Sidney hung up, got Fisher’s number from her purse in the house, went
back out to the Land Rover and dialed it. There was little chance that
Fisher would be there–he had undoubtedly taken Sidney’s warnings to
heart–but he would most likely call in for messages.
Her hands were shaking. What if Jeff had been unable to send out the
package? The vision of the gun pointed at her in the limo blasted into
her mind. Brophy and Goldman. Their heads exploding.
All over her. For a moment, in her despair, she rested her head on the
steering wheel, then picked up the phone and dialed.
The phone rang and then was answered. Sidney prepared to leave a
message on the machine when a voice said hello.
Sidney started to speak until she realized the voice on the other end
was a live one.
“Hello?” The voice said again.
Sidney hesitated and then decided to go ahead. “Jeff Fisher, please.”
“Who is this?”
“I’m… I’m a friend of his.”
“Do you know where he is? I really need to find him,” said the voice.
The hackles on the back of Sidney’s neck went up. “Who is this?”
“Sergeant Rogers of the Alexandria Police Department.”
Sidney quickly cut off the call.
The interior of Jeff Fisher’s townhouse had seen drastic changes since
Sidney Archer had been there, chief of which was that not one single
piece of computer equipment or files was left in the place. In the
middle of the day, neighbors had seen the moving truck. One of them had
even talked to the movers. Thought it was all legitimate.
Fisher hadn’t mentioned that he was moving, but the movers had been so
open about it, took their time, boxed things up, had paperwork on a
clipboard, had even taken a smoke break in the middle of the job. Only
after they had left did the neighbors get suspicious.
When Fisher’s next-door neighbor had gone inside to check on things, he
had noticed that none of the furniture was gone, only Fisher’s extensive
computer system. That’s when the police had been called.
Sergeant Rogers scratched his head. The problem was, nobody could find
Jeff Fisher. They had checked at his job, with his family up in Boston,
with his friends locally. No one had seen him in the last couple of
days. Sergeant Rogers had received another shock during his
investigation. Fisher had actually been in custody at the Alexandria
Police Station on a reckless driving charge. He’d posted bail, been
given a court date and been released. That was the last anyone
apparently had seen of Jeff Fisher. Rogers finished writing up his
report and left.
Sidney ran up the stairs and slammed and locked the bedroom door. She
grabbed the shotgun off the bed, racked the action of the weapon, backed
into the far corner and sat down on the floor, the gun pointed straight
at the door. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she shook her head in
disbelief. Oh, Gods She should never have gotten Jeff involved.
Sawyer was at his desk at the Hoover Building when Frank Hardy called.
He briefly filled Hardy in on the most recent developments, chief of
which was Sawyer’s conclusion, based on his examination of the forensics
evidence, that Sidney Archer had not killed Goldman and Brophy.
“You think it could have been Jason Archer?” Hardy asked.
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“You’re right. Too big a risk for him to come back here anyway.”
“Plus I can’t believe he’d set up his wife for the murders.” Sawyer
paused as he considered his next question. “Any word from RTG?”
“I was just about to tell you. The president, Alan Porcher, is
unavailable for comment. Big surprise there. The company’s PR person
gave the standard line vigorously denying the allegations, of course.”
“How about the CyberCom deal?”
“Well, there we finally have some good news. This latest development
with RTG has thrown CyberCom firmly into Triton’s camp.
In fact, a news conference is scheduled for later this afternoon
announcing the deal. You want to attend?”
“Maybe. Nathan Gamble should be a happy camper.”
“You got that right. I’ll leave a couple of visitor badges for the