Chutes and Ladder: A Silicon Valley Mystery (Book 2) by Marc Jedel

Author:Marc Jedel [Jedel, Marc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC022100, FIC022070
Publisher: BGM Press
Published: 2019-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

10

Wednesday

My conversation with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies didn’t rank high on my list of most successful meetings. I did avoid arrest, though, which counted as a positive outcome in my book. The deputies didn’t appreciate my suggestions, or my sense of humor. Sergeant Mace Jackson kept his feelings under wraps throughout the meeting, barely saying a word. Since the deputies didn’t seem to like me, Mace probably wanted to keep them from learning how well he and I worked together.

Afterwards, on my way to pick up the girls from school, I called Raj to tell him about my meeting. “I got to see the inside of the police station and everything. It was cool.”

“That is great.” Raj’s flat voice didn’t match my level of excitement.

“Well, you missed a cool meeting. Did you have any more ideas about how Larry died?” We had—okay, I had—spent the morning in the office brainstorming ideas to bring to the police.

“I have been at work, unlike some people …”

Ouch. Normally laid back, Raj seemed high-strung today. In the background, I heard him typing. He was writing code while talking. There were plenty of days that I couldn’t write code even in complete silence.

Raj continued, “Is that all? I have to complete this before I leave on holiday.”

How could I have forgotten about his upcoming three-week vacation to visit his family in India? Without Raj, the office would be boring, even though I now had the monthly cake days in my calendar. We sang a lame “Happy Birthday” song and then everyone got free cake.

I tried again. “Well, take a break. Let’s come up with more ideas for the investigation. The police are stuck. They’re waiting for the autopsy results before they do anything else.”

“I think the police will know what to do.” The typing sounded louder as his voice faded.

I was losing him. “Come on, Raj, work with me here. Larry needs closure.” On a whim, I threw him a curveball. “Do you think Sean Peters killed Larry?”

This grabbed his attention, and the typing stopped. “What? Why would he wish to do anything to Larry?” He paused before adding, “You should not upset Sirius’ chief of staff. He could be our boss soon.”

“Not if he’s in prison for killing Larry!” I didn’t like Sean. He was too young and too fit.

“Maybe your friend just died. No murder or anything suspicious. Sometimes people die for no particular reason. It is very sad.”

It wasn’t time to be sad. It was time for action. “Can you do a search online for Sean Peters and Larry? Maybe there’s something weird about them.”

There was a pause before Raj spoke again. “I see many articles about Sirius.” After a longer pause, he said, “These biology terms are confusing. They are unfamiliar words to me.”

An idea struck me as my Rover car neared the girls’ school. “What about Gloria? Do you see her name in there?”

“Biology is not simple like engineering. Have you ever read some of these papers? If we will need to read such papers as part of Sirius, then perhaps we need to study biology.

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