James frowned. "No, but I can store it in the office safe until we can get one installed."
"That's not a bad idea."
"You've mentioned him before, but who exactly is Bobby Kent?"
"Big time star, James. You really need to get out more." She laughed at his frown.
"I know who he is, but I don't know who he is to you."
"We are very good friends. Nothing more now or ever, despite the tabloids. We hit the scene the same year, and met at an awards celebration. We both won the Horizon Award from the CMA the same year, had a bunch of pictures taken together, and just clicked." She clipped the earrings on and ran a brush through her hair.
"What's that?"
"What's what?"
"The Horizon Award?"
She drew her hair up from the sides, added a gold clip, and turned to face him. "Best new artist."
"And what is … "
"Country Music Association." She opened the drawer under the sink where her makeup kit had found a home. After she applied a bronze tinted lipstick, she stopped what she was doing and met his eyes in the mirror. "I'd like to buy a house. Maybe south or up north. This apartment is great for just you, but, honestly, it's a little small."
He raised an eyebrow. "Do you know how many square feet this apartment has?"
"I know exactly how many," she laughed. "But there's no room for my piano." She turned from the mirror and looked at him directly. "Do you want to look at houses with me?"
"I would when you get it narrowed down. Find what you want, or hire a Realtor to find what you want, then we'll look together. Because, honestly, I don't care where we live."
Feeling a flood of love and overwhelming emotion, Melody went to him and let him hug her to him. "I am ready for this stuff to be over. I feel like we can't start our life until it's over."
"Well, I'll admit that most marriages don't start under crazy stalker situations, but I love you and you love me and we both love God. You can't ask for too much more. We'll get through it."
She huffed out a breath and looked up at him. "You are incredibly pragmatic at times."
James raised an eyebrow. "Exactly what else should I be?"
"Even a little bit worried would be nice." Melody frowned and stepped back. "You can't possibly know what will happen next."
"I have some anxiety and I don't have a clue as to what happens next." James put a hand on her shoulder. "But I trust the One who does. That's what matters." He rubbed her arms up and down. "Would you feel better if we prayed before you start your day?"
For so long she had shut God out of her life. Day by day, James was teaching her how to bring Him back. She wanted the confidence in Him that he seemed to have, longed for it actually. "I think that would be wonderful. Thank you."
¯¯¯¯
JAMES and Kurt pulled into the parking garage at the same time, so Kurt rode up with James on his elevator, both men lost in their own thoughts. James set his briefcase down, took off his coat, and sat in one of the chairs at his conference table rather than at his desk. Kurt sat across from him and pulled the phone close, calling Eve to let her know he had arrived in the building. Then he used the intercom to ask Rebecca to bring them coffee, and sat back in his chair.
"What's up, brother?" Kurt asked.
"I've been thinking that it's time we invested in a corporate jet," James said.
"I said the same thing to you two years ago."
"We waste a lot of time sitting in airports, waiting on flights, changing flights. It would make more sense if we had our own."
"Yep. Same argument I gave you two years ago."
"We could lease or we could write off the majority of the expense …"
Kurt looked sharply into every corner of the room, "It's like there's an echo in here, but it takes two years to resonate."
James smiled, "I guess that concludes the monthly meeting of the stockholders of Montgomery-Lawson Enterprises."
Rebecca brought in a tray of coffee, and took Kurt's coat to take to his office. "Rebecca," James said, halting her exit. "See if Mike Redman is in the building yet, and send a car at ten to the hotel to pick up the Niroshim's reps."
"Yes, sir. Mike is here. I'll call his office. The car has already been arranged, and they should be in your office by ten thirty."
"Good. Thank you."
"Yes sir. Anything else?"
"Not until ten-thirty," James said. Rebecca left, and James poured them both a cup of coffee.
James propped his feet on his table. "I've been doing some research through Angela's career. Apparently, a student from Serbia named Rikard Šabalj gave a presentation on the same subject as Angela at a science symposium about six years ago. That subject, if you haven't guessed, was the storage model."
Kurt sat forward quickly. "What was his emphasis?"
James pursed his lips, "Apparently, he took more of an engineering solution based on hardware. You remember the early work IBM did with copper and germanium? This would have involved a carbon-copper substrate."
Kurt was intrigued. "As in diamonds?"
"Exactly. Fascinating idea, really. Heat wouldn't be a problem and he was working on a way to make a copper-osmium compound. The problem was etching the diamonds, of course."
"What about the software?"
"That's where it gets really interesting. He proposed a preliminary rewrite of the hex but he didn't go all the way to the new paradigm Angela proposed. His infrastructure work was Moore's Law heavy so he would have eventually topped out. But the infrastructure looked promising."
Kurt sat back, sensing he was missing something. "Go on."
James took a breath. "Apparently, they had both made about the same progress with a new paradigm, far more than anything published. She offered him an internship, and he accepted, but something made her decide to let him go on the first day.
"In hindsight, putting the presentations in context, what Šabalj demonstrated was identical information to Angela, just regurgitated to look fresh. My guess is that Šabalj was monitoring her work-in-progress. I'd bet he was the source of the bugs we found in the ashes and likely even had access to her nightly build backups — which is why the timing worked out for the attack and murders to happen simultaneously with her success."
