My life was over. Tuesday, I just went through the motions of continuing the investigations. I didn't know what else to do. I went to my office at NARA Systems. Simon brought me some more manuals to read. It was just busy work which was fine with me because that was all I was up for. They wouldn't be able to get me any real work until they got me on a project. That wouldn't be for a few days.

I spent most of the day in my office. The HR guy brought me more employment paper work and a few junior engineers dropped in to introduce themselves and to commiserate with me on being assigned to Simon. To say the least, he was not well liked. One female engineer would only refer to him as the sleazebag. Apparently, he was in the habit of using his position to solicit favors from the more attractive female employees. Carmella had probably been one of those employees, I thought.

I got to witness his lecherous activities first hand when I went to the break-room that morning. He was hovering over one of the young female engineering interns as she was sitting at a table looking at a company brochure and trying to enjoy her cup of coffee. Simon was behind her leaning over saying something to her while at the same time trying to see down her loose-fitting blouse. She got up crossing her arms in front of her breasts while still holding her coffee mug, she said something I didn't quite catch and walked over to the sink to wash out her mug. Simon followed her standing so close he was practically pinning her to the sink. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but even I could read her body language and it was not inviting.

I felt I had to attempt a rescue. I went up to Simon and interrupted his advances.

"Excuse me Simon, but do you know if they have made any progress on getting me access to the project yet?"

He turned and glared at me for the interruption, but by then the young intern was already making her get-a-way. He reached for her arm and said, "Remember, your performance review is coming up. You'll want to seriously consider my offer to help you."

She pulled her arm free and left without saying anything.

Simon turned back to me as if there was nothing unusual or uncomfortable about the girl's departure and said, "We are working on getting something together for you. It is going to take a few more days. I would have thought those manuals I gave you would have kept you busy for a while."

"Yeah, I haven't finished going over them. I'm just a little anxious to get started on some real work."

"We will get you something soon enough. Be patient." He looked at his watch. "I've got a meeting to get to. I'll catch up with you later."

"Okay," I said as he left. He never got back to me that day. I left work promptly at five.

That evening I went home walked Max and felt sorry for myself until bed time. Even then, I tossed and turned all night.

#

Wednesday, I began to snap out of my funk. I still had hope that Rogue would get better, that she would want to see me again. Somehow in my mind, I still felt that solving the spyware mystery would lead to getting back together with Rogue. It was all I could think of to do and I had to do something.

I decided I should do a little recon of my new work environment. The building was a two-story affair typical of the valley. My office was on the ground floor near the reception area. The reception area's ceiling extends to the top floor so you can see the second-floor landing of the main stairs that take you to most of the offices. Two hallways go from the reception area to the back of the building. In the back of the building is the lab area, a loading dock, and a service elevator to the second floor. The rest of the ground floor is conference rooms, the break room, and a couple of other small offices. All of which are off the two hallways. All the upstairs offices are on the main hallway that makes a rectangular circuit around the second floor. I planned to stay late and check out more after almost everyone had left for the day.

Simon had Sherry bring me a spec to review so I could start to familiarize myself with the project they were going to put me on, but mainly it was just to give me something to do until I could be read on to the full project and get all of the details.

What it did do was give me the opportunity to ask Sherry a few questions. She claimed not to know anything about the embezzling charges. Jerry the company's president was the one who fired her and simply told her things were not working out. She did tell me that she had worked at NARA Systems before going to First Tech. She said she left because Simon was such a sleaze bag. When Jerry fired her, she needed a job quickly and knew Simon would hire her because he still wanted to get in her pants.

Her explanations fit a scenario where someone was framing her for the embezzlement at First Tech and she was completely ignorant of the software leak I was investigating. On the other hand, her prior connection to NARA Systems meant she could have been involved with the infection of their software. The main thing in favor of her innocence was she still didn't seem that clever to me.

After Sherry left, I began going over everything I knew about the mystery. Some organization was trying to infect several major corporations with spyware. Their motives were yet to be determined, but I suspected there was something far more sinister than the typical reasons for spreading malware. Why else would they have gone to so much trouble to derail our investigations?

I had an Orient Express train load of suspects that might one way or another be involved. Anyone with connections to NARA, First Tech, and Advanced Comms was suspect. Carmella and Sherry both had been at all three companies at the time the software was infected. Either of them could be working alone, but probably had at least one accomplice. Bernard and Martin were both good candidates for accomplices. They had both seemed a little too eager to hire me for the investigation. Their eagerness could be explained by a desire to keep track of the investigations progress to make sure it didn't progress very far. From that perspective, Agent Lee could also be added to the list. It was somewhat unusual for the FBI to hire us the way he did. Also, it seemed a little suspicious he had been working on the investigation for several years and had made so little progress. And, why had he decided to follow me in Disneyland when Carmella was supposedly his primary suspect? He also did not seem to be very interested in tracking down those Vietnamese hoodlums.

I also needed to add Simon Ortiz to the accomplice list. My fast tracking was very suspicious. Unless Agent Lee was behind that too. I only had his word that he wasn't. My list was becoming quite long. I could even add Ripley to the list. He had connections to all three companies. I remember my grandmother saying, "We trust no one except thee and me, and we're keeping an eye on thee."

