“Have a cup of tea,” she said. “Will you do me a favor, Elliott?”
“What?”
“The snow’s so heavy out there, it’s going to knock down my old deck if it doesn’t get shoveled. I can’t manage it and Bob isn’t here. Would you shovel it for me?”
Elliott followed her like a zombie to the closet and she found him a hat, gloves, and the big aluminum snow shovel. “Go on,” she said. “I’m really worried about that snow.”
“Yeah, why not, snow.” Nina pulled open the sliding door and snow drifted onto the floor. She turned on the floodlight and saw it coming down more heavily than ever. Fine, she thought, let him work out there until he falls down from exhaustion. Then let him sleep, and tomorrow’s another day. She had used the same tactics on Bob now and then when he got into truly terrible moods.
Elliott stomped out there, making deep holes with his boots, and started wielding the shovel with an energy born of all his doubts about himself. He seemed occupied for the moment.
“Nina,” Wish called from the kitchen. He was gulping tea and staring at the computer screen.
“What have you got?”
“Leland M. Flint,” Wish said. “XYC Security. No resume or photo, but look, there’s the name.”
Flint was apparently low on the totem pole, not even a supervisor. The name was listed with many others as “XYC support staff” on the Web site. He had been as easy to locate as a bunion on a small foot, once they had the name and reference.
“They have a killer on their staff,” Nina said. “Maybe they put him up to it, the robbery. As for the other killings, maybe he was on his own, trying to cover up, maybe not.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“Call Cheney. And first thing in the morning-”
Wish waited.
“I’m going to sue the bastards,” Nina said. “I always wanted to say that.”
28
SANDY SAID, “HERE YOU GO.” THE complaints and summonses made a very satisfying package. The agent for service for XYC, Inc. was a law firm in Palo Alto, California, home of Stanford University and countless start-up computer-technology firms.
But XYC was no start-up. The company stock traded on NASDAQ and had split recently, capitalized at over $550 million, its value all in a couple of business parks and a couple of patents. The Wall Street Journal article Nina read said that XYC had been the brainchild of two math grad students at Stanford, who had found a way to use prime numbers to develop a hackproof encryption system for Net commerce. The system was incredibly successful and used by just about everybody now.
“Did Wish get Elliott to the airport?” It had stopped snowing, but flights had been delayed even down the hill in Reno.
“He called in and said the plane took off on time. Elliott had the eyes of a cornered squirrel, he said.”
“And that ain’t good,” Nina said, stealing one of Bob’s favorite phrases. “But he’s told his story now. He’ll feel better barricaded at home.”
“Is he crazy?”
“A little. Speaking unscientifically,” Nina said. “But man, can he throw snow off a deck. He was out there again when I got up this morning. He knew he needed the distraction. He and Wish cleared the driveway and stacked my wood.”
“They work it off,” Sandy said.
“It beats headaches. Okay, the pleadings look good. Let’s serve ’em. Have Wish drive them to Palo Alto as soon as he gets back from the Reno airport.”
“ Palo Alto ’s four hours away. And Echo Summit just reopened, so it’ll be slower than usual. Five hours.”
“Which means he can get them there by five o’clock, easily.” An elderly couple walked in and Nina brought them into her office. The will consultation took almost an hour, and when she was free again, Sandy said, “He’s been and gone. I made sure he had the money to stay at a motel if he can’t get home.”
“I wish I could see their faces,” Nina said. “Professor Braun and the gang.”
“If you’re wrong about any of this, they’re going to pulverize us,” Sandy said. “We can’t fight a big company like that.”
“Watch me.”
“Your judgment is shot. You’re taking this personally,” Sandy said, impassive.
Nina started to speak, to defend herself, but Sandy held up a hand.
“That’s the only reason we got this far,” she said. “Bullheadedness. Don’t stop now. There’s a phone message from the college teacher on your desk.”
Nina nodded and went back into her office. Mick wanted to talk to her.
“Hard feelings?” he asked.
