The Speed of Sound

by Eric Bernt

“Mind if I wait with you?” It came out like more of a statement than a request.

  “Be my guest.” He gestured for the agent to sit on the couch, which he did, stretching out in a way that made it clear he wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. Not without what he came for.

  Raines got on the phone with his people. Nataro did the same, connecting with Detective Lieutenant Victoria Daniels. “Do we have an update on the McHenry situation?”

  Victoria was inside Interrogation Room Five, standing next to Butler McHenry. She was still trying to process the lecture on acoustic archeology she had just been given as she stared at the echo box performing its synchronized ballet. “Momentarily,” she told her boss into the phone. “Let me call you back.” She hung up, turning to Skylar. “Forgive me, Doctor, but I was never much for science.”

  Butler chimed in. “It’ll make more sense once you’ve heard something you would remember. Eddie, if the detective lieutenant gives you a date and time, can you play that back for her?”

  Eddie was uncomfortable around the stranger, never looking up from his computer screen. “How will she give it to me?”

  Butler turned to Skylar for help. She translated for Eddie. “Detective McHenry believes that Ms. Daniels will better understand how the echo box works after you play her a demonstration. If she tells you a date and time, will you play those echoes for her?”

  “Why didn’t Detective McHenry just say that?”

  Butler was unable to bite his tongue. “I did.”

  Skylar intervened. “Detective Lieutenant, when were you most recently in this room?”

  Victoria answered, “Last Monday, the twenty-second. About three thirty.”

  Without looking at her, Eddie asked, “Morning or afternoon?”

  “Afternoon.”

  Eddie plugged in the date and time, studying the particular waves originally produced at that time. There were four distinctly different waves visible. “There were four people in this room.”

  “That’s correct,” Victoria responded, clearly impatient.

  “Was one of them a suspect you were interrogating?”

  “Yes.” The detective lieutenant was quickly concluding this was a waste of time.

  “Did the suspect tell you the truth?”

  Skylar jumped in. “Eddie, please just hit ‘Play.’”

  He nodded and hit “Play.” The voices came through clearly, with little distortion, due to the characteristics of the room: it was small, the surfaces were hard, there were no windows, and the echoes were recently produced.

  SUSPECT, crying: I swear to God, I don’t know where she is!

  Eddie made his BUZZER sound.

  “Shh.” Skylar motioned for him to remain quiet. He nodded apologetically.

  VICTORIA: Tell me where she is, Henry.

  The lieutenant’s voice in the recording was neither intense nor threatening. It was utterly devoid of emotion, which was what made it so frightening. Skylar watched the diminutive woman closely as she listened to herself and couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Victoria now understood the science, or at least the importance of it.

  SUSPECT: I don’t fucking know! What are you, deaf?!

  Eddie winced. The screaming hurt his ears.

  VICTORIA: If this little girl dies, I will do everything in my power to have you put to death. And on the day your miserable life ends, I promise I will be there, because I will want to watch you beg, and have absolutely nobody care.

  Skylar glanced at Eddie. “That’s enough.” Eddie hit “Stop.”

  Victoria Daniels glanced around the room. “Where’s the bug?”

  Eddie started scanning every square inch of the floor, looking for the insect she must be referring to.

  Skylar answered the detective lieutenant. “There isn’t one. Neither of us has ever been inside this room until a few minutes ago.”

  Butler McHenry addressed his superior, emphasizing every word. “Any room. Any conversation. Ever.”

  All Victoria Daniels could say was, “My God.”

  “Exactly.” Butler now had the same expression Skylar had had when she’d watched him first understand the gravity of the situation. He had an ally, and that was good.

  Skylar addressed Eddie, who was still searching the floor. “I should have told you that the bug Ms. Daniels was referring to was a recording device, not an insect.”

  “The detective lieutenant should have been more specific, then.” He turned toward Victoria without looking at her. “You were not very nice to Henry.”

