Justification for Murder (27 page)

D
arcy drove north on 101 toward Palo Alto. All they had was the address of the cancer research start-up. As Jon found out information, he texted it to Sorensen’s phone.

“You know my cases are related to yours, right?” Darcy asked, passing a silver BMW in the left lane driving at the speed limit.

“Yep,” Sorensen said, refreshing the phone one more time. “I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but I do know they are.”

“It still bothers me that I can’t figure out how Harper Johnson is the glue to all of this,” Darcy accelerated. “Why would he kill all of these people?”

“Weren’t you the one who found the eighty grand?”

Darcy gave him a quick glance. “This guy’s a loner. Has no friends, no family, nothing to really need or want eighty thousand dollars for.”

“Except greed,” Sorensen said. A new text popped up. “Okay, when we get there, we should talk to the CEO, Tyler Warren, or ask for the lead researcher. Somebody named Qiang Li.”

“What did you say the name of the CEO was?”

Sorensen repeated it. Darcy pulled his black notebook and opened the piece of paper Elena had given him. Handing it to Sorensen, he said, “Isn’t there a Tyler in that list?”

Sorensen read through it. “Yep. What’s this?”

“The list of regulars who go to Harper’s support group. It may be a coincidence, but Tyler is not a very common name.”

A few minutes later they pulled into the parking lot in front of a two-story building. It had large windows and was painted white. The logo of the company was pasted on the façade on the top floor. The full name was also engraved on the entrance glass doors: “Curarent Tech.”

The parking lot was almost full.

“You were right. It looks like a lot of dedicated people work here,” Darcy said, looking around.

“I told you. If you work in a start-up in the Valley, your home is your office.”

Darcy looked at him. “You mean, it’s like us but with the potential of becoming millionaires?”

“Exactly.”

Darcy felt suddenly depressed thinking of all of his colleagues who worked around the clock, risking their lives on a daily basis, and all they could aspire to was retiring with a pension of only a percentage of their salary. He shook the thought and followed Sorensen toward the big glass doors. They were locked. Sorensen found a bell and pressed it. There was a buzz followed by a click, and the door unlocked. They went to the front desk, where a bored security guard waited for them. Sorensen pulled out his badge and showed it to him.

“Good morning, Sebastian,” he said, reading the guard’s name tag. “Detective Sorensen and Detective Lynch here to see Tyler Warren.”

Sebastian typed several commands on the computer and after a few seconds said, “Mr. Warren’s not in the office today.”

“Can you tell us where he is?” Sorensen pressed.

The security guard looked at him as if he were crazy. He then rolled his eyes and looked at Lynch, expecting some understanding.

“Is Qiang Li here?” Sorensen asked after rechecking Jon’s text for the exact name.

The guard repeated the same operation he had done before, then said, “Yes, she is.”

Darcy stared at the security guard, expecting him to pick up the phone, but he didn’t move.

Sorensen murmured “For God’s sakes.” Then, louder, “We need to talk to her. Where can we find her?”

“You cannot walk in without an invitation from somebody who works for Curarent Tech. The research they’re doing is very important and very secret.”

“I’m sorry, you didn’t see the badge?” Sorensen asked. “It’s a real badge, not like yours. So tell me where she is, or I’ll go find her myself.”

Darcy hid a smirk, though he was mostly embarrassed. He watched Sebastian taking a long look at Sorensen. This was his turf. He had power in this place, and he wanted the cops to know it.

“Sebastian, this is an urgent matter,” Darcy explained. “Please page Miss Li or tell us where we can find her.”

The guard snapped out of his feud with Sorensen and picked up the phone. He murmured into it and then hung up.

“Take the elevator to the second floor. She’ll meet you there.”

They did as instructed, but Sorensen couldn’t help but look back.

Lynch said, “Quit it. How old are you, ten?”

“No respect for the brass, man.”

The doors opened, and they exchanged a look. A child in a lab coat extended her hand toward nobody in particular and said, “Dr. Qiang Li.”

Her bangs were long and pricked her eyes, making her blink constantly. Darcy moved in front of her first and shook a limp hand while he introduced himself, then Sorensen did the same.

“How can I help you, Detectives?” Her accent was strong. She didn’t move but blinked almost uncontrollably.

Darcy had to fight the urge to move her bangs away from her eyes.

“Could we go to your office? It may be a better place to talk than the elevator hall.”

“Yes, of course.”

She turned and started walking away. Sorensen threw another look at Lynch and followed her. After a few feet, she stopped in front of a door with the name of the company etched into the metal door and a badge reader by its side. She swiped her name tag, and the reader cracked open. A fingerprint detector appeared. She pushed her index finger toward the smooth surface until the light turned from red to green. The door opened to a large reception area with a nice view of Silicon Valley.

“These doors are normally open during business hours, but not on the weekends,” Qiang Li explained.

