Disappearance (25 page)

After a while she sat up. Mikki was standing by the window.

"There was a certain stretch, back when I was a sophomore at UCLA, when mother was worried to death we were going to lose everything," she recalled.

Mikki turned from the window to look at her.

"She whined and rambled about the company but I paid little attention to such matters at the time.   After a while it went away but the reason I recall it was that she warned me time and again that I
may have to give up the Mustang convertible she had given me.   I, of course, wouldn't hear of it, and fortunately then, I got to keep my car, but if I was to guess right off the top of my head, I would wager that at that time my father's company was in as much trouble as any that I can recall.”

"What year was that?"

"1982.”

"That would make it about two years before Karen came to Israel.”

Lisa nodded looking perplexed. Something was amiss.

"Could we find out what happened to the company back then and how he managed to recover?"  Mikki insisted, sounding noticeably less certain.

"That's a considerable time difference, Mikki," Lisa remarked, "we may be climbing up the wrong tree.”

"Things may have evolved.  Who knows, I still say the most logical motive has to do with the company.”

Lisa eyed him sympathetically. "I wouldn't dismiss it offhand but there certainly could have been other motives.”

"Such as?"
Mikki asked, sounding hurt.

"Who knows what goes on inside a madman's head?" Lisa said. "He could have done it just to hurt my mother or he could belong to a secret cult or..."   She stopped, realizing that she had begun recounting the numerous phantasms that have plagued  her  mind  since  she  learned  he  may  have  been involved.   There were none of them pretty and she did not wish to share them with anyone.

Mikki was still unconvinced.  "Your father may be evil but he is no madman.  He seems an extremely calculating person who I personally cannot fathom going to such extremes for pure revenge or to please some secret cult.”

"Why don't we take it one step at a time instead of trying to solve the whole thing at once," Lisa said, annoyed at his conviction. "I may be able to come up with something once I get inside his office.”

"The point I'm trying to make, Lisa, is that if you go back there with some direction, you will have a better idea of what to look for.  Going in blind may be a waste of time.  We need to try and search for some reasonable path to follow.  I still believe the key is in the company; possibly that trouble period of 82.”

-------

Doris waited for her by the gate and escorted her to the visitor parking slots.  It was a sunny morning charged with gusty Santa Ana winds that chased them into the sheltered PhotonTek lobby.  Lisa gave up her driver's license again for a visitor’s badge and followed Doris to the elevator.   They descended two floors and stepped out to meet George W. Perry, PhotonTek's Vice President for Manufacturing and Production, as was distinctly inscribed in gold on a silky white business card.   Doris excused herself and Lisa followed the distinguished executive down the corridor to his office.

After settling into a comfortable leather chair in front of his large desk with the morning coffee aroma filling the room, they began to chat.  The initial polite small talk elaborated on general business issues with Lisa providing insight on the intricate world of speculative finance and Perry filling her in on high tech enterprise.

Eventually they turned to the business at hand and Lisa read off a list of questions she had prepared in advance.  Perry was polite and helpful and he quickly and rather easily provided answers.

Then she asked him for a tour of the production floor and he tactfully refused. It made her curious. She realized he was the only top management person not introduced to her the first time around and she wondered whether he was purposely overlooked.

"I regret to say that at this time the production facility is off limits to all visitors. I would need direct permission from your father and I cannot presume that I would get it.  He’s been adamant from the start of this project that no one be allowed in.”

"Can you tell me anything about this project and how it impacts the company?  So far I've been shown only bits and pieces and I can't quite get a grasp on how it all fits together.”

Perry chuckled and sat back.   "Impact on the company you say?   This project is the company!  We've dropped most of our other lines.  Everything else is supporting cast.  If it wasn't for this project, we all would have been unemployed years ago.”

Lisa was suddenly very alert.  Mikki may have been right.

"I can't say much, Lisa," Perry went on. "I can only tell you that it's a very large defense contract on the verge of completion with the potential  to bring in  hundreds  of millions of dollars to the company.”

"How long have you been at it?"

"Oh, let's see... " he began, clearing his throat and rolling his eyes to the ceiling, obviously having answered this question a few times before.  "Development started about five years ago, we've had some successful tests with our proto-types, and we should be starting production any time now.”

