The Legacy: A Kimberly & Sykes Mystery Novel (13 page)

Sykes stood and kept his eyes on Hart. “Well, that’s where it gets interesting. How much do you actually know about Daniels?”

“He was with the company long before I joined. I believe he is also from old money and that’s what he used to buy himself into the business. If I remember correctly, he was driving drunk one day and killed someone. He lost some athletic endorsements and ended up following his father into mining.” Hart paused before continuing; “He had a wife and kids but they took off a while back. That’s as much as I know. I tend to stay away from gossip, especially when it’s about someone getting divorced….. not something to gossip about, especially when there’s kids involved.”

Sykes nodded slowly in affirmation, he knew Daniels’ history.

“Did you know he is an Olympian?”

Hart’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you sure? No, I never knew that. To be honest, it’s only recently I realized how little I know about my colleagues’ private lives. It sounds like it’s time to change that. Tell me what you know Sykes.”

“He was a wrestler. Like most Olympians, he was a member of the varsity team. Won all the competitions and ended up on the US squad back in the early ‘90s. He did very well and came home with the gold. He went on to make millions in endorsements. He couldn’t handle the pressure though, or maybe it’s just the person he is: he went off the rails and got in lots of trouble with fast cars and drinking. He was prohibited from driving the night he lost control and killed a young woman and her two kids, passengers in the car he hit. He ended up serving two years community service. Needless to say, he lost all his endorsements and eventually was sued for ten million dollars by the surviving husband. His father paid off the husband to stop the case going to civil court.” Sykes’ throat was dry, he stopped to refill his coffee and refilled Hart’s at the same time.

“It looks like Daniels worked for daddy for a few years, got married, had a couple of kids – but was still a party animal. When his father died, he inherited a lot of money, unfortunately, by that time, he was doing some heavy gambling. His wife and kids are long gone. I got some pictures of his mansion: it’s empty. He lives in a downstairs room next to the kitchen with nothing more than a bed and closet. There is barely any food in the pantry. The fridge and freezer are pretty much bare - and no,” Sykes’ said, tapping his finger on the side of his nose, “I won’t tell you how I know that.”

“Good grief. What a story. That’s terrible. I feel sorry for the guy. Tell me this, is Daniels the saboteur?”

“He’s up to something but I’m not convinced that he is behind it. I don’t think he’s clean either. Daniels spends a lot of time in the lab for someone who has no need to be there. I’ve got my team doing more digging and I know we will find something; I’m just not sure what…yet. I got a tip he was in the lab yesterday and went to check it out. I never made it though; that’s when I got the call from Lauren Kimberly she was being followed.” Sykes lifted his coffee mug, putting it down when he saw it was empty. “This takes me full circle. I have a hunch he didn’t give the diamonds to Kimberly. What if Daniels’ knew Kimberly was dead. Bare with me a minute,” he said when Hart started to ask a question. “What if he went arranged to meet Kimberly at his apartment, and found him dead. He’s got big debts…I don’t for one minute think Daniels would have put the diamonds back in the lab if he had the opportunity to hang on to them.”

“But he said Kimberly had gone off the radar. We were looking for him for a few days before you found him.”

“Yes, that’s true. But if Daniels has the diamonds he is going to have to sell them, and that takes time. Imagine for a minute if he was delaying us from finding Kimberly to give himself time to sell the diamonds.”

“That takes a lot of balls and courage. There are definitely places he could sell the diamonds underground, but, I don’t know. God help us if Daniels’ is that cold and calculating. Do some more digging. Keep your eyes on him for another couple of days and get back to me if anything turns up.” Hart stood, brushing his hands down his shirt and jeans removing imaginary fluff. “The engineers should’ve had time to figure out the machine in a day or so and tell us if it works. See what you can find out before then.”

“OK. This might all be moot if we find the diamonds at Wendy Barton’s today,” Sykes said looking at his watch. “I’m going to pick up Lauren and head out there; we should make the last throes of the search.” Sykes added his coffee mug to the piled dishes and walked out of the kitchen with Hart following close behind.

