“Look, Mr. Seagraves,” she said impatiently. “I’m out of a job and don’t have a lot of cash to throw around on hotels, so please let me know what’s happening.”
“I wish I knew.”
“Is it Benton Dynamics?” she asked.
“Maybe. Maybe someone else.”
“Who then?”
I shrugged again. My pulse was returning to normal.
Marisa said, “You don’t look the same as you did in your office.”
“Sorry about that,” I said, smoothing my hair with my hand and adjusting my necktie. “Well, I thought you might be in trouble.”
After a short pause in the conversation, Marisa asked, “Not that I know of. What did the other lawyers say about the case?”
“Well, I tried to settle it, and they seemed willing, but only if they get back their flash drive with all the files on it.”
“I told you already. I don’t have it.”
“I know, Marisa, I know. But that’s what they said. They described the evidence against you. Mind you, I’m not agreeing with them, just passing on what they told me, okay?”
She looked skeptical as she buttoned her plaid blazer to keep warm in the blustery wind. Marsh grasses leaned to and fro in the breeze. A green sedan slowly entered the public parking lot, but it was not the dark van.
I explained, “They have you carding into your department on the day their files were downloaded without authorization. They can place you there. The missing KEL drive was logged out in your name. Your passwords accessed the main computer system and then your password accessed the KEL drive assigned to you. The lawyers believe only you could’ve done this.”
“But I didn’t,” she pleaded.
“I know, but that’s what they’re going to tell the judge.”
“Why a judge?” she asked on the verge of being frantic. “Can’t we get this before a jury? A jury would see through all this.”
“Injunction cases are heard by judges. No jury.”
She seemed disappointed, frustrated, and ready to tell me to walk off the end of the pier.
“I didn’t take their files,” she said firmly.
“If we get the missing flash drive back to them, then maybe we can settle the case, but they said that’s the only way.”
Marisa shook her head and turned away from me. “You don’t believe me. Great, just great. My own lawyer doesn’t believe me.”
I looked closely at her, hoping to see some crack in her demeanor that would let me know that she was lying, that she had stolen the computer files, but her face showed me nothing like that. A slip in her response would not have to be exaggerated or obvious. After years of questioning witnesses on the stand, I could pick up clues from verbal answers and physical reactions. A brief glance away, a touching of the face, or the slight clenching of fists sometimes provided more of an answer than spoken words. Poker players call it a tell, but nothing in her responses led me to think she was lying. Maybe she had a talent for deceit. Or maybe she was telling the truth, as implausible as it seemed.
“I never said I didn’t believe you,” I replied. “I’m letting you know the evidence that Benton Dynamics will present against you. And they hinted that the injunction case was only the beginning.”
“What’s that mean?” she asked.
“Later there’ll be a trial for a permanent injunction, as well as a lawsuit for money damages for the theft of their research. At some point, Benton Dynamics will get a criminal prosecutor involved.”
Marisa raised her hand to her mouth, visibly shaken, apparently unsure what to say.
“We’ll fight this,” I said, trying to sound reassuring, but probably not doing a great job.
“What would you do if you were in my shoes, Mr. Seagraves?”
I did not have an immediate response for her.
Marisa said, “You know I’d settle this case, if I could. But I can’t give Benton Dynamics a KEL drive that I don’t have. We’re going to trial, aren’t we?”
I nodded solemnly. “Let me ask you one other thing. Are you familiar with a project called the Remora Shadow?”
“The what?” she asked, lowering her eyebrows.
“The Remora Shadow.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
Her bewildered response seemed genuine and credible. Not far from the docks, a crab boat bobbed up and down in the waves of the bay.
She asked, “Is that what their lawyers think I stole?”
“They told me some things about your case, but not everything. Look, we need a plan of action. I’m going to spend this weekend investigating the last day of Richard Kostas’s life. If I can figure out what happened to him, then maybe I can track down that KEL drive and get you out of all this. Come Monday, however, we’ll need to prepare for the hearing. You’re going to spend this weekend figuring out everything you can tell me about your job at Benton Dynamics, for your own sake. Okay?”
She nodded, crestfallen and seeming already defeated.
“Good,” I said. “I’ll need you in my office Monday at nine. Until then, keep your eyes open and lay low. I’ve got no idea who followed my car. Call me, if you need me.”
Marisa appeared distraught as she thanked me and walked back toward the center of town and the Cormorant Hotel. I hated leaving her like that, but there was nothing more to say right now.
The dark van was not in the parking lot or lurking in any of the connecting alleys. Walking in the afternoon sunlight toward my Plymouth Barracuda, I checked my phone and had one missed call from Sheriff Amanda Tompkins. I pressed her number on the screen.
A stern female voice said, “Hello, this is Sheriff Tompkins.”
“Sheriff, this is Bryce Seagraves calling back. I think I lost that van. Any luck with that license plate?”
The sheriff said, “I’ve been expecting you here. At this point, I guess you’re not coming in. My deputy couldn’t find any van, but he’s still out there. We did get a hit for that license plate
