Page 98 - Labelle Gramercy, On the Case

Overtime

groups of questioners unformed. Kates alone had no way to upset
the balance of power—or did he?
“That would be Bendan L. Beau, vice president of application
development, and Perry Farragut, the chief information officer?”
As Labelle said the names of the department head and his second-
in-command she was studying Maisy intently. Even I could see the
manager’s mouth tighten when Beau was mentioned. He had a
reputation as a womanizer. Maisy was young and attractive enough to
be in his sights. How had Labelle known this gambit was worth
taking? Something else in the personnel files Labelle had ransacked,
no doubt. Three or four women had left the company after being
jilted by Bendan, and their exit interviews might have contained a
reference to his philandering. That meant Labelle potentially knew a
lot about the skeletons in the company closet—not just tipped
bottles of cleaning fluid. My regret for giving her access to the
network was growing, and my ignorance of what could be
cybernetically retrieved had come back to haunt me. In effect, I was
complicit in her hacking. I could not complain, and only hope that
she would not reveal the extent of her information to anyone who
could hurt me.
“Yes.”
“What is their connection to Pesado and Lejeune?”
That sounded like it came out of left field. What bearing could it
have on Vincent D. Kates strangling on his own windpipe?
Maisy chose her words carefully. This could be verified, at least
the facts. “P&L are among the top eight consulting accountant firms
in this country. Their choice for the Y2K project is well within the
guidelines TimeWarper sets for best-practice contractors. Perry’s
recommendations were followed by our steering committee after due
consideration.”
“Do you know of any other relationship between P&L and your
management?”
“No.”
That seemed like a stupid question to me. It was dawning on me
that Labelle’s idea of interrogation had little in common with the
simple-minded version one gains from television dramas. I couldn’t
believe she would waste time on lines of inquiry leading nowhere, nor
suddenly switch gears on her interviewees without purpose. Was this

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