Future Imperfect

by Simon Rose

  “Let’s check out some of these other companies that she’s been working with,” said Stephanie, as she finished the last slice of pizza.

  They worked until almost ten o’clock, learning as much as they could about Veronica Castlewood and her activities.

  “You should probably delete the browsing history,” said Alex.

  “Yeah, I’ll do it in the morning.”

  “Well, don’t forget,” said Alex. “You usually leave that stuff on your tablet for months.”

  “Relax,” said Stephanie, yawning. “I’ll do it as soon as I get home. So do you think we should go over to Castlewood Dynamics?”

  “We have to if we’re going to get that laptop back,” Alex reminded her.

  “So we just walk right into her office and take it?”

  “Alexander said she shouldn’t be there tomorrow. Let’s hope he’s right.”

  They both heard a car in the driveway, followed by the sound of the car door closing.

  “Mom’s back,” said Alex. “Better shut the tablet down.”

  As Angela walked toward the front door and turned in the key in the lock, Stephanie quickly closed all the websites they’d been studying. She didn’t want Angela to catch a glimpse of what they’d been working on.

  “Are you still here, Stephanie?” said Angela as she stepped into the sitting room. “Your mom’s worried about you.”

  “Oh yeah,” said Stephanie, pulling out her phone. “I put it on vibrate but haven’t been checking the messages. Looks like she tried to call me twice.”

  “Yes, I know,” said Angela, smiling. “She called me too. I told her I’d asked you to order pizza and that you two were probably wrapped up in something technical, as usual. Come on, I’ll drive you home.”

  Stephanie sent her mom a quick text to apologize, grabbed her tablet then went to put on her shoes.

  “See you tomorrow,” said Alex, as Angela opened the front door and she and Stephanie stepped outside.

  “Sure,” said Stephanie. “I’ll text you in the morning.”

  Chapter Seven

  Castlewood Dynamics

  ALEX SLEPT QUITE late the next day. It was just after 11 when the sound of a text alert woke him. At first, Alex thought it might be another message from Alexander, but the icon wasn’t active. The text was from Stephanie. She was coming over in ten minutes. Alex got out of bed and had a quick shower before getting dressed. He staggered downstairs and went into the kitchen. He put a couple of slices of bread in the toaster. When they were ready, he quickly spread peanut butter on them. He’d just finished the second piece of toast when the doorbell rang. He went over and opened the door to find Stephanie standing on the doorstep.

  “Sleep in?” he said, as he opened the door.

  “Yeah,” Stephanie replied, with a grin, “but so did you. Must be all that work we did researching those companies yesterday. Still, at least we can say it’s still morning.”

  “Only just,” said Alex, yawning.

  Stephanie stepped inside and closed the door. Alex glanced at his phone. It was 11:25.

  “Have you had any more messages from Alexander?”

  “No, nothing. Maybe he’ll get back to us after we’ve got the laptop?”

  “True. After all, he should know when we get back here, shouldn’t he? He seems to know everything else before we even do it. So how are we getting to Castlewood?”

  “I guess we’ll have to get a cab. Do you have any money?”

  Stephanie pulled out her wallet and quickly scanned the contents.

  “Not much. I’ve got $10 and some change.”

  “That’s not going to be enough. I don’t have any cash at all.”

  “So what are we going to do?”

  “I don’t know,” said Alex, but then he had an idea. “Wait a minute. I could probably use my dad’s credit card.”

  “Is that legal?”

  “Technically no, but I know it’s still active. The police told my mom to cancel the card, at least until we know what’s happened to my dad, but she refused.”

  “Why did she do that?”

  “She told me it was too much like giving up. To her it was kind of like accepting that he’s not coming back.”

  “I can understand that,” said Stephanie, nodding. “But won’t we need to sign things, like the bill for the cab?”

  “Don’t worry,” Alex assured her, with a wink. “Have you ever seen my dad’s signature? I’ll be right back.”

