Quest For Justice

The police department still hadn’t returned her father’s computer, and since the paper files were missing, she was now following the only lead she had. Her father’s coffee cup on his desk had been a fancy new mug emblazoned with the Gates Industries design. She had never seen that cup before, so she was hoping her father had gotten it when he’d taken on Gates as a new client. The lead was really weak, but it was all she had.

Bailey knew a bit about Gates—they were a large pharmaceutical company in both the American and the international markets. What her father could have been doing for them was anybody’s guess, but she was hoping that there was a connection, however thin, that would give her some insight into that terrible night of her father’s death. Gates’s vice president had agreed to see her, but his last meeting was running late. She gave up the pacing and sat back down again and checked her watch.

“Sure is a surprise meeting you here.”

She jumped at the voice and dread filled her. Franklin Kennedy sat down in the seat beside her, and she warily glanced his way.

“What are you doing here?”

He pursed his lips and then spoke. “I think the real question is, what are you doing here?”

She bristled. “I’m here investigating my father’s death, just like I told you I would.”

Kennedy’s eyes narrowed. “And I told you to stay away from this. Do I have to arrest you to keep you out of the way?”

“Yeah, I guess you’d better because there’s no way I’m sitting at home while you track down whoever caused his death. I need answers.”

She saw his eyes grow cold at her defiance, but she meant what she’d said. She wasn’t going to sit by and let others chase down his murderer when she was perfectly capable of investigating the crime.

She watched Kennedy carefully, ready to jump and run if she needed to. His eyes showed that he was considering his options and she watched his hands as well, waiting to see if he started to reach for his handcuffs. When he shifted, she jumped to her feet, and the tension in the room seemed palpable. She swallowed hard.

“Well?” she challenged.

“You haven’t told me what you’re doing here yet.” He gave her a smile, but his demeanor was anything but friendly. Still, he stayed seated and didn’t look like he was about to arrest her for obstruction. “Care to share?”

She considered this. She knew Franklin Kennedy was a good cop. It still irked her, however, that he expected her to share when he wasn’t willing to let her help with the investigation. Hiding clues from him was foolhardy, though, especially when they were after the same thing—justice. “I saw a new mug from Gates on my father’s desk. I’m guessing they hired him, and I’m here to find out why. It’s not much of a lead, but it’s all I’ve got since the files are missing and I can’t access my father’s computer.”

Kennedy studied her for a few moments and his scrutiny made her even more nervous. Finally, he seemed to come to a decision and leaned back in the chair.

“Smart deduction. Gates is one of his newest accounts, and it was the last file that was open on his computer before his death. We think he was about to update his notes when he was interrupted, so we wanted to check it out, as well. In this case, your instincts are pretty good.”

She breathed a sigh of relief at his words. “So I can stay?”

Kennedy’s pause made her nervousness return, but he finally nodded at her. “For now.” He raised an eyebrow. “I’m going to join you for your appointment. But let me ask the questions, okay? Do you think you can do that?”

Could she? Keeping her mouth shut was not her forte, but if the choices were staying silent during the interview or occupying a jail cell, she’d definitely choose the former. She nodded and took her seat again, just as a secretary came to announce that the VP was ready to see her. Kennedy stood, introduced himself and explained that they needed to see the VP together. After seeing his badge, the secretary accepted his request and led them both past reception into the hallway. Bailey turned and looked over her shoulder one last time at the dark-haired man. Now he was watching her, and his eyes seemed to bore right through her as she walked. She didn’t know the man, but his expression was so intense that she was glad to get away from him. If looks could kill, she’d be lying dead on the floor right now.

* * *

The secretary led them to Mr. Johnson’s office, where a tall, graying man was seated behind a desk, working on a laptop. He closed the computer as they entered and rose before motioning toward the chairs in front of his desk.

They all shook hands before Frank spoke up. “Thank you for seeing us. I’m Detective Kennedy, and this is Bailey Cox. I had an appointment with you later today, but Ms. Cox and I thought we’d save you some time and talk to you together. We have a few questions we’d like to ask you.”