  Victoria stared at him, dumbfounded. “Henry wasn’t a very nice person.”

  Skylar was curious. “Did he tell you where the little girl was?”

  The detective lieutenant nodded. “He did.” She turned to Butler, motioning toward the echo box. “This thing is for real?”

  Butler nodded slowly. He understood that it was a lot to process.

  “No wonder there’s a federal warrant out for your arrest.”

  Eddie looked confused. “Why is it no wonder that there is a federal warrant out for his arrest?”

  Skylar quickly jumped in. “Ms. Daniels wasn’t talking to you, Eddie.”

  Eddie kept his head down. “You mean it’s none of my business?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Just like the mystery man?”

  “Yes.”

  Butler turned to Eddie. “Play the first thing you played for me in the bar.”

  Eddie looked at Skylar, who nodded her approval. He clicked open the file containing the restored sound waves from inside Dr. Fenton’s office, and hit “Play.”

  Victoria reached inside her pocket and clicked the “Record” button on the pocket recorder Deputy Inspector Nataro had given her.

  Whatever she was about to hear, he would hear, too.

  CHAPTER 50

  Dr. Marcus Fenton’s House, Pine Hill, New Jersey, May 27, 4:11 p.m.

  Inside the home office of his ramshackle farmhouse, Dr. Marcus Fenton clenched the phone so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He had just gotten the most disturbing news from Michael Barnes, which was confirmed by an immediate call to the Department of Homeland Security. Their agents were interfering with a Harmony House security matter, and Fenton wanted an explanation. He’d been sitting on hold for over five minutes, waiting for Senator Corbin Davis to pick up the phone and explain why he’d issued the order to Homeland Security Director Arthur Merrell. How dare this midwestern pretty boy treat me with such disrespect?

  The senator finally came on the line, trying to sound more like he’d just stepped out of a meeting than off a putting green. “I’ve only got a minute, Doctor. What can I do for you?”

  “Call off your dogs.”

  “Excuse me?” The senator was clearly amused.

  “Homeland is interfering with an internal security matter, and I want it stopped.”

  Davis actually struggled not to laugh out loud. “Federal warrants were issued for the arrest of one of your employees and one of your patients. How is that an internal security matter?”

  Fenton knew Barnes had made a mistake the moment warrants were issued. It was uncharacteristic of him to invite outside attention. How could he have been so dumb? Fenton decided to cut to the chase. “What is this really about, Senator?”

  It was so rare that anyone asked the politician a direct question. Perhaps because he simply held all the cards, Davis decided to give an equally direct answer. “I want to hear it for myself. The box.”

  Fenton was dumbfounded. “Why didn’t you just ask me for a demonstration?”

  “Because I don’t trust you.” A long pause followed.

  The senior doctor scrambled, summoning every bit of charm at his disposal. “What reason have I ever given you not to trust me, Senator?”

  “Doctor, I’m not going to get into this. Homeland is going to take possession of the device, and then I am going to listen to it. If it works, it will be given the protection it deserves. You and your pati
ent will have continuing access, but under their auspices, not yours. If, however, the device does not work, it will be returned to your facility for further development.”

  Fenton slumped in his chair, defeated. “You can’t just take the echo box away from me.”

  “It was never yours to begin with. Good day, Doctor.”

  The moment the call ended, Marcus Fenton phoned his head of security. The doctor would have threatened him if he wasn’t truly afraid of Michael Barnes. “Senator Davis said Homeland Security is going to take possession of the echo box. The senator wants to hear it for himself.”

  “I’d like to know how he found out so fast.” The head of Harmony House security sounded curious.

  Fenton exploded, “Because you issued goddamn federal warrants!”

  Barnes remained dangerously calm. “The warrant never specified what kind of technology was stolen.”

  “It named Edward Parks, didn’t it?”

