by Desiree Holt
Ladd gave her a tight smile. “She’s just a little anxious like the rest of us. With the big day coming up this Friday and everything focused on that, she and Chase decided to ditch the arrangements for a big wedding. They have plans to get married as soon as they get past the weekend. It’ll be just a small ceremony but I know they’d like you to be there, Dan.” He put away his handkerchief. “Then they’re off for two weeks to a private island.”
“Of course you’re invited,” Joy said in a clipped voice. “But I’m sure you’re much too busy to bother with something like that.”
In other words, don’t bother showing up.
Dan frowned at her. “But won’t there be a lot of follow-up? Contracts to complete? Others to negotiate? Production schedules to set up?”
“Lucas takes care of the schmoozing, Paul does the financials and I handle the contracts.” His eyes suddenly looked sad. “Stan would have set up production. I guess we’ll have to rethink that now.”
“All right.” Dan looked around the room at everyone. “Here’s the situation.”
He explained in concise sentences what had happened and informed them Chase and Lucas were at that moment setting up to test Oscar again.
“So you think the coffee was doctored?” Ladd asked.
“It’s the only answer. Rick gave the cups to Holcomb and he had someone run them to the SAPD lab with an order for urgency.”
“It wasn’t one of our people,” Joy snapped at once.
“This time I have to agree with you,” Dan told her. “Too much chance of being recognized. That means someone, somehow, got into the building, got a cafeteria worker’s uniform and managed to get four drugged cups of coffee up here without anyone stopping them. An outside person could do that but not without a lot of extra planning.”
“Are you saying it’s one of our people?” Joy’s tone was defensive.
“I’m saying we have to look at all possibilities.”
“And we’re already doing that,” Holcomb told them, walking back into the room. “Mark, can you reach Chase and ask him how soon they’ll be ready to start?”
“Better for Dan to do it. He’s in charge here.”
Dan picked up the conference room phone and punched in three numbers. When someone answered on the other end, he spoke quietly, nodded and hung up. “Ten minutes.”
In exactly ten minutes Chase jogged into the conference room, out of breath. “Okay. We’re good to go.”
Joy rose and went to put her arms around him. “Come and sit down, baby. You’ll have a stroke if you don’t get control of yourself.”
“I know, I know. But Jesus, Joy. You know what’s at stake here.”
“And everything will be fine. Come on. Sit down with me.” She looped her arm through his and guided him to a chair beside her at the table.
Lucas came in, lowered the lights and turned on the flat screen monitor. “Seats, everyone.”
Holcomb, Dan, Mark and Rick chose to stand against the far wall while the others sat. In a moment, a picture appeared on the screen.
* * * * *
“Well.” Chase blew out the breath he’d been holding. “At least we know we got to Oscar before anyone else did. He’s working just fine.”
“I’d say you all were on top of things before they had time to put the rest of their plan into play,” Holcomb told them. “Good work, everyone. And by the way, that was a hell of an impressive demonstration. I want to make sure our chief is here Friday for the big festivities.”
“He’s on the guest list,” Lucas assured him. “I hope he’ll be one of our first customers.”
Chase pushed back his chair. “I’d better get Oscar back in his cage right away.”
Lucas put a hand on his shoulder. “Sit for a few minutes. Joy’s right. You’re strung as tight as a high wire. I’ll get Oscar settled and be sure he’s locked up properly.”
“I can promise you our men will be guarding him better than their own mothers,” Dan assured him. “They don’t like being taken advantage of the way they were. It makes them cranky and twice as vigilant.”
“I certainly hope so,” Joy snapped. Then she leaned over and brushed a lock of hair from Chase’s forehead. “Lucas is right, sweetie. Just let him take care of things. Take a deep breath, okay?”
Chase slumped back in his chair. “Fine. But I want a look at Oscar after he’s in place.”
“No problem. We’ll do that later.”
“I think one of our men should go with you, Lucas,” Dan suggested. “Someone with a nasty agenda is still roaming around.”