#

It was almost nine o'clock that evening before I'd seen enough people leave for the day to make me feel it was safe to snoop around the offices upstairs. My first stop was Simon's office. His door was closed. I knocked and no one answered. I tried the door and it was unlocked. I opened the door and was startled to see Simon sitting at his desk. I was working on my excuse for entering his office uninvited when I realized I didn't need one. He was dead. This had not been a good week for me.

If I were a more experienced investigator, I would have gone through Simon's desk and files before I dialed nine-one-one. I'm not; so, I was rushed when I did get around to it. I was terrified the police would arrive at any moment so I wasn't very thorough in my snooping. I checked his body and could find no sign of violence. Perhaps he died of a heart attack, but I didn't think so. He was propped up in a sitting position rather than slumped forward on the desk. There was some unusual bruising on his wrists. His pants weren't right either. They were not pulled up correctly. Simon was not the type to wear his pants sagging "gang" style. It was as if the pants had been pulled up while Simon was still sitting in his chair. At that time, I had no explanation for it.

I used my phone camera to take photos of the crime scene, the last four months of Simon's calendar pages and all the pages in his address book. He was clearly old school and wrote everything down in addition to, or maybe instead of, using his phone.

There was a night guard on duty at the front desk who was able to let the police in when they arrived. I realized after the fact I should have given the guard heads up on what was going on. I could hear a commotion down at the front door as the police were trying to explain their arrival. I went to the landing over the stairs and yelled down that they needed to come upstairs. As they got to the top of the stairs I realized the lead officer was Detective Visconti.

"Mr. Farley?" The detective questioned incredulously. He was as surprised to see me as I was him. "Are you the one who called us? Please tell me this is not another of your on again off again crimes.".

"Detective Visconti," I acknowledged his authority as respectfully as possible. I wanted to make him aware of the severity of the situation. "Yes, I called you and it's very serious this time. This way, please. By the way, thank you for not shooting me on sight," I added reminding him of his prior threat if he ever saw me again. He just grunted at me. I led them to Simon's office. They began examining the body immediately. The paramedics arrived shortly and told Visconti to go ahead and call the medical examiner. The medical examiner got there and ask me if I was the one who had set the body upright. I told him no, that was the way I had found it. Then after a quick cursory scan of the body he decided the death was suspicious.

"Well, well. Mr. Farley you've really escalated your activities, haven't you? Let's see, you started with abduction, then breaking and entering and now murder? This time I'm afraid the victim is not going to be able to clear you. You've got some explaining to do.".

"That may be a problem," I said. He looked at me doubtfully and I clarified, "I'm not sure what I am allowed to tell you.".

"Let me assure you," he said using his most authoritative voice, "that not only are you allowed, but in fact are required to tell me everything. That's assuming you are only a material witness and not the perpetrators of this crime. In which case you do have the right to remain silent and anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."

"I can assure you, Detective, I am not the perpetrator. I barely knew the man, but I may have some insights into this case, it is just that I can't tell you without getting the FBI's permission."

"Are you aware of the penalties for obstructing a criminal investigation?".

"If only that were the first time I've heard that question this month," I sighed. "I really want to cooperate detective, there is just one thing I need you to do first. This is going to sound strange."

"Mr. Farley, I would expect nothing less from you."

"I need you to contact Agent Lee at the FBI before I can tell you what I know." Detective Visconti just stared at me in disbelief. I handed him one of Agent Lee's cards. Lee had told me to use it if a situation arose which might require me to violate our nondisclosure agreement. Detective Visconti took the card and examined it.

"Mr. Farley, you don't seem to be very upset by all this?" Detective Visconti said as he punched the number on the card into his cell phone.

"Detective, this year, I've lost one job for something I didn't do, I got accused of a kidnapping that wasn't, and I just found out my girlfriend is dying from cancer. The only thing that keeps me from writing a country ballad about my woes is I'm not in jail and my dog hasn't run away yet. Finding my new boss dead on my second day of work, well, that's just par for the course."

The detective held the phone to his ear for at least a dozen rings and then put it down. "Mr. Farley, I've got some good news for you. You are one step closer to that ballad you want to write. No one is answering at this number." He indicated Lee's card. "And if you don't give me some answers, I'll have to arrest you for impeding my investigation."

I sighed and held out my wrists for the handcuffs.

"Just think of this as yet another verse in your ballad" "Detective Visconti concluded as he put on the bracelets. I looked down at the cuffs and realized what had made the bruises on Simon's wrists, but there was no sign of handcuffs at the scene so the killer must have taken them.

"Can you let me call my neighbor to ask her to take care of my dog for the night?"

"Checking to see if he has run away to complete your ballad's trifecta?"

"At this point, I wouldn't blame him."

They took me to the holding cell again. Of course, there was music playing in my head. You might think Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," but it was Daniel Powter's "Bad Day." You know, "You had a bad day/ You're taking one down/ You take a sad song/ and you turn it around."

#End Chapter Twenty-one