The Clockwork Teddy

by John J. Lamb

  Newton glanced up at me and then his gaze dropped back to the table. He sighed and said, “What do you want to know?”

  Gregg opened his spiral notepad and clicked his pen briskly. “Thank you for your voluntary cooperation, which is how I’m going to write it in my report, Mr. Newton. Now, tell us all about Patrick the talking polar bear.”

  Nineteen

  “Did you find it?” Newton’s tone was pitifully eager.

  Gregg gave him a faux indulgent smile. “I know you’ve been away from cop work for a while, so here’s a quick refresher on police interrogations: I ask the questions and you answer them. Not the other way around.”

  “But there isn’t much I can tell you.”

  Aafedt checked his watch. “Wow. You went from helpful witness back to being a codefendant in less than ten seconds. That’s a new world’s record. Let’s go get the search warrant, Gregg.”

  The security director held his hands out imploringly. “Look, you’ve got to understand that I don’t know one-quarter of what they’re working on at any given time in this place. So, the first time I ever heard about the cyber teddy bear project was on Wednesday afternoon, when it all got dumped into my lap.”

  “What happened?” Gregg asked.

  “It started with someone activating two fire alarms in the robotics facility. Per our normal policies and procedures, we evacuated the building.”

  “Something tells me you didn’t find a fire.”

  “No, and when we checked the security videos, we saw that Vandenbosch had tripped both alarms.”

  “Why did he do that?”

  “As we later discovered, it was to create a diversion, so that he could steal the prototype bear. He had it inside a canvas bag and walked right out the front door with it. It was a complete breakdown in our security procedures.” Newton’s voice was bleak.

  “Which your bosses blamed on you, right?”

  “It took almost a half hour for the airhead who runs the robotics facility to even notice that Vandenbosch had disappeared with the bear. But, yes, I was held responsible.”

  “What happened after that?”

  “We locked down the plant, but by that time, Vandenbosch was long gone.”

  “So, Patrick was created here?” I asked.

  “Of course. Why would you ask that?”

  I glanced at Gregg, who gave a tiny nod signaling me to continue with the questioning. I said, “Vandenbosch has been telling people that he used his own money to create the bear in his home.”

  Newton gaped at me as if I’d just suggested that he’d enjoy being back in a black-and-white and patrolling a gang-ridden neighborhood. “That’s ludicrous. The company has spent millions of dollars developing that toy.”

  “And you can prove that?”

  “Absolutely. Vandenbosch tried to cover his tracks, but we’ve still got the hard copies of the schematics, a photo log of the project, and the testimony of all the other people working in the robotics lab.”

  “How did he try to cover his tracks?”

  “One of the first things I did when we began our investigation was have my best IT person secure Vandenbosch’s computer. I figured it would contain valuable evidence.”

  “Wise move.”

  “Unfortunately, that’s when we found out that Vandenbosch had loaded extremely sophisticated logic bombs into all of the computers in the robotics facility’s network.”

  “Sorry, but I’m not familiar with that term. What’s a logic bomb?” I asked.

  Newton looked miserable. “Basically, it’s a program that sits in a computer until an execute command is given. Then it destroys all the data on the hard drive. Vandenbosch activated them right about the same time he pulled the fire alarms.”

  “Does that mean the software programs that Kyle designed for Patrick are gone?”

  “The experts have told me that, given enough time, they might recover some of it.” Newton didn’t sound hopeful.

  “So, he wasn’t just covering his tracks. He went into scorched-earth mode. Had Kyle been having any problems with anyone at Lycaon?”

  “None that we were aware of.”

  “But you admit that up until Wednesday you weren’t in the information loop. For all you know, there might have been trouble brewing for months,” I said.

  “What are you getting at?” Newton was interested and leaned forward.

  “We’ve been told that Lycaon basically tried to steal the bear from Vandenbosch and refused to offer him any compensation.”

