Exponential

  Chapter 14

  The conversation was between Damian and a table mounted conference room speaker phone.

  “Are we on a secure connection?” asked the speakerphone. The unmistakable tone of authority, even over a speakerphone, seemed to take command of the room.

  “No problem, Red” replied Damian. “The connection is clear”

  “Give me an update. How bad is it?”

  Damian replied, “Well, the mother put up quite a struggle when our guys got there. She was so fierce, they ended up roughing her around a bit… and she died.”

  “Did it not seem obvious to you that our purpose was to get to the girl and not kill her mother? I can see where the girl gets her fortitude from, sounds like birds of a feather. So far she’s singlehandedly defeating all of you. What are we doing for control? How clean are we?”

  “Well, we fixed up the scene a bit so that the New Hampshire police are looking for the girl as the prime suspect.”

  Red had about enough. The speakerphone exploded, “Fixed up the scene! What’s wrong with you guys! Any time you ‘fix up a scene’ it won’t stand up to a close investigation. With a murder, that means forensic specialists. That means high profile. The murder of a poor old woman! Everyone feels bad and wants justice!”

  “Well, we had a bit of a surprise. That cop right there in Bedford showed up at the scene last night. He must have come after the girl. We put a lot more pressure on the Bedford police to drop the case. He’ll have his hands full just taking care of himself now.”

  “So what you’re telling me is that as soon as she gets picked up by the police, she can spill her guts and really put us in deep.”

  “Well, not really. She is their only suspect right now. Besides, we believe that she doesn’t actually know anything. She certainly has no evidence to tie either of our companies into this. Viiradium hasn’t really had anything to do with what’s happened up until now, and with no proof…”

  “Every time I talk to you, you say ‘not to worry’, but we keep having this conversation. It’s the same conversation about the same girl. Now it’s time to get rid of her. No more of the bumbling, hire a professional and end this permanently. Preferably before the police ever get a chance to pick her up. I don’t think I need to tell you that there can be no ties to us, so hire it out, in cash, anonymously.”

  “Unfortunately, we don’t know for sure where she is right now. We have an eye on her mother’s farm and on her own place, plus the fact that the phone, voice mail and e-mail for her office are all being monitored. We also have information being fed to us from both the Bedford police station as well as the Massachusetts State police. She’ll have to turn up soon.”

  “I don’t want to have another conversation like this again. The next time we talk, it better be because the situation is completely under control.”

  Damian Asked, “What about the brother?”

  “We’ve still got him. He’s valuable right now. Sort of what we like to call “intellectual property.”

  “Isn’t that a little dangerous?”

  “He’s in the hole and not going anywhere at the moment. When we’re finished with him, we’ll find a way for him to ‘disappear’ if needed.” The speakerphone continued, “Right now our big concern is getting rid of the girl before she starts to make accusations. Do I need to remind you what would happen if this were ever discovered? You said yourself earlier – Viiradium is not directly involved. But you? Your company would collapse like the house of twisted cards that it is.”

  The speaker phone went dead in the characteristic manner Red had of terminating his calls abruptly with no ‘good byes’.

  Damian sat back and reflected a moment on the situation. It turned out that I-Data Corp was becoming very profitable. Of course if it was discovered how that profit were generated, that would be most unfortunate indeed. Since becoming the Chief Executive, he wasn’t doing bad himself. But Red was right. As chief of I-Data, he had the most exposure. Sure, he could implicate Viiradium, in fact, some of the Viiradium execs were ‘silent’ partners. Silent from the fact that they were not listed anywhere as participating executives or board members.

  Yes, Red was right. They weren’t in the business of killing, but it was too late to change that now, people have already died. Mara Chandler would have to be next.