“No.”
“It’s rare to meet a mature woman.”
“Don’t push your luck,” Nina said.
“Right. Well, I read the page you copied of Wakefield ’s work. The physics were too hard for me, so I called a physicist friend of mine. The math was too hard for him.”
“So you can’t evaluate it?”
“You need some topflight guy in the field.”
“The field of what?”
“Well, mathematical physics. Michael Berry is your man. He’s a Brit. Bristol.”
“Just tell me what it’s about, Mick.”
“Oh, sure. Write this down. Tell the world. Wakefield claims the primes are eigenvalues of a Hermitian quantum operator associated with a classical Hamiltonian.”
Elliott wasn’t the crazy one for pursuing this, she was, but she made Mick spell the words and wrote everything down. “Is there an English translation?”
“He’s trying to predict prime numbers using properties of real matter. Atoms and their components.”
“Did he succeed?”
“My friend can’t say. We’d need the complete notebook plus a few months.”
“So-we don’t know what he’s doing?”
“Word is he was in a psychiatric hospital. Is that true?”
“I don’t know,” Nina said. “Maybe.”
“Too bad for him, but just about all the greats spent some time weaving baskets in an institution. André Weil did some excellent work on Riemann’s theories while in prison during World War II. Incarceration in general has inspired some astonishing leaps forward in human knowledge. Anyway, we have contemplated licking Elliott Wakefield’s feet, Nina. But we’re not sure if he deserves it or not.”
“You’re no help, Mick.”
“Look, he treats prime numbers as if they were real. As if numbers were matter. As if-following this, Nina? As if the actual universe we live and laugh and cry in is nothing but a stream of mathematical information. All for the purpose of finding the error term between the actual distribution of the prime numbers and the li line.”
“He calls it a damping coefficient. The error term. I guess the question is, is he succeeding?” Nina asked.
“Give me more.”
“I don’t have more.”
“He has three hundred more pages, you say?”
“Just about.”
“What do you expect from a single page? The math is hard. Hard like diamonds are hard.”
Mick wouldn’t commit himself to anything more. “So-I didn’t break your heart?”
“My heart?”
“You do have one, don’t you? It’s a physiological necessity, I believe.”
“Oh, that heart. No.”
“I could have gotten pretty passionate about you, but I knew I’d be moving.”
“I hope you stop someday,” Nina said. “For your sake.”
“Don’t judge me, Nina.”
“I just don’t see how anyone on the move all the time can be happy.”
“I don’t see how anyone standing still can be happy.”
“Try having a child,” Nina said. “You put down a root. You feel the wet earth. You don’t want to skitter along the surface anymore.”
“Very poetic,” Mick said. “However, no offense, you move plenty yourself, from man to man and place to place, and I might even hypothesize that your heat on t
his subject has to do with your own lifestyle. I’m not feeling this rootedness from you that you talk about.”
Nina did not like hearing this. He was turning her judgment back on her. And it was stingingly accurate.
“Touché,” she said.
“Furthermore, there is a hot babe waiting for me at a certain Mexican restaurant. Still friends?”
“Enjoy your dinner.”
“I’ll send you a bill.”
So dinner was on her. She drove to Matt’s with her comforter and pillow, drank a glass of wine in front of a big fire with him and Andrea, and fielded their questions, and really, she wanted to be depressed about Mick and men in general, but she nodded off early and didn’t get around to it.
December 15 rolled around. Christmas shoppers had joined the skiers along Lake Tahoe Boulevard. There was art of the carved-grizzly-bear variety, turquoise jewelry, sporting goods including the new snowshoes that left your heels free, denim jackets with sequins for the slot-machine players, snowmobile rentals. The casinos brought in heavy hitters for the season and vacancy signs disappeared. The concrete pools of summer held three-foot drifts and the white walls along the road were higher. Every inch of snow was a million-dollar windfall for the resorts, and it looked like a heavy winter.
