Vials

by Alec Peche

  What a mess my life has become. Being a pathologist was not thought to be an exciting occupation. The work was often tedious and redundant with far too much time spent looking into a microscope. It was extremely rare to have a pathology finding like she had in this case. The San Francisco medical examiner had been impressed with her findings, and Dr. Johnson was having intellectual fun figuring out how the killer had obtained and used the bacteria to kill Graeme. Jill had also been having fun with the case until the attempts on her life. She was no longer having fun. Now she was just plain anxious and paranoid.

  It was getting late by the time everybody left. The security guard was in place. Angela, Nathan, and Jill settled into her living room, each with a big glass of wine. Jill was grateful for Angela’s presence. It was wonderful to have the calming support of a friend. Still she was grateful that Angela would be out of harm’s way once she was dropped off at the airport. She owed Emma a phone call, and would update Detective Carlson in the morning.

  Her life depended upon her figuring out who had killed Graeme…. and who was targeting her. She would brainstorm with Jo about the finances and speak to the SFPD. She also needed some new angles on this case that she hoped Marie would provide.

  Chapter 12

  The next morning, Jill hugged Angela as she prepared to leave for the airport with Nathan. Angela had contributed over 40 hours to the case, but when she landed in Wisconsin, she had to go back to her regular job and then would be able to contribute very little other than moral support to the case.

  Jill planned to stay indoors all day doing computer research and following up with phone calls. The first call this morning was to Emma to update her on the shooter and the preliminary results of their collective investigation of Jill’s team. Emma's biggest was concern for Jill and her team’s safety. From Emma’s comments, it sounded like the SFPD had made little progress in the investigation into Graeme's death.

  As Emma was pleased with the progress of Jill's team, she offered to modify their original contract to include the ongoing investigative work. Jill was pleased with the offer. She would've continued the case without the contract because she now felt the threat on her own life. It would be wonderful for her friends to continue to get compensated for their time and effort on this case, though they would have helped her regardless. Emma and Graeme had a joint bank account, and Emma felt strongly that Graeme would want Jill’s ongoing investigative services paid for from that account.

  Jill put a call into Detective Carlson next but reached her voice-mail. She left her a message to give Jill a call. The SFPD was under no obligation to share any information with Jill. However, as she had become a second target of the killer it was in its best interest to share information, even though Jill lived outside of its jurisdiction.

  While waiting for the detective to return her call, Jill phoned her friends. She left a voice-mail for Angela knowing that she was in the air returning home. She also left a voice-mail for Jo, whom she couldn't reach in person. This just seemed to be her day to hit people's voice-mail.

  Jill brought Marie up to date with everything that had happened so far. They agreed that they should start with the dive master, Mr. Gonzales. She would also research Graeme's law partners and the executives at the tech company that he had invested in. Marie checked her schedule and was fortunate that she could take a vacation day the next day. Jill was relieved that Marie could devote the time to her case. She really felt that her efforts would accelerate their investigation. She ended the call with a promise to e-mail the names and whatever information she had on the people she wanted Marie to research.

  The camera trained on her driveway showed that Nathan had returned from San Francisco. Trixie was restless and it was great that Nathan could take her out for exercise. When he returned he scanned Jill's refrigerator and pantry. He thought he would be spending a fair amount of time at her house over the next few days. He made a shopping list of things that he wanted to put in her kitchen. They would go shopping after lunch. He whipped up a chicken salad, and she had a sourdough loaf to go with it. After cleaning up the kitchen, they went out to her garage.

  Jill felt somewhat silly crouching below the dashboard with the blanket thrown over her as she left her house. Nathan indicated when it was safe for her to sit on the seat as they approached the main street of Palisades Valley. He had been watching his review mirror and had not seen anyone following him. Admittedly, he was an amateur at this game. First stop was the Sheriff's office. Jill wanted to know if he had new information on the shell casings. She also wanted to reinforce that she needed frequent patrols to keep her safe. The Sheriff had the manpower at that time to escort her to the grocery store.

  She and Nathan got everything on his list. A Sheriff’s deputy stood outside of the grocery store as Nathan pulled the car up. She got in the car while Nathan loaded the groceries. They thanked the deputy and were on their way back to her home. About 3 miles from her home, she again crouched underneath the dashboard with the blanket over her until Nathan pulled into her garage and closed the automatic door.

  Just as she unloaded the groceries, Detective Carlson called her back. She relayed to the detective the activity of the last 24 hours, the cooperation of the Palisades Valley Sheriff's department, and the men on patrol at night from her security system company. Again the detective reminded her to leave it in the hands of the SFPD. Jill remarked to the detective that the SFPD had been nowhere in sight when she had been shot at the previous day.

  Jill heard a long sigh on the other end of the phone.

  “Yes, I understand that you have poor protection at your home, and that you want to speed up the solving of this crime so that you no longer feel threatened.”

  “It’s that I am mad that someone nearly got away with murder, and I have always been a fighter for justice.”

