David Baldacci - Simple Genius

WHEN HORATIO BARNES ARRIVED early the next morning Champ was not as accommodating as he had been to Michelle.

“We are not a resort!” Champ exploded.

“But I think he can help Viggie,” Sean said.

“Then he can do it from a distance, damn it. This is a highly secure facility full of highly confidential research and I don’t even know who this man is.”

“I can vouch for him. And you let Michelle stay here,” Sean countered. “You don’t know her either. So what’s the difference?”

Champ snapped, “No!” And stalked off.

Horatio was relegated to a bed-and-breakfast in the nearby town of White Feather.

Michelle thankfully was not up yet so Sean borrowed a car and followed Horatio to White Feather. After Horatio checked in the two men sat in the dining room having a cup of coffee.

“Nice area,” Horatio said. “Except for all the people being slaughtered, I might’ve considered retiring down here.”

“Tell me about Tennessee,” Sean prompted.

When Horatio had finished, Sean said, “What’s a whacked rose hedge got to do with Michelle’s problems?”

“I don’t know if it has any connection.” He studied Sean over his cup of coffee. “So how’s our girl doing?”

“Seems to be in fine form. She hit the ground running.”

“That might not last. So talk to me about Viggie.”

Sean did so and Horatio sat back. “This doesn’t sound like it will be easy.

How do you want to play it? This Champ chump won’t let me on the grounds.”

“I can bring Viggie here. Alicia will okay it. She really cares about the girl.”

“Good. Did you tell Michelle I was coming?”

“No, but she’ll find out soon enough. When I explain it’s for Viggie’s benefit I think it’ll be okay. She seems to have bonded really quickly with her.”

“That could be telling in certain respects,” Horatio said, looking thoughtful. “Maybe I can work two birds with one stone.”

When Sean returned to Babbage Town he found Michelle in the dining hall talking with Champ. Viggie hovered at one end of the long table chewing what looked like soggy Cheerios.

When Champ spotted Sean he rose from the table. “I hope you understand why your friend couldn’t stay here.”

“What friend?” Michelle said quickly.

“Horatio Barnes,” Sean answered bluntly.

When Champ noted Michelle’s astonished reaction to this he seemed taken aback. “If you’ll excuse me,” he stammered and hurried off. After Champ left, Michelle snapped, “Why the hell is Barnes here?”

“For Viggie. We need somebody who can get through to her.”

“And you had to call in the guy who locked me up and then walked away?

I can’t believe you would do that, Sean.”

“He didn’t lock you up. You went into the facility voluntarily. And he didn’t walk away from you.”

“What are you talking about? He vanished.”

“He went to Tennessee.”

Michelle’s features became so hard that it looked like she’d been frozen. After nearly a minute of silence had passed she said quietly, “Why would he go to Tennessee?”

“Why do you think?”

“I don’t appreciate you of all people playing games with me.”

“Okay. He went to Tennessee to find the place where you lived when you were six years old.”

“I don’t believe this shit!”

Neither of them noticed the heads of people at other tables turning toward them as their voices rose.

“According to your brother you had an abrupt personality change that year.”

“I was a kid!”

“Come on, Michelle, what happened?”

“Nothing! Do you remember when you were six years old?”

Sean suddenly realized what he was doing. He was, in fact, screwing everything up. He was intruding on Horatio’s jurisdiction, asking Michelle incredibly personal questions in an incredibly clumsy fashion in front of strangers. “No, I don’t,” he said hastily. “I’m sorry.” His contrite tone seemed to deflate the anger in her a little. They both looked up to see Viggie eying them, her features full of uncertainty. Michelle immediately sat down beside her and put an arm around her shoulders.

“It’s okay, Viggie, just a little disagreement, we have them all the time.” She said sharply to Sean, “Don’t we?”

Sean nodded. “All the time.” He got up and joined them.

Viggie was dressed in denim overalls, her hair done up in the usual pigtails. Michelle noted that the girl’s fingernails had been bitten down completely.

Sean said, “She has to go to class. They have a school here for workers with families. It’s right down the hall in the mansion.” He lowered his voice. “I’ve arranged to have a guard sit with her. We’ll be back before class lets out.”

“Back, back from where?”

“You’ll see.”

THEY DROPPED VIGGIE OFF in the schoolroom. Before they left Viggie, Michelle and Sean spoke to her teacher, a middle-aged woman.

“A special case,” the teacher said about Viggie. “But on her good days she’s as brilliant as any student I’ve ever had.”

“Alicia Chadwick says she can factor large numbers in her head,” Sean said.

“Exactly. Can you imagine being able to see millions, if not billions of numbers neatly lined up in your mind’s eye?”

Sean said, “No, I can’t. I actually have trouble remembering my own phone number.”

They left Viggie with her teacher and guard and headed out. In the hall they ran into Alicia Chadwick.

“She’s safe in the school,” Sean told her and then explained about Horatio. “Maybe he can help her.”

“Get through the ordeal of her father’s death?” Alicia asked, casting him a sharp glance. “Or something else?”

“Alicia, if she knows anything about Monk’s death we need to find that out. The sooner we find out the less important Viggie becomes to a killer.”

Alicia said, “Okay, let’s do it.”

As Sean and Michelle walked the grounds of the mansion, he said, “The place was built by a guy who made a fortune selling people canned food packed full of crap that probably killed as many consumers as not.”

“I didn’t see any sign with the name Babbage Town.”

“Funny, neither did I.” He went over the hut system with her and then gave Michelle a more detailed rundown of his conversation with Champ and the quantum computer.

“I’ve got Joan digging on who owns this place. Say what you want about her, she’s really good at that.”

“Most animals with claws are,” Michelle shot back.

They eventually came to stand in front of Turing’s now empty cottage.

“FBI Special Agent with-a-bad-attitude Michael Ventris took all the stuff but I’m having Joan run down where Monk might have traveled to.”

“You said Alicia mentioned it was overseas?”

“She just didn’t know where.”

He took her to Len Rivest’s cottage next.

“Did you check Champ’s alibi on the night Rivest was killed?” she asked.

“Computer says he clocked in Hut Number Two at eleven-thirty and punched out at three in the morning. So whoever I saw around two in the morning, it wasn’t him.”

“And since it looks like Rivest had been dead for at least five hours when you found him, that rules Champ out.”

“Suspects come, suspects go,” Sean said with a sigh.

They next walked down to the boathouse. Michelle ran an expert’s eye over the watercraft. “Nothing too exceptional, mostly recreational,” she pronounced. She motioned to a twenty-six-foot Formula Bowrider up on a boat lift in one of the slips. “One of the owners of this place must be a New Yorker.”