The lawyers took their cut in traffic accidents, divorces, and business disputes. Sandy tried to fit in the new business. She knew that the courthouse would go as dark as a playless Broadway theater around the twentieth.
“If I were a serial killer, this would be the time,” she remarked to Nina the next morning.
Nina said, “I sent Bob’s presents to Germany this morning. Some clothes, a book, and a stuffed bear. Like he was still three years old.”
“This case’ll be over by Christmas.”
“If it isn’t, I’ll be separated from him.”
“You’ll come to Markleeville and eat with Joseph and me and the family.”
“That would be nice.”
“We do spaghetti on Christmas Eve. You’ll like it.”
“That’s nice. Thanks.”
The phone rang, and Sandy answered.
“Just a moment.” She wagged her head toward Nina’s office, and Nina went in, shut the door, and picked up.
“Ms. Reilly?”
“Yes?”
“The name is Branson. We met in Boston.”
Oh, no, not Branson. She had hoped Branson would not flap his leathery wings so far west.
“I am of counsel to the firm in Palo Alto that will be handling your suit against XYC. We would like to meet with you before this goes any farther.”
“Come on up.”
“We realize you are a busy lady. Could we fly you down tomorrow for a meeting?”
“Fly me down?”
“A private plane will be waiting at the Tahoe airport at eleven. I believe that’s only a few miles from your office.”
“True.” The Tahoe airport served only private pilots these days.
“We could have you back by four at the latest. It’s just a jaunt. I guarantee you a good lunch.”
“What is the purpose of this meeting?”
“To get to know each other. And see if something can be worked out.”
It was ear candy to a lawyer. Nina said, “I’m looking at my schedule now. It does appear that I could clear my calendar.”
“Very good. Just go out onto the landing strip at eleven and look for the blue-and-white Cessna.”
“Okay.”
“See you then.” Branson’s manner had been completely proper. Nina thought to herself: Ally? Or enemy?
Now, why in the world would she even begin to think of him as an ally? Cockeyed Irish optimism was the only way to explain it. She would gird her loins firmly on the morrow, assuming for purposes of argument that women have loins, and that girding would not involve tight spandex.
Tonight she was back home, Wish playing video games on her computer in the kitchen. Wish didn’t seem to mind acting as her shadow, and she was glad to have him. She had her couch to sit on, he had the yellow office chair by the refrigerator, and they were getting used to each other.
The phone rang. “I’ll get it,” Wish said, and picked up. “It’s a lawyer.”
“Nina?”
“Betty Jo?”
“We need to talk to you. Me and Jimmy. Right away.”
“It’s late, and I’d like to know how you got my home phone number,” Nina said.
“Everybody has your phone number. Jimmy got it off PrivateEye.com. And I know it’s late.”
“What is it?”
“Jimmy was attacked tonight. He wants to tell you about it. He was in the Ace High office taking over for Meredith, who by the way is in jail for obstructing justice, thank you very much. A man in a mask. It’s bizarre. You have to hear this.”
“I appreciate your call, but I’m confused. We’re on opposite sides, and-”
“Pish-tosh. You have to hear this.”
“Has he called the police?”
“They came and went already. I’m here in the office with him. Can you come down?”
“I’m on my way.” She hung up and said, “Wish, would you come with me? The Ace High had an incident today.”
“Let me lace up my boots.” He was already shutting down the computer. Nina pulled her parka and boots on over her jeans and they piled into the Bronco.
Adrenaline moved through her veins. She found herself talking to the shooter again. You’re here, all right, she thought. You won’t get me or mine. I’ll get you.
The No Vacancy sign lit up the frosty night. Someone, probably Meredith, had set out plastic reindeer on either side of the entry to the Ace High office. Their noses flashed on and off. The door moved heavily with its jingling wreath as Betty Jo let them in. She looked behind them, left and right, ready to slam it in their faces if anything moved.
And that ain’t good, Nina thought to herself.
Locking and testing the door, Betty Jo said, “I thought you might be able to help me figure this out.”