"Why did you drop your other lines?"  Lisa asked, having gotten her timeframe question answered, but wanting to conceal her true objective and learn whatever else she could.

"The simple answer would be that they were losing money. The reason they were losing money had to do with royalty payments that were sucking out the profits we were making. We had to shut down all lines that owed these royalties.”

"Will you owe royalties on the products developed for this new project?"

"Not necessarily but even if we did, these royalties had been included in our cost, something that was not done in previous projects.”

"How many more years are left on the patents?" Lisa asked, having encountered a similar issue on one of Eckert's assignments.

“About ten years but the royalties on these new laser types are considerably lower than on those we owed in other projects.”

The phone on his desk rang.   He
picked  it  up  instantly, listened for a few seconds and slammed down the receiver, anxiously springing off his chair.

"I'm needed on the production floor," he said irritably. "Why don't I have my secretary walk you to Doris's
office."  He pressed the intercom and called her in.  Lisa took a last sip from her coffee and got up.  She shook his hand, thanked him warmly and followed his secretary out the door.

-------

Doris was not at her desk and Lisa asked to be shown to the restrooms.  Eve, Perry's silver haired, grandmotherly secretary, went to look for her while Lisa relieved herself.   When she was done neither secretary were there to escort her back to the office so she casually found the way back herself.

She found the door to her father's office locked so she quickly rounded Doris's desk and began inspecting her drawers.  The top left drawer produced an itinerary of her father's planned Washington DC trip and under it the itinerary for his Paris trip.  Lisa scrambled for a pen and a piece of paper and jotted down dates, airlines, flight numbers and hotel reservations.

The two left bottom drawers were filled with neatly folded expense reports and various accounting material.   The top right drawer was filled with standard office supplies.  The next drawer housed a stack of letterhead, memo and writing pads. She found the set of spare keys in the bottom drawer.  They were kept in a clear plastic box and to Lisa's relief, they were marked.  She took the key marked "Glass" and rushed to his door.

She quickly unlocked the door, slipped in, and locked herself in.  Pulse racing and short of breath, she flicked on the lights, rushed to his desk and began a thorough search of his drawers.   To her dismay, all but the two top drawers were locked.  The top left drawer
was essentially empty with some memo pads, fax paper and PhotonTek letterhead.  The top right drawer held miscellaneous notepads scribbled with her father's handwriting. She began flipping through them but found the random gibberish too confusing to mean anything.

She  sighed  and  sat  back  in  his  chair  her  eyes  casually surveying the top of the huge desk when she suddenly felt her blood turn to ice.  Leaping out of the chair she snatched her mother's photo and inspected it closely.  Attached to the gold frame, squarely encompassing the photo was a thin gold bracelet that would have normally been difficult to distinguish from the gold background but for a certain angle, which reflected light.  As she examined the bracelet, she felt a sense of mounting fear and anticipation
engulf her body. She shuddered.  The photo wavered in her hands.  There was hardly a doubt.  It belonged to Karen.  She had given it to her for her high school graduation.   Karen had several gold bracelets and so did her mother, but Lisa was certain this was one she had taken with her to Israel.  Before she could fully comprehend what she was seeing, she heard footsteps and voices in the outer office.  She put down the photo  and rushed to the door intending to kill the lights.

She was too late.  She stopped short and held her breath.  The door handle was pushed down and jerked a few times.  She felt her heart in her mouth.

"She was here just a few minutes ago," she heard a voice say as the door handle was eased free.

"Well, she's neither here nor there," the other was saying in a strained voice
,  from  just  the  other  side  of  the  two-inch thick wooden door. "Shall we call security?"

There was a moment of confused silence and Lisa could envisage the two women standing there, unable to decide. She was their responsibility and it wasn't hard to guess they were evaluating the price they could pay for their negligence.

Finally Doris said: "Eve, why don't you go back and check your office again, I'll check  these  corridors.   Maybe she went in another office by mistake.   Let's meet back here in five minutes, if we can't find her then, we'll call security.”