“I’ll be fine.” He lifted his shirt to show the gun at the small of his back. “I’ve been carrying it since the car bombing.”
“I’m going back to Forbush’s office,” Holcomb told them. “I’d appreciate it if you’d all stay here until I get back.” He turned to Dan. “Except you. I think it would help if you were with me.” Lastly he looked at Mia. “And nothing from you, you hear?”
She simply looked back at him without saying a word.
* * * * *
An hour later the crime scene people were still at work in Stan’s office. Holcomb’s detectives and the Phoenix people were working their way from floor to floor, questioning everyone from the company security people to the janitorial service. Each floor was in lockdown, which didn’t make anyone very happy.
The person who got the gold star for the day, as far as Dan was concerned, was the Carpenter Techtronics receptionist who fielded the hundreds of calls without turning a hair. He wondered what it would take to hire her away, since Phoenix was about to lose their own wonderful person to her husband’s relocation.
“I’m surprised you don’t have the cleaning service come in at night when no one’s working,” Holcomb remarked, his eyes fixed on Chase. “That seems more logical to me. No disturbances.”
“We do. But Stan’s so damn secretive about his work and so nervous about someone getting into his stuff he won’t let them into his area except during the day. Then he can put things away and keep an eye on them. He was always here much later than the rest of us, anyway. I think he worried about being attacked.”
“Apparently with good reason,” Mark said in a dry voice.
“I’d like to see the body.” Mia had been sitting quietly in the corner, drinking coffee Faith had poured for her. Some color had finally returned to her face.
“Ah, yes. Dr. Fleming.” Holcomb stared at her, his face impassive. “I thought we’d be having a conversation about that.”
Almost casually Dan moved to position himself next to Mia. The protective warrior in place.
Do you feel the connection, Dan? I do. It’s there and it scares me, that we bonded so quickly. You’re a lone wolf, with the power to hurt me. But what can I do? I’ve already lost my heart to you. And here you are, taking care of me in a way no one ever has before.
She shifted in her chair to move closer to him and saw Holcomb narrow his eyes suspiciously.
“I’m gathering your relationship with Dr. Fleming is somewhat adversarial?” Dan asked, his voice carefully uninflected.
“Captain Holcomb and I have a less than…beneficial relationship,” Mia said, tension radiating from her body.
Stay with me, Dan. I need your strength this time.
Holcomb turned his gaze to her. “You led us a merry chase one too many times, Dr. Fleming.” His mouth was set in a grim line, his eyes cold. “Wasted time and resources.”
“But I’ve helped you a lot too,” she protested. “And I’ve always been up front that my visions aren’t a hundred percent.”
“That’s a fact,” he grunted.
“But they’re hints that can’t be ignored.”
Dan squeezed her shoulder. “In my opinion, I don’t think we can discount her input. If she wasn’t heading in the right direction in this instance, no one would have tried to kill her by blowing up her car. Then whoever it was went to enough trouble to get rid of the bomber, trying to tie
up any loose ends. That definitely means she’s making someone nervous.”
“We haven’t proved yet that Nate Wilson was the bomber,” Holcomb objected.
“Come on, Captain,” Dan protested. “You don’t think it’s all a little too coincidental? And her having a vision of someone getting shot about the same time he was taking two taps to the head?”
“I’m still not willing to let her compromise a crime scene,” Holcomb bit back.
“Please,” she begged. “I won’t disturb anything. I know what to do. If I can just touch him I might be able to help you.”
“Mia, that’s a pretty gruesome scene,” Mark put in. “I don’t know if you want to subject yourself to that.”
“I can handle it.” She set her jaw in a stubborn line.
“Let me think about it. We have other things to take care of first. Like who would have access to Forbush’s office without being detected or seeming out of place?”
* * * * *
Detective Steve Aragon and his partner, Cliff Wallace, had taken a crime scene tech with them to Nate Wilson’s apartment. Their orders were to go through it from corner-to-corner and wall-to-wall.
