The Langley Case: A Nathan Roeder Mystery
Chapter 21

An Old Friend at Lunch, a New Friend for Coffee

I couldn’t in good conscience continue with the investigation at that point. All the evidence I was replaceing suggested that not only did Oliver Langley commit every single one of the murders that his diary suggested, but that there were quite a few others that he was at least somehow involved in. There was a connection here, too much of one, and I couldn’t prove that the diary wasn’t true. If Theresa wanted to prove that the thing was false, she’d have to hire some kind of actor to pretend to be a detective. Hiring the real thing wouldn’t work for her.

I called her up to tell her I needed to meet with her. I got her assistant’s secretary. “Can I help you?” She asked, in a voice suggesting that she wanted to do anything but. Anything, including shoving my ragged, beaten corpse off the edge of the Tiers and listening to hear it splatter on the Sprawl way, way below.

“I need to speak with Theresa Langley,” I said. “It’s a business matter.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

I wasn’t there in person. I was on the phone. Since when do you need an appointment to make a phone call? “This is a matter of some urgency.”

“So I take it you do not have an appointment.”

If I’d been there in person, I might have shot her. “No, I don’t. But Ms. Langley hired me to perform a service, and she asked me to speak with her when I made progress.”

“What kind of service, Mr. –”

“Roeder.” It was the third time I’d identified myself so far that phone call. “It’s a service I am not at liberty to discuss with anyone other than Ms. Langley.”

“I’m afraid she’s not in at the moment.”

“Well, do you know where she is?”

There was a smile. That kind of smile that a cat gets, right before it swats the life out of a mouse. Or the kind of smile a rapist gets when the girl he’s following breaks a heel and stumbles into a blind alley. “Yes,” she said. “I do.”

“Where?”

“I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to discuss that with you, Mr. – what was your name?”

“Roeder,” I was barely controlling my temper. I needed a cigarette. “Nathan Roeder.”

“She’s out.”

“Does she have a phone with her?”

“Yes.” There was that smile again.

“Could you connect me to her?”

“I don’t think so.”

I ran a hand through my hair. “Fine. Will you give her a message for me?” I didn’t want to just ask if the bitch would take a message. Something told me that she would, but Theresa would never, ever see it.

If there wasn’t a picture, I doubt she would have even picked up a pen. But she did, so I made the effort.

“Please tell her that our business is nearing conclusion, and I would like to discuss my current replaceings with her at her earliest convenience.”

“There,” she said. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?” She disconnected before I could share my innermost feelings of hatred and rage with her.

I lit up a cigarette and tried to smoke the anger away instead. It was time for lunch with Johnny Staples anyway.

Felicia and I met Johnny Staples at a little fast food restaurant in one of the GE buildings. Johnny does not, and has never, worked for GE. That alone struck me as odd.

We ordered our food, and Johnny took us to a table in the corner. One where we could have at least a modicum of privacy. That was also a little odd.

What was most strange, though, was that for the entire time it took us to order, get our food, replace a table, and sit down, Johnny never once checked Felicia out. He was probably the only human being within a hundred yards who could make that claim at that moment; her new clothes had not yet arrived.

“What’s going on, Johnny?” I asked. It was the first any of us had spoken in a few minutes. Whatever it was, he didn’t want to talk about it if he didn’t have to. But at the same time, he looked like he was about to burst if he didn’t say something soon.

“So do you need a partner?”

I shrugged. I’ve never needed a partner in the past. But even if I did, I have Felicia. She could act as a sort of partner. Not what Johnny meant, and I knew it. “I could,” I said. “Why, you planning on leaving the corporate world?”

He laughed; that desperate laugh of someone who does not replace his situation at all funny. “One way or another, I think so,” he said.

“Why is that?”

“Nathan, you know that you’re the talk of the town these days, right?”

“What?” I didn’t know that at all.

“You’re all over, if you know where to look. Some people are looking for you like you’ve got some sort of inheritance to collect. Others are looking to hire you away to their corporate world. Some just want to know why you haven’t been home in almost a week. Whatever it is, if anyone knew you had called me and I hadn’t immediately traced the call, my ass would be downsized, and fast.”

That meant they were looking for me. Hard core. But some of them, at least one, knew I was out in the Sprawl. Or at least, that I had been. Was there more than one group? How did I get to be so popular? “So you figure you want to leave the company?”

He laughed again, just as desperate. “I think I’m out one way or another. I agreed to have lunch with you. I know they’re following me.”