“I’m happy to help in any way I can,” Johnson said smoothly. They all sat and Kennedy opened up his iPad and started taking notes. “You’ve probably heard that Matt Cox was killed a couple of nights ago. We were hoping you could tell us about the work he was doing for you.”

“Sure,” Johnson said as he leaned back in his chair. “Gates Industries is headed for change. Our current CEO and president is stepping down at the end of the year, and we’re in the process of vetting the applicants for the position. Mr. Cox was investigating the backgrounds of the five finalists. He was due to give us his full report at the end of the month.”

Frank’s fingers flew over his iPad screen, documenting Mr. Johnson’s answer. “Had he told you anything he’d discovered yet?”

Johnson nodded. “He sent us a preliminary report about two weeks ago. I scanned it but unfortunately didn’t have time to read through the whole thing. As far as I know, though, nothing odd stood out on any of the applicants. Mr. Cox had completed the basic checks and was beginning to dig deeper. You know, interviewing references, that sort of thing.” He shifted. “Do you really think that his murder is related to the work he was doing for Gates?”

Frank shrugged. “We’re exploring every avenue at this point. Do you think we could get a copy of his initial report? We found one on his computer, but we want to make sure they match up.”

“Of course,” Johnson answered. “If you give my assistant your email address, I’ll have her send it to you.”

“That would be great. Did Mr. Cox have contact with anyone else here at Gates?”

Again, Johnson shook his head. “Not that I know of. I’m the one who hired him, and I had an appointment set to meet with him once he’d finished the job. Then I was going to present his report and findings to the board.”

Frank glanced at Bailey, who looked like she was about to burst. He had to give her credit. She was doing a good job of keeping quiet and fulfilling her promise. He looked back at his notes. “Is it standard procedure to hire a private investigator to do background checks on your prospective employees?” he asked.

“I can’t speak to other companies and their procedures, but it’s standard for upper management positions here at Gates. You’d be surprised by how many people lie on their applications. I guess they figure that companies don’t check, which is exactly why we do.”

Frank wrote down a few more things and then looked up. “Sounds like a good policy. Would you mind giving me the names of the five candidates?”

“Not at all. In fact, I’d appreciate any information you gain from your investigation that might have a bearing on our hiring decision. With Mr. Cox gone, we’ll have to hire a new investigator. That will really mess up our timeline.”

“Will you have to forgo some of the background checks?”

Johnson looked uncomfortable. “The board hasn’t decided. We might just go with Cox’s preliminary findings.”

“Does Gates have any enemies? Anybody who would like to see the leadership struggle?”

“Sure,” Johnson answered. “Atlantic Medical Supply is probably our staunchest competitor. We’re both bidding on a large contract with Nextco, a company that makes three of our biggest sellers.”

“And what happens if Gates doesn’t get the contract?”

“Well, we’ll have to lay off about one hundred workers.” He held up his hands. “I’m trusting you not to share that information. It’s one of the reasons the board is in a hurry to fill the position. We need a strong leader to secure the contract.”

“Do you have a frontrunner in this search?” Frank asked.

“We’ve been leaning toward Gabriel Jeffries, an entrepreneur who has done amazing things in the market. If the decision had to be made today, he would probably be the one selected, unless we discover some horrible skeleton in his closet. He has the most experience and would take our company in the right direction.” Johnson stood and motioned toward the door. “I’ll walk you out and get my assistant to send you that list of applicants and Mr. Cox’s preliminary report.”

They all walked back out to the secretary’s desk and she quickly emailed both of the promised items to Frank’s work email address. He noticed Bailey looking around the reception area as if expecting to see someone, but the room was empty. To his surprise, she stayed quiet until they had left the Gates building and were standing on the sidewalk.

“Okay,” she said, her eyebrows raised. “I held up my end and didn’t ask a single question. Can you share the list of applicants and report with me?”

