NH3

by Stanley Salmons

  “No knife, then. Another weapon?”

  “No obvious indentations on the skin. Could have been something blunt. Or fists.”

  “How did they get in?”

  “Jemmied a ground-floor window. They must have waited till he got home because no one heard the burglar alarm go off. We figure they held him captive for a couple of hours, during which time they gave him the beating that killed him.”

  “Who called it in?”

  “Neighbour heard a lot of noise and some shouting. Dispatch thought it was a domestic – seems no one told them he lived alone. The patrol unit found the back door open. When they went in victim was already dead.”

  “Anyone see anything?”

  “Neighbour who called in was looking out the window. He saw two guys. One was slight, maybe a hundred and ten pounds. Other was big, with a full head of hair. The light wasn’t good; that’s about as much as he could see. They got into a car and drove off. That’s how we know for sure there were two of them, but I’d have said there was more than one just by looking at this lot.”

  “Any ideas about motive?” Milner asked.

  “Not yet. Could be a burglary. Seems to me like they were looking for something and when they couldn’t find it they tried to beat it out of him. What’s the Bureau’s interest in this guy, anyway?”

  “Just between you and me, right?”

  “Right.”

  Terry held his breath, but Milner was tactful.

  “We’re looking into possible irregularities at a company called Vance Pharmaceuticals out at Lexington. Took place two or three years ago. Around that time the victim, Grant Challoner, resigned from his post with them. We don’t know why. Terry, you had the list: what did the guy do?”

  “He was Head of the Division for Health, Safety, and the Environment.”

  “There you go: senior man. This could be a simple burglary, like you say. But there could be more to it.”

  The detective whistled softly. “Good lead,” he said. “I think I’ll pay them a visit.”

  “If it’s all the same to you, we’d like to come with. We’ve been up there once but this murder kind of changes things.”

  “Sure, no problem. Kate?” One of the forensic technicians came over. “I have to go. Anything more come up?”

  “Phil found some footprints in the mud outside. Some were made by shoes, the others by trainers. The shoes could be the victim’s but there’s nothing in his wardrobe that matches the trainers. In any case, they’re quite a small size. We’ll make casts.”

  “Good. Did Kent have a look at the computer?”

  “Password protected. We’ll take it down to the lab.”

  “Okay, look: we have to assume that whatever it was they were looking for, they left without finding it. Our job is to look harder than they did. Give me a call if you find anything interesting.”

  “Sure. Where will you be?”

  “Lexington. Victim used to be a big honcho at a company up there. We’ll see what they know.”

  At the barrier further down the street a police spokesman came over to talk to the media.

  Among the reporters was a tall, heavily built man. His thick head of hair was brown and wavy and he would have been good-looking in a classic old Hollywood way had it not been for the nose, which showed all the signs of having been broken and clumsily repaired at some time in the past. He waved a notepad to gain the attention of the spokesperson.

  “Who shall we say is in charge of the case?” he shouted.

  “Detective Eddie – er, Edouard – Dominguez is running the investigation,” the spokesman replied.

  The man nodded, wrote something on his notepad. While the others continued to fire questions he slipped further back, then left unobserved .

  He walked back a block to where a car was waiting. The driver, a slight man whose clothes looked too big for him, tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. His right heel bounced rhythmically on the floor, so that his thigh bobbed up and down, and his whole body seemed to be in a state of restless motion.

  The door opened and the larger man got in. He unpinned the fake reporter’s pass from the lapel of his jacket.

  “Didja get what you wanted?” the driver asked.

  “Yeah. Detective Eddie Dominguez is the one in charge.”

  The smaller man reached for the ignition. “Where’re we going?”

  The other batted his hand down. “Wait here. See if that cop car comes back.”

  “What didja wanna know about this Eddie Dominguez for?”

  “Because, asshole, Francis Kelly doesn’t pay us for cock-ups.”

  The driver scowled. “You shouldn’t call me an asshole, Charlie.”

