Natalie Tyler looked through the peephole and closed her eyes as if horrified by what she saw. She took a moment to compose herself before opening the front door. “Why, Kip!”
“Hi, Natalie.” He stood awkwardly on the front porch before reaching to touch her arm, realizing some physical contact was warranted.
“And…ah…hello, Summer.” Natalie uneasily extended her hand to the nanny, who was standing next to Kip.
“Hi, Mrs. Tyler.” Summer smiled demurely. She was wearing skintight, pencil-leg jeans, a short white sweater, and white lug-soled shoes. Her large breasts raised the hem of the sweater away from her body, baring her midriff.
Natalie uneasily rubbed her hands together. “So, Kip, you’re out of jail. Good for you!” She nervously patted his shoulder.
“Yeah.” He scratched his ear. “I’m here to pick up Brianna. I hope you can still keep Stetson for now. Summer doesn’t—”
Natalie quickly turned inside the open doorway and shouted, “Joe! Joe, guess who’s here.” She smiled tentatively at Kip while she cast anxious glances inside the house. “Were there a lot of reporters waiting for you?” she asked as if she hadn’t heard his comment about Brianna.
Joe Tyler shuffled to the door in worn leather slippers. His plaid shirt was not tucked in, his chinos were wrinkled, and his hair looked as if he’d forgotten to comb it. He raised his chin to peer at Kip through the bottoms of his glasses, as if to get a sharper view. “Oh?” was all he said.
“Good to see you, Joe.” Kip extended his hand.
Joe shook it briefly, then released it as if to drop something foul.
Natalie grabbed Joe’s beefy arm with both hands. “Honey, Kip wants to pick up Brianna.”
“Where is she?” Kip asked, peering inside the house. “Isn’t she here?”
“She’s taking a nap, Kip,” Natalie said. “I don’t want to wake her. She’s not sleeping too well. She has terrible nightmares.”
“We don’t think that’s such a good idea, Kip,” Joe said. “You taking Brianna.”
Kip blinked at the ground, as if trying to digest the message. Summer grabbed a corner of her silicone-puffed lips between her teeth and looked at Kip with distress. He squinted at the Tylers. “Are you trying to keep me from my daughter?”
Natalie fluttered her hands at him. “No, no, dear. No, that’s not it at all. It’s been so hard for her, hard for all of us. Certainly you can understand, Kip. We thought she’d be better off here. Just for a few more days until you get settled. I mean, all the reporters and going back to that house… And you want us to keep Stetson, because Summer doesn’t—”
“That dog always scared me,” Summer said.
“I want to see my daughter,” Kip said emphatically, taking a step toward the door.
Joe moved into his path, blocking his way with his big body. “Kip, we don’t think that’s a good idea. Be reasonable. Just give Brianna a couple of days to get used to the idea. You’re taking her back to the house where her mother was murdered, for goodness’ sake. Think of the child’s welfare for a change.”
Kip reared back, as if the words had struck him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“We don’t mean any offense, Kip,” Joe continued. “You have to face facts.”
“I’m not leaving without my daughter.” Kip grabbed the older man and tried to move him out of the way.
Whether it was due to strength or will, Joe Tyler would not be moved. “Kip, calm down.” He held Kip away with his arms.
“Don’t hurt him!” Summer yelled.
Natalie scampered away from the men and cowered just inside the door, her trembling hands pressed against her mouth.
Kip backed up and tried to barrel past Joe, who lowered his shoulders like a linebacker. “Get ahold of yourself, man.” When Kip came running at him again, Joe lunged, tackling him and sending them both off the porch and onto the grass.
Natalie left the safety of the house and walked to the edge of the porch. “We buried our daughter yesterday, Kip.” Tears streamed down her face. “Have some compassion. You’re always so absorbed with yourself. You never think about how your actions affect anybody else. It’s always you, you, you!”
Joe slowly rose from the grass and dusted himself off. Kip remained where he had fallen and looked startled as he watched Natalie, who was uncharacteristically in a rage.
“You have the gall to bring her here.” Natalie angrily pointed at Summer. “She’s one of the reasons you and Bridget were having problems. Bridget made her move out. Now my daughter’s dead and she’s still there.”
“Someone had to watch the house,” Kip protested. “All the reporters and people—”
“See? See how you are? You don’t think! And this woman is still going to be Brianna’s nanny, am I right?”
“It’s better for Brianna to stay with someone she knows.” Kip finally got up from the ground. “I can’t stay with her. I have to get back to Pandora. I’m losing control over my company.”
