Chapter 4: Open Secrets
Rigsby carefully deposited a coffee on Van Pelt's desk in anticipation of her arrival, before turning round to see Cho just shaking his head. "It was my turn." Rigsby said defensively. Cho just raised a eyebrow but kept his thoughts to himself. When was Rigsby going to accept Van Pelt had moved on?
The red head emerged from the elevator looking a bit flustered running late again, it was starting to be a habit. Craig could be very persuasive, and still in the first flush of lust Van Pelt just lost track of the time. Hastily tidying up the loose tendrils of hair, she looked gratefully at Rigsby when she saw the coffee on her desk.
"Morning Boss." Rigsby was indefatigably cheerful in the mornings. Cho barely raised his eyes in time to catch Lisbon sweeping past, just acknowledging them with a perfunctory grunt. Inevitably Cho's eyes drifted to the consultant's couch, where Patrick Jane was partaking of his tea with his usual Zen like calm.
"What did you do this time?" Cho didn't doubt the source of Lisbon's ill humour.
Jane affected a look of innocence. "Nothing in particular, anyhow it's all in hand Mashburn was perfectly understanding about the car."
"It must be serious." Rigsby looked over to Lisbon's office where their leader was re-arranging her desk.
"Why do you always have to jump to conclusions? Apart from a slightly bruised ego there was no damage done." Seeing Cho and Rigsby approaching, eager to hear about his latest exploit, Jane knew he was going to have to spill the beans.
"So why's she so mad, if Mashburn hasn't complained?" Cho grimaced at the sight of Lisbon straightening her pictures - that inevitably spelt trouble for the team.
"Pressure from above, Bertram's giving Hightower a hard time, so in turn she's giving Lisbon a hard time - and speak of the devil..." Jane tipped his cup in Hightower's direction as she passed by on her way to Lisbon's office. No response was forthcoming.
The door snapped firmly closed. Opting to remain standing to assert her authority, Hightower didn't pull her punches."I thought we had an agreement, if he so much as sneezes I want to know about it. Now I find out he's crashed one of the goddamned cars."
"May I ask how you found out Ma'am? I know for a fact Mashburn hasn't complained." Lisbon couldn't see Nita lodging a complaint without Mashburn's approval, so who had let the proverbial cat out of the bag?
"That's really not the point Agent Lisbon, it doesn't matter how they found out. I would prefer to hear it from you rather than Bertram. It made me look as if I'm not in control of the situation." Hightower hated Bertram having one up on her, but conceded it was strange how he'd got to hear about the incident first. Sometimes she wondered just who's side Bertram was on.
Lisbon averted her eyes guiltily, knowing she should have called Hightower last night. She'd heard through the grapevine that Hightower was attempting a last ditch reconciliation with her husband, and she didn't want to be the one to disturb her at home. Judging by Hightower's mood it hadn't gone well.
Hightower looked out into the bullpen her eyes inevitably settling on Jane. "Are you sure he's up to this? I know it's all part of his plan messing with people, but he just seems so wired at the moment. He has precious little sense of propriety at the best of times, but it's as if something has shutdown in him at the moment, he simply has no regard for consequences. Frankly I'm wondering whether he needs therapy."
"I disagree Ma'am. He's already made a breakthrough. If you want to solve this quickly Jane's your man. Besides Mashburn specifically asked for him." Lisbon knew full well how Jane would react to the suggestion of therapy. Besides any would be therapist would more than likely need help themselves after a session with Patrick Jane.
"Well now that you mention it, that in itself poses another problem. Mashburn can't go round picking his own investigators, when he hasn't been absolved of complicity himself." Hightower was increasingly wary of the connection between Mashburn and the SCU, what if he was orchestrating everything?
"Jane's convinced Mashburn didn't do it; although he's clearly hiding something, most likely some shady business deal. Although the killing is an inside job, we think this goes beyond some petty professional jealousy. Whoever did this tried to put the frighteners on us by buzzing us with one of the cars. " Lisbon belatedly revealed.
Hightower frowned "Why didn't you tell me this before? That puts a whole different complexion on things. I'll leave it with you for now Lisbon, but don't forget if Jane messes up it's you in the firing line."
Sensing trouble afoot, the team wisely applied themselves to the task in hand until Lisbon was ready to put in an appearance. At Lisbon's request Van Pelt had been looking into Nita Kapoor's background, and it made interesting reading.