  He raced upstairs to Angela’s room. His dad’s wallet was on top of the dresser, along with a set of keys and some more of Andrew’s belongings. Alex grabbed his dad’s credit card from the wallet and hurried back downstairs.

  “We shouldn’t be too long over at Castlewood,” he said. “I’ll be able to put this back in the wallet well before Mom gets home.”

  “Wow,” Stephanie said, studying the swirling scribble on the back of the card. “You weren’t kidding about the signature.”

  “Told you,” said Alex, as he keyed the taxi company’s number into his phone. “I can easily forge that to fool anyone.”

  ON THE FORTY-five minute journey to Castlewood Dynamics, Alex and Stephanie discussed everything they’d learned so far. Alex still wasn’t as convinced as Stephanie appeared to be about Alexander. However, Alex had decided that, as crazy as it seemed, Alexander might actually be on the level. They both agreed that they needed more information from Alexander but of course they had no way to contact him. Alexander had also mentioned that he’d had trouble establishing and maintaining a connection. They’d simply have to wait until they received another text or live message from him.

  IT WAS JUST after 12:30 on Friday afternoon when they arrived at Castlewood Dynamics. Alex was nervous when he handed the cab driver his dad’s credit card. Fortunately, the driver didn’t ask any questions and barely glanced at the signature after Alex signed the receipt.

  Castlewood Dynamics occupied a wide glass-fronted office complex in the heart of the area occupied by many corporate buildings in Silicon Valley. The company’s silver logo was prominently displayed on the front of the building and on a large ornamental fountain in the centre of the spacious outer courtyard. It was the middle of the lunch hour for people working nearby, and men and women from the surrounding buildings were outside enjoying the summer sunshine. There were a number of people sitting around the fountain and others wandering in and out of the local restaurants and coffee shops. The sunlight shining on the glass-fronted surface of the Castlewood Dynamics building produced a blinding glare as Alex and Stephanie walked toward the building. The sliding doors parted and they walked into the lobby.

  At the broad reception desk, a gleaming chrome company logo was attached to the front woodwork. A young woman with long dark hair cascading over her shoulders sat behind the desk. She occasionally looked over her glasses at her co-workers as they walked by, greeting them or simply smiling in their direction. She wore a headset and was simultaneously answering the phone as she feverishly tapped away at her computer keyboard. The woman immediately recognized Alex as he and Stephanie approached the desk.

  “Well, hello,” she said cheerily. “And what are you doing here?”

  “Hi, Sandy,” said Alex.

  “And who’s this?”

  “This is my friend Stephanie.”

  “Is she as fond of taking things apart as you are?” said Sandy, with a smirk.

  “Oh yeah,” said Stephanie, laughing. “We do a lot of that kind of stuff together.”

  “I was so sorry to hear about your dad,” said Sandy, changing her tone. “How are you and your mom doing?”

  “Not bad,” said Alex. “The police have been very good and keep us informed about what might have happened to him. We’re not giving up hope.”

  “Is your mom okay? She didn’t say much when she was here yesterday. She kept things to herself.”

  “She’s doing fine,” replied Alex. “Just coping really, not much else we can do.”<
br />
  “And Mr. Castlewood and his niece came over to the house,” Stephanie said.

  “Yes,” said Sandy, nodding. “Your mom mentioned it when she was here yesterday, picking up a few things. Veronica’s visiting Robert at the hospital.”

  “He’s at the hospital?” asked Alex.

  “But he seemed perfectly okay when we saw him,” Stephanie added.

  “He collapsed on the golf course,” Sandy explained. “It’s nothing serious as far as we know and they don’t expect to keep him in for long. Working too hard, I suppose. I’ve told him he ought to start thinking about slowing down. So what are you two doing here? Oh, there goes the phone again. Castlewood Dynamics?”

  While Sandy was talking on the phone, Alex and Stephanie observed the people passing through the lobby. Castlewood wasn’t that big a corporation but had grown very quickly over the previous few years. They’d only moved into their current building around eighteen months earlier and were hiring more people all the time.

