“I suppose I don’t have any choice, do I?”
“No, not really,”
Annie got into the vehicle, practically vibrating with excitement. She was the only adult Otter had ever met that could jump up and down while still sitting in her seat.
“OK, now spill it. All of it, every last detail.”
“The real Mitch Balan is dead, theory is that our Mitch killed him and stole his identity. He then applied for the job as general manager here at AzTech. Clark found out that Mitch had a different name on another identification card and started snooping. Mitch killed Clark when he figured that Clark was too close to the truth.”
“Poor Clark,” Annie said, “You know I always had a hard time believing he was a Mormon.”
“Why is that?”
“Because he was such an unpleasant person-- you know what I mean. Most Mormons are nice people. He was even born in the church, and he still came out a pain in the ass.”
“Maybe some characteristics are just genetic. It is possible he couldn’t help himself.”
“I think he was basically ornery and he was compelled to be a decent human being by his religious teachings. He was brought up to be a nice person, but he took it out on the world that he wasn’t allowed to be nasty.”
“That’s as good an explanation as anything else,” Otter said. “Whatever it was, it got him killed. He messed with the wrong person.”
“Yeah and caused all kinds of trouble in the shop. Does anyone know where Ron Defray is?”
“No, we didn’t find Mitch’s sister and we didn’t find Defray. Joel says it’s possible he killed them both.”
“It’s weird; I would never think of Mitch as a cold blooded killer, he just didn’t seem the type.”
“What type would that be?” Otter asked.
“I would have expected a lot more dark vibes from him. You know some evil in the air when he was around. There was never any feeling like that.”
“Oddly enough, I know what you mean. I said the same to Tempest last night. She said they didn’t put flashers on crazed killers, there was no way to tell.”
“I have to disagree,” Annie said. “I know when I’m around bad people, I can almost smell it.”
“I have a date with Joel tonight, maybe I’ll find out more.”
“I have a little present for you,”
“Thank you, but it’s not my birthday.”
“Nothing like that, I saw this at the toy store when I was in there with the girls. I know you’ve always wanted one, so I spent the three dollars.” She produced a sparkly magic wand with a star on top of it out of her bag.
“Oh, now that is cool. I have really needed one of these.”
“You can’t see it properly right now, but when you get it in the light it has all this glitter in the handle that floats in some kind of gel. It looks very cool.”
“I’ll put it up in my office right away. So what prompted you to get me a gift?”
“You’ve been under so much pressure lately; I’m surprised you don’t snap.”
“What is it they say? What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?”
“Just how strong do you want to be?”
“Strong enough to get to the weekend,” Otter said.
The shop was quiet. Word had gotten around and people were silent and speculating. The official word was that Mitch was a person of interest, nothing more.
Otter had a standard answer for every question. Mitch was working under a stolen identity and the police had evidence. She didn’t know what else to say.
She swung into her routine and sparked enough energy in people to get the shop moving. Parts were worked and shipped, people did their jobs. Out of habit, Otter kept glancing over her shoulder looking for Mitch. He may have been planning to kill her, but she missed him all the same.
“Ottermagic,” a cheerful voice said on the company land line after lunch. “I have a couple hundred pounds of steel I need right away.”
“Juan, how are you doing?” Otter said, pleased to hear his voice.
“’Bout the same, ‘bout the same, I need some of your magic again, Chica.”
“Well, someone just bought me a magic wand; I’m all ready for you.” She took a picture with her phone and sent it to him.
“It’s some 4340, two hundred one pound blocks. I need them to retrofit a couple of buggies. Can you do it?”
“Who do you think you’re talking to,” Otter said with a swagger in her voice, “This is a piece of cake.”
“On its way, you’ll see it tomorrow.”
“Got it,”
“Call me as soon as it’s ready.”
“Will do,” she said, happy to do something normal for a change.
“Nice wand,” Juan texted to her, “it suits you.”
“We can’t find Ron Defray,” Joel said. “We don’t know that he’s been murdered, but there is no reason to believe he is alive—other than we haven’t found his body.”
“What about Charlotte’s sister?” Tempest asked.
“No sign of her either.”
“Does she have a name?” Otter asked, “You keep referring to her as ‘the sister’, she must have a proper name.”
“Of course, she does,” Graham said. “Her name is Victoria.”
“Victoria Patricia Robinson Pennell to be exact,” Troy said. “Why?”
“Don’t you find it interesting that both children were given girls’ names that could easily convert to masculine?” Otter said while she fiddled with the laptop. They were back in the conference room of Apollo Institute, Otter, Joel, Graham, Tempest and Troy.
“Yes, it’s interesting,” Joel said, “but they hadn’t decided on which way they were going to go, so it makes sense.”
“They raised them as girls,” Otter said, “But prepared them for the future in case they decided to be boys. That sounds pretty open minded to me. Like they were willing to let their children make the choice.”
“Or they were going to wait and see which characteristics each child would display before they decided for them,” Tempest said.
