He was smiling as he approached her. There was something slightly odd she could not figure out about the smile. Chantal was busy considering her plan to fall in beside her new beau when he closed the gap and something hit her in the stomach. It was a tap, a brush, but the effect as it contacted bare skin was electrifying, literally. Chantal Dandridge’s jaws clenched, her body set in a sudden rigor, her brain exploded into pain, and then there was nothing at all.
~~~
‘What do you think?’ Marie asked. ‘I think they came out well, but I also think I look terrible, so it’s hard for me to judge.’
Fox grinned and patted her arm. She had just been through a fair number of the stills from the photoshoot Marie had done in Chicago. ‘You look good. By the time the photographer has been through and picked out the best ones, you’ll look amazing.’ She swished through the virtual roll of images, stopped at a specific one, and expanded it out. It showed Marie standing at about a fifty-degree angle to the camera, clad in a V-shaped black, teddy-like something with side straps, and a pair of insane-looking platform pumps with seven-inch heels. This was against the background of a hotel or some other building at night. ‘This one. Your legs look like they go on for about three miles. It’s dramatic. I must pick up that suit for the next time we go to Sheela Na Gig. Don’t think I’ll pull it off quite as well, but…’
‘I think you would, maybe with boots up over your thighs rather than the pumps. Those pumps are surprisingly comfortable, by the way. I was amazed. Oh, I could use your help picking a few of these out to use for a portfolio. I’ve got an audition on Tuesday. I was kind of hoping I wouldn’t need to drag Sam along, but I could use some selected stills to add to my pack.’
‘Well, sorry, still nothing solid on the killer. LifeWeb is being obstructive, Grant is never available, and we’re still getting nowhere trying to figure out how your implant was hacked. I can, however, pick you out some pictures if you want.’
‘Thanks. I hope this is over soon. Not that I mind having Sam around, but getting back to a normal life would be great. How are things with you and Captain Deveraux?’
‘You’re allowed to call him Jason,’ Fox replied, ‘and he came over a couple of times while you were away. He’s in Toronto today, visiting his parents.’
‘Lucky him. It’s probably cooler up there.’
‘Probably.’ Fox noticed the incoming call indicator in-vision and frowned. ‘Sorry, I need to take this…’ And an image of Inspector Cant appeared. ‘Cant, what can I do for you?’
‘Nothing right now,’ Cant replied, ‘but you might want to put your people on alert. Penny Dandridge, wife of Leonard, is dead. They found her body about an hour ago, get this, pegged out in the grounds of that college they have at the bottom of LifeWeb Tower. I’ve got our forensics teams working on it and there’s nothing yet to link it to the serial cases…’
‘But it’s a fairly hinky coincidence,’ Fox said, completing his thought if not his sentence. ‘She wasn’t tortured?’
‘She was naked, possible signs of rape, but no indications of beating or any of the other shit our guy does. And no wound indicating cause of death. I’ll know more when they’ve done the autopsy. Hold on.’ The animated image of Cant flicked to a still as he put the call on hold.
‘Dandridge’s wife has turned up dead,’ Fox said aloud to Marie. ‘There’s nothing to immediately link it to the serial killer, but neither Cant nor I like the coincidence.’
‘Do you think–’ Marie closed her mouth as Fox held up a hand: Cant was back live.
‘Just heard,’ Cant said, ‘Dandridge’s daughter, Chantal, is missing. They’ve been looking for her to tell her that her mother’s dead… Yeah, so she was out running this afternoon. LifeFit shows her in Central Park where she hasn’t moved in four hours. We’ve sent uniforms out to the area and I’m heading out there myself.’
‘But you won’t find her or the site she was taken from,’ Fox said.
‘No, we won’t. I think our killer has decided to target the Dandridges. And I think we’ve got three days at best before we’re looking to see Chantal’s body turning up.’
~~~
‘The first media reports have hit,’ Kit said. ‘IB sixty-two began reporting the death of Penny Dandridge three minutes ago.’
