Chapter 11

Linda was seated at one end of the small mahogany conference table in the Executive Conference Room. On either side of her were the four men who had controlled the daily operation of Modern Electronics, allowing Sam, who was the owner and founder, to exercise his creative talents.

Frederick Nelson was in charge of research and development. Frederick was not a designer himself, although he had a degree in electrical engineering. Frederick was an expert at detail. He seemed to know everything that was going on with each of the many projects that were currently under development. Normally a quiet man, he could be a tyrant when it came to budget overruns, or schedules that were not met. It had always rankled him that Sam, had his own budget, and worked completely outside his control.

William Stevens was in charge of finance. He was a longtime friend of Sam's, and had been Sam's roommate during their first year of college. He and his wife, Sharon, were frequent house guests in Sam and Linda's home. She knew she had his support without even asking.

John Cooper was the manufacturing guru. He was a no-nonsense man who had good people working for him, treated them well, but demanded as much from them as he did himself. He was well liked by all the people under him because he treated them fairly, even though he was a hard taskmaster.

Wayne Milton was in charge of human resources. Linda didn't know him well, but Sam had seemed to like him and trust him. Linda explained to them what had been happening. She told them about the Japanese businessmen who had tried to buy the company, and about Al being beaten by some Japanese thugs. She explained that the Japanese appeared to be after the processes for creating the new polyhedrons Sam had designed. She told them of Al's new involvement with the company, then open up the meeting for discussion.

Fred Nelson was the first to speak. "Ms. Green, I'm sorry about your husband's death, but now would be a good time for us to start to operating like a real company." He looked nervously at the other men seated around a table. "I've been kept totally in the dark about this new polyhedron your husband designed. It's time you turned those papers over to me and let me do the job I am supposed to do."

Linda looked at him coldly. "My husband was killed and my brother-in-law was badly beaten for those papers. Are you sure you want to face a similar fate?"

Nelson stubbornly held his ground. "Ms. Green, we're not even sure that what happened to your husband and brother-in-law has anything to do with the polyhedrons. I'm in charge of research and development. I'm the one who has the knowledge of the proper way to get these processes patented. Your husband was a cowboy, who wanted to do it all. It was more like a game to him. Now it's time to quit playing games and turn this process into something of will make a lot of money for the company, and consequently for every one of us around this table."

Linda worked very hard to control the anger that was boiling inside her. She looked over at Will Stevens. "How much is Fred's share of the company worth today, Will?"

Stevens looked a little uncomfortable. "I don't have an exact figure, but it would be somewhere around $1,500,000."

Linda smiled at him and asked, "If this turns out to be as big as my husband thought it would be, how much would his share be worth then?"

Stevens was very thoughtful. "It's really impossible to say. The dihedrons market is so large, if we only grabbed a small portion of it, the company would increase in value by at least 20 times. It could be as much a hundred times."

"OK, Fred, there are two ways we can go with this," and she gave him her sweetest smile. "I will buy you out, today, for what your share is worth at this moment, or you can do things the way I want them done, the way my cowboy husband wanted them done."

She waited patiently while Nelson fidgeted and looked at each of the other men at the table for support. When he finally realized he wasn't going to get any support, he turned back to Linda. "I'm sorry Ms. Green, I didn't mean to give offense. Of course we'll do things the way you want them done. It's just that I am supposed to be in charge of research and development, but I'm being left out of the loop."

Linda smiled at him, a more sincere smile this time, and reached over and took his hand. "I know how you must feel, Fred, but we have to find out what happened to my husband before I would feel safe giving you the processes." Linda looked around the table at each of the executives. "Right now, I believe that whoever has the processes is a target. I don't want any of you to suffer the same fate my husband did."

Fred Nelson was visibly shaken, and the rest of the men around a table looked decidedly uncomfortable. Linda now turned her attention to Wayne Milton. "Something's been bothering me, Wayne," she said. "The only people who knew about the polyhedrons were in this company. Someone had to leak the information to the Japanese. What kind of background checks have we done on the employees?"

Milton looked her directly in the eye. "Well, Linda, we check everyone's references and talk with previous employers, but that's about it. We've never had to be too security conscious."

Linda frowned. "Apparently we have to change that, beginning now. I would like for you to start doing background checks on all of our current employees. I do mean all employees. Start with the officers of the company, and work your way down to the cleaning people, and temporary help. I also want you to do background checks on anyone who worked here, but quit in the last two weeks. Be especially sure to check on any who have worked for foreign companies"

John Cooper had been sitting quietly, saying nothing, but it was now his turn in the spotlight. Linda didn't know a lot about him, but Sam had said he was highly competent. "Did Sam discuss the manufacturing of the new polyhedrons with you?" she asked.