They passed the reception area, and Darcy and Sorensen trailed the woman through a set of sterile, white hallways with beige doors on each side. Finally, she stopped in front of one with a tag bearing her name. She swiped her badge again, no fingerprint this time, and they all walked into a spacious office overlooking a construction site. Her desk was glass, and two large computer monitors stood side by side to the left. She pointed at the black leather chairs as she sat opposite them.

“What can I help you with?” she said and blinked numerous times.

“We understand that you’re doing cancer research, right?” Lynch asked.

“Yes.”

“What kind?”

“Activation immunotherapy.”

She finally moved the bangs to the side, but they moved right back into her eyes.

“Are you focusing on any specific type of cancer?”

Sorensen shifted in his chair. The leather squeaked.

“Ductal carcinoma.”

Darcy wondered if she was a woman of a few words because she was shy of her accent or because she thought they were both too stupid to understand what she was working on.

“Are you close?” Sorensen asked.

Qiang Li blushed and looked out the window. Was she trying to hide that they were close to finding something life altering? It felt more like they weren’t close at all, and that was a secret worthy of keeping away from investors.

“We’ve had very positive results so far,” she said, now looking from one detective to the other.

“So I heard,” Darcy cut in. “But not for a while, right?”

She was silent, staring back out the window.

“Any human trials yet?” Sorensen asked.

Her little frame stiffened on the large chair. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Detectives, I find it surprising that you’re here because you are curious about my research. Can you tell me why you wanted to talk to me?”

“Routine, really.” Sorensen leaned back on his chair, letting her know they weren’t going anywhere. “We’re investigating a set of deaths related to cancer.”

Qiang Li fell quiet again. Darcy could see her brain work at incredible speed.

Finally, blinking again, she said, “Unfortunately, I can’t tell you much about our research, because even though we’re not in stealth mode anymore, we’re still held under extreme secrecy rules, both internal and for our investors.” She locked eyes with Lynch. “But you can ask me anything you want and if I can answer, I will.”

“Have you started human trials yet?”

“No.”

“Will you be ready soon?” Sorensen pushed.

She stared at him, hesitating again. “Maybe.” She finally said, as honestly as she could.

“Is the company doing well financially?” Darcy asked.

“You’ll need to talk to Mr. Warren or Miss Fabruko about that. I don’t get involved with those things.”

“Are they here?”

“I’m not sure. You can ask the security guard downstairs to page them for you.”

“Can you try their office from here?” Sorensen insisted.

She exhaled nosily but picked up the phone. Neither answered.

“Cell phones?” Sorensen pressed.

She made the first call.

“Tyler, I’ve got two detectives here who’d like to speak with you. Are you coming to the office today?”

Neither detective could hear what the CEO was saying.

“I don’t know,” she said into the phone. A few seconds later she ended the call after saying, “Okay, I will.”

Darcy and Sorensen looked at her expectantly.

She blinked and said, “He told me to give you his number. He’s unavailable for most of the day, but you can leave a message, and he’ll call back when he can.”

Sorensen smirked. She saw it.

Fabruko didn’t answer the phone, so she left her a voice mail. Both detectives asked her a few more questions, but they didn’t lead to anything. Shortly after, she walked them out.

Back in the car, Darcy called Jon.

“Hey, quick question. Can you check what Mr. Tyler likes to do with his free time? Call me back as soon as you’ve found out.”

Sorensen stared at Lynch.

“Well, if he’s too busy to be at the office like most of his employees, he may be playing golf or something. Or what? You rather wait until he calls us back?

Sorensen fastened his seat belt and looked straight out the front window of Darcy’s car.

“I was really hoping to get something here. What next? The other company?” he asked, his voice dull and lower than normal.

Before Darcy had a chance to get out of the parking lot, Jon called.

“Thanks, dude, you’re the man,” Darcy said and hung up. “Nope, it looks like we just found an interesting coincidence. Wanna do some shooting?”

T
yler was trying not to speed down Highway 17. He was waiting for the phone to ring again and kept watching it, as if that would make it ring faster, keeping only one eye on the road. When it finally did, he clicked his earpiece on.

“What the hell was that about?” he asked.

“Excuse me?” a voice he didn’t recognize asked.

“Shit,” he said under his breath when he saw the caller ID. “Mrs. Gunther, I’m so sorry. I was expecting a call from work.”

“I understand. Anyway, I was wondering when you were going to come and pick Lucas up.” She coughed a few times. “He’s a great boy, but we need to get going. We are driving to Sacramento to celebrate Simon’s grandmother’s birthday.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Very well. And when do you think that will be?”

He couldn’t think of this right now. He didn’t even know when he was going to be able to get free. When he was running out of time for a response, Qiang Li’s call finally came.

“Listen, Mrs. Gunther, I have to take this other call right now. I promise you I’ll arrange for Lucas to be picked up shortly.”

Before she could protest, he hung up.

“What’s going on?” he asked Qiang Li.

“That’s exactly what I wanted to ask you. What the hell, Tyler?” Her voice came through like a shriek of a wounded animal. She spoke so fast he could hardly understand her.

