Chapter 2 - The First Client

It didn't take long before the police arrived. And at about midnight, Joe Cannon, the detective assigned to the case showed up. He was a tough character, and proceeded to relentlessly grill Elise Howard (the girl who brought me to the GigaCalc building).

"You're the GigaCalc receptionist?"

"Yes."

"Do you own a chainsaw?"

"No."

"Now let me see if I have this correct. You say you found the head in the main conference room and the body out here in the lobby?"

"Yes, sir," she wept.

"And that's when you got the blood on your blouse?"

"Yes. I rubbed up against the podium where Mr. Koober's head was and..." She broke out in tears again.

"And that's when you went to Svensen's office?"

"Yes," she sobbed.

"Why didn't you call the police then?"

"I was afraid you would think I had done it."

"