by Desiree Holt
“How do you know so much about me?”
He opened his briefcase and reached inside to pull out the folder he stashed there. “I know about all of you. Client profiles are part of our business procedures.”
Chase’s face turned an unpleasant shade of red and anger flashed on the faces of the others.
“Dan?” Chase’s voice hinted at a sense of betrayal. “I thought we were friends, buddy. Now you’ve got your agency investigating my people and accusing us of crimes?”
“I’ll answer that,” Rick said. “Chase, we do this with everyone, even members of our own family. We don’t want any surprises coming out of the closet. It’s for your own protection as well as ours.” He snapped his briefcase shut. “Of course, if you’re unsatisfied with the way we work, you’re free to pay our expenses to date and we’ll leave you to it.”
“No. Hey, wait a sec.” Chase was pacing again. He stopped in front of Dan. “We’re all just a little over the top here. The contracts riding on Oscar will put us in clover for years to come. Plus establish us in an elite cadre of electronics companies.”
“Wait a minute,” Joy interrupted. “Where’s Stan? Why isn’t Oscar’s daddy at this meeting?”
“I’ll check.” Lucas picked up the phone on the sideboard and punched in three numbers. He stood there, jingling the change in his pocket, waiting for an answer. Irritated, he hung up and dialed again. Finally he banged the receiver back into the cradle. “He’s not answering. I’m calling Security to get him out of his office and haul his ass up here. He needs to know what’s going on too.”
“Is anyone doing anything about the media circus out front?” Ladd asked while they waited. “Our men are having a tough time holding them off.”
“As soon as we’re finished with this meeting,” Dan told him, “I’m taking two of our men from the team working inside the building right now and we’ll get it taken care of. Meanwhile we need to discuss the plan for the next three days.”
The door opened and everyone looked at it expectantly, thinking it was Stan. But instead Faith and Mia entered. They quietly went to a corner of the room and sat down away from the conference table.
“What’s she doing here?” Joy snapped. “We already have enough trouble with the media because of her. Can you imagine what they’ll say if they see her here again?”
“No one saw us come in,” Faith said quietly. “I had Mia duck down in the car and we came in through the private parking garage.”
At that moment the phone in the conference room rang. Ladd picked it up, murmured a few words, then turned with a shocked look on his face.
“That was Security. You aren’t going to believe this. Stan’s dead. Someone’s killed him.”
“He was stabbed, wasn’t he?” Mia asked in a shaky voice.
“Yes.” Ladd frowned. “How did you know that?”
But Mia never answered him. She simply folded over in the chair and slid to the floor.
* * * * *
The chaos was giving Dan a headache. Normally a man in complete control of everything, it frustrated him that the situation seemed to be slipping out of his grasp. Somehow word of Stan’s grisly demise had spread throughout the building. Every floor was alive with gossip and his Phoenix staff was being bombarded with questions. Containing them was almost an impossibility. He thanked God for Mark and Rick, who began assigning available Phoenix personnel to each floor for containment purposes.
And especially Faith, God bless her, who took charge of Mia. She’d had the good sense to shoo him away, when all he’d really wanted to do was to stay with Mia. Faith reminded him that he needed to get the hell down to Stan’s office to take control of the situation and any crucial evidence that might be found.
“She’ll be fine,” Faith assured him. “Go. I can handle this.”
When he left she had Mia stretched out on the floor, her feet propped up on the rung of a chair. She’d grabbed the pitcher of water from the sideboard and a cloth and was bathing Mia’s face. He paused one more time but Faith shouted, “Go. You’re needed.”
He nodded once, then forced himself to leave before he couldn’t. He followed the sound of pounding feet down the hallway and around a corner to where Stan’s office was located. The security guard who’d found him was stationed at the door to the inner office. Rick had made himself a human barricade, not allowing anyone into the room.
“We’ve called the police,” he kept repeating. “You can look but don’t come in. We have to preserve all the evidence.”
