Kim Baldwin - The Gemini Deception

“I doubt the president will want to golf,” Shield said. “Perhaps a bit too premature still.”

“I understand,” the manager replied.

Shield looked closely at the monitors displaying images from the course. “Where exactly did Mr. Thomas collapse?”

“Right here.” He pointed to one of the monitors.

“Do you keep digital records?”

“Usually only for a few weeks, but in Mr. Thomas’s case, we kept it.”

“Why?”

“I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but it’s not usual to have a first man die…I mean collapse, at our club.”

“You kept it for memorabilia reasons?”

He looked chagrined. “We also didn’t know if the FBI would want to take a look at it.”

“Did they?”

“No.”

“It was a straightforward situation,” she said. “Mr. Thomas was a heart patient, after all.”

“Indeed.”

“Did you notice anything out of the ordinary that day?”

“Such as?” He looked at her suspiciously.

“In light of the attack on President Thomas, we want to make sure everything runs smoothly. I have to know if we need to eliminate anything or anyone as a possible threat.” Her response didn’t really answer his question, but when it came to Thomas’s security after the attack, everyone jumped to attention.

“Of course. I understand.” The manager cleared his throat. “Such a wonderful woman. She used to come here with her husband before her election. It’s horrible when things like this happen.” He looked skeptical.

“So, nothing out of the ordinary?”

“Like I told the FBI.” He touched his nose. “Mr. Thomas arrived around noon, had coffee and lunch with his three friends, and an hour or so later, all of them left for the course.”

“And the restaurant is monitored, you said.”

“Of course. These cameras, right here.” He pointed to a quartet of monitors in the right corner. The club dining room had twenty or so tables, a third of them currently filled with golfers having breakfast or coffee.

“And I assume you kept the footage of those as well?”

He looked away, embarrassed. “Indeed.” Did the guy ever use any other words except indeed and of course ?

“I would like copies from that day of every area he visited.”

The man lifted his eyebrow.

“I, too, am guilty of morbid curiosity.” Shield tried to sound a bit embarrassed at the admission. The man smiled and Shield continued. “But I want them primarily to study the area.”

“Of course. I understand.”

“Do you mind if I take a look at the footage while you make copies?”

“Well…I—”

“For practical purposes,” she said. “If I have any questions, I can ask while I’m here.”

He seemed to consider it a few moments. “Please, follow me.”

The manager took Shield to his office and sat her at his desk. He retrieved a DVD from the bookcase behind her and inserted it into the drive in his computer, then pulled up a chair for himself. “This is a comprehensive copy you can have.”

The footage was pretty boring for the first forty minutes, with Jeffrey Thomas at the restaurant drinking coffee with his friends and seemingly enjoying himself. He took a pill and had lunch. Shield was about to press Forward when she caught a slight change in Thomas’s expression. He went from smiling and talking to silent and withdrawn, his eyes and mouth tight with worry or pain; Shield couldn’t be sure which. “Didn’t you notice his discomfort when you viewed the footage?”

“I did.”

Shield backed up the copy and hit Pause. “It’s clear he took his pill before he ate.”

The manager moved in closer to look. Shield let the footage continue and noticed Thomas grimace after he took a good sip of coffee. He said something to his friends and took another, smaller sip. This time his expression was less sour, and he continued to drink from the mug throughout lunch.

“Do you have a list of people on duty that day?” she asked.

“Yes, but why?”

Shield backed the tape up all the way to the beginning, before Thomas and his friends placed their orders. She paused it when the waiter came into view. “Who’s the waiter?”

The manager peered at the still image. “I don’t recognize him offhand. I’ll have to ask.” He picked up the phone and called his personnel staffer. “I need the names of all the waiters present on the twelfth of October, working the morning shift.”

Shield kept her eyes on the young man on the monitor while she waited.

The manager jotted down some names and hung up. “All but one of the three people working that morning are full-timers and have been with us anywhere from a year to five years.”

“And the one?”

“A temp from an agency. He came in to replace his girlfriend, who’d called in sick.”

“Do you have his name?”

“Dennis Weitman.”

“How about an address or number?”

He picked up the phone and called personnel again. “Lives in Bath and gave us a cell-phone number.” He wrote it down.

Shield pulled out her cell and dialed Weitman’s number. She got a recording telling her the number was no longer in use. “Is the girlfriend working today?”

He shook his head. “She left to take another job not long after this happened.” After another call to personnel, he wrote down the woman’s name, number, and address. “Her place isn’t far. Just down the road a couple miles.”

She pocketed the information. “What agency sent Weitman?”

“We use Rapid. Here’s that number.”

Shield Bluetoothed the restaurant footage onto her phone before she ejected the DVD. “Thank you for your help. I’ll let you know if I need anything else.”

“What does all this mean?” the manager asked. “This Weitman temp, was he involved in something?”

“I can’t know that.”

“This could be catastrophic for the country club. We make good work of hiring capable personnel.”

“Please, don’t jump to conclusions and don’t spread stories. I have no proof this young man, unbeknownst or otherwise, was involved in anything.”

“Of course. Any stories or rumors would be disastrous for our reputation.”

“Thank you again,” she said. “I’ll show myself out.”

Chapter Twenty-one

Shield got back in her rental and called EOO headquarters on her cell. She forwarded the footage to Reno’s e-mail while she waited for him to come on the line.

“I need current info on a Dennis Weitman,” she told him. “Lived in Bath, Maine, and worked for the Rapid Temporary Agency last October. He’s the waiter in the footage I’ve just sent to your e-mail.”

“Hang on, let me take a look,” Reno replied before taking a noisy slurp of whatever liquid he was consuming. “That’s the president’s husband in the bottom of the screen, right?”

“Yeah. Work your magic and see what you can get off this. Jeffrey Thomas had some obvious discomfort in the video, and this waiter who served him is in the wind.”

“You got it.”

“I’m en route to see his girlfriend,” she told him as she started the car and pulled away from the curb. “I’ll call you back after I’m done there.”

The address the country-club manager gave her was that of a low-rent apartment complex desperately in need of attention. The exterior paint was peeling and cracked, the parking lot was full of potholes, and the lawn was riddled with yellow spots and dog feces.

Inside the entryway was a wall of mailboxes and a massive speakerphone system that allowed residents to buzz visitors in through the locked interior door. Shield hit the button next to a plate that read, J. GINGRAS, 2D. “Julie Gingras?”