A MBA/computer science graduate she was perfectly suited for her role at VA. A spell abroad following an early marriage, saw her taking further studies while her husband Vijay set up his business in Dubai. They were very much the golden couple, and the future looked rosy until it all came crashing down around Nita, when her husband was killed in an unexplained explosion on his power boat. By all accounts he had been sailing close to the wind with some of his activities, and the suspicion was that he had upset the wrong people.
It left Nita high and dry. Instead of looking forward to a jet setting life, she not only had to cope with the grief of her loss, but also had to make her own way in the world. On her return to the USA she buckled down to the task of forging her own career, soon catching the eye of Walter Mashburn who had no hesitation in recruiting her to his organisation.
Jane read the file with interest, it explained a lot. He could empathise all too easily with having to cope with the sudden loss of everything you held dear. Where Jane had imploded under the burden of his guilt and given in to his grief, Nita had no choice but to cope. Worse still the realisation that her husband wasn't quite the man she thought he was, must have been a devastating blow. Jane suspected her grief soon turned to anger, making her determined that she would never be dependent on anyone else again. Without the burden of guilt that held Jane back, throwing herself into work with a single-minded purpose was Nita's way of filling the emotional void. The passion that burned within her was one of ambition, as personal considerations were put to one side.
Jane ventured through to Lisbon's office and plonked himself down on her sofa, she carried on working refusing to look up from her desk. Jane smiled, ok she was going to make him work for this.
"Interesting isn't it?" Jane knew Grace had already emailed the report to Lisbon, and he was interested to see if that had altered Lisbon's perspective on Nita.
"What's interesting? The weather forecast? The news the fact that Hightower is all over me? Or the fact that someone told Bertram about your shenanigans yesterday?" There was more than a touch of self pity to her acerbic response.
"Well of course they're all interesting, especially the later. Anyhow ignoring your deliberate obfuscation, I know you've read Van Pelt's report." Jane looked expectantly at Lisbon, silently demanding a response.
"Got to hand it to Kapoor, dragging herself up from the gutter and rebuilding her life from scratch." Lisbon conceded grudgingly.
"We're all in the gutter Lisbon, but some of us are looking at the stars. Besides it's a winning combination - the tragic widow, undeniable good looks and intelligence, she was better placed than most to succeed. Take it from someone who knows." Jane commented wryly.
"Yes, but we also know that widowhood doesn't necessarily qualify you for sainthood." Lisbon added pointedly. "Anyhow it doesn't mean she's not capable of masterminding a coup."
"Oh I quite agree, she's more than capable. Why else would Walter employ her? But this still proves nothing. I'd look at her wider family to see if any of them had dealings with Mashburn, or even if there is a link between Mashburn and her husband. Find the motive, and we'll find the killer." Jane had long since overcome his attraction to tragic widows, Nita fascinated him but purely on an intellectual level.
In the mean time Rigsby had been investigating the shareholders of VA, and had discovered that after Mashburn the single largest shareholder was one Markham Shankar the software mogul. Shankar's background would make him ideally suited to challenge Mashburn, if he succeeded in galvanising the other shareholders against Walter.
Jane guessed Mashburn had chosen his investor's carefully. Someone as thorough as Mashburn wouldn't leave anything to chance, and would have enough intel on most of the smaller investors to keep them in line. Presumably he was comfortable enough with Shankar's presence, despite the fact he could be the cuckoo in the nest. Still it wouldn't do any harm to research Shankar further, Mashburn's competitive edge would no doubt make him enemies when there was a clash of egos. For all his charm, Jane knew that Mashburn was prepared to play dirty to win.
This time the interviews were being conducted in the main office block, well away from the influence of the research team. Cho would do most of the legwork with Jane and Lisbon largely observing. Lucia was first up; her disappointment was palpable when she realised Cho was fronting the interview. Lisbon had immediately noted the cloying celebrity perfume which announced her arrival, and did her best to suppress a smile at the neatly coiffed hair and faint trace of lip gloss that constituted a makeover by Lucia's standards. You didn't have to be a mentalist to work out who she was trying to impress. Feeling mildly embarrassed at being the object of her desire, Jane just gave Lucia a cursory nod of encouragement.
Cho flicked through his papers before looking up at Lucia. Jane noted that in Barker's absence Lucia was now looking to him for approval, she really had appallingly low self esteem with her constant need for approval. Cho had been well primed where to apply the pressure to follow through on Jane's theory of a cover up.
"So tell me about the different modes of operation." Cho wasted no time with small talk.
