“Ms. Mason, it isn’t like jotting down a few paragraphs of impressions. For it to be proof, I have to show measurements taken over continuous operating times, and document and analyze what’s causing the thermal issue. I don’t carry that around in my head.”
“I was going to suggest…surely your second in command could get your original notes?”
“Gohar knows nothing about the anomaly. And you can rest assured that anything that was at the company has been confiscated by now. I tendered my resignation an hour ago.”
“Please reconsider, Mr. Dasai…”
A long pause ensued. When he spoke, his voice was so soft Leah had to struggle to make out his words. “Let me see what I can do. No promises, though.”
Leah heard a woman’s voice in the background. “Anything you can give me. You have my contact information…”
“I have to go now, Ms. Mason. Goodbye.”
The line went dead, leaving Leah with a sinking feeling. She looked at her call log and saw that the caller ID had been blocked, so there was no way to call him back. She suspected by his tone that she’d spoken to him for the last time, but pushed the negative thought from her mind. The fact that he’d bothered to call again told her that in spite of his rhetoric, he was still engaged, if only emotionally.
She powered down her computer, collected her purse and phone, and made her way to her Honda, grateful that the parking lot had a security guard. “Paranoid,” she whispered to herself as she passed Adam’s car, but felt on edge in spite of her inner dialog’s insistence that she was in no danger.
Still, she hesitated for an instant before starting the engine, thinking about Richard’s Porsche and how desperate to keep the file under wraps the killers had to be to risk murder in one of the most privileged enclaves in California. When the motor turned over and settled into a purr, she exhaled shakily and buckled in, determined not to let her imagination get the best of her. She’d taken on the cartel and walked away intact. This was nothing compared to the Mexicans.
At least, that was what she told herself.
Chapter 41
Heather wasn’t at the apartment when Leah came by after dinner, but Brutus made up for her absence with joy at her appearance, his bottom shimmying like mad as he delivered dog kisses, his paws planted on her shoulders. She couldn’t help but laugh good-naturedly at his boundless affection, and patted his flank as she pushed him away.
“That’s a good boy. Where’s your mommy?” she asked. Brutus whined but got the hint not to jump up again and merely stood trembling, his eyes fixed on her.
She eyed the heavy leather leash on the kitchen counter and smiled at the big dog. “You want to go for a walk?”
If it were possible for Brutus to do a somersault, he would have, and he executed a full pirouette in the air, his whining now as loud as a siren in the apartment.
She pocketed a plastic bag, clipped the leash on his collar, and led him to the door, surprised at how docile he became once she had hold of it, until she remembered her walking the dog with Heather, and her account of his obedience training. Outside, he was a perfect gentleman on the stairs, and allowed her to set the pace once they were walking along the darkened street, slowing to sniff at the base of every hedge and tree while she waited patiently.
They rounded the block and the road noise from the busy intersection a hundred yards away died down, leaving Leah surrounded by relative tranquility even as her thoughts were a jumble. She’d reached a dead end with following the money trail for Heather, but the insurance would make up for it in the end. While Leah was sure she would feel cheated by only receiving five million, there was nothing anyone could do – Adam had confirmed at lunch that he was out of ideas, too, and that the money was effectively untraceable.
Leah frowned when she thought of Richard’s final actions: cheating his wife out of her share of their assets and taking their whereabouts to his death, knowing he’d engineered their disappearance in an untraceable manner. If her opinion of the man could have sunk any lower, that did it.
They ambled around the block, the air cool and redolent of pollen and freshly cut grass. The street was empty, and the glow of lights and flickering of television screens in the apartments around her was muted behind curtains and blinds. Concord was a different world than El Paso or New York, but she was already feeling more at home, the sense of dislocation fading with each passing day.
Leah led Brutus along a strip of grass and they turned another corner. This street was shrouded in gloom, the streetlights sparsely spaced down the block, and she shivered reflexively, glad that Brutus was at her side. She saw the back gate of her complex ahead and felt in her pocket for her key, remembering that the same one that worked on the front entrance was supposed to open the back as well.
Leah twisted the key in the lock and pushed the gate open with a creak. A long line of cars was parked along the perimeter wall, the resident stalls closer to the front entrance. The area was darker than she remembered, and she picked up her pace, the only sound her footsteps and Brutus’s measured panting by her side.
She was halfway to the stairs when Brutus froze, nearly dislocating her arm, his attention fixed on something ahead to the right. Leah’s pulse thudded in her ears as she squinted in the shadows, trying to make out what had alarmed him. The big dog growled deep in his chest, and Leah swallowed nervously, suddenly aware of how alone she was.
A black furry form darted from between two cars and tore away, and Brutus growled again before whining. He looked up at Leah as though seeking her permission to race after the cat, and was visibly dejected when she shook her head and whispered a soft no.
“Not tonight, big guy,” she said, patting the dog’s head, and tugged at his leash to get him moving again. Brutus obeyed and padded alongside her, and they resumed their approach to the stairs.
