Death in Her Eyes (A Mac Everett Mystery Book 1)

by Nick Vellis

  “You went back to work?” I asked, as if I didn’t know.

  “Sharon left me a couple of messages the next day, but I deleted them. She was waiting in the parking lot Monday morning. She apologized over and over. She said she was angry with Stephanie, she was drunk, and out of her mind. They’d been together for years and she told me all about their time together,” she said.

  “Do you think she told you those details about her other relationship because…”

  “She was trying to apologize for raping me,” she whispered. “I told her she had no right to do what she did. It was like because she’d been hurt it justified her hurting me. She stopped coming to my lab. Rumors about financial mismanagement began to surface. Two weeks late HR called me in and asked about my grant account. They said there was a problem with it and they were investigating. I told them about the rape, but I could see they didn’t believe me. Ten days later, I had a special evaluation and a month later I was fired.”

  “So you sued, I understand there was a settlement,” I asked, playing dumb again.

  “It was a directed verdict. I was awarded some money, but I’m not allowed to discuss it.”

  “Dr. Greer was fired?”

  “Yeah, that happened not long after the verdict.”

  Funny, her lawyer hadn’t mentioned any of that to me, I thought. Was it a lie? Was it Nancy or Ashton who was stringing me along?

  “What were you doing at the institute, Nancy?” I asked.

  “It was essentially cancer research. I irradiated toxins to morph their properties targeting specific cell types, like tumor or cancer cells. Different exposure rates result in different mutations in the toxin. Denaturing the neurotoxins dilutes their effects and they can be used to carry radiation to the cancerous cells. They can even destroy the cells in certain circumstances. The work was progressing really well. I’m still working on it.”

  “What neurotoxins did you use?” I asked.

  “There’re a couple promising ones,” she said. “Several related animals use their toxins for defense or to paralyze their prey. Their toxins include tetrodotoxin, cardiotoxin, and ostracitoxin. They come from some of the most dangerous aquatic life. That’s why being at the institute was so important. They had access to all these species and the expertise to extract the neurotoxins. The process is laborious and potentially dangerous.”

  “Which one did you use most often?” I asked, betting I’d knew the answer.

  “Oh tetrodotoxin by far,” Nancy replied.” It’s the most promising of all the ones I’ve tested.”

  “Could some of the neurotoxins, maybe some tetrodotoxin be missing?” I asked.

  “Well, yes there were two vials unaccounted for when I left,” she answered. She looked startled. She hadn’t expected that question. “I would get the purified samples in one ml vials. I’d do a 1 to 10,000 dilution then either test or irradiate the sample. I had ten one ml vials, used seven, but there was only one left when I was fired. It was so humiliating to be escorted from the building like that.”

  She looked left, recalling actual memories.

  “Was Dr. Greer or anyone else around at the time that stuff went missing?”

  “No, not really, the place wasn’t exactly a tourist spot.”

  “Think about it. Was there anyone…”

  “There is one other person who could’ve had access, but she’d have no reason to…”

  “Who is it, Nancy?”

  “My lawyer, Ashton Hunt, was there the day before I noticed the toxin missing. Sharon had shown her my lab and explained my work to her. I had just finished an inventory of the refrigerated drawer the missing vials were in when she showed up. I could have left the drawer unlocked.”

  “When was this, Nancy?”

  The middle of April or early in May,” she replied. “It was just as all the trouble started.”

  “Did you tell her about the neurotoxin, what it would do?” I asked. My guts were cramping. I wanted to tell her to stop.

  “Well sort of, she asked a lot of questions. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but now it seems odd,” she replied.

  “Was she alone in your laboratory?” I asked.

  “I don’t think so,” she said, “but it was a big place with shelves and equipment down the center. We could be in the same room and been out of each other’s sight.”

  I tried to remember what’d I told Ashton and when. Had I screwed up? Was Nancy spinning a yarn to get herself out of hot water and put the blame on Ashton? The signals she put out were confused. She was mixing fact with fantasy.

