smile. What wasn’t he telling me?
“You know as well as I do sir, these people always come back for more,” I said.
“A chance I was willing to take, son. Maybe I need your help after all. If you want that job Ashton has talked me in to offering you, you’ll drop this and help protect us from this sort of crap in the future.”
His words were sincere, but his body language told a different story. He was holding something back. I’d talked to him before but hadn’t seen this sort of excessive eye contact. It was a signal there was something wrong. I stared daggers at Ashton. Why hadn’t she told me?
“Stephanie was apparently sleeping with everything that walked upright at that country club,” the general continued. “As for the blackmail, I struck a deal with her. She agreed to divorce my son for a onetime payment of twenty-five million dollars. I’d pay and I’d be rid of her.”
“Daddy!” Ashton exclaimed.
“Don’t be so surprised. Your hands aren’t clean in this affair either, Ash. Yes, we’d be rid of the pretty little slut,” he said. “Cary had no clue she was sleeping around, and she was after my money. It was worth every penny to get rid of her.”
“You can get rid of me for a lot less than twenty-five mil. Trust me,” I exclaimed.
“And you suggested I go see Mac when Stephanie was killed to cover up the pay off,” Ashton said.
“Something like that,” the general replied.
“The money hasn’t turned up in the homicide investigation. Who did you pay the money to?” I asked.
“I gave a suitcase to a woman named Sharon Greer. She didn’t even open it or say go to hell when she went out the door. Remember the boy who put the notes in the mail box,” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” I replied.
“What I didn’t tell you was there was a second woman in the car and the description the boy gave fit my daughter-in-law.”
“Did you talk to Stephanie after Greer was here?” I asked.
The general shook his head, “No I didn’t,” he said. “I assumed Greer killed Stephanie and took the money. In any case, Stephanie was no longer a threat.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me about this?”
“Forgive an old man trying to protect his secrets.”
“Did Stephanie send the notes?”
“She said she did,” Hunt replied. “I didn’t believe her at first. She’d asked me to invest in some pipe dream of Greer’s, but it was a fraud. They weren’t starting a company. I turned them down flat. Stephanie didn’t have the balls to do something like blackmail on her own. I’m sure Greer put her up to it.”
“What was Sharon Greer’s idea?”
“She was going to open a medical research incubator. It was a good idea, but not my kind of business deal. The other thing was it didn’t seem to be nearly enough capital to fund a project like that.”
“Why’d you hire me to investigate the blackmail?” I asked. “I could have unraveled the whole thing.”
“You very nearly did. I underestimated you Captain. I assumed since you were half in the bag most of the time, you’d muck it up. I’d be in the clear and look like I was being proactive by hiring you. I’m afraid that was part of why my son’s attorney has been so difficult for you to reach. I’m sorry for many things, but I regret not playing straight with you,” he said. He seemed sincere, but I wasn’t about to believe anything he said at this point.
“Where’d you meet Greer for the exchange?”
“I met her at a little coffee shop in town. I go there a couple times a week so it wasn’t out of the norm. It was all cloak and dagger. She wore a big hat and sunglasses so I couldn’t see her face. She took the bag, batted her eyes at me, and was gone,” he said. “I don’t think anyone even noticed.”
“When your daughter-in-law was killed why didn’t you tell the police about the blackmail?”
“I thought that little detail would make Cary look all the more guilty,” he said.
“You were right about that. Were you questioned?” I asked.
“Yes, some rumpled detective, Deeds I think was his name. I told him a pile of trash and he walked away believing it.”
“That’s dick head Deeds,” I muttered. “Never confuse him with the facts when he has a good theory in play. You say you spoke to Deeds, was that right after the murder was discovered?”
“It was about three weeks afterward. He came out here one evening. He asked when I’d last been to Orlando, which was earlier that day.”
“The man has his own agenda you can be sure,” I said. “He wasn’t questioning you about Stephanie. He was sniffing around the death of the tennis coach. He even tried to pin it on me.”
