“I’ve always wondered, but I couldn’t see the purpose. Joshua was not a strong man, and other than when there was a business connection, he avoided my father almost as diligently as I have. He wouldn’t challenge him in business. And it couldn’t have been about money because my brother also had his own, from his mother’s family, but it all went to Jesse. My father didn’t marry so much as form business alliances.”
“How was your brother’s relationship with your nephew, Jesse?”
Again, Paula took her time. She was obviously following a line of thought.
“Jesse has always lived with Micaela, his mother. The times I spoke with Joshua in the years shortly before his death, he spoke as though he and Mickey were on good terms, and that he was not only very fond of Jesse but quite proud of him.
“Mickey has a little money on her own, so she was somewhat dependent. But besides a tendency to be active on the socialite circuit, Mickey has always seemed to be a good mother, and while they were together I believe she was a good wife. And Joshua was always very generous toward her, I believe. Now, she gets an allowance from Jesse’s trust. She’s certainly lived as though it wasn’t an issue. But I’m digressing, because you made it plain… why? You don’t suspect Mickey, do you?”
“No, there is only one person I suspect of anything, and you know why. I just have had trouble believing how it ultimately fit together. But I think we both know,” Chris said.
For the first time, Paula’s poise deserted her. Livvy watched as a thought took hold, and Paula folded her arms across her midriff. “It’s monstrous, isn’t it? To even consider such a thing. Even him…”
“Yes,” Chris said simply.
Paula sat for a few minutes, hugging herself and looking very thoughtful, and then she looked up.
“Do you have proof? Can you stop him?”
“At this point we don’t have enough evidence to prove anything. One of the reasons I came here today is to find out if my suspicions had credibility with someone who knows John Bedford. It seems they do. The other is to find out if you think Micaela would take Jesse and go somewhere safe for a while.
“We need some time to find Josephson, the doctor with the dangerous skills, and to connect your father to him. If we can get Josephson alone, we may be able to give him a deal to testify against your father on LLE conspiracy charges. It’s even possible that it can all be managed quietly, if we can get enough proof to threaten your father with exposure and make him understand that he is being watched. But we need time.”
Paula thought a while. “I’ll call Mickey and offer my family’s Italian villa, my mother’s family, that is. It’s well fortified and there is a tremendous amount of security, a lot of it geared to preventing kidnapping. The guards have worked for my mother’s family for generations, and can be trusted, I believe. Family and tradition matter. Jesse was there with Joshua a few times as a child and he loved it. He’ll go. At least that puts an ocean in the way. You realize that won’t stop my father, don’t you? Just slow him down while he alters his plans.”
“That’s all we can expect,” Chris said.
“You’ll go, too?” Livvy asked Paula.
After a few moments Paula dropped her hands back into her lap and said, ”Yes. It’s about time I got to know my nephew and sister-in-law a little better. And I think I can watch for gaps in the security better than Jesse’s mother. What will you do?”
“If you will call to introduce us, please, I’ll go to talk to Micaela. Tonight. Yes. I don’t think we can wait,” Chris said. “Then we can only try to get enough evidence to get a record of him in the system as an offender. If we watch and wait long enough, time will take care of it.’
After that, there was nothing more that Paula could tell them that wasn’t public record. When the man in the formal suit led them to the door to show them out, Paula came with them.
“Thank you. I’ll call Mickey. You’ll be careful, please. He is absolutely ruthless,” she said, shifting her gaze between Livvy and Chris.
“We can be ruthless, too,” Chris said.
On the way down in the elevator Livvy said, “When you told me about Sara Ann, I thought I’d heard the worst. Bedford wants to steal Jesse’s identity, doesn’t he, for his allotment? What will he do with Jesse?”
“Someone has to die as John Bedford. My guess is that Jesse, as John, would go into a stroke-induced vegetative state, making pre-reset scans and resets pointless, although in a corruptible system, it isn’t that hard to get all of the records altered to obliterate all evidence of the switch. Eventually Jesse, as John, could die in seclusion without ever waking up.
“And don’t forget. Micaela has to die, probably during the kidnapping,” Chris added.
“You figured all this out?” Livvy asked. “From the fact that Josephson and Bedford know each other, and the timing?”
“And what Brian Clifford, the lab tech, told me he had learned about Josephsons’ research. But it was a theory only, until Paula Bedford accepted it so readily. She knows her father, and how little he values his children relative to his own life.”
“You’re right. Bedford is truly a monster. It all plays into his hands: the rich man’s grandson is kidnapped. Josephson throws in some tricks and maybe even facial trauma, if they need it. All of the records that can prove identity are switched. Jesse is recovered and John, under severe stress, still in seclusion, dies. It’s brilliant, in a diabolically twisted way. To think of him waiting all of these years for his grandson to grow up… ”
“Look, it may not have even started that way. Think of it this way: this is a man with a pathological fear of death. Because he has unlimited resources and he resents interference and knows he will want to cheat, he destroys records as he goes. All the time, as his allotment dwindles, he tries to think of ways to avoid dying. Meanwhile, there is his healthy young grandson, with a whole life ahead of him, and John’s envy of him turns poisonous. Why should Jesse live, and he die? Either Joshua suspected something, or John just planned that far ahead. Jesse’s parents both have to die for it to work.”
They reached ground level and were soon back out on the busy street. It felt like they had gotten back to reality, but having confirmation of their suspicions of Bedford lent them both a new sense of urgency. Ignoring the glares of their fellow pedestrians, they ran to the subway.
“Titans of industry. I know that reference, but there is something about the origins of that…” Livvy said as their subway train pulled out. They swayed slightly from the change in motion. “I think it’s even more apt somehow, but I can’t place it.”
“Yes, I do think Paula was referring to its original meaning,” Chris said musingly. “In Greek mythology, the Titans were a group of old gods. Cronus, their king, eats his offspring as soon as they are born. To preserve his own life. It’s classic stuff.”
“A precedent. Already in our psyches,” Livvy said. “Why, despite my years in Homicide, do I still think there are limits?”
“Give it some more time,” Chris said with no discernable weariness.
They reached the High Speed station and found their train.
Chp. 10 Pincer Movement (Thursday)
Chris held out his hand. “Your comu, please.”
They’d sprung for a High Speed compartment, figuring they’d want the extra privacy for discussing the case and making calls.
“What are you doing?” Livvy asked, watching him set their paired comus into visual communication mode.
“Yours goes into the corridor, hanging at one end of the car. I chose a center compartment for a reason. This way we can watch people coming into the car at either end, and we’ll have some warning,” Chris explained.
“I thought you said we’d be safe on the High Speed,” Livvy said when he’d gotten back to the car.