“Sykes, there’s something you should know. We have activated a back-up plan. If we can’t figure out how to get the machine working, we have to get a rapid influx of money, big money. We are working on our Plan B and considering partnership offers. There are three investors who have been making overtures, they are not pretty, but we might have to accept one of them. Keep your ears to the ground. If there are any rumours let me know.”

Sykes tipped his head in acknowledgement and walked down the steps to his car.

Lauren was in the middle of nowhere, with no car, holding a scrawled note from Sykes. She didn’t notice it when she first woke up and took the opportunity of being alone to shower and get dressed. She felt uncomfortable wearing her dusty clothes from the previous day and hoped the search wouldn’t take long so she could go home and change. Lauren was livid when she found the note and called Sykes straight away. She became angrier when he didn’t answer. His voice mailbox was full so she couldn’t even leave him a message.

Frustrated, Lauren threw the phone on the bed and watched it hit the headboard and clatter to the floor, disappearing under the bed. She sat on the chair and drummed her fingers on the desk. A couple of hours later her ears picked up the sound of the key card swiping the door entry. When the door opened, she was ready.

“Where have you been?”

“Good morning to you, too, Lauren.”

Sykes stood holding a bulging paper bag in one hand and the key card in the other. 

“Good morning? That’s the best you can do! Good morning?” Lauren’s eyes blazed as she pushed herself away from the small table from where she had been watching TV, knocking her chair over in the process. She stood with her hands on her hips, her lips set and her nostrils flared, glaring at Sykes.

Sykes took a step back and held up his hand with his palm facing Lauren. “OK, I get that you’re angry. I know you wanted to be present during the search and I really thought we would make it.”

“You promised!” Lauren hissed through clenched teeth.

“I know. I’m sorry. I took the stones to Hart for testing. Didn’t you get my message? I said I would be here as soon as I could and for you to call me if that was a problem.” Sykes looked unwaveringly at Lauren from his spot next to the door. “Come on Lauren. I’m sorry, I thought it best to let you sleep after everything you have been through,” he said, before adding, “I picked up some supplies,” and held out the bag to her.

The fight left her as fast as it had erupted. Lauren ignored the bag and bent to pick up the fallen chair. She dropped to the floor, stretched her arm out under the bed and retrieved her forgotten phone. Sykes stopped emptying the bag, looking questioningly.

“I dropped it.” Lauren said replacing the battery that had fallen out when it hit the floor. When the phone powered up she saw he had missed an incoming call and voice message from Sykes. Sykes raised his eyebrows and finished emptying the bag onto the desk.

“Toothpaste, toothbrushes, hairbrush, and comb – I didn’t know which you used, moist wipes…,”

Lauren walked up to the table and picked up the small pack.

“Moist wipes? What on earth are these for?”

“I don’t know. My wife always had to have moist wipes whenever we were traveling. I just thought…I don’t know…I thought maybe it was a woman’s thing,” he shrugged his shoulders and pulled a face.

Lauren shook her head, and sighed, wondering at the same time if she was doomed to always sign and shake her head at him Taking a toothbrush, toothpaste, and the hairbrush, she walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

Sykes was sitting at the desk waiting for her when she emerged.

“We need to talk.”

“You’ve got that right.” Lauren said as she pulled out a chair and sat down opposite him.

“Look,” he said tentatively, “things are not what they seem. Something doesn’t sit right with me and I need to figure out what’s going on. I made two calls last night. One to Smith to have him come collect the machine – whatever it is, analyzer or prototype, and one to Max Hart.” When Lauren didn’t bombard him with questions, he continued. “Daniels is up to something and I intend to find out what it is. You have to trust me on this.”

“What are you talking about? Trust you? Why should I trust you? You out and out promised that we would be at Wendy’s when they searched the house this morning. And you lied. They better not have caused any damage because I left her a message this morning telling her everything was fine and that we would drop the keys off and push them through the letter box later.” Lauren blurted.

Sykes’ slapped his hands flat on the desk. “OK. Stop right there. Look, Lauren, I’m just trying to do my job.”

“And what the hell is your job!”

“Protecting you!”