“Brianna loves me,” Summer added in her little-girl voice. “Brianna spent more time with me than she did with Bridget. It was almost like she was my baby.”
“I have thought about this. I have,” Kip insisted to the appalled Tylers. “It’s the most logical solution.”
Joe rejoined his wife on the porch. Natalie’s tears had dried. Now she was pure fury. “I’ve never known a man who could be so brilliant and so stupid at the same time. For all the things you’re good at that have made you rich, you do not understand people. The simplest things about human relations escape you. People don’t work like computers, Kip.”
Kip ran both hands across his buzz-cut hair, then crossed his arms over his chest. He furrowed his brow, stared intently at the grass, and began gently pulling the hair of one of his eyebrows between his fingers over and over. Summer approached and raised her hand as if to touch him, hesitated, then dropped it by her side.
Finally, Kip looked up and said, “Okay. Brianna can stay here for a few more days, but that’s it. Don’t get any ideas about keeping her. I was always a good father. You can’t fault me for that. Okay, I’ve made mistakes—I’m the first to admit it. But I don’t think I’m making one now. I don’t like the way everyone’s treating me.”
“You should have thought of that before you…” Joe couldn’t finish the sentence.
Kip glared at his father-in-law. His chest and arms grew rigid. A deep flush moved up his face. The veins on his neck swelled. He clenched his fists. “I did not murder my wife!” He took a deep breath, as if trying to calm himself, opened his hands, and repeated more plaintively, “I did not murder my wife.”
Natalie and Joe clutched each other on the porch as they watched Kip walk away while Summer soothingly rubbed his back and murmured into his ear. They got in Kip’s Ferrari and drove off.
Toni and Iris were in Pandora’s employee lunchroom. Toni opened the refrigerator door. It was stocked with premium bottled water, fresh fruit, jars of flavored iced teas, and a variety of soft drinks. “These are all free to the employees. And we sell the sandwiches, yogurt and other stuff”—she indicated two food-vending machines against the wall—“at cost.”
A collection of bottled vitamins was on a counter. A Post-It note stuck to one advised, “Don’t forget your C. Cold season’s here!”
“This is very generous,” Iris said.
“It all contributes to making Pandora a nice place to work. Bridget realized how competitive the marketplace is for top computer programmers, graphic artists, and technical support personnel. A talented system designer from a good school can get a high salary right out of college.”
“And stock options,” Iris added.
“Exactly. Pandora’s always been able to attract good people. We’re consistently on the cutting edge of technology. The Crosses brought a certain, whatchamacallit…”
“Cachet?” Iris offered.
“Yeah, cachet to the firm. There are people out there—game fanatics, hackers—who think Kip Cross is a god. Bridget, wisely, tried to exploit the Pandora magic and create a fun, funky, and employee-oriented working environment.”
“Smart lady,” Iris said.
“Yes, she was.” Toni walked to a bank of coffeemakers including cappuccino machines and milk steamers. Shakers of nutmeg, chocolate, and cinnamon were on the counter. “Here’s our gourmet coffee bar. Want a cappuccino?”
“Not now, thanks.”
They entered a maze of cubicles inside the modified airplane hangar where the noise was loud and the atmosphere, kinetic. “This is the technical support department. The techs answer phone calls, E-mails, and faxes from users.”
The techs, all guys, none of whom looked over the age of twenty, were dressed casually in T-shirts and jeans or knee-length shorts. They sported hairstyles ranging from military buzz cuts to straight manes long enough to sit on. Body piercings abounded. Each cubicle was crowded with computers, stereos, compact discs, toys, and athletic equipment. There were also board games with rounds in progress of everything from the familiar—Scrabble and chess—to the obscure—go and shogi.
Iris commented on the abundance of basketballs, footballs, baseballs, bats, and mitts. “Appears to be an athletic group.”
“Someone’s always got a game going outside on the company basketball court or the open field next to the hangar.”
The techs were maniacally doing several things at once: talking on the phone, shouting back and forth, swiveling from keyboard to keyboard, playing several computer games at once, and darting into each other’s cubicle to execute moves on the ongoing board games. The hyperactivity was set to a sound track of blaring rock music and the clatter of gunshots, phasers, explosions, and screams.
“Lots of activity.” Iris had to almost shout over the racket.
