"Oh, Kate, it doesn't seem quite real, does it?"
Kate thought it seemed a little too real.
"Your father was a wonderful man. So charming. So funny. He always made me laugh."
"I think he was a little sweet on you."
Jane gave a weak laugh. "Well, I suppose the feeling was mutual. Had things been different..." She let the sentence hang and blew her nose. "So tell me, what are you working on? It was an accident that killed Joe, right?"
"How did you know I was working on something?"
Jane gave her a knowing look. "Honey, I've known you since your thirteenth birthday. How can I help?"
Kate shrugged sheepishly. "Did you know Leon Eldridge hired Dad because he thought his life was being threatened?"
"Yes. Joe came to me to follow up on a couple of leads."
Kate nodded. Her father's notes were sparse on his contacts with Touchstone. No doubt he was so familiar with the situation he didn't need many notes.
"I think that the same person who has been threatening Leon Eldridge also killed Delano Gage," she said, committing to words a half-formed idea. "Touchstone is the most obvious common factor. I was hoping you could give me some background about how Eldridge left Touchstone and how involved Gage was in the situation."
Jane fortified herself with a sip of tea. She looked discomfited by the question, which made Kate sorry and glad and a bit guilty all at the same time. The decision to not push Jane was tactical, however. Not sentimental.
"They didn't treat Leon very well," Jane said after a moment. "He wasn't the most likeable person in the world, but he knew his stuff, still does. He taught me most of what I know. Not just me, either." Jane chuckled. "He always made me think of my third grade teacher. No one wanted to get him. He gave the most homework, made you work the hardest and you counted yourself lucky for it at the end of the year."
The moment of good humour evaporated.
Jane fiddled with her tea bowl, her eyes lowered. "The trouble with Leon was he wouldn't play the game. He ran the department efficiently, saved the company millions by knowing when to pay and when to investigate. It was funny, really. Leon was so good at judging people and situations, but he couldn't schmooze to save his life, didn't think he should have to and he spoke his mind. I respected him for that." She took a deep breath. "Mr. Gage was less impressed."
"And then there was Felix Proctor," Kate prompted. "Gage wanted his son-in-law to do well. That must have made things awkward for you."
Jane looked up and fixed Kate with an intent stare. Kate did her best to return the gaze. Damn, but this sort of enquiry was easier with people you didn't know.
"I take it," Jane said coolly, "you know that Felix and I were seeing each other at the time. Did your father tell you?"
Kate shook her head. "If he knew, he didn't mention it or put it in his notes."
"Then how?"
"A precocious teenager thing." Kate gave a small, humourless smile. "Dad used to take me to the holiday parties, then grill me on what I observed. I didn't mention everything I noticed, like how I saw there was something between you and Felix Proctor."
"We were so careful."
"Maybe too careful. You didn't act naturally around each other. Remember, I had seen it all before with my mother and David."
Jane sighed. "It was awkward. Really, I was on Leon's side, but what could I do? I tried talking to Felix about it. He wasn't about to give up the opportunity to take over the department. I honestly don't think either Felix or me sided with Gage against Leon. There just wasn't much we could do."
Kate said nothing.
With a self-deprecating shrug, Jane said, "I had just bought a condo, so I couldn't risk losing my job. Then Gage came through with a better deal and Touchstone signed a contract giving Leon a set amount of work per year for three years while he established his new business. I wondered if Felix had talked his father-in-law into behaving more honourably. He said no."
"So, Eldridge was given the golden handshake, then rehired as a consultant."
"Basically."
Kate sipped her tea. It was a good prop for the role of understanding confidant. The role wasn't entirely assumed, either. She liked Jane and had long thought her father would have been a better match for her than the charming, but unavailable Felix. It was one of the reasons she pretended not knowing who her mother was talking about when the subject came up. She wondered if her mother lied, too.