John shook his head. "Not really," he said. "He asked me a few questions about the capabilities of different types of machinery, and I assumed that he was asking because of the polyhedrons. He never came right out and said so, though."

"OK, John, I'd like for you to start looking into the cost of setting up an assembly line for manufacturing dihedrons. We'll assume for the moment that the polyhedron process will be similar to the dihedron process." Linda looked at him and he nodded his agreement.

They discussed a few things about the everyday operation of the business, and Linda told them they had complete autonomy in how they ran things. She didn't want them to think she was going to stifle them. The meeting broke up shortly afterwards.

As they drove to Bonnie's apartment, Al kept a close lookout, but did not see anyone following them. Nothing in the apartment seemed amiss. Al walked around checking out the art prints on the wall, while Bonnie busied herself packing two large suitcases. She was about halfway through her packing when she called Al into the bedroom. When he got there, Bonnie was standing in the middle of the room, a pair tennis shoes in her hand. She had a strange look on her face, as though waiting expectantly for something to happen. "Al, someone's been in my apartment" she said flatly. Her eyes were roaming over the room, stopping every now and then to glance at something on her dresser or night stand.

Al moved quickly to Bonnie's side. "How do you know?" he asked softly.

"Some of the things in my drawers have been rearranged just enough that I know someone has gone through them."

Suddenly Al wished that he had brought Art's present with him. "Is anything missing?"

Bonnie shook her head. "Not that I noticed so far," she said.

"OK, finish packing as quickly as you can. We'll check over the other rooms after you've finished." He left the bedroom and started peeking into all the closets, and anyplace else he could think of where a man might hide. There was no one else there.

Bonnie finished packing and they sat the suitcases by the door. She gave a quick look through the rest of the apartment, then went into her office. She looked through her desk drawers, and then at the rack of dihedrons to the right of her monitor.

"There are three dihedrons missing from this rack," she said as she ran her index finger from left to right. "They had the information on them that I had dug up about the company's of the Japanese men who had visited the victims prior to their deaths. "

"I hate to ask this, but did you make copies?" Al asked hopefully. Bonnie's face brightened. "Yes. I have them in a safety deposit box at the bank" she grinned. Al placed a quick kiss on her cheek. "Atta girl." he grinned as he took her hand.

Al was beginning to get jumpy. "Let's get out here," he said.

They were both quiet on the trip to Al's place. When they arrived, Al placed a call to Art, while Bonnie unpacked. He told Art about the apparent break in at Bonnie's apartment.

Art didn't seem at all surprised, nor was he optimistic about finding who had done the burglary, but he promised to have someone investigate.

When Al hung up, he called Linda's parents' place, and was happy to find her there. He told her about the break in at Bonnie apartment, and she agreed to meet for breakfast the following morning so he could tell her about everything else that was going on.

Al went to his computer and quickly arranged to have $100,000 transferred from his account to Katharine Jones. He then e-mailed Hak on a secure server to tell him about the code he would be sending him later.

When Bonnie came downstairs from unpacking, she was looking depressed. Al picked up on it at once. "Put on some glad rags," he said. "Let's get out of here for a while, have a nice dinner somewhere, then maybe catch a movie or something."

Bonnie's mood brightened instantly. "That sounds great. Give me five minutes. I'll bet you I'm ready before you are." With that she was off running up the stairs to the bedroom to change.

She was in the bathroom with the door closed by the time Al reached the top of the stairs. He grabbed a sweater, a clean pair of slacks, socks, and black loafers. He was just sliding his feet into the loafers when the bathroom door opened.

When Bonnie stepped out into the bedroom area, Al was struck dumb for a moment. She was wearing an emerald green dress that clung to her body like a lover. Her long auburn hair was flowing over her shoulders. She did a slow turn in front of him, smiling like a schoolgirl getting ready for her first date.

When Al could finally get his voice back, he looked her up and down, then said, "You have to be the most beautiful woman I've never seen."

Bonnie was radiant. "Well, thank you kind sir. I've always liked this dress. It sets off my hair and eyes, but I am far from beautiful."

Al stepped forward and took her in his arms. "You haven't looked at yourself in the mirror lately then, sweetheart. I think you are ravishing, and it's what I think that matters. Are you ready to go that quickly?"

Bonnie nodded demurely, took his arm, and led him out of the apartment.

They dined on crab and lobster at a wonderful seafood restaurant close to Fisherman's Wharf. Not once during dinner, or during the walk they took along the beach, did they mention the murders, dihedrons, or even the Japanese. They were two people lost in each other. They held hands as they walked and talked about everything, and nothing. They decided to forgo going to a movie, and were home by 10:30 PM.