“Yeah. I even went to MicroDate. Once.”
“What’s MicroDate?”
“You never heard of MicroDate?” Brandi arched her eyebrows and shook her head. “The one I went to had lots of little tables. You sit at one and a guy comes up and you talk for seven minutes.”
“Seven minutes?” Crystal asked as she turned right to enter the freeway. “You kept a stopwatch on it?”
“No. They ring a bell, and he leaves and another guy comes, and you talk to him for seven minutes. There must have been a hundred people there. ‘Course, you only talk to about a dozen. But that’s enough, believe me. It’s exhausting.”
“What? You pass out your phone number?”
“No. Everybody’s got a number. You write down ones you’re interested in. Then if any of those have written down your number, the MicroDate people get you together. Think it cost me about thirty bucks.”
“You date anybody from there?”
“Nope. I only wrote down one guy’s number. I guess he didn’t write mine down.”
“But MicroDate wasn’t like the Longneck, was it?”
“No. It was a nice place. But I went to places like the Longneck. Before I met Tom, I went every place. Met all kinds of scum. Thought that’s what men were. Lucky I met Tom. What a sweetheart.”
Crystal wondered fleetingly under what circumstances Brandi had met the policeman, but returned to the problem at hand. “Didn’t learn too much.”
“No, but some. By the way, what were you going to do if Joe and Al were there?”
Crystal shrugged. “I don’t know. Play it by ear.”
“I’ll call Tom tomorrow and ask if he ever heard of anybody called Big Man. They may have a file on him. And if they do, we will have learned a lot.”
Chapter 32
CRYSTAL tapped on the door, then walked in and sat in one of the chairs in front of Mark’s desk. “Find out anything else last night?”
“No. Not really. I tried to call you, but no one was there.”
He said it casually enough, but somehow Crystal felt cornered. Did he know she and Brandi had gone to The Longneck last night? What difference did it make, if he did? “We were out.”
“So I gathered. What’s on your mind?”
“Just wanted to know what you found out last night. JT said you and Eddie Ray went to The Longneck Bar after you left me at my car.”
Mark smiled but didn’t say anything for a moment. “Well, yes we did. Just as I was dropping him at his car, it occurred to me we might go to the bar and find Joe and Al.”
“Did you?” She knew they hadn’t found the two thugs, but she wanted to keep her own escapades a secret for now.
“No.”
“How long did you stay?”
“Until after ten. No sign of them. And nobody admitted ever having heard of them.”
After ten. Crystal struggled to keep her expression neutral. If Brandi had found her pliers sooner, we might have run into them as they were leaving. That would have been interesting. She remembered Brandi asking what they were going to do if they found Joe and Al. She hadn’t had a ready answer. “What were you going to do if you had found them?”
“I thought I would just tell them that there was no gold—explain to them that it was just folklore, like the old San Saba mine stories.”
“My grandmother believes those.”
Mark ignored her comment. “They believe the computer said there is a wagonload of gold in Eula’s lake. And we tell people all the time that computers don’t make mistakes. So they think it’s there. But, in fact, the computer didn’t say that. That was a human assumption. It simply reported a possibility.” Mark tapped his desk with the end of a pencil. “If I could show them the logic of that, I’m sure they’d back off. The question of the police and Bessie’s death is another matter. But in the meantime, we don’t want them to do anything stupid that might affect Eula. Or Luis.”
Crystal stared at him incredulously and decided the man was serious. “Mark, these goons are not logical. If your approach is based on appealing to their logic, you’re going to fail. And in this case, failure could be serious. They’ve already killed one person.” She shivered a little, realizing her words applied to Brandi and herself as well. They were foolish to have gone to the Longneck.
“Worth a try. We weren’t meeting them in a dark alley. There were lots of people around. Anyway, we didn’t find them.”
“Promise me you won’t do that again,” she said, mentally making herself the same promise. “I’ve got enough to worry about with Nana. I don’t want to have to worry about you, too.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Mark folded his hands like a dutiful schoolboy.
