Double-Back (Jake Waters Book 3) (20 page)

Tuesday Morning, May 17

"Who is this Anne Barker?" Jim asked, as he drove the FBI assigned vehicle containing Susan and himself out of the downtown Headquarters and headed in the direction that Susan indicated.  She had programmed their destination into the built in navigation system, a feature that Laney actually detested.

"She's the CFO of East Coast Pharmaceuticals, " Susan explained.  "She's an old classmate from my college days.  She called me almost a month ago asking if we could meet.  She had something on her mind about one of the company employees.  Given what we just learned, who do you think it probably was?"

"Natalie Rineri," Jim guessed correctly.  "How come she hasn't called you back if it was important?"

"Probably because I told her I'd get back as soon as possible.  We don't correspond that often, and she probably didn't want to press.  But I agree it has been too long.  The Anne I recall wouldn't let it sit if she felt it was important, which she must, otherwise she wouldn't have called me in the first place."

"How long after she originally called was the first attack against you?" Jim asked.

Susan thought for a moment, placing the days in order. 

"More than a week," she said finally.  "I'd have to look at a calendar to be positive."

They were through the heavily wooded section of highway and were approaching the industrialized area where the company was located.  Norm should be there, or just a short time behind them, as he was actually closer to the place when Jim had called him. 

"There," Susan pointed to the road ahead at almost the same time as the mechanical voice of the built-in navigation system began warning him to turn right at the next opportunity.

Jim said nothing, but made the turn as dutifully instructed, and within a hundred yards spotted the large sign that marked their destination.  He turned into the parking lot, driving toward the entrance, assuming any guest parking would be conveniently located near the door.  As they drove toward the clearly marked slots set aside for outsiders, Susan noticed the slot with the name of her old school friend marked on the painted curb.  It was empty.  One slot away was another space marked 'Rineri', which she was able to read only because Anne's parking place was empty.  A large sedan filled the Rineri slot.  Jim drove past and into the first of the empty guest parking places, and they had just stepped out of the vehicle when Norm drove up in a matching vehicle.

"What have we got?" he asked after exiting his own vehicle.

Susan explained the relationship between Anne and herself, and the call she had received a couple of weeks back, along with the coincidence that Jeff Rineri's sister worked here.

"She's here now?" Norm asked.

"Her car is," Jim replied.

"I don't plan on approaching her," Susan explained.  "She shouldn't know who we are, and I just hope to find out from Anne what her concerns are.  We'll follow up with Miss Rineri later."

Together, the three agents stepped into the comfortable lobby where the security guard waited to greet any visitors.

"May I help you?" he asked.

"We would like to speak with Anne Barker," Susan said.  "I'm an old friend of hers."

The guard's face changed markedly at her words.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Barker isn't here," the man said, not entirely surprising Susan.  With the car not being in the slot she'd expected as much, but she hoped to be able to get information where she might be.  Not being at work, and not answering her phone was disconcerting.  Before Susan could ask where she might be, the guard spoke again, this time softly and with regret.  "She was killed in a car accident a few days ago," he added.

Even expecting that something was amiss, Susan was momentarily taken aback by the startling news.

"An accident?" she asked.

"She apparently was driving far too fast and missed a turn on her way home," the guard explained.  "She struck a large concrete underpass, and was killed instantly."

"Have the police investigated this accident?" Susan asked.

The guard nodded.

"They were here and spoke with our CEO.  He called a group assembly afterwards, and told everyone about the accident.  Anne was well liked, and we all feel the loss."

"Is your CEO available?" Norm asked, as Susan was uncharacteristically at a loss for words.

"Mr. Harriman is in," the guard admitted.  "Would you like me to contact his secretary and see if he is available?  Without an appointment, I don't know if he can make time in his calendar at such short notice.  He has been even busier than usual without the assistance of Mrs. Barker.  Her position has yet to be filled."

Norm pulled out the case with his badge and showed to the guard whose eyes widen at the sight of the badge.

"FBI?" he asked.  "I thought you were friends of Mrs. Barker?"

"I am," Susan replied.  "We went to college together.  But her death comes as a surprise, and I intend to understand more about it.  Please relay to whoever you contact to tell the CEO that we are FBI agents, but here in an unofficial capacity?"

Less than a handful of minutes later they were escorted into the comfortable, but not elegant office of the CEO.  Karl Harriman indicated the chairs that surrounded a large oval table across the room.

"We can be more comfortable sitting there," he suggested.  "Cindy indicated you were friends of Anne's?"

"I was," Susan explained.  "We went to college together.  She called me a few weeks ago wanting to get together, but because of other conflicts I wasn't able to do so.  When I tried to contact her, she failed to answer, and since we were in the area on another matter, I decided to drop by.  I was shocked to hear that she'd been killed in an accident."

Susan carefully made no mention of Natalie or that there was any interest in anyone else at the company.

"It was a hell of a shock," Harriman admitted. 

"The guard said the police informed you of the crash.  Are they certain it was an accident?"

Harriman explained what he had been told of the events surrounding the crash, and that Anne's car had the road nearly to herself and had been involved in a single vehicle collision.  There was no chance it could have been anything else."

"When did this happen?" Jim asked.

"Five days ago," Harriman explained.  "It was raining lightly, which might have contributed to the crash."

"The guard indicated that Anne was well thought of," Susan said.  "Is that really the case, or did she have issues with some of the people here?  Someone in upper management often is forced to take positions that are unpopular with others in a company like this."

Susan noticed the CEO briefly appeared to be about to say something, then his face changed and he said, "nothing important.  Is there reason for you to ask?"