  “Whoever said that was either lying or badly misinformed. I’ve since heard through the corporate grapevine that Vandenbosch and his project partner were going to receive six-figure bonuses once the cyber bear went into production.”

  Although I already knew the answer, I asked, “And who was his project partner?”

  “Rhiannon Otero. She’s a robotics expert.”

  “Is she here today?” Gregg asked, reinforcing the pretense that we hadn’t already interviewed Rhiannon.

  “No, she called in sick this morning.”

  “That’s a shame. It would have been useful to talk to her.” Gregg wrote something in his notebook. “Was she here on Wednesday?

  “No, she called in sick that day, too.”

  “Suspicious, don’t you think?”

  “Of course.” Newton bristled a little.

  “What kind of relationship did they have?”

  “I understand they were dating.”

  “Even more suspicious,” said Gregg. “Have you talked to her?”

  “Late Wednesday afternoon. She was at home in her pajamas. Our assessment of her was that she didn’t know this was going to happen.”

  “And she couldn’t tell you where Vandenbosch was?”

  “No. She even called his cell while we were there, but he wouldn’t answer.”

  Gregg leaned forward to rest his chin on his fist. “Okay, let’s go back to earlier that afternoon. The crap has hit the fan and you’re standing there in front of your bosses, right?”

  “Yes.” Newton sighed and I could tell he was reliving an unpleasant scene.

  “And I’m assuming they gave you the mission of recovering the bear. I’ll bet your bosses stressed how important it was to get the bear back quickly, before Vandenbosch could sell it to one of your competitors, right?”

  “We assumed that’s why he’d stolen the prototype robot. The board made it clear that the clock was ticking and they wanted fast results.”

  “And that your job was on the line if you didn’t recover the bear.”

  “That was implied.”

  “Did your bosses also say that they’d cover your pay if you were forced to accidentally break something like a door . . . or someone’s arm?”

  “They told me that they’d cover all my expenses. I’m not naïve. I understood what that meant.” Newton then added in a huffy voice, “But I want you to understand something, too. I never broke any laws, nor did I instruct any of my personnel to do so. I’ve always been a by-the-book cop.”

  Gregg started to laugh and threw one arm over the back of the chair. “Oh, Newt, you were doing so well and then you had to go and ruin everything by lying to us.”

  “I’m not lying. Everything we did was legal!”

  “Does that include breaking into Vandenbosch’s apartment on Wednesday afternoon and trashing the place?” Gregg noticed the flicker of surprise that crossed Newton’s features and added, “Oh yeah, we know all about that.”

  “We didn’t break in. The door was open and the apartment was already like that.”

  “How convenient for you.”

  After a quarter century in law enforcement, my natural instinct was to automatically mistrust anything a police administrator said. Yet, I believed Newton. It was easy to imagine how panicked he must have been on Wednesday afternoon. I couldn’t picture him wasting time vandalizing Kyle’s apartment when his lucrative position hung on retrieving the bear.

  Then anoth
er disquieting thing occurred to me and I said, “No, Gregg; how convenient for Kyle.”

  My old partner looked at me. “What are you thinking?”

  I resisted the urge to slap the tabletop in frustration when I realized that we’d been fooled again. “It’s another freaking frame job! Kyle knew that the very first place that Lycaon security would go was his apartment. So, he trashed the place himself—”

  “Because he knew the neighbors would notice the security guys going into the apartment and assume they committed the vandalism while searching for the bear,” Gregg finished the statement for me.

  “And it worked. It’s what we thought happened,” said Aafedt.

  Newton looked confused. “But what did he hope to gain by doing that?”

  I replied, “To put your company on the defensive. I’m pretty certain Kyle’s original plan didn’t include a murder, but he did figure he’d end up being sued in civil court by Lycaon.”

  “And?”

  “He was going to sing the blues about how he’d been persecuted by the wicked capitalist pigs and their thugs. I imagine his version of the story was going to be that he was there at the apartment when you arrived and just managed to escape with his life.”

