phone and the whole trend of putting GPS devices into everyone’s phones. This was just after 9/11, and he thought that tracing anyone would be a helpful thing to do. Little did he know.”
“So he was a rich man?” Money was always a good motive for crimes, and I’d apparently found a mother lode of cash here.
“He would have been if he’d lived. He was just on the edge of creating two or three apps based on the GPS technology, and he mysteriously died. No one ever knew exactly what happened. One day he was alive. The next day, he was supposed to have killed himself. I mean, I know that you don’t know what goes through someone’s mind or how they’re feeling at any moment, but it just felt off. The police doubted the story, but he was in a room by himself with the doors locked and the windows bolted. No one could get in or out. Just him and a gun, though if I remember correctly there was something off about the gun, which is why it wasn’t listed as just a suicide. But I don’t remember what exactly that was.”
I was struck by the similarities to what I had just witnessed. They were eerily alike. Men killed in locked rooms, one labeled suicide, the other labeled unknown. Each from the same family, the same company, the same type of situation.
Adam had given me three email addresses of people who had talked to him about the suicide, and I sent each person on my list an identical email. It said that with Miller’s death, there was renewed interest in the death of Dr. Vires and who the apps now belonged to. I mentioned that Adam Nelson of Advent had suggested I speak with them about the events surrounding the doctor’s death.
With that done, I headed downtown. The cat angle of the crimes seemed much less invasive to me in my current mood, so I drove down to the area. I wasn’t surprised that there was no cat in the vicinity. As far as I knew, that cat was at the crime scene. I wasn’t sure how that would work. What would Mrs. Miller say when they came to drop off a second cat to her? The whole situation felt wrong. I wasn’t sure who had adopted the second cat, but it seemed almost as if someone was setting her up for a crime. The person most likely to want to see Miller dead and his current wife implicated would likely be the ex-wife. I wondered how I could find her.
Only one woman was sitting on the curb now, and I approached her. I put a five dollar bill in her bag, hoping that would start up a conversation. She thanked me, and I held out another bill. I almost looked like a mime, creating an over-exaggerated expression of looking for the other woman. “Have you seen the woman who was here earlier?” I asked when she didn’t get my hint.
“Who’s that?” she replied.
“The woman who was here yesterday. She was sitting with you and an orange tabby.”
She wrinkled up her forehead. Her eyes were dull and listless. I wasn’t sure if she was using something or if there were other reasons for the lack of comprehension. “Orange what? Tab, like the drink?”
“No, a cat. An orange cat. It was here yesterday, but I don’t see it now.” I scanned the street as if to explain it to her. My conscience was even more upset by the fact that I was trying to trick this woman than it would have been by digging up someone else’s past. If she couldn’t answer this first question, I vowed to leave and not bother her again. I saw no use in agitating someone with these struggles.
“Oh, you mean, Harold. No, he comes and goes. Sometimes he’s here for a few days, and then he goes away, but he always comes back. Do you want me to leave a message for him?”
I smiled and declined her offer. Detective Green would have been disappointed that I didn’t leave messages for pets as well as just talk to them, but I figured that the message would be lost in translation. “Have you seen the other woman who was here yesterday? I thought you two were friends.”
The woman shook her head. “Not her. She
“So he was a rich man?” Money was always a good motive for crimes, and I’d apparently found a mother lode of cash here.
“He would have been if he’d lived. He was just on the edge of creating two or three apps based on the GPS technology, and he mysteriously died. No one ever knew exactly what happened. One day he was alive. The next day, he was supposed to have killed himself. I mean, I know that you don’t know what goes through someone’s mind or how they’re feeling at any moment, but it just felt off. The police doubted the story, but he was in a room by himself with the doors locked and the windows bolted. No one could get in or out. Just him and a gun, though if I remember correctly there was something off about the gun, which is why it wasn’t listed as just a suicide. But I don’t remember what exactly that was.”
I was struck by the similarities to what I had just witnessed. They were eerily alike. Men killed in locked rooms, one labeled suicide, the other labeled unknown. Each from the same family, the same company, the same type of situation.
Adam had given me three email addresses of people who had talked to him about the suicide, and I sent each person on my list an identical email. It said that with Miller’s death, there was renewed interest in the death of Dr. Vires and who the apps now belonged to. I mentioned that Adam Nelson of Advent had suggested I speak with them about the events surrounding the doctor’s death.
With that done, I headed downtown. The cat angle of the crimes seemed much less invasive to me in my current mood, so I drove down to the area. I wasn’t surprised that there was no cat in the vicinity. As far as I knew, that cat was at the crime scene. I wasn’t sure how that would work. What would Mrs. Miller say when they came to drop off a second cat to her? The whole situation felt wrong. I wasn’t sure who had adopted the second cat, but it seemed almost as if someone was setting her up for a crime. The person most likely to want to see Miller dead and his current wife implicated would likely be the ex-wife. I wondered how I could find her.
Only one woman was sitting on the curb now, and I approached her. I put a five dollar bill in her bag, hoping that would start up a conversation. She thanked me, and I held out another bill. I almost looked like a mime, creating an over-exaggerated expression of looking for the other woman. “Have you seen the woman who was here earlier?” I asked when she didn’t get my hint.
“Who’s that?” she replied.
“The woman who was here yesterday. She was sitting with you and an orange tabby.”
She wrinkled up her forehead. Her eyes were dull and listless. I wasn’t sure if she was using something or if there were other reasons for the lack of comprehension. “Orange what? Tab, like the drink?”
“No, a cat. An orange cat. It was here yesterday, but I don’t see it now.” I scanned the street as if to explain it to her. My conscience was even more upset by the fact that I was trying to trick this woman than it would have been by digging up someone else’s past. If she couldn’t answer this first question, I vowed to leave and not bother her again. I saw no use in agitating someone with these struggles.
“Oh, you mean, Harold. No, he comes and goes. Sometimes he’s here for a few days, and then he goes away, but he always comes back. Do you want me to leave a message for him?”
I smiled and declined her offer. Detective Green would have been disappointed that I didn’t leave messages for pets as well as just talk to them, but I figured that the message would be lost in translation. “Have you seen the other woman who was here yesterday? I thought you two were friends.”
The woman shook her head. “Not her. She
Similar Books