Crystal put up a hand. “Okay. I guess I am sounding like an older sister, or something. It’s just that you’ve been so supportive and helpful through all this. If something happened to you, I’d feel it was my fault.”
“Remember that for yourself, too. I’m not the one who’s been shot. By the way, how is your arm?”
“How did you know about that?” Her surprise showed in her face as well as her voice. “I meant to ask you that yesterday.”
“Bill told me. And no, neither of us has told your grandmother.” His demeanor turned more serious. “From what he said, if the guy had been a little better shot, you’d be dead.”
“That’s a little dramatic.”
“Actually, Bill said he was repeating what you told him. Plus, I believe you said if the guy had been a little faster, you might be dead.” Mark raised his eyebrows at her, the question he hadn’t asked begging an answer.
Crystal squirmed a little in her chair. “Well, I dove under the water and swam away. I didn’t try to use logic on them.” Her face took on an angelic smile, tinged with a little mischief. “That would be like using garlic on watermelon.”
Mark just grinned.
“Mark, I was raised out there and I never heard any folk tales about gold in a lake. Did you?”
“No.”
“So, why now?”
Mark leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms over his head. “The power of information retrieval. Remember, JT ferreted those out of the folklore database. It’s possible that none of those have been told for fifty or a hundred years. Your grandmother never heard about it. But IR brings out information long forgotten.”
“I wish it had stayed forgotten.”
“It’s like cars. They can do so many good things for us, but occasionally they do bad things. The car is not bad, but it can be used to do bad things. Same thing for a computer.”
“I’m sorry JT found the folk tale.”
Mark leaned forward on the desk. “Crystal, JT is not to blame here. Remember that. Joe and Al took some information, misinterpreted it, and then broke the law. They ... broke ... the law. They are the criminals, not JT.”
#
Shortly before noon, JT appeared at Mark's door. He motioned her in and invited her to sit down.
"Dr. O'Malley, please don't fire me. I know I shouldn't have done that. I know I shouldn't have been in the topological database. And I shouldn't have told Eddie Ray about any of our business here. I really like my job here. And I really need it. I promise never to do anything like that again."
Mark appraised the woman sitting before him. Her rich, shiny brown eyes were swollen and red, mascara smeared beneath. She focused on the desktop, unable to look him in the eye. Her voice reflected the desperation he sensed just from her body language. She wore a pretty print dress, but somehow it looked like it had been twisted and stretched. He remembered her reaction when Eddie Ray had revealed the threat to kidnap her son and a wave of sympathy swept over him.
"JT, your job is not in jeopardy. I do not approve of some of the things you did, and when this is all over, we'll talk about that again. But I'm not going to fire you."
"Thank you.” The tension that had built up in her snapped and her eyes filled with tears even as she smiled.
"By the way,
I would like to see any notes you have on your searches. It sounds like you did a good job. I'm curious as to how you went about it."
"I always keep an audit of what I do. I have notes on all the things I considered in setting up the various searches.” She lowered her eyes again. "They're at home. I knew I shouldn't be doing it. I'll bring them in tomorrow."
"Tomorrow will be fine. Now, let’s get ready for the presentation to the venture capitalists. And don’t worry about your job."
She got up to leave. “I really feel badly about it.”
“Bad, not badly,” Mark corrected automatically. “You feel bad about it.”
JT just nodded and turned to leave.
"However, there is one thing I want you to think about."
JT stopped and turned back. A trace of fear returned to her eyes.
"You might want to let Luis visit your mother, or some other relative, until we get this sorted out," Mark said. "I don't think he's in danger. But you might feel better if he were farther away."
"I always feel best when Luis is with me.” Then quickly, she added, "But I will think about it."
Chapter 33
THE regular Wednesday lunch meeting resumed where it had left off two weeks earlier, with Crystal leading the discussion on probabilistic techniques applied to information retrieval. This time, she got through it without any calls from Wooden Nickel.