Toni nodded, widening her enthusiastic eyes. She pointed at the raised floor they were walking on. “All the electrical and other cabling runs beneath here.” They crossed an open area and reached a set of offices located several yards away from the racket of the technical support department. “That structure houses accounting, payroll, human resources, and stuff like that.”
Everywhere Iris looked there were computers. They were as common as paper clips. Each office had at least two. Loose components were gathered like dust balls on stair steps, in corners, and shoved against walls.
They walked up a set of raw wood stairs to a large loft along one side of the hangar that held a series of offices. “The art design staff works here.” Toni knocked on a door. When there was no answer, she opened it to an office decorated with dozens of unframed drawings and paintings tacked to the walls. “This is Mick’s office. Guess he’s not in yet.”
Iris looked at her watch. “It’s one in the afternoon. When does he usually get in?”
“We crunched so hard on getting Suckers Finish Last out the door, pulling twelve- and sixteen-hour days, that everyone’s kind of taking a break.”
“Does anyone have set office hours?”
“Tech support does, because they have to be available to answer client questions, but other than that…” Toni shrugged. “Doesn’t matter when you come in or leave, as long as the work gets done.”
Toni closed the door and they continued walking down the unfinished wood catwalk. “Here’s where all the system designers, miscellaneous programmers, and software testers work.” She knocked on another door. “This is Today’s office.” When there was no response, she tried the doorknob. It was locked. “He always keeps his office locked. Hardly anyone else does.”
“Looks kind of vacant up here,” Iris commented. “I guess everyone’s relaxing after getting the last release out, like you said.”
Toni lowered her voice. “That’s part of the reason, but you should know that everyone’s freaked out about Bridget’s murder and Kip—you know, being accused and stuff.”
“Do the employees think Kip did it?”
Toni sighed and raised her eyebrows. “Yeah. Unfortunately, a lot of them do. Even Today and Mick.” She leaned against the catwalk railing and looked out across the hodgepodge assortment of structures.
“What about you?”
Toni picked at a splinter of loose wood. “I suspect it’s Kip. It’s too bad Brianna saw so little. She can’t even tell the police the murderer’s height or build or anything.”
“But she’s convinced it wasn’t her father.”
“Maybe that’s because she doesn’t want it to be her father.” Toni pulled the splinter free and tossed it over the side. “I wonder if she’ll remember more details later.”
“She might. I’m worried about her. Knowing Kip, he probably doesn’t appreciate the danger Brianna could be in. You know how clueless he can be.”
They stood quietly for a long minute. Finally, Toni said, “Are we ever going to find out absolutely who murdered B?”
“We have to,” Iris said firmly.
“You don’t really think it could have something to do with those people or groups who threatened Pandora?”
“I think we need to consider everything. At least, that’s more than the police are doing.”
“I think your conspiracy theory is far-fetched, but we can’t leave any stone unturned. I want to help.”
“Really?” Iris was heartened by the news.
Toni widened her big eyes. “I think we can crack it, Iris, if we work together.”
Iris felt energized by Toni’s offer. “I know you think it’s a crackpot idea, but let’s look at those letters the police brought back.”
“I put them in the filing cabinet in Bridget’s office. Let’s go.”
Just as Iris and Toni were about to leave, they heard something pound against the inside of Today’s office door. They were looking at each other quizzically when the door flew open and Today darted out.
“Son of a bitch!” he cursed, stopping short before he stepped on them. He wore a tie-dyed T-shirt over gray sweatpants that were cut off at the knees. Bright yellow headphones dangled from his neck. “Yikes! I didn’t know you were there.”
“What’s wrong?” Toni asked.
“That guy I just hired?” Today stomped back and forth on the catwalk, agitatedly flinging his hands in the air. “Top system designer. Resigned before he even started. Went to another game company.” He snapped his fingers and shook them. “Hasta la vista, baby.” He stormed past them and started jogging down the stairs. “This place is history.” He spastically jerked his fingers and bitterly shook his head as if carrying on an internal conversation.
Iris called after him. “Today, why do you say that? Kip’s out of jail. Pandora can move forward.”
“Kip’s out of jail,” Today sneered, looking up at her from the hangar floor ten feet below. “Yeah. That makes me feel real good, working next to Kip Cross now. Somebody give me an ashtray to lick.” He again started walking in the direction of the lunchroom.
“Please,” Iris called after him. “We need to resolve this.”
Today reluctantly stopped. “Look, Iris, I understand the spot you’re in, but this is the situation. The secret of this place was the magic, the chemistry between us. The spell’s broken. It started before Bridget’s murder. Kip got the engine for Suckers done, but he lost the spark after that. Usually, by now he’d be testing a new engine. He’d be showing us something that would blow all of us out of the room. He would have some new approach that no one ever considered.”
