Innocent Conspiracy

by David Archer

  “I think Patricia is a fine young woman,” Sam said. “I agree, people make mistakes, and I’m glad to see that she’s turned her life around. The problem was that keeping the secret put the rest of you at risk. Now that it’s out in the open, she’s no longer a danger to you or your company.” He paused for a second. “There is, however, one other thing you probably need to know about.”

  Sam told him about Judy Lowery, the stylist who helped their nominees look good on camera, who also was involved in the fetish lifestyle. He wasn’t terribly surprised when John began snickering.

  “Judy? Are you serious?” John asked. “Wow, I never would’ve guessed. Still, that’s something she does on her own time. I can’t really hold that against her, I don’t guess.” He had to work for a moment to get his snickering under control. “Oh, I can’t wait to tell Annie about this. She’ll probably turn red.”

  He held up a finger to ask Sam to be patient for a moment, then managed to stop laughing. “Okay,” he said at last. “Is there anyone else you needed to talk to?”

  Sam shook his head. “Not at the moment. For right now, those were the only three that we felt might have been a security risk. With Charlie’s admission that he provided the itinerary for the show, I think we’ve pretty well ascertained how they got their information. Now, I just want to find these people and bury them under the prison system.”

  9

  “Hello,” Indie said, answering her phone.

  “Indie, it’s Summer. Sam said I could give you a call to look into something I stumbled across last night.”

  “Okay,” Indie said. “Give me just a moment, I’m in the middle of changing a diaper.”

  “Oh, goody,” Summer said. “I think about having a baby someday, but then I think about diapers and start to have second thoughts.”

  Indie laughed. “Ah, it’s just something to deal with. Believe me, the rewards of being a mother are worth it. Hang on, I gotta set the phone down for a moment.”

  Summer waited patiently for about a minute and a half, and Indie came back on the line. “Okay, I’m at the computer now. What have we got?”

  “The guy’s name is Bryce Nicholson, and he’s a graphic designer in the marketing department at Web Wide Awards. Apparently he’s been saying he came into a lot of money recently, and even bought himself a big fancy houseboat. He keeps it out on the Aurora Reservoir, if that matters.”

  “Hang on,” Indie said. “Sam sent me a list of all their employees, so I can get his social. That’ll let me check his financial standing, credit report, all that stuff.”

  Summer heard the keys clicking for several seconds, and then Indie said, “Aha! Yeah, he came in to some money, all right, but it’s probably legitimate. About three months ago, he got a little over four hundred thousand dollars from the sale of some land. I dug a little bit deeper, and it turns out he inherited the land from his grandparents a couple of years ago. It’s been up for sale since he got it, originally listed for almost double what he got. He’s lowered the price a couple of times, and I guess somebody made an offer he couldn’t refuse. Here’s the purchase of the houseboat, he paid cash but got it at a discount. Looks like it was a repo, so he got it for what was owed on it, I guess. About seventy-four thousand.”

  “Well, it was worth checking. We’re looking for somebody inside the company who might have been blackmailed or bribed into helping the shooter, so I figured I should at least ask you to check it out.”

  “No problem,” Indie said. “That’s why they keep me on as a consultant. Hey, how about you and Jade and I take a girls’ day sometime soon? I could stand a day out without kids or testosterone.”

  Summer giggled. “Sounds great,” she said. “I’ll talk to Jade and see when might be good, okay?”

  “Sure, just let me know. Maybe we can get some time this weekend. Sam can watch the kids.”

  *

  Steve and Walter got to the hospital about the same time Sam and Darren had arrived at the Web Wide Awards headquarters, and Steve was surprised to find that there were no police guards on Max Petrelli’s room. Considering the fact that the boy had been shot on a worldwide webcast, Steve would’ve expected the city to want to make sure he was safe for as long as he was there.

  When he tapped on the door to the room, however, he understood. The man who opened the door was wearing the black uniform of a Windlass Security guard, and he broke into a smile when he saw Steve and Walter standing there.