  “So what did you say you needed?” said Sandy, as she finished her call.

  “We need to collect my dad’s laptop.”

  “Oh, didn’t your mom get that yesterday with the other stuff?”

  “Well, er,” Alex started to say.

  “She forgot,” said Stephanie, thinking quickly. “It’s in his office.”

  “Okay, well if you just want to go and get it,” said Sandy. “You know where it is right, Alex?”

  “I do.”

  “Okay, I’ll open the door.”

  Sandy activated the switch on her desk. The glass door slid open so that Alex and Stephanie could access the Castlewood offices and laboratory areas.

  “See you two in a bit. Hello, Castlewood Dynamics.”

  ONCE THEY WERE out of sight of the reception desk, Alex and Stephanie stopped to get their bearings.

  “Did you hear what she said?” Stephanie asked. “Robert’s in the hospital, just like Alexander said he would be.”

  “No, he said he was going to die,” Alex corrected her. “Sandy said that Veronica’s just visiting him there.”

  “But Alexander still predicted that it would happen.”

  “Yeah, I know. Let’s hope he’s not right about everything then.”

  “So do you know where Veronica’s office is?”

  “No, but I know where Robert’s is, so it might be close to there. This way.”

  THE OFFICES ALL looked very much the same to Stephanie. Alex had visited the company headquarters several times before and knew where he was going.

  “That’s Robert’s,” he said, as they approached a large office.

  They paused for a moment and looked inside. There were a number of pictures on the walls, along with plaques and framed awards. A bronze sculpture presented to Robert by the local business community stood on the cluttered desk beside the phone. There was also a picture in a frame of Robert’s late wife, beside his favourite Castlewood Dynamics coffee mug.

  “That could be Veronica’s office next door,” said Alex. “Let’s have a look.”

  The office beside Robert’s was slightly smaller than his. The walls were devoid of decoration, and the entire office was clean and tidy, with nothing out of place. The desk had a computer, a phone, and a stack of plastic trays in which some papers, folders, and documents were neatly placed. Alex and Stephanie quickly scanned the office but there was no sign of Andrew’s laptop.

  “Maybe she took it with her to the hospital?” Stephanie suggested.

  “That seems a little strange,” said Alex. “Maybe she just didn’t bring it to work and she’s investigating the laptop’s files at home?”

  “That seems a little odd too though,” Stephanie replied. “Didn’t she say that they had to look over some official company material?”

  “She did,” agreed Alex. “But if she’s looking for something else, she’d want to do that in private. And maybe she’s tricking Robert anyway, so that he doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with what she’s doing?”

  “This is that drone company,” Stephanie said, taking a colourful brochure from one of the desk’s in-trays.

  The Dominus brochure had a yellow post-it note attached. There was a scribbled message stating 10 am the following day. Veronica’s desktop computer was turned off so they couldn’t see what she’d recently been working on but there was clear evidence of her links to Dominus.

  “It looks like Alexander was telling us the truth,” said Stephanie.

  “This only proves that she’s working with the company or maybe just interested in talking to them. Remember, we never saw anything on their website that looked suspicious.”

  “True, but look at this.”

  Stephanie showed Alex a business card that she’d picked up from beside the phone. The card belonged to someone working at Hartfield Tech.

  “Isn’t this the company your dad was thinking of going to work for?”

  “It is,” Alex replied, frowning. “I wonder why she’s been talking to them?”

  “Maybe she knows about your dad’s plans to leave the company?”

  “You might be right, but . . .”

  They both heard voices in the hallway outside the office. Alex and Stephanie ducked behind Veronica’s desk as three Castlewood employees walked past the office door, deeply engaged in conversation. Alex and Stephanie remained hidden until the people had safely passed by.

  “I think they’ve gone,” said Stephanie, peering over the top of the desk.

  “That was too close,” said Alex, as he got to his feet. “Let’s get out of here. We can’t get the laptop anyway.”