  “Nancy, does that stuff lose its potency?”

  “Eventually it’ll break down, but I’ve kept it refrigerated for up to a year. What’s this all about Mac? Has it been located? It’s terribly toxic,” she said.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to alarm you,” I said, “just my idle curiosity.”

  “Are you sure?” she said.

  “Don’t worry.” I gave her my disarming smile. “As I said on the phone, I think your information could have bearing on several crimes. You just wait. I’m thinking things will work out pretty well for you.”

  Nancy Cameron was going to get exactly what was coming to her.

  “All right Mac. I’ve trusted you this far, no sense going half way. Thank you for being such a good listener.”

  “It’s what I do, Nancy. It’s what I do.”

  I left Dr. Cameron in Verna’s capable hands. She was going to have an early comfort food dinner, skip the gym for once, and make it an early night. Those sounded like good ideas to me. She promised she would find a counselor and I promised to follow up with her in a few days. We were feeding each other a pack of lies.

  The interview with Nancy Cameron put a whole new spin on things. Less than half of what she’d told me felt like the truth, but it was critical information. There were nuggets of honesty mix in with her BS. She worked with the deadly poison used to torture and kill Stephanie Hunt. She’d met Mrs. Hunt, who’d had a long standing affair with Sharon Greer and most troubling of all, she met her lawyer, Ashton Hunt, through Sharon Greer’s friends. Whose lies ran deeper, Nancy’s or Ashton’s?

  I’d faced some deceptive people before, but no one quite like Nancy Cameron. Her looks and her innocent air made her dangerous. Usually, a lie comes wrapped around a nugget of truth, but if I was right, Cameron had reversed that concept. I was betting she was covering her own ass. So as I waited across the street in the Home Depot parking lot, behind a low scraggly hedge, with my 20 x 100 binoculars I wondered how I was going to prove any of what I suspected.

  My phone rang shaking me out of my funk.

  “Everett,” I said.

  “Mac, its Stan,” my friend said.

  “Hey Stan.”

  “I got the ballistics reports back.”

  “They’re all .45s right?”

  “Yeah, the lab says all the slugs are .45s with a left hand twist. That makes the weapon a Colt. The only problem is Rad Wozninek and Kristin Wagner were killed with one gun, and Luck Taylor was killed with another one.”

  “What?”

  “The lab says two different guns, both .45s. I still think they’re connected.”

  “Stan, look I have to go. I’ll call you right back.” I hung up and grabbed my binoculars. Nancy hadn’t wanted comfort food after all. That was another lie. She came sprinting out of the restaurant talking on her phone scarcely fifteen minutes behind me.

  I watched her walk to her car. Even though she was moving quickly, I could still read her lips and what I saw sent a chill through me. She jumped in a red Nissan GT-R and was gone like a shot. I tried to follow her, but she hit I-75 and was out of sight before I could get on her tail. I knew what she was going to do, but not where she was going. I decided to call Stan back.

  “Sgt. Lee, Homicide,” he said.

  “Stan, its Mac. Sorry about that, I’m was following someone, but I lost them. I have some information for you.”

&nb
sp; “What now?”

  “Dr. Sharon Greer was the director of the Perimeter Marine Institute, that’s…”

  “Yeah, so” Stan interrupted.

  “When she was fired, they were missing vials of tetrodotoxin.”

  “Wow, that’s amazing,” Stan mumbled. “How would you have come by this information?”

  Stan could be an ass when he was mad, but I let it go.

  “I just talked to a former employee and she gave me the lowdown.”

  “Is she credible?”

  I ignored his question.

  “Sharon Greer ran the place when they used the tetrodotoxin. There was an allegation of misappropriation of funds, but it looks like that never went anywhere. Mrs. Hunt and Greer knew each other and...” I paused for effect, “Greer was Stephanie Hunt’s mystery lover.”

  There was silence on the phone. I could almost see Stan’s stunned expression.

