Gridiron

'His mouth. He bit through his tongue.'

Seidler held up a plastic bag inside of which was what looked like an insect larva.

'We found the tip of it lying on his lap.'

'Nice souvenir.'

Curtis pinched his nose and stepped in closer to take another look.

'Cause of death?'

'Too early to say. Could have been strangled. Could have been poisoned. His mouth's shut too tight to see what's in there. But it might be natural causes. Heart attack. Fit of some kind. We won't know anything for sure until we've had him on the slab.'

'Charlie, your private life is your own affair.' Curtis grinned and went in search of the witnesses.

Curtis found Coleman waiting with Mitchell Bryan, Aidan Kenny, Sam Gleig and Bob Beech. They were all seated around a glass table underneath one of the mighty Saltire cross-braces of the building. The detective ran his hand along the smooth white fluoropolymer finish of the brace's aluminium cladding and then peered over the balcony on to the floor of the atrium below. It was, he decided, more like being inside some weird and wacky modern cathedraclass="underline" the Church of Modern Day Astronauts. Jesus Christ the First Spaceman. The world's first orbitting mosque.

'This is one hell of a place you have here,' he said and sat down at the table.

'We like it,' said one of the men.

'Liked it. Until this morning,' said another.

Nathan Coleman made the introductions and then outlined what he had been told.

'The dead man was Mr Hideki Yojo. A director of computer science for the Yu Corporation, which owns this building. His body was observed by Mr Beech, Mr Kenny and Mr Bryan here on a closed-circuit television during a meeting that was taking place at the offices of Richardson Associates on Sunset. They're the architects who designed this place. When the body was seen, at around nine-thirty, the security guard on duty, Mr Gleig here, was asked to come and investigate. He found the body at around nine-forty.'

'Did you notice anything out of the ordinary?' Curtis shook his head.

'I'm sorry, I'll re-phrase that. What am I saying? This is the most extraordinary looking place I've ever seen. That computer room looks like something out of a movie. I'm just a cop. My idea of a well-designed building is one where the can is easy to find. No offence intended, gentlemen.'

'None taken,' said Mitch. He pointed over Curtis's shoulder. 'And while we're on the subject, the can is over there.'

'Thanks. Well then, Sam. Mind if I call you Sam? Did you notice anything especially unusual, apart from the body itself, of course?'

Sam Gleig shrugged and said that he had not noticed anything at all unusual.

'Man was dead. I could tell that straight away. I was in the army so I was sure, right? Until then it had been a quiet night. Same as always. Mr Yojo, he often worked real late. From time to time I got up and took a walk around the building, but mostly I stayed in the security office. You can keep an eye on everything from there with all the security cameras. Even so, I wouldn't have been paying that close attention. I mean, that's the computer's job. Abraham just tells me if he thinks there's something I need to go and take a look at, y'know? And I can tell you last night there was just the two of us. Me and Mr Yojo.'

'So who's Abraham?' frowned Curtis. 'Am I missing something here?'

'That's what we call the computer, Sergeant,' shrugged Beech.

'Oh. I see. Well, I used to call my car lots of names. Now this CCTV,' said Curtis. 'Is there a video of what happened?'

Aidan Kenny handed Curtis a compact disc.

'I'm afraid that it only covers the moment of actual discovery,' he explained. 'This recording was made at our offices on Sunset. You see, we're still at the stage of installing the building's various management systems. In fact, that's one of the reasons why Hideki Yojo was working late. We'd had a glitch with the hologram software. Hideki was trying to fix it. Anyway, we have yet to install disc-recording facilities in this building.'

'And did he fix it? The glitch?'

Kenny looked at Beech and shrugged.

'I really don't know. According to — to the computer, his last transaction, I mean the last time he made a program entry, was around ten o'clock. He must have died any time after that.'

Curtis raised his eyebrows. Kenny looked sheepish.

Bob Beech cleared his throat and pushed a folded computer print-out towards Curtis.

'We don't handle much in the way of hard copy here,' he said. 'In fact, we make it a company rule to avoid paper as much as possible. Normally we scan images of any document type that we are obliged to deal with and turn them into electronic images. However, I had this printed out in case it was useful to you.'

'Thanks a lot. What is it?'

'Hideki Yojo's medical records. I expect you'll need it for the autopsy. There will be an autopsy, I suppose? There usually is in these situations.'

'Yes. You're right. There'll have to be an autopsy.' Curtis's voice was clipped and business-like. He hated being second-guessed on something as straightforward as a preliminary investigation.

'The thing is,' added Beech and then, noticing Curtis's irritation, 'well, it may not be relevant.'

'No, please. You're doing fine so far.' He laughed uncomfortably. 'I wouldn't do things any differently from the way you're doing them, Mr Beech. Please. Go ahead.'

'Well, it's just that Hideki had been complaining about severe headaches. If it was natural causes then it might be related.'

Curtis nodded.

'Do you think it was natural causes?' Mitch asked.

'It's a little early to say, sir,' answered Curtis. 'We won't know anything for sure until after the autopsy. So right now we're treating it as suspicious.' He decided to upset them a little. 'It's possible that Hideki Yojo was strangled.'

'Jesus,' said Kenny.

Curtis collected the tape and the print-out and stood up.

'Well, thanks a lot for all your help.' He glanced meaningfully at Nathan Coleman. 'We'd better be getting back to Parker Center."

'I'll see you out,' said Mitch.

'It's OK, I've spoken to an elevator before. Of course, that was just cursing it. But I'm sure I can — '

'You don't understand,' said Mitch, 'nobody can use an elevator in this building without Time Encoded Signal Processing and Recognition. If the computer doesn't recognize you, you can't use the elevator, open a door, operate the telephone or use a computer work-station.'

'Now that's what I call a powerful union,' said Curtis.

The two detectives followed Mitch to the elevator.

'Atrium floor, please, Abraham,' said Mitch.

'What happens when you have a heavy cold?' asked Curtis. 'Or when you have had too much to drink? Your voice might be different then.'

'The system works extremely well regardless of the user's condition,' said Mitch. 'The false negative rate, when the system refuses the rightful user, is around 0.1 per cent. The false positive rate, when the wrong person is allowed access, is less than half of that. It's almost foolproof.'

'Besides,' added Mitch. 'If you've had too much to drink you shouldn't be in here in the first place.'

'I'll remember that.' Curtis glanced around the atrium. 'I guess this is progress, huh? Not so much an aesthetic vision as a piece of cold calculation.' He shrugged. 'What do I know? I just have to look at it.'

Mitch watched the two detectives leave the Gridiron and felt relieved that they had not asked who else had been working late the night before. But he was a little disturbed by the thought that Alison would very probably recall his having told her that Hideki Yojo had been with him in the restaurant round about the time that he died. That might take some explaining.

-###-

There was a bar on San Pedro Street Grabel went to, just a few blocks east of the Gridiron, an area of cheap hotels and Skid Row mission houses. He sat at the bar and put some money on the counter, so as the bartender would know he could pay, and ordered a drink. His hands were shaking. Had he screwed Richardson and his new building, or was he still planning to do it? He downed the drink, felt better and ordered another. He tried to remember the events of the previous evening and then thought again. Even the worst things looked better after a couple of drinks.