“Noted. Anyway, Bedford’s family… That is, if you haven’t changed your mind about wanting it all.”
He appraised her frankly. “You really should eat some pizza.”
“Pizza can wait. This is riveting,” Livvy said.
“It’s LLE,” Chris said. “Bedford’s son, Joshua, was a recluse towards the end of his life as well, although he was only 48 chrono. Joshua had one son, Jesse, who was born in ’89 and who lives with his mother. John also has a daughter, Paula, born in ‘47, who’s apparently been estranged from her father for decades. Are you following me so far?”
“Yes, John Bedford, one son, deceased, one daughter, estranged, and one grandson, living with his mother. But I still have no idea where you are going with it.”
“Neither do I, but I want you to have the relationships straight.
“As I said, Joshua died in a fire in ‘04. In his secure, fireproofed mansion. There were no signs of violence; the fire protection appears to have malfunctioned. Arson investigators said it was an electrical fire, accidental, and it happened so quickly that he and the two employees that were there at the time didn’t have a chance to escape.”
“That’s like a full cement truck delivery of bad luck,” Livvy said. “But what motive would there be for his death? Who benefited?”
“As far as I can determine, Jesse. Also, Jesse is the sole heir for his grandfather’s trillions. If it was a professional job rather than an accident, it was very professional, and yet I couldn’t find any motive other than the money.”
“You can’t suspect an 18 year-old child…?” Livvy said.
“No, I don’t,” Chris said. “Do you want me to heat up some of that pizza now?”
“Thanks, but I’ll wait until you’re done. Another beer is fine. Are we getting close?”
“Not my fault,” Chris said. “The guy has had a long life.”
“And apparently blameless, despite everyone’s impression of him. Unless he’s had issues with LLE before?”
“Not that I can find. Just a deficit of pertinent records. But there’s a new element at play. John Bedford was born in 2004.”
“Ah,” Livvy said. “That’s a twist. And two children: Joshua, and Paula. You see, I remember. That means his 100th birthday was three years ago and he’s had to start aging naturally. He’d be…” She did some quick calculations. “If he started getting resets in ’34 when they first became available to the very rich, he’d be 33 biol by now, unless he’s been getting illegal resets. From Josephson, perhaps. But he’s famous. How can he get around it in the long run? He’s too well documented.”
“I don’t know, but that’s the point. I have to believe he’ll try. I think he would hesitate at nothing. In fact, I think he’s killed once already.”
“Karen?” Livvy asked after a short pause, confused.
“No… No. This isn’t a vendetta, Hutchins. It’s just a typical case,” Chris said, narrowing his eyes at her. “Karen’s death was an accident. Do you think I wouldn’t have investigated that thoroughly, or that if I had any real suspicions that he was responsible that Bedford would still be alive?” he added matter-of-factly. “No, he would have no reason to risk that kind of exposure, except that he probably detested her as much as a man like him could detest someone of so little significance to him. I think he killed his son, Joshua. I think he arranged the fire. My problem is, I can’t even prove it wasn’t an accident.”
“But why kill his own son? He can’t need the money.”
“I don’t know why, except perhaps to hide something that Joshua found out about, or at least guessed. Perhaps something he hasn’t even done yet, that Joshua found out he was planning.”
“Chris,” Livvy said slowly, “I can’t see it. When I worked Homicide, I saw some family murders, for greed, for jealousy, and a few that were just plain insane. But this man, killing his own son in cold blood… and it doesn’t seem to fit in any plan that could benefit him. If Bedford is getting illegal resets from Josephson, is that something that Joshua would expose, or Bedford would kill him to hide? I doubt it. He’s too well known, he can’t hide it that long anyway, even as a recluse. Ten, maybe fifteen years if he’s really lucky.”
The use of Chris’ first name was enough to pull him up short. He was dealing with a man whose thought processes were largely alien to his own, and one of the reasons he wanted to talk this through with Livvy was to make sure he wasn’t missing, or imagining, anything.
