Depart the Darkness Page 9

  “Dillon Graves works for a different group at Intersect. In spite of it being the same company, Graves’ group is the client of Phillip’s and Helms’ group. His father is also the director of Intersect. Graves isn’t a supervisor, but judging by the way he bragged, and how Helms kissed up to him, he might as well be.”

  “So we’ve got some nepotism going on,” I concluded.

  “Jack is certain of it. Helms follows Graves around like he’s on a leash. In spite of being in a different group, Graves works on what he wants, where he wants, and treats people however he wants. He’s arrogant, condescending, and on a terminal power trip, but no one will stand up to him out of fear of reprisal.”

  “That’s disgusting,” I frowned.

  “And let me again remind you, that smiting people would be an abuse of the abilities I’ve been entrusted with.”

  “Drat,” I said, and laughed in spite of how hostile I felt toward this Graves guy. “You’re the only person in the world who can be trusted with this much power. You’ve proven that over and over.”

  “I spent over a hundred and forty years proving it,” he said thoughtfully, then shook off whatever he was thinking.

  “Does Jack believe Phillip owes them money?” I wondered.

  “No. Graves wouldn’t loan his own mother money to save her life, is what he told Jackson. He also said the guy would more likely enjoy watching her die. I’m not making that up.”

  “I know,” I said, frowning again. “This guy sounds sadistic.”

  “Soulless, is the impression Jack came away with.”

  “So tell me more,” I said. “What do we have to work with?”

  “Graves and Helms didn’t loan Phillip money, but they do have it in for him. Jack thinks it’s because Graves is a bully and Helms is his lackey, but he also picked up on some resentment. All three hold the same job title, but Phillip’s grade is higher.”

  “You’d think that would put him above the two of them,” I said, trying to figure that out. “But, we’re not talking about one of our businesses. We’re talking about a company that deals in government contracts and a nepotistic, sadistic, materialistic, egotistic…”

  “Do you want to come up with more words ending in -ic, or shall I continue?”

  “Ick about sums up the situation, but go ahead.”

  “Phillip’s higher grade doesn’t put him higher in rank, but it does put him in a higher pay grade. Both of them have a problem with that.”

  “So they’ve made his life as miserable as possible,” I said. “Why doesn’t he go to human resources? Or get another job? The truth is that he freaked out at the very suggestion.”

  “That’s a good question. Another is this. Why did Graves react the same way, when Helms made an offhand remark that they should arrange to have Phillip fired?”

  “Well, it… probably isn’t because he suddenly sprouted a heart,” I replied. “He really did that?”

  “According to Jack, he did. He rather sharply nipped that suggestion in the bud.”

  “Is… Phillip so vital, in spite of what they say, that the company can’t function without him? Maybe Graves would have to get off his high horse and do something besides harass people, if Phillip lost his job. But why did Phillip get so upset at the thought of leaving? And what about the bouncers who Graves and Helms hired to so obviously follow Phillip and watch his house?”

  “Helms and Graves both enjoy causing him stress. That much is obvious. That was also the explanation Helms gave.”

  “Why in the world do they hate him so much?” I exclaimed.

  “Do bullies need a reason?” Miles pointed out.

  “That’s true… it even happened to you in a way, when the guys who claimed to be your friends, turned on you after you were falsely accused. They knew you were innocent, but instead of defending you, they took that opportunity to make up a bunch of lies about you.”

  “It makes me appreciate real friends all the more.”

  “Why does Phillip think he and his family are being watched? I mean, obviously they are. But what does he think is the purpose behind it? Does he know Helms and Graves are responsible?”

  “If he knows… why does he fear for his family’s safety? Why doesn’t he involve the police, regardless? The homeowner’s association would get involved on some level, if they were made aware. Loitering in the subdivision is prohibited. Phillip may feel he has no recourse at Intersect, but Helms and Graves have taken their harassment out of the workplace. He has options.”

