The Legacy: A Kimberly & Sykes Mystery Novel (4 page)

Suddenly, both doors opened. A tall, distinguished man stood in the door frame.

“Mr. Smith?” Lauren said, looking at her watch.

“So you are Mike’s daughter?” Towering over six feet tall, he was slim with a full head of grey hair, neatly trimmed in the same old-fashioned style he wore in the online picture. Adam Smith was wearing a tailored blue sports jacket and sharply creased grey trousers. His crisp white shirt was open at the collar though Lauren suspected he had a tie in his pocket. On his feet were polished Burgundy penny loafers.

“Please come in. I am sorry you were kept waiting,”

Adam Smith turned and walked ahead of her into the room. Squaring her shoulders, Lauren looked over her shoulder to make sure Sykes was following, and walked after Smith. She took two steps and stopped.

Lauren knew she was meeting with others besides Smith, Sykes had said as much. However, she was taken aback to see four sets of eyes directed at her. Four men seated at a large, oblong, dark wood table were watching her.

Smith was standing at a large antique desk in a corner of the room shuffling through a pile of papers. The desk was huge. At the right were three wood pen cases standing open to reveal an ornate pen in each. Next to the pens were three crystal inkwells, each filled with different color ink and capped with matching silver tops inlaid with Mother of Pearl. Smith looked up from his papers giving her a bemused glance. His eyes were bluer than in his online picture. There as a coldness to them that made her feel chilled. Breaking eye contact with him, she turned to look at the men at the table, none of whom had taken their eyes from her or spoken. Smith took a seat at the head of the table with the four men and Sykes past her and stood close to the wall behind Smith.

“Bertold, Arthur,” said the soft voice of the man sitting to her right. He was a slight man but with an odd build. His round shoulders morphed into an equally round back giving him the appearance of an egg with a very small head. Other than a few wisps of hair behind his ears, Arthur Bertold was about 70 years old and bald. He peered at her through milky blue cataract eyes but said nothing more.

Lauren turned her focus to the next man. He gave her a slight nod of his head, raised a bushy eyebrow, and said “Simon St. John.” St. John was dressed in a dark tailored suit and a highly starched white shirt. The collar looked firm around his neck. A crimson bow tie was perfectly tied and cast a red hue on his double chin.

“Oh, for god’s sake, let’s move this forward shall we Adam? Look, I’m Frank Daniels, and this is Maxwell Hart,” he said pointing to the last man at the table. “I don’t have all night. Because of your bloody father, we are up a creek without a paddle and I’ve got other fires I have to go and put out tonight. Let’s get this over with.”

Daniels’ ruddy complexion disappeared below the collar of his cashmere sweater and his right fist was pounding the table with each point he made.

Lauren was fighting the urge to turn and run. However, she knew if she left she would only delay the inevitable. These men meant business, and she needed to get it over and done with. Without being asked, she pulled out a chair and sat down facing the last man, Maxwell Hart. A tall black man with white, close-cropped hair, he was the only one with a smile on his face and Lauren didn’t have a clue what he found to smile about.

“Don’t mind Frankie, Ms. Kimberly. He never was one for protocol and formalities.” Maxwell Hart had a soft voice and a set of perfect white teeth. He was exquisitely dressed in a dinner jacket, white bow tie, and silk cummerbund; he too had places to go and people to see this evening.

Hart turned and addressed Smith. “Adam, why don’t you start the proceedings?”

Lauren’s brain jarred at the words. With her hands flat on the table, she moved to the edge of her seat and looked directly at Hart. “Proceedings? What proceedings? Look,” she said as she looked at the men around the table, “I don’t know who you are or what you want from me, and frankly, if your intent was to intimidate me with your summons, then bravo, you did. You seem to think I know where my father has put some things belonging to you, but I don’t. I told Mr. Smith last night, and I will tell you again: I have no idea what my father was doing, I haven’t seen him in years.” Surprised at her own outburst Lauren sat back in the chair. Her hands tightly gripped the edge of the seat to stop them from shaking. Lauren didn’t want the men to see was how scared she was.

“I’m sorry you feel intimidated Ms. Kimberly. That is not our intent. It’s all very simple,” Hart said, “we hired your father to undertake a significant project, one that is – was - top secret. Your father was working on the creation of a very special device, a device that would change our industry and put us on the leading edge of the global market. Just before your father passed away, at his request, we supplied him with some extremely valuable material to run final tests.”

Daniels interrupted. “Then he disappeared. He simply dropped out of sight. The next thing we knew, he was dead. And we can’t find our equipment or supplies.” Daniels wouldn’t look Lauren in the eye, choosing instead to examine his manicure. Lauren was puzzled to see a smile on Daniels’ face and momentarily faltered. Was this someone’s idea of a joke? What was she missing?

