Page 41 of Alibi for Murder
Steve wasn’t surprised that was her first question. This thing that had begun haunting her less than seventy-two hours ago had reopened that old wound, relentlessly tearing at it.
Rivero considered her question for a time before responding. To make something up? To figure out the best lie? Who knew.
Now that Steve was this close, he noted that beneath the I-don’t-care attire and lack of grooming the man didn’t look so different from the way he had more than two decades ago. He’d allowed his hair to gray, but he still looked fairly lean for an older man. Judging by the equipment on the other end of the room, he stayed fit. Weights and a stair climber as well as the latest in bike machines. The eyeglasses were new. Or maybe he’d worn contacts back when his face was all over the news channels. If not for the downgrade in his appearance, he might still look the part.
“Your father,” he began, “was young, not so highly educated and a bit naïve when he started with Ledwell.”
Allie shifted in her seat. No doubt feeling the sting of his blunt words about her father’s education level.
“You mean he wasn’t Ivy League educated like the scientists at Ledwell,” Steve corrected.
“Of course that’s what I mean. The place was full of pompous geniuses.” He looked to Allie then. “Don’t get me wrong, your father was a brilliant man. He had the kind of brilliance an expensive university couldn’t give. That’s why Ledwell wanted him.”
She visibly relaxed. Steve wanted to keep her that way. This was tough enough without added nonsense.
“There were rumors of trouble,” Allie said. “I found a few news reports, headlines in papers online but nothing deep or revealing. Nothing that ever prompted people, much less the authorities, to sit up and take notice.”
“That’s because Ledwell owned everyone back then. The press, the powers that be, they all said what Ledwell wanted them to say. When I tried to find a damned outlet that would publish my story or let me tell it in an interview, no one would touch me. I ended up blackballed.” He looked away a moment, stared out that enormous glass wall. “I had to get away. I disappeared for a while. Wrote the book.” He shrugged. “Who knows, maybe one day it will be published.”
“What wasyourstory?” Allie prodded, shifting gears like a reporter herself.
Steve kept quiet. Let her do the asking. Reporters liked when a story was personal. This was as personal as it got for Allie. The connection would be stronger with her.
He looked from Allie to Steve and back. “I need to know that you aren’t wearing a wire of any sort.”
Frankly, Steve was surprised he hadn’t attempted to strip search them when they first entered his home. Maybe age had slowed him in that respect as well.
Rivero got up and picked up a device from the table next to his chair. “If you’re carrying anything electronic, this will pick it up.”
Steve stood and removed his cell phone from his pocket and placed it on the coffee table. He stepped away from the sofa, held up both arms. “That’s all I have.”
Rivero moved the device over his body from the tips of his fingers to the ends of his toes. Careful not to miss an inch. When he was finished, he nodded and turned toward Allie.
She opened her purse and took out her cell then placed it on the coffee table next to Steve’s. Rivero checked her purse thenscanned her body as he had Steve’s. When the man nodded, Allie sat down. She tucked her cell back into her purse.
Steve settled onto the sofa once more.
“I heard rumors that Ledwell was going beyond the established limits in their AI research and development. No surprise really. They were all doing it to some degree, but something about the way Ledwell operated gave me pause. Made me want to find the dirt. Eventually I found myself a whistle-blower. A janitor, Harvey Culver, who worked the evening shift.” He fell silent for a moment. “This was a year or so before your father’s death. This janitor was keeping an eye out for me. Reporting back what he saw. I bought him a camera he could easily conceal to snap pics of whatever he thought might be of interest to me.”
Again, he paused and stared out that massive window wall for a time. “This went on for a while. It wasn’t like he could bring me something after every shift. It was only on those rare occasions when no one noticed him around and allowed an opening for him to see something or hear something. The wait was difficult but necessary.”
“Did you eventually learn the details that would give you the story you were after?”
He looked annoyed at Allie’s question, but it was a perfectly logical one.
“You don’t look for something that will give you the story you’re after, Ms. Foster. The story draws you to it, and you look for the evidence that will confirm what the story is telling you. A true reporter doesn’t create a story. He reveals the truth of the story that seduces him—lures him in.”
Steve got it, but he didn’t see the need to be so dramatic. “Which was?” he prompted.
“That Ledwell was way ahead of everyone else. Twenty-nine years ago, they already had robots that looked and behaved somuch like a human it was nearly impossible to decipher between them.”
Allie looked to Steve. He wasn’t completely surprised, but she appeared to be.
“It was a race,” Steve suggested. “What made this so newsworthy?”
“They were using human…” He hesitated. “Human parts in their development. Granted these were humans who had left their bodies to Ledwell for R&D, or so that was the claim. But their work was outside the parameters of what was considered ethical at the time. The laws…” He shrugged. “Were reasonably straightforward in those days. Not like now, where there’s so much ambiguity. To tell the truth, I can only imagine what they’re doing now.” He looked directly at Steve then. “Whatever you imagine, multiply that times about a thousand. We should all be scared.”
“How did my father play into your investigation? Was it because he was part of SILO?”