He stood aside when Dan arrived and showed him the bloody sight inside. And bloody was definitely the word for it. Someone had stuck a fourteen-inch carving knife in Stan Forbush’s chest, cut off his thumb and gouged out an eyeball, then replanted the knife in his body. Dan had seen a lot of horrors in his years in the Marines and in many of the missions he’d been on for Phoenix, but he felt his stomach roil at the scene before him.
Stan had bled profusely. His desk was literally covered with it and it had spurted and dripped everywhere around him.
“Jesus Christ.” Ladd peered between Rick and Dan. “Somebody really butchered the poor bastard.”
Dan had finally managed to herd everyone back out into the hallway. He closed the door to Stan’s office. “No one needs to go in there. We’ll wait right here for the police.”
Meanwhile, Mark had pulled out his cell and called his contact at the SAPD. He looked grim when he snapped the phone shut. “They’ll be here in fifteen minutes,” he told everyone. “Crime scene unit, the works. Captain Alan Holcomb, head of the major crimes unit is a friend of mine. He’s coming himself because Carpenter Techtronics is such a high profile entity. So that means no one goes into this office and no one touches anything until they get here.”
“Has anyone thought about why Stan’s thumb and eyeball were taken?” Chase asked.
Everyone stared at each other with blank looks.
Then Lucas snapped his fingers. “Jesus Christ. Of course. The biometrics.”
“Someone may have already tried to use them,” Chase said, already moving down the hall. They could hear him cursing as he ran.
Lucas raced behind him with Rick right on their heels.
“We set up three layers of security around Oscar,” Dan told Mark. “The first two only require being authenticated by the guards. But to get into the clean room where Oscar’s stored, we have a biometric identification system that I set up for us for previous projects. That one requires a thumb print and a retinal scan.”
Mark stared at him. “You think someone’s going to try using Stan’s physical ID to get into the room? But we have guards down there. How would anyone get past them?”
“The body was discovered shortly after nine. We don’t know yet what time the kill took place. Whoever it was would have had to move quickly. People start coming to work here at eight.”
But before Mark could say anything else, Rick was back, grim-faced. He motioned to his partner.
“You’d better come see this, Dan.”
Any time Rick used his full given name, Dan knew it meant serious trouble.
“Stay here and keep people away from the crime scene,” he told Mark. “I’ll be right back.”
The Phoenix security guards at both the inner and middle entrances were sprawled on the floor, the doors to the two rooms standing wide open. Chase was already in the “clean” room, removing Oscar from his cage.
Rick knelt beside one of the guards, checking him over. “Strong pulse,” he said, his finger on the man’s carotid artery, “and no sign of a wound that I can see. Not even a knot on the head.”
“I don’t see how one person could disable four guards at the same time,” Dan remarked. “These guys are too well trained.”
Rick used a pen from his pocket to lift an empty coffee cup lying on the floor beside one of the men. “Where did this come from?”
“The cafeteria brings coffee twice to each shift change,” Dan told him. “Cha
se set that up when we brought the team in.” He looked around and spotted three more cups at various spots they’d rolled to.
“So someone posing as a cafeteria employee brought them drugged coffee?” Rick frowned.
“Has to be.” A muscle jumped in Dan’s cheek. “It’s the only answer. It provided a very small window of opportunity to get in, switch the robot and get out.”
“Why switch? Why not just take it?”
“Because I think the plan depends on our not believing the robot was actually stolen. That’s why Chase is running a demonstration. If this is the real Oscar, it means we disrupted the operation in time.”
“Well,” Rick sighed, “we can try to get one of our men to ID someone but I think it’s a waste of time. This wouldn’t be anyone who could be recognized. Too chancy.”
He reached into an inside jacket pocket, pulled out three baggies and sealed the cups in them.
“Never leave home without them.” He grinned at Dan’s questioning look.