The technical discussion had concluded and the group was now finishing off the remnants of food. Sally and Phil were talking about the Rangers' win over Seattle last night, which gave the team sole possession of first place in the American League Western division. Mark assured them it wouldn't last. Crystal had just popped a salsa-laden chip into her mouth when the phone rang. It was Bill Glothe.
She picked up the receiver with some trepidation. It turned out there was no emergency. He had called to give Crystal an update on the investigation of the cars IPPI had identified. Arnold was back from vacation. His story checked out and Bill was taking him off the list.
His list now consisted of just one name: Randal Kenderson. But other than his attitude——and he does have an attitude problemBill couldn't find anything more incriminating than the fact that he owned a puce truck whose license plate fit the partial identification from The Park. Even if they had a perfect match, the sheriff pointed out, it would only prove that Kenderson's truck had been at The Park a week after Bessie was killed. Not enough to make a case.
"We'll keep an eye on him, but that's about all we can do. Maybe we need to look a little further than the thirty miles for cars that match what we got. Can you do that? I mean, is that pretty easy and fast? I don't have any good leads to follow right now. I feel like a cowpoke without a horse."
Crystal put her hand over the receiver and spoke softly to Mark. "You haven't told Bill about Eddie Ray?"
Mark shook his head.
“He ought to know.” She removed her hand and talked to Glothe. "Actually, we did expand the search on the car and came up with several matches here in Dallas.” She looked around the room. Everybody there knew the story. No need to worry about privacy on this matter. "It's sort of a confused and weird story, Bill, but we believe we have a good handle on what happened.”
She filled the sheriff in on the details of the folk story, JT's research on the location of the lake, Eddie Ray's involvement, and Joe and Al.
"Unfortunately, the only thing we can tell you about those two is that they drive a car with flames painted on the hood.” She described the car as best she could.
"Well, we don't see too many Batmobiles out here. If we do, we'll sure stop 'em. Anything else?"
Crystal looked at Mark. "You want to talk to Bill?"
Mark shook his head.
"I guess that's it for now,” she said to Glothe. “I apologize for not calling. We only found this out last night and the morning has been hectic. Sorry.”
“No problem.”
“Keep an eye on Nana for me."
"Count on it."
As soon as Crystal hung up the phone, Mark asked, “Anything new?”
“Not really. He’s checked on all the trucks we gave him. He can eliminate all but Kenderson’s.”
“I think we know whose truck it was. Eddie Ray’s.”
“That’s what I told him. So, we’ve got a chance to snuff it out here, before it gets back to Wooden Nickel.”
“The big question marks right now are Joe and Al.” Mark tilted his head to the side. “Where are they? What are they doing? When will they strike again? And they will; I’m convinced of that.”
“Unless we can find them first.” Crystal had been feeling better. She and Brandi had found out more in their visit to The Longneck than Mark and Eddie Ray had. She reminded herself that Mark was helping her; he was not a competitor. Still, it had brightened her spirits. And just now, it gave her another lift to tell Bill Glothe that they had tracked down the truck using her IPPI system, and had stopped Eddie Ray.
But Mark had brought back into focus the real danger. They had not made much progress on the actual bad guys, Joe and Al. And Big Man, whoever he might be. Still, it had been a worthwhile twenty-four hours. She was feeling good.
#
Mark decided it was time to put everyone’s mind back on the preparations for next Tuesday’s visitors. “Now, let’s shift gears, folks. We’re less than a week away from the big show and tell. I don’t need to explain to you how important this is. They pay your salaries, and mine, and next Tuesday is our opportunity to convince them they should continue doing that.”
For the next half hour, they reviewed the status of each project. Crystal said her group was catching up. They would be ready. Sally’s team had made more progress and expected to stage a dress rehearsal on Friday. Phil, off the hook for a real demo, outlined the information he would present in a brief lecture.
Mark was discouraged. While he understood the numerous distractions—. Instantly, he realized it was degrading to think of the attacks on Eula and the threat to kidnap Luis as distractions. The point was, he could not postpone Tuesday.