“We’ll probably never know,” Troy said, “I don’t see Charlotte breaking down and confessing to anyone. She’s still demanding her release; she says we have the wrong person.”
“I brought the laptop back,” Otter said. “I was hoping we could get through the program and learn all of Clark’s secrets.”
“Since you got through the first section,” Graham said, “We should be able to figure out the rest.”
Otter booted up the computer and stared at the screen for a moment. She fiddled with a few numbers and codes and then typed in Zircon 40. The creaking door sounded again and the cursor blinked at her.
“All mimsy were the borogoves; and the mome raths outgrabe.”[11]
Clark’s voice came out of the speaker and gave Otter chills.
“Greetings Mackenzie, thank you very much for making the effort to figure out my codes—I assume that since you are listening to this, I am now deceased.”
“Creepy,” Tempest commented.
“I knew that I didn’t have very long--my cancer came back with a vengeance and my doctor said I had very little time left. So I cobbled this all together to right a few wrongs and to stop someone who is really evil.
“I know you’ve rolled your eyes over some of this, but I assure you the secrecy was important. I needed to find out what Mitch was up to and why he was using a fake identification. I got a picture of his I.D. at the gun club with my phone.”
A picture of the Scottsdale club identification card came into view with Jameson Pennell printed on it. Next to it was an Illinois driver’s license with Mitch’s picture and the name of Jameson Pennell.”
“Damn,” Graham said, “We hadn’t gotten quite that far.”
“I used my nephew’s talents and did a search for Mitch with facial recognition software. I found out he wasn’t Rumanian and he wasn’t even a guy. She went to high school in Michigan an
d I found her friend and I’m going to meet with him soon to look at pictures and make sure I have the right person. Then I have an appointment to go shooting with Mitch and I’ll ask him what is going on. If I don’t survive to make that meeting, you need to look into it.”
“So was he expecting to be murdered,” Otter asked nobody in particular, “Or did he think his cancer would get him first?”
“And to prove to you that Mitch isn’t all he pretends to be, take the name that I have paired with Hydrogen and ask him if he knows what it means. It means wooden horse in Rumanian and he won’t know that.” Clark continued.
“Yeah, we figured that part out,” Troy said to the laptop, “Tell us something new.”
“There is a key sewn into the dragon toy I left with this laptop. Please see that it gets to my wife along with the small paper that tells where the safety deposit box is. The rest of my financial papers are in there that will help her take care of our family in my absence.”
Graham took the dragon and began to examine it.
“Whatever Mitch is up to, you have to stop him,” Clark said. “He seems to be keeping a young woman captive as his wife.” Clark’s voice became outraged. “He says she is his wife, but he never lets her speak and keeps a very close eye on her. I toyed with the idea of going to the police, or Michael about all of this, but I didn’t have enough proof. I hope you can find out the truth and save that young lady from that creep.”
“Doesn’t care for transgender individuals,” Joel commented.
“Possibly,” Otter said, “I just don’t think he liked any one thing about the situation and he was probably very frustrated that he couldn’t prove anything.”
“Try not to be judgmental about the way I conducted this investigation,” Clark went on, “I did the best I could with what I had. With any luck at all you and possibly Michael will get this figured out and justice will be done. Thank you Mackenzie, for taking the time to figure this all out and I pray that you have more success than I did.”
“Found it,” Graham said, holding up a key and a small fold of paper. “There was a little pocket sewn into its side.”
“Well that section seems to be done,” Otter said and she typed in another code. “Let’s see what he says about Nolan.”
They spent about an hour going through all the names and numbers until they wrung every excuse, every pathway that Clark had to give from the data base.
“Just one more to go,” Joel said looking at Otter. “His wife,” he perused the list of names. “She’s the only one left.”
“I think that’s one we need to play for her,” Otter said after they all listened to it. “He left thing on there that she’s supposed to hear.” Like locations of all the legal documents, Otter thought. Finding out that the laptop was more of a last will and testament was a bit of a letdown.
“So are we going on a field trip, teacher?” Graham teased.
“I think it’s about time to go and see Tonya,” Otter said. “She needs to know what Clark was doing.”
After a phone call and a brief chat with the widow, they piled into Troy’s SUV and drove to see Tonya McCartney.
Tonya sat on her couch and fingered the key that they gave her. She had tears running down her face.
“I don’t understand any of this.” She said.
“Clark knew that our general manager was doing something suspicious,” Otter explained, “so he tried to find out what Mitch was up to. He coded all his information on the blackmail sheet—except it wasn’t a blackmail sheet. It was a type of encrypted sheet with all the employees on it. He only blackmailed four or five people as far as we can tell.”
“But why?” She asked tearfully.
“Because he wanted to get into the personnel records and look at Mitch’s file. Clark was trying to find out the truth about him.”
“I don’t understand why he didn’t tell Michael or the police,”
“I think it was because he was dying and he didn’t think he had enough proof. He was running out of time and he wanted to make sure justice was done.”
“He could have told me,”
“He was afraid he would put you in danger, “Joel said gently. “He didn’t want anything to happen to you or your children.”