Frank shook his head. “Our deal was that I let you in on the interview instead of arresting you. I didn’t say anything about sharing the list. We still don’t even know if this case has anything to do with your father’s murder, but, either way, that’s for me to investigate. You need to go home now and let me do my job.”

Her face flushed with anger. “Hold on now. I thought we were working together on this.”

Frank laughed. “I don’t know what gave you that idea. I certainly never said that.”

His response only seemed to make her angrier. “You implied it. I have a lot to offer.”

“I’ll give you a million reasons why that will never work.”

She raised an eyebrow. “So we’re singing that old song again, are we?”

“And we’ll keep singing it until you return the money.” Frank leaned forward. She was so close that he could feel her breath on his skin. When he spoke, his voice was low but forceful, and his words were for her ears alone. “You never served a day in prison for stealing all of that money. Do you honestly think that’s right?”

Bailey narrowed her eyes. “I was acquitted, remember? The DA tried to pin it on me and failed. The medical equipment was all anyone could prove I had stolen, and I served my time for that.”

“That stolen equipment was just the tip of the iceberg,” Frank said, his voice still deceptively soft. “You know it and I know it. You might have beaten the court system, but I still want the money you stole returned, and I’m not going to stop pushing until we get it all back. Every last cent. When you’re ready to turn it over, come see me. Otherwise, stay out of my way.”

She grimaced. “I need that list and my father’s report. I’ll trade you for them—do some computer work for you or...”

Frank leaned back. “We’re done here. Go home, Bailey.”

She put her hands on her hips. “I won’t,” she said stubbornly.

He moved closer again and she took a step back. “Tell me where the money is, Bailey. It’s the right thing to do.” She met his eyes but said nothing.

Frank stepped away. “Good-bye, Bailey.”

FIVE

Frank turned on his heel and walked away, leaving her standing in front of Gates. He definitely needed to get as far away from Bailey Cox as possible before he was forced to admit that he found her attractive when she showed her strength and determination. He ran his hand through his hair in frustration, angry with himself and the jumble of emotions that were flying through him. Why couldn’t he control his feelings? She was a criminal and an unrepentant one at that. Yet, without seeming to even realize it, she was drawing him closer like a moth to a flame, and his skin was already feeling the singe.

He widened his steps and sped up, suddenly in a hurry to get to his car and be off. It was ridiculous for him to feel anything for her besides contempt when she was still hiding the money she’d stolen. Sure, the case had gone cold years ago, and since the insurance company had paid the tab, nobody was really even looking for the money—except him. He just couldn’t let it go, even though it was probably a fool’s hope that he’d ever track it down.

He pushed his feelings aside and focused on the murder investigation. There was no reason to ever see her again, and that thought gave him some degree of satisfaction. For a moment, he’d thought he’d seen something in Bailey’s eyes that made him believe she was willing to make a bargain, but he had been wrong. She wouldn’t even talk about the money, and without that dialogue, he was done. It was time for them to go their separate ways.

He reached his car but couldn’t shake a strange feeling that he was being watched. He scanned the area but didn’t see Bailey or anybody else paying any attention to him. Still, hot electricity ran down his back. He checked again and this time noticed a man in black eyeing him from across the street. Frank pocketed his keys and headed across the street to confront the man, but several cars drove by and blocked him from crossing. By the time Frank reached the doorway where the man had been standing, there was no sign of him. Why had the man been watching him?

His stomach rumbled and he decided to stick around and grab a quick bite in case the man reappeared. He glanced up and down the street and then headed toward a nearby coffee shop and turned his thoughts back to Gates.

The company didn’t look like much of a lead at this point, but he would follow through and check out the five applicants, just in case. It seemed ridiculous to kill over a career opportunity, but he’d actually seen worse as a beat cop. Maybe he was jaded, but few things surprised him anymore. In any case, the list of applicants from Gates was his best lead so far. Hopefully interviewing them would point him to the killer.

He placed his order at the counter and then called his office while he waited.

“Graham.”