  “Who would have believed that?” Newton demanded.

  “His mother, for starters. That’s the tale he told her. And he also hired a PI to threaten her using the Lycaon name, to corroborate the persecution story. We all know that the story might have played well to a certain kind of northern California jury.”

  “My hat is off to this kid,” said Gregg. “He’s been three steps ahead of everyone from the very beginning.”

  “That’s because he’s planned this entire thing out like one of his computer games,” I said. “Mr. Newton, what did you do when you finished at Vandenbosch’s apartment?”

  “Like I said, we went to interview Ms. Otero.”

  Gregg said, “You keep saying we. Who was the other person that was with you that day?”

  “His name is Cory Eldritch. He’s my special investigator,” said Newton. “He’s a former cop from my old department.”

  “Is Mr. Eldritch here today?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good, because we’ll want to talk to him at some point.” Gregg consulted his notebook for a second and said, “Did you go anyplace else once you finished questioning Otero?”

  Newton nodded. “Into San Francisco. Otero told us about Vandenbosch’s close relationship with his mother and we hoped he might be there.”

  “Did you contact his mother?”

  “No. We could see that she was alone and we didn’t want to let her know we were watching her house.”

  “You could see her? How?” Gregg asked suspiciously.

  “She was in a room upstairs, and the curtains were open. The lights were on and we could see her working on something.”

  “And how long did you watch her?”

  “Until about ten P.M. She turned the lights off shortly after that.”

  “Meanwhile, you were waiting for Kyle’s wireless provider to call and tell you they’d done a GPS locate on his phone. Right?” I asked. “You didn’t have a search warrant, so how’d you persuade them to violate their right-to-privacy rules?”

  Newton looked embarrassed. “We’re . . . uh . . . one of their software vendors. I don’t have any details on what was said to secure their cooperation.”

  “Call me a cynic, but I’ll bet it was probably, ‘We’ll deposit the payment in your off-shore account right now.’ I hope the money was well spent.”

  “It wasn’t successful. Vandenbosch’s cell phone hasn’t been turned on since Wednesday. We assume he knew we would try to track him that way.”

  “So, you were dead in the water. Did something change on Thursday or Friday?”

  “Not really.”

  “Even though you’d assigned stake-out teams to follow Rhiannon and Kyle’s mom?” I added encouragingly, “Don’t look sheepish. It’s exactly what I would have done.”

  Newton suddenly looked weary. “But you would have had trained professionals doing the surveillance. I have the Keystone Kops . . . wannabes who work security, because they can’t pass the police selection process.”

  “Still, you tried to put the women under round-the-clock surveillance.”

  “That was the plan, but my teams always lost contact with their targets.”

  “Meanwhile, your board of directors was screaming for results.”

  “Yes. That’s when I decided to discontinue the surveillance on Vandenbosch’s mother, and Eldritch and I would focus on following Otero.”

  “And what day was that?”

  “Saturday morning.”

  Gregg asked, “How did your surveillance work out?”

  Newton shrugged. “We kept close obs on her throughout the day, not that she went many places. Just shopping at the fashion park in Cupertino and then home. Oh, and she stopped to pick up some Thai food.”

  “How long did you watch her?”

  “Until about twenty-three hundred hours,” said Newton, using military time for 11 P.M.

  “That’s damned interesting,” I said in an artificially hearty voice. “You had Rhiannon under surveillance all day, yet you didn’t see her drive up to Sonoma or back to San Francisco and stop at the Paladin Motel. So are you a Keystone Kop, too, or just a freaking liar?”

  Twenty

  Newton inhaled sharply and shot a panicked glance at the door.

  “And there’s your answer,” Aafedt growled.

  “Let’s try for another one. Who drives the black Dodge Avenger with the California plates of seven-ocean-charles-ocean-zero-two-six?” Gregg’s voice was colder than a Martian winter.

  “It’s mine.” Newton’s voice was barely audible.