The building itself was on the edge of South San Antonio and had seen its best days before either man had been born. The superintendent who lived on the premises was vocally unhappy about being awakened to unlock doors for them.
Aragon shrugged. “We can break them down if you’d rather.” He looked at his partner. “Let’s see, Cliff. What do you figure a new door costs these days?”
“All right, all right,” the super grumbled. “God, a man can’t even get a decent night’s sleep these days.”
But when he opened the door to join them on the walkway, the two detectives could see a chunky brunette in a flowered robe leaning against a doorway. She was holding a glass of something and watching them with avid interest.
Yeah, right. A decent night’s sleep. Aragon snorted.
Besides the fact that it could use a good cleaning crew to scrape away the filth, the apartment was a sad commentary on the life of the man who’d lived in it. Cheap, used furniture. A small television set. Pantry cupboards filled with as much cheap booze as food. A stack of mail, some unopened, lay on the scarred table in the kitchenette. Wallace dumped it in a plastic baggie to take with them.
Going through the piles of dirty laundry—a task they flipped a coin for—yielded an assortment of scraps of paper and notes on cocktail napkins. Again, they bagged it all to take with them.
“No telephone,” Cliff pointed out.
“People like him would rather operate by cell phone. Less traceable, especially if they use throwaways. They can keep changing numbers.”
“I saw a receipt from Wal-Mart in with all this junk. That’s probably where he got them.”
“We’ll have to see if Wal-Mart can give us the numbers, then get a warrant to dump the calls. Not too likely, though. I hate these disposables.”
“The lab already has the one we found in his jacket. They can scroll through it and see if they can find calls in or out. The dumb son-of-a-bitch who shot him somehow didn’t think to take it.”
“We’ll be lucky if we get anything usable,” Aragon said. “Nate was sly and crafty. He probably erased any trace of calls as soon as they were completed.”
“Yeah,” his partner agreed, “but at this point we gotta try anything.”
“We’ve got uniforms doing a canvass on the street and the other apartments. Also at the airport. Maybe we’ll get lucky and someone saw something. Or remembers who he was with lately.”
“Maybe. All right,” Cliff said. “I think we’re done here.” He looked at the tech. “Get all the pictures you need?”
“Yup. They’ll make a nice addition to my collection. Places I wouldn’t be caught dead in.”
All three men laughed, although not with much humor.
* * * * *
Dan announced they’d be reprogramming the biometric ID system at once and asked for a quiet place to work.
“We’ve proven that Oscar’s security wasn’t breached,” Ladd pointed out. “Is it still necessary to change the system? Can’t we just eliminate Stan from the program?”
“No.” Dan had his cell phone out and was already punching in numbers. “We set the system up a particular way. In order not to compromise it and allow someone to hack in and replace one set of biometrics with another, you have to take down the whole system to reprogram it.”
“Leaving Oscar vulnerable during that time,” Joy pointed out, her attitude back in place. “Keep in mind that it’s Chase’s neck on the line here.”
Dan had never wanted to strangle a woman as much as he did this one. “Hardly. Oscar is tightly guarded and in a locked case. My men watched Lucas replace him personally. Whoever has that thumb and eyeball lost the only opportunity to use it. But I’m still not taking any chances.”
He turned to speak into his phone again.
“I guess Dan’s right,” Ladd told Rick. “What a mess, though.”
Dan disconnected his call. “We’ll be starting on it in a few moments. While we’re doing this, no one except my men goes near Oscar. Are we clear on that?”
“Surely you don’t think one of us is involved,” Joy snapped.
“You asked the same question earlier, Miss Rivers and I believe I answered it then. However, if you need me to repeat what I said, we can’t write anyone off yet. That includes you and every other member of Carpenter Techtronics who has daily access to this building.” Dan kept his tone level. “The first thing we have to do is eliminate everyone from Carpenter so we can focus on other possibilities.”
