The Homicide on the Grand Canyon Railway: Book Nine of the Mike Damson Mysteries by Charles Williamson

Author:Charles Williamson [Williamson, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-05T12:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

At 8:30 in the evening, Mike called Margaret to update her on the case. Mike began by saying, “Sweetie, I couldn’t believe the size of the box CVS left at my door.”

“I felt you needed some snacks and some medication in case you develop a fever.”

“The mini Butterfingers are a treat. I guess CVS had them because Halloween is only a couple of days away. I also love that brand of buttered popcorn, and those salted pecans. You made sure that I won’t go hungry, but there are six kinds of over-the-counter medications. Surely that’s overkill.”

“I checked the Internet. Those are the suggested medications to stock up on. Now tell me about the case. I’m anxious to hear if you made any progress today.”

Mike spent fifteen minutes recounting the little progress they’d made that day. The visit to the AG2 offices had ended as soon as they asked about COVID testing.

“All those brilliant Silicon Valley people and it only takes a four digit watch passcode to get into their most important systems. It’s no wonder that China is taking the tech lead if American security is that weak. I guess you’ll know who the tech thief is by tomorrow when you speak with Mr. Shepard, but I think that you should not trust Chang Li to be your liaison with the company. He’s too perfect to be real.”

“As far as I can tell, he’s been helpful to the investigation, but the San Jose PD has provided an officer to be our contact at the company. Chang Li seemed to sincerely care about Ms. Doyle and her daughter. I don’t want to stigmatize him just because he’s from China, but I also decided that we needed an uninvolved person to do the research into Ms. Doyle’s files.”

Margaret was quick to point out, “Chang Li is temporarily doing both his normal work plus Ms. Doyle’s. Doesn’t that imply that he was given her password early on Monday morning to access her digital files. He might have already eliminated anything suspicious from those digital records. The document about Mr. Shepard that you found on Monday was in the paper files, which he would not have had time to purge before you arrived on Monday morning. I admit that it’s implausible that he would know how to contact the Soldiers of the Republic and hire one of them for a murder. I’m not saying there’s evidence yet that he had Ms. Doyle killed. It’s more likely to be someone who would lose their stock options if discovered and fired. However, I would be willing to bet it’s someone with Arizona Gunslinger Two. Like most crimes, it’s either about money or passion. I suspect this murder is about the money. She hadn’t even told the father about her pregnancy so it’s hard to say that’s the motive.”

After saying good night, Mike had a fitful sleep, getting up four times to check his temperature. Although his temperature stayed in the normal range, every dry cough or body ache increased his stress.

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