No Way to Die (26 page)

“What’d he want?” I asked. “What did he want from you?”

“I had some notion that he was interested in me romantically.” She rolled her eyes. “Apparently not,” she said with disgust. “Instead, he told me that MST really wanted to buy Starfire—needed it, actually. He told me they’d pay me a two-million-dollar fee if I could convince Thomas to go ahead and sell to them now. He said they’d raise their offer to twenty million dollars. They wanted us to just keep it secret from the Department of Commerce. He said they’d be able to reverse-engineer Starfire, make a few changes, and then reintroduce it through a subsidiary of theirs in France like it was completely different. He said the Commerce Department would never know. Meanwhile, I’d get a two-million fee from them for helping to arrange the deal, plus 10 percent of the sale from my ownership interest—which would have been another two million.”

“Wow,” I said, “four million bucks for you. That’s a lot of money. What did you say?”

She squirmed in her chair, clearly uncomfortable. “I—I told them I’d talk to Thomas.” She looked up at me. “You’re right, four million dollars
is
a lot of money.”

“So you talked to Thomas,” Toni said. “What did he say?”

“Pretty much what I expected he’d say,” she said. “He thought about it for about three seconds, and then he said hell no.”

I nodded. Good for him. “No questions in his mind?”

“There didn’t seem to be any,” she said. “Like I said, his answer was almost immediate.”

“Then what happened?” Toni asked.

“I thought that was it,” she said. “I thought it was all over. I called Cameron and told him Thomas said no. He said that was too bad, but that he understood.”

I looked at her. “But clearly, that wasn’t the end of things.”

She shook her head. “No,” she said. “A few days later, Cameron calls up again, and he’s like, ‘I had such a nice time at the Cypress, maybe we can have dinner together.’ Call me a wishful thinker, or maybe just stupid, but I was flattered. I said sure.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“We never made it to dinner.”

I arched an eyebrow.

“It’s not what you think,” she said. “Cameron picked me up at my apartment and said he needed to swing past his office because he forgot something. We went inside, and he took me back to what I thought was going to be his office. Instead, he took me to a room that looked like a conference room. There was a man at the table in there.”

“Let me guess,” I said. “Nicholas Madoc.”

“That’s right,” she said. “I never saw a more evil, sinister-looking man in my whole life. One second, he can be all smiles, and the next, he looks just like a rattlesnake. He’s got these beady little eyes.”

I knew exactly what she was talking about. “What happened?” I asked.

“They had me sit down across from him. I didn’t know what was happening—or what was going to happen. Part of me thought Cameron was maybe just introducing his boss or something before we went to dinner.”

“What’d Madoc say?” I asked.

“He introduces himself, and he’s like all smooth and charming. He thanked me for trying to convince Thomas to sell Starfire to them. Then he said that it was too bad that Thomas said no. He said that MST really wanted Starfire and that I needed to help them. I told him that we had already talked about it, that I couldn’t help them, and that I was through helping them. I told them I wasn’t comfortable even talking about it behind Thomas’s back anymore.”

“What’d he say?” Toni asked.

“He laughed. I remember he said that it was a little late for second thoughts on my part. He said I was already guilty of conspiracy to circumvent Department of Commerce laws regarding the transfer of sensitive property. He said I could go to jail for ten years.”

Toni and I scribbled furiously in our pads, trying to keep up.

“I was a little scared, but I tried not to show it. I said ‘bullshit’ and I got up to leave. Cameron was standing behind me, and he reaches over and pushes me back down into my chair, hardlike. Then I started to get really scared.”

She took a drink from her water bottle, and then continued. “So Madoc pushes a button on a keyboard, and a picture of William—my little brother, William—pops up on the flat-screen they had mounted to the wall. I was shocked. The picture had a date on it from the day before our meeting! I looked at Madoc. I remember he smiled that crocodile smile of his and said that William looked like a fine young man. He said—” she started to cry, “—he said that it would be a shame if William were to get hurt. He said I needed to pay close attention, and he asked me if I understood what he was saying. I told him yes. I was scared; believe me. He said my decisions from that point on would affect not just me—they’d affect William as well.”

“What did he mean by that?” I asked.

She looked at the table and wiped her eyes.

“He said if I didn’t cooperate with them, they’d kill me. Then, they’d kill William, too. He said if I went to the police, they’d turn over tapes of me talking to Cameron about trying to get Thomas to sell. He said I’d go to jail—and that they’d still kill William.” She started crying again. “I didn’t know what to do.”

“What did they want you to do?” I asked. “What are they trying to accomplish?”

“I didn’t know at first,” she said, “but it’s pretty clear now.”

I looked at her, questions obvious in my eyes.

She stared at me for a few seconds, and then turned away. “Oh God,” she cried. “I never thought they’d kill Thomas.” She sobbed and buried her face in her hands.

After a minute had passed and she’d regained her composure, I said, “Tell me what you think.”

“Okay,” she sniffed. “Cameron Patel told me that he wanted me to get Thomas to buy me a gun. He told me to tell him that I was scared because a former boyfriend was bothering me.”

“There was no former boyfriend?” I asked.

She flipped back a strand of hair that had fallen across her face, and then looked up at the ceiling. “No,” she said, her lip quivering. “At least no one who’d bother me. I told them this, but they said not to worry about it—that Thomas would believe whatever I said, and he’d want to help. So I went along. I did what they asked. They even told me what kind of gun to get Thomas to buy. And they were right—it never even crossed Thomas’s mind that I’d be lying. He took me to the gun shop, and he bought the gun I told him I wanted. I shot it on the firing range there at the gun shop, and then I took it home and put it away. I didn’t like it. I never touched it again.”

