Together Again(14)

                She swiveled in the chair to find a tall African-American man, probably in his late forties, with café au lait skin, brown eyes, a friendly open face and, she discovered when they shook hands, a good handshake.

                “Nice to meet you. Sorry Tony dragged you in here to listen to our shop talk.”

                “She’s a DA, Isiah. She loves this shit. And she might be able to connect that boarding pass with our vic. She thinks she got up close and personal with him in the airport.”

                “Actually, if it’s who I think it is, I heard him on a cell phone in Portland, we got into an argument just after we landed here, and we ran into each other again at luggage pickup when I bumped him with my suitcase.”

                “Any idea what the phone conversation was about?” Isiah asked.

                “Sounded like he was negotiating with someone, trying to sell them something. He said, ‘I know someone who’ll buy it if you won’t.’ And, ‘What’re you willing to pay me for it? I’ll call you when I hear what he has to say.’ Or something along those lines.”

                “No indication what he was selling?” Tony asked.

                “Nope. And whatever it was, I’m not sure he had it with him, unless it was small enough to fit in his briefcase.”

                “Briefcase? We didn’t find a briefcase at the scene,” Bryant said.

                “Well, he had one when he left the airport. It was sitting in front of me when I pulled my bag off the luggage belt,” Margo said. “He grabbed it and ran to the taxi stand.”

                “I’ll have someone go back and hunt through the leaves again. And what you saw confirms what we suspected — there was no car there so we assumed, unless the perp drove him, he took a cab. Been contacting taxi companies. I’ll ask about a briefcase. Maybe Jameson left it in a cab,” Bryant said. “But it’s more likely the shooter took it.”

                After she’d identified the body as her guy in the blue blazer, Margo dictated a statement, and then eavesdropped as Bryant told Tony what he’d gotten from a Microsoft contact in Redmond, Washington.

                According to the man he’d talked to, Frank Jameson had been in software development for Microsoft since he’d graduated from college. When Bryant contacted Jameson’s wife — or more accurately, he discovered, the wife from whom Jameson had recently separated — she said he had called on Wednesday to cancel a camping trip with their sons for business reasons. She added they should talk to his girlfriend for more information, and she gave him a phone number.

                The girlfriend confirmed Jameson was away on a business trip. He’d called after he arrived at his destination, although he hadn’t told her where he was. She’d tried his cell phone a number of times but it always went to voice mail. She planned to give him hell for worrying her when he returned Sunday afternoon.





Chapter 5


                Tony and Margo’s presentation was scheduled for late in the afternoon on Thursday, giving them four days to pull it together. During their brainstorming session on Sunday, Tony started off with a couple ideas he “just wanted to throw out.” When he outlined the ideas, Margo decided he just wanted to make her laugh.

                First, he suggested using the theme from the television show Law & Order as they walked to the podium, or to imitate the “chung, CHUNG” sound the show used to switch scenes when they changed speakers. She assured him they were great ideas, but unfortunately, she didn’t have time to acquire the rights for public performance and had to veto them.