“Why?”

“Any time there’s a doubt, Nathan.”

I understood what he meant, but Felicia didn’t. “What does that mean?” She asked.

He noticed her for the first time. “This the new secretary?” He asked, his eyes finally taking in every piece of Felicia, one centimeter at a time.

“Yeah,” I had to interrupt his thought process before his fantasy took him a million miles away. “This is Felicia. She’s new to town.”

His eyes refocused on me, then turned to her. “Any time there’s a doubt, there is no doubt,” he said.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that if I’m not sure whether or not I’m being followed, I might as well assume that I am.”

“How paranoid.”

He shrugged. “That’s the business I live in.”

“I thought things would be simpler in Town,” she said.

I laughed. “Sister, things are never simple. Anywhere.” I turned back to Johnny. “So why do you want to be my partner?”

“I’ve seen a few things, Nathan. Things that pertain to you, things that are important. And besides, I can go all over the place for you. Use me as an errand boy or something. There are places around Town that you can’t go right now. Let me go there, or let me take you there.”

“Why does it matter?” Felicia asked.

It was getting the point where I’d have to admit that she wasn’t from any Town. “Anywhere we go, we’re going to leave a trail. There’s no way around that. But if Johnny here goes with us, does the going, uses his credentials everywhere, then the trail leads back to him. And it’s like we were never there.”

Felicia nodded. “That makes a lot of sense,” she said. “I never thought of it that way.”

“What do you say, Nathan?”

I scrunched up my face, trying to replace the best way to say it. “I can barely pay her, Johnny. No way I could compete with the salary you’re making.”

“I’ll do this one pro-bono,” he said. “After this, we’re partners, fifty-fifty. You teach me the biz, we’ll call it square.”

“I don’t want to screw you like that.”

He shrugged. “I’ve got savings,” he said. “Call this time around a payment for the training. You tell me what you know, teach me to be a detective, so that I feel better earning half the keep around here. In exchange, I’ll start working now, before we have anything to split. Suede?”

“Suede,” I said, and shook his hand. It wasn’t a binding contract, but it was enough for us.

“Staples and Roeder Investigations,” Johnny said. “I like that.”

“Shouldn’t it be Roeder and Staples?” I didn’t say it, I swear. It was Felicia. “And where do I fit in?”

“You’re the secretary, doll,” I said. “That means you do whatever we need you to do.”

“Don’t I get to do any investigating?”

“Oh,” I said, “Plenty.”

She smiled. “Okay then, we’re a team.”

Staples didn’t look too thrilled at the idea. I could see the percentages shrinking in his head. Me, I was just thinking about how much smaller my office would be when I was sharing it with two other people. I figured I was taking a big step, but if this thing with Theresa paid off the way I thought it would, it would all be worth it.

“So what’s next?” Johnny asked.

“I think you should tell us what you know about Nathan. You said you’d heard a few things. Spill.”

She was getting the lingo down. Truth be told, it was kind of hot.

He took a deep breath. “There’s this symbol,” he said. “I found a trace program attached to it. I followed the program, and I found Nathan. I know I’m not the only person who followed it.”

“How do you know?”

“Because it led to a file about you, Nathan. It had everything. Everything.”

My eyes narrowed a bit. “What do you mean?”

“Birthday, what alterations your parents made, your school history, life expectancy, everything. It even had how much money you spent on nicotine last year.”

That’s a strange detail to throw in. “Did it mention my drinking?”

“Only in the sense of listing stores where you generally shop.”

Fuck. That meant they were doing more than just checking up on me. They were trying to track me down. “What was the symbol?” I knew what it was. I just wanted him to say it.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’d never seen anything like it before. But since I saw it, it’s like I’m seeing it everywhere. Oh, and I was invited up to the Tiers tomorrow morning.”

Felicia’s eyes lit up. “You’re going up to the Tiers?” She asked.

Johnny laughed. “Not if I can help it,” he said. “I’m not sure I should.”

He sees the symbol, he tracks it back to me, and then he gets invited up to the Tiers? “When did the invitation come in?”

“Just before lunch.”

So after he talked to me. That was either very bad for me or very bad for him. “Was there anything with it?” I didn’t expect him to tell me, but at least I’d know if he was lying.

He furrowed his brow like he was trying to remember. His eyes darted, but not in the direction most people’s eyes dart when they’re lying. “No,” he said. “Nothing.”