  “Maybe he’s so beaten down, he doesn’t think so,” I suggested.

  “He does think his family is in danger, though. Rather than seek other employment, he’s seeking new identities. He’s emptying accounts. He’s preparing to disappear with his family.”

  “Why is he so afraid?” I exclaimed. “If we could convince him to interview for a job with us, we’d find all the answers and solve all his problems.”

  “I have his personal email. I’ll attempt to contact him, and encourage him to apply.”

  “Will you tell him we know Steve?”

  “Yes… I will. It won’t hurt, and he’ll be more likely to read the entire email rather than banish it to the junk mail folder.”

  “Was Phillip hired to replace someone else?” I suddenly wondered.

  “I’ll find out. If that’s the case, we’ll see what we can learn from his predecessor.”

  “Did Jackson go into detail about the contract Phillip is working on?”

  “Only that it involves medical research and development. Graves and Helms were more interested in recounting the details of their harassment than they were in talking about the contract. In spite of Jack’s truth serum, they were both hesitant to discuss it, and that’s all he got out of them. It depends on the contract itself, but if it’s classified, then discussing it would be in violation of security.”

  “Okay. So what’s our game plan?”

  “I’ll call Jackson and tell him we need contact information for Phillip’s predecessor, assuming there is one. Then I have an email to write. While I do that, you refresh both our memories on the positions we have available in Phillip’s field. Next, I vote for sleep.”

  I yawned, which made him yawn.

  “Yeah, me too,” I agreed.

  Miles handed me his phone, which has a bigger screen than mine, reached for his laptop, and we got to work.

  I yawned again.

  “It’s been a long day, even though nothing bad happened. When I think of how long this day, and all the days for the past year have been for Phillip, it makes me sick.”

  “Me too. But we’re going to fix this, one way or another. You can rest assured of that.”

  Chapter 7

  The snow glittered like diamonds in the light of the sun as it rose above the pines. The sunrise tinted the few clouds softly, and the air smelled… cold, actually. It burned my nose and froze my breath. It was too cold to talk.

  It was a little on the cold side for Chip and Trixie this morning, too. They wasted no time in play, and led the way back to the Lodge at a brisk pace. Miles and I jogged to keep up, and because it was cold out here and warm in there, with a fire burning in the lobby fireplace, and hot coffee, lattes and pastries, and…

  I jogged faster, and we all reached the door at the same time and hurried inside.

  “Cold enough for you?” Miles asked, shivering a little himself, as he hugged me and we waited for the elevator to arrive.

  “Yes! I’m not sure I’ve ever been more in the mood for a latte than I am right now.”

  “After dropping off our coats and dogs, that’ll be our next stop,” he reassured me.

  We reached our suite. After removing the dogs’ boots and shedding our winter outerwear, we took the elevator back to the ground floor and ourselves to Elizabeth’s.

  A few early risers sprinkled the main dining area. It was a decent size crowd for this time of morning, but not more than the two waiters could manage.

>   An older couple sat together at one of the tables. He said something which made her laugh, and I smiled. Someday, that would be me and Miles. I hoped someday would include a bunch of kids who visited us now and then, and then I reminded myself that it would. No matter what, we’d have kids. There was more than one road to becoming a parent.

  The thought reassured me to some extent, and I turned my attention to the glass window separating our private dining area from the rest of the room. John and Annette had yet to arrive, but Xander and Jenny were already there.

  “Hey guys,” Xander said, as we walked in.

  “Good morning,” Miles smiled.

  “How early did you get here today?” I asked Jenny, as Miles pulled out a chair for me, and I sat across from her.

  “Four, I think it was,” she replied. In spite of that, she didn’t look tired. She looked energized. “I am so glad you came up with the internship idea! I’ve learned so much in the last three weeks. I can’t imagine a better opportunity.”

  “I’m glad we thought of it too,” I said.