"It almost seemed as if the whole episode had been engineered for Leon's benefit," Jane said. "Except I don't believe he was acting at being angry and hurt. He may still feel that way. I know he hasn't forgiven me."
"Did he forgive Gage and Proctor?"
"Maybe. Probably. Gage, after all, didn't know Leon personally and Felix could hardly be blamed for looking after his own interests." She shook her head sadly. "It was a Hollywood moment, where everyone turns their backs on the hero except the woman who loves him. I wasn't that woman. No one was. I'm sure he thinks I should have been more loyal."
Kate shrugged. You certainly think you should have shown more loyalty. I wonder if Eldridge is more or less forgiving. Aloud, she said, "Eldridge is making more money now, right?"
"Loads more, I would think." Jane relaxed. "He does a lot of work for Touchstone. Risk assessment has always been a big part of the business."
"Such a big part, I would think you'd have your own team of specialists."
"Of course we do." She laughed. "Like I said, Leon is really good. In any case, he only gets what was guaranteed him."
"Which is about half his overall income," Kate said, "assuming my father's figures are correct."
An expression of surprise, almost shock, crossed Jane's face before her habitually cheery disposition reasserted itself. Joe Garrett's figures were not called into question.
"Look at the time," Jane said without looking at her watch. "I had better get back to work." She paid the bill and encouraged Kate to stay and finish the pot.
Kate allowed her to go. She told her eCom to transcribe the recorded conversation and spent the next twenty minutes or so adding notes while her thoughts were fresh.
Jane had not been as forthcoming as Kate had hoped. She was still touchy about Felix Proctor and reticent about Leon Eldridge. What Kate needed was office gossip. Every office had at least one person who would spread the dirt to anyone who would listen. The problem was, Kate wasn't sure she knew the right person. On the other hand, she had a pretty good idea about the right place to look.
The Touchstone building was around the corner from the Mortar and Pestle Building.
The Helios was a favourite lunchtime venue for those employees who wanted to get out of the building and weren't on expense accounts. In a place where many of the customers were acquainted, it was natural for conversation to spread from table to table.
Kate knew from experience her father might start a meal on his own, but by the time dessert and coffee was being served, his table was overflowing. He made himself familiar with the insurance company staff the way he got to know so many people. He was an interesting and interested person. He listened and remembered personal details like birthdays and favourite beverages. He built relationships and relationships with Touchstone staff paid off.
This kind of socializing didn't come naturally to Kate, which was odd because in her own way, Kate's mother was just as outgoing. Or perhaps it wasn't so odd.
When she was growing up, Kate's father seemed to be working all the time. Her mother, to whom Kate had been an unplanned pregnancy, went back to school as soon as she was able. One or the other was around in the evenings, but rarely both. It wasn't that Kate was neglected or felt unloved, only she learned looking to herself for company, not other people.
Of course, that didn't mean that Kate didn't learn social skills. There were the holiday parties where Joe showed off his daughter to business associates and the dinner parties where her mother would bring home half a dozen unexpected guests and put Ka
te to work tossing salads and serving drinks. Mostly, she was expected to be polite and listen, a very valuable skill in her chosen line of work.
So when Kate re-entered the Helios, she didn't greet the people she recognized with the boisterous charm of her father, or the composed assurance of her mother. She quietly looked around with an uncertainty only partly feigned.
A woman, with unnaturally black hair, stood and beckoned Kate toward her table. It was one of the big round tables in the middle of the floor, around which tables for two and four were stationed like satellites. There were already eight people sitting there. It took an extra chair and some squeezing around to fit Kate in. While this was arranged, Kate searched her memory for the woman's name.
"Honey, you must feel awful."
"Pretty much, Piper."
She might not have her father's charm, but she had his talent for remembering names.
Piper Callan was an administrative assistant in the claims department. She always volunteered when someone had an errand to run. Kate had met her a few times at parties and delivering papers to her father's office.