  “The senator was calling Homeland Security to intervene less than two hours after the warrant had been issued. Unless he was sitting there, monitoring New York Police Department chatter, it should have taken him days, if not weeks, for this to come on his radar.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “Someone is feeding him information.”

  “Who?”

  “We have a mole.”

  Fenton fell silent. He could feel his blood pressure skyrocketing. He closed his eyes, struggling to continue the conversation. “My God.”

  “I found out earlier today.”

  “Who?” Fenton tried to mentally run through his list of employees, but his mind was racing. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to know.

  “Your head nurse, Gloria Pruitt.”

  Fenton shook his head. “I don’t believe it.”

  “That’s your choice, sir.” Barnes shook his own head, still perfectly calm.

  The senior doctor felt like he’d been stabbed in the back. The physical pain was very real. “You’re sure?”

  “When have I ever told you anything I wasn’t sure about?” He let the question linger for a moment, then asked, “It’s curious, don’t you think?”

  “What?” Fenton snapped back.

  “We have a mole, and Homeland is the one who capitalizes on the information.”

  Fenton thought the notion was preposterous. “You think Homeland has been spying on us?”

  “I think Homeland may have been compromised. Whoever was spying on us is using Homeland to acquire the device for themselves.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “With all due respect, you sound paranoid, Mr. Barnes.”

  “Within every intelligence agency, there are internal factions with specific agendas. One of them has obviously been made aware of Eddie and his echo box.”

  The doctor suddenly didn’t think his security director sounded so off base. “If you knew about these factions, why would you have issued federal arrest warrants?”

  “Because if local law enforcement became aware of the echo box, it would only be a matter of time before federal agencies were notified. It was our best move.”

  Fenton sighed as he slumped in his office chair. “What the hell are we going to do?”

  Barnes remained perfectly calm. “We actually have a number of options, Doctor.”

  “Like what?”

  Senator Corbin Davis approached the seventeenth tee with the confidence and swagger of a dragon slayer. Any lingering doubts he had held about his involvement with the American Heritage Foundation had been swept away. At the end of the day, no one succeeded in politics without getting into bed with at least one eight-hundred-pound gorilla. The trick was picking the right one.

  The senator from Indiana had picked very well.

  CHAPTER 51

  Sixth Precinct, New York City, May 27, 4:23 p.m.

  NYPD Detective Lieutenant Victoria Daniels struggled to digest what she had just heard, as Eddie stopped playing back the reconstructed conversation between Dr. Fenton and Michael Barnes at Harmony House. She couldn’t quite wrap her head around it. Daniels reached into her coat pocket and turned off Deputy Inspector Nataro’s microrecorder, gazing around the walls of Interrogation Room Five, which somehow now looked different. She realized the walls of every room she ever entered would never look the same. Because now she knew what was bouncing around every one of them: the history of each space. Every action. Every word. Every crime. Every lie. Every room was now its own historical document. Its own recording. All that had to be done was to have the record re-created, and the evidence was there for anyone to hear.

  There would never again be any more “He said, she said.” There would only be “Here is what was said.”

  That was, if the device ever saw the light of day.

  Victoria was now a believer, which was what scared her. It was evident in her face.

  “Now do you blame me for helping them?” asked Butler.

  “I would have done the same thing.” There wasn’t a doubt in her mind. Not about her answer to the question. Nor how this was going to play out.

  “Now what?”

  She knew Butler wasn’t leading her. He really didn’t know the next move—that was why he had come in.

  “Step out with me for a second.” She exited with Butler into the hallway, closing the door behind them. They spoke very quietly, just above a whisper.

  Inside Interrogation Room Five, Skylar moved to Eddie, motioning toward the door. She also spoke quietly. “Can you tell me what they’re saying?”

  Eddie nodded, turning his head toward the door. He closed his eyes, which helped him focus exclusively on what he could hear. He cupped his hands behind his ears to amplify whatever sound waves were audible. He repeated the conversation occurring in the hallway, doing rather decent imitations of Butler’s and Victoria’s voices: “You’ve got no choice. You know that, right? . . . I want to make sure nothing’s going to happen to them . . . you can’t. Accept it . . .”

