Page 86 - Labelle Gramercy, On the Case

Overtime

Now the headache was imminent. “Yes, and I need to get a
replacement in here ASAP and get him or her up to speed. It’s
October and we aren’t quite ready. I need to make several phone calls
to head hunters, Lieutenant. TimeWarper Toys is exposed not only to
the standard corporate risks of Y2K bugs—law suits, lost business,
internal chaos—but, as a technology-based new-economy company,
we will look like fools if our own computers malfunction when
ninety-nine clicks over to double-zero.”
“Yes, I imagine the pressure is intense. According to your files,
much of this work has been outsourced to Pesado & Lejeune. They
are primarily an accounting firm, are they not?”
I wondered what relevance this could possibly have. “Of course,
that is how they got their reputation: external audits, consulting at the
highest levels. Inevitably they, like their competitors, went into MIS,
as well. Computer specialists are billed out at hourly rates at least as
high as CPA’s. We couldn’t afford to trust a project this sensitive to
our own people.”
Labelle looked up from the scrolling screen. Her eyes narrowed in
what might, in lesser mortals, have indicated a suppressed smile.
“Trust is indistinguishable from an absence of suspicion. And one
of your people was extremely sensitive. Mr. Kates suffocated, a
victim of anaphylactic shock. I recognize the name of the clinic on
several of his medical claim forms. It treats, or presents itself as
capable of treating, multiple chemical sensitivity. He had complained
before about the air quality in his work area. Judging from the
position of the body—as you reported finding it—it would appear he
was trying desperately to leave the building when he died, a building
in which he was alone.”
I was relieved to learn that nobody else was anywhere in the
vicinity. “Then it was an accident. No one else around, he suddenly
has an attack of that—that condition you named, and he chokes to
death. Don’t those electronic time-card records eliminate every other
possibility?”
“Almost.” She closed the computer and disconnected it from our
network. I would have to answer for allowing her such wide-ranging
access to TWT data. Damned computers made it impossible to
control information. She stood up, ready for me to escort her

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