Chase was heading past them, Oscar cradled in his arms, Lucas right beside him.
“I’m going to run another test, just to be sure someone didn’t leave me with a very good but useless replica.”
“Let’s do it in the lab,” Lucas suggested. “We don’t have time to take it off the corporate campus again and it will give us a good test of Oscar’s ability to penetrate metal. I’ll call the team leader and get everyone going.” He had his cell phone out and was already talking in it as he ran down the hall.
“Find who did this,” Chase said to Dan in an angry voice, then took off after Lucas.
The men on the floor were beginning to come around. As they pulled themselves to sitting positions and realized what happened, the expressions on their faces alternated between humiliation and terror at the reaction of their boss.
“This is our fault,” Dan told them. “Not yours. We didn’t expect drugged coffee, so I’ll take the fall this time. But we are expected to be alert at all times. Keep the security tightly in place. Keep that in mind from now on.”
“Mr. Romeo, I…” one of the men began.
“I have to get back to the conference room. The police will be here any minute.” He turned to Rick. “You get every scrap of information from them you can. Once Oscar’s back in place, their lives will depend on how well they guard him. I don’t care if they never have another cup of coffee.”
“Got it,” Rick told him and turned back to the men.
Dan stopped in the hall and speed-dialed Andy.
“You have reached the Dragonslayer,” was the greeting he heard.
“Well, get busy slaying him. I want you to do a search for any company going head to head with Carpenter Techtronics. Anyone who might be arrogant enough or desperate enough to buy off a company employee for a little industrial espionage. “
“And you need this yesterday, I’m guessing.”
“Sooner than that. Before someone else gets killed.” He hung up before Andy could pepper him with questions.
As Dan reached the reception area the elevator doors opened and four men and three woman in suits emerged, followed by a photographer and two people in crime scene coveralls.
“I’m Captain Holcomb,” one of the men said. He was short and stocky, with short, graying brown hair. His dark brown eyes, however, were shrewd and he gave an impression of great power. “And you are?”
“Dan Romeo. CEO of Phoenix Agency.”
The men shook hands. The captain’s grip was strong and just as no-nonsense as his appearance.
“I expected to see Mark here,” the captain said.
“He’s guarding the crime scene. Too many sightseers. We have another one of our partners here, also,” Dan told him. “Rick Latrobe. We had an incident in the area where the robot is kept and he’s holding down the fort there.”
“An incident?” Holcomb’s eyebrows rose.
“Someone’s made some careful plans to steal that new toy. We think we short-stopped it in time but Chase is running a test just to be sure. You’ll be able to watch them run it as soon as you do what you need to here.”
Holcomb grunted. “As soon as the media get wind of this, you’ll have another problem. I left plenty of uniforms downstairs, just in case but we need to get things under control here right this minute.”
They’d reached the conference room now and Dan showed them inside. Faith had obviously revived Mia, gotten her some tea from somewhere and now the two of them were sitting quietly in a corner. Mia still looked pale and her hands trembled just the slightest bit. Ladd and Joy were waiting with angry impatience, while one of the Phoenix security men stood by as a silent sentinel.
A lanky blond-haired man in khakis and polo shirt whose face Dan had never seen before stepped forward.
“Paul Harrison,” he explained, shaking hands with both Dan and Holcomb. “The company’s money overseer. I usually hide out in my office. However, when I heard what happened to Stan, thought I should introduce myself and see if there’s anything I can do to help.”
Ladd moved up next to him. “Ladd Tolbert,” he told Holcomb. “Attorney for Carpenter Techtronics as well as Chase’s personal legal representative.”
Holcomb glanced over at Joy, sitting in her chair as if she was holding court. “And you would be?”
“Joy Rivers.” Her chin lifted slightly. “Mr. Carpenter’s fiancée.”
Holcomb looked at where Mia and Faith were sitting and a sour look washed over his face. “Well, Miss Fleming, we meet again.”