  “What else am I supposed to call you, Dave? You loused up. You thought you were going fifteen rounds with this guy and you went ten.”

  “It wasn’t my fault,” Dave protested. “He seemed tougher than he was, is all. I thought he would spill when I gave him the left under the heart, but he croaked instead. What’s the difference? We’d have done him anyway.”

  “Not before he told us, for Christ’s sake. You knew that. Now we’re back where we started.”

  “What about the woman?”

  “Fitzgerald? What about her?”

  “I could smack her around a bit. See if she knows.”

  “She won’t know. Any case, Signett won’t like it if he has to find himself a new PA for no good reason. And we need to keep him happy as well as Mr. Kelly or we don’t get paid.”

  “So how’s the bloodhound – this Dominguez guy – going to help us?”

  “He’s in there now with the forensic techs. They got a lot more time than we had, so maybe they’ll find something. If we’re in luck he’ll lead us to the target.”

  Chapter 43

  Dominguez opted to drive the police sedan to Lexington himself.

  On their way out to the car Maggie whispered to Terry: “What are we doing this for? It’s Zak Gould we need to find, not Challoner’s killer.”

  “I think we should go along with this,” he whispered back. “There’s been a cover-up, that’s for sure. Maybe Zak Gould – and this guy Grant Challoner – threatened to expose it.”

  “So the company had both of them killed?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know, but they left Vance at almost the same time so there has to be a connection.” He paused just short of the car and Maggie stopped beside him. “That was more than two years ago, though. Why wait this long to kill Challoner? There’s got to be more to it.”

  “Terry, an investigation like this can go on for weeks – months, years, even.” She took a deep breath. “Look, I’m giving it a couple more days. If we haven’t found Zak Gould by then – or found out what’s happened to him – we’re going back. This is a crucial time and we just can’t afford to be out of the picture that long.”

  He nodded. “Okay.”

  They got into the car.

  He understood what she was saying. Ammonia levels were still rising fast towards the threshold; then the countdown would start for a nuclear strike on Yellowstone Park – unavoidable, in his view, but disastrous all the same. The only thing that could prevent it now would be a major breakthrough. They’d counted on it coming from Zak Gould, but if he was dead – or couldn’t be found – the breakthrough would have to come from elsewhere. Maggie would want to be back in Florida, helping to make it happen. Or at least hoping to make it happen.

  He turned his attention to the conversation in the front, where Dominguez had started to talk to Milner.

  “I phoned ahead. The CEO’s out of town this morning. He’s flying back later this afternoon and we can see him then.”

  “Out of town, eh?” Milner said. “I have a good idea where he’s gone. I’ve got a squad going over their subsidiary in Richmond, Virginia this morning. He’s probably heading there right now, trying to put a lid on things. He’ll be sore as hell I didn’t give him any warning but that was the general idea. And now he
’s out of position to react to the situation here. I’ll bet the news of Challoner’s death has gone right round the company. We’ve got a fair chance of getting some genuine reactions before he gets back.”

  “Yeah,” Dominguez added, “We don’t need his say-so. This is a murder inquiry now.”

  Milner nodded. “Damn right. We’ll get a list of divisional heads from Signett’s PA – what’s her name again?” He glanced over his shoulder.

  Maggie leaned forward. “Rose Fitzgerald,” she said. She’d obviously been listening too.

  “Yeah, right, her or that big doll Cindy Westfield in Human Resources. Eddie, why don’t you see Signett on your own when he gets back? If I’m there he can say he’s already told me everything and you won’t get nowhere. Okay, here we are.” He pointed. “Take a right up ahead; there’s security on the gate.”

  They went to Rose Fitzgerald’s office first. It was empty. Milner scanned the room and seemed about ready to leave when she came in. She flushed.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said breathlessly. “I was just powdering my nose. I do hope you people haven’t been waiting long.”

