“Did you notice the security man outside?” Victor asked.
Marsha nodded. “Makes me feel much better. Did you eat?” she asked.
“No,” Victor said. “But I’m not hungry.”
“I’ll scramble you some eggs. Maybe some toast,” Marsha offered.
Victor restrained her. “Thanks, but I think I’ll take a swim and then shower. Maybe that will revive me.”
“Something wrong?” Marsha asked.
“No more than usual,” Victor said evasively. He left, leaving her door ajar. Ominous music from the soundtrack of the movie crept back into the room. Marsha tried to ignore it as she went back to her reading, but a sharp scream made her jump. Giving up, she reached over and gave the door a shove. It slammed with a resounding click.
Thirty minutes later, Victor reappeared. He looked considerably better, dressed in more casual clothes.
“Maybe I’ll take you up on those eggs,” he said. In the kitchen Marsha went to work while Victor set the table. A series of bloodcurdling gurgles emanated from the family room. Marsha asked Victor to close the connecting door.
“What in heaven’s name are they watching in there?” he asked.
“Sheer Terror,” Marsha said.
Victor shook his head. “Kids and their horror movies,” he said.
Marsha made herself a cup of tea and when Victor sat down to eat his omelet, she sat opposite him.
“There is something I wanted to discuss with you,” Marsha said, waiting for her tea to cool.
“Oh?”
Marsha told Victor about her lunch with Valerie Maddox; she also told him about Valerie’s offer to see VJ on a professional basis. “How do you feel about that?”
Wiping his mouth with his napkin, Victor said, “That kind of question involves your area of expertise. Anything that you think is appropriate is fine with me.”
“Good,” Marsha said. “I do think it is appropriate. Now I just have to convince VJ.”
“Good luck,” Victor said.
There was a short period of silence as Victor mopped up the last of the egg with a wedge of toast. Then he asked, “Did you use the computer upstairs tonight?”
“No, why do you ask?”
“The printer was hot when I went upstairs to swim and shower,” Victor said. “How about VJ? Did he use it?”
“I couldn’t say.”
Victor rocked back in his chair in a way that made Marsha grit her teeth. She was always afraid he was about to go over backward and hit his head on the tile floor.
“I had an interesting evening at the Chimera computer center,” Victor said, teetering on his chair. He went on to tell her everything that had happened, including the fact that the trace of the hacker ended up right there in their home.
In spite of herself, Marsha laughed. She quickly apologized. “I’m sorry, but I can just see it,” she said. “All this tension and then your name suddenly appearing.”
“It wasn’t funny,” Victor said. “And I’m going to have a serious talk with VJ about this. As ridiculous as it sounds, it must have been him breaking into the Chimera mainframe.”
“Is this serious talk going to be something like the one you had with him when you learned he’d been forging notes from you in order to skip school?” Marsha taunted.
“We’ll see,” Victor said, obviously irritated.
Marsha leaned over and grasped Victor’s arm before he could leave the table. “I’m teasing you,” she said. “Actually I’d be more concerned about your cornering him or pushing him. I’m afraid there is a side to VJ’s personality that we’ve not seen. That’s really why I want him to see Valerie.”
Victor nodded, then detached himself from Marsha’s grasp. He opened the connecting door. “VJ, would you come in here a minute? I’d like to talk with you.”
Marsha could hear VJ complaining, but Victor was insistent. Soon the sound of the movie soundtrack was off. VJ appeared at the door. He looked from Victor to Marsha. His sharp eyes had that glazed look that comes from watching too much television.
“Please sit at the table,” Victor said.
With a bored expression, VJ dutifully sat at the table to Marsha’s immediate left. Victor sat down across from both of them.
Victor got right to the point. “VJ, did you use the computer upstairs tonight?”
“Yeah,” VJ said.
Marsha watched as VJ glared at Victor insolently. She saw Victor hesitate, then avert his eyes, probably to maintain his train of thought. For a moment there was a pause. Then Victor continued: “Did you use the PC to log on to the Chimera mainframe computer?”
“Yes,” VJ said without a moment’s hesitation.
“Why?” Victor asked. His voice had changed from accusatory to confused. Marsha remembered her own confusion when VJ had so quickly confessed to his truancy.
“The extra storage makes some of the computer games more challenging,” VJ said.
Marsha saw Victor roll his eyes. “You mean you are using all that computer power of our giant unit to play Pac-Man and games like that?”
“It’s the same as me doing it at the lab,” VJ said.
“I suppose,” Victor said uncertainly. “Who taught you to use the modem?”
“You did,” VJ said.
“I don’t remember...” Victor began, but then he did. “But that was over seven years ago!”
“Maybe,” VJ said. “But the method hasn’t changed.”
“Do you access the Chimera computer every Friday night?” Victor asked.
“Usually,” VJ answered. “I play a few games, then I range around in the files, mostly Personnel and Purchasing, sometimes the research files, but those are harder to crack.”
“But why?” asked Victor.
“I just want to learn as much as I can about the company,” VJ said. “Someday I want to run it like you. You’ve always encouraged me to use the computer. I won’t do it anymore if you don’t want me to.”
“In future, I think it would be better if you don’t,” Victor said.
“Okay,” VJ said simply. “Can I go back to my movie?”
“Sure,” Victor said.
VJ pushed away from the table and disappeared through the door. Instantly, the soundtrack for Sheer Terror was back on.
Marsha looked at Victor. Victor shrugged. Then the doorbell sounded.
“Sorry to bother you folks so late,” Sergeant Cerullo said after Victor had opened the door. “This is Sergeant Dempsey from the Lawrence police.” The second officer stepped from behind Cerullo and touched the brim of his hat in greeting. He was a freckled fellow with bright red hair.
“We have some information for you and we wanted to ask a few questions,” Cerullo said.
Victor invited the men inside. They stepped in and removed their hats.
“Would you like some coffee or anything?” Marsha asked.
“No, thank you, ma’am,” Cerullo said. “We’ll just say what we come to say and be off. You see, we at the North Andover police station are pretty friendly with the men over in Lawrence, both being neighbors and all. There’s a lot of talk that goes back and forth. Anyway, they have been proceeding with the investigation of that mass murder over there involving the Gephardt family, the one Dr. Frank here discovered. Well, they found some rough drafts of the notes that you people got tied to your cat and around that brick. They were in the Gephardt house. We thought you’d like to know that.”
“I should say,” Victor said with some relief.
Dempsey coughed to clear his throat. “We also have ascertained by ballistics that the guns used to kill the Gephardts match those used in several battles between some rival South American drug gangs. We got that from Boston. Boston is very interested to find out what the connection is up here in Lawrence. They’ve some reason to believe something big is going down up here. What they want to know from you, since you employed Gephardt, is how the man was connected to the drug world. Do you people have any idea whatsoever?”