Stone nodded. “The Tea Party. It’s where the expression ‘mad as a March hare’ comes from.”
“Well, Brix seemed to give a meaning to each of his nicknames: the Rabbit, the Doggie, et cetera. So maybe the March Hare is a nut job.”
Stone nodded. “She’d almost have to be,” he said. “I mean, jealousy is one thing, but to kill Brix’s wife, then two of his lovers, well . . .”
“Maybe,” Dino said, looking thoughtful, “the March Hare is Charlotte Kirby herself. Maybe Brix drove her crazy with all of his descriptions of his sex life. Maybe masturbation really does drive you around the bend.”
“That’s a perfectly valid theory,” Stone admitted, “but it goes against the grain.”
“What grain is that?” Dino asked.
“The grain of Charlotte Kirby. I bought her story-hook, line, and sinker.”
Dino nodded. “I know what you mean. I had the feeling that we had stripped all her pretense away and we were getting the unadulterated truth. That happens in a successful interrogation, you know? The perp finally has no place to go but the truth.”
“You’re right,” Stone said.
“Maybe she still knows something she hasn’t told us, though,” Dino said. “Maybe she’s holding back the final tidbit.”
“The name of the March Hare?”
“Yeah.”
Stone shook his head. “No, I think she would have told us, if she knew.”
“Maybe she suspects?”
“I think she would have told us her suspicion. I think she’s sick of all this, and she wants an end to it.”
“I can’t disagree with you,” Dino said. “And I still think the March Hare is a nut job.”
“Agreed,” Stone said.
Shelley and Holly arrived, and drinks were poured. “Why so glum, fellows?” Holly asked.
“Because,” Stone said, “we’ve had a breakthrough.”
The room became very still.
“How so?” Holly asked carefully, looking from Stone to Dino.
“It’s like this,” Dino said. “We broke through, then found ourselves staring at another stone wall.”
“Explain, please,” Holly said.
Stone recounted their interview with Charlotte Kirby.
“Nineteen!” Holly exclaimed. “And if Charlotte’s timeline is accurate, that’s over a two-year period.”
“That’s about right,” Dino said.
“Brix was a busy boy.”
“To paraphrase Frank Sinatra,” Dino said, “I don’t know why he isn’t in a jar at the Harvard Medical School.”
“Oh, come on, folks,” Shelley said, speaking for the first time, “that’s less than one a month.”
“Yeah,” Holly said, “but he was doing it multiple times with each one.”
“It’s hard to know how he had the energy for tennis,” Dino said, and everybody laughed. “And for all we know, he might have been doing that for years.”
They ordered dinner and took a break from the case for a while. Finally, when they were on coffee and brandy, Stone spoke up. “I don’t know where to go from here,” he said.
“Neither do I,” Dino replied.
The phone rang and Stone went to the desk to answer it. “Hello?”
“Mr. Barrington?”
“Yes.”
“It’s Charlotte Kirby.”
“Yes?”
“I thought of something else.”
“Yes?”
“Brix had another nickname for the March Hare. He used it only once.”
“Yes?”
“He called her ‘RoboCop.’ I’m afraid that’s all I have for you.”
“Thank you very much,” Stone said. He hung up and returned to the table.
“Who was that?” Dino asked.
“It was Joan,” he said.
“Your secretary Joan?” Holly asked.
“Right. Another brandy anyone?” Nobody wanted another. They repaired to their respective bedrooms.
39
Todd Bacon was at a technical services meeting at the Agency, where a schematic of a new cell phone was being displayed on a large screen as the designers presented it.
“Our phone,” the designer said, “operates perfectly as an Apple iPhone Five, except that it will also broadcast a message that has been composed on the phone’s keyboard, then automatically compress, encrypt, and transmit on a high radio frequency of our choosing. And, as you can see, the phone is indistinguishable from the Apple phone.”
Todd’s phone began to vibrate on his belt, but he ignored it. “That’s obvious,” he said, “but what about if you open the phone and expose the works? Is it indistinguishable then?”
“It is,” the man replied, “except that the battery is marginally smaller. We’ve added three new chips to the phone, but each looks exactly like the ones they replaced, even to the serial numbers.”
“And if you crack the parts?”
“All you’d see is circuits which, visually, are identical. What’s different is what the circuits are used for, and the software contained therein.”
Todd’s phone vibrated again. “So if an enemy tech is really good, is he going to be able to tell the difference between your phone and the original?”
“If he’s really, really good, he’ll notice some differences, but he’ll just think that Apple has made some changes, and if he cracks one of the three parts, the software will automatically be dumped.”
“So,” Todd said, “he’ll find an Apple phone with no software?”
“That’s better than leaving our software available for him to play with, isn’t it?”
“Yes, of course it is,” Todd said. “That will protecbt your software, but it’s not going to protect my operative. They’ll know immediately that he’s got a very sophisticated communications device that does not work like an Apple phone.”
“Well,” the man said, sounding exasperated, “what do you suggest?”
“What do I suggest?” Todd asked. “I’m not the designer here.”
The man gazed at the blowup of his design. “I suppose we could load the Apple software and our software on the same chip, and have only ours dumped.”
“Is there room on the chip for all that software?” Todd asked.
“Almost,” the man said. “We’ll have to write some new compression code.”
“Well, then,” Todd said, “that’s my suggestion. How long will it take you?”
“A few weeks,” the man said, looking doubtful.
“And what about the battery capacity? Is it going to be sufficient for transmitting in HF?”
“If it’s fully charged, and the message is brief, but if it’s plugged into an electrical outlet, your transmitting would be unlimited.”
“And what about the antenna?”
“It’s contained with the original antenna, but you’d have to send from outdoors or near a window.”
“Then find a way to supplement that antenna so that we can send from indoors. Sounds like you’ve got a lot of work to do, gentlemen,” Todd said. “Find a way to do it in a few days.” He stood up. “Thank you very much. We’ll see you here, same time next week, and we’ll expect a bug-free working model. And if you’re going to make the battery smaller than the original, you’d better print something on it that indicates that it’s a Mark Two.”
Everybody got up and shuffled out of the room. Todd’s phone was still vibrating.
Once out of the room, Todd checked the phone; his old number two was calling. He pressed the number to return.
“Yeah? Todd?”
“Don’t call me on this phone,” Todd said.
“But I’ve got something important to tell you.”
“All the more reason not to call me on this phone.” He broke the connection and returned to his office.
It was nearly seven o’clock when Todd finished his summary of what he had seen at the tech presentation, and he was very tired. All he could think of was a large scotch, a TV dinner, and bed. He left his office and took the elevator to the garage, where he had a favored parking spot. He drove out to the gate, checked out there, and headed toward the apartment he had rented.
As he hit the main road he saw a car’s headlights appear in his rearview mirror. It was some distance back, but he reacted the way he’d been trained to. He accelerated, and the headlights disappeared, then the cell phone on his belt vibrated.