The Strategist

by John Hardy Bell

  “And it got her killed.”

  Pine cringed at Camille’s blunt statement. “You’re saying the two are connected?”

  Camille handed the note back to Pine. “Julia said it herself.”

  Pine scanned the note again, his eyes stopping on the sentence Camille hoped they would. “He did this to me Camille,” he read out loud. “You think the ‘he’ is Elliott Richmond?”

  “Knowing what you now know, don’t you?”

  Pine responded by pinching the bridge of his nose.

  “Personally Mr. Pine, I’m one hundred percent certain of it.”

  “But what about this Stephen Clemmons that the police just arrested? According to everything I’ve seen, they seem fairly certain that he’s the guy.”

  “And I’m certain that he’s not.”

  Pine was silent for a long time before responding. “If you’re right about any of this, the fallout is going to be catastrophic.”

  “From my perspective, the fallout has already been catastrophic. I don’t particularly care how it affects anyone else’s life.”

  Pine nodded his agreement. “What else can I do to help?”

  “You’ve already done a lot and I really appreciate it,” Camille said with a thin smile. “What I’d really like to do now is speak with someone at Springwell Technologies. I’m not exactly sure how that’s going to happen, but I need to try.”

  “Unfortunately I don’t have any personal connections at Springwell. But Julia did mention the name of a programmer there once or twice. I believe his name is Andy. She only mentioned him in passing, so I couldn’t tell you anything else about him.”

  It may not have been much, but at least Camille had a name. At this point it was the best that she could hope for. “I’ll see what I can do to fill in the gaps.”

  Pine nodded once again, the weight of the conversation causing his broad shoulders to slump. Camille empathized with him. She also envied him. He knew things about Julia that she never did; things that Julia consciously hid from her. It made her wonder, for the briefest of moments, if the two of them were truly as close as Camille had assumed they were. Camille would tell her anything, and she had – from the full story of what happened in Sykes’ basement, to her near suicide attempt. She did so without a moment’s hesitation because she was confident there wasn’t another person in the world she could trust more. Now Camille couldn’t help but question whether the feeling was mutual. She had tried to push the thought out of her mind as she had done with everything else, but it lingered. And even when all the other questions were answered, when time lessened the sting of grief and the guilt of inaction, she feared that it would continue to do so.

  But looking at Pine, she couldn’t help but appreciate him for being the sounding board that Julia needed. Camille could tell that he was a man of integrity who had wanted nothing but the best for her friend. More than anything he had done, Pine provided her with a much needed reminder that for all the grief she felt, she didn’t have anything close to a monopoly on it.

  “If there is anything else I can do to help, all you have to do is ask,” he said. Then he retrieved a business card from his desk. “I’m not sure where you’re going with this,” he said as he wrote on the back of it. “But I’m sure it’s somewhere very specific. Whatever happens, would you please keep me in the loop?”

  Camille took the card, looking at Pine’s handwritten personal cell number. “I absolutely will,” she answered, meaning every word of it.

  CHAPTER 38

  The offices of Springwell Technologies were a twenty-five minute drive from Laurence Pine’s downtown office, located on the second floor of a converted Tudor-style mansion that it shared with an architecture firm and a personal injury law practice. With nothing else aside from pop-culture stereotypes to draw from, Camille imagined that she would walk into an office space filled with underage Bill Gates wannabes drinking Red Bull by the gallon while they worked on complicated computer programs, played video games, and endlessly debated the true meaning behind the Lost series finale.

  What she saw instead was a sterile gray work space with few frills and even fewer people. The only noise she heard as she walked through the glass door was the occasional clatter of fingers striking a keyboard and the office’s lone copy machine churning out pages that no one seemed to be in a particular hurry to collect. In fact, it wasn’t until Camille called out that she saw anyone at all.

  “Hello? Is there anyone here who can help me?”

  At that, a middle-aged man with a mess of curly red hair better suited on a ten-year-old peeked at her from the top of his cubicle partition. “Are you lost?” he asked in the slow drawl of someone either in desperate need of caffeine or fresh off a long hit of marijuana.

  Even though Camille needed a laugh and this burnout provided ample material, she kept her composure. “Is this Springwell Technologies?”

  “The one and only,” he said as he stood up. He wore a black tee-shirt with the iconic Rolling Stones tongue and lips logo on the front.

  Upon seeing it, Camille muttered: “I guess the stereotypes are true,” under her breath.

  “What was that?” the man she had already given the name ‘Shaggy’ asked obliviously.

  “I’m sorry. I said I’m looking for Andy,” Camille answered, praying like mad that she wasn’t already talking to him.

  “Andy,” Shaggy repeated, appearing to confuse himself in the process. “You mean Andy Rosario?”

  I mean Andy Griffith you flaming moron. “Is there more than one?”

  “Actually up until a month ago there were three. Recessions are a bitch, right? Rosie was the only Andy who survived it.”