Kurt nodded. "This is fascinating information. I wonder if there's a way to track a Serbian student."
"I already put Redman on it." Kurt leaned a bit further back, knowing that James would talk all the way through the process at this point in order to file all the data away in his highly unique mind.
"If he's the same person who hacked us over the holiday, then he's seriously skilled and we easily could have missed it back then when so many other things were going on. We hadn't even dialed up our monitoring back then."
Kurt nodded. "My thoughts exactly. Redman's sending some specialists back to the house on Wednesday to sift through the ashes. It's been years but maybe we'll get lucky and find something we missed."
"If he heard her make the breakthrough, he probably broke in to get the information not realizing they'd incinerate the drives and erase the data. Blowing the lab door would have knocked over the incendiary devices and started the fire that couldn't be put out just like the fire marshal said. I bet he even bugged the lab that day he started as an intern." James took a sip of coffee, remembering the journals he hadn't looked through yet. "We're talking easily a hundred billion dollars the first year. And, every single minute that goes by without this breakthrough is another minute someone else working on it will succeed where we find we cannot."
James took his glasses off and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket to clean the lenses. "My instinct says this is the same person, that Rikard is Richard. He must know how close we're getting. He's going to start taking bigger risks to ensure he doesn't miss anything."
"You're right. Hence the catching the hacking over Christmas. We need to continue to be careful about what progress is made and discussed at Albany in the range o
f the bugs," Kurt said. He took a drink of his coffee and changed subject. "Morgan's birthday's coming up next week."
"I know. What's the plan?"
"Big party at the house. Eve sent the invitations out last week. I don't remember if I had you on the list to receive an official invite or not."
"Let me know if you need anything from me," James said as Rebecca buzzed the intercom. "Yes, Rebecca."
"Mike is here."
"Send him in." They stood as the door opened and Mike walked in. He shook their hands, and they moved over to James' desk. "The main thing I'm concerned about is the security for the press conference," James said as he sat down. "This guy has already made it past our security systems at least once, and there's going to be a lot of people milling around later this morning."
Mike pulled out his laptop, ready to get to work. "We'll have a guard stationed in each of your offices, and at the door to each of the labs. All the engineers and developers have made off-line copies of everything to date, and all of the latest prototypes have been removed from the labs. Everything's being brought up to Rebecca's office, due to the tighter security here, and what doesn't fit will go to Eve. We'll have additional guards in their offices. We told everyone it was because we were going to give the Hiroshims a tour. We're all going to be able to communicate via mics and ear wigs."
"Keep an eye on Albany, too."
"Already taken care of. We have extra security there while the employees are here for the ceremony."
¯¯¯¯
CHAPTER 30
MELODY thought about the schedule Patterson's marketing director had given her for her television appearances to promote her tour. She didn't like to do the talk shows, because they all put her in front of live audiences, but he'd arranged for her to do three of them. She tried to argue that people would come to the concerts without the exposure, but ultimately had no choice but to follow the orders David Patterson handed down.
All the way to the restaurant she complained to Hal. "Melody, we can't cancel them now. It would generate bad press," Hal said. "We'll just make sure you sing before the interviews."
"Not the point. We specifically said no live talk shows. Why is David being such a jerk?" The car pulled in front of the restaurant, and Jen opened the door so they could get out.
"Because he's always been a jerk. There's no use trying to change him now," Hal said. "Jen, will you be joining us?"
"I'll be here," Jen said.
"You want something to eat?"
"No, thank you. I'm good."
The maître d' knew Melody and showed her directly to her table where Bobby already sat waiting for her. Bobby Kent looked almost like a living caricature of a cowboy. He stood well over six feet tall, long and lanky with dark hair and ice blue eyes. He looked completely at home in his worn jeans, boots, and cowboy hat. Always the gentleman, he stood when he saw her, bent low to kiss her cheek and shook Hal's hand in greeting.
"How was vacation?" he asked as they took their seats, his voice a syrupy baritone drawl with a hint of deep south Virginia infiltrating his Nashville twang.
"Great. I almost got bored before I talked myself out of it," she said, then ordered some iced tea from the waiter. Hal ordered the same and they picked up the menus.
"So is boredom what drove you to your nuptials?" Bobby asked with a heart stopping grin.
Melody laughed and threw down her menu. "It was the most exciting vacation of my life. Watching Morgan marry Kurt, falling in love with James, and just jumping in with both feet. I cannot tell you what it's been like."
He reached over and took her hand. "I am so happy for you. As long as you're happy."
She winked and picked her menu back up. "I can't wait for you to meet him. He's amazing. What's been happening around here?"
"Same old thing. I finished recording But Cowboys Don't Cry. Threw in the steel guitar against my good judgment and it's actually better than I expected. Got a weepy sound, ya know? After this tour, that's it for my commitments to Patterson." He signaled to the waiter to come take their order.
"I just have one more. Who're you signing with?" Melody asked.
"Haven't decided. I can wait a month or two, look over my options." After they placed their orders, the three of them talked about the different record companies pursuing the two young stars.
"How's the shoulder, Hal?" Bobby asked.
"Still a little stiff, but better every day," Hal said, rotating his shoulder.
"I hear bullet scars do wonders for your reputation as a tough guy."
Hal grinned, "I wouldn't recommend it."
"Really caused an uproar here. They know who did it yet?"
Hal lowered his voice. "They know, but don't talk about it to anyone."
Bobby frowned. "What's up?"
Melody patted his hand. "Don't worry about it right now. When we can, we'll tell you the whole story." With deft slight of hand on the part of the wait staff, a plate of salad appeared in front of her. Knowing Bobby, she did not pick up her fork, but instead reached for his hand so that he could bless the meal.
After the three of them chorused an amen, she asked, "Can you come to Atlanta next week for Morgan's birthday?"
"Probably. I didn't know anything about it," Bobby said, picking up a knife to cut into his steak.
"I think Kurt said his secretary was supposed to send out the invitations last week," she said. "Check with your secretary."
He pulled out his cellphone and hit a speed dial. Melody said, "I didn't mean check right this second."
Bobby grinned. "I don't want to forget." Then he held up his finger. "Hey, it's me. Did I get invited to a party in Atlanta for next week. Sure. Okay. Yeah."
Melody saw his eyelids tighten very slightly. The rest of his features remained perfectly poised and collected. "Yeah, that's Melody Mason's sister. She's Lawson now."
He met Melody's eyes and grinned. "Why don't you go ahead and do that and e-mail me when the arrangements have been made." He disconnected without saying good-bye. That was the only outward sign of his clear irritation. "Oh, sorry. Montgomery, now, I guess."
"I'm going to have to rebrand myself I think."
Bobby gave her a sideways smile. "Well, at least it's Montgomery so your initials don't change." He cut his steak. "Anyway, looks like I can be there."
Melody grabbed her bag and pulled out several sheets of music. "Here's that song. We can put it on the album I start next week, if you want. I'd also like to perform it in Jacksonville, Florida, this week, if you can work it in."
"You really want to cut a record now? If you wait a few months we can put it under my new label."
"I think we can call this one a good start and do one every year under whoever we're signed with. It's really all about the fans."
He nodded. "Sounds good to me. I'll check my schedule and let you know." He took a bite, swallowed, then took a drink of his tea.
"I think the fans would flip if you came out on stage with me."
"That's a great idea. It would certainly be unexpected, since I didn't do it in Atlanta. As far as I know, I'm free, but I'll confirm and get back with you."
¯¯¯¯
"THEY'RE probably already there waiting on us," Melody said to James as Jen turned the last corner to the building, coming back from eating at Morgan and Kurt's. They had planned to meet Roberts and Suarez at the apartment five minutes ago.
"If they are, then they can wait," James said.
She couldn't stand to run late or keep anyone waiting. At her insistence, Jen dropped them off at the front door of the building before she went to park. She stepped into the lobby and saw the two detectives occupying chairs in the sitting area. She walked up to them. "I'm so sorry we're late. We had dinner at my sister's, and time got away from us," she said.
"We've only been here a few minutes, Mrs. Montgomery," Roberts said, standing and accepting the handshake she offered.
"Excuse me, Mrs. Montgomery," the guard said walking up to her, carr
ying a long gold box. "These were left for you."
She felt chills creeping along her skin, and didn't want to take the box from him. She knew. She knew what she would find in the box.
James put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't touch that," he warned.
Roberts reacted immediately and pulled a pair of rubber gloves out of his pocket and put them on before he took the box from the guard. "Where did this come from?" he asked.
With a confused and curious look, the guard shrugged and said, "A delivery boy brought it by about an hour ago."
Roberts carefully opened the box while Suarez pulled out his notebook and asked for a description of the boy. Melody looked inside as Roberts opened the lid and she gasped, taking a step back. Inside was a single long stemmed red rose, with a picture rather than a note attached to it. It was apparently taken from a video, and was an image of Hal's blood spraying over Melody. Written in marker across the bottom, was:
THOUGHT I HAD YOU. NEXT TIME YOU DIE
Jen came in and saw the box. "Exactly where did that come from?"
Roberts lifted the box and looked underneath it. "Busy Bee Florist," he said. "The address is just around the corner." He looked at his partner and recited the address. Suarez flew out the door before Roberts even finished speaking. He turned to the security guard. "I need a large paper bag," he ordered.
"Are you ready to come up to my apartment? We can get something up there." James offered.
"Yeah. The guard already told us what he knows," Roberts said as he put the lid back on the box and walked with James, Melody, and Jen to the elevator. "He said he takes deliveries from the same kid a couple of times a week. Apparently, they're open until ten."
Roberts' cell phone rang as they rode the elevator and he pulled it out of his pocket. "Yeah." His face paled then turned bright red. "I'll stay here with them. Find out what you can. I'll wait for you here." He kicked the side of the elevator wall as the doors opened, then stormed out. He spun to look at James, "The florist shop burned down about forty-five minutes ago. The fire department found two bodies inside, apparently the owner and her son, the delivery boy."
A Melody for James (Christian Suspense) Page 27