“Dear God, is that connected to this mess? I wanted to throw suspicion on someone other than my son. I wanted to get him out of jail. You see how well my plan worked. He’s been rotting in that place for weeks now.”
“He may be out soon,” I said. “There’s some new evidence about to come to light.”
I told Ashton and the general about the ME preparing to revise the cause of death, but I didn’t give them specifics. They pressed me for details, but I feigned ignorance. It’s easy to play dumb when you are and I’d been three steps behind on this whole case. I never expected the blackmail would involve Stephanie and Sharon Greer.
“Did you know anything about the people Stephanie spent time with, other than Greer that is?” I asked.
The general spoke up first. “I didn’t know her friends. Don’t know my son’s friends either.”
“She had three girl friends,” Ashton said. “They always hung out together, especially when Cary was out of town. Remember, I told you about them.”
“And I’ve spoke to all three of them,” I replied. “Only Greer seemed evasive.”
“I told you about the one who spilled the drink on Cary,” she replied.
“Yep, that’s Sharon Greer,” I said. “The other two women told me the same story.”
“Did you know she was arrested for assault a few years back?” Ashton said.
“No I didn’t know that,” I replied.
I’d checked local background on all the people involved and nothing had shown up.
“Apparently, she got in a fight at a bar in New York City. She stabbed another woman. She was arrested, but never prosecuted.”
“How do you know about this, Ashton,” General Hunt demanded. “Have you been checking up on…?”
“No daddy,” Ashton said. Her tone was surprisingly condescending. “I represented a woman in a wrongful termination suit. Sharon Greer was the defendant. The assault charge came up when we were doing background prepping for the case. The woman also collects exotic knives. Now that’s creepy.”
“Would the plaintiff in your case be Dr. Nancy Cameron?” I asked.
Ashton, who’d been talking to her father, whipped her head around to face me. “How did you find out about her?” she demanded.
“Whoa, take it easy,” I said, crossing my hands in front of my face. “I found her name on the internet in connection with Greer. I’m going to interview her later today.”
“Well, you’ll get an earful when you do. Nancy has only a pass
ing acquaintance with the truth. We were lucky to get a settlement. She’s a good woman who was run off by a predator and she…”
“Hold on,” I demanded. “I’m on the side of the angels, remember?”
“I’m sorry,” Ashton said. “That poor woman was cheated out of her job and her boss got away with it.”
“What was it, a settlement?”
“It was a directed verdict with a big cash award.”
“Captain, you seem to have a good handle on this situation,” the General said. “I was wrong about you. My daughter has suggested I offer you a position. Drop this investigation. Let the legal team take care of Cary.”
“Yes, sir, if that’s the way you want it,” I replied. “I can have my files to Mr. Barber the first of the week.”
“Good man. You’ve done a four-oh job on this mess. I owe you,” he said.
“Thank you, general,” I replied.
“Let’s talk about this job,” he said.
I knew it was another payoff.
Chapter 10
Watching the dynamics between Ashton and her father had left me with an uneasy feeling. I saw trouble in both their faces, and in their eyes. I heard it in their voices, and in the things they didn’t say. My intuition told me they were both lying. What I didn’t know was whether it was to me or to each other. The general’s job offer was tempting. I’d be his chief of security, which meant I’d sit around and wait for something bad to happen. I would live on the estate, have access to a car, it was a sweet deal. I asked some questions and generally shot the breeze trying to get a better feel for the old man and his daughter.
I said I’d think about it while I cleared up the murder investigation files and promised to turn everything over to Ward Barber. I had a bit of a drive to Bradenton so I made an excuse to leave, but didn’t tell them where I was going. I wasn’t dropping the case. I still had more questions than answers.
I got on the phone to Marco as soon as I cleared the Live Oak House gate.
“Hey Mac,” he said when he answered the phone. “What are you up to?”
“Working as usual, Marco,” replied.
“Hey Mac, why don’t you come over,” he said. “My grandson is up from Miami and we’re sitting by the pool. I’d like you to meet him.”