Smith spoke before she could say anything and Lauren’s head swiveled in his direction.

“Business is business Ms. Kimberly. Your father was a brilliant, but obviously troubled man. Do you want him to be labeled a thief, even in death? We need the prototype to get it into production – we are already losing ground at a personal cost of millions of dollars to each of us.”

“Equally important,” Bertold added, Lauren’s head spinning back to Bertold, “we need to get back the valuables we gave him to run the final tests. I won’t bore you with its value, let me just say, in real terms, it is in fact priceless.”

“Your father talked about you often. You know him, how he thought; you are the best person to help us,” St. John said with finality.

The room was silent.

“I…I…How…Look, I don’t have a clue what may father was up to, nor where he may have put your stuff. I haven’t seen or spoken to him in a long time. How can I make you hear what I am saying? Your missing property has nothing to do with me! I was not my father’s keeper! I’m sorry he took your stuff, but, I really don’t see how I can help you.”

“Bugger it! I told you he wouldn’t have talked to his daughter. I told you! Now what the fuck do we do? If we don’t get the prototype and our stones before someone else does, our business will collapse in one sorry pile, and we’ll be in big trouble,” Daniels said clearly irritated.

“Shut up Daniels!” St. John responded sharply. Daniels glowered but said nothing more.

Though he spoke in a whisper, Arthur Bertold had the attention of everyone in the room. “You, Ms. Kimberly, have a job to do. As Maxwell mentioned, it’s very simple. Find the prototype and find our stones. Do it fast. You will be well rewarded.”

“Stones? Your missing valuables are stones!”

“Don’t be so naïve Ms. Kimberly. We are in the business of mining diamonds. Your father was provided with fifteen million dollars of diamonds to run final tests on an analyzer he was developing. We want them back. As well as the prototype analyzer.”

“Are you freaking kidding me? My father was a wanna-be inventor all of his life. He never came up with one single idea that made money. You are trying to tell me that my father was the only thing between the success or failure of your mining empire!”

The room was deathly silent. Lauren could hear her heart beating and wondered if they could hear it too. Placing a hand on her chest, she closed her eyes and took a few long breaths.

“Perhaps you haven’t been in touch with your father so let me tell you what he has been doing. For the last several years, he has come up with several key inventions that have already revolutionized many aspects of mining. All over the world the industry is adopting his machinery to make drilling safer and more cost effective. The analyzer – his prototype - is most certainly a game changer. And it’s ours.” Daniels still wouldn’t look at Lauren when he spoke, but then again, she noticed he wouldn’t look at anyone. Daniels’ eyes were downcast, he shifted his gaze from left to right seemingly watching everyone out of the corner of his eye. He gave her the creeps.

The other men were looking at Lauren. She took a minute to process what Daniels had said. She tried to imagine her father as the man who had made these great strides in the last few years but she simply couldn’t put his face to the image. There must be some mistake. They were not talking about her father, they couldn’t be.

“Are you sure you’re talking about my father? Mike Kimberly? My father didn’t…my father wasn’t…” she slumped down in her chair and shook her head as though to clear it. “My father never made anything that worked!”

St. John leaned forward. “You really didn’t know your father very well did you? I assure you, he was very capable and accomplished. He was working on an analyzer that would accurately assess diamond purity out in the field. Assessing diamond quality from a drilled core sample takes a lot of time and money. Mining companies spend millions on assessments before knowing if the site is viable. Right now, it can take months to get the core sample data back. Frequently the data indicates there is no value in drilling because the returns are too low, but, as I said, we have already invested millions of dollars by then. Massive losses are incurred time and again. Once we get our analyzer into production, we will save months of time and millions of dollars a year.”

“Wow!” Lauren was incredulous.

Bertold leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “Let’s make it more worthwhile for you Ms. Kimberly. Find the prototype and our diamonds in five days and you will be well rewarded for your efforts.”

A roar of laughter burst from Daniels. “You think we should reward her for finding what her father stole from us in the first place?”

“It’s merely an incentive.”

“Well, let’s go for it then! Let’s give her an incentive! I vote we give her half a million if she can find them! Let’s throw in a couple of extra days shall we, give her a week!” Daniels couldn’t contain his laughter as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

Smith stood up quickly, tipping his chair over in the process. “Enough Frank!”

Daniels shook with quiet laughter.

Smith surveyed the room. Seemingly coming to a decision, he turned back to Lauren. “We will pay you handsomely if you can deliver the prototype and our diamonds within the week. You have already met Sykes. He will assist you. If you need anything, Sykes will make sure you get it. However, let me make one thing very clear Ms. Kimberly. If it became known that we had such a piece of equipment, and that it was missing, every megalomaniac in the world would descend on us.” He paused and looked at Daniels, who was wiping the last tears from his eyes, and then back to Lauren who was still shell-shocked. “Make no mistake Ms. Kimberly; our competitors are not as accommodating, nor as civilized as we are. For your own safety, I suggest you don’t discuss this with anyone. You have seven days.”