“Tell me exactly what they asked you and what you said.”

She did, and he concentrated on every word more than on the road. He veered too much into the lane next to him, and a car honked as it passed him on the left. He centered his car and slowed down further.

“You did well, Qiang. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“To hell with you,” she yelled again. “You swore we would never even get this far. You promised nobody would ever know what we were doing.”

He knew she was squeezing her stress ball as she screamed at him.

“And they don’t. They have no idea. They’re probably asking a lot of different companies a lot of questions. That doesn’t mean they’re onto us.” He tried to sound more reassuring than he really felt. “Trust me, we’re fine.”

“Next time they come, you talk to them. I don’t ever want to be put in that situation again. You hear me? Never again!” she screamed into her phone again and hung up before he could respond.

He felt his blood pressure skyrocket. He forced himself to control his breathing to calm down. Things were definitely not going according to plan. He was close to the cabin but decided to make the call anyway.

“Julia, how are things?”

“Jesus.”

Fuck
, he thought.
Things are not going according to the plan at all
.

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, this is just much harder than it looks, Tyler.”

Before she could go on complaining, he said, “I’ll be there shortly, but you have to get on it. We are running out of time.”

With his full attention back on the road, he sped up for a few miles until he reached the Summit Road exit. He took it a bit faster than he should have and his wheels screeched on the turn. Tyler’s head was spinning. He couldn’t believe how his well-thought-out plan had gone so wrong. He had to fix it—and soon—or everything would have been in vain. Before he had time to dwell more on it, he saw a gas station, and he came up with a new plan.

Back in the car, he decided to push away the dread and think about Eva. Her skin, her mouth, her scent invaded his senses. He missed her. He was still disappointed she hadn’t canceled her other plans, but he knew exactly what he would do to get her attention back. She was so sensuous, so sexy…Yeah, he needed to wrap this up so he could take her to the Caribbean for a few days. The sun, the clear blue water and infinite sex with Eva would make everything that had happened seem like a bad dream.

His thoughts were suddenly halted when he turned into the cabin’s private road and spotted somebody walking toward the house. Tyler backed the car out of sight and killed the engine. Reaching into the glove compartment he grabbed his Sig P226 X-FIVE handgun. He got out of the car and walked slowly trying to not make a sound.

The man had gray hair and was wearing a black and red shirt under a brown vest. He was carrying a rifle, but it was open. He reached the house and peeked into the window furthest from the entrance. After a few seconds, he passed the next window and finally got to the door. Tyler wondered if the man would dare to go inside and if he’d have enough time to stop him, as he was still several yards away from the house.

The man searched for something, finally pulling out a phone. Tyler panicked and sped up. He’d no idea what Julia had done to the house, and he didn’t want anybody wondering either. So he ran, and as soon as he was close enough, he yelled, “Hang up the phone and put the gun down now.”

The man turned toward Tyler but didn’t hang up.

“I said hang up
now.
”

Tyler kept getting closer with his gun raised. The man saw the muzzle pointed at his chest and raised both hands. One had the phone, the other the rifle, still open. Tyler reached the intruder and took the phone from him. Stepping back a few feet, he looked down to see whom he was talking to, but it was just a number.

He said, “Who is this?”

There was nobody on the other end. The man had been leaving a message. Tyler threw the phone on the ground and stepped on it, breaking it into several pieces. The man never uttered a word.

“Put the rifle down very slowly,” Tyler said.

The man did.

“Kick it toward me.”

The kick was weak, the rifle only moved a few feet. Tyler walked to it and picked it up. He then threw it almost thirty feet toward the trees.

“Who are you?”

“My name’s Alton Lane. I live next door.”

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“I knew Harper. He wasn’t one for visitors, so when I saw the car on the driveway, I came to see if it was a family member or something. I wanted to pay my respects.”

“Why are you carrying a gun?”

“I always do. I hunt on my property.”

“Who were you calling?”

“My daughter.”

Tyler eyed the man. He knew this was a lie. Nobody dialed a loved one’s full number anymore. The numbers were all preprogrammed, even on old flip phones. He walked toward the old man slowly, still pointing the gun at him. Alton Lane retreated, but soon his back hit the wall of the house. Tyler wondered if the old man felt like prey being on the other side of the barrel. But there was no fear in his eyes, only curiosity, as if he were daring him in some twisted way.

The door to the cabin opened, and Julia came out. She got startled, jumped and let out a little cry of surprise. Alton looked in her direction. This gave Tyler the perfect chance to strike him. He hit him on the side of his forehead with the butt of his gun. Alton fell on the floor, unconscious. A bump appeared of about an inch that didn’t quite open but turned blue almost immediately.

“What the hell are you doing?” Julia asked, fighting hard not to scream again.

“He was snooping. Who knows who he called.” He pointed at the destroyed phone on the floor. “We need to take care of him.”

Julia started to sweat. Tyler met her eyes. They were bloodshot but looked dead inside.