  “Hey, Roscoe,” Steve said. “I wasn’t aware they already had you on duty here.”

  “Oh, yes, sir,” said the big black man. “Mr. Thomas put us on yesterday. One of us is with Mr. Petrelli and his family every minute.”

  “That makes me feel a little better,” he said. “I was expecting to see the police here, and a little shocked when I didn’t. Now I understand.” He stepped into the room with Walter following him, and Roscoe turned to the people who were sitting in chairs around Max’s bed.

  “Steve, Walter, these are Mr. and Mrs. Petrelli, Max’s parents, and his sister Gina. Folks, this is Steve Beck and Walter Rawlings. They’re two of the investigators working on the case.”

  Steve shook hands with Marco Petrelli and nodded to his wife and daughter, who looked to be younger than Max. Walter waved, but didn’t extend his hand.

  “Mr. Beck,” Petrelli said, “have there been any developments in the case?”

  “All I’m allowed to say, sir,” Steve said, “is that we are exploring many different angles. I can tell you that our boss, Sam Prichard, is probably the best investigator I have ever known, to the point that the government has recruited him on several occasions. If anybody can find the people who did this to your son, it’s going to be Sam.”

  Petrelli nodded. “Mr. Thomas and Mr. Donaldson were out here last night,” he said. “They were telling us about him, but they also brag about the rest of you. We are awfully grateful to the award people for hiring you folks.” He turned and looked at his son, who was watching them from the bed. “It’s hard to believe anybody could do something like this. I hope you catch the bastard and put him away.”

  “That’s our goal,” Steve said. “Hey, Max. How are you feeling?” He stepped closer to the bed and the boy held out his hand.

  “I feel like an elephant sat on me,” Max said. “Right on my chest, it hurts.”

  Steve nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been shot a couple times,” he said. “That’s a pretty good way to describe it.”

  Max chuckled, then winced. “It only hurts when I laugh,” he said. “But it’s given me some terrific ideas for plot lines and new special effects.”

  “Yeah? At least you haven’t lost your sense of humor. Getting shot always turned me into a grouch, at least for a few days. You feel like talking a little bit today?”

  “Sure,” Max said. “The doctor says I’m going to be fine, I guess I was lucky the bullet didn’t do any major damage. They said the bullet was right next to my heart, but not actually touching it. All the blood was from tearing up the blood vessels in my skin, I guess that was a mess.”

  “Well, good,” Steve said. “I wanted to learn a little more about you, so I went home last night and found your show on the internet. Reminds me of some of the shows I watched when I was a kid, like Star Trek and The Twilight Zone. I got right into it, watched the first five episodes one after another.”

  Max grinned. “Thanks,” he said. “I’m really glad you liked it. It’s kind of a silly premise, but it lets me do all kinds of different things. What did you think of the slithering soul eater?”

  “I was wondering how you did that one,” Steve said. “It looked like a short, fat snake, so at first I thought it was just somebody’s arm wrapped up in a costume, but I could see the whole thing as it slithered across the floor. Can you tell me the secret?”

  Max laughed again, then winced once more. “It was a piece of dryer hose with leather wrapped around it, and there was a little remote control car in each end. Me and a buddy
of mine were controlling the cars to make it look like it was just wiggling along across the floor.”

  “Well, it was pretty slick. Max, this is my friend Walter. Walter actually doesn’t shake hands, but he’s an absolute genius when it comes to figuring out how people do things, and especially figuring out how a crime happened. We took him out to the Canterbury Arena yesterday afternoon, because nobody could figure out how the shooter managed to get out of the building after you were hit. All the security cameras got nothing, so we were all pretty stumped. Walter, he goes out there and we took him up on the catwalk where they think the shot came from, right? He looks around for about a minute, then points at one of those great big cameras they have on the trolley lines overhead. He says I want to see that camera, so they roll it down to where we were at, then he jumps up on the rails of the catwalk to look at the top of it. Turns out there was a rifle mounted up there, set up on a remote control so that somebody could aim it and fire while sitting in the audience. Probably did it with a cell phone.”

