Fire Trap

22 - Accusations

It seemed time was suspended as we drove back to San Jose down the east side of the bay past Hayward and Fremont. The air conditioning was low and the heat of the day filled the car and seeped into my bruised body. I fell asleep.

#

Arnie woke me for final directions to the Park Plaza. I navigated him in and we went up to his room where we spent the afternoon making phone calls. Arnie did the calling, and I worked on my report to Western during the inevitable redials, on-holds, and transfers. At the end, Arnie had collected the results of the inquiries he had started two days ago into the finances of the Genetrix executives and Daniel Gallagher.

Standard credit reports had been used by Jinny, in Western's secretarial pool, to obtain further details. She had contacted banks directly for the most current information.

Mark Foringer had a five-figure balance, owned two homes, two cars, and an airplane. A lot of baggage for a single guy. And he still flew commercially? Go figure.

Neal Wilson had almost nothing in the bank and no mortgages, but Jinny had hacked a loan application that listed stock assets of over two hundred thousand dollars. Neal had also listed partnership interests in several properties totaling nearly half a million which seemed a consistent plan for a chief financial officer – everything invested.

Lester Rosemen was the major debtor with two mortgages, three car payments, student loans, and a massive VISA balance. He had five figures in the bank, however, which might mean that he was keeping it all together.

Daniel Gallagher had no credit history at all. Apparently, Simon hadn't passed him any major assets, or, if he had, Daniel wasn't investing them in anything requiring credit. Spending life in the army, with all your basic needs supplied, it was possible Daniel had avoided building a credit history, but still unusual.

Jinny had gotten a number for Daniel in Chicago, and we decided to try it. Arnie placed the call, and Daniel answered immediately.

"I'm Arnie Johnson, with Justice Investigations. I'm calling from California about Simon. Do you have a moment? ... Yes ... insurance investigators ... Yes, investigating the fire at Genetrix ... When was the last time you spoke to your brother? ... I see ... Did he sound depressed at that time or concerned about his work? ... He told you he was contemplating another job, that he was planning on leaving Genetrix? ... So he didn't say specifically who made the offer? ... I see, well thank you for your help, goodbye."

"Did I hear correctly?" I said. "Simon was going to leave Genetrix."

"According to his brother. But we don't know who the offer was from."

"I do," I said, and I told Arnie what Jean had told me about Roark Labs' efforts to win Simon over. What I didn't know was whether Jean knew she had succeeded.

"If Jean knew, then she had no reason to be involved in the Genetrix fire. Her being there might have been a coincidence," Arnie reasoned.

"But if she didn't know Simon was accepting a job at Roark Labs, if Simon led them to believe he wasn't going to leave Genetrix, perhaps as a way of forcing them to sweeten the offer further, eliminating Simon would have been almost as good as hiring him away. Genetrix would be missing their major asset, and Roark Labs would be better able to compete."

"But this afternoon you had a theory about the murderer," Arnie protested, "and that theory didn't point to Jean. Are you changing your mind?"

"No," I said, "but I never said it was a single person. I wish I were certain Jean wasn't involved."

"Christ," Arnie muttered, "dinner should be interesting."

#

La Casa Mendoza was packed despite the early hour. The bar was full. A line went out the door and halfway around the building.