by Jayne Castle
“I appreciate the update, Justis,” Starr said easily as the heavy car slid silently to a halt in front of Zac’s building. “Sounds like you’re checking all the right angles. You saw nothing out of line at the warehouse?”
“I walked through the place earlier this week and asked a few questions. Told everyone I was a safety inspector. No one seemed to care how much I looked around or where I wandered.”
Starr nodded with regal comprehension. “I see. Well, continue to keep me informed on a day-to-day basis via Elfstrom. Perhaps next week I’ll want another personal report. In the meantime, remember what I told you about keeping this matter as quiet as possible. I don’t want wild rumors leaking out to the stockholders. Not at this point. Bad for the image.”
“I understand.” Zac decided he must have done a fairly decent job of giving his presentation after all, even if he hadn’t gone the full nine yards by ordering steak for breakfast. “Thank you, Mr. Starr. I’ll keep you informed.” He started to get out of the car.
“Oh, by the way, Justis, that woman I saw you leave with the other day?”
Zac froze for an instant. Up to this point the real reason for Guinevere’s presence in Elfstrom’s department was a secret among himself, Russ, and Gwen. He didn’t want to alter that. StarrTech was far too big an operation for Hampton Starr to know all his own employees, let alone the temporary people. Zac had wanted to slip Gwen in and out, no questions asked. Russ had agreed to go along with the arrangement.
“She’s a temp who’s working for a short term in one of your departments. We happened to know each other before she went to work there. Any problem?”
“No, of course not.” Starr gave him a knowing man-to-man smile, the king sharing a bit of male bonding with a peasant, showing that on occasion he could be just one of the guys. “Merely curious. She and I nearly collided in the lobby, and I thought she reminded me of someone. What’s her name?”
There was no point in lying. It might come back to haunt him later. “Jones.”
Starr’s smile turned into a brief grin. “Jones, hmm? You want to watch those Jones women.”
“You know her?” Zac felt a tightness in his stomach.
“I don’t think so although there’s something familiar about her. But I enjoyed a brief affair with a woman named Jones a few months ago. She turned into a little tigress when the time came to break things off. You know how it is, some women just don’t know how to take no for an answer.” Chuckling richly, Hampton Starr closed the door and nodded to his driver.
Zac stood on the sidewalk, watching thoughtfully as the Mercedes disappeared into traffic. Then he turned and walked slowly into the building. There were three messages on his answering machine—all from Guinevere.
“Zac? This is Gwen. Can’t you afford an answering service? Much better for the image. Machines give such a cold impression. Listen, I want to talk to you. Call me as soon as you can.”
There was a click and a pause, and then the next message came through. “Zac? Where are you? This is important. Call me at StarrTech.”
The third message was simple. “For crying out loud. Where the hell are you?”
Zac picked up his phone and dialed the IT department at StarrTech. Guinevere answered on the first ring. She launched into her topic without preamble.
“It’s about time you called. Do you always sleep this late? Listen, I can’t really talk here, but Larry’s got something I think you might want to see. Are you free after work tonight?”
“Sure. I’ll pick you up. What is it, Gwen?”
“Something to do with Cal.” Her voice became a secretive whisper. He could just imagine her huddled over the phone as she finally got to do her spy imitation. The picture made him smile slightly. “You know that disk we saw that night at his place? The one labeled ‘Elf.’”
Zac closed his eyes, afraid of what was coming next. “I remember.”
“Well, I brought it back for Larry to look at, and he’s found something interesting. It may mean nothing, but I think you should—”
Zac didn’t give her time to finish. He exploded over the phone. “You did what? Brought it back? You lifted it that night? Damn it, Gwen, I told you not to touch anything that night. What the hell do you think you were doing? You little idiot! I’m going to strangle you! Of all the stupid, crazy things to do. Can’t you even follow a simple order?”
Her voice became very frosty. “Well, if that’s the way you feel about it, I suppose you’re not interested in seeing the changes Cal made in the program. You wouldn’t be interested in having it pointed out that Hampton Starr now plays a crucial role in the game—”
“Gwen, you’re not making any sense.” He’d like to get his hands on her, he thought disgustedly. How dare she disobey him like that? Did she think he gave orders for arbitrary reasons?
“I’ll show you what I’m talking about tonight. If you’re interested,” she added far too sweetly before throwing the phone down.
Zac wondered if the magazine articles on effective employee management covered the problems inherent in managing someone such as Guinevere Jones.
It seemed to him that the rest of the day went by with excruciating slowness. Zac sat at his desk, wishing he hadn’t had so much coffee at breakfast, and stared at the notebook in front of him. In it he had jotted down a variety of what seemed to be unrelated information. He tried to focus on the random thoughts and found images of Guinevere Jones flitting in and out of his head instead.
She’d had no business touching anything that night they’d gone to Cal Bender’s house. But if she’d found something important, how the hell was he going to chew her out about it? In spite of himself, Zac had a strong sense of anticipation when he thought about this evening. This case needed something, anything, for him to start tying the loose ends together.
