Mind-Altering Murder

Chapter Fourteen

“I don’t know what kind of sick game you think you’re playing, Guster, but this is our case,” Lassiter said. “You are not welcome here.”

At least that’s something, O’Hara thought. Lassiter has actually started thinking of this as his case-or as a case at all.

“Are you here about Mandy, Gus?” O’Hara said as she finally got close enough to speak without feeling the need for a megaphone.

“I’m sorry to say I don’t know anything about anyone named Mandy,” Gus said. “I’ve only been here for a couple of weeks.”

Lassiter snorted with disgust. “You’ve been on this case for a couple of weeks and you still don’t know the victim’s name?”

“I’m not on a case, Lassie,” Gus said. “I’m here.”

Juliet realized why it had taken her so long to recognize him. The Gus she knew always dressed nicely, in pressed khakis and button-down shirts, but now he was in a tailored suit. It looked like a Zegna. The tie alone must have cost more than the entire outfit she was used to seeing him in.

“You work at Benson Pharmaceuticals?” she said.

“Junior vice president of marketing,” Gus said, then corrected himself. “Sorry, senior vice president. They promoted me to Sam’s level after he passed away.”

“Don’t tell me you’re trying to do undercover work, Guster,” Lassiter said. “You’re not going to fool anyone, least of all me.”

“I’m not under anything,” Gus said. “Except thirty-five. As in the Five Hundred Most Promising Executives Under Thirty-Five, as judged by San Francisco Business magazine.” By some strange coincidence, there happened to be a copy on the conference table and it was open to a page where a tiny picture of Gus was placed next to a large red number 467. “I was going to be four hundred ninety-two, but Benson’s PR people were able to let them know about my promotion just before they went to press.”

“So you and Shawn aren’t working together anymore?” O’Hara said. She tried to remember the last time she’d run into them on a case, or in the station as they tried to cadge a case from the chief. She realized it had been weeks. “Did something happen?”

“If you knocked him off and buried the body, we won’t tell anyone,” Lassiter said. “Just let us know where the unmarked grave is in case we feel like dancing.”

“We’re still friends,” Gus said. “Best friends. That’s forever. But we’re getting older and our interests started pulling us in different directions. When this opportunity presented itself, we had a long talk about where we wanted to go in the next few years and we agreed that we should part ways professionally. Not to say we won’t be working together again in the future, but for the moment we’re both doing what we want to do. So what brings you guys up north?”

O’Hara studied Gus closely. In all the time she’d known him, he and Shawn had been inseparable. Even on those few occasions when they’d been fighting, they stuck together. She’d imagined them ending up together in an old folks’ home years from now, bickering about which Corey had squandered more potential in his later acting career. If someone had told her that he and Shawn had gone their separate ways she would have assumed they’d both be devastated-particularly Gus, who always seemed to be the junior man in the relationship.

But if Gus was devastated he was hiding it well. And she had never known Gus to be particularly skilled at hiding anything, least of all his emotions. He looked happy and successful. He looked good.

“I wish we’d known about this before you left,” she said finally. “At least we could have bought you a cupcake.”

“It’s not like I moved to Shanghai,” Gus said. “Although there is a spot opening up in our Asian office and I’m thinking about tossing my hat into that ring. But unless that happens, I plan to be going back to Santa Barbara all the time. It’s still my home.”

“When you come back don’t feel obligated to say hello,” Lassiter said. “I’m sure you’re busy these days.”

“Indeed I am,” Gus said. “So, what can I do for you?”

Juliet glanced over at Lassiter. It was so odd to be asking Gus for information. “We’re investigating the death of a Benson Pharmaceuticals employee named Mandy Jensen.”

“Was she murdered?” Gus said.

“No,” Lassiter said. “We just drove three hundred fifty miles on a whim because we feel some misplaced sense of connection with a dead woman.”

“That’s funny,” Gus said. “Generally when you use sarcasm, you try to overemphasize the emotion or interest in words that are so obvious they shouldn’t carry any extra emotion or interest. That way the listener understands that while you seem to be answering the question, you’re actually expressing contempt for the person who asked it.”

“Imagine that,” Lassiter drawled.

“Now that’s better,” Gus said.

“Mandy Jensen was found hanging by her neck in her mother’s basement,” O’Hara said. “She had apparently put on her old college cheerleader’s uniform, then tied a rope around a water pipe that ran across the ceiling and made a noose on the other end. She put the noose around her neck, then jumped off a chair.”

“Sounds like she must have been very unhappy,” Gus said.

“We haven’t found any reason to think so,” O’Hara said. “That’s why we wanted to speak to Sam Masterson, to see if he knew whether she would have had any reason to kill herself. But if you can think of anyone else here who might have known her, that would be a place for us to start.”

“We are a dynamic and growing company,” Gus said. “Half the employees here seem to have started after me. But let me check her file.”

O’Hara expected Gus to get up and leave the room or at least to pick up a phone to buzz a secretary to bring the file. Instead he waved his hand through a beam of light that shone down from the ceiling and a small square hatch slid open in what she had thought was a seamless piece of wood, revealing a computer monitor. He touched the screen in a couple of places and a virtual filing cabinet slid open. Gus waved his fingers over the image and files flew by until he found the one he wanted. Then he tapped the screen again and the image of the file opened. Gus leafed through the pages quickly.