“Engine?” Iris naively asked.
Today shook his head with his mouth open. “Engine! A graphics engine. You’re going to run this company and you don’t even know the basics?”
Toni whispered in Iris’s ear, “I told you how impatient he is with nontechnical people. Fake it.”
“Okay,” Iris said. “So you know for a fact that Kip hasn’t started work on a new…engine.”
“Unless he’s been working on it in jail. If Pandora’s going to survive, we’ve got to get another new game out there and fast. The word on the street is that we’re dead. Yeah, we had a lot of top games in the past, but all this industry cares about is the future.”
“You can’t start work on a new game until Kip finishes the engine?” Iris ventured, not having a clue what she was talking about.
Today slapped both hands against his face, then dragged them away. “Arrggh!” He turned his back and pointed at Iris without looking at her. “I can’t talk to her, Toni. I’m not going to waste my time talking to some nontechnical know-nothing.”
Toni explained to Iris. “We could kick around some ideas for a new game, but without knowing the kind of graphics engine Kip’s going to come up with, we can’t do much. We design the game to fit the capabilities of the engine. Each of Kip’s engines has been such a dramatic departure from the one before, we can’t anticipate what it’s going to be able to do.” She leaned against the railing. “Today, maybe we could release a second version of Suckers.”
“Maybe you could kiss my ass.” He again looked at Iris. “I have one thing to say and one thing only. Take T. Duke’s offer.”
Iris was surprised. “You want to work for the Sawyer Company?”
“No!” Today bellowed. “I want to cash out my stock options. I’ve been waiting five years for my Pandora options to be worth something. T. Duke’s offering the best chance for me to get a hunk of dough for the time I invested in Pandora. The Pandora IPO’s never gonna come off. This place is going to go down the tubes, you’re going to screw up T. Duke’s offer, and I’ll never see any cash out of this deal.”
They turned when the front door opened. Mick Ha came in and walked across the long stretch of floor to where Today was standing. In one hand, he was carrying a tool chest, in the other he held the handle of an art portfolio. “What’s up?” he asked in his typically subdued way.
“I was trying to tell Iris how she should take T. Duke’s offer,” Today said.
Mick looked up at Iris on the catwalk. “I agree, Iris. Nothing personal.”
Iris looked at Toni. “What do you think?”
“I don’t think Pandora’s done. I’m looking forward to working together to take Pandora into the future in the way that Bridget envisioned. I’m really surprised at you guys and your attitude. I mean, who’s saying Pandora’s dead? Our competitors? And Iris is working on that. She’s hired a top public relations firm. I’m also surprised by your lack of loyalty to Kip, how you want to dump him when he needs us most.”
Iris picked up the ball. “And I’m surprised you would believe promises from a man who earned the nickname the Liquidator. You actually think he’ll come through with the jobs he promised you?”
Today elaborately raised his hands. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll stay with him long enough to get the dough and the stock, then I’ll bail. Hey, I’ve got ten headhunters a day calling me.”
“And you feel the same way, Mick?” Iris asked.
He nodded without saying anything.
“Did T. Duke talk specifics with you?” Iris looked down at them. “Did he tell you exactly how much he was offering for Pandora?”
Mick and Today exchanged a glance. “No,” Mick admitted.
“Let me tell you something you don’t know. After Bridget’s murder, T. Duke lowered his offer price for Pandora.”
“Lowered?” Today asked.
“He says the company is worth less. This is the guy you want to leave Pandora in the lurch for? He’s taking money from Brianna Cross. He’s profiting from Bridget’s murder. Look”— Iris rubbed her forehead as she gathered her thoughts. “Pandora is very much alive. You can honor Bridget’s memory by working to preserve it.” She clapped her hands. “Are we still a team?”
“Abso-tively!” Toni exclaimed, punctuating it with a hop.
Mick and Today looked at each other. Mick shrugged reluctantly. “Sure.” He didn’t sound convinced.
Today took his headphones from around his neck and swung them like a lariat. “Cripes. Okay. Maybe. Kip probably has one more rabbit to pull out of his hat, I guess. What the hell?”
“Great.” Iris wasn’t thrilled with their tepid enthusiasm, but it was better than their leaving. “T. Duke said he’d invited you guys up to his ranch. I guess there’s no reason to go now, right?”