Lisa forced herself to wait and let the
secretaries move a little ways, praying no one else would appear.  When the footsteps dissipated, she unlocked the door pulling out the key and in one swift motion stepped out and shut the door behind her. The outer office was empty.  She quickly turned, fussing to get the key in the lock, turned it and ran to put it back in its place.

Doris entered the office a moment later.

"Oh, there you are," she said sounding quite irritated.   "We were worried about you. Where did you go?"

"I bumped into someone in the hall and we talked for a while; why, what's wrong?"

Though her voice sounded irritated, Lisa noticed relief in the secretary's expression as she took her position back behind her desk.

"I'm not supposed to let you roam around here without supervision," she lectured. "Who did you meet?"

"Oh, some guy.  He was a great help.  We talked about a few technical matters I wasn't certain about.   I came right back once we were done.”

Eve came in, looking relieved to see Lisa as well.  She smiled forgivingly. "Can't leave you alone for a second, child
.` You're too quick for us older folks.”

"Sorry I caused a fuss," Lisa said in a juvenile tone.

"Oh, it's no big fuss Lisa," Doris  said,  dismissing the comment a little too quickly, "just keep with us from now on.”

Lisa nodded apologetically, glancing from the corner of her eye at the light coming through the crack under the door of her father's office, pondering anxiously over the bracelet glued to her mother's photo.

CHAPTER 26

Mikki's connecting flight from St. Louis landed in Washington late Sunday afternoon.  It was dark by the time he had checked in at the Crystal City Marriot and had gone up to his room which he found to be large and comfortable. He took a long hot shower then stretched out on the king-size bed and began flipping cable channels.

After an hour of mindless channel hopping he got dressed and went out.   His room, as per his request, was on the second floor, so he had no trouble hopping down two flights to the main lobby.  He would avoid using the elevator the entire visit, careful not to bump into the man he was following.  He strolled through the lobby looking for a place to fill his now famished stomach.

He spotted the local sports bar and cautiously wandered in, quickly surveying the room for a familiar face.   He doubted that an unsuspecting person, even one that had met him once, quite a long time ago, would notice him in a semi-darkened bar where most eyes focused on the ongoing ball games occupying the numerous TV screens.  Nevertheless, he had to be careful.  He chose a corner table away from the entrance and ordered a drink.

Later he ordered a large hamburger with fries and chewed on it while trying to figure out the odd game the Americans called football.    In his country, football was played with the feet and a round ball and the only break in the action was half time.

He was half a way through his burger when Paul Glass walked in accompanied by another man.  The two looked around hesitantly for a moment, then climbed on tall round stools by the rectangular bar and ordered drinks.  Mikki slowly eased himself from under the bulb over his table so as to be more obscured by darkness.   He was positioned almost directly behind the two but he could see their profiles clearly as they engaged in earnest conversation.

He was seeing Glass for the first time in more than three years, and even with the limited bar illumination he noticed the drastic change in the man; the wrinkled face, the unsettled look, the frantic gestures; the thirst for alcohol.  His looks and demeanor projected distress.  He no longer looked the intimidating figure who had once bullied him.  He watched the two carefully. The other man seemed to be the one in control, his white hair and hawk-like features giving him an aura of authority over the overly animated Glass.

Sabrina, the wide eyed, long-legged waitress came by to clear away his meal.  He ordered a cappuccino and cheesecake for dessert and watched her as she gracefully slid among the now crazed bar crowd who were cheering on their favored teams.

He tried to imagine a cheerful Karen sitting across from him, but his vague image of her kept shifting to her sister Lisa. Lately he has begun to notice that his memory of Karen merged more and more with that of her sister.  It annoyed him somewhat, thinking that he needed to maintain a sense of loyalty, but he couldn't help it, having spent so much time with Lisa, whom he’d grown to like and - at moments - even fancy. He could no longer recall how Karen reacted in certain situations and his mind would intuitively wander to envisage Lisa.

