Terminated (9 page)

I
ngram and his people arrived in force, ten of them in all. Four
men conducted a full sweep of the parking lot while another four cleared the building itself. Ingram and the woman Gwen remembered from her visit to his office stayed with her in Pace’s reception area. It was a pointless precaution. Tarbell was long gone.

Two new people, a woman and a man, appeared at the entrance carrying tackle boxes. Ingram let them in. “Someone entered this building. I’m looking for prints on the exits and the light switch panel. Coordinate with Gonzalez. You’ll find him on the second floor.”

The technicians nodded and took the staircase.

“I’m hoping he didn’t have time to cover his tracks,” Ingram told Gwen.

Ingram’s cell chirped and he keyed the two-way function. “Go ahead, Gonzalez.”

“The place is clear.”

“OK. Thanks.” Ingram hung his cell on his belt. “Let’s get you to a room to talk.”

A banging on the glass door behind them startled them. Hands pressed against the glass and Paul called Gwen’s name. She’d called him before calling Ingram, but it had taken him longer to get out of San Francisco.

“It’s my husband.”

“Let him in, Gloria,” Ingram said to his associate.

Paul shoved Gloria aside and embraced
Gwen. “You’re OK. You’re OK,” he said, the words flitting between a statement and a question.

“I’m OK,” she managed before breaking into tears.

“Let’s go somewhere quiet,” Ingram said.

Ingram ushered them into a meeting room. Gwen, Paul, Ingram, and Gloria filed into the cramped room. Four chairs surrounded a single table intended for two. Gwen felt instantly claustrophobic and it must have showed.

“Gloria, can you get the security guard’s statement?” Ingram said.

“When is this going to end?” Paul asked after Gloria had closed the door.

“Very soon.”

“I thought you people were supposed to prevent this from happening again,” Paul demanded.

“Paul, please,” Gwen said.

“No, Mr. Farris is right. It’s obvious I need to step things up. I didn’t want to go with a bodyguard because it’ll raise questions here, but more importantly, people find it intrusive.”

Gwen didn’t like the idea of being watched over 24-7. Work might be awkward, but home life would be worse. How could she be herself with a bodyguard following her every move?

“I don’t want that.”

“I’m tempted to give you a driver. Someone who’ll make sure you get to and from home unharmed.”

“I can do that,” Paul said.

Ingram thought it over. “It would keep the situation confidential. Would you prefer that?”

Gwen nodded.

“Let’s go over what happened.”

Ingram brought out his recorder, and Gwen
went through events in detail. Just as she was getting to the end, Gloria poked her head inside.

“Got a minute?” she said to Ingram.

Ingram excused himself and left the room.

“I’m so glad you’re OK,” Paul said.

“Another ruined night. I’m sorry.”

“It’ll be a great one when that son of a bitch is out of our lives.”

Gwen checked her watch. They’d eaten through their babysitting time. “What about Kirsten?”

“It’s covered. I squared it with the sitter to stay longer.”

Ingram reentered the room. He smiled at them, but it was a forced smile.

“What’s wrong?” Gwen asked.

“Could I have a minute alone with your wife?”

Gwen went cold. Something bad was coming. Desperate and nasty notions came to mind. She tried to force them out, but one kept making it through—Kirsten.

“Has something happened at home?” Gwen’s words came out quiet and fragile.

“No, nothing like that.”

“I’m not leaving Gwen.” Paul left no room for argument and Ingram conceded without a challenge and retook his seat.

“So far, we’ve found no signs of forced entry,” Ingram said.

“He’s got a cardkey.”

Ingram nodded. “But he didn’t come through the lobby. Video logs support that.”

“The emergency exit. He used the emergency exit. It was locked when I tried escaping.”

“Maybe so.”

“Maybe so?” Paul said. “What’s going on here? Are you saying Gwen made this up?”

Ingram failed to jump to an immediate
denial. “At this point, there’s nothing proving Stephen Tarbell was here tonight. There’s no camera footage, no prints and no witnesses.”

“I’m a witness.”

“I need evidence beyond eyewitness testimony.”

“What about the light switches? He had to have touched them.”

“Yes, but if Tarbell did leave any prints, the security guard rubbed them off switching the lights back on.”

“That’s if he left any prints in the first place,” Paul said. “This guy isn’t stupid. If he knows how to dodge the security cameras, he knows to wear gloves.”

Ingram nodded.

“You said you didn’t find any prints on the doors,” Gwen said. “Isn’t that weird? Wouldn’t you expect to find a bunch of prints belonging to half the people who work here?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t help us prove he was here tonight.”

Gwen hadn’t eaten since breakfast. This mess combined with her hunger left her feeling nauseous and light-headed. The airless room only exacerbated the sensation.

“He was here tonight,” Gwen said. “I don’t know how he did it, but he was here.”

Ingram frowned. “That’s where the problem lies, Mrs. Farris. The reason I haven’t put a bodyguard on you is that I had people tailing Tarbell every minute of the day and night. I checked in with my watcher. Tarbell has been home all night.”

Gwen didn’t have the words.

“An accomplice,” Paul said. “The son of a bitch is using an accomplice. He’s trying to discredit Gwen, and you’re falling for it.”

Paul’s accusation bounced off Ingram. His focus was totally on Gwen. “Who did you see—Tarbell or someone else? You told me it was Tarbell, but I have one of my people contradicting you.”

“Hey, I don’t like your tone,” Paul said.