  Max’s eyes were wide. “Holy cow,” he said. “All the cops couldn’t figure it out, but he found it that fast?”

  “That’s what he does,” Steve said. “Now, the reason I told you that is because while we were on the way here, I got him to watch your episode number five. That’s the one with the girl who rips out some guy’s heart and eats it, right on camera. I gotta tell you, that was the most realistic and goriest thing I’ve ever seen, and I wanted to know how you did it. I let Walter watch it, and he told me what he thinks you did to make it look that real. I’m gonna let him tell you, because I want to know if he’s right. That okay with you?”

  The boy was grinning from ear to ear. “Shoot, yeah,” he said. “Go for it. I don’t think anybody will ever figure that one out.”

  Steve motioned for Walter to come closer. “Walter, tell him about the girl who ate the heart.”

  “You showed the girl shove the guy against the wall,” Walter said, “then she stuck her hand through his ribs and pulled out his heart. Then she took a bite out of it, and blood ran all down her face.”

  Max nodded, still grinning. “Right, yeah,” he said.

  “You cut the camera after she pushed him against the wall,” Walter said. “Then you built a false wall and put him behind it, with just his head and shoulders and arms sticking through it. You hung a shirt on him that was just like the one he was wearing before, but you had a dummy body there. The chest of the dummy was rubber, and you had a split in it so her hand could go right through, and that broke a plastic bag full of fake blood. Then she grabbed the heart inside and yanked it out, and took a bite out of it. You made the heart out of marshmallow, with food coloring to make it look red and blue, and you filled it with fake blood. I think the fake blood was cherry juice, but I couldn’t be sure.”

  Max’s eyes were so wide that Steve was afraid they were going to pop out. “Holy cow,” he said. “That’s almost exactly right. The heart was made of marshmallow, that’s true, but it wasn’t cherry juice. It was strawberry syrup with some whipped cream mixed in to make it thicker. That is incredible, I can’t believe you figured that out.”

  “I’m pretty good at it,” Walter said. “It’s what I do.”

  “Well, I’m just amazed. That was incredible.”

  “I thought you might get a kick out of that,” Steve said. “Listen, Max, I need to ask you a few questions. I was wondering if, anytime before the award show, did anybody contact you and talk about you getting the award? I don’t mean the award people, I mean somebody else, somebody you wouldn’t expect.”

  “Well, there were a lot of people who sent me messages about being nominated,” Max said. “Most of them were pretty positive, but there were some people who told me I didn’t deserve it and shouldn’t even be up for it. Of course, most of them thought some other show should get it, so I just kind of ignored those. I didn’t really talk to anybody much about it, other than the people from Web Wide Awards and my family and friends.”

  “Did any of those messages make it sound like Web Wide Awards was a bad thing? Like they were hostile against the company or anything?”

  Max screwed up his face as he thought. “Not that I can remember,” he said. “Most of them are either from my fans, or from people who don’t like my show and think one of the others is better. You always get people like that, so I just ignored them.”

  “Probably a smart move,” Steve said. “If you had to make a guess about who might have been behind this, what would you say?”

  Max gave him a goofy grin. “I’d say it had to be Penny Winston,” he said. “I don’t really believe it was, but she is one of the most competitive people I’ve ever seen. The whole time we were sitting backstage, she kept telling the rest of us that there was no way any of us would win, because she had it in the bag. When they called my name, she looked completely shocked for the first few seconds. If I was going to believe anybody would want me shot, it would probably be her.”

  “She does a show of her own, right? Kinda like yours?”

  Max nodded. “Yeah, and it’s pretty good. It’s about a ghost. These people move into a house, and find this lonely ghost girl stuck in one of the bedrooms. Penny plays the ghost.”