"Well there are four basic modes manual, program, test and autonomous. Manual is self explanatory, the driver has complete control of vehicle. Program mode is infinitely variable and allows remote driving of the vehicle through the user interface. In test mode the vehicle carries out predetermined sequences, allowing parametric measurements under fixed conditions, to determine the optimum settings. Accelerometers record vibration levels to determine whether the control algorithm is correctly mimicking the human driver."
Cho looked puzzled so Lucia elaborated. "A human driver will automatically take account of the passenger's comfort when cornering for example, the driver subconsciously alters their driving habits when there are passengers in the car. Algorithms have to be developed with dummy passengers in place to optimise the comfort levels in the various drive modes. Based on those, and many other algorithms the vehicle makes its own decisions in autonomous mode, it simply requires the start and end destinations to be entered and the computer works out everything in between."
"So how do you differentiate between test and program mode? " Cho wanted to make sure they understood this fully.
"In test mode the routines are predetermined, in program mode parameters can be altered." Lucia was starting to shuffle uneasily.
"So no adjustment is permissible during the test trials?" Cho's eyes bore into Lucia, his well honed interviewing skills told him Lucia was not telling them everything.
"There is a flag that write protects the vehicle in test mode preventing any further changes to the prescribed routines. The performance tests have to be approved by committee beforehand." Lucia quickly looked at Jane for reassurance, but none was forthcoming, she was on the hook and they were going to reel her in.
Gently but firmly Cho plugged away. "That must make the whole process very bureaucratic, what if you find an error in the code and need to make a change ?"
"It's supposed to go back to committee." Lucia looked down at the desk, knowing where the questioning was leading.
Jane saw it all now. "Chong overrode the safeguards didn't he? Barker didn't know – perhaps he still doesn't know?"
Lucia looked crestfallen. "Barker insisted on seeing everything, but Chong wanted to press on. I noticed the code had changed and tried to tell Barker, but he just brushed me off, didn't want to talk to me. It meant that Chong could make changes without approval."
"Who else knew about this?" Cho took over again.
"Zach was just as frustrated with Barker as Chong was, so I guess he was in on it." Lucia conceded.
"You realise the significance of this. Did anyone else know about it?" Cho searched her face, not prepared to let her go until he had extracted every last detail.
Lucia looked down nervously before glancing towards Mashburn's office.
"Mashburn knew?" Cho looked over to Jane and Lisbon. Jane didn't look particularly surprised.
Lucia shrugged noncommittally."Dr Barker does everything by the book, insists procedure is followed. Sometimes there's pressure to speed things up a bit..."
The meaning was clear to all, there was an operation within the operation. Barker's intransigence had caused people to short circuit the system, no doubt aided and abetted by Mashburn.
"So why don't they just replace Dr Barker if he's that difficult?" Cho was surprised Mashburn had let this situation fester.
"He's the best in the business at delivering a finished product, his attention to detail is second to none. Dr Barker won't sign off anything unless it's right, we have very few product recalls. Barker makes sure things are right first time. It's just if you want to try out anything new he's a stickler for protocol." What Lucia said made sense, Barker was a necessary, if irritating, counterbalance to the more creative elements.
"And no one else knows?" Cho hadn't quite finished.
Lucia glanced out at Nita and shrugged."I don't know, all I'll say is that little happens round here without Nita's say so."
Cho got Lucia to sign a statement but Jane guessed they had learned as much as they could from her.
The earnest young engineer Franklin was very much in the same mould as Barker, and did everything by the book. If there were any deviations from procedure he didn't seem to know about it.
Finally they interviewed Zach who initially tried to brazen Cho out. He shared Jane's disdain for authority figures but lacked the pizzazz to carry off the act convincingly. Cho soon cut him down to size with a few well placed questions prompted by Van Pelt's briefing beforehand.
Jane ambled over to join Cho, he had been watching Zach carefully throughout. "You're squinting a bit Zach, are you finding the lights a bit bright?"
Zach sniffed and looked suspiciously in Jane's direction.
"Of course some people claim drugs enhance their creative abilities, but I wonder what the company policy is on that?" Jane circled around Zach, intensifying the pressure.
"What the hell is he talking about?" Zach tried to ignore Jane by addressing Cho.
Cho picked up on Jane's thinking straight away. "Empty your pockets please."
Zach stood up to leave but stopped in his tracks when Jane intervened. "It's a sure sign of guilt when someone leaves the room. Chong knew all about your habit and used it to coerce you to break the rules. Not that I imagine you put up much resistance. You had every opportunity to override the programme and moreover had a motive. Chong just wouldn't let this drop."