He thought back to the astonishing news about the bracelet she had found in her father's office.  Lisa was certain Karen had worn it on her trip to Israel. He wondered if that was a sort of memento Glass was keeping as a proof his daughter was alive.  It was certainly a vital bit of information that added testimony to their suspicion but provided little comfort to Lisa who had to confront the horrible reality of her father's betrayal. It hurt him to see her suffer so.  At those instants he was completely at a loss in her presence, just as he was with Karen, wanting to help, but uncertain of how to go about it. He sometimes felt the urge to hold her but could not bring himself to do it for fear that it would go beyond the harmless and into something more significant and intimate.  He did not fully trust himself and was uncertain of how Lisa would react. The last thing in the world he wanted was to have their relationship tainted.

They had, in his eyes, been quite intimate regardless.  In the two weeks they had been knotted together, trying to make sense of the mystery, they had spent hours alone in his room at the inn sorting out the information they had gathered, discussing their prospects, planning ahead, and constantly debating.  He was charmed by her wit. She did not take anything at face value and challenged his reasoning again and again. At times he fancied her and, in the intimacy of his room, thought it was mutual but it never materialized physically. Karen was still there, between them.

Sabrina came over with the check.

"When do you get off?" he asked boldly, surprising himself.

As she looked him over, he noticed her breasts heaving at him
from under a white tee shirt, cupped in a brassier at least two sizes too small.   She had a pretty face with a tiny nose, big dark eyes, short dark hair, and legs to spare.

"Two in the morning," she answered, placing her elbows on his table.

"Can I wait for you?" he asked. It was just past midnight. 

"You may but I don't see what you intend to accomplish.”

"I could use a little company. You seem friendly.”

"I am friendly…" she said in a southern accent, "and you seem quite a decent fellow, but I have a policy not to fraternize with any of my customers.  I would be asking for trouble if I ever broke this rule.”

His urge was subsiding. 

"You're right," he said taking some bills from his pocket, "I probably am not the first to ask you and certainly won't be the last. I would have the same philosophy if I was you. I apologize.”

She smiled and took the bills from him.  When she came back with the change she bent over and whispered in his ear.  "Thanks for not making a fuss," she said,. "Others have been pretty rude at times.”

She wandered away.

Mikki glanced over at Glass and his companion who were still engrossed in conversation.   He noticed they were the only ones oblivious to the football game.   The bartender was servicing their empty glasses continually, but they seemed unaffected by the alcohol. His thoughts went back to Lisa and Karen and to the pain this man at the bar had inflicted on them with his betrayal.  He thought of his own father and his own awkward relationship with him.  He had occasionally criticized his parents for what appeared to him to be blatant neglect of him and his brother.   But that, as had often been reasoned, could be attributed to the unique way of life on the Kibbutz. Parents were just not expected to tend to their children as much as they would in the city.  But whatever impairments he had ever suffered from his parents, intentionally or not, they were a far cry from the damage the two girls were suffering and would forever suffer.

The white haired man suddenly stood.  He threw some bills on the bar and the two headed for the exit.  Just then came a roar from the bar crowd as one of the teams scored.  Mikki slid off his stool and followed the two men.  They walked out the bar, oblivious to the excitement, heading to the reception counter.   Mikki walked casually behind them, slowing down just enough to hear them order a taxi.  He walked to the end of the lobby, stopped and looked back.  
Glass and his companion were standing by the revolving exit doors.  He turned and headed back in their direction, circling slightly around the lobby.  He reached a couch on the opposite side of the revolving doors and sat, his back to the two men, straining to hear their conversation.

"… Have your secretary reserve tickets to New York; I'll reserve a room for you at the Summit.”

"I'd hate to lose a day at the factory but I guess it'll have to do," said the other, who Mikki immediately recognized as Glass.

"I'll send a car to pick you up at the Summit at eight thirty," his companion was saying, "that should get you to my office by nine.  If all goes well you could be out of New York by mid-afternoon.”

"We may as well go over a few more…" Glass was saying then his voice trailed off as the two men stepped through the revolving doors.  Mikki, out of the corner of his eye, caught a glimpse of Glass trailing the white haired man out. He did not dare follow.  Remaining seated, he watched the white haired man nod to Glass a few times before disappearing into the waiting taxi.   Glass watched the departing taxi for a few seconds, and then slowly turned back to the hotel.