“I just need to know the truth.” Ingram turned to Gwen. “Are you certain you saw Stephen Tarbell here tonight?”

Gwen shook her head.

Tarbell surveyed the melee outside
Pace Pharmaceuticals from a safe distance. His car was stashed several blocks away while he lay flat in the landscaping at the edge of the artificial lake across the street from Pace. The busy bees protecting Gwen were too concerned with ensuring their immediate perimeter was intact and the building was clear to bother looking farther afield.

Tonight’s stunt was designed to test the strength of the protective shroud surrounding Gwen. The little scare he’d given her was nothing more than a bonus. The thought of her frightened voice kept him warm as he kept vigil in the rapidly cooling night.

What he’d seen hadn’t impressed him that much. The rent-a-cop covering reception was next to useless. A blind and deaf mute would be more on the ball. And Private Security International’s performance had done little to shake his resolve. Once Gwen had raised the alarm, it had taken them thirty-two minutes to respond. He could have easily killed Gwen and gotten away before these clowns arrived. But credit where credit was due, they weren’t incompetent. They believed they had a twenty-four-hour watch on him. They had no idea that Petersen was in his pocket.

The interesting thing he noted was the distinct lack of cops. Neither Gwen nor the PSI people fell back on the infinitely more accessible police department. Local cops could have been dispatched to Pace within minutes. They would have shut it down and tossed out a dragnet, which would have been hard to avoid.

Pace was keeping this very much inside the family. It was a false economy in his opinion. He’d circumvented PSI’s system quite easily. The cops would have taken him down within minutes with lots of messy
publicity. That was it. Publicity. Pace was playing coy because it didn’t want any publicity muddying its name.

PSI began leaving the building. They’d learned all they could tonight, which was nothing thanks to him. He didn’t make the rookie mistake of leaving when they did. He could do without being spotted by Pace’s people as he drove home. He waited until all of them left and the status quo was restored. Well, that was what he told himself. He actually waited to see Gwen leave. He needed to see that he was having an effect on her and he seemed to be. Gwen walked with her head down and shoulders hunched. The weight of the world rested on her. He almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

He waited until the last PSI car left before returning to his vehicle. He fired up the engine and dialed Tom Petersen’s number. The watcher picked up on the first ring.

“I’m assuming you gave me an alibi,” he said.

“Yes,” came Petersen’s terse reply. He’d been compliant since his wife’s unfortunate tumble. “As far as everyone is concerned you’ve spent the night at home.”

Tarbell smiled in the darkness. “Good. Is anyone coming over to check me out?”

“No. They trust me.” Petersen sounded bitter at the admission. “I can’t keep doing this.”

“You don’t have to, but if you don’t, I’ll take it as an insult and if I feel insulted, I know exactly where to go to relieve my frustration.”

Tarbell let the threat trickle down the line and penetrate into Petersen. He waited for it to soak into that part of Petersen’s brain that reacted to fear. He needed him. He could turn Petersen’s replacement, but he didn’t want to go through that. It would slow him down.

“I don’t want you coming anywhere near my family,” Petersen said. “Understand me?”

“Understood, as long as you keep
your part of the bargain. Are you still on my team?”

Petersen cursed. “Yes. Yes, I am.”

Gwen lay awake in bed. She’d watched the alarm clock pile on the minutes, then the hours. It was three in the morning. In four hours, the alarm would go off, kick-starting a new day in hell.

It wasn’t working. Ingram had promised her protection. Tarbell was surrounded by Ingram’s crack team of investigators, but he’d slipped through their defenses to get at her again. To make matters worse, she was losing Ingram’s faith. He hadn’t said it outright, but she could see that he doubted her story once he’d failed to find facts to back it up. She felt she still had the benefit of the doubt, but how long would it last?

She could understood Ingram’s doubts. Tarbell hadn’t just slipped Ingram’s security; he’d managed to be in two places at once. Ingram had an eyewitness stating Tarbell hadn’t left his home the entire time he’d been chasing her all over the building. How had he done it? He had to have an accomplice. It was the only explanation.

But which one had been where? God, she could have sworn it was Tarbell in the office. Even in the darkness, she recognized his gawky silhouette, but Ingram’s investigator said he’d seen Tarbell himself in his front yard. What did he have—a double? None of it made sense.

She wished for the millionth time that Ingram’s people had found a sliver of physical evidence tying him to tonight’s stunt. Why was Tarbell still coming after her? That was the question no one was asking. As far as he knew, she’d complied with his request. His evaluation said he was a model employee. There was no need to persecute her.

Maybe her morning absence had triggered
his suspicion. He could have read it as trouble and reacted with this incident to keep her docile. That made sense if she could work out his trick of being in two places at once.

It didn’t matter how Tarbell did it. Tonight had proved one thing. When it came to the crunch, Ingram wasn’t able to protect her. Tarbell had still managed to get to her. She couldn’t rely on PSI being there to save her.

She could go to the cops, but how much could they do? They could arrest Tarbell, but he’d get bail. And arresting him would only antagonize him. There would be nothing preventing him from making good on his original threat. The police wouldn’t give her around-the-clock protection, especially if they talked to Ingram and heard his side of the story.

She needed to protect herself. Cops never caught anyone in the act. They arrested people after the fact. That was what they had done with Desmond Parker. They couldn’t prevent him from abducting her and stabbing her, and they couldn’t stop Tarbell. There was only one way she knew how to defend herself against Tarbell.