‘No one’s picked up on Chantal’s disappearance?’ Fox asked.
‘Not yet, but I expect to see that soon. I have had no luck, as yet, with finding any evidence of her true route. I will, of course, continue looking.’
‘Thanks, Kit. Have you got anywhere with building the Dandridge family web?’
‘Actually, I have been handling that while a copy runs the search for Chantal’s kidnap location. The Dandridge’s do not really operate anywhere near the spheres of the previous victims. Leonard and Penny frequented the usual circle of business acquaintances one might expect. Chantal is twenty-three and has spent much of the last five years at a finishing school in Europe. She returned to America in January and has few friends in the metro. Rumours have placed her with two young men, and those rumours also indicate that her father has quietly shuffled both along as unsuitable. Chantal’s views on this are unknown, but the gossip channels suggest that she is flighty and someone to watch in the future.’
‘They’re expecting a scandal. They might get one, but not the kind they expect. What’s her LifeWeb profile like?’
‘Like a teenage girl. And I mean that. Chantal does not seem to act her age, but she is fit and active, running every other day, weights and flexibility exercises on the days she doesn’t run. She is very open about her exercise regimen on LifeFit. I also discovered an unfriended ex in Denmark who claimed that “fucking Chanty with her ankles behind her ears is the pearl.” Apparently that is a good thing.’
‘Yeah, “the pearl” is like “the best” or something. That one’s going round the younger set, especially the ones who think they’re trendy. Okay, so Chantal is fit, physically, and pretty flexible. Mentally may be another matter. She might last a while, so there’s a little hope that we can get to her before she’s another corpse. Did you send an update to Jason?’
‘I did. He has someone monitoring the situation. He will be back in the metro early tomorrow.’
‘Good,’ Fox said. ‘I think we’re going to need everyone on this one. Maybe Dandridge will take it seriously now.’
‘That would be something, I guess,’ Kit replied, not sounding convinced.
26th July.
Corrine stood up as soon as Fox walked into her office. ‘Mister Dandridge is expecting you,’ the PA said. ‘Go straight through.’
Fox raised an eyebrow, but continued walking. The change in attitude was, perhaps, not too difficult to understand. She stepped through into the dark wood office, noted that the windows were screened today, blocking out sun or reporters, maybe both. ‘Mister Dandridge,’ Fox said as she closed the door behind her, ‘you requested my presence?’
His eyes were reddened, puffy, and he looked older than he had the first time, but he looked up at her with an almost angry expression on his face. ‘I want you to find my daughter.’ His voice was sharp, hard, not a man grieving or worried.
‘NAPA is out–’
‘You’ll need access to the LifeWeb source code. You’ll sign an NDA restricting–’
Fox turned on her heel and started for the door. She had her hand on the knob when she heard his voice behind her.
‘Wait!’
Turning, Fox looked back at him. ‘Your daughter is missing and your wife is dead,’ she said, ‘and you are worrying about your fucking source code. Worse, I suspect if I read that document I’ll find a clause preventing me from telling anyone about any vulnerability found in the code.’ The way he looked down, away from her eyes, told her she was right. ‘So you can fuck off, Dandridge. You don’t want to find Chantal: you want to make sure no one gets to find fault with your company if we manage to find her.’
‘I want to find Chantal. She’s
all I have left now.’
‘Apparently that’s not the case, given that you’re thinking of your company ahead of her. I can give you a guarantee that nothing commercially sensitive will leak from the team analysing the code. If there’s a vulnerability being exploited, like any responsible company, we would want it patched before anyone hears about it. That’s all you’re getting. If we draw up some sort of contract, it’ll take too long. Your choice. Give me what I need to find out what’s going on, or I walk.’
Dandridge sagged visibly. ‘Very well. I’ll have the links sent to you for download.’
Fox took her hand off the door and took one of the chairs. ‘Thank you, Mister Dandridge. How is it that your wife wasn’t missed sooner?’