  “Our disagreement about your involvement in this case is not why I called. I have new information from the San Juan Police Department. Mr. Gonzales has not been sighted on the island for the last 36 hours. He failed to show up to work. The address he listed for his employer was a fake. His scuba certification was also a fabrication. The police were attempting to decipher his fingerprints but everything that the employer had that Mr. Gonzales touched, was also touched by other people. The fingerprints lifted off the ointment tube were also contaminated by multiple fingers.”

  “That doesn’t bode well for Gonzales.”

  “No, it doesn’t. If I hear anything else, I’ll contact you.”

  After hanging up, Jill thought the SFPD was a world-class organization, but it wasn't at all close to solving this crime.

  Chapter 13

  Jill needed another workout with Nathan. They couldn’t use the barn that they had used the last time he taught her kickboxing. The barn where they had worked out was not on the alarm system, and she’d be vulnerable on the long walk across her property to that barn. They reviewed their options. They could drive over to Nathan's house, where he had a complete gym set up and work out there. They could clear space inside Jill's house and set it up as a gym. She chose the latter, as she was most safe when she was inside her own home. She had a relatively austere spare bedroom that would be easy to clear. Nathan went outside to get the exercise mats that they would need for padding.

  Twenty minutes later they were ready for the workout. Like the last time, Jill was soon soaked to the bone with sweat. Nathan taught her a few new self-defense moves. She really liked this martial arts technique and thought she might want to pursue getting her own black belt in one of the arts. She was fortunate to be a student with Nathan as the teacher. With his third degree black belt, he had the qualifications to be a teacher. In fact, Jill could advance through the various levels to a black belt with only Nathan as her instructor if she chose Hapkido. She’d think about that after this case was over. An hour later with her muscles aching, Jill and Nathan hit the showers.

  When she joined Nathan in her kitchen, she found him marinating som
e fresh fish that they had picked up at the market earlier. He’d let the fish marinate for 2 hours, and then they would cook dinner. At the moment he would take Trixie to the dog park so she could burn off some of her excess energy.

  Jill planned to hunker down and devote her brain power to thoughts of who the killer was in this case. So far she had ruled out just 2 people, Emma and the hotel concierge in San Juan. That left Graeme's family members, his law practice associates, his clients, or someone affiliated with the Silicon Valley start-up that he had invested in nearly a decade ago. She was not considering any random criminals. This was too deliberate and sophisticated of an murder for it to be the work of an average street thug. So far, Jill had reduced her list of suspects to roughly 200 or so people. The greatest help she could be to her team and the closure of this case was to narrow that list.

  She would start with Graeme’s family, as that seemed an area of low probability. It was surprising that she would think that, given she had yet to meet any members of the family, It just didn't feel like a good fit. She would use one of the online genealogy software programs to get to know Graeme's family.

  Jill tracked one generation up from the great aunt who had given him 3 million dollars in her Will. She completed a family tree. He was an only child. His parents had 7 siblings between the 2 of them. He had 14 first cousins. In total she had about 40 family members to review. She started by searching for any civil or criminal proceedings against any of the 40. None had minor traffic violations and that was a good sign. She had been particularly interested in any bankruptcy filings, and again there were none.

  Jill had a crime software program that used fairly crude data points to give her a probability that a certain person committed a particular crime. When she entered data on Emma, her software gave her less than a 10 percent probability that she was the killer. So she had gone to work on Graeme’s family, knowing that with the exception of his parents, no other family member was significantly mentioned in the Will. She did a little more research on his parents and found that they had made their own millions a decade before Graeme had. When she entered data about the remaining 28 or so family members, she also tallied a probability of less than 10 percent. For now, the 4 of them would not focus on his family. She flipped a coin to determine whether to focus on his partners or his clients in her next run. The coin flip pointed her to his partners first.

  Nathan returned to the house with Trixie and went to work in the kitchen. Jill saved her data and joined him there. She stayed out of his way and poured him a glass of wine.

  “I was really impressed with the workout for Hapkido. When I think of martial arts I think Judo, karate, kung fu, and Tai Chi. How did you become interested in martial arts, and how did you pick Hapkido? Until I met you, I had never heard of the word.”

  “A few college mates and I attended a martial arts invitational. We entered the Sports Center thinking that we would see Bruce Lee in action.

  “Instead I became enthralled with the strength, beauty, and brutality of the various arts. My friends were bored within an hour and left to return to the university. I was hooked. I stayed the rest of the day and went back the next trying to decide what martial art I would study.

  “You have only seen a small number of the moves and weapons used in Hapkido. It is a Korean martial art in which jumping kicks, joint locks, and throws are used. One also uses swords, ropes, canes, and sticks. From the time I watched the 2 opponents at the invitational, I knew I wanted to learn bi-directional kicks as well as be proficient with the weapons used in the dojang. As a college student, I thought meditation was a waste of time. It took me 2 or 3 years of training before I began to appreciate the impact that meditation had on my mastery of the art. Now I also use meditation to help stay creative in the studio.”