According to his notes, all he had to date was the fact that the thefts had taken place in the shipping system, Russ Elfstrom’s suspicions that whoever was involved was manipulating the thefts through the company computer, Cal Bender’s disappearance, and plenty of “Beats the hell out of me” types of answers from the people Zac had talked to at the StarrTech warehouse.
Zac’s large hand fiddled with a ballpoint pen as he thought about his discussions with the warehouse and loading dock workers. A lot of StarrTech material was shipped through the major private carriers. Once a package had been put into the carrier’s hands, StarrTech stopped worrying about it unless someone phoned to say it had never arrived.
Zac had explained that the other day during lunch with Guinevere. It helped to talk it out, he’d discovered.
“No irate clients are phoning to say they haven’t received their orders,” he’d explained. “There’s no real way even to know which shipments are missing. It’s crazy. If some bright-eyed wizard in accounting hadn’t noted the small inventory discrepancies, StarrTech wouldn’t even realize it had been ripped off.”
“And if Cal hadn’t modified the inventory control program in the first place, that wizard in accounting wouldn’t have been able to make himself look so bright-eyed.”
Zac’s thoughts went back to that comment again and again as he sat staring at his small list of notes. Cal Bender’s program had brought the discrepancies to light. And now Cal Bender was missing.
Zac wanted very badly to see what Bender had done to the infamous game program. Afterward he might still decide to tear a strip off Gwen, of course. That was his prerogative as the boss.
***
Guinevere knew Larry was nervous about showing Elf Hunt to Zac. But when she’d explained that he was quietly looking into Cal Bender’s disappearance, Larry had relaxed. He was waiting for both of them when Zac and Guinevere arrived in Zac’s Buick.
Zac had said little on the drive out to Wallingford. Expecting a le
cture, Guinevere was relieved that he’d obviously decided to let the subject drop. Apparently he had more sensitivity than she’d credited him with.
“If what Larry has to show you seems promising, will you want me to continue going into StarrTech as a temp?” she asked as she climbed out of the Buick.
“We’ll see.”
She eyed him warily, wondering at the curtness of his answer. “I could manage another day or two. Carla doesn’t seem to mind filling in for me at the office.” Carla had agreed to hold the fort another day, much to Guinevere’s astonishment. It had made things easier at StarrTech for her, knowing that someone was handling things at Camelot Services. With that off her mind Guinevere had found herself thinking more and more about the investigation Zac was conducting. It occurred to her that she was beginning to get into the spirit of the thing.
Larry appeared on the porch before Zac could respond. He had a large peanut butter sandwich in one hand and a can of cola in the other. “Come on in.” He nodded toward Zac. “How’s it going, Justis?”
“Gwen says you have something to show me on the game program you and Bender are designing?”
“The thing’s been driving me nuts. I’ve spent every spare minute on it, and it’s as though I’m having to learn it from scratch. Cal’s changed all kinds of things. I’ll show you.” He turned to lead the way into the house. “You really looking for Cal?”
“I didn’t start out to look for him, but things seem to be working out that way.”
Two hours later Larry leaned back in his chair, frustration lining his face. “That’s it. That’s as far as I’ve been able to get. You don’t know how tough it is to slog through this thing. None of the crucial turning points is the same as it was in the original version.”
Zac nodded, staring thoughtfully at the screen. An hour earlier he had taken a turn trying to play the game under Larry’s instruction. At some points he’d made a surprising amount of progress because he hadn’t been operating under Larry’s preconceptions of what was supposed to happen next. But neither he nor Larry got even close to winning. “Whose idea was it to use StarrTech personnel as character models?”
“Cal and I thought it would be funny. We figure no one’s ever going to see the resemblance except us, so we won’t get sued.” Larry paused to jot down a few more notes in the tablet he had on his lap. He was documenting the result of every choice made while playing the game. He flipped the notebook shut and looked directly at Zac. “Gwen was telling me the truth when she said you’d keep quiet about the game, wasn’t she? With any luck I’ll be quitting in a couple more weeks, and then no one will be able to prove when or where Cal and I worked on the project. But until then I’d like to keep it secret.”
“You think Hampton Starr would claim rights to it?”
Larry lifted one shoulder. “Probably not. StarrTech makes test equipment, not computer games. But who knows what management will do? Safest just to keep the whole thing quiet until after Cal and I are out of StarrTech.”
“It’s considered generally wise at StarrTech not to trust upper management.” Guinevere got up from her chair. “Don’t worry about Zac, Larry. He’ll keep quiet.” She was unconscious of the certainty in her own voice. “On to important matters. I’m starving.”
Zac gave her a cool glance. “Is that a hint?”
“How about dinner on the way back downtown?” She could tell the innocent brightness of her tone didn’t fool him for a minute. But he didn’t argue.
They said good-bye to Larry, climbed into the car, and started back toward the center of Seattle.
“I was thinking of a rather nice fish place I know on the wharf,” Guinevere began chattily.