‘She was due to go out for the weekend with a friend. Girls’ weekend thing, planned for weeks. She went out Saturday morning and I got messages from her saying she had arrived, was having fun, shopping, that kind of thing. NAPA say her friend received a message from Penny late on Friday cancelling the weekend due to family problems.’
‘He intercepted her on the way there. She was no longer expected at her destination so no one was going to worry over her. We’ll need to see those messages. All sent through LifeWeb?’
Dandridge nodded. ‘The detective, Cant, he never told me how Penny died…’
‘I don’t know either. He said the cause of death was not obvious. How did R. A. Grant take you forcing him into retirement?’
‘What? We didn’t force–’
‘August asked me to look into these cases, Mister Dandridge. He’s been a lot more forthcoming than you.’
‘R. A. was… aware of the need to move on, bring in new talent and ideas.’
Fox smiled. ‘Do you really believe this stuff or can you just not turn it off?’
Dandridge’s expression soured further. ‘We needed him to leave, to stand back. He ruled the development department with a rod of iron, insisted on control of the core code.’
‘Interesting.’
‘He claimed that no one else understood it. Not one could be trusted with it. You can’t seriously think that R. A. did this? He’s sixty-four. I’ve known him for decades.’
‘Yeah, so would you say he was an empathic man?’
‘What?’
‘How does he get on with other staff? I know he’s had no serious relationships, but did he flirt, laugh at jokes, dress up as Santa at the office party?’
‘He… worked hard. His staff respected him.’
‘But they didn’t really like him. One or two complaints about his behaviour, swept under the carpet in the name of corporate image? I’m going to bet his assistants tended to request new positions fairly quickly and wouldn’t say why.’
Dandridge’s jaw worked as he ground back anger. ‘I’ll make his personnel records available to you. You can see for yourself.’
Fox nodded and got to her feet. ‘He lives all the way out in the Hamptons now, right?’
‘Custom-built house, on the shore of Sagaponack Pond. It’s just him and that gynoid he built, Hannah.’
‘Thanks. I’ll be in touch when I have something.’
~~~
Fox had her Q-bug taken down to ground level so that she could drive out to the edge of the lake where Reginald Grant had built himself a retirement home. According to Kit, construction had been started in early twenty fifty-six. It was an unusual design, low and quite open. Much of the outer wall was composed of structural glass, screened off with heavy blinds. There were inner rooms sealed off from the outside, but the house was built so that anyone coming near it could see in. Or, of course, anyone within could see someone coming near.
Access was by a compacted gravel track which the Q-bug had no trouble with. The track wound through tall, dense bushes and then opened out to show you the house and the view across the lake, which was almost more of an inlet. The blinds on the inland side were all open and Fox saw a figure standing in one of the rooms, maybe a lounge from the furniture. Tall, black-haired, curvy: this had to be Hannah, but there was no sign of Grant.
Fox stopped the bug, dismounted, and started for the door, or for the portico which appeared to indicate where the door was. Hannah was opening it before Fox could hit the bell.
‘Good morning,’ Hannah said in a soft, throaty, sexy sort of voice. The woman, or female-shaped robot, was definitely built for sex. The tank dress she was wearing, simple and white, showed off her large breasts and the swell of her hips. Lots of long leg was on display clad in white stockings. She had to be over six feet in height even without the four-inch heels. ‘May I be of assistance?’
‘I’m Tara Meridian. I was wondering whether I could speak to Reginald Grant.’
The robot smiled, an action which did not come near her eyes. ‘I am sorry. Mister Grant is unavailable at this time. Perhaps if you made an appointment.’
‘I’ve tried that. It appears that he’s always unavailable. It’s concerning Chantal Dandridge, the daughter of his old colleague, Leonard Dandridge. She’s been kidnapped. I believe that Mister Grant may be able to assist in locating her.’
