Jeff Carson - Foreign Deceit

Vlad was a short, large, and sweaty individual. His jet black facial hair was sporadic, denser on the neck, and had obviously been growing for at least a week. Whether or not he had showered within that same week was a toss-up. Looking at his shining greasy mass of black hair, Wolf would have bet not. His dark gray shirt had darker still finger lined grease stains, undoubtedly from eating the potato chips from the bag splayed on his desk which sat in front of four empty Coke Lite cans. He wore dirty jeans and flip flops. A hand wasn’t offered as introduction, and Wolf thanked Jesus for that.

“Have you talked to him this week at all?” Wolf asked.

“No, I have not.” He shook his head.

His accent sounded similar to Cristina’s. Romanian as well? Eastern European?

Vlad’s shifty eyes darted between Wolf’s clothing, the wall behind him, and Director Wembly. “I have not spoken to him all week.” His glance rested on Wolf’s eyes for a split second before jumping to the wall behind him again.

“So, you know Dr. Rosenwald on a personal basis? Do you guys spend a lot of time with each other?”

“We have gone to have a beer or two after work a few times before,” said Vlad.

“Have you met my brother before? His name is John Wolf?”

“Oh yes, I have.” Vlad’s voice was suddenly quiet.

“How did you meet him?”

“I believe he has, eh, come out with Matthew with us for a beer after work a time or two.” Vlad’s forehead was glistening with sweat. “Why do you ask?”

“I’m asking because my brother was killed this weekend, and I’m looking for Matthew for some answers.”

Vlad’s eyebrows shot up, “Oh, that’s terrible. I…”

“You what?” Wolf asked.

“I, I…that’s terrible. What happened?” He looked Wolf in the eye, then wiped his forehead with the palm of his hand.

“He was killed in his apartment, and someone is trying to make it look like suicide.”

“Oh, wow…” Vlad looked down, shaking his head, which slid a bead of sweat off his nose onto the terrazzo floor. “That’s terrible. And you think Matthew has something to do with it?” He pulled his pants up and smoothed his shirt.

“That’s what we’re checking. Was there a particular bar you guys went to for beers?” Wolf asked.

“Yeah, well, no,” his face flushed red and his eyebrows raised for a split second.

“Did you guys ever used to go to the,” he fished the receipt out of his pocket, “Albastru Pub?”

Lia glanced at Wolf with a furrowed brow.

“Uh, yeah. We’ve been there before,” Vlad said.

“What were you doing Friday night?” Wolf put the receipt back in his jeans pocket.

“I was working in the office, actually,” he said. “I was here quite late on Friday night.”

“You weren’t with them at the pub getting a beer that night?”

“What? No.” He was excited now. “I was at work all night. I had a lot of work to catch up on.”

Wolf paused for a few seconds and stared unblinking. “Okay, thanks, Dr. Vlad. And you didn’t see Matthew or my brother at all this weekend?”

He shook his head, “No, I’m sorry. I haven’t.”

“So what do you do here? Are you an astronomer as well?”

“Me? I, uh, I work for the European Astronomical Council, and I am overseeing the re-furbishing of the Zeiss telescope currently housed in this facility.”

“Vlad is a very important man in the world of astronomical equipment, Mr. Wolf,” Wembly said. “In any given month, a lot of astronomical equipment is exchanged between countries and continents, and Dr. Vlad has become the top man for the EAC to oversee its logistics. We are lucky to have him on site here.” Wembly wore a proud expression.

Vlad nodded his head with closed eyes and held up his hand.

Wolf took this as a deflection of an apparently shameless suck up maneuver from the director. Wolf nodded back to Vlad. “Where are you from?”

“I’m from Cluj, Romania.”

“And what about Dr. Rosenwald? What does he do here?”

“He works on our Gamma-ray astronomy team with Dr. Chang there.” Wembly pointed toward the center of the building.

“Okay. Mr. Wembly — ”

“ Doctor Wembly…never mind, sorry, it doesn’t matter.” He shook his head and squinted his eyes in apology.

“Dr. Wembly,” Wolf corrected, “how did he get to work? By car?”

“Yes, he drove a car.”

“And what is the make, model, and color of it?”

“It’s a, um…oh, you know better than I, Dr. Vlad. What did he drive?” Wembly asked.

Vlad was pulled from deep thought. “He drives a blue Fiat Panda.”

Wolf looked back to Dr. Wembly, “Do you mind if we question Dr. Chang? And can we please have Dr. Rosenwald’s address? Do you have that on file?”

“Yes, I believe I do. Let me fetch it for you.”

“Thanks, Dr. Vlad. We’ll be in touch if we need anything else.”

Vlad stuck out his hand to shake. Wolf walked out the door.

Dr. Chang was in his office down the hall three doors, cradling a tea cup with both hands, looking intently at his computer screen.

“Dr. Chang?” Wolf knocked on the open door.

“Yes?” Dr. Change looked up through steamy glasses.

“You work with Mathew Rosenwald, correct?”

“Yes.” He put down his cup and turned to them.

“Have you seen him or heard from him in the last few days?” Lia asked.

“No, I have not.”

“Is that usual?” Wolf asked. “To not hear from him for days?”

Chang furrowed his brow and stood, crossing his arms. He wore a white lab coat unbuttoned and draped over his blue t-shirt and tight jeans. He wore large Buddy Holly style glasses that looked way too big for his face, and had tall spiky hair. “No, it is not usual. We usually keep in touch, and he has missed some important milestones for our work earlier this week, in fact.”

“And what is that work exactly?” Wolf asked.

“We were, uh,” he hesitated.

Wolf didn’t blink. “What’s the matter?”

“Well, I don’t know how to explain it, other than in a way that won’t make sense to you, I’m sure.”

“Try me.”

“We…we were shaping X-ray beams via deformable mirrors. We have been analytically computing the required mirror profile.”

Wolf looked blankly at Dr. Chang. “Do you have a relationship with Dr. Rosenwald outside the work place?”

“Uh, no. Not at all, actually,” he said pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, as if realizing it for the first time.

“Were you with him at the bar this weekend getting beers? Or did you see him this weekend?”

“Uh, no. Like I said, I didn’t ever socialize with Dr. Rosenwald outside of work.” He looked to Lia and Dr. Wembly. “What’s this all about?”

“Never mind. Thanks for your time Dr. Chang. If you hear from him, can you please call this number?” Wolf looked to Lia, and she gave a phone number.

They asked Dr. Wembly a few more questions and left mid morning with Dr. Rosenwald’s address in hand.

“What was that all about with Dr. Chang?” She revved the RPM’s to pass two trucks. “Why were you pressing him about the work?”

“I wanted to ask him that question before asking him about Dr. Rosenwald. To see his reactions. He wasn’t hiding anything. Not like Dr. Vlad was. That guy was a comical liar. I’m surprised he didn’t start dry-heaving right in front of us.”

“Yes.” She smirked while cranking a particularly tight left turn. “I admit he was acting strange. And, where did you get that receipt?”

“I picked it up at the morgue.”

She stared at him for a moment then went wide-eyed. “You took that when you pretended to almost pass out!”