“Uh-huh.”
“You sound almost agreeable. What’s the matter? Feeling sick?”
“I’m thinking.”
She grinned. “Keep right on thinking. I’ll point out the restaurant.”
Half an hour later, well into her halibut, Guinevere decided she’d had enough of eating in peace and quiet. She waved a fork under Zac’s nose to get his attention.
“All right, I give up. There’s no sport in this. Like taking candy from a baby.”
He regarded her mildly. “What’s like taking candy from a baby?”
“Getting a free meal out of you when you’re ‘thinking.’ No challenge. No fight. No spirit. It ruins everything for me.”
“Sorry.”
She made a disgusted little sound. “Forget it. Tell me what you’re thinking about so seriously.”
“Elf Hunt.”
“What about it?”
Zac prodded his broccoli puree. “I wonder why they had to turn the broccoli into baby food.”
“Vegetable purees are very fashionable at the moment. They add color to the plate. Forget the broccoli, and tell me what’s going through your convoluted brain.”
“The same question I had about the broccoli. Why mess with a perfectly good product and turn it into something else?”
Guinevere nodded quickly. “It’s driving poor Larry out of his mind. He won’t rest until he’s worked his way through the rest of that game. You know what I find the most interesting?”
“What?” Zac tried a spoonful of the broccoli puree.
“That business of changing the wicked guardian of the treasure from the elf to the king,” she said. “Larry’s right. The figure of the king does have some Hampton Starr characteristics. And what happened to the elf?”
“It doesn’t make much sense.” Zac hesitated. “Until you consider the fact that it was Bender’s inventory control program that was originally responsible for bringing the thefts to light.”
“The next thing you know Cal’s missing and all that’s left behind is this altered version of Elf Hunt.” Guinevere pushed aside her plate, propped her elbow on the table and her chin on her hand. “The guy in accounting wouldn’t be a problem. He doesn’t understand the computer programs inside and out. He just uses the results.”
Zac looked at her consideringly. “But Cal Bender does understand the programs. All of them. He could make those programs do anything he wanted them to do. And now Cal’s gone. If he was behind the shipping thefts and realized that things were getting hot, I can see him skipping town. But why take the time to alter Elf Hunt before he left?” There was silence for a moment as Zac worked through a few more of his own thoughts. Then he went on. “If we assume that when Cal altered the game program, he kept to the basic theme of using StarrTech personnel . . .” His voice trailed off again as he forked up a bite of his salmon.
“Go on.” Guinevere discovered she was getting impatient.
“Well, maybe he did more than use StarrTech people in his new version of the game. Maybe he decided to use a StarrTech situation.”
Guinevere slowly lowered the bite of halibut back to her plate. She stared at Zac, fascinated. “The thefts?”
“StarrTech has tried to keep a low profile on the problem, but there are obviously a few people who know what’s happened.”
“Sure. Russ Elfstrom, the guy in accounting who turned up the missing shipments in the first place, a couple of vice presidents, and Starr himself.”
“With that many people aware of what’s happening there’s no reason rumors couldn’t have reached Cal.”
“But Cal and Larry are practically business partners. If Cal knew something like that, he would have mentioned it to Larry. Unless Cal was guilty of the thefts in the first place. But if Cal wasn’t guilty and had a few suspicions about what was happening—” Guinevere stopped abruptly, realizing where her thoughts were leading. “Good grief! You don’t think he left his suspicions behind in the game?”
“I don’t know what to think at this point.”
“But why would Cal do it that way? If h
e wanted to confide in Larry, why not just talk about it? Why go through all the trouble of reprogramming the game?”
“I told you, Gwen, I’m not sure what to think just yet. I’m trying to organize things in my mind. Why don’t you just eat your halibut and let me think in peace?”
“There’s no need to snap at me!” Offended, Guinevere sank into a resentful silence, eating her way methodically through the halibut, the vegetable puree, and all the sourdough bread. She was considering dessert when another thought occurred to her. Her curiosity overcame her determination to keep quiet until hell froze over. “What about the king?”
With an obvious effort Zac pulled his attention away from whatever thoughts were occupying it and managed to focus again on Guinevere. “Hampton Starr?”
“Cal turned him into the evil treasure guardian. He’s the ultimate menace now in the game.”
“Interesting, isn’t it?”
She glared at him. “It’s slightly more than interesting. If we assume that the game somehow represents the StarrTech thefts, then Cal’s reason for making Hampton Starr the bad guy is downright fascinating. Under normal circumstances he would have kept the elf as the bad guy. Cal really disliked Russ Elfstrom. Now the elf is out of the game, and we’re left with King Starr.”
“Yes.”
“It doesn’t make any sense. Starr is not exactly a sterling representative of the male species, but why would he be the bad guy in this? Was Cal implying he’s somehow behind the thefts? The real source of the menace? If he was pulling a fast one on his own firm, why hire you? Because Elfstrom had realized what was going on and Starr figured he’d better make the appropriate moves?”