  Eddie was confused by the conversation, and turned to Skylar. “What are they talking about?”

  “Us.” Skylar crossed her arms tightly across her chest and turned away from Eddie. All she could think was, What had she done? Detective McHenry was going to be forced to turn them over to Fenton’s security team, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

  “Why doesn’t Detective McHenry have a choice?”

  “Because the government isn’t going to give him one.”

  Eddie resumed listening to Butler and Victoria’s conversation, repeating every word. “They killed her boyfriend . . . I appreciate that, Detective. But what exactly do you think you can do for them? This is way above either of our pay grades.”

  Eddie turned to Skylar as she started to cry. “Is he talking about your boyfriend, Skylar?” She nodded. “I didn’t know you had a boyfriend. I’m sure he must have been nice. What was his name?”

  Skylar was barely able to answer. “Jacob.”

  “Who killed him?”

  “Dr. Fenton and the mystery man.” She struggled to get the words out.

  “It’s wrong to kill someone. It says so in the Bible. ‘Thou shalt not kill.’” Eddie paused, trying to process the information. “Skylar, why did Dr. Fenton and the mystery man kill your boyfriend?”

  Skylar couldn’t respond. Her face was buried in her hands.

  Eddie wanted to help her, but didn’t know how, so he did the one thing he could do. He continued repeating the conversation in the hallway: “The least I could do is help them get out of the city. What good would that do? . . . They want to go to Philadelphia. Why Philly? . . . The only reason Parks invented the thing was to hear his mother’s voice. She died giving birth to him.”

  Eddie showed no emotion. He continued, sounding like Detective Lieutenant Daniels: “You know what I hate? I hate knowing that this thing exists, and what it could do for every case we’ve ever had, or ever will
have.”

  In the hallway, Butler didn’t follow. “Why do you hate it?”

  “Because there is no way on God’s green earth that anyone at our level is ever going to get the chance to use it.”

  Repeating their words, Eddie turned to Skylar. “Who is ‘anyone at our level’?”

  “I think she means police officers.”

  “Why won’t police officers ever get the chance to use the echo box?”

  Skylar answered quickly. “I’ll have to tell you later.”

  Eddie listened, then repeated the continuing dialogue between Daniels and McHenry. “He’s spent his entire life working on this. He deserves to hear his mother. You’re right. He does. If I don’t help him, who will?” There was a pause in the hallway. Eddie spoke like the detective lieutenant: “You were never here.”

  Eddie made his BUZZER sound.

  Skylar quickly turned to face him, listening intently. “Shh.” She watched Eddie, waiting for him to continue repeating their conversation. He said nothing. “Did they stop talking?”

  “You told me to ‘shh.’”

  Skylar spoke urgently. “Tell me what they’re saying.”

  “I never saw you.” Eddie was about to make his BUZZER sound again, but he could see that Skylar was already gesturing for him not to. Eddie managed to stop himself, and continued repeating what Victoria was saying: “I’ll give you two minutes. Call and tell me the suspects fled right before you got to the station and that you are in pursuit.”

  Victoria’s footsteps could be heard walking away as Butler returned to the interrogation room. “Time to go.”

  Eddie looked confused. “Where are we going, Detective?”

  “You want to hear your mother sing?”

  “Yes, very much.”

  “Then move your ass.”

  CHAPTER 52

  Deputy Inspector Nataro’s Office, Sixth Precinct, May 27, 4:31 p.m.

  Deputy Inspector Nataro looked up as Victoria entered his office. “Detective Lieutenant Daniels, this is Homeland Security Agent Harold Raines. Agent Raines, Detective Lieutenant Daniels.” The agent stood up and shook hands with Victoria.

  She clenched her teeth. This thing was getting bigger fast. Too big. Too fast.