“Why not?” Toni protested. “It sounded like fun.”
“Yeah,” Mick said. “I already told my wife.”
“Look, Iris,” Today said. “Let’s just see how the next few days and weeks go, okay? I’m not going to bail tomorrow, but I want to keep my options open. I don’t know how it’s going to be, working with Kip. For me, it’ll be pretty weird because I think he shot Bridget.”
“Speak of the devil…” Toni looked toward the front of the building.
Kip and Summer were standing outside the glass door, which he was rattling.
“Guess he doesn’t have his keys,” Toni said.
One of the techs spotted him and let him in.
Iris decided to set the tone and cheerfully bellowed across the floor, “Hi, Kip! Welcome back.”
“Hi, Kip!” Toni said.
“Hi, Summer,” Iris quickly added.
Kip and Summer walked over to them.
Today didn’t say anything, but just hitched his head back as a greeting.
“Hey man,” Mick said. “Summer.”
Kip surveyed the place as if determining whether anything had changed in the few days he’d been gone. “What are you guys up to?” he asked suspiciously.
Iris warmly smiled. “Toni’s been filling me in on the day-to-day operations. We were just talking about gearing up for the next Pandora release.”
Today flicked his long hair over his shoulders. “You been working on a new engine?”
Kip nodded. “Yeah. I was tossing around some ideas before…” He opened his fingers and then let his hand drop to his side. “Anyway, I sketched out some algorithms while I was in jail. That’s why I came, to get my laptop.”
Some of the techs had spotted Summer and were indiscreetly leering at her over the tops of their cubicles.
The atmosphere grew prickly. Iris again tried a dose of good cheer. “Well, it’s good to have you back, Kip.”
“Looks like everything’s rolling along without me,” Kip said. “Iris, I see you’re getting in position as the new president and CEO.”
Iris winced at Kip’s words. “That’s just temporary, Kip. My plan is to recruit a professional. Hire the best executive we can find.”
Kip grinned at her venomously. “C’mon, Iris. You always said you wanted to run your own company one day. This is your big chance. Too bad you had to do it over your dead friend’s body.”
“Kip,” Summer whispered as she put a warning hand on his arm.
“Kip!” Toni snapped. “How can you talk to Iris that way? She’s been here defending you.”
“Thanks, Toni, but I know what this is about,” Iris said. “Kip, I didn’t ask to be put in charge of Pandora. Frankly, it’s the last thing I need right now. I know you’re mad at Bridget for doing it, but don’t take it out on me.”
“I just left my in-laws. They won’t let me see my baby. They think I murdered their daughter. Is that what you guys think?” Kip looked at Today, who wouldn’t meet his gaze, then at Mick, who looked at the ground. Kip shook his head. “Freaking great.”
He turned and started walking toward the staircase that led to the loft on the other side of the hangar, with Summer following. He stopped and looked at Iris. “You’re right Iris,” he said quietly. “You’re absolutely right. You’ve supported me from the beginning and I don’t have that many friends left. I’m sorry for what I said.”
“It’s all right, Kip,” Iris said. “We’re all under a lot of stress.”
“I’m just going to get a couple of things. I might work at home for a few days.” He jogged up the stairs to the loft.
Iris turned to Toni. “Let’s get that file of letters.”
Mick started up the stairs to his office. “I’m going to work on some ideas for new monsters.”
“I need a dose of French roast, now.” Today headed for the lunchroom.
After spending a few minutes in his office, gathering up books and diskettes, Kip emerged with Summer onto the catwalk.
“Let’s go straight home, baby,” Summer said. “You’ve had a long day. You must be pretty horny, huh?”
“I haven’t thought about it, actually.”
“Maybe I can help you think about it.” Summer sidled up close to him.
“Not here!” Kip ran down the stairs and quickly crossed the floor to the front door.
Summer struggled to keep up with him.
“Murderer.” The word was uttered in a loud stage whisper, obviously intended for Kip to hear, which he did.
He spun to look at the maze of offices, cubicles, lofts, and catwalks. He didn’t see anyone.
“What is it?” Summer asked, scanning the expansive hangar.
“Who said that?” Kip demanded. He took a few steps in the direction the voice had come from. When there was no response, he angrily turned and continued to the front door.
“Murderer.”
Kip shouted, “Who said that?” He ran a few feet into the hangar and looked around, nodding wildly as if something was now clear. “So that’s the game now. That’s the game. No problem,” he shouted. “I’m good at games.”