Leah almost screamed when a figure stepped from behind a car and blocked her path. Her breath caught in her throat as the figure moved toward them, and then she sighed in relief when Heather spoke.
“Taking him for a walk? Is he behaving himself on the leash?” she asked.
“You scared the crap out of me,” Leah complained.
“Sorry. I walked over to the coffee shop. You must have stopped in right after I left.”
“Here. You can walk him the rest of the way,” she said, and handed Heather the leash. Heather took it, and they walked together to the stairs and paused at the base. “Did you get your locks changed?” Leah asked.
“Yeah, first thing this morning. And I called the insurance guy and left a message, but he never returned the call. I hope this isn’t going to be the pattern of dealing with them.”
“They have no reason to stall you. It’s pretty cut and dried.”
“As long as they delay, they’re using the money to make more money. The day they write me a check, that’s over. I can see why they’d want to drag their feet, but there has to be a limit.”
“I’d think so. Give it a week. That seems reasonable. It’s a lot of money.”
“You’re right, but it doesn’t make things any easier.”
Leah broke the news to Heather that Adam had run into a wall tracing the assets, and she shrugged. “I kind of figured. But we had to try. I appreciate everything you’ve done.” She hesitated. “Marco called this afternoon, but I begged off. I think that’s how I’m going to handle him – just not be available. He’ll get the message eventually.”
“Maybe go on vacation somewhere and don’t tell him where. That could work,” Leah said.
“I imagine he’ll find some way to keep busy,” she agreed. “How’s your investigation into Ravstar going?”
“Nobody’s willing to run a piece that could get them sued. So until I get some proof, it’s dead in the water.”
“You’re serious about them being bogus? That surprises me.”
“Maybe it didn’t start out that way, but something must have gone wrong, and instead of fixing things, they’re
playing to the market. That can’t end well.”
“Patrick always struck me as a little hotheaded. Nice guy on the surface, but you can tell he needs this more than most.”
“Did you get a chance to look around for the file?”
“Believe me, I tore the house apart. There’s nothing there.”
“Crap.” She exhaled and eyed Brutus. “Oh well. Maybe something will turn up. I haven’t given up.”
Heather gave her a brittle smile. “No, you don’t do that, do you? It’s one of the things I always admired about you. You’re tenacious – you set your goal, and nothing can stop you.” She paused. “I wish I was like that.”
“It’s vastly overrated,” Leah said, and they both laughed.
“Aren’t most things?” Heather asked, and tugged at the leash. “Come on, big boy.” She turned to Leah. “You coming up, or calling it a night?”
“I’ll come by after work. I’m wiped out.”
“I can imagine. See you tomorrow.”
“Night.”
Chapter 42
The following morning Leah slept later than usual and wound up skipping her smoothie and coffee on the way to work. She barely made it into the office on time and rewarded herself with a doughnut from a box one of the other journalists had left for the group in the coffee room. She carried it and a mug of steaming coffee to her cubicle and settled in for another day of research on Ravstar. Nobody had returned her calls from the prior day, and her voice mail was empty when she checked, which didn’t bode well for her due diligence on the company’s technology.
She was performing her fourth web search when her email inbox pinged with a new message. Leah changed windows to bring up her email and scanned the latest arrival – no subject line, which made her automatically suspect spam.
She opened it and read the one-sentence missive.
Everything you need to know about Ravstar to bury them.
Leah frowned and saw there was an attachment – a pdf file.
She took several calming breaths and walked to Adam’s office. He was typing something on his computer and looked up when she cleared her throat in his doorway.
“Morning, Leah,” he said.
“Morning, Adam. You busy?”
He stopped what he was doing. “Never too busy for you. What’s up?”
“I just received an anonymous email, and before I open the attachment, I want your take on it.”
“Anonymous?”
“Yeah. I don’t recognize the sender, and I don’t want to infect my computer if the attachment is a virus of some kind.”
“What file format?”
“PDF.”
He thought for a moment. “That should be okay. If you want, forward it to my inbox and I’ll scan it.”
“Thanks. I’ll send it in a second.”
Leah returned to her desk and did as instructed, and then retraced her steps to Adam’s office.
“Well? What do you think?” she asked.
“No malware or viruses. It should be safe.”
“Can you open it?”
“Sure.” He clicked on the file, and a six-page document opened. Leah rounded his desk and skimmed the first page.
“Page down,” she instructed, her voice quiet. Adam obliged, and they read together to the end of the document, which contained two pages of spreadsheets. Adam grunted and looked up at Leah.
“If this is genuine…” he said.
Leah brushed a lock of hair from her eyes and straightened. “I know. I think that engineering director came through for me. I’ll need to study the numbers, but if it vets, this is the hard evidence Monte needs to take the story public.”
“It’ll kill the company,” Adam said. “I mean, they haven’t released the prototype yet, but this will show that there’s a serious problem they know about, and they were going to release it anyway. It’ll be a miracle if they’re able to recover from that.”