Holcomb had stepped out into the reception area for a discussion with two of his detectives. They reported there had been no extraneous people on the executive floor since midnight except the janitorial service. Each of them had been questioned thoroughly. They’d even been luminoled for possible traces of blood on their hands or clothing. The techs had found nothing.
“No one could have left either,” Chase pointed out. “You had someone checking the elevators right away and the fire doors sound an alarm when they’re opened.”
“What about someone coming in from outside?” Holcomb asked.
Lucas shook his head. “Those exit doors were locked from the outside. We can release them electronically in case of emergency but if someone tries to open one otherwise, an alarm goes off.”
“So.” Holcomb looked around the room. “No one out, no one in. That doesn’t leave a lot of choices.”
“Whoever it was could have slipped into the elevator when no one was paying attention and be long gone now,” Joy pointed out.
Holcomb said nothing, just pulled out his little notebook and resumed his questioning with dogged determination. Did Stan have enemies? Did he get along with the other members of the staff? Was industrial espionage a possibility?
“As soon as CSU is finished in there, we’ll need someone to tell us if anything was taken.”
“You mean besides his thumb and eyeball?” Joy shuddered.
“I vouch for everyone on my staff,” Chase exploded. “They’re all carefully vetted. And the people around this table shouldn’t even be on any suspect list. For anything.”
“We have to explore every possibility,” Holcomb said quietly.
And on and on and on. At one point Lucas called the cafeteria to order sandwiches and drinks sent up.
“We’ll get them up as quickly as we can,” the cafeteria manager told him in a harried voice. “They won’t let anyone leave the building so we gotta feed the whole staff.”
Lucas made appropriately sympathetic noises. “Just do the best you can.”
Rick took his laptop into Chase’s office where he linked it to the Dragon back at Phoenix headquarters. Then he began the process of reprogramming the biometric ID system. He entered each of the principals one at a time, registering fingerprints and retinal scans. In less than an hour he was done.
“Well, shit,” Lucas said, looking at the screen.
A reporter from one of the local channels was doing a standup in front of their building, with a jumble of cars, vans and televisions units spread out behind her. Massed in and around them were enough people that the street was thoroughly clogged. Uniformed patrolmen were working overtime to keep people behind the barriers.
“And this reporter has learned that not only was the body found this morning that of the notorious bomber-for-hire Nate Wilson but he also may have been the one responsible for blowing up Mia Fleming’s car at the art museum. Rumor has it that Ms. Fleming predicted Wilson’s murder and also that of Carpenter Techtronics’ engineer Stan Forbush. Dr. Fleming’s reputation is viewed with skepticism by the local police. What will they make of her predictions now? Back after this announcement.”
“Fuck.” Chase picked up a coffee cup and threw it against the wall, the splinters falling soundlessly to the carpet.
“She’s going to be a real problem, Chase.” Joy looped her arms through his and tried to pull him aside. “I knew it was a mistake to bring her in here.” She turned to Dan, eyes blazing now. “What kind of company do you run that you use this kind of lunatic? All it’s doing is make us look like a laughingstock. Think of our reputation.”
Dan took a moment before answering her. “Miss Rivers. Chase and I have known each other for a long time. He knows what kind of company Phoenix is or he never would have called me to begin with. We’re the best there is. And psychics with varying types of gifts have long been known to be helpful in many investigations. Even the military is experimenting with using them.”
“I don’t want her here.”
The devil beneath the angel was flowing red. Dan had seldom seen such animosity except in war. While he searched for the right words to defuse the situation, Chase stepped in.
“Honey.” He dropped a kiss on Joy’s forehead. “Just chill, okay? Dan knows what he’s doing. I appreciate how you feel and God knows without you I don’t think I’d have made it these last weeks. But Mia has definitely been a help. Without her we wouldn‘t even know there is a problem and wouldn’t be preparing ourselves. So let’s not write her off if we don’t have to.”