Lauren recoiled from his shout. She was shocked, and from the look on Sykes’ face, it showed. Feeling very confused, she put her elbows on the desk and held her head in her hands. When she felt calm, she looked up and was surprised to see Sykes’ face stricken in anguish. Without thinking, she reached out and rested her hand on his arm. Sykes’ face relaxed and he covered her hand with his.  

Lauren was overwhelmed by her emotions and felt exhausted and vulnerable. She dropped her head and let her eyes focus on Sykes’ thumb as it gently stroked the back of her hand.

“I don’t understand what’s going on.”

“Lauren, this will come as a shock to you…I’m the one who identified your father’s body.”

Lauren’s face crumpled. Tears streamed down her cheeks and fell off her chin leaving a growing wet patch on her t-shirt. She pulled her hand away, wrapping her arms around herself and rocked back and forth.

Sykes got up and paced.

“I’m a good guy Lauren. So are Smith, and Hart, and the others. Smith clearly handled it badly when he called you the other evening. But you have nothing to fear.”

Sykes rubbed his forehead with his fingers. “This is highly confidential and I am taking a risk here, but you need to know what’s going on. As you know, I’m in charge of corporate security. Six months ago, I was in New Zealand overseeing operations over there when Smith called and ordered me back on the next flight. The firm has been trying to get an edge over other mining conglomerates; however, everything they had been working on has been methodically sabotaged. Someone, and it has to be an insider, has been stymieing this project of your dad’s since the day he was hired. Supplies have gone missing, tools he ordered never arrived, computer programs have been hacked…. it has been endless. I was out of the loop because I was out of contact; there are no phones in the bush.”

Lauren listened to Sykes’ tale, mesmerized by his hands gesticulating with each point. She didn’t want to interrupt his flow, he looked magnificent. As he talked she slipped, fully dressed, under the bed covers, hunkered down, and pulled the covers tight around her.

“As soon as I got here, I started looking deeper into your dad’s background. That’s the reason I followed him when he went to your apartment. Smith thought your dad was trying to sabotage the project because he couldn’t deliver -”

“I’m having a hard time understanding all this. What…”

“Let me finish, before I change my mind. I shouldn’t be telling you any of this.”

Lauren closed her mouth and lay back on the pillow.

“I wasn’t actually just following your dad when he parked outside your apartment; I was watching to see if anyone was following him. Other than Daniels, there wasn’t.”

“Daniels?”

“Yes, he reported directly to Daniels, I assumed Daniels was keeping an eye on him too.”

“But-”

“Please!... I always thought that there was someone from outside trying to hinder company operations. A person, a group, trying to stop the analyzer from becoming a reality. Then, about two weeks ago, your dad went AWOL. Daniels couldn’t track him down, or at least that’s what he said. Your father wasn’t answering calls, he wasn’t responding to knocks on his apartment door, he was nowhere in sight. Smith wanted him left alone because he believed your dad was just working like a demon getting the analyzer finished for production. Eventually I broke into his apartment to see if there was anything there that would tell us where he was. That’s where I found him. He had been dead a few days.”

Lauren gasped audibly and let out a strangled cry, biting down on her knuckles. Sykes went to the mini bar for a bottle of water and handed it to her. She shook her head with rejection. Putting the water on the bedside table, Sykes gently took Lauren’s hand out of her mouth and sat down next to her pulling her forward into an embrace. Lauren let out a sob and rested her head on his shoulder and wrapper her arms around him, crying wet tears into his neck. When there were no more tears to shed, she lifted her head and sat back against the headboard. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying and her throat felt dry. She drank some water from the bottle Sykes had placed on the bedside table. “Please,” Lauren croaked, “please go on”.

“There were empty Scotch bottles on the floor at his feet. There was whisky in a glass on the table next to his chair. Your father hadn’t had a drink in about a year. I don’t know what caused him to drink that day but I promise you, I will find out what it was.”

The shrill ring of Sykes’ cell phone made them both jump. He glanced at the caller I.D. “I’m sorry, I have to get this.” He walked out of the room into the hotel hallway.

Lauren was looking much more composed when he went back in the room.

“That was Detective Harrigan. He wants to meet me in an hour, I can drop you off at home on the way. O.K.?”

“Yes.  Thank you. When you are finished with Harrigan, can we talk? You said so much and I have lots of questions.”