  She took off her cardigan and held it poised for a moment in her thin, bony fingers before hanging it over the back of the seat. Then she sat down, holding herself very straight, one hand clasped inside the other. She was wearing a white blouse, lightly embroidered and fastened high at the neck with a cameo brooch.

  “Now,” she said. “How may I help you?”

  Dominguez spoke first. “I’m Detective Dominguez, ma’am. You remember I phoned you earlier? I’m investigating the death of Dr. Grant Challoner. What we were wondering was, do you keep a complete list of headquarters personnel here?”

  “It’s on the company server, Detective Dominguez. I can easily print out a copy for you. If you’d like to take a seat for a moment.”

  A few minutes later Rose came over to Dominguez with a stack of sheets. He thanked her and they took it to one side. Milner and Dominguez wrote their names against the various divisional heads, dividing the task between them.

  “There are too many names on this list,” he said to them. “We’re going to run out of time.” He turned to Terry. “Terry, the important division is Health, Safety and the Environment. Do you think you could work through the rank and file there while Eddie and me are talking to the divisional heads?”

  “Certainly.”

  “And Maggie, how’s about you talking to the people in the Biogenetics Division? That’s your line of country isn’t it?”

  “Yes, all right. I just have a couple of things to do here first.”

  Milner raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

  He handed the marked up list to the PA.

  “Miss Fitzgerald, sorry to bother you again, but would you mind running off three copies of this list for us? Thanks.”

  She hesitated, then inclined her head briefly and took the list to the copier, which was just outside her office. Milner exchanged glances with Maggie and shrugged. He’d evidently interpreted her hesitation as reluctance to run errands for anyone but her immediate boss. But Terry sensed something more than that and it seemed clear Maggie had picked up on it too. She was putting on a brave face, but Rose Fitzgerald was very upset.

  CHAPTER 44

  They spent the rest of the day interviewing. At five-fifteen Dominguez received a message from Rose to say that Mr. Signett was back. The detective went off to talk to him. By that time Dominguez and Milner had seen nearly all the people on their lists. Terry and Maggie continued to talk to staff in the two divisions that had been assigned to them.

  Finally Terry went to find Maggie.

  “You more or less done?” he asked

  “More or less. Are they ready to leave?”

  “Yeah, Sam just called. He’s with Eddie. We’re to meet them in the lobby.”

  “Good.”

  They said little on the journey back to police headquarters. Dominguez found an empty room with a table and chairs and the four sat down together. It was their first opportunity to compare notes.

  “How was Signett?” Sam asked.

  “Tight as a drum,” Dominguez replied. “I think he was pretty pissed off with us but he concealed it well. I tried to find out where he’d been but he dodged it. I asked him if he knew of any reason why Challoner should have been murdered. He assumed it was a straightforward burglary – wondered why we’d think it was anything else. Challoner hadn’t been with them for years; he couldn’t imagine why we thought he or anyone else in the company could help us.”

  “Did he say why Challoner resigned?”

  “He said he must have had his own reasons. He was a valued employee but he had a lot of expertise in the field of safety and so on and he could probably earn more by marketing his skills as a free-lance consultant. They were sorry to lose him, he said, but it was four years ago now. As far as he was concerned it was ancient history. How did you get on with your lot, Sam?”

  Milner shook his head. “From the Divisional Heads, nada. Either they never knew Challoner or they only knew him slightly. Nobody could say why he was killed. They assumed it was a burglary, too.”

  “Yeah,” Dominguez said. “I got the same.”

  “One was more interesting, though,” Milner went on. “The CFO, the Chief Financial Officer, a guy called Ansel Wyatt. He knew Challoner all right, couldn’t say why he was killed. So I asked him a bit about the Genon plant. He gave me the stock answers but I just had the feeling he was holding something back. And the way he was talking I could tell he works closely with Signett. Very closely.”

  Eddie frowned. “So what’s new? It’s normal for a CFO to work closely with the CEO.”

