afraid. He's scheduled to do an inventory at the Austin location tomorrow and if Paul's not there, he's gonna want to know why."
I didn't say anything. There wasn't anything meaningful I could say. It was like having to abandon your home just before a hurricane made landfall. You boarded up the windows, tied everything down, and made sure your insurance premiums were paid. There was nothing else you could do, but hope and pray there would be something left to come back to when the storm had passed. Unfortunately, Ben and Alice had no insurance and if their sale fell through, they'd likely be ruined.
"Do you want me to talk to Brim and try to talk him out of quitting?"
"No," Alice said. "We've known him for years and consider him a friend. We can't lie to him. Our financial situation is perilous and he's probably right to jump ship while he can."
"I know, but—"
"It's all right. We're going to talk to the staff and ask them to keep our situation confidential. Hopefully they will."
"Okay. Good luck. Let me know if there is anything I can do."
"I will," Alice said and hung up.
When the phone went dead, I just sat there trying to think of something I could do to help them. It was so frustrating to see the vultures circling over a client in trouble and not be able to do anything about it. I just prayed their employees would keep their mouths shut although I knew that was unlikely. The buyers were getting assets and the Stover's personal financial situation was irrelevant to the sale. Unfortunately, if they found out Ben and Alice were desperate to sell they would try to use that as leverage to get a better deal.
Human predators were far worse than their animal counterpart. They weren't acting instinctively to survive, but for their own profit or enjoyment. They were selfish, conscienceless creatures with no compassion for their victims whatsoever. Bottom line, they were manifestations of the evil of this world in its purest form. Unfortunately, they often operated within the letter of the law and therefore were untouchable. Enraged and frustrated, I silently cursed Ralph Herman for the affliction he had brought down on Ben and Alice. Damn him! Somehow I had to make him pay dearly for his transgressions.
14
Technology Institute
Paula Waters
Getting through TI security wasn't easy but after about forty-five minutes of jumping through hoops, Bart and I found ourselves seated outside the office of TI's HR manager, Robin Sylvester. We'd been promised by his secretary that he'd be with us shortly. Shortly turned out to be nearly an hour, but finally Mr. Sylvester came out and invited us into his plush office. We shook hands and introduced ourselves.
"So, you said you wanted to talk about Chester Brown," Sylvester said.
"Yes, we're representing Walter Stanley. He's currently the number one suspect in the Brown Family murders. Obviously, we're looking into other suspects and trying to gather evidence to move the investigation away from our client."
Sylvester grimaced, snapped his fingers, and pointed at me. "You represented that woman who vanished right in the middle of her trial, didn't you?"
I nodded. "Yes, Cheryl Windsor."
"Whatever happened to her?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. The police and the FBI are still looking for her."
"Huh. That was pretty bizarre. What was all that about a memory erasing device?"
I briefly related everything the public knew about the incident. He seemed fascinated with the story and had lots of questions. I didn't tell him I'd actually held the device in my hand and had a picture of it. Had I told him that, we'd never found out anything about Chester Brown.
"What we came to see you about, Mr. Sylvester, is information about Chester Brown's job and your competitor's interest in Mr. Brown. We believe the murder of the Brown family was a professional job. The fire's triggering device was just too sophisticated for our client to configure."
He frowned. "So, you think one of our competitors wanted to get rid of Chester?"
"Well, we don't know for sure, but that possibility exists and we have to explore it."
"I seriously doubt that was the case," Sylvester stated confidently. "Government contracting is very competitive and highly scrutinized by the FBI, CIA, Congress, the press—you name it. If anyone resorted to violence and got caught they'd be out of business in a heartbeat."
"Still. If the stakes are high enough, they may take the risk, don’t you think?" Bart asked.
Sylvester shrugged. "I won't say it's never happened, and Chester Brown certainly was a valuable commodity, but why kill him?"
"We were told one of your competitors tried unsuccessfully to woo him away. Maybe they thought since he couldn't be bought it would be better if he were eliminated."
