The man in charge of the Foundation scratched his chin, recognizing the probability of a connection, which almost always meant there was one. “You think someone might have been running the professor?”
“Things had been going awfully smoothly for him,” Greers suggested.
“They sometimes do without anyone’s help. By all accounts, the young man was a star.” He looked pointedly at Greers.
“Well, something seems to have put him on Fenton’s radar.”
Stenson considered the young medical resident who had just started working for Fenton. “The new resident didn’t give herself much of a mourning period, did she?”
“The walls start to close in on you pretty quickly after a loved one passes.”
Stenson was lucky. He’d never cared for anyone who’d died suddenly. He imagined that he wouldn’t take it very well. That was one reason he’d been so impressed with Jason during his background check. The young man’s fiancée had been killed by a drunk driver committing his fourth offense. Jason handled the loss stoically, which contributed to his being hired at the Foundation. Stenson had the offender killed as a little signing bonus for his new hire. To this day, Stenson had never acknowledged the deed.
He pieced the day’s events together. “So she comes up for air, and decides to go to the office. But, as soon as she gets there, she does something that might end her career with Fenton. Why would she risk her dream job?”
“I’ve come up with several scenarios, but each involves Edward Parks successfully demonstrating the echo box. I believe he played something for her.”
Stenson folded his arms behind his head. “What could she have heard that would make her want to risk everything?”
“The only way to answer that is to listen to the device for ourselves.”
“That would kill two birds with one stone, wouldn’t it?” Proving the box worked, and hearing what Skylar had heard.
“I believe the fact that she took Eddie Parks and his device off Harmony House grounds proves that the echo box is now functional.”
Stenson shook his head in disagreement. “Edward Parks is known to have extraordinary hearing. He could have overheard something, which he then told the doctor. She could have taken Edward and his device to use as leverage.”
Jason nodded. “Dangerous game. She has no idea what Fenton’s capable of.”
“She will soon enough.”
Jason returned to the previous matter. “What do you want to do about the nurse?”
“What concerns me is how losing his mother might affect her son, Cornell.” Gloria Pruitt’s son was the X factor. While Bob Stenson still considered the echo box a long shot, he saw Cornell as a sure thing. He believed with complete confidence that Cornell could be the next great African American leader of the country.
That is, if the American Heritage Foundation had anything to do with it.
“She’s all the family he has.”
Stenson didn’t care about the family issue. Strategically, anyway. “It could be an opportunity to bring a handler into his life.”
Jason knew he meant a woman they controlled. “He isn’t ready to settle down yet. He has too many oats to sow.”
Stenson grinned slightly. “Yes, he does, doesn’t he?” The man in charge of the American Heritage Foundation admired Cornell’s prowess with women. Every great leader possessed it.
“I believe it’s too soon to introduce ourselves to him directly.”
“He doesn’t have enough skeletons in his closet.”
“Perhaps it’s time we put some there.”
Stenson immediately liked this idea. Liked it a lot. “Nothing too major, but something with enough gravitas that it would tarnish his otherwise-sterling reputation if it ever got out.”
Jason jotted down a quick note. “Without the mother as our conduit, this could get messy.”
“I don’t like messy.”
“Then the matter of intervention on her behalf is settled.”
The boss nodded. “Send a team. Have them follow Ms. Pruitt home from Harmony House. Barnes might become impatient and act the moment she’s off the grounds. They are to shield her from any knowledge of the threat, if possible.”
Jason nodded, jotting down more notes. “Any preference who we use?”
“Get the baseball fans. The National League East guys. They shouldn’t be more than a couple hours’ drive.”
“You do realize we could be stirring up a hornets’ nest. There’s no telling how Barnes will react when his people don’t return.”
Bob Stenson stared directly at the subordinate he viewed as a younger version of himself. “I’m of the opinion that Mr. Barnes is requiring more of our attention than he deserves.” It was clear that Stenson had something in mind.
“I agree.” His promising young lieutenant didn’t yet know what his boss was thinking, but he was about to.
Stenson gave him a hint. “What do you do when a pit bull turns rabid?”
“You put him down.” Jason now understood.
Stenson looked out the window, reflecting. “The most elegant solutions are always the simplest, aren’t they?”
CHAPTER 37
I-295 South, Throgs Neck Bridge, May 27, 12:17 p.m.
Skylar and Eddie drove over the East River from the Bronx toward Queens on the Throgs Neck Bridge and then finally found their destination on Jamaica Avenue. Skylar parked in front of Red’s, then quickly got out and checked to see if anyone had followed them. She didn’t see anyone. She had no idea that the transmitter in her wheel well and the one inside her phone were broadcasting their location loud and clear.
Eddie got out of the passenger’s seat and closed his eyes, slowly rotating his head from side to side. He didn’t realize he was standing in the middle of the street until an oncoming car just barely avoided hitting him. HONK! The driver yelled out his window at the top of his lungs, “Freakin’ moron! Get outta the road!”
Eddie panicked and started slapping himself. “Freakin’ moron! Freakin’ moron!”
He was on his fourth refrain by the time Skylar reached him. She gripped him firmly, holding his arms tightly until the fight left him, as Gloria would have said. “It’s okay. Just take a few deep breaths.”
He did so, then said, “I don’t like it here. I want to go back to my room.”
“We can’t do that just yet. I need to speak with Detective McHenry for a few minutes.”
“How many is a few?”
“I can’t give you an accurate estimate until we see how this goes.”
“Until we see how what goes?”
“My conversation with the detective. I want you to play for him what you played for me in Dr. Fenton’s office. Would you do that, Eddie?”
He furrowed his brow and exhaled audibly, because that was what he’d seen people do when they acquiesced reluctantly. “Yes, I would do that.”
She popped open the trunk and took the laptop supercomputer. Eddie took the echo box. Together, they approached the entrance.
“What is Red’s, Skylar?”
“It’s a sports bar.”
“What’s a sports bar?”
“A place for guys with nothing better to do.”
They entered, walking down the half flight of stairs to the main floor. Eddie grimaced at the cacophony. Four different sports broadcasts fought with a dozen different conversations and a jukebox playing distorted Bob Seger. The oversized proprietor immediately moved toward the two strangers in his bar. Red addressed Skylar. “What’s wrong with your friend?”
“I have been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, which falls within the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum.”
Red looked like he’d just heard Mandarin. Skylar translated. “It’s too loud for him in here.”
“Why’d you bring him, then?”
“We’re looking for Detective Butler McHenry.” Red eyed her suspiciously. She added, “He’s expecting us.”
After a moment, he motioned down the bar. “He’s the ugly guy who looks like an asshole.”