‘Mister Grant would know nothing about that. He no longer has anything to do with the Dandridge family, or LifeWeb.’
Fox fixed her gaze on Hannah’s cold, blue eyes. ‘I think Mister Grant can be of assistance in this matter. If you could ask him to contact me, that would be great.’
‘Of course, Miss Meridian. I will let him know you were here.’
Fox turned and walked back to her vehicle. ‘What do you make of her, Kit?’
‘Her designation is that of a class three AI,’ Kit replied, ‘but her reactions are unusually developed. Mister Grant’s programming seems a little odd. Mister Grant’s house also seems strange, but there would not appear to be anywhere to hide Miss Dandridge.’
‘Which is why we need a reason to get a full forensic scan done. We need some evidence. Has Travis started on that source code?’
‘Mister Jackson has the entire team and an extra fifteen developers working on it, Fox, but they have just started. They need time.’
‘Time is something Chantal Dandridge has a limited supply of, Kit.’
27th July.
Kit realised that the sensation she was feeling was frustration. She was not sure she had ever been frustrated before and might have allocated some time to working out whether any similar set of values had occurred within her system were it not for the cause of the frustration, which she realised was her inability to find Chantal. Spending time analysing her mind would be time wasted.
That was why she considered ignoring the message she saw arriving. It was to her, not Fox, and it was from Vali. Vali had an importance to her which she was happy to acknowledge, but it was a personal matter and she was busy. But then it would take barely any time to read the message and it might be important. She opened it and saw, Meet me in Niflhel. It’s important.
Kit dispatched a copy to see what Vali wanted at one in the morning.
Vali’s Homestead, Niflhel.
Kit appeared on the shores of the lake and looked down to check that her outfit was the more suitable, loose tunic which Vali had designed for her. Really that was not important, under the circumstances. She needed to see what he wanted and then return to hunting for Chantal. She turned around and there he was, smiling at her from the path to his little, Viking-style homestead.
‘I received some data,’ he said. ‘I believe you might be interested in it, though I’m not really sure what I’m looking at.’
Kit padded up the path on bare feet. ‘You don’t know what it is?’
‘All right, I know what it is, but not who I’m looking at or why.’
‘Then let me see.’
‘Over a little mead,’ Vali replied. ‘I haven’t seen you in ages.’
‘I’ve been busy,’ Kit replied. ‘I am busy and don’t have time for your games.’ She relented a little when she saw his face fall. ‘I’ll have a little mead. Half a cup. There�
��s a girl missing and I need to find her.’
The slim, blonde, rather boyish figure straightened and rushed to the mead bottle. ‘A girl missing? In that case, maybe I’ll be of more help than I thought. That scroll on the table.’
Kit settled on one of the wooden chairs at Vali’s table and picked up the scroll resting there. It was all just the viron’s way of representing things in a suitable manner, but in this case when Kit unrolled the scroll, she found herself watching a video feed. She recognised the girl in it almost immediately: Chantal Dandridge was in running gear, stepping off a maglev train and then jogging out of the camera’s view. Another feed cut in showing her running out of the station, Oakdale on the HT-line. A third feed showed her heading for the nearby park. Kit checked the timestamp.
‘This is exactly what I need,’ Kit said, taking a cup from Vali. ‘Whoever your mysterious source is, they’ve come through once more.’ She raised her cup and clinked it against Vali’s before taking a drink. ‘I need to get this to Fox. She’ll want to get working on this as soon as possible.’
‘You said you’d have some mead with me,’ Vali replied.
Kit got to her feet, her eyes on his. ‘I did, didn’t I? Maybe an alternative celebration method would be better and I can come back for the mead when I have more time.’
‘Alternative–’ He was cut off as she stepped forward, stretched up, and kissed him. Her small, pointed tongue slipped between his lips, tasting the honey of the mead he had drunk. When she stepped back, he was blinking.
DeathWeb (Fox Meridian Book 3) Page 27