“That’s not my problem. The truth is the truth. If they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear.” She smiled at Adam. “So it’s safe to open this on my system?”
“Yes. It’s clean.”
“Good. I better get to work. This could be a real bombshell.”
He nodded. “I know.”
Leah spent two hours checking every data point for consistency, and then summarized the findings in a single paragraph: the Ravstar scanner emitted dangerous levels of radiation after eight hours of continuous operation, which could be masked using several software tricks, but which would then intensify at hour number fourteen. In the report, it described the testing protocols used by the lab that would certify the device, and spelled out how to outwit the tests so the defect wouldn’t appear during the protocol, which lasted only twelve hours. There was no way to interpret the report other than to conclude that Ravstar’s management intended to cheat on the tests and presumably deploy a device it knew was dangerous to both operators and travelers.
She reworked her original story to include the report’s revelations and then pared the article down from five thousand words to four, eliminating speculative points and synthesizing the technical jargon into easy-to-understand sound bites. When she was happy with it, she called Monte and asked for a half hour of his time. He agreed to see her at 4:30, and she honed the prose right up until the meeting, foregoing lunch in order to present the most polished piece she could muster.
Monte read through the piece while she sat in his office with a printout of the report in hand. He took his time, occasionally making a note in the margins or excising a word with his red pen. When he finished, he set the pages down and eyed Leah with newfound respect.
“You can’t tell us where you got the data you cite?” he asked.
“All I can say is that it comes from a company insider. Sorry, Monte. I promised to keep the source’s name out of it.”
“I can see why. I’ll have to get legal to buy off on this, and we’ll have to shoot it to the company before we break it so they have an opportunity to comment.”
“I understand,” Leah said. “But don’t give them too much lead time.”
“Whatever legal advises.” He rubbed a hand over his face and blinked twice. “This is outstanding work, Leah. It vindicates Simon’s decision to bring you aboard. This is the sort of investigative journalism we envisioned from the start: subjects the mainstream press would ignore or decide not to run for fear of the fallout.”
“But not us, right? If you understand what Ravstar’s planning to do, it’s downright evil. Especially given the effects of radiation on infants.”
“I get it, Leah. You don’t need to sell me on this.” He grimaced. “I shouldn’t have to tell you that nobody involved in this story can have anything to do with the company’s stock, right? There can’t be any hint of impropriety, because you can bet that the SEC will be looking at everyone here to see if anyone traded on the information in the article before it broke.”
“I don’t own any stocks. The only person who helped me with it was Adam. You should talk to him, too, although I don’t see him as trying anything sneaky.”
“He’ll be my next call.”
“How long until you think it runs?”
“We’ll give legal until tomorrow. They’ll burn some midnight oil on this, but that’s what we pay them for. If they say it’s a go, then we’ll shoot it to the company and give them twelve hours to respond, and then run it. So most likely the day after tomorrow unless the lawyers have any problems with it.”
Leah set the printout of the report on the desk. “Here’s the source document for them to analyze. Bear in mind that anyone they run it past will probably have a connection to the industry, so warn them to be careful.”
“They’ll find some academic somewhere who can give them an opinion. Don’t worry about that. You did your job – it’s in their hands now.”
She gave him a tired smile. “Then maybe this dog will hunt after all.”
“Only one way to find out,�
�� Monte agreed.
Back at her desk, Leah yawned and debated a seventh cup of coffee before packing it in. She decided against it and was rising to leave when Adam appeared in the aisle.
“Monte ran me through the wringer. Sounds like he’s going to run your story.”
“Yeah. Amazing, after all the wrong turns. I wound up trimming out a lot of the stuff we can’t prove – the mob connection being the obvious one. But it’s still gripping, with Richard committing suicide after his car blew up and the FBI raiding his office. It’s got a lot to interest the reader, that’s for sure.”
“Shoot me a copy so I can make sure that it doesn’t cross any lines with my FBI source. I want to stay on his good side.”
She sat back down at her computer and switched the monitor on. “You got it.”
He smiled and eyed her. “Want to grab something to celebrate?”
Leah returned the smile but shook her head. “I didn’t get much sleep, Adam. Ask me tomorrow, assuming legal gives it the thumbs-up. I don’t want to jinx it, and frankly my bed sounds better than just about anything else I can think of right now.”
Adam looked like he was going to say something, but held his tongue and offered a grin instead. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”
“Nope. Tomorrow, Adam. Promise.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Chapter 43
Washington, D.C.
Congressman Winters watched the televised reporting on the crash of Ravstar’s stock amidst investigation announcements and forthcoming fraud and corruption charges, his puffy face deeply lined with worry. The news report on the company’s problems had caused a minor nuclear explosion on the Beltway, where Winters had been one of its main cheerleaders, but like most career politicians, he was adept at dodging any responsibility and had immediately condemned the company’s actions and called for a congressional hearing on the matter in order to get out in front of the fallout.
A Girl Betrayed (A Leah Mason suspense thriller Book 2) Page 24