"Well, even if I agreed that was possible, how could we possibly help you? We certainly have no knowledge of any such plot to assassinate Mr. Brown."
"Right. But I'm sure you have your suspicions."
He thought for a moment and replied, "Well, the project Mr. Brown was working on is classified, so I can't tell you much about it. It's no secret that Almatech was our most aggressive competitor, though."
"Almatech?"
"Yes, Almatech Life Systems, Inc."
"When you say aggressive, what do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, they spent the most money wooing Congress and pitching the job to the Defense Department."
"So, why didn't they get the contract?" Bart asked.
Sylvester smiled. "They didn't have the technology that we had."
"Is it safe to assume that not having Chester Brown on their team had something to do with it?" I asked.
Sylvester nodded. "That goes without saying, but I'm afraid I've told you all I can on the matter."
He stood up. "I've really got to get back to work. I hope you find Mr. Brown's killer."
Bart stood up but I remained seated. "One last question, if you don't mind. If someone at Almatech did orchestrate the Brown murders, who would you put your money on?"
He gave me a wry smile. "What? You think I'm stupid? I'm not going to slander the CEO of a major U.S. corporation!"
I laughed. "Of course not. It was silly of me to ask."
I got up and Mr. Sylvester showed us out of his office. Two security men met us at the door and escorted us out of the building. On the record Robin Sylvester hadn't told us much, but reading between the lines I was sure the man we needed to be looking at for the Brown murders was the CEO of Almatech. When we got to the car, I asked Bart what his take on the conversation was.
"He didn't tell us a lot. I guess it being a classified project and all he's got to be careful. We probably could have gotten as much information reading the newspaper archives on the contract bidding."
"True, but we wouldn't have known what was important and what wasn't. This was much faster and more reliable. He officially told us nothing but indirectly pointed us right to our target. I'll have Paul Thayer do a complete report on the CEO of Almatech. I'd like to know more specifics about the project that they so desperately coveted and why Mr. Brown was so important."
"Right," Bart said. "Have Paul to do a report on Mr. Brown too—find out where he went to college, where he grew up, his work history, family, etc."
I nodded as I pondered the ramifications of this new information we'd gathered. If there was anything that was clear about this case it was that we were starting to wade into dangerous waters and further investigation would be at our own peril. I looked at Bart and smiled. He raised his eyebrows. He seemed to know what I was thinking.
15
The Guide
Stan Turner
When I got back to Dallas I pulled into the parking garage, found an empty space, and got out of my car. As I was walking to our office building, Alex Garcia suddenly appeared with a photographer.
"Stan. You're a hard man to catch."
"I have nothing to say to you, Alex," I replied without slowing down.
"I think you know what happen
ed to Cheryl Windsor," Alex said. "Why don't you admit it?"
"You're full of shit, Alex, and you can quote me."
"There's a connection between Cheryl's disappearance and your son's death, isn't there?" Alex pressed.
I turned and glared and him. "Leave my son out of your wild speculations. He's dead for godsakes!"
"Don't you think it's odd that after nearly a year they haven't found his body?"
I felt like belting Garcia across the face, but that would just give his story more credibility. I looked straight ahead and kept walking like he wasn't there.
"I'm going to find out the truth eventually, Stan. You might as well save us all a lot of trouble and tell me what you know."
I didn't respond but kept on walking until I was inside the building. One of the building's security guards intercepted Alex to keep him from following me inside. When I got to the elevator and the door closed I breathed a sigh of relief. What an asshole. When I got to my office there was a telephone message from Mo. Seeing the message sent a surge of excitement through me. I didn't know why I was reacting the way I was, but I couldn't wait to meet this mysterious guide who was to be my confidant. I returned the call and waited anxiously for Mo to call me.
I suspected my reaction was due to Kulchz' description of a guide's role. She'd provide for my every need and he meant every need. I rationalized that it was only natural to feel good about having someone like that always there for you, even if you didn't intend to take advantage of all she had to offer.
Mo finally returned my call about a half hour later. He told me to come out to Lake Tawakoni to pick her up. Then it