To her right, the Jeep was slowly moving toward the main campus.. To her left, the flashing lights of a police car were visible cresting the hill. She quickly scanned the rest of the parking lot, but there was no sign of the brown Taurus.
They were gone.
CHAPTER 31
Kevin was driven to Ted Ishio’s house, where they met a man named Vernon Francowiak. He was sickened when he saw how the house had been trashed in their search for the notebook. They waited at the house for thirty minutes, enough time for the cops to have left the commuter lot. Then the four of them returned to the university.
While Franco, as Bern had called him, waited with the car, Bern and Lobec led Kevin to Jacobson Hall’s fifth floor. With every step, he prayed that Erica had taken the diamond specimen and left.
“Here it is,” Bern said as they approached the lab. He looked at the number on the door. “This is the lab.”
“The key, Mr. Hamilton,” Lobec said, holding out his hand.
“I don’t have it.”
Lobec nodded at Bern, who patted him down more thoroughly than when they had first caught him. Kevin was almost getting used to the process.
After a minute, Bern shrugged. “He’s clean.”
“Miss Jensen must have it. No matter.” Lobec withdrew a small kit from his pocket and took out two small slivers of metal. He inserted both into the lab’s deadbolt, and within twenty seconds he twisted the handle opening the lab.
Kevin was impressed. Still, he was nervous, and he didn’t want to let them think they had him scared. He tried to lighten up the situation. “That was fast. You must get locked out of your house a lot.”
“I’m glad you can still see the humor in this, Mr. Hamilton. Mr. Bern, wait outside while we look around the laboratory.”
Followed by Lobec, who had his gun drawn, Kevin entered the lab and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was deserted. Erica’s purse was gone, and some papers were strewn on the floor near where it had been. He paid no attention to the experimental equipment, but Lobec walked directly to it.
Lobec first inspected the laser, then peered inside the chamber. “It appears that your purchase from LuminOptics was not wasted. The laser is still warm to the touch.”
Kevin’s stomach sank. Lobec realized what they had done.
“It appears Miss Jensen took the diamond with her.” Lobec turned away from the chamber and looked at Kevin. “You warned her. How?”
A grin spread across Kevin’s face. He shrugged.
“It doesn’t matter,” Lobec said. “I don’t think there’s any point in searching the laboratory. Even in her hurry, Miss Jensen wouldn’t have left the notebook. And we don’t want to dawdle in case she has called the police again. We should, however, check Mr. Ishio’s office to be sure she isn’t still here.”
A search of Ted’s office revealed nothing more than that Erica had left in a hurry. She’d still had the presence of mind to lock both doors, though the gesture had been futile.
Inside the office, Lobec looked out at the parking lot below. “I see. She observed our chase from here. Although I’m surprised it took her so long to notify the police, she certainly reacted swiftly in escaping. Curious.”
Once they were back in the Taurus, Lobec said, “I think it’s safe to assume Miss Jensen is no longer in Blacksburg.”
“What do we do now?” asked Bern from his seat beside Kevin. “She’s got the notebook.”
“Yes,” Lobec said, training his steel gray eyes on Kevin, “but we have something equally valuable.”
The Taurus headed straight to the Roanoke airport where Kevin and his three captors got on the most luxurious jet he had ever seen. His hands were cuffed behind him the entire time, but he was otherwise unrestrained. The plane trip lasted less than an hour. Even though he wasn’t sure of their final destination because the window next to him was closed, the angle of the sun through the other windows of the plane indicated a north-easterly direction. At a hanger in an airport he couldn’t identify, he was put into another car. As they exited the airport, he saw a sign confirming his suspicions. Dulles Airport, Washington.
Thirty minutes from Dulles, after a drive through lush horse farms and rolling farmland, the car turned into a long drive shielded from the afternoon sun by elms and oaks. It wound for what seemed like a mile and then the arbor opened to reveal a stunning white plantation-style mansion. The paint gleamed on the huge columns and stately frontispiece, indicating a recent restoration. Kevin noted with discomfort that his entourage had made no attempt to disguise their route or even provide him with a blindfold. He knew exactly where they were and how to get back. Which meant they intended to kill him.
Lobec took him out of the car, released his handcuffs, and led him up the front steps into a marble-floored foyer. Large doors on each side flanked a spiral staircase straight out of
“Ah!” said a man sipping an iced tea in one of the library’s wing-backed chairs. “You’re right on time as usual, David.” The man stood up, stretching to a height four inches taller than Kevin. He walked over to Kevin with his hand outstretched. “Kevin Hamilton, I’m Clayton Tarnwell,” he said with a clipped Texas twang.
Kevin ignored the hand. “So you’re Clay. What do you want?”
With a bemused look, Tarnwell dropped his hand and returned to his chair. “Please sit down while we talk, Kevin. Would you like an iced tea?”
Kevin didn’t move. “I said, what do you want, Tarnwell, if that’s your real name?”
Tarnwell looked at Lobec. “A little like me, wouldn’t you say David?” To Kevin, he said, “That’s good. I’m not much for pleasantries unless it’s to get what I want. And I think you know what I want.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Last Sunday, your goon here tried to kill me and my girlfriend, and we’ve been on the run ever since.”
“By the way, Clayton Tarnwell
Kevin remained impassive. Tarnwell arched an eyebrow and continued.
“I know that Erica Jensen paid over $10,000 for a new laser, which could definitely be used in the process I bought. You see, like you, I’m a chemist.”
“Oh, you’re like me, huh? I don’t seem to recall ever killing someone because I didn’t get what I wanted.”
“If you mean Dr. Ward, he was trying to steal from me. I saw the risks and the possibilities of his process, and I was willing to invest in it, to make it work, to put my company and reputation on the line. As thanks for my willingness to take these risks, Michael Ward stole ten million dollars from me, which by the way, I don’t think I’ll ever see again. Not only that, but the money wasn’t enough for Michael. He had to take the Adamas process, too. It was, sad to say, a tragic situation, his wife and him dying in a fire like that.”
“That was fire was no accident.”
“That’s what the news reports said.”
“Give me a break. What about Herbert Stein? What about my father?”
“Yes, Michael did think I had Herbert Stein killed, but murders are very common in Houston. As for your father, his death was tragically unnecessary, but as I understand, David and Richard were only defending themselves. You shot at them first. That’s why they had to apprehend you the way they did.”