"Katie," Piper said to the table at large, "is Joe Garrett's daughter. We were talking about Joe over coffee earlier. All those years on the police force and then a private investigator..."
While Piper burbled on, Kate signalled one of Oma Filandros' grandchildren and ordered the goat souvlaki plate and a soda water with lime. When her drink arrived and a few people had left Piper paused to ask what Joe Garrett had been working on when he died.
"He was just doing a job for Leon Eldridge."
"One of our jobs?" Piper answered her own question. "Of course not. Leon's contract was up as of the first of the month. I doubt Felix would send any more business his way until a new rate was negotiated. I know I shouldn't say anything, but the man gouged us, by that, I mean the company, of course. Well, that's what happens when you know where all the bodies are buried."
Kate tried to think of a prompt to elicit further information. She needn't have bothered. She had found her informant.
"Everyone felt so sorry for him when he was forced out. Poor Jane, she almost wept. I wonder if she would have been so soft-hearted if she had known what he knew and was willing to tell about her."
Piper signalled the zipping of her lips.
"I'll never tell. Not for his sake, of course. He deserves whatever he gets, but Jane is my friend. Her mistakes should not be allowed to haunt her so."
Kate wasn't willing to probe further into Jane's peccadilloes, at least not in public, so she dropped Delano Gage's name.
"What a class act," sighed Piper.
Two other women and a man sighed in sympathy.
"I always had a soft spot for that man, so handsome, so well-spoken, even though I know he's no saint. Who is?"
She bowed her head, as though in silent prayer, then sighed deeply again.
"He will be missed."
Piper catalogued Gage's many virtues and achievements while Kate tucked into her souvlaki, rice and salad. Outside, she was another one of Piper's attentive audience. Inside, the police officer was filing away such tidbits as "always faithful to whichever wife" and "so canny the way he handled the Eldridge business" and "Felix Proctor owes everything to him."
"Mr. Proctor must be devastated," Kate suggested.
"Or relieved. I think Mr. Gage was becoming disenchanted with his son-in-law. Felix Proctor is good at all the things Leon Eldridge was not. He isn't quite as good at the things Leon Eldridge excelled in."
Perhaps feeling she had said too much, Piper turned the subject to discuss one of the temp workers who had been so fashion-backward as to appear at work in a mini skirt and tight sweater.
"No one wears mini-skirts at this time of year and tight sweaters are so last decade."
People started to leave. Others took their place. Kate ordered a coffee and chocolate fingers so she could linger and listen. Neither Eldridge nor Proctor came up in conversation again. Gage's death cropped up over and over.
"It was such a shock," said one man, whose name, if Kate heard it correctly, was Jam Roll. Piper's mouth was full of baklava when she made the introduction, so Kate filed his name as pending. "I don't think anyone even knew he had a heart condition."
"Or a heart," quipped an unnamed clerk.
Piper snapped at him like terrier. "Enough of that! Mr. Gage was a shrewd businessman. Just because he made hard decisions doesn't mean he was hardhearted. The fact he never made a big deal about his heart condition proves he was thoughtful and courageous."
"Whatever," said the clerk.
"Mr. Gage didn't want anyone knowing because he didn't like to show weakness," said a newcomer. She was a scarily gorgeous blonde, the very model of an ice princess. Kate thought she might be Gage's secretary. She wasn't positive. "He was worried the board might try retiring him if they knew."
"Do you think they would have?" Piper asked.
"Mr. Gage thought so. If he hadn't, he wouldn't have gone to Leon Eldridge for help."
Piper's jaw dropped.
"Oh, dear," the woman said. "I appear to have said more than I should. I better get back to the office. So should you, Ms. Callan. I'll see you tonight, Ms. Garrett."
14
Valerio treated Jake to lunch at Tannhauser's Gate, a brew pub and coffeehouse situated in the Gridiron Building, across the road from The Justice and Emergency Services Building. It was the local hangout of police, ambulance and firefighting personnel, as well as civil servants from the federal government offices upstairs. Its customers were very serious about their alcohol and their coffee.
