The Sleep That Rescues by C J Henderson

Author:C J Henderson [Henderson, C J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1934501158
Publisher: Elder Signs Press
Published: 2009-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

SEVENTEEN

“GENTLEMEN, NOW THAT WE’RE all comfortable, what exactly is it you people are trying to tell me?”

Harlan Mortonson sat across the meeting room table from London and Cantalupo, his arms resting on the flat surface, fingers braided. He kept his hands rigidly in place, sternly resisting the urge to run a hand through his hair. It was an obvious nervous impulse, and he knew better than to deliver a show of nerves that early in the game. Still, the men in his office were there to help him. They must be. They were the police. And he had done nothing wrong.

Well, nothing they could know about, anyway.

“You have to understand, sir,” said London, turning up the intensity of his smile, flooding it with both sincerity and sympathy, “we have to be a bit tight with our information for the moment. Anyone here at this company might be involved in what we’ve discovered.”

“Anyone but me, I assume?”

“No sir,” answered the detective. “At this point you’re as suspect as anyone. But we have to start somewhere.”

Mortonson’s head snapped an infinitesimal amount. He had not expected such blunt truth. He still could not imagine what the police were after, but for one of their representatives to come on so strong in the first moments of their opening interview could not be a good sign. The CEO thanked his foresight in having the meeting in a room where the air conditioning was turned to its coldest setting.

Not a good idea to start sweating in the middle of this, he told himself. Allowing his eyes to roll over the faces across from him, he caught the intensity in London’s eyes and suppressed a shudder as he thought, no—not a good idea at all.

“To be fair,” said Cantalupo, interrupting Mortonson’s musings as he smoothly assumed a good cop position to play off London’s lead, “it may only be what we ‘think’ we have discovered. Meaning what we have could all just be a big coincidence. But, we won’t know until we start talking to people.”

“Whatever,” sputtered Mortonson. “Please, let’s just start, shall we? And could we start by you telling me all there is that you can tell me? I mean—really, gentlemen—how else could I possibly be of any assistance?”

London and Cantalupo looked at each other for a moment as if giving the CEO any information at all was some sort of major security risk. Then, with a well-practiced look of defeat, the captain released all the facts they had planned to give the man from the beginning.

“Well, all right. We can probably tell you at least this much,” he said in a conspiratorial tone. “While working on a string of homicides, we’ve come across information concerning a property being developed here—we believe it to be a computer game with at least the working title of ‘El Dorado.’ Would you like to confirm this, sir?”

Mortonson took a long look at Cantalupo. His security people had, of course, checked the officer out thoroughly before allowing him past the lobby, let alone into the executive suite.

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