In a moment of madness Zach tried to dash from the room only to find Lisbon barring his way. "I think you'll find things will go a whole lot easier if you tell us the truth."
The upshot was that Zach confirmed they did run parallel procedures at times to speed things along, as far as he knew everyone bar Franklin and Barker were aware what was going on.
"Well I guess that eliminates Barker and Franklin." Cho ventured.
"Not necessarily, they may have been aware of the situation and just turned a blind eye to it." Jane wasn't prepared to let Barker off the hook just yet, although the evidence appeared to exonerate him.
Lisbon set her sights on Nita next, Jane was interested to see how Lisbon approached this prickly subject. Nita signalled for them to take a seat, and offered them refreshments, which of course Lisbon declined.
"Look I know it's a busy day for you with the conference and everything, so we'll keep it brief." Lisbon fell back on professional courtesy, it wasn't that she disliked Nita personally, it was just that she found her impenetrable veneer of corporate urbanity slightly irritating. No one was that perfect, surely the woman must let rip at times? Much as Lisbon tried to imagine some hidden vice she failed, other than a predilection for designer shoes Lisbon guessed Nita was perfectly disciplined. Hell, she didn't even have a caffeine habit judging by the glass of still water on her desk, it just wasn't natural.
Jane leant back in his chair, opting to observe rather than participate at this juncture. However even he was taken aback by Nita's assured opening gambit. "Judging by the way Lucia slunk out of the office and Zach's guilty look, I would say you have uncovered our little secret already, so we may as well cut out the preliminaries."
Jane beamed in approval at Nita's chutzpah. Of course Lisbon's surprise was an added bonus, but it didn't take her long to regain her composure. "A wise decision Nita, no point wasting our time. I take it that both you and Mr Mashburn were aware of Chong's activities."
An amused look crossed her features and she dropped some of the formality. "Aware? I would imagine Mr Mashburn positively encouraged it. Of course we had to keep up a front, but Walter had known Chong from when he ran his avionics company, and Chong always had a direct line to Walter."
"How will Walter feel about you divulging this to us?" Lisbon was taken aback by her openness.
"Frankly, he would have been disappointed if you hadn't worked it out by now." Nita met Jane's eyes with a hint of mischief. Jane smirked at the indignation on Lisbon's face, he could see her mask starting to slip.
"Disappointed! We're investigating a murder without all the material facts, don't you think it would have been a good idea to tell us this beforehand." All pretence of calm was dropped, Lisbon was seething. Hightower was right, Mashburn was playing them for fools, charming them on one hand while running rings round them.
"Walter thought Mr Jane needed 'to do his thing', and it was best just to let you get on with it. We don't know who killed Chong, even if we have a good idea how it was done." Nita was completely unrepentant, she really was the perfect fit for Walter professionally.
Sensing Lisbon was about to go for the jugular, Jane hastily entered the fray. "Excuse me for being so direct, but it could easily have been you or Walter that doctored the program. You both had the opportunity and expertise to do it. Though I'm not sure what the motivation is yet, but I promise you that if you did it, we will find out."
Nita pursed her lips, showing the first sign of irritation. "If either Walter or I had wanted to take someone out, I assure you we would have found an infinitely better way of doing it than this. There would be no evidence, they would be gone in a puff of smoke."
"Umm. Isn't that what happened to your husband?" Jane knew he was hitting below the belt, but it was the only way to pierce her armour. He immediately noticed the spark of anger. Nita had fire in her belly after all, she was no ice maiden.
"I should have guessed we would have to come back to that. My husband's unfortunate demise was of absolutely no benefit to me. I'm really surprised that you of all people would stoop that low Mr Jane." Nita had no doubt they had researched her past thoroughly.
"Touché, but you must admit it all looks very suspicious from the outside." Jane left Lisbon to finish off.
"Do you mind me asking how long you've known Mr Mashburn?" Lisbon contented herself with covering the basics for now.
Although Nita hated being an open book, she saw no point hiding what would come out in the wash anyhow. "Walter had dealings with a company I worked with and he headhunted me. I've been working for him for three years now."
Jane guessed she was deceiving by omission, rather than telling blatant untruths. There was some past history between her and Mashburn that Nita was attempting to conceal. It wasn't anything as obvious as an affair, there was absolutely no sexual chemistry between them. Jane wondered if Walter was even aware of the connection. Jane sensed that Nita's husband may be the key to that particular mystery. Far from clarifying matters the labyrinthine twists were throwing up as many questions as answers.