Lauren knew she had just been threatened. She searched for a response, anything to let Smith know she would not be intimidated, but she couldn’t find the right words.

“We are seriously going to place our fate in her hands? What the hell do we pay him for?” Daniels said pointing a finger at Sykes.

Lauren spun around to see Daniels smirk as he reached past Hart for the liquor decanter sitting on the table. She noticed for the first time Hart had a crystal glass in his hand, half-f with amber liquid.

“Lauren.” Sykes tipped his head towards the door.

Lauren wanted to get up but she couldn’t move. She clutched her bag and looked at the men sitting around her. These guys are mad, she thought.  Sykes touched her shoulder. She stood, dazed.

“Please excuse Daniels’ rudeness Sykes,” said Hart. “It has been a difficult few days and tempers are getting short. Make sure that Ms. Kimberly has everything she requires. There is a great deal at stake. Do not leave her side. Any questions?”

“And if I don’t find what you’re looking for?” Lauren said courageously.

“That isn’t an option.”

“Ms. Kimberly…this way?” Sykes waited by the door.

With a heavy heart, Lauren bowed her head and walked out of the room.

“What the hell are you playing at Daniels!” exploded Hart. Don’t mess with Sykes; he’s the best dammed man we’ve had for a long time. He’s a professional and you need to treat him as such!”

“Get a grip!  We pay the man a fortune but we are trusting Kimberly’s kid to find the prototype and diamonds? It’s a joke.”

“Yes, we need to find the diamonds, but they are the least of our troubles. What we need to do is find the damned prototype and put it into action! We’re losing market share every day and if we don’t get on top of it our investors will withdraw. We’re too close to give up. You were supposed to be watching over Kimberly, so if anyone is to blame about this situation we are in, it’s you!” Bertold fumed. “God knows why he had to drink himself into oblivion when we were so close.”

“Gentlemen,” Hart said, “whether he killed himself, or not, we have one week to find the prototype and get it to the lab. The latest core samples have arrived and must be tested before our next shareholders meeting. If the prototype works, we can get into production and get analyzers into the field as soon as they are ready. Right now, we don’t know where it is, nor if it even works. The Adshead Group are catching up fast. If we can’t stay ahead of the game we may as well all find a place to hide before our investors find out. I don’t need to remind any of you that not only is our own personal wealth at stake here, but that of our investors. We could find ourselves having to reimburse them for losses, and I, for one, can’t afford to let that happen.”

“What do you mean - whether he killed himself, or not. You have doubt’s Kimberly is dead? That’s ridiculous. Sykes identified the body.” Bertold scoffed.

“Not that he’s dead for god’s sake; that he killed himself. He was in line to be paid more money than he had ever seen in his life. Does that sound like a man who would kill himself?”

Hart moved to stand by the fireplace. “Surely I am not the only one that thinks his death was suspicious?”

“Oh come on Max, You’re not seriously suggesting someone killed him?” said Smith.

“Oh! for crying out loud! This is preposterous.” Daniels headed out the door as he added: “I’m tired, hungry, and I’ve still got a full night ahead of me.” The door closed with a bang.

For a while, Smith, Bertold, St. John, and Hart were each deep in thought. Smith broke the silence.

“Max, do you actually think Kimberly was murdered, or, are you just doing your usual ‘poke and prod’ to see what jumps out?”

“Look, Mike Kimberly was a genius when it came to inventing mining equipment. We spent five years trying to find someone who could come up with a design that would provide fast and accurate analyses right in the field. Not one person came close. And what did Kimberly do? I’ll tell you what he did: within 6 months he had it figured out. Six months! What reason would he have to kill himself? His bonus alone was worth millions.”

“True enough,” St. John said thoughtfully. “Though the bonus we were offering was enough to make anyone bend over backwards to give us results, he was the only one that was even able to get the bigger picture of what we wanted to do. But, all the same, someone with that type of genius can’t be that stable…why would anyone kill him?”

“God help us if it was the Adshead Group! They’re a bunch of ruthless bastards. We better pray that they don’t have the analyzer and are putting it in to production as we speak.”

“Even they don’t have the balls for murder.” Smith said quietly. “It doesn’t matter if he killed himself or if someone else did, what matters is that we need to find the machine and the stones, and fast. Our big concern is his daughter may not be able to help us. I think she may be telling the truth and didn’t have any contact with him.”

“Then we’re screwed.”

Four heads nodded in unison.