Chapter 25
The very next day, Walter Farley came by to see us.
I was sitting at my desk, when Lori buzzed me. Christine had gone to the restroom.
“Mr. Tucker, there’s someone here to see you.”
Lori was kind of laughing, as she said it.
I clicked over to the video feed from behind her head.
There stood Walter, all grins, as he chatted with Lori.
“Send him in, Lori.”
A moment later, Walter Farley sauntered into my office.
“Whooee boy, you’ve come up in the world!”
“Hello, Walter. What can I do for you?”
“Not what you can do for me, but what I can do for you.”
“Have a seat, Walter.”
“No thanks, I’ll stand. Where’s Christine? You didn’t have to fire her too, did you? She’s a tease, but she won’t put out. Now, the little cutie you have out front is a nice touch, but she seems a little young for you.”
I couldn’t sit there with Walter standing in front of me, looking down on me.
“OK, Walter, you can sit down, or get out.”
“Whoa there, pardner, this is a friendly visit. I don’t mind sitting.”
While Walter was sitting down, I glanced at the monitor. Christine was back, casually talking to Lori at the desk.
“You know, Walter, the last time you were sitting in my office, you left a bug under the chair. I hope you don’t try the same, lame trick, again.”
“Golly, Mr. Tucker, for a busy and popular guy, you sure are grouchy. What’s the matter, not getting any?”
“You have ten seconds to get to the point, Walter, eight now, when I get to one, I’m going to throw you out. You’ve got three seconds now.”
He held up his hands.
“OK, OK! I’ve called off my watch dogs. That’s the point. I just wanted you to know I’m not having them follow you anymore.”
“What, exactly, was the purpose of that, in the first place?”
“I just wanted you to know what real surveillance feels like. I wanted you to see what resources I have at my disposal. You’re supposed to be this big shot security expert. I figured you might enjoy seeing real professionals in action.”
I looked him in the eye. There was nothing there. It was like looking into a lizard’s eyes. No, a lizard has more soul. Looking into his eyes, was like looking down, into an empty well, a deep, deep, well, containing nothing but emptiness, entombed in darkness.
“I’d have to say, I’m not impressed.”
He looked …disappointed.
“John, I have personal control over nearly two hundred security agents.”
“The one’s I’ve seen so far might make pretty fair school crossing guards, but that’s about all they’re good for.”
“Well, John, if you’d done your homework, you would have learned I personally founded the World Wide Security Agency, but, you’re not that good a detective are you?
I shrugged. “Maybe not, but once I learned you were the CEO of Strategic International Corporation, I got distracted. I decided to look into your life a little deeper. Why are you working as Mr. Simpson’s personal assistant?”
Walter looked startled for a second, and then anger clouded his features.
“Oh, John, you’ve surely put your foot in it now. I came to give you the chance to bow out gracefully, without getting hurt. I may have to re-think my position.” He growled.
“Leave now, Walter, or I can promise you won’t like where I put my foot.”
He showed his teeth in a snarl, which might have been mistaken for a smile.
“Yes, of course, if that’s the way you feel about it. Well then until we meet again…” He stood up and pointed his finger at me, as though it were a gun. “I’ll be seeing you.” He dropped his thumb.
I got up and followed him out the door into the reception area. Christine went white as a sheet, when she saw him coming out of my office.
Walter looked over at Lori and waved. “Bye, bye, cutie pie,” he winked.
“Oh, there you are, Christine! It looks like old John here has better taste in women than I thought. See you around.”
When he had left, Christine and I went back into my office to talk.
“What was he doing here?” Christine asked.
I sighed.
“I’m not sure. At first it was as if he were gloating about how smart and powerful he thinks he is. When he left, he was sort of threatening.”
“Why? What’s all this about?”
I shook my head. “I think, in his mind, he’s playing some sort of game with me. I don’t get it. I think I know what motivates him, but I don’t know why this is personal for him.”
We both sat and thought about Walter Farley for a while.
“What do I have to do to get that tongue flicking snake out of my life?” Christine asked.
“Christine, I don’t think this is about you. I don’t think he’s capable of really caring about anyone, but himself.”
“You’ve got that right,” she said.
I looked at the monitor. Lori was talking to someone on the phone. I saw her laugh.
I got the call at about 9:30 that night.
“Well, Mr. Tucker, you were right, he showed up. He rang the front door bell, and caught me flat footed. I opened the front door and there he was, big as life.”
“Mr. Murphy, are you saying Orlando Cruz was there, at your house? Are you and your wife OK?”
“Yes, we’re pretty shaken up, but we’re OK. I just didn’t think he would walk right up to the front door and ring the bell. It was as if he just showed up there to pick up his date, or deliver a pizza, or something.”
“Then what happened?”
“He saw me look at my shotgun as I was trying to shut the door, but he slammed his body into the door, and it knocked me off balance. The next thing I knew he was standing in our foyer, holding my shotgun.”
I closed my eyes, and took a long slow breath.
“He pointed the gun at my wife and told me to call Lori downstairs. I told him Lori wasn’t home, that we had sent her away. He didn’t believe me, so he forced us to go upstairs to Lori’s room. It was obvious she hadn’t been there for some time.”
“OK, did you call the police?”
“Yes, they’re here now. They’re going through the house, the yard and the neighborhood, to be sure he’s not here anymore, but he’s long gone.”
“Did Orlando ask you where she was?”
“Yes, but I lied. I told him Lori had showed up on our doorstep, looking like a tramp, and we had told her to go away. I told him we had no idea where she went. He believed me. That’s when it got scary.”
“…In what way?”
“We could see he didn’t know what to do next. He was holding the shotgun, and I think he wanted to shoot us. I’m not sure he knew how to work a semi-auto shotgun, because he never took the safety off. He finally just took off running down the stairs and out the front door. He took the shotgun with him.”
“He’s in deep grease now. He’s guilty of breaking and entering, robbery and use of a firearm in a crime, among other things. He’s on the run, and he’s armed and presumed dangerous. The cops are going to want him, real bad.”
“That’s what they said. Your friend Lieutenant Escalante is here, he’d like to speak to you.”
“Put him on.”
“J.W., these folks are safe, and ‘lover boy’ is on the run. You might want to stay vigilant for a few more days, but I think this deal is over. We’ve got an APB out on him; he won’t be able to run for long, before somebody catches him. Until then, he’ll run like a scalded cat.”
“Thanks, Tony. Let me talk to Mr. Murphy again.”
“Mr. Murphy, I just wanted you to know Lori is safe with my partner Christine. I’ll let Christine know what’s happened. We’ll talk again tomorrow.
You folks try to relax. You’ve done very well under the circumstances. I’m terribly sorry Orlando showed up, and that he broke into your house, but, again, you handled it as best you could. You can thank God, you and your wife are still alive. All is well. Good night.”
“Thank you, Mr. Tucker. Good night.”
I called Christine and gave her the news. She said she thought we ought to wait till morning to tell Lori.
We didn’t get to wait until the morning. Lori was watching TV. The story about the home invasion, the invasion of her family’s home, was on the ten o’clock news.