“Captain.” She nodded at him, her own face a mask.
Everyone in the room felt the tension erupt between them.
Holcomb turned to Dan. “What’s she doing here?” he snapped.
“She’s been a big help to us,” Dan told him in a firm tone. “She actually sent the first warnings that there might be a theft. And by the way, I’m sure you know it’s Dr. Fleming.”
“She did, huh?” Holcomb turned to her again. “A word of advice, Dr. Fleming. Don’t muddy my case with your hocus pocus this time. Leave things to the professionals.”
“As you can tell,” she told Dan in a bitter voice, “Captain Holcomb and I are acquainted.”
“Let me handle this,” he said quietly and turned to the policeman. “Captain, I don’t know your history with Dr. Fleming but someone took her involvement with this particular situation seriously enough to try to kill her. I know you’re aware of the car bombing. It was her car that was destroyed. So there are obviously people out there—and this time someone connected to this case—who think she can provide information they don’t want getting out.”
“Think what you like.” Holcomb’s voice held an edge of anger. “I work with facts.”
He turned away from Dan and introduced the people with him as the detectives on his squad.
“I’ve brought all seasoned people with me,” he assured them. “Including the Crime Scene Unit right behind me here. I know the attention a high profile case like this will draw.” He paused and looked at each person in turn. “First thing we’ve got to do is hit everyone in this building before anyone has a chance to slip away.” He motioned to his people. “I want each floor locked down and people sequestered in a single room on their floor. They won’t like it but it has to be done. No matter how much they complain, don’t let them leave until I say so.”
“I have more men here who can help you,” Dan told him. “We just had extra men flown in last night and they’ve been containing the population of each floor. Just tell them what you want them to do.”
Holcomb nodded his head once. “Thanks. I’ll take that help. Detective Solomon here,” he pointed to the man, “will be your contact. Round up your people and let’s get started.”
He took a pair of latex gloves from his pocket, pulled them on and motioned to the CSU. “All right. Someone point us toward the office where the body is. Let’s see what we’ve got.”
* * * * *
Mark greeted Holcomb,
giving him what information he had and headed back to the conference room. So did Rick, having thoroughly chewed out his men and pried every scrap of information out of their brains. They short-stopped all questions until Dan walked back in.
“Holcomb’s doing his job and the demonstration will be ready to go in ten minutes, according to Chase.”
“Where is Chase?” Joy demanded.
“Setting up another run-through for Oscar. He wants to make sure the robot didn’t get switched while the guards were down.”
“What?” She looked at him, astonished. “What guards? The ones watching Oscar?”
“Yes.” He swallowed his impatience. Joy Rivers pushed every one of his buttons. “I’ll let Chase tell you himself as soon as he gets back up here. Captain Holcomb has the crime scene well in hand, so meanwhile we all need to stay as calm as possible. And hope none of this has leaked to the media. The car bombing was bad enough.”
Ladd, showing the first signs of strain took out a snowy handkerchief and mopped the fine sheen of perspiration on his forehead. “Jesus, the media. I thought it was bad before. They’ll storm the building.”
Mark shook his head. “Holcomb knows that. He told me he’s already dispatched cruisers to set up barricades and move people away from the building.”
Joy, looking only the slightest bit pale, commented, “Between the murder and the psycho we’ll be the hit of the tabloids and the six o’clock news.”
Dan’s famous control frayed. “Mia Fleming is a psychic, not a psycho, Miss Rivers. If you can’t refer to her appropriately, don’t refer to her at all.” He turned to Ladd. “Since Chase isn’t here, can you explain to Miss Rivers the importance of not making irresponsible remarks?”
Something flashed in her eyes, something Dan couldn’t quite define. Anger? Resentment? But she managed to sound contrite when she spoke. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I’m so worried for Chase. None of this is doing him or the company any good. Please forgive me for anything I’ve said that’s inappropriate.”