“Hey, this is Frank.” He gave Ben Graham a synopsis of the discussion with Johnson, smiled at the waitress who handed him his food and headed for a table, his ear still pressed against the phone. “Anything new on the Cox case?”

Ben cleared his throat. “We’ve got a couple of new reports. Forensics matched the bullet to the gun in the blond man’s possession. So now we know who pulled the trigger, but we still don’t know his identity. According to our databases, he’s a ghost. The dark-haired man we’ve positively identified as Adrian Bekim from Balkavia. He’s an international gun for hire and did most of his work in Europe until recently, when he surfaced in Chicago. He’s suspected in the death of a businessman there.”

Frank soaked in the information. “Still nothing from CODIS on the blond?” he asked, referring to the national DNA index system.

“Not yet. Nothing from the national fingerprint and criminal history system, either.”

Frank grimaced. “I’m thinking it’s time to contact Interpol. The blond is probably a known associate of Bekim. He’s got to show up somewhere.”

“Yep, I’ll start the process.” Ben paused. “You should also know that we’ve finished examining Cox’s financials. There wasn’t anything unusual, just like we suspected. Following the money won’t lead us to the killer in this case.”

Frank took a sip of his coffee, digesting the information. For the past six months, they’d been investigating a Balkavian mercenary group operating out of Jacksonville. They had received a tip that something was going down at Cox’s office that fateful night. They still hadn’t been able to prove any kind of connection, though, between the Balkavians and Cox. In many cases, the money led to the killer, but so far it hadn’t in this case. Why had they killed him? Had he just been in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Frank leaned back, his frustration growing. “Nothing new on the computer angle?”

“Nope, nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, there wasn’t even that much on it. Looks like his daughter was right—he barely used the thing.”

Bailey had been right about something else too—they’d lost a lot of valuable information when those paper files had been stolen. It was unfortunate that the team hadn’t thought to grab them on the night of the murder, but they hadn’t realized their importance at the time. Now it was too late. “Thanks, Ben. I’m off to interview the applicants. I’ll catch up with you again once I have some insight.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Frank stirred his coffee as he flipped to the email program on his phone. That was strange. He could see the two messages that Johnson’s assistant had sent, but they both showed that they had been read. He pulled out his iPad, and then he also opened his work email account on the off chance that there was something wrong with his phone. It also showed that the two messages had been read, even though he hadn’t opened either one of them. Then, right before his eyes, the screen refreshed and both emails were marked Unread.

Frank took a sip of his coffee and a bite of his food as he raised an eyebrow, confused by what he was seeing. Why had the status of the emails changed, and who had changed it? Had someone accessed his account and made the change?

A flash of blue caught his eye and he glanced out the window of the coffee shop. Bailey Cox was just leaving a store across the street. He watched her as she walked toward the bus stop. She looked beautiful, even with that look of grim determination on her face. He glanced up at the sign over the door she had exited. It was an internet café. A sinking feeling hit him hard in the pit of his stomach. He picked up his phone again and called his department’s IT specialist.

“IT, Sergeant Daniels.”

“This is Detective Franklin Kennedy, badge number 4577. I think my email has just been hacked. Can you run a check for me?” He fed the sergeant the details and then waited a moment for the confirmation. It wasn’t long in coming. The knot in his stomach twisted and he grimaced. It looked like he hadn’t seen the last of Bailey Cox after all. She had just broken the law. Again.

* * *

“It will be just another minute,” the secretary said with an apologetic smile. The hospital administration’s waiting room wasn’t as fancy as the room at Gates, but it was decorated tastefully. Bailey tried to relax, even though it was nearly impossible. She hated hospitals. Her mother had gotten lost in the system, given insufficient treatment because she couldn’t afford health insurance. By the time Bailey had stolen the money to make sure her mother got the help she needed, it was too late. It was hard not to hold the entire medical industry responsible for her mother’s fate.

To distract herself from the thought of her mother, she focused on the list she’d stolen from Kennedy’s email—the names of the applicants that had brought her here.