“How is he?” James Bova lay on a couch in the dark on his back, a pillow under his head. He held something to his nose.
“Broke it,” Betty Jo said. “Got kicked in the belly, too. I just spent two hours at Boulder Hospital with him. Nothing got kicked out of him, he’ll recover, but he wanted to talk to you right away.” Betty Jo turned on a low lamp and Wish checked the windows to make sure the blinds were fully shut. He hadn’t said a word. He took up a position in the corner and Nina was aware that her back was covered.
“Mr. Bova?”
Nina moved closer. Bova’s eyes opened. They were swollen above the bandages and he would have twin shiners in the morning. “It’s all your fault,” he said, moving his mouth with difficulty.
“That’s what they all say,” Nina said. “How do you feel?”
“Vicodin. I’m going to sleep pretty soon.” He moved a little and grimaced, but the drug was keeping him comfortable.
“He’s goin’ home with me,” Betty Jo said. “Hector borrowed the neighbor’s Rottweiler just in case we’re followed. That makes three animals in the house. Nobody’ll get through. Let’s make this quick. Jimmy just met Mr. Lee Flint.”
“He waltzed into the office,” Bova said. “Ski mask. Brown with yellow around the eyes. I knew right away it had to be the same guy. I tried to call 911, but he pushed me against the wall and started beating me. Not talking, just hitting. He broke my nose and blood was spurting all over him. I thought he was going to beat me to death. I’ve got two kids in Sparks. I didn’t want to die.”
Nina had arrived with the usual suspicions-maybe Bova had faked an attack, maybe Betty Jo was pulling something-but seeing Bova now, hearing him, it was plain that someone had set out to hurt him.
“He wasn’t huge, but he knew how to punch and kick. He pushed me onto my knees and started talking to me in this eerie voice, low and harsh, asking me questions. He was mad with fury. That’s the only way I
can describe it.” Bova sniffed and grimaced again and Betty Jo adjusted the pillow. “I’m going to sell this place. I can’t stand this.”
Nina sat down on the scuffed floor beside him. “Take your time,” she said gently.
“The only reason I’m alive is that he believed me when I told him. He knew every word was God’s truth.”
“What did he say, Mr. Bova?”
“He said nobody rides piggyback on him. He made it sound-I don’t know, sexual. ‘Nobody rides piggyback on me.’ Then he hit me hard and I lost a tooth. ‘It had to be you,’ he says, like the old song.
“I said, ‘What? What did I do? Whatever it is, I’ll make it right.’ I just made him madder. ‘You know damn well,’ he says. ‘Stop that fucking bleeding. I’m talking to you.’ He made me take off my shirt and hold it over my face, and he says, ‘You killed that woman and you’re trying to bust me.’
“I said, ‘No! I never killed anybody! I swear!’ He said again, ‘It had to be you. You were in the office, you saw me with the kids. You ran out when I dropped the gun and shot the woman. Why?’ Then I got it. He was talking about the robbery. The Hanna case. I told him-told him I was home in bed with my girlfriend when that happened. The cops called me. I live in Sparks. That’s an hour away. I couldn’t have got home fast enough to take that call.
“I said, ‘I’ll prove it to you! I’ll prove it! I’ll give you the phone records. Just leave me alone, let me catch my breath, we’ll talk.’
“He went over it and over it. He got my girlfriend’s name. He stopped beating me and he was just pushing me, still really mad, but he was starting to believe me. Cussing. He pushed me back on the floor and he stomped around. ‘Then who?’ he says.
“‘I don’t know who,’ I said, and I said he could have the cash-register money if he wanted it. He let me get up and give him the money. I was afraid the whole time he would change his mind and kill me after all. He kept his fists balled and he shoved and pushed me the whole time.
“When the money was in his pocket, he pulled out a knife. ‘That was for you,’ he says, ‘if you didn’t convince me.’
“‘I swear to God,’ I said, ‘why would I kill that poor lady?’ and I could see he believed me.
Case of Lies Page 29