Deadly Testimony

by Piper J. Drake

  Yet Isabelle Scott was an interesting combination of contrasting personality traits. She moved with confidence, a certain arrogant swagger in the way she stepped out into the world. She made a violent encounter seem like a graceful dance. She was a person of action, decisive and devastatingly effective.

  But she hadn’t killed him for his infringement on her personal space. He’d considered it a good sign. Now, she was maintaining an invisible bubble around herself and he wasn’t sure if it was a result of their having gone back out into the open to travel or if she didn’t want further personal interaction with him.

  He wanted to know. Very much.

  As she entered the room, she paused then pulled him into the entryway closing the door behind him. “Stay.”

  His gut reaction was to refuse. Experience over the past twenty-four hours squelched the habitual urge to be contrary and he remained where she put him.

  For her part, Isabelle proceeded farther into the room with a handgun held up and ready to respond. She approached the bathroom door in a wide arc as she peered inside. Apparently satisfied, she checked the closet and pulled the heavier drapes closed across the windows at the far end of the room.

  As the drapes closed out the outside world, a tension eased in Kyle. Apparently, Isabelle had instilled a very healthy wariness of windows in him. He hadn’t realized how tense he’d been until she’d effectively hidden them from searching eyes.

  Irritated with the level of fear he’d been maintaining through all of this, he deliberately strode to the bed and laid down on it, shoes on and all.

  Isabelle stared at him, her expression blank. After a moment, she murmured, “Sit tight. I’m going to head out to secure a few more things. You’ll be okay here. If anything suspicious happens, head down the hall to the stairs and go down to the ground floor. I’ll meet you there.”

  She opened her mouth as if she would say more, hesitated and shut her mouth. Turning on her heel, she left.

  Kyle sat up on the bed. The woman was irritatingly hard to read.

  * * *

  “What is this?” She peered into the glass bowl full of water and caught sight of a fairly active, chubby fish.

  “He is Frederick.” Kyle made himself comfortable on the sofa, the long-limbed length of him draped over the entirety of it in catlike fashion. “He’s a goldfish.”

  She continued to study the fish in question swimming busily in the simple bowl with a bit of gravel in the bottom. In the reflection on the side of the glass bowl, she also considered her client. “I can see he’s a goldfish. Why is he here and how do you know he is a he?”

  Kyle stretched and placed his hands behind his head, leaning all the way back. “This hotel is particularly known for being pet-friendly and family-friendly—a place no one would consider a possibility when looking for me, by the way, I’ve been well-known to love a bachelor’s life—and a goldfish is provided compliments of the hotel for the length of your stay upon request. Families love having a vacation friend. The hotel staff also thoughtfully provides a fish to keep lone business travelers company.”

  “Huh.” It still didn’t explain why they’d ended up with one.

  Kyle glanced at her sideways without actually turning his head to face her. “Since you seem...uncomfortable alone with me, I thought Frederick’s company might improve your mood.” Kyle paused. “I honestly don’t know for sure if he is a he but his name seems indicative of gender.”

  She snorted. Then she paused to wonder whether Kyle had stayed in some hotel alone before with only a goldfish for company despite his commentary. Actually, the alone on business part seemed likely. Question was, how many times? Or more sobering, how often had he stayed elsewhere alone and wished for the company of even a goldfish?

  “Thank you.” It came out quieter than she intended but she didn’t repeat it louder.

  Kyle was silent for a moment and she thought maybe he hadn’t heard her but after a minute he did speak. “You’re holding up your end of the contract. I’m not the easiest person to be around but I can at least make an effort to make this less of an ordeal. I...have a lot of things to live for.”

  She could’ve made light of his statement but he hadn’t delivered it in his usual bantering tone. He’d sounded serious. And unusually introspective. Curiosity tweaked again, she fished for a little more information. And hell, she’d admit she was doing it too. “Most people do value their lives and what they planned to do with them.”

  “True.” Kyle’s tone didn’t perk up. If anything, he became even more serious. “Months ago, I’d have said I have things to do. Period. For me.”

  She turned to lean against the table, careful not to jostle Frederick’s bowl. “What changed?”

  “My life wasn’t just about me being responsible for me anymore.” He kept his gaze on the ceiling. “I have a sister and she wanted to come here to the United States from Korea with her son to live with me.”

  “Ah.” Instant family. She tipped her head to one side as she regarded him. “That’s a big life change.”

  “I could’ve said no.” Kyle made it sound matter-of-fact. “I did not. Considering why she made the request—what they’d both been through—I couldn’t say no.”

  She waited. No pushing or coaxing. She got the sense that if she did, he’d drop back behind his carefree bachelor facade.

  “I decided I needed to live a...cleaner lifestyle if they were going to come stay with me.” He sighed. “I have the skill set to land another good job with comparable salary after this trial is over. What I needed to be sure of was that I wouldn’t end up incarcerated for white-collar crimes when my family needs me.”