So either they were just going to kill him, or they were going to recruit him to kill me. If he was working closely with me, they’d probably recruit him. That would at least buy us both a bit of time. At who knows, maybe I’d be able to wrangle some information out of the whole deal.

“I think you should go,” I said. “Go and talk the talk. Tell them whatever they ask, don’t hide anything.”

“You don’t think it’ll be dangerous?”

“Oh, I think it’ll be very dangerous. I think it’ll probably be one of the most dangerous things you’ve ever done. But I think it’ll be less dangerous than not going.”

“Why?”

“Because if you don’t go, you might end up with a different kind of meeting. The kind people don’t talk about, the kind people don’t survive.”

He paled a little. That reassured me that he wasn’t planning to fuck me. At least, not yet. But if I could scare him with something as simple as that, who knew what They would be able to do once he was in their clutches.

“Okay,” Felicia said, “so tomorrow you’re going to the Tiers. What are we doing in the meantime?”

“I need to talk to Theresa Langley,” I said. “But I can’t get her to return my calls. Hell, I can’t even get her secretary to deliver my messages.”

“Who’s Theresa Langley?” Johnny asked.

“The principle.” I scratched my chin. “We need to replace a course of action that’ll help all three of us, and will get as much done as we can.”

“Tell me what you want me to do,” Felicia said. “I want to help.” She’s a sweet kid.

My PDA started beeping. I pulled it out and looked at the screen. I had ten minutes to meet Theresa for coffee. That wasn’t much time. But I knew it had to be alone, so I had to get rid of the other two.

“Okay,” I said, “here’s the plan. Johnny, you go get your office in gear, get everything out that you can. Any information you have about me or about this symbol, we’re going to need it.” He nodded. I turned to Felicia. “Felicia, I want you to go back to the hotel, pick up the new clothes, and replace anything you can about Oliver Langley. He’s dead, by the way—old age, so don’t get your panties in a bunch.”

“I’m not wearing panties,” she said. I almost choked, and would have spit my drink all over the place if I’d been drinking anything at the time.

“Regardless,” I said. “Just do it, okay?”

I stood up from the table and rushed out before either of them could see what kind of effect that comment had over me.

I made it to the coffee house where Theresa was meeting me with a minute to spare. She was waiting in a privacy booth. I stepped in and she pressed a button that cut out not only sound but also distorted all the images outside the booth. Real privacy.

I looked at her and found myself comparing her to Felicia. Felicia’s hair was all over the place, always seeming to fall in just the right way to frame her face and make her sexy. Theresa’s hair was rigidly set in its ways, focusing attention exactly where she wanted it to, framing the bald spot where she was Wired without making it stand out or look awkward. Felicia’s face, so perfect and curvy, all the lines and bones exactly where you’d want them. Theresa’s face was like a hawk, full of cunning and elegance and as regal as Felicia was sexy.

Theresa crossed her legs, those golden things that you could build an empire on the base of, and gestured for me to sit down. I slid in the seat across from her, trying to focus my mind on the task at hand, rather than the continuing to compare the two of them. I tried not to imagine them undressing one another, and just focus on Theresa. Fully clothed. In front of me.

“Your message said you’d concluded your business,” she said. “So I take it you’ve found the proof you need.”

I shook my head. “What I’ve found is pretty solid proof that your father committed every single one of the crimes he claimed to have committed.”

If she’d had a cigarette, she would have put it out right then. If there was a drink, she’d slam it on the table. As it was, her hands looked for something dramatic to do. “What?”

“That’s what my research has shown.” I pulled out a cigarette. I could have asked if she minded, but that would have ruined the mojo. “But you knew that before you hired me.”

“What are you talking about, Nathan?”

I raised an eyebrow. “So it’s Nathan now?”

“I think we’re beyond pleasantries,” she said. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You didn’t hire me to replace out if it was true. You hired me to prove it false. And you knew that I couldn’t. So what, you wanted me to concoct some kind of bullshit story?” Ideas were falling into my head, puzzle pieces coming together in different variations. Maybe I could hit the truth in there somehow. “Or were you just hoping I’d get killed, and the diary would be lost? I suppose you have a cadre of lawyers waiting to prove that without the diary, the condition of the will is null and void.”

She took a deep breath. I wasn’t sure how close to the mark I’d hit. “Nathan – Mr. Roeder. I was afraid it was true, but I hoped it was false. I wanted to make sure my father had a clear name. I hired you because I thought you might replace some kind of loophole, some chance that it wouldn’t be true.”