-------

Afraid to miss Glass, Mikki appeared at the breakfast buffet at six in the morning, filled his plate with an assortment of foods and sat down, enthusiastically digging into his plate. Glass appeared a half hour later dressed in a black suit and red tie. Mikki watched him as he nibbled at his food, periodically staring at a copy of USA TODAY he had brought with him.

The night before he had contacted Lisa in Los Angeles after making sure her father had turned in for the night.  He rang the
house, let the phone ring twice before disconnecting, then waited for her to call from a pay phone.  She was to remain at her parents as much as was reasonably plausible, claiming she wanted to spend some more time with her mother.  Her true intentions were to try and nose around her father as much as possible, hoping to further supplement the bracelet discovery and monitor his movements from within.

He filled her in on the night's events and they considered whether Mikki should continue following Glass to New York, agreeing to make the decision based on what would evolve the following day.

Glass was on his feet and ready to go fifteen minutes after having sat down.  Mikki scrambled off his seat and rushed out the dining hall through a back exit, having signed for his meal in advance.  He almost bumped into Glass in the lobby but managed to avoid him and beat him out the door.  He quickly honed in on an attendant who signaled for a taxi, keeping his back to the hotel entrance, afraid to be recognized.    He stole a glance over his shoulder once inside the taxi, expecting to see Glass eyeing him, but Glass was not yet out the door. Mikki asked the driver to circle the hotel entrance roundabout and park so he had a clear view of the lobby and exit.   He began to worry as Glass was nowhere to be seen inside the lobby or out, but after a few minutes he appeared out the revolving doors carrying a brown briefcase, signaling for a taxi.

Mikki took out a fifty dollar bill and handed the taxi driver.

"Follow that cab and you'll get its twin brother," he said.

The taxi driver proceeded as requested without uttering a word.  It was a slow ride and Mikki was able to follow the path on a map of Washington DC he had purchased at the reception.  They maneuvered out of Crystal City crossing the Potomac at the Arlington Memorial Bridge.  The tip of the Washington Monument looked to be at the center of the rising sun as the rush hour traffic sluggishly crossed the river.  He watched the driver maneuver his taxi in and out of traffic, keeping some distance behind the vehicle he was following. It was the first time Mikki had ever attempted to tail another car but the taxi driver seemed to handle the task quite skillfully as if he had done before.

Mikki was charmed by the well-groomed city with its gardens and parks well dispersed among its cosmopolitan structures. Unlike Los Angeles or New York, the roads blended well within the natural vegetation, the changing colors of autumn adding to the refreshing ambience. Driving along the Potomac made him feel as though they were somewhere out in the country, far and away from a cluttered metropolis.

They reached New Hampshire then veered to the left to Swann Street and stopped in front of a large office complex. Mikki handed the driver the other
fifty  but remained in the vehicle until Glass left his taxi and disappeared in one of the entrances.

The complex was a five-storey glass structure with three entrances facing the street.  Glass had entered through the far entrance and Mikki had to hurry to catch up.  He reached the entrance and was about to charge in but stopped short, eyeing the security people behind the glass doors and continued walking down the street.  Half a block away he stopped, then walked back, passing the entrance once again, this time paying attention to the name on the its doors. Inscribed in red was 'Matlock Defense Company, Inc.' with 'Corporate Offices' underneath.

He continued walking past the entrance.

The middle entrance had the name 'Synergy Computer Systems' inscribed in blue, and there was no security activity there.  The third entrance was a restaurant.  Mikki entered Synergy Computer Systems.  An elderly woman sat behind the reception counter answering phones.

"I may have the wrong address but is this company associated with the one over there?"  he asked, pointing at the Matlock entrance.

"None whatsoever," the receptionist smiled, "we're in computers.”

"Do you occupy this entire section?" he asked, pointing up. "We sure do," she answered with obvious pride, "we have five floors of computer equipment in this facility.”

"And they occupy that section?" he asked, pointing toward Matlock again.

"I guess they do," she answered, and quickly answered an incoming call.

"What about that section?" he asked and pointed toward the third entrance, when she was done directing the call.

"Oh, that's a restaurant.  It occupies two floors.  The rest is rent space I believe, if that's what you're looking for."   Her tone was becoming less patient and she began fussing with items on her desk, signaling that he had taken up enough of her time.