“How’d Thomas end up with it?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she cried. “I put it in my desk at home—still in the box it came in. I never even looked at it again. When I saw on TV that they were saying Thomas was killed with his own gun, my heart just dropped—I guessed what had happened. I went home, and the gun was gone! Madoc’s guys had to have broken into my house and taken it. Then they killed Thomas with it and made it look like it was a suicide,” she said, crying again. “The only one other than Thomas with a link to the gun is me. You have to believe me: I’d never—never—have done anything to hurt Thomas. He was my mentor and my hero. I’d have done anything for him.”

I nodded. “I understand,” I said. “But I still don’t see why Madoc would want to kill Thomas. What do they gain with him out of the picture?”

She sniffed. “Cameron said they want to use the buy–sell agreement—the gunslinger’s put. With Thomas gone, they wanted me to convince everyone that there’s no value to the company.” She paused. “Aside from Starfire, they’re pretty much right. And besides, Starfire always had questionable value anyway. Their original offer was at least delayed, and there’s no assurance that we’d be able to get it approved or get another offer.”

“So if they can get everyone to believe that there’s not much value to the company,” I said, “then. . .”

“Then they can back me in an offer to buy out Katherine’s 90 percent for a pretty low price. They think that she’d be inclined to take it and make a clean emotional break from the company, Thomas being gone and all.”

“Only, they’ll have already had you sign over your interest to them in advance,” Toni said.

“Exactly,” Holly said. “They’ll own the company 100 percent for a pretty low price—probably a whole lot lower than the twenty million they said they’d pay.”

“What do you get out of it?” I asked.

She gave me a fierce look. “I don’t want anything from these guys, not after what they’ve done,” she said. “I get to walk away.I get to keep my little brother alive.”

I nodded. “I understand. I didn’t mean to imply anything.” It’s a familiar story—people get involved with something that spins out of control. Next thing you know, they’re in way over their heads. I’ve seen middle-aged housewives who’ve actually murdered their husbands when an argument festered and grew and escalated to the point where they lost the ability to control themselves or the events surrounding them. Acting without rationale or logic, they do things that would’ve appalled them normally.

And that’s without a sneaky bastard like Nicholas Madoc pushing, goading, and manipulating events to suit his wishes. Holly seemed completely overwhelmed—not at all prepared to fend off approaches from the likes of smooth operators like Madoc or Cameron Patel. It’s not surprising that she’d have been sucked in by these evil, greedy bastards.

“Holly,” I said. “Tell me, how much does MST know about us and what we’ve been doing?”

“They know pretty much everything,” she said. “I’m supposed to call in a couple of times a day. If I don’t, then they call me.”

“What have you told them about us?” I asked.

“Just about our meeting last week,” she said. “That’s the last thing that happened around here. I mean, I’m supposed to call them if John Ogden calls. Or if you guys call. But that’s pretty much it. I’m not going to tell them about this meeting now, that’s for sure.”

“I’m not sure that would be very smart,” I said.

“It certainly would not,” Toni added. “If they’re watching this place, or if they’ve bugged the phones, then you’d best not lie to them.”

This thought seemed to rattle her a little.

“Just act the way you’ve been acting,” I said. “They’ve got to expect that we’d come and talk to you after they attacked me yesterday. Tell them we were here. Tell them we were asking about Madoc. Don’t tell them about the rest of our conversation.”

“What happens then?” she asked. “When does this end? How does it end?”

I didn’t want to tell Holly that we were already talking with the FBI and certainly not about our meeting tomorrow, just in case she was lying to us and working willingly for Madoc. “It’ll end,” I said. “We’re working on it. At some point, we may need to go to the police—maybe even the FBI. I hate to do that, but at some point, it might be inevitable. It’s possible—I’d even say probable—that one of them will listen to your story and most likely be willing to make some sort of immunity deal with you if you’ll testify against MST. What do you think, Toni?”

“I’d think that would be a no-brainer, Holly. Your testimony basically shows MST in almost total control of the murder weapon. They essentially arranged for its purchase. And after it was bought, they took control of it. The whole notion of Thomas using his own gun to take his life basically falls apart when you understand that Thomas never had physical possession of that gun in the first place. First, you had it; then MST. This will crucify MST and Nicholas Madoc.”

“Good. Those bastards deserve to fry for what they did to Thomas.”

“Exactly. Like I said, we’re working on it. We’ll be in touch.”

It was silent for a few seconds, and then Toni said, “Something doesn’t quite add up. Smart as these guys are, they must have seen the weak link in this operation—they must know that sooner or later they’d be connected to Thomas’s death.”

“I’ve thought about that, too,” Holly said. “And I don’t have an answer.”

“I know the answer,” I said.

They both looked at me.

“I’ll bet Madoc doesn’t care,” I said.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m going to assume the worst case here. Here goes: I think Madoc doesn’t care if they’re found out—he just doesn’t want it to happen too soon. I think he’s just trying to buy enough time to get hold of the device. If he can buy it from Thomas, he’ll do so. If not, he’ll put the squeeze on Holly here. If that doesn’t work, he’ll try to steal it. Bottom line—he’ll take it any way he can get it. And he doesn’t care who gets killed in the process. Once he gets what he wants, he’ll crawl back under whatever rock he crawled out from.”

“You think he’s that evil?” Toni asked.

“What do you think, Holly?” I asked.

“I think he’s definitely that evil,” she said.

“Holly,” I said, “the best thing for you to do is right after we leave, call Cameron Patel and tell him we were here. Tell him we were asking about them. Tell him we said that the MST guys broke into our office yesterday morning. He’ll be expecting to hear all of this.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“Tell him you didn’t tell us anything, got it?”

She nodded. “Okay, I can do that. I don’t want to, but if I have to, I’d go to jail to protect my little brother and to see that Nicholas Madoc gets what’s coming to him,” she said.