  I sat back in my chair and gave the security director an evil grin. “My, my. I think we just took a giant step closer to identifying our gunman in the ski mask.”

  “I had nothing to do with that murder.” Newton sagged into the chair.

  “But you were out there,” said Gregg.

  “Yes.”

  “Were you armed?”

  “No. I never carry a gun.”

  “Good, then you won’t mind standing up and assuming the position so my partner makes certain that wasn’t another lie.” Gregg turned to Aafedt. “Pat him down for weapons.”

  The security director stood up and put his hands against the wall as Aafedt conducted a thorough weapons search. However, Newton was telling the truth. He was unarmed.

  Once Newton was again seated, Gregg asked, “Was Eldritch with you on Saturday night?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then call him and get him in here ASAP. And don’t even think about trying to warn him, unless you want me to drag you out the front door in handcuffs.”

  “I’ll try. But he may not want to talk to you.”

  Gregg turned to Aafedt. “Danny, jet out to the main gate and make sure Eldritch doesn’t try to escape.”

  Aafedt gave the security director a glare and then jogged from the room. Meanwhile, Newton had pulled his phone from its holder on his belt and was pressing Eldritch’s number. Staring at us with frightened eyes, he told the special investigator to come to the conference room.

  Disconnecting from the call, Newton said, “He said he’s on his way.”

  “Good, and in the meantime you can tell us what you were doing at the Paladin,” said Gregg.

  “I am not responsible for that murder.”

  “What about Eldritch? Did he do it?”

  “He said he didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “You weren’t there?”

  “No, I was in the car. I never got out of the car.”

  “Which was parked behind the liquor store down the block?”

  “Yes.”

  “And Eldritch was at the motel looking for Vandenbosch.”

  “Yes.”

  “Was your special investigator armed that night?” />
  “I don’t know. He could have been.”

  “And when you heard all the gunfire and he came running back to your car, did it maybe occur to you to ask him if he was involved?” Gregg’s tone was laden with irony.

  Newton was wiggling in his chair like an anxious toddler. “I think it would be best if I invoked my right to remain silent now.”

  “Fine, the interview is over. You can leave or stay, I don’t care which, so long as you keep your mouth shut while we’re talking to Eldritch.”

  “I’m not under arrest?” There was a faint trace of relief in Newton’s voice.

  “Only because I don’t feel like spending half the day booking you and writing the paper. I’ll get a warrant and come back later. So, Newt, are you going to go or stay?” Gregg demanded.

  “I’ll stay for now,” Newton mumbled.

  “Okay, but keep one thing in mind. If you do anything to interrupt the interview, I’m going to book you and make sure that all the inmates find out you’re a cop.”

  The door opened and Cory Eldritch came into the conference room. He had the unmistakable look of a burly ex-cop: dressed in that haphazard combination of Levi’s Dockers, an inexpensive sports jacket, and an out-of-style tie that passes for professional work apparel for California police detectives. Eldritch scanned the room and the look on his face said he smelled trouble. I didn’t get the sense he was dangerous, though, just frightened. Suddenly, I wasn’t so certain he was our killer.

  “You wanted me, Mr. Newton?” he asked his boss.

  “Please sit down, Mr. Eldritch. I’m Inspector Mauel from the San Francisco Police Department and we need to talk to you,” Gregg said.

  “What’s this all about?” Eldritch was still standing in the doorway and suddenly looked ready to bolt.

  Without thinking, I said, “Cory, your boss has just set you up big-time to take the fall on a One-Eighty-Seven. We think he’s lying, so we need your help.”

  “I knew it. I told you, you stupid bastard! Didn’t I tell you? But you wouldn’t listen!” Eldritch snarled at Newton, who cringed.

  “What did you tell him?”

  “That we should have gone to police headquarters that night. But, oh, no!” Eldritch flung his arms skyward. “Slick Vic had one of his patented brainstorms and I’m such a freaking idiot, I went along with him.”