“Just one moment. That was Prettis and Lang, in Seattle?”
“Yes. We’re a law firm. I’m one of the partners.”
“And we’re talking about a John . . .”
“Anastole.”
“Got it. Okay, well, I’m going to have to take your number and call you back on this. You’re Ms. Lang, right? And what number are you calling from? . . .”
The premises of Microbotics Inc. were located among the space-age industrial developments and office parks north of Bellevue, just off Route 520 before Redmond. They consisted of a five-story metal-and-glass office building facing lawns, shrubbery, and the main parking lot; a laboratory block to one side; and two manufacturing units, which included stores and shipping, at the rear.
To avoid making her presence needlessly conspicuous, Vanessa drove past the visitor area in front of the main building and parked in the employees’ lot at the rear of the lab block. She had called ahead, and Andy Finnion, Microbotics’ head of security, was waiting for her. He was thickset and powerful in build, with iron gray hair cropped short above a lined, craggy face. His former background was with the city police department, which made him an invaluable accomplice to Payne’s political and quasi-legal machinations. He worked competently and inconspicuously, and asked no questions. If he had one outstanding characteristic it was loyalty. Vanessa had always treated him as one to be particularly careful with.
“How was the drive?” he greeted as he held the door for Vanessa to get out.
“Bearable, I suppose. I think the geriatrics are all out on the road already, practicing for the holidays.”
Finnion took her inside through a side entrance of the lab block and up to a room on the top floor. Martin Payne was there already, with the equipment set up ready for her.
The body-suit was a close-fitting mesh designed to stretch over skin contours, laced with a piezoelectric web that performed the two-way function of converting body movements to outgoing signals, and incoming feedback to pressure changes that would register as forces. The helmet was VR standard. A cabinet by the wall contained computing and conversion electronics, control console and screens, and a radio transmitter-receiver system connected to an antenna on the roof. In addition there was a secretary’s desk, several office chairs, and incidentals.
Vanessa ran a startup routine and went through a couple of screens of initialization. Then she checked over the body suit and tested its connections. “It should all be okay,” Payne told her. “We put it through a full run downstairs an hour ago. Phil is up in the mountains. I just talked to him on the phone.”
Vanessa nodded. She indicated a door across the room from the one through which she and Finnion had entered. “What’s in there? Can I use it to change?”
Payne pushed it open. “Just a small office. Sure, it’s empty.” Vanessa went through and closed the door. She took off her coat and hung it behind the door, then began changing out of her dress, into the body suit.
In the room outside, Payne paced across the floor and back, saying nothing. Finnion went out into the corridor and lit a cigarette.
“Ms. Lang?”
“Yes, this is Michelle Lang speaking.”
“Oh, hi. This is Dave Kollet from Homicide Investigation calling back. Sorry it took so long. I got hit by something else just after we finished talking. A guy of eighty-five, with one leg, falls off the roof. His daughter insists it couldn’t be an accident. She wants us to look into it. We get ’em all.”
“Yes, Mr. Kollet.”
“Okay, I have the case here. John Anastole, body discovered at the Ramada, March three. Now, what kind of questions did you have?”
“Well, I was interested in establishing more of the background circumstances. For example, if the door to the room was secured on the inside. Whether there were any signs of other occupancy. Perhaps damage to anything in the room. That kind of thing.”
“Uh-huh. Can I ask you, Ms. Lang, what your interest is in this case?”
“I think the best way to put it might be to say that the deceased’s death was of some financial advantage in certain quarters. I wanted to check whether there might be grounds for any suspicion.”