"Occupational hazard," Susan replied. "I investigate so many situations where matters are not what they appear."

"Sadly, this time it is only an unfortunate accident," Harriman said.

A few more questions, and then they were shown out.  Harriman had a meeting that he'd delayed, but indicated they were free to contact him anytime if they wished.  As they walked back toward the cars, Susan was undecided how to proceed. 

"We need to call Jake from the office," she said.  "He could go back and we could prevent Anne's death.  It might be the best way to learn what is going on."

"I don't think Harriman was totally frank with us," Jim said.  "It seemed he was about to say something, probably about Anne and Rineri, but thought better of it.  Rineri is probably too important to the company, and he feels there is nothing that can be done for Anne."

Susan nodded.  So Jim had sensed it also.  Had she known Anne was dead, she never would have driven out here to visit the company.  With Natalie Rineri so close, she wanted badly to charge in and interrogate the woman, but that could be dangerously counterproductive.  They would put a watch on the woman, and see where she went, but given Anne's sudden death, Susan was more convinced than ever that they had found the link they needed.  She even wondered if the missing Paul Martin might be found somewhere around Jeff Rineri's attractive sister.

Natalie watched as the three visitors walked back to the two nearly identical vehicles in the visitor's lot.  She didn't need the official looking cars to alert her to trouble.  While she didn't recognize the woman or one of the men, the tall, good-looking black man she knew.  It was Jim Laney, the FBI agent they had kidnapped, before she'd Backslid and cancelled the attempt.  That made it almost certain that the woman was Susan Carlson, the woman that Anne had contacted to start this entire mess.  The last man must be an agent as well.

She wondered if they had learned of Anne's death, and that was what had brought them here.  As bad as that was, any other reason was even worse.  The fact they hadn't been directed to her office made her certain the visit was to check on Anne.  What worried her was the fact they hadn't Backslid and warned Anne of the danger.  It had only been five days since the accident.  Natalie could have gone back that far if really pressed.  Perhaps they wanted to check matters out before doing so, and were on the way back to the office to initiate that action.  If so, this would all cease to have happened shortly.  Or perhaps whoever they had with the ability was even more limited than her.  Maybe they couldn't reach back a full five days.  She'd have to hope that was the case, otherwise very soon they would know far too much about her and what Anne had attempted to contact Carlson about.

It made no sense to simply wait around and hope.  Setting down the clipboard she had been carrying back to her office on her desk when she had spotted the departing trio, she headed toward the lobby where she planned to ask Sam, the lobby security guard, what they were here for.  She avoided Karl's office, concerned he might want to speak with her especially if they had been asking questions about Anne.   She felt time might be critical, and couldn't afford the distraction.

"They didn't know about Mrs. Barker's accident," Sam told her when she asked about the unexpected visitors.  "The woman apparently was an old friend of hers," Sam added.

So, it was Carlson, Natalie thought.  Natalie knew all she was going to learn, and the longer she waited the worse this might become.  If they Backslid before she did, any chance to correct this situation could be lost.  She reached into her mind, found herself in the past and triggered a short Backslide.  She only went back to Sunday morning, when she was in bed with Paul.  She needed to discuss with him what had happened so they could jointly decide how to proceed.  She didn't want to go back far enough to prevent the accident.  They had worked so hard for that goal.  Hopefully there would be some other way to salvage this operation.

"They came to your company?" Paul asked sharply, sitting up suddenly in bed when Natalie told him what would happen in a couple of days.  "Tell me what happened."

Natalie reviewed events as best she knew them.

"They didn't appear to take any action in response to the two retired agents that you had attacked," she explained.  "You called me and told me they had been taken to the hospital.  As far as I know, they didn't attempt to unravel that event."

"Perhaps they didn't have time?" Paul suggested.

"I wondered about that briefly, but then Carlson, Laney, and another agent showed up at the office."

"You are certain they didn't know about Anne?"

"Unless they were pretending.  I talked to Sam, the front desk security guard who they approached when they arrived.  He said they were shocked to learn of her death.  They told him they had come to visit her, and only after learning of her death did they reveal they were FBI agents."

"Something brought them to the facility," Paul said pondering.  "They had to know something about Anne, or they somehow discovered a link to you."

"If so, why didn't they come and question me?"

Paul shook his head.

"That is certainly curious.  Also, if they knew about Anne, why didn't they do one of your loopbacks, and warn her?"

"Maybe they can't do as much as we are assuming.  They didn't do anything about those agents either."

"Yet you were uncertain enough you said you hurried to Backslide before they could so we would be aware of their discovery."

Natalie nodded.  "I'm not sure what to think."

"Then they asked to see your CEO?" Paul asked, wanting to know the complete sequence.

"That's right.  I don't know what he told them, but they left without coming to see me, so I have to assume he didn't reveal that there were issues between us."

"Then you talked to the guard, confirmed they were looking for Anne, and then looped back to now?"

"That's right," Natalie agreed.

"So now we know they are going to come looking for something in two days.  Knowing that, how do we move forward?"

"Do you think we should go back and stop the hit on Anne?" Natalie asked.

Paul shook his head.

"Not yet.  It's important to be rid of her and what she might tell them.  Since we have some suspicions they can't go back that far, let's see what else we might do.  Perhaps the attack somehow triggered their actions.  It didn't draw out their Backslider, so we didn't learn anything.  Maybe we should avoid making that attack, and see what it changes.  If they still show up as before, then you Backslide to today again, and we'll decide what to do."