I could, he thought. I could ask them to postpone the trip. Explain to them that extenuating circumstances made it advisable. He shook his head. Delaying the visit, or just asking for a delay, would only make IRS look bad. No matter how legitimate the reasons, it would weaken their position. Better to just work hard, do the best job possible in the time left, and pray for luck. Hopefully, there would be no more interruptions.
“ Okay,” Mark kept his voice upbeat. “I think we’re all on the right track here. We’re going to wow them. I told Crystal and Sally, but I don’t think I told you, Phil. The consultant Rooney is bringing is Dr. Lester Krupe. Crystal worked with him at Stanford, so we may catch a small break there. That’s not to say we want to ease up any. He’s been hired to be critical of our work. We have to make sure it looks good under the microscope.”
He studied the group for a moment before continuing. “On Monday—and Crystal doesn’t know this yet—Dr. Krupe is giving a talk at UT, Dallas. That will give me a chance to meet him before he shows up at our door.”
“I’d like to go hear him,” said Sally. “Besides, I’ve never been to the Texas University campus here.”
“Sorry, Sally, but you don’t get to see it Monday, either. I want you and Phil to spend that time perfecting things for Tuesday. I’m taking Crystal to provide my introduction to Dr. Krupe.”
At the first mention of Dr. Krupe, two small wrinkles appeared between Crystal’s eyebrows. Her stomach felt like someone had tied a hemp rope around it and was slowly tightening the rope.
“I want a full dress rehearsal Monday, and keep polishing it until you’re completely at ease with it, prepared to handle anything that goes wrong. Then Tuesday, all I ask from you is ...” Mark looked at Sally, then Phil, then Crystal. “... perfection.”
#
It was nearly six o'clock and Crystal was staring out her window. Business was picking up in the West
End. The horse-drawn cabs were lined up and a few had already attracted customers. The sidewalk cafe across the street was filled with people taking advantage of its happy hour. In fact, everybody on the street below seemed happy.
The intercom buzzed, bringing her attention back to the office. She pressed a button. "Yes?"
"Crystal, JT's on line one. She wanted Dr. O’Malley, but he’s gone. She sounds ... well, will you take the call?"
"Yes. Thanks, Bobby Don.” Crystal picked up the receiver, a slight foreboding hovering above her. "Hi, JT. This is Crystal."
"Oh. I was calling for Dr. O'Malley."
In those few words, Crystal knew something was wrong. “He’s not here, JT. Can I help you?”
"I hate to bother you. But Dr. O’Malley spent a lot of time with Eddie Ray last night and ... .” The end of the sentence was lost in half sobs. It was clear to Crystal that JT was struggling to seem calm. Her hand was probably over the mouthpiece of the phone, but the sound of crying was unmistakable.
"JT. Breathe deeply. Try to relax. Take deep breaths. I'll wait. No need to hurry."
She could hear JT breathing, the sobs subsiding. After a minute, she started again. "I got home a few minutes ago, about the same time as I usually do. Luis and Eddie Ray are gone."
Chapter 34
CRYSTAL could picture JT, eyes red, nervous hands twisting the phone cord. She waited until JT continued. "They're always here when I get home. And if they're not, Eddie Ray leaves a note on the refrigerator telling me where they are and when they'll be back."
Ignoring the contradiction, Crystal asked, "Is Eddie Ray’s car there?"
"No. I thought since Dr. O’Malley was with Eddie Ray last night, he might have said something about what he was doing today. Or something ... .” Her voice trailed off.
Several questions popped into Crystal’s mind, but she kept them to herself. She remembered her own feelings when Nana was missing. She could only imagine the desperation if it were a child of her own. The threats against Luis made her shiver.
"I'll be over in a few minutes, JT. Try to stay calm. Have something to drink, maybe listen to some soft music. Try not to think about this until I get there. They're probably at the store and forgot to leave a note.” She laughed a little, trying to sound casual, but it came out hollow and insipid. “You know how men are.”
A Ton of Gold (Crystal Moore Suspense Book 1) Page 15