S Hunter - Longevity

“So I’ve imagined,” Chris said.

“We are all good at rationalizing our choices, without even being aware we are doing so,” Paula said. Her eyes flicked over Livvy in much the same way Isabella’s had, then came back to Chris. “I suppose that my father is better at it than most. Respect for the Law will not even make him pause. You will need to compel him.”

Livvy wasn’t prepared to be dismissed. “What would he do to satisfy his obsession?” she asked mildly.

Paula turned back to consider her once more. “Anything. Which is why you are now sitting here, instead of standing downstairs still waiting. My father would choose his own life – his own survival, to be clear – above any other. He believes – he has to believe – he is a Titan, after all. He doesn’t stoop to seeking justification.”

She lifted a hand and the formally dressed man, who was standing by with the customary tea tray, came over and set it on a table between her and her guests. Livvy wondered if the very wealthy, largely confined now to their fortified mansions, would ever abandon this pleasant custom.

“I can tell you my own story, but I’m not sure how much that will help you. My mother told me that once he found out I was a girl he asked her to have an abortion. She refused and he never forgave her. They divorced shortly thereafter and he proceeded to ignore me for most of my life until about 25 years ago when he asked me to give him a grandson. He was prepared to be generous, but not only do I not need the money – my mother’s family has their own resources – but it wouldn’t have mattered if I did. Understand that in the right situation, I might have welcomed children. I would never, under any circumstances, expose them to my father, although I cannot say that he was ever anything worse than neglectful or dismissive.”

“Nothing worse than… Ms. Bedford, do you really believe that your brother’s death was an accident?” Chris asked.

The question didn’t startle her so much as make her turn to him thoughtfully.

“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.”