“I agree. As I said, I don’t think it’s just a matter of hiding a hotlab.”
“Why now?” she asked finally. “I mean, Josephson wasn’t planning this, so that means Bedford wasn’t planning it. Like you said, sloppy. Something precipitated this urgency.”
Chris felt his shoulders relax. He hadn’t known until that minute whether she would accept what he had to say, or quite how much he was hoping she would be with him.
“You look surprised,” Livvy said. “You know, sometimes when I carry an umbrella it rains.”
Chris lifted his eyebrows. “Meaning?”
“Meaning just because you have a prejudice against the man, doesn’t mean he isn’t corrupt as a Russian politician.”
“I wish I knew,” Chris said ruefully. “There are a lot of things I don’t know, that are purely speculation.
“Maas… it’s easy enough to put it into a bitterly angry man’s head that LLE is protecting everything he would like to see destroyed. Bedford might have direct or indirect influence in CCS or other radical groups. Even fanatics can appreciate getting an extra push in the direction they naturally want to go. Money or hype, take your pick.
“Maybe up to now Josephson has just been Bedford’s practitioner, on reserve to do illegal resets when the time came. Then again, some of Josephson’s research is suspicious as well. Borderline illegal.”
“Goody, we’re at the molebiol stuff. Now I really am going to get a headache,” Livvy said, taking another swallow of beer. “But keep going. Suspicious how? I wasn’t there when you talked to that tech.”
“I’m not ready to speculate on that, other than he seemed to be working on ways to fool the tests for biol age,” Chris said, but his eyes, resting on Livvy’s face, were hooded.
“Okay,” Livvy said. “We can wait on pure speculation and stick to our guts for now. Let me follow through on LLE’s involvement, though, pretending that we know Bedford is Josephson’s patron. Once Josephson’s unexplained absence was noticed, and LLE got involved, Bedford could count on us, or I should say LLE, going to see Isabella.”
“True, and he had Maas waiting.”
“Wait, back up. How did Bedford know yesterday morning that LLE knows about Josephson, again?”
“Josephson confessed to Bedford that he was careless in his communication with the clinic staff or, knowing him, Bedford assumed he was careless, or…” Chris hesitated.
“Ah, yes, the good news. Bedford may have a rat planted in LLE somewhere,” Livvy said. “Back to that. So LLE was set up at Isabella’s and if Maas hadn’t taken a nap, we’d be dead. Well… maybe an overstatement. Maas, after all.”
“What?” Chris said.
“Never mind. Anything else I should know while I’m trying to put all the pieces together?”
“I took an LLE car back here last night after searching Josephson’s mansion. Louie wouldn’t let me get into it this morning and I found a bomb attached to the undercarriage. It was pretty crude, but it could scarcely be random. It was an attack focused on me, so I suspect Bedford knows who to target in LLE.”
“Slick, McGregor,” Livvy said, annoyed. “Does the Chief know? Were you even going to tell me? Why is he being this aggressive, anyway? What does it buy him?”
“LLE personnel are used to it. Like I said, we’ve been targets for the worst of the radicals for years. The bomb is at Forensics now, but I don’t expect to learn anything from it. Bedford can’t know anyone has connected him to Josephson already; you’re the only one who’s heard any of this. All he wants to do is slow down the investigation into Josephson’s disappearance before it leads to him – if it ever does.”
“You’ve been even busier than I thought. I repeat, were you even going to tell me? About the bomb?”
“Livvy,” Chris said, “of course I was going to tell you. Even if it’s aimed mainly at me, it puts you at risk. I just wanted to talk about Josephson and Bedford first, so that you could get a sense of the whole picture as I see it. Do you see now what you’ve gotten yourself into?”
Livvy looked a little puzzled, but shook her head as though to clear it.
“Back up. If Bedford has us killed, the Chief would just put more people on it, and get Homicide involved, and it
