Page 14 of The Beachside Cafe 4
“We have a break room you can use, officer.”
“Detective,” Lou corrected him. “And thank you.”
Relieved, Jaymee, Cameron and John, along with several officers went to the elevators and waited.
Fifteen minutes later, they were scouring the office for anything that might help them figure out what had happened.
Jaymee kept her eyes away from the area around the desk where the coroner and the forensic teams were all doing their thing. She didn’t want to see him any more than she did. He was slumped over in the chair he’d been sitting in while talking to her. Both hands hung over the arm rests toward the ground, his arms limp. His head was to the side but she couldn’t see it. He looked normal from the waist down, sitting in his office chair.
She shivered and turned her back on him, preferring to look for anything else that might help them figure things out. She made sure she didn’t touch anything as she explored the wall and shelves across from the desk, all the things that would have been in Coulter’s constant line of vision.
Like Dylan Lianetti, a lawyer for IDL, Coulter had a wall of pictures. Several were plaques honoring him from one charity group or another, others were certificates of accomplishment from Universities and colleges. She scanned them all, noting how each one mentioned numbers beings like “child’s play” to Coulter.
She glanced over her shoulder, feeling sorry for the man. He’d spent so long skimming money and sending it overseas, only to die before he could use any of it. She wondered how many people he’d injured doing that, how many people didn’t get raises or promotions, how many were fired because they were accused of theft when it was actually Coulter all along who’d been doing it.
She felt a presence behind her and looked over her shoulder to see Cameron was standing there. He was giving her a close look that told her he had something important to tell her.
“Come with me,” he said in a low voice, taking her elbow and maneuvering her back toward the front door. She was surprised to see John standing there, waiting for them.
“What’s going on?” she asked in a stage whisper.
Without answering out loud, Cameron pulled something wrapped in plastic out of his jacket pocket. He unfolded the plastic and revealed a fourth vial. This one, however, was empty. Jaymee’s heart sank.
“There’s nothing in it,” she moaned softly.
“I know,” Cameron answered. “Hopefully, Alex will be able to get traces off the sides. I don’t know how he does it but I feel like he can give us an answer to what was in it.”
Jaymee looked at John. “Don’t you need to take this to forensics and have them examine it?”
“Probably,” John replied, his voice as low as theirs. “But it will take weeks before our labs will get to it. It’s not on a priority list. I’m making note of it and when you two figure out what it is, bring it back to me. That goes for the other vials, too. I know your friend, Alex, has them probably locked up tight. But they need to be in evidence.”
“I’ll tell you what, John,” Cameron said, impressing Jaymee with his confidence and intelligence, “how about we keep them under lock and key until all this breaks out in the open. Then you can have them. Maybe you make an incredible discovery right in the nick of time and IDL is shut down forever as a result.”
“We can only hope, Cam.”
NINE
“I probably shouldn’t have done this,” Cameron said as they got in his Jeep to head to Alex’s laboratory, “but look.” He held up a small black rectangle. Jaymee recognized it as a flash drive.
“What do you mean? Whose is that?”
“I took it out of his computer,” Cameron answered. “I want Alex to take a look at what’s on it, see if he can break through any encryptions. We might find out something more about IDL.”
“Did you pass that one by John, too?” Jaymee didn’t think it was legal for the detective to let Cameron have so much information but she wasn’t going to question it. As long as the case was progressing and would eventually be solved.
“No, I didn’t. I’ll pop it in the snail mail when I’m done examining it. Send it right over to him.”
Jaymee chuckled. “Snail mail, huh? That’s so you don’t have to actually see him in person when he figures out what you did.”
Cameron shared her laughter. “Yeah, I suppose that’s exactly right.”
“Well, I don’t blame you. I want to find out what’s going on just as much as you.”
“I know you do.”
They rode in semi-silence, making small talk every now and then until they got to Alex’s lab. It was a massive three-story building with lots of black glass, metal framing and a foundation made of the most solid concrete of all time.
At least, that’s how Alex described it.