She didn’t know how long it would take Franklin Kennedy to realize she had broken into his email account, if he did at all. Still, she had started her quest to interview the applicants in the middle of the list rather than at the top in hopes of throwing him off if he decided to come after her. If the police wouldn’t let her help, then she would solve this murder on her own. She nervously leafed through the stack of magazines and glanced around the room again, making sure Kennedy was nowhere to be seen.

She was also keeping her eyes open for the man in black. Something was off about him, and she had noticed him a second time after she’d left Gates. She wasn’t sure, but it looked like he had been watching her as she’d left the internet café. Creepy. That was the word for him. At least now he had disappeared and she felt a measure of relief.

A few more minutes passed, and finally the secretary rose and came to her side. “Okay, Dr. Petrela is almost here. Let me take you back to his office.” The secretary led her to a nice office filled with medical books and journals and Bailey took a seat. “I’m sorry for the wait,” the nurse said in parting.

“It isn’t a problem.” She’d been waiting for over an hour and a half to see the hospital CEO, but it had been surprising that she’d even gotten her foot in the door. The man was extremely busy, but when she’d explained who she was and why she wanted to meet, the CEO had promised her ten minutes between meetings.

He entered the room a few moments later, and Bailey noted that his internet picture hadn’t done justice to the man’s square jaw or bright, intelligent eyes. It also hadn’t shown the man’s size, which was quite substantial. He was a formidable presence, though not a frightening one. His handshake was firm and his smile friendly.

“First, let me say how sorry I was to hear about your father,” Dr. Petrela intoned, true sympathy in his eyes.

“Thank you,” Bailey answered. “How well did you know him?”

“We’d met for dinner twice. I’ve applied for the CEO position at Gates, as you know, and Mr. Cox had several questions. You see, I got my advanced degree in Europe, and some of the school records were hard to verify. I’m sure he didn’t have any trouble after our interviews, however. I imagine you’re continuing the investigation?”

“Yes,” she agreed, without correcting his misunderstanding. She was investigating. She just wasn’t doing it for Gates. “Could you tell me where you went to school, please?”

“Of course. My history isn’t a secret. I got my undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Applied Sciences in Budapest, and then I received my doctorate in Balkavia at the Mirianka University.”

Bailey made a note in her phone of his responses. She would check them out later. “And have you lived in the United States for very long?” She could still hear the tiniest hint of an accent when he spoke, but he’d obviously gone to great lengths to eliminate it.

“Going on twenty years now, though I was born here in the US. My family moved overseas when my father was in the military, and once he retired, he decided to stay.”

“But not you?” She smiled and he returned the smile.

“No, not me.” He shifted some papers on his desk. “My wife is also American, and she wanted to return home so she could be closer to her parents. We’ve lived here in Jacksonville ever since.”

“Why would you like to work at Gates?”

He found a folder with a green tab and handed it to her. “Gates is a mover and shaker in the pharmaceutical industry, and I think their development team is on the cusp of some exciting new medicines. I want to be a part of that. Working at the hospital here has been fulfilling, but I’m mostly administration, and it’s time for a change. My application and résumé are in that folder.”

Bailey nodded and then motioned to the mini helmet that was on his desk.

“Are you a football fan?”

The CEO laughed and glanced at the helmet. “If I were, I wouldn’t admit it,” he said in a jovial tone. “The local team hasn’t had a winning season since 2007.” He motioned with his hands as he spoke. “That helmet was a gift from my daughter. She’s a true believer and still harbors hope that they’ll make it to the playoffs. I don’t suffer from delusions the way she does.”

Bailey grinned and glanced at the folder he’d given her. She scanned the contents and asked a few more questions, and then she rose to leave. He had seemed very open, and, so far, she hadn’t noticed any red flags. He also seemed at ease during their conversation. On the surface, nothing seemed problematic. She had to get to her computer if she wanted to know more, and that’s exactly where she was headed. She offered her hand, knowing that her ten minutes were up. “Thank you so much for your time, Dr. Petrela.”

“My pleasure. I hope you are able to get justice for your father.”