  “Mac if you’re messing with me so help me…”

  “I’m serious Stan. Greer was possessive about Stephanie Hunt. They lived together while they were in college. Mrs. Hunt had a long-standing affair with Greer.”

  “That means both the Hunts were having affairs,” Stan said.

  I’d known that for a while, but it was new information to Stan.

  “Yep, that’s right. Can you do a nationwide criminal history check on Greer? I checked Florida and got nothing, but supposedly, she has an arrest for aggravated assault in New York. I think we might have a lead on our killer,” I said. “Also check the hospitals. Greer and Mrs. Hunt got in a fight several months ago. Mrs. Hunt supposedly ended up in the ER. I don’t know exactly when or which hospital.”

  “If this witness is credible…”

  “I think she is, but she could be seen as having an ax to grind so it might look bad to a jury.” I made a lame excuse for Nancy Cameron and left out that three quarters of what she told me was bunk. “We need corroboration and I think I know how to get it.”

  “What do you have in mind?” he asked.

  I ignored his question again. I knew he’d try to stop me. “Can you check to see if there was ever a report of theft, fraud, or maybe embezzlement at Perimeter Marine?”

  “Yeah, that won’t take long.”

  “Good, let me know what you find. Are you going to be able to get that warrant for Greer’s home?”

  “I think so,” Stan admitted. “Where are you? The reception it terrible.”

  “I’m near Bradenton,” I replied. “Can you use me as a confidential informant, or do you need the name of my witness?”

  “You’ll do as a CI for now, but I’ll need that name eventually,” he replied.

  “And you’ll have it. The hospital records and the embezzlement may be corroboration too.”

  I hoped we’d could things wrapped up without Dr. Nancy Cameron. Her minimal acquaintance with the truth would be a major problem in court.

  “Yeah it might,” he said. “Stay by your phone in case the judge wants to talk to you.”

  “I’m in the car. Where am I going to go?”

  “Very funny.”

  “Where should I meet you, Stan?”

  “Why don’t you head for your office? I’ll get to work on the warrant. If I get it, I’ll call you. We’ll hit Greer’s house.”

  “Stan, Greer could be there too,” I said.

  “Got it.”

  I felt I was close to solving the mystery. I was putting the pieces together, but whether the jigsaw came out looking like the box cover was an open question. I was still running ideas through my head when it occurred to me Cameron must have abducted Greer. Maybe she was trying to get Greer to give up the missing blackmail money. I had no idea where to look for them.

  I thought about it for a few minutes and had nothing. Another idea flashed in my head and I dialed Charlie Ross. He answered on the third ring.

  “Hi ya Mac how’s my best client,” he said. “What kind of trouble are you in now?”

  “I’m not in any new trouble, if that’s what you mean. I have a couple legal questions for you. You do civil work, right?”

  “Yeah, what’s up, you want to sue somebody?”

  “Hypothetically if a lawyer advised or represented both sides of a law suit…”

  “It’s a matter of conflict of interest. There’s nothing keeping an attorney from representing both sides in a matter if he discloses his conflict and both parties agree to the representation, but a lawyer may not act as an advocate in one matter against a person the lawyer represents in some other matter, even when the matters are wholly unrelated.”

  “OK, I think I understand that. What if a lawyer conspires to manufacture a situation where a suit is brought?”

  “That’s different. You used the word conspire. Did the matter at issue ever happen?”

  “I think so,” I said.

  “Well you and I have attorney-client privilege. Why don’t you tell me what’s going on instead of playing twenty hypothetical questions?”

  “Alright, you win. Ashton Hunt represented a woman in a sexual harassment suit. There was a big judgment in the case.”

  “That’s unusual. Was the person fired too?”

  “Yeah she was,” I replied.

  “Employers are unlikely to settle a claim they’re convinced they could beat in court,” Charlie said. “When a sexual harassment complaint goes to trial, there is usually a wrongful termination claim too. Awards are generally small in these cases, unless there are multiple plaintiffs or egregious behavior. An award is generally based on the duration and severity of the sexual harassment and the long-term effect of the inappropriate behavior.”