  Made sense. The court documentation she’d seen had been redacted thoroughly. This wasn’t a simple trial. Didn’t make what he’d done in the past right, but his reasoning had a certain logic to it. She’d done enough in her own past to consider herself the last person to judge someone else’s right to a fresh start.

  “Most of what I’ve done wrong was limited to keeping quiet when I had knowledge of illegal activities. Other people actually committed the insurance fraud or the illegal dumping.” Kyle pushed himself up to a sitting position, swinging his legs down off the sofa and resting his elbows on his knees. “My silence was tacit support.”

  “So you’re not testifying just because you cut a deal.” If so, she thought better of him for it. She touched the side of the glass fishbowl gently and Frederick swam over to investigate.

  He shook his head. “Not just because, no. I’m testifying because it’s time to share what I know.”

  She folded her arms across her chest considering him. “Insurance fraud and illegal dumping, even biohazard material, don’t seem to be enough to go through all the trouble we’ve seen over the past twenty-four hours.”

  He huffed out a laugh. “I did not expect the level of spite my company has gone to.”

  “But you were sure your life was in danger.” And neither she nor Gabriel Diaz had disagreed with his assessment. Those men sent after Kyle the night before had been too happy to draw their weapons to be planning to just intimidate him into not testifying.

  Kyle finally raised his gaze to meet hers and the look in his eyes was bleak. “I was certain. And I am still afraid.”

  She pressed her lips together. “It’s not just about getting to you at this point. Something about your testimony was worth firing on two police officers. They’re going to up their game coming after you and there has to be a better reason than what you’ve told me so far.”

  Kyle surged to his feet and began to pace. “Take valuable chemical reagents intended for laboratory research and realize they’ve expired or gone past effective use date. Recoup the loss by having those supplies dropped overboard en route from Korea to the US and then file insurance claims for the purportedly valuable lab supplies ‘los
t at sea.’ It’s repeated illegal dumping of biohazardous waste in ocean waters followed by insurance fraud. Those are incredibly serious criminal and civil charges with enough instances on record to bankrupt Phoenix Biotech. I have knowledge of each instance, the time they occurred and the resources assigned to those transport ships. I even have records on the shipping container numbers to identify them if they are recovered. All this, I knew about and tracked as an effective project manager, but I didn’t stop to think about whether it was ethical. Not until I realized I needed to look beyond my comfortable lifestyle and provide for someone else.”

  It would be cheaper to eliminate the one witness providing testimony than pay the fines associated with each instance of the civil case. Plus, multiple instances meant executives involved could be facing enough back-to-back sentences in jail to miss the majority of their lives.

  No wonder people wanted Kyle dead.

  “Once those containers are recovered, I believe—even if I can’t prove—authorities will discover they were smuggling other goods.” Kyle dragged his hand through his hair. “I’m not sure what though, so there are further investigations going on. I don’t even know if this is the only trial I need to get through.”

  There were a lot of red flags as far as she was concerned, enough to make her restless.

  “Not knowing what you don’t know is dangerous. It could be key to keeping you alive.” She slipped past Kyle and headed for her duffel. Pulling out her slim tablet, she set it on the coffee table along with a small wireless router.

  Kyle paused in his pacing. “For a person in what I considered to be a very physically focused job, you spend a large amount of time on technology. What are you doing now?”

  “I’m firing up my personal mobile hot spot and logging in to Safeguard’s virtual private network.” It didn’t take long to get everything up and running. “I don’t like waiting around to see if someone is going to take a poke at me. I’m going to do some digging into your friends Tall, Slow and Grumpy from last night. Could be they were hired by the same interested party or could be there’s multiple contracts out on you. It’d be good to know who is active in the area and likely to be looking for you.”

  He resumed his pacing. “I don’t suppose your research will be instantaneous.”

  “Nope.” Though she was already sending an update to Diaz to let him know what she was doing and reaching out to a contact or two who might be able to run some queries in parallel with her own line of research. “I like to keep busy at times like this.”

  “And here I thought you’d spend most of your time watching the door or the window.” There was no edge to Kyle’s words but he did have a hefty dose of sarcasm in there. “I really am not the type to watch movies.”

  She paused. “Do you have experience in this kind of research? Background checks? Organizational contacts?”

  It would actually put a new perspective on things. She’d start wondering what sorts of resources he managed when he was overseeing the projects he managed for Phoenix Biotech.

  But Kyle shook his head. “All of the projects I oversaw had to do with chemical formulation and manufacturing process development, production scale-up and quality oversight before the chemicals we sell are shipped to various biotech companies worldwide. I was responsible for project management and financial accountability on those projects. The chemical engineers and raw material vendors in my networks were in support of those areas of concentration. Not a one of them would employ Tall, Slow or Grumpy.”

  He smiled as he used her labels for the thugs. And she let herself smile in return. Actually, a part of her was relieved. It helped her believe he truly hadn’t been knowingly part of the uglier side of whatever Phoenix Biotech was up to.

  “I hate the comparison, but they’re likely to have more in common with me professionally than you in terms of network connections.” And didn’t that just burn to admit.