  Our waiter arrived, bearing a latte for me, and coffee for everyone else. I received my hot drink gratefully, and so did Miles.

  “We need to come up with a plan for next week that doesn’t involve setting the puppies out in the cold,” Miles pointed out.

  “Hi, and… what?” John asked quizzically, as he and Annette joined us.

  “The puppies start solid food next week,” Miles elaborated.

  “Which means they also start house-training,” I added.

  “Oh,” Annette frowned with concern.

  “All I can say is, let it not involve training them to go inside,” Xander advised us. “Those puppy training pads may sound like a great idea now, but when your full grown dog eyes the throw rug every time it should be going to the door…”

  “Eew,” I said, disturbed. “This advice comes from experience?”

  “I have a great-aunt who trained her dog that way. Fifteen years later, she’s still got training pads in every room. She gave up on throw rugs about ten years ago. Training pads are cheaper.”

  “That’s terrible,” Miles replied, his eyebrows knitting.

  “We don’t want that,” I declared. “At all! It never learned any better? Is it… not very smart?”

  “My great-aunt’s the one who—Ow!” Xander said, as Jenny bumped him rather hard with her shoulder.

  Her look said, be nice. He looked a little apologetic, but mostly reproachful.

  “Yeah, well, don’t judge until after you meet her. Don’t judge me until after you meet her. She dyes her hair purple, and thinks she was a pirate captain in another life.”

  “Are you for real?” John asked, as we all began to laugh.

  “I’m not making it up,” Xander insisted. “You’ll see her at the wedding.”

  “Goodness, I’m rethinking the plan to increase the number of guests,” Jenny said. In spite of her laughter, she looked just as disturbed at the thought of Xander’s purple-haired pirate aunt, as she did the idea of training a dog to go in, instead of out.

  “So don’t judge,” Xander said. He raised an eyebrow and pointed, then put his arm around her. “And don’t worry. With a family the size of mine, you can’t expect everyone to be sane and… well, sane.”

  “He’s telling the truth,” I said, then slapped my hand over my mouth, and reached for my latte.

  Jenny stared at me for a second, then joined in as everyone else laughed.

  “You, miss, are dangerous!” Jenny declared.

  “I’m not a miss, I’m a matron,” I reminded her.

  “Yeah, well your superpowers are super cool,” Xander declared. “You ought to go into couples counseling.”

  “That’s what they all say,” I replied, with a dismissive wave of my hand.

  John and Annette looked curious, but they’d have to wait for the details. For now, our attention turned to breakfast, which our server wheeled into the room and began distributing.

  “Any plans for this weekend?” Miles asked.

  “Me and Annette are going to visit my family,” John replied.

  “Jenny and I are just… hanging out here I guess,” said Xander. He glanced at Jenny.

  “Mostly,” she agreed. “On Saturday, a wedding fair is taking place at the mall. I was planning to go to that. It might give me some ideas. Anika, do you want to come? Or do you have plans already?”

  “It kind of depends on whether Grandma Polly is here by then, or not,” I answered.

  “It also depends on what information we have to work with once our PI gets back to us,” Miles added.

  “Tell us more,” Xander said, rubbing his hands together.

  The door to our private dining room swung shut, and latched.

  While we ate, we put into a nutshell the information we learned from Lorna, and which Jack learned from Jadon Helms and Dillon Graves. Our friends listened intently, working over the details just as we continued to do, trying to find a solution that would neatly utilize all the puzzle pieces.

  “So now we wait and see if Phillip responds to our invitation to apply for one of the positions Anika came up with last night. One is local. The rest are located in other parts of the country. Since Phillip intends to take his family and disappear, that may appeal to him.”

  “I doubt he’s even read the email yet, considering the early morning hour,” I pointed out to everyone. “So it doesn’t mean anything that he hasn’t responded.”