The barkeep pulled fifteen types of beer, three of which were brewed on the premises. There was also a wide selection of Scotch, Irish and American whiskeys, brandies from all over the world, and the usual bar beverages. The barista roasted light, dark and espresso beans which were freshly ground immediately before being brewed, expressed, or boiled. In comparison, the food wasn't anything special.
The menu was the basic fusion pub grub. Today, pot-stickers, Cornish pasties and Buffalo wings were on the board, with the usual choice of fries, rings, peas and rice, or salad accompanying.
Jake was wolfing down a ham and cress sandwich, washed down with a Coke. He hadn't had breakfast and it was catching up with him. Valerio picked at a plate of pot-stickers and a house salad.
"You might think I'm crazy," Valerio said, stabbing a dumpling, "but I believe Jericho. I think he's genuine when he says he was testing the game."
Jake swallowed and wiped his mouth.
"Yeah, I think so, too. Someone could have tampered with the security system to overwrite Jericho's game. It could have been done to shift blame for the fire onto him. It wouldn't have been easy. They have a better than average security system there. The trouble is, anyone clever enough to do that kind of work would have had plenty of time to cover it up."
Valerio gestured with his empty fork. "What if deleting Jericho's game was incidental? Maybe someone just turned off the security recorders so they could set the fire, then turned them on again."
"They wouldn't have long," Jake pointed out, signalling their waiter he wanted another drink. "That sort of thing would send up all kinds of alarms unless it was a momentary break in the system."
"How long does it take?"
"I'm still waiting on the final word from the arson investigator. Since there was no personal injury, it doesn't have top priority."
Valerio sighed, then suddenly smiled. Laying his napkin neatly beside his plate, he stood and excused himself. A moment later he returned with a tall, dark and intimidating looking man in a fire department uniform.
"Carmedy, let me introduce Miles Senobi. He's a geek wannabe. Miles, this is Joe's partner, Jake Carmedy."
Jake stood and held out his hand. It was swallowed in Senobi's. Everything about the man was larger than life.
"Geek?"
"I know," said Senobi, "I don't look like a scientist. I don't think I can
make the claim yet. I'm working on it."
"Meanwhile, he can offer expert advice on arson," said Valerio, flourishing his napkin before returning it to his lap.
"No," Senobi said. "I can give an off-the-record opinion. I would be pleased to help. Joe was a great guy and very encouraging to me, unlike most cops." He gave Valerio an apologetic smile. "Present company excepted."
Jake knew a certain amount of rivalry existed between the departments. He wasn't about to add to it by pointing out he was an ex-soldier. Being a PI was probably bad enough. Instead, he gave the firefighter the details he had and listened with rapt attention to the technical information Senobi waxed so poetic over.
Eliminating a host of unlikely methods that were too complicated or time-consuming, and touching on some of the ways which could have worked if they had fit the facts, still left a handful of means that fit the known profile
"If it were me, I'd use a binary fire bomb with a simple hour glass mixing system." Senobi picked up the salt and pepper to demonstrate. "Two chemicals that combust when combined are separated by a physical barrier and chemical buffer. You remove the barrier when you set the bomb. Then the chemical buffer starts breaking down or mixing with one of the chemicals. Eventually, poof. You've got a fire. Meanwhile, the arsonist is long gone."
"If you're right," Jake concluded, "no one has a good alibi, after all. Great."
Senobi gave an apologetic shrug.
"Who could make a bomb like that?" asked Valerio.
Senobi put the condiments back in their basket. "It's high school chemistry. Someone with a bit more know-how could set the bomb and know exactly when the fire would start."
Jake sighed. At least he had an angle on the Moonlighting case. Maybe by the time he got the forensic information confirmed, he'd have an idea who would have the expertise to set such a device.
Deadly Legacy (A Carmedy & Garrett Mystery) Page 9