Fatal Reaction

ground.
    “After you said good-bye to Danny on Sunday where did you go?” From the corner of my eye I noticed that Cheryl must have arrived for the day because the light to her extension was illuminated.
    “Home. It was my son’s birthday.”
    “Which one?”
    “Jeff’s.”
    “I didn’t mean which son, which birthday?”
    “Four.”
    Cheryl knocked softly at the door and stuck her head in apologetically. Normally she didn’t disturb me when the door was closed, but at this time of the day she knew that coffee was a priority.
    “Would you like some coffee, Tom?” I inquired. He nodded and I stuck two fingers up as Cheryl retreated. “What did you get him?” I asked.
    “What?”
    “For his birthday, what kind of present did you get him?”
    Tom looked at me like I was mad.
    “One of those toy electric cars that he can sit in and drive up and down the driveway. Nancy picked it out. She’s usually in charge of all the stuff like that.”
    Nancy was his wife. The senator’s daughter.
    Cheryl knocked softly and came in with two cups of coffee and cream and sugar on a tray. Tom took his, had a sip, and set his cup on the coaster I had placed on the edge of my desk.
    “So now that I’ve told you, what’s going to happen?” asked Galloway, once Cheryl had retreated and we were alone again. “Will you call off the private detectives?”
    “From trying to find you, yes,” I replied quietly. “From investigating the circumstances of Danny’s death, no.”
     
    Before I left for Oak Brook, I wrapped my hand in Kleenex and carefully picked up the coffee cup that Tom Galloway had drunk from. I poured the remaining liquid into the potted plant on Cheryl’s desk and asked her to find me a brown paper bag. She produced one from her desk drawer, shook out the crumbs from yesterday’s lunch, and held it open for me while I dropped the cup inside. I told her to hand-carry it over to Elliott’s office with instructions to have the prints lifted and compared to the ones that had been found on the glass of water on Danny’s kitchen sink. From the look on Cheryl’s face it was obvious that she understood the implications of my wanting to check for Galloway’s prints in Danny’s apartment, but also knew me well enough to realize that this was not a good time to be discussing it. Cheryl was as patient as she was intelligent. She was willing to wait until I had more information—and time—before pressing me for the details.
    As soon as I got into my car, I punched in Elliott’s number, but it was still early and all I got was the answering service. I left him a message to call me if he had any questions about the coffee cup." I wasn’t sure what I was going to tell Elliott about Tom Galloway. With Stephen, however, there was no question. Not only was Stephen in a position to hurt Tom professionally, but more important, after the episode at the funeral home I was afraid of what he might do.
    Traffic was, as they say on the radio, “slow and go” on the Stephenson. As I slogged through it I also worked my way through the call list that Cheryl had prepared for me. I had to confess that, despite my general misgivings about technology, voice mail was a wonderful thing. By returning calls before people arrived at work for the day, I was able to create the illusion of eagerly trying to reach them without being in danger of actually speaking to anyone.
    I had just hung up on one call and was getting ready to dial up another when my phone rang. It was Rachel, Stephen’s assistant. She told me I was needed urgently at Azor, but when I pressed her for details she had none. I told her I was on my way and put the accelerator to the floor. This is how I’m going to die, I told myself, dodging construction barrels and bellowing into my car phone as I race from crisis to crisis.
    I arrived at Azor with all the worst-case scenarios screaming through my imagination: Azor had been named in a class action lawsuit involving Serezine, Takisawa had unilaterally killed the deal, Mikos had announced that they’d solved the structure… I swiped in and walked as quickly as I could through the lobby without actually running and went straight to Stephen’s office without even stopping to take off my coat.
    When I got there I found Stephen and Carl Woodruff waiting for me. Both men were on their feet, pacing around the room.
    “The power company has decided that we’re finally going to get the new transformers we’ve been