  “She wouldn’t do that,” said Gina, Max’s sister. “She’s too nice for that.”

  Max grinned. “You gotta forgive Gina,” he said. “She’s a fan of Penny’s. I’m pretty sure she even voted for her over my show.”

  “Hey, I got to know her while we were here,” Gina said. “She’s really nice.”

  “I’m sure she is,” Steve said. “Besides, I don’t think it’s too likely that she’d have the kind of money it took to put this together. I’m afraid there was a lot of money involved, and the target actually seems to have been the award company. I think somebody thought that, if you got shot, it would hurt the company pretty badly. We’re trying to figure out what other award or production companies might benefit if Web Wide Awards were to be out of business.”

  Max pursed his lips. “Well, there are some other awards,” he said thoughtfully. “I got the Net Video Achievement Award six months ago, at least for the U.S. Hey, Penny won the same award for Canada, now that I think about it. Oh, and there’s the Starbright Award, that’s another big one. They’re out of the U.K. I guess either one of those would probably become the one everybody wants, if Web Wide Awards was gone.”

  “Okay, we’ll check those out. Can you think of any others?”

  Max shook his head. “Not off the top of my head,” he said. “And they got me on some pain pills, so my brain might not be working all that well, anyway. If I think of any, I can tell Roscoe or one of the guards, they can call you.”

  Steve took his business card out of his pocket and handed it to Max. “Or you can call me,” he said. “My cell number is on the bottom, in case you can’t get me at the office. Listen, Max, I don’t want you to spend a lot of time worrying about it. I think we’re going to get to the bottom of this pretty soon, so don’t lose any sleep over it, okay? You just need to concentrate on getting better. I want to see where you take the show from where it’s at now.”

  Max and his family thanked Steve and Walter for coming, and they said goodbye and left the room. When they had gotten down the hall, Steve turned to Walter. “So, what did you think?”

  “Max is smart,” Walker said. “He doesn’t know who did this, but he doesn’t really understand that it wasn’t about him or his show. I think he thinks it’s all his fault, somehow.”

  “That’s not uncommon,” Steve said. “PTSD. It sucks.”

  *

  Jade and Stacy had been wandering through the headquarters building since the meeting, and Jade felt that she was getting a pretty fair grasp of how the business worked. It made its profits on the sale of advertising, but there were multiple revenue streams involved.

  First, their website got literally millions of visitors per day, as people came to the website to check the rankings
on their favorite shows. This had led to them serving as the most popular guide to the many web video programs, which they defined as any series of videos that went from episode to episode. It didn’t really matter what the subject was, or whether it was based on fiction or reality. There were shows that focused on particular industries, such as automotive programs, and then there were the many shows that were script based and ranged from comedies to dramas to science fiction and beyond.

  Because so many people came to the website to learn more about the shows, or to see where their favorites were standing in the rankings, the areas of the web pages around the actual content were extremely valuable. Advertisers paid as much as a thousand dollars a day to have one of the more popular spots on the homepage, and there were many, many such advertisers.

  The company also produced an electronic magazine, or e-zine, called WebVid. This magazine was available free to anyone with an email address, and a new issue was put together every month. It went into great detail on the shows that it featured, and offered lots of biographical information about their creators, stars, and casts. It was essentially another website, and the advertising opportunities it presented were easily as great as those on the main website.

  Then, there was the daily video news program they produced. Designed like a regular news program from television, it ran stories that were connected directly to web video, whether they were series or music videos or any other kind that captured the interest and imagination of the public. The show was recorded five days a week, Sunday through Thursday, and was webcast on weekdays. It often saw more than five million viewers in a single day, and featured video commercials that were highly effective for the advertisers who purchased them.

  Shortly after lunchtime, Jade and Stacy went to the company’s accounting offices, which were on the top floor, along with the executive offices. There, they met with the company’s chief accountant, Andrew Wilson.