  Nathan grilled a wonderful fish fillet. Jill always felt that no matter how she tried to cook fish it always came out tasting fishy. He paired the fish with jasmine rice and creamed asparagus. For dessert, he made Jill's favorite, crème brulee with fresh berries. Wow, she would have considered the moment perfect if someone hadn’t been trying to murder her.

  After cleaning up the dishes and grabbing a second glass of wine, Jill settled down on the couch with her laptop. Nathan used his own laptop to complete some design work.

  It was time to focus on the partners in Graeme's law firm. Checking California records, she pulled up the official data on the legal LLC. The firm had been around for some 40 years. Graeme had joined the firm 6 years ago, becoming a partner in less than 4 years. The firm handled a wide range of legal transactions. Some partners were experts in employment law, other's estate law, some criminal law, and one was devoted to patents. The original 2 founding partners were retired. Between office staff, legal secretaries, and attorneys, the firm employed close to a 100 people. Thanks to the Internet she was able to bring up a picture of the office building housing the law firm. She would have to ask Emma why Graeme had chosen to join this particular law firm.

  Jill reviewed cases that had been handled by the firm since Graeme had joined it. She started with culling the county judicial records sorting by the law firm’s attorneys. She had nearly 400 hits on that search. Marie was also focusing on the partners, and might be doing some of the same searches as Jill. However, they were both looking at different perspectives on the law firm employees. Jill was trying to understand the legal nuances of the work the firm did, and Marie was following behavioral patterns. She couldn't think of a way to sort the data and therefore was stuck walking through some really boring legalese.

  She still felt as though her approach was not refined enough so she decided to try another data sort. She reviewed those cases that had at least one appeal or otherwise subsequent legal filing. Appeals would likely represent disgruntled parties in the legal action. That took her from 400 to 170 cases to explore. Then she decided to do another sort and reviewed those cases where there had been at least 10 pleadings filed. She was now down to just 10 cases. Graeme was the attorney of record on one of the ten. She sent Marie an e-mail updating her with her strategy.

  The one court case in which Graeme was the attorney of record had 5 people named in the pleadings for Jill to research. She spent the rest of the evening trying to digest this case.

  She had not had any legal training outside of the standard preparation for providing testimony in court cases. It was painful sorting through the legal terms to understand the lawful basis for each case. She used her Internet search engines to look up many of the Latin words. If she ever had a case like this again, she would have to give thought to finding a legal consultant. She was simply too slow in putting together the legal terminology to understand the big picture.

  The case in question had been ongoing process for over 2 years. It seemed to be a combination of patent law and business law. Graeme had begun as the legal advisor for the start-up, which was devoted to genomic testing. The CEO of the start-up was a childhood friend, and they were almost as close as brothers, without the blood link, as they could be. Start-ups were a race to market with the next big idea. A new company had to get its idea developed, patented, and sold before someone else could beat them to it.

  From the beginning of the company, Graeme had been busy with incorporation, then governance, and then employment law as others were hired by the start-up. Graeme had created very strict non-compete contracts as employees were hired. Corporate spying could sink a new company. After 2 years of lab work, additional angel investing flowed after the first patent was filed. Meanwhile, there were just enough rumors in the scientific community for the company to catch the attention of big pharma. As Graeme’s childhood friend had predicted, a series of lawsuits ensued.

  Based on what Jill read in the case proceedings, each of the lawsuits seemed to be mostly nuisance lawsuits meant to intimidate the start-up. It seemed as though Graeme had won all of the motions so far, not because he was a brilliant lawyer, but rather it seemed that the pleadings were completely withou
t merit, an argument that could be won by a high school debate club member. Jill decided to cross the folks behind the pharmaceutical nuisance lawsuits off her list of suspects. It would seem that anybody involved in this case would do better to keep Graeme in court rather than see him dead. As the lawsuits were without merit, aggravation was the desired outcome by the pleadings against the company that Graeme represented.

  Jill went back to the list of 200 cases to try to find her suspect. She decided that she would create an Excel file on the 200 cases tabulating the kind of case it was, when it was filed, and any dollar amount mentioned. She wasn't sure what this would do for her, rather she would have to see if the data directed her somewhere. After reviewing about 40 cases, she found herself drifting off to sleep.

  She shook herself awake, “I am heading for bed. Will you be up soon?”

  He nodded absently. He was concentrating on a design. When he was in the creative zone, Jill knew not to interrupt him. He would catch up with her later.

  After changing her clothes, she crawled into bed. She fell asleep thinking of how really different this case was from anything else in her prior 5 years as a consultant and an additional 15 years with the county crime lab. Despite the gruesomeness and immoral character of some of the suspects in the county cases, none had ever come after her personally. When Jill worked at the county crime lab, usually her work ended for her with the cause of death determination. Any further investigative work was performed by local law enforcement. She hoped that the trouble she had had with this case was not a preview of what she might experience with future cases.

  Chapter 14