  “I think the whole thing was a set up to make money and have the alleged harasser fired,” I said. “Ashton knew both the plaintiff and the defendant and they had mutual friends.”

  “Do you have any proof of this?”

  “It’s circumstantial at this point, but I think it’s tied into the blackmail and murder I’ve been working. Can you nose around the Federal courthouse and see if you can dig up anything on Ashton Hunt, Nancy Cameron, or Sharon Greer…”

  “Hold it. I need to write this down. Nancy, spell Cameron,--- Sharon Greer, who else?’

  “Ashton Hunt and Perimeter Marine Research- that’s the name of the company. It’s connected to Ocean World.”

  “I know the General Counsel at Ocean World,” Charlie said. “I could see if he could tell me anything about the case.”

  “Would you,” I asked. “That would be great.”

  “It’s Saturday, but I think I can reach him. If I learn anything, do you want me to call you back or wait till tomorrow?”

  “Call me tonight if you get anything.”

  “OK, Mac. Will do.”

  I was glad I had Charlie Ross in my corner. He was a good guy.

  I was twenty miles south of the airport when Stan called.

  “We are still working on the warrant,” he said. “The judge had questions about the probable cause. It just gets harder and harder to use a confidential informant as the PC source. We need more.”

  “Did you get the DNA back on those cigarette butts?” I asked.

  “No, not yet. We could sure use it now.”

  “Can you check some phone records?”

  “Sure, give me the numbers,” he said.

  I told him what I read on Cameron’s lips as she went to her car. She’d said, ‘We’ll do it tonight- kill both of them.’ I assumed she meant me, but wasn’t sure about the other victim. I guessed it was Greer, but had no idea where to find her. I gave him the phone numbers for Cameron, Greer, and Ashton.

  “I don’t know who she was talking to. You have those numbers?”

  “Sure do. Ah, who was she putting a hit on?”

  “Who do you think?”

  “Why don’t you come over to my office? We can baby sit you until this is straightened out.”

  “I’ve got things to do,” I said. “You find these people, Stan. Get them o
ff the street.”

  “We will find the tetrodotoxin on Greer won’t we?”

  “I believe you will, Stan. I just hope you find her alive. I’m going home. Call me when you wrap things up.”

  “OK Mac, will do,” he said. “Watch yourself.”

  I didn’t tell him I was painting a target on my back.

  I hoped Nancy Cameron’s phone number would prove to be a link to Greer. Stan could get his warrants and close his case, but his piece was going to take some time. I had another idea and all I needed to do was make a couple phone calls.

  There comes time in a case when intuition is your only choice. The solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why. Sometimes the answer is what you expected and sometimes it’s a surprise. I was sure I was in for the biggest surprise of my life.

  My thoughts focused on what Nancy had said. Aston had been there when the toxin disappeared. She knew about Sharon Greer’s penchant for knives, and her assault arrest. She knew about Greer’s offer to hire me, maybe she was behind it. She knew about the twenty-five million and Sharon’s affair with Stephanie. She knew about it all and I didn’t want to think about the final maybe. What could I believe?

  When the phone rang, I was surprised to see it was Charlie Ross calling me back already.

  “Hey Charlie,” I said.

  “Mac, I’ve got some information for you. I spoke to my friend. He was anxious to talk about it, if there’s a chance of getting a new hearing. The jury awarded a $250,000 settlement to Dr. Nancy Cameron and punitive damages of $1 million. The awards were based on Dr. Cameron’s description of ongoing harassment and an instance of sexual violence. He and his team were convinced that Dr. Cameron wasn’t telling the truth, but they had no way to dispute her testimony. Even their forensic psychiatrist couldn’t shake her story.”

  “Thanks Charlie. That’s good information. Did your friend say why they didn’t believe Dr. Cameron’s story?”

  “He said it was just intuition. He had no actual evidence, but he and his team were sure she was lying.”

  “Charlie, if this works out. Your friend may get his new hearing. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Thank you.”