  Kyle raised an eyebrow. “I imagine the scope of what they can do is extremely limited as compared to your range of skills.”

  “You’d be right.” She continued to bring up search windows, fingers flying over the ultralight wireless keyboard. “But that doesn’t make dealing with them more enjoyable in any way.”

  “You’re not pleased at all in working around large, heavily muscled men of action?” His tone had gone back to teasing.

  She fired off one more query and slowly raised her gaze to meet his. “I respect people who are good at what they do. Not a one of those men was above average in strength, dexterity or intelligence. They weren’t exactly charismatic either.”

  Kyle held her gaze for a long moment. “Someday, I hope to have the opportunity to demonstrate for you how very good I am at the various things I do.”

  Chapter Nine

  Kyle studied Isabelle a few moments longer. She was studiously ignoring him at this point but there was a telltale hint of dusky rose showing through her bronze complexion. His commentary wasn’t entirely unwelcome.

  Grinning, he decided to give her some space. Or as much as was possible in a shared hotel room. Even a junior suite layout with a sitting area. His longer stride made pacing the room less than a valid option for keeping himself busy.

  Instead his gaze landed on the bags she’d brought up from the front desk. She’d specifically said they wouldn’t be ordering room service either. If she’d gone and gotten takeout, it had to be something nearby and ready in record time.

  Resigned to fast food, he strode over to the bags to investigate what was for dinner. He’d only had a few bites of the excellent sandwich he’d put together and he suffered a pang of regret for having had to leave those supplies behind.

  What he found instead was a series of small containers, carefully labeled, and he froze. “Where did you go for food?”

  Isabelle didn’t even look up from her laptop. “Safeguard has connections to an excellent catering company in downtown Seattle. I had them deliver directly to me a couple of blocks away. That way, we don’t need to worry about room service or who made the food we’re about to eat. Standard practice for me and other Safeguard operatives on longer engagements. The shorter ones, we just don’t eat or drink anything we didn’t bring with us on the job. There should be a note in there telling us what everything is.”

  Kyle wasn’t sure whether to be irritated or complimented. The contents of these bags were enough for more than one meal. “You told them my ethnic background?”

  Isabelle shrugged. “I didn’t. But the owner of the catering company experiments with a lot of ethnic cuisine. She knows I’ll eat anything she sends me. No questions asked.”

  Interesting. “I’m concerned about this woman having access to my personal information.”

  “Not likely.” Isabelle waved a hand. “It’s not our procedure to share those. What probably happened was when she received the order from me via secure email, she contacted Gabriel Diaz to see what happened to the previous order for food that was supposed to last us several days and asked a couple pointed questions to see what else she could send. Was there anything we didn’t like? Do we have access to a microwave? Questions like that.”

  “And Gabriel Diaz would’ve let her know about my ethnic background. The coincidence is a little too unlikely.” He didn’t give a shit if Isabelle was starting to get irritated at his line of questioning. They were supposed to be ensuring his safety. Obviously, there’d been issues ever since he’d gone into protective custody. This sharing of information, however benign, came across as unprofessional to him.

  Isabelle sighed and stood to face him. “Most likely, she asked what type of food would be appreciated. Most likely Diaz would’ve taken a guess. I can confirm at my next communication checkpoint if necessary. But think on this—last time I headed out on a mission I got some great Brazilian dishes. The first time I met her, she packed us muffuletta sand
wiches. She starts with something interesting and branches out from there. What did Maylin send this time?”

  His temper cooled as he realized Isabelle still didn’t know what had been sent them for dinner. From her exasperation, and the slight edge to her voice, she was also ready to push back on him for the insinuation that she or her superior at Safeguard might have been anything less than professional.

  Reaching out, he flipped the switch to the lights on the wall and ignored her glare. If he was going to eat, he was going to do so in comfort without feeling like he was under observation. The light behind her was more than enough to see by without being too much.

  He approached the lower coffee table—they’d need the space to spread out properly—and motioned for her to move her laptop. Her jaw tightened but she did without comment. He started to take out the various dishes.

  “Korean food, prepared in a traditional style.” He glanced at Isabelle.

  She shrugged. “I haven’t had much Korean food. Not many of my coworkers have historically been as adventurous about food as the Safeguard people are.”

  A shame. He was more curious as to whether she simply didn’t care what she ate or she was open to trying a variety of cuisines. He was betting the latter considering her earlier enjoyment of the chocolate beverages. She had a palette, a refined one.

  He grunted. “These smaller containers are called banchan and are side dishes to accompany a main meal with rice and a soup. There’s a variety, always, and they’re meant to be shared. If we don’t finish them in one sitting, they’re to be put away to be brought out again at the next meal.”

  Isabelle’s eyes widened. “There’s a ton of them.”

  “Nine here. There’s always many served with a meal.” He pulled out Korean-style chopsticks and a long-handled spoon for each of them and set them out. “She sent haemul-sundubu-jjigae as our soup. It’s a sort of spicy soft tofu stew with seafood.”