  Rosie? Camille looked hard at Shaggy’s cubicle, half expecting Rod Serling to emerge from it with his trademark cigarette in hand and that knowing half-smile on his face. “Then that’s the Andy I’m here to see.”

  “As you can tell, this is our busy season. With all these people in here it may take a while to find him.” When Shaggy laughed, Camille knew right away that a lack of caffeine was not to blame. “Just joking of course.”

  “Of course.”

  “He’s actually got his own office in the back, which explains why he survived the purging of the Andys as we called it.” He paused in an awkward attempt to let Camille share in the joke. Her stone-faced silence quickly got him back on track. “Can I ask who’s here to see him?”

  “Camille Grisham from Horis and Roth Limited.”

  The little remaining levity in Shaggy’s face went away immediately. “I see. Andy has been on a conference call for the past hour. Let me run back and see if he’s finished.”

  And run Shaggy did. The drastic sobering of his demeanor told Camille one very important thing: the phantom company known as Horis and Roth was very real, and obviously very important. Andy Rosario’s harried emergence from his office no less than ten seconds after he was summoned all but confirmed it.

  “Good afternoon,” he said with the polished smile of a door-to-door vacuum salesman.

  “You must be Andy Rosario,” she said, matching his affected tone.

  “I am. And your name?”

  She extended her hand. “Camille Grisham.”

  Dressed professionally in a white Oxford shirt and khaki slacks, Andy reminded her of a young Antonio Banderas with a hint of the accent and none of the charm. When he took her hand she recoiled with genuine fear that he would kiss it. Fortunately he spared himself the indignity. “Good to meet you. Ramsey tells me you’re with Horis and Roth?”

  You mean Shaggy? “Yes.”

  Andy kept his smile even as he tried to swallow the lump in his throat. “What brings you by, Ms. Grisham?”

  Camille looked at Shaggy whose tongue was practically wagging as he hung on their every word. “May we speak in your office, Mr. Rosario?”

  Andy looked toward his office like he was momentarily distracted by something in it, then he turned back to her. “If it’s all the same, why don
’t we speak in the courtyard instead?”

  Camille was thrown by the request but did not let her face communicate it. “If you’d feel more comfortable.”

  “I would.”

  “Then by all means lead the way.”

  The two sat on adjacent benches in the small, neatly landscaped backyard of the mansion. The dark, cloudy skies that had been a constant in the week that Camille had been here finally gave way to sun and late summer temperatures, allowing the colorful array of annuals around them one last chance to bloom.

  “Aside from the beautiful scenery, is there a specific reason why we’re talking out here?” Camille asked.

  Andy sat forward with his elbows on his knees. He clasped his hands together to prevent them from shaking. “Less ears out here. No one who has visited from your company has ever felt comfortable having a meeting in there. I wanted to respect your need for privacy.”

  Camille nodded like she knew exactly what he was talking about. “I appreciate that.” Then after a short silence: “So you know why I’m here.”

  Andy rested his back against the bench and crossed his legs. “Actually I don’t. I figured that after Mr. Richmond terminated our contract and made us sign those amended confidentiality agreements, our association was over.”

  Camille’s mind was suddenly lost in a scramble, but she was intent on keeping up appearances. “Let’s just say I’m here for a quick follow up, like an exit interview.” She silently cursed herself for not coming up with something better.

  “An exit interview?” Andy clearly wasn’t buying it either.

  Camille decided it best not to belabor the point. “Am I the only executive from Horis and Roth that you’ve had contact with since our contract with you was terminated?”

  “As far as I know, yes.”

  “And when was the last time you spoke with Mr. Richmond?”

  Andy paused to search his memory. “I don’t know. Four or five months ago I guess. He came into the office to personally beta-test the program. We had to clear everybody out before he came. Called more attention to himself than he needed to if you ask me. But he was happy with the results. The next conversation I had with someone from Horis was with one of his liaisons over the phone. The guy didn’t even tell me his name. Two weeks after that a lawyer shows up telling me that the project has been terminated. Then he hands me a briefcase full of papers to sign. Of course, I’m sure you know all of this already.”

  “I’m simply interested in hearing things from your perspective, Mr. Rosario.”

  Andy sighed loudly. “If you’re here to see if I or any of my remaining staff have violated our confidentiality agreements, I promise you we haven’t. I can’t speak for the majority of the staff that had to be let go after our contract was taken away. But I’m sure they’re understandably disgruntled, so who knows if they’ve talked to anyone or not.”

  “I’m not interested in confidentiality agreements.”

  Andy’s eyes narrowed with confusion. “Then what exactly are you interested in?”

  Camille took a deep breath, fully aware that it was time to end the game of charades. “The specifics of your work on the project.”

  “Okay, now I’m really confused. Why would you need me to talk specifics about a project that your company is no longer interested in?”

  “Because I’m not actually with Horis and Roth.”