“That’s just it,” I said, as more pieces fell together. “I think I did.”

Her eyes lit up a little bit. They were chestnut brown. Interesting, and certainly pretty, but nothing compared to Felicia’s violet. “You did?”

“I think your father either was part of something or stumbled onto something. Something important. Something he wanted to expose.”

“What do you mean?” She leaned in, whispering, conspiratorial. As if there wasn’t a privacy screen.

“I’m just shooting ideas around,” I said, “But have you ever wondered why he decided to go to the grave? I mean, he could have Downloaded, right?”

“Yes, he could have. Certainly.”

“So he had to have a reason. Something that was so important to him that he was willing to die for it. Willing to give up literal eternity to make sure that it happened. What would the diary do if it were in the hands of the B3?”

“It would disgrace him. Make him look like a monster, ruin any reputation he’s ever had. It would destroy the family name.”

“And yet he insisted that it happen.” I said. “So that’s another thing he was willing to do to make sure that whatever his goal was, it was achieved. He was ready to ruin himself, his name, your name, and give up his chance for a DL existence.” I paused, for effect. “Why?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Because he was a crazy old bastard of a man, miserable and wanting to ruin things for me.”

It was my turn to shake my head. She was way off. Pieces were falling, moving around, taking their places. There was still quite a bit missing. But maybe we’d replace it together. “If he just wanted to ruin things, he never had to die. He could’ve just stuck around, forever, tormenting you from the Net. But he didn’t.”

“But I can’t get him back this way.”

That was it. A missing piece, right there. “He knew how smart you are, how shrewd, right?”

She let out a laugh that was half arrogance and half annoyance. “He paid for it,” she said.

“So he must have known you would read the diary before handing it over, right?”

She nodded. “That would stand to reason.”

“And he would know that you would do exactly what you did. You would send it to someone else, someone who would investigate it.”

“Yes.”

“Then there’s got to be something there, something important about it all.” I took a deep breath. “He wants me to figure it out, and expose it for him. Whatever he wanted exposed was so dangerous that he was willing to die to expose it.”

“You’re talking in circles, Nathan.”

I waved her off. That was it, it had to be. “There’s a group of people that your father’s diary is fingering. People who are either much worse than he ever was, or who have actually done everything he has taken credit for.”

There was a tear in her eye. Hopeful, angry, depressed. I wasn’t sure. “Why do you think this?” She asked. “Why not just think he was a murderer, a psychopath willing to destroy as many lives as he could, even after his death?”

That was a possibility. That was the cover story, it had to be. But there was something fundamentally wrong with it. Something I wouldn’t have gotten without the events of the past few days. “Because,” I said, “the people he’s trying to expose have been trying to kill me ever since I started looking into it.”

She leaned back. “People are trying to kill you?”

I waved her away again. “Constantly. It’s my winning personality.”

“Who?”

“If I knew that, I’d be done.” That much was true. So much of the puzzle still missing.

“So what do we do now?”

I leaned back. “I think we renegotiate.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”

“You hired me to prove that the diary was a fake. I’m going to do that.” I leaned back and put my hands on the edge of the table. “But I didn’t sign on for going up against two of the biggest crime bosses in the Sprawl, getting shot at by more than a dozen people, or some organization of probably the most powerful people in all of TriCity trying to wax me out. So I want more compensation.”

“What are we talking about?” Her lips were tight together. Negotiating pose.

“We’re talking two different options,” I’m not the best at bluffing, but I figured I’d give it a shot. “Option one is that we call it quits right now. You pay the expenses, but you keep the fifteen large you owe me. I hand you what I have, and you’re stuck with proof that your father was a mass murdering fuck head.”

She nodded, still in negotiating pose. Her voice was carefully empty. “What’s option two?”

“Option two is that I keep going until I do what you asked me to. I keep myself alive despite the best efforts of our mutual friends. Eventually, I either end up dead or I crack whatever code your father had in his diary and expose what he wanted exposed. Then you pay me what you owe me, plus another zero at the end.”

“One hundred and fifty thousand?”

I nodded, trying to keep my face firm, trying not to show that I was full of shit. There was no way I could avoid the second option. Those guys were going to keep coming until I exposed them or they killed me. But if I could convince her, if I could get her to agree to the second option, then I’d at least have the money. If I survived.

She took a deep breath, but I knew she wasn’t mulling things over. The decision was already made. “Done,” she said.

Suede.