  They hurried back to the front desk, where Sandy was still busy at her keyboard and occasionally answering the phone.

  “Did you find what you were looking for?” she asked, as Alex and Stephanie stood beside the desk.

  Before they could answer Sandy’s phone rang again.

  “Castlewood Dynamics. Yes, this is Sandy.”

  Suddenly her face drained of colour.

  “Yes, yes,” she said, her voice trembling. “I’ll let everyone know. Thank you, Veronica.”

  “What is it?” Alex asked.

  “What’s wrong?” said Stephanie.

  “It’s Mr. Castlewood,” said Sandy, struggling to speak. “He’s passed away.”

  She removed her glasses as her deep brown eyes began to fill with tears.

  “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I have to let everyone know.”

  She stood up from her chair and disappeared through the sliding doors into the Castlewood Dynamics offices. Alex and Stephanie looked at the clock on the wall behind the reception desk. It was 1 pm.

  Alex and Stephanie hurried outside and quickly called another cab. He and Stephanie didn’t talk much on the homeward journey. They were both trying to process everything that had just happened. They also didn’t want the driver to overhear them and perhaps wonder what was going on. Alex and Stephanie both realized that they needed to talk to Alexander. Unfortunately, they had no idea when he would next be in contact.

  WHEN THEY ARRIVED back at Alex’s house, he received a message just as the cab drove away. While he and Stephanie stood on the sidewalk, Alex took out his phone. It was Alexander. Pressing the icon, the video opened although it was very distorted.

  “Sorry,” said Alexander. “I’m having trouble establishing a connection. I guess you’ve just got back from Castlewood? So do you believe me now? Robert’s dead, isn’t he?”

  “Yes,” Alex replied. “It looks that way.”

  “But he was so healthy,” said Stephanie.

  “Yes, he was,” Alexander agreed. “And now Veronica has control of the company. The police will investigate Robert’s sudden death. That’s all standard procedure, but the poison Veronica used is impossible to detect or to ever trace back to her.”

  “Poison?” said Alex, in astonishment.

  Before Alexander could elaborate, the video transmission on the phone began to br
eak up.

  “I might lose the connection at any time,” said Alexander. “Do you have the laptop?”

  “No,” replied Alex.

  “It wasn’t there,” Stephanie added.

  “What do you mean?” said Alexander. “It had to be.”

  “We couldn’t find it in her office,” Stephanie replied. “Maybe she took it with her to the hospital?”

  “I don’t understand,” said Alexander. “The laptop was supposed to be there.”

  By now his image was barely visible on the phone’s screen.

  “I have to go,” said Alexander. “One last thing, Alex. Your mom has some news for you.”

  “What about?” Alex asked.

  But Alexander was gone.

  ALEX AND STEPHANIE walked up the path toward the house. To Alex’s surprise, his mom’s car was in the garage. He figured that she must have come home early from work. As he and Stephanie stepped into the house, Angela was sitting at the kitchen table. She quickly straightened her long brown hair as they approached. She looked as if she’d been crying.

  “What’s wrong, Mom?” said Alex. “Are you okay?”

  “Hi Alex, Stephanie. Please sit down. I have something to tell you.”

  Chapter Eight

  Revelations

  ALEX AND STEPHANIE sat down at the kitchen table.

  “I’m afraid I have some bad news,” said Angela. “Robert Castlewood is dead.”

  “What?” said Alex, pretending to be surprised.

  “Oh no,” said Stephanie, following his lead. “What happened?”

  “It was at the golf course earlier today. He just collapsed and had to be rushed to hospital. It seemed okay at first. He didn’t seem to be in any danger at all but then he died.”

  Angela was struggling to hold back her tears.

  “Sandy called me on my cell phone at lunchtime when I was in the car. I decided not to go back to work and to come straight home. I thought you’d need to know right away. Robert’s been so good to us since the accident.”

  “But he was going to do that half-marathon, wasn’t he?” said Alex.