  Andy’s eyes widened. “What are you talking abou-”

  “I need you to listen to me very carefully. I know all about the Ace Project and what its publicly-stated goals were. I also know it was Horis and Roth Limited, not the city of Denver that actually financed the project. The vast majority of the public is completely unaware that Horis and Roth even exists, let alone that Elliott Richmond, the mayor’s husband, is its chairman and CEO. Now I’m assuming there’s a very good reason why Horis and Roth has kept its operations secret from the public. How they’ve managed to do so is another story. I don’t expect you to tell me that. What I do expect you to tell me is how this fledgling technology firm of yours with no significant track record managed to make a deal with such a company?”

  Andy’s face stiffened and his chest swelled. False bravado. “Maybe you should start by telling me who you are and why you have the right come to my place of business and ask these kinds of questions?”

  Camille sighed. She really didn’t want to fight with this guy, even though his resistance was warranted. She would have to dig deep to find the tact necessary to keep the conversation constructive. “Before I tell you who I am, let me say that I’m not interested in getting you or your company in any kind of trouble. I respect the fact that you signed a confidentiality agreement, and in most cases I’m in favor of honoring such an agreement. But something very bad happened to someone very close to me, and it happened, in my opinion, largely because of her knowledge of this project.”

  The hard edges in Andy’s face suddenly softened. “Who are you talking about?”

  “Do you know Julia Leeds?”

  His eyes lit up with instant recognition. “Of course. Her name has been all over the news.”

  “Did you know her before she was all over the news?”

  Camille’s question was met with silence.

  “Andy?”

  “She was in here a couple of times.”

  “Did Elliott Richmond ever accompany her?”

  “Once. Her second trip I believe. But I really can’t talk about what she did while she was here or even why she was here. If anyone from Horis and Roth even knew that I was talking to you at all…”

  “To hell with the confidentiality agreement Andy. She was murdered. Do you understand that? A man who had nothing to do with that murder is about to be charged with it, while the person responsible, the person you’re trying to protect with your confidentiality agreement, is going to get away with it!”

  So much for tact.

  Andy’s mouth quivered. “Are you with the police?”

  “No.”

  “Then what’s your interest in this?”

  Camille took a deep breath to calm herself. “Aside from the fact that Julia was my best friend, she left me documents shortly before her death that detailed Richmond’s work on the Ace Project and her misgivings about it. She had collected this information with the intent of making it public. She knew that doing so could prove dangerous for her, but she was determined to go forward anyway. It was a brave decision, but it ultimately cost Julia her life. So I need to know everything there is to know about the project. As I’ve said, my issue is not with you or your company. Even though I’m currently not in law enforcement, I know a lot of people who are. So if the fear of violating your agreement is all that is holding you back, don’t worry about that. If it ever comes down to it, I’ll make sure you’re protected.”

  “Will you and your law enforcement friends also be there to make sure I don’t end up like Julia Leeds?”

  The genuine fear in Andy’s tone stopped Camille cold. It wasn’t until then that she fully realized what she was asking this young man to do. The story that he had to tell was of vital interest to her, but the admission would put not only his business at risk, but ultimately his life. Camille knew she hadn’t been as sensitive to that as she needed to be.

  “I realized that you don’t know me from a hole in the wall. But on my life I will do everything I can to make sure nothing happens to you.”

  Andy buried his face in his hands and kept it there for a long time. Camille sat in silence, understanding what the moment meant for him. Though there was no way to know which direction his thoughts would take him, she feared that he would ask her to leave; convinced that finding the truth about who ended Julia’s life was not worth the risk to his own. The longer he sat there, the greater her fear became. It all but evaporated when he lifted his head and looked resolutely into her eyes.

  “The fact that Horis and Roth was a firm that none of us had ever heard of was a major red flag, as was the fact that the
mayor’s husband was spearheading the project,” Andy began. “But it was the biggest contract our company had ever signed, and the potential payout beyond the contract’s expiration was way too much for us to pass up. Plus, this was ground-breaking stuff they were talking about. Integrating the voting process with social media. It seemed like a no-brainer, especially because these politicians are always talking about how much they value the young vote. Yet no one else had taken this radical a step. We would have been the first. And if the project was successful, it would have been the model for every other state in the country. Needless to say we couldn’t have been more excited.”

  “So what led to your contract with Horis and Roth being terminated?”

  Andy shrugged. “Good question. It came completely out of the blue. Like I said before, Elliott seemed happy with the way the project was coming together and anytime he didn’t like something, we were always open to his changes. But then there came a point when the communication between Elliott and I broke down. I put in numerous calls to his assistant but she would always claim that he was unavailable. I even called Brown, Wallace, and Epstein in the hopes of at least reaching Julia Leeds. But I didn’t have any luck with her either. Then we started experiencing problems with the program itself. There were databases that I created that I suddenly no longer had access to. We found out later that all of the encryption codes had been changed from a remote location, which essentially took away our programming and editing ability. That was when I really started to question what Elliott Richmond’s true motives were.” Andy paused to take a drink from a bottle of water. It trembled in his hand. “There were certain details about the project that we were never told about, and we were okay with that. But when they began restricting our access, it felt like they were hiding much bigger things.”