“I just don’t understand any of this. He made this so difficult; he was always making things more difficult.”
“I know what you mean,” Otter said. “But I think this may help some.” She sat the lap top on the coffee table in front of Tonya.
“That looks like the computer that belonged to our son, Zachariah,” Tonya said.
“Yes, it has an interesting bit of software on it. It’s kind of Clark’s last will and testament.” Otter said. “You might want to play it after we leave, I have a feeling there’s personal stuff on there meant only for you.”
“How did you get this?”
“Clark left it for me with Jeremy Redding, he told him to give it to me if anything happened to him.”
“But why you,” Tonya asked, “Why didn’t he leave it with me or someone in our family?”
“I don’t know,” Otter said truthfully, “He left me a complicated puzzle to figure out.”
“Did you solve it?”
“Most of it, Mitch is in jail anyway.” Otter said, “But we don’t know where Ron Defray or Mitch’s wife are.”
“Funny you should say that,” Tonya said. “Clark mentioned to me once that he thought that Mitch kept his wife as a prisoner in her own home. He even mentioned a cage once.”
“We didn’t find anything like that when we searched his apartment,” Graham said.
Otter and Tonya looked at Graham.
“Apartment?” They said in unison.
“You should have told me he had a house.” Joel said as Graham drove.
“I didn’t know you didn’t know,” Otter said. “I assumed that’s where you went when you searched his property.”
“His official address is an apartment in central Phoenix, one of the apartment buildings downtown.”
“Nope,” Otter said, “He had a few parties and invited some of us from the shop. It was at a big house near 43rd and Cactus. It’s a two story with a pool.”
Troy was pounding on his keyboard as the SUV sped across town. “Addison is going to meet us there with a warrant. I got the address. It belongs to Mihaita and Vicky Balan.”
“I’m sure you didn’t pronounce that right,” Graham said.
“Nobody could pronounce it right,” Otter said, “That’s why he told us to call him Mitch, because it was difficult to pronounce.”
“You have to admit, Charlotte was good at the role she chose.” Joel said.
“If Clark hadn’t gotten involved, none of us would have known any of this.” Otter said.
“I thought Michael said he was a little iffy on the metallurgy,” Tempest said.
“Mitch was a good worker and a good general manger; a few slips wouldn’t have cost him his job necessarily—unless he screwed up an order making a poor judgement call.”
“Makes sense, I guess,” Tempest shrugged.
“Addison says they are at the house now,” Troy said. “They’re setting up a perimeter, even though it looks like nobody’s home.”
“I hope he didn’t kill them,” Joel said. “They would be the only people living that could testify against him.”
“That would be a good reason, then, wouldn’t it?” Tempest said.
Otter didn’t say anything. Her world was turning upside down and she had no idea what to do about it. So far three of her closest co-workers were out of the picture and she wondered how AzTech would survive.
“The cops are in the house but nobody seems to be home.” He paused a moment, “They’ve cleared the front room and the kitchen. A team went upstairs to check out the bedrooms.”
“Wasn’t much of a clue we gave you,” Otter said ruefully to Joel. “Looks like nobody’s home.”
“But we may find valuable evidence,”
Joel said, “something that will lead us to the missing people.”
“They’re doing a methodical search now,” Troy reported. “They’re looking though drawers and closets, chances are good they’ll find something interesting.”
Everyone went quiet, as the car sped toward their destination.
“One of the closets off the kitchen leads to a basement.” Troy reported. “Who has a basement in Phoenix?”
“Apparently Mitch does,” Otter said. “It doesn’t sound like anyone told him about hardpan.”[12]
“I imagine he found out about it quickly enough,” Tempest said, “I’m wondering how he got that thing built with nobody knowing about it.”
“Years ago some homebuilders in this area offered half basements for an extra cost,” Graham said. “However not many homebuyers could afford it so there are very few houses that have them. There are a few, though.”
“Hold on,” Troy said. “It looks like they found something.”
“Don’t leave us in suspense,” Otter said leaning forward. “Tell us.”
“They found a large cage, a lot like a jail cell. It looks like she was keeping someone in it.”
“Dammit Troy, if you don’t tell us…”
“They found him—Ron Defray.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yeah, he’s alive and very pissed.”
“Pissed, why would he be pissed?”
Troy choked out a laugh. “Because he’s wearing hot pink panties and a bra and the words ‘woman hater’ is printed across his forehead in black marker.”
It was actually a pretty clever set-up, Otter thought, if you needed to imprison a human being. Two sides of the cage were concrete walls set underground and two sides were iron bars set in concrete. One of the walls had a door in it that led to a small bathroom without any access to the outside. It had a shower, a toilet and a sink. The door to the cage could be locked and there was a slot built in the door to pass things through such as food and water. A twin sized bed with bedding and a chair and a television completed the little room.
Ron Defray was allowed to get dressed in his own clothes. His uniform had been hanging neatly right across from his prison so he could see it every day.
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