“Okay, it looks like she joined Benson three years ago as an assistant in our sales department. She was promoted twice within her first six months and then given a small sales route in our Midwestern region. When she exceeded all expectations, the company gave her the choice of any route in the country. She asked for central California specifically so that she could move back to Santa Barbara, where her mother lived. In the year she worked that territory our sales were up thirty-six percent. Apparently there was serious talk about bringing her back into corporate and giving her-” He stopped, looking surprised, then started again. “Well, giving her my job. My old job, that is.”

“They were going to make her the sidekick to a phony psychic detective?” Lassiter said.

Gus smiled. “I’m impressed, Lassie. It was just seconds ago that I had to explain how sarcasm worked, and now you’re practically a master at the stuff.” He turned back to Juliet. “They offered her a position of junior vice president of marketing. She declined. She sent a letter saying she had decided to end her career in pharmaceuticals sales, thanked the company for the opportunity, and said good-bye.”

“When did all this happen?” O’Hara said.

Gus glanced down at the screen again. “Looks like it was a little over a month ago. Just before they made me the offer.”

“Maybe Guster killed her,” Lassiter said hopefully. “Got her out of the way so he could steal her job. Sure, it’s a long shot, but we’ve got to exhaust every possibility.”

“We’ll get right on that, Carlton,” O’Hara said wearily.

Gus slapped a hand down on the table. “Now, that’s what I call sarcasm,” he said.

“Is there anything else you can tell us about Mandy?” O’Hara said.

“I’m e-mailing you her entire file right now, but I don’t think you’re going to find anything in here,” Gus said, already entering her e-mail address into the SEND box. “She was doing fine on her own, but then she suddenly felt a desire to return home to live with her mother. Then she quit her job for no reason. It sounds like some kind of downward spiral to me. Maybe she started sampling the product-it happens sometimes. Or maybe she was always fighting depression and it finally got the better of her. Either way, if it were my case I’d have to think it was suicide.”

“If Guster thinks it’s suicide, then I’ve finally got a reason to believe the poor girl was actually murdered,” Lassiter said.

“How I’ve missed your zany zingers,” Gus said, getting up out of his chair. “It makes me wonder how I could ever leave my old career to take this job. Then I remember I get paid three times as much as you and it all becomes clear.”

“There are more important things in life than money, Guster,” Lassiter said. “We do this because we want to make a difference in the world.”

“Well, people always seem happier after you leave a room, so I guess that’s working out for you,” Gus said. “And speaking of leaving the room, I’ve got a conference call. If there’s nothing else?”

“You mean in addition to the volumes of help you’ve provided?” Lassiter said. “No, I can’t think of anything else.”

“I have a couple more questions,” O’Hara said. “Please, Gus. It will just take a second.”

“I can let London and Mumbai talk to each other for a bit,” Gus said. “I usually can’t understand a word either of them says, anyway.”

“Ticktock, Detective,” Lassiter said. “Not to mention ka-ching, ka-ching.”

“If you go now, you can get the car out before there’s another twenty minutes on the clock,” O’Hara said. “I’ll meet you down on the street.”

“If there was street parking, we wouldn’t have this problem,” Lassiter said.

“Drive around the block,” O’Hara said. “I’ll pay for the extra gas.”

Lassiter looked like he wanted to argue, but before he could open his mouth, an alarm on his wristwatch chimed. “I’m going around the block twice,” he said as he headed for the door. “Then I’m heading back to Santa Barbara without you.”

He disappeared through the conference room door.

“I don’t think you have to worry too much,” Gus said. “This is San Francisco. With all the dead ends and one-way streets and crazy bicyclists, a single trip around this block is going to take longer than the drive back to Santa Barbara.”

“I don’t need that much time,” O’Hara said. “I just wanted to ask about you and Shawn.”

“No, you didn’t,” Gus said, giving her a look that was meant to be filled with compassion but instead seemed to be the product of eating day-old sushi for breakfast.

“Okay, you caught me,” O’Hara said, blushing just a little. “I can see you’re fine. How’s Shawn doing?”

“How is he always?” Gus said. “He’s great.”

“Really?” O’Hara said.

“Really.”

She thought that over for a bit, then nodded. “Okay, thanks.” She turned toward the door, then back to Gus. “It’s just that he seems like someone who needs… who isn’t himself without…”

“An audience?” Gus said with a smile.

She colored a little more deeply this time. “Pretty much, yeah.”

“I talked to him last night,” Gus said. “He’s doing great. He’s got a whole virtual universe filled with people to virtually talk to.”

O’Hara felt an odd mix of emotions she couldn’t quite identify, so she chose to ignore them all. “That’s good to know,” she said. “Next time you talk to him, say hello for me.”

“I have a better idea,” Gus said. “Since you’re both in Santa Barbara, why don’t you say hello to him yourself? I’m sure he’d be happy for the company.”

“I’m sure I’ll run into him on a case,” she said.

“Then you can say hello for me,” Gus said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I really need to jump on this call.”