  “Our PI is obtaining specifics concerning the medical research and development contract which funds Phillip’s employment at Intersect,” Miles continued. “It may be irrelevant when it comes to solving this investigation, but then again… we’re better off with too many puzzle pieces, than not enough.”

  “We also want to know if Phillip was hired to replace someone else,” I said.

  “If that’s the case, we intend to locate and interview that person,” Miles finished.

  “Yeah, I wonder if these guys have done this before,” Xander commented.

  “What they’re doing is disgusting,” Annette said, her brown eyes flashing.

  “What could their purpose be?” Jenny wondered, frowning.

  “Graves and Helms are bullies, no doubt,” John said. “There has to be more to this, though. Graves doesn’t want Phillip fired, and Phillip is scared to leave. Why else would the suggestion cause him to react the way he did?”

  “This isn’t a matter of being afraid what Helms will say if Phillip applies elsewhere, and he’s contacted to give a character reference,” I agreed. “The fear revealed by the truth runs much deeper than that.”

  Miles’ phone vibrated, and conversation paused as the rest of us watched him glance at the screen.

  “It’s Jackson,” he told us. A ripple of suppressed excitement went around the table, as Miles answered. “Hey, Jackson. What do you have?”

  We watched and waited.

  “Do you know the intended purpose?” Miles asked, then he was silent while Jackson spoke, and the rest of us wondered what it was that had an intended purpose. “This wouldn’t happen to have an association with Pineview, would it?”

  That perked up our ears. Pineview was the private hospital that didn’t want to release Violet O’ Neill just a couple of weeks ago, when her parents tried to have her transferred to Memorial.

  “Okay. Do that. I’m curious, either way.”

  Miles was silent again as he listened to whatever Jackson said. Miles looked surprised, intrigued, and concerned.

  “Under mysterious circumstances, by any chance?”

  It was all I could do not to remind him he could put a soundproof field around our private dining room, and put the phone on speaker! It might spare him the loss of his wife and friends, to death by unrequited curiosity.

  “Email what you have, and my wife and I’ll try setting up an interview first. Continue looking into the rest of it, and let me know what you find out.”

  Miles
ended his call, and looked at me.

  “Phillip does have a predecessor.”

  “Is that who we’re going to interview?” I asked.

  “Not his immediate predecessor,” Miles said, his eyes serious.

  “He was murdered under mysterious circumstances!” Xander exclaimed excitedly. Considering the subject matter, Miles tried not to smile at his enthusiasm.

  “That, I don’t know for certain. He is dead, though. It was ruled a suicide.”

  “They drove him to suicide?” Jenny exclaimed, her blue eyes flashing.

  “We’ll find out,” I said grimly.

  “We will,” Miles affirmed. “Jackson is looking into this also. It may not be suicide at all. I’m not ready to accept that conclusion.”

  “So—what about Pineview?” I remembered.

  “The purpose of the program Phillip is involved in, is to develop a drug to aid in the recovery of patients with traumatic brain injury.”

  “And that made you think of Pineview,” John said, and Miles nodded.

  “There may be no connection. Although we suspected Violet was being administered anesthesia to keep her in a comatose state while she was at Pineview, after being transferred to Memorial, there was no change in her condition. Not until Violet was ready to wake up.”

  “They were doing something to her though,” I remembered. “You felt it, trying to pull her away from the force field you had around her. She said it happened over and over.”

  “It was like clockwork,” Xander added.

  “It was,” Miles confirmed. “Violet—the part of her in our sitting room, anyway—woke briefly every twelve hours when the force attempting to pull her away, faded to nothing. She fell asleep as soon as it returned, and remained asleep until it faded once again. There may be no connection between that and this program. But… if there is, I want to know.”

  “If Pineview is supplying the researchers with test subjects, they have to be stopped!” I declared.

  “If there’s a connection, we’ll find and investigate it,” Miles agreed.

  “What did Jackson say about the guy who preceded Phillip’s deceased predecessor?” I wondered.