  “Yeah, I know that. I was curious, all the same. I got on the phone to the business guys at the Bureau, had them look him up. Get this. Wyatt and Signett were both in senior positions at their previous company. When the company was taken over, Signett and Wyatt moved to Vance together.”

  Eddie nodded. “Interesting. Doesn’t tell us much about Challoner, though.” He looked at Terry and Maggie. “What about the staff in those two divisions?”

  Terry replied first. “All the people in Health, Safety and Environment seem to have been appointed after Challoner left. They didn’t even know who he was. I tried to probe about safety but they kept deflecting me onto stupid safety-at-work legislation and how they keep up with it. I had quite enough of that back at my own department. How about you, Maggie?”

  “Nothing from Biogenetics. They didn’t know Challoner and they were really reluctant to say anything about their work at all. Still, they do seem to be using safe organisms, so far as I can tell. I do have something else, though. It was while I was still in the PA’s office, after you’d gone off to do your interviews.”

  Milner and Dominguez turned to her in surprise. She smiled.

  “Terry and I saw that Rose Fitzgerald was very upset so I sat down and had a chat with her. I like her a lot. She’s a nice, gentle woman, and very intelligent.”

  Milner said, “You don’t get to be PA for a top man like Signett unless you’re smart.”

  “Well, from our conversation I got the feeling she knew Challoner quite well, but she wouldn’t say much about it while we were in that office area. She kept looking around and then she said in this loud voice, ‘The restroom? Certainly, I’ll take you there. Is it all right if I just finish this?’ I waited while she printed off some sheets. Then she took something out of a filing cabinet and she put all of it in the top right-hand drawer of her desk. There was something quite deliberate about the way she did it. She met my eyes, picked up her handbag, and we went off to the restroom together.”

  Dominguez said, “And...?”

  “When we got there she checked to see no one was in the toilets, and then she set a tap running and we talked over the noise.”

  “See? Smart,” Milner said. “What did I tell you?”

  “What did she say?” Dominguez asked.

&nb
sp; “It seems she and Challoner were just on friendly terms when he was with the company. But after he left they started to meet up socially. They enjoyed each other’s company. They’d meet about once a week. She stressed they weren’t in any sort of relationship.” Maggie frowned. “Something about the way she said it made me think Challoner may have been gay.”

  “What did they talk about?”

  “Oh, all sorts of things. They went to the theatre or concerts and sometimes they’d eat out. They mostly met in Boston or Concord; I think they didn’t want to be seen together here in Lexington. The one thing they didn’t talk about was work. He admired her loyalty to the company, he said, and he wouldn’t want their friendship to present a conflict of interest. And then she drew herself up and said: ‘But I have a loyalty to him, too.’ I asked her why she thought he’d been killed. I was trying to be gentle – really I was – but her eyes filled with tears and for a while she couldn’t speak. Eventually she said something like, ‘He knew too much. He saw the risks, but he wouldn’t run away. So they got him. They’ll get the other one, too.’ I asked her who ‘they’ and ‘the other one’ were but she shook her head and said slowly: ‘I’ve already given you enough.’ Then she turned the taps off and we went back to her office.”

  Dominguez frowned. “Given you enough? What did she mean by that? Enough information…?” He pointed a finger at her. “It’s the stuff she put in that drawer! We gotta go back.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Maggie said with a smile. She opened her handbag, withdrew some folded sheets of paper from her handbag and opened them out to reveal a small optical disk. She picked up the disk by the hub and held it out to show them a date, which had been written on one side with a fine spirit marker.

  “How did you manage that?” Terry gasped.

  “Well, when we got back to the office area Rose said, ‘Now there’s something I have to leave for Mr. Signett.’ I thought she’d go for that drawer, but she didn’t; she picked up some papers from the desktop and went down the corridor without a backward glance. I didn’t hesitate. As soon as I heard Signett’s door close behind her I dived into that drawer. I saw Challoner’s name on the first sheet and that was good enough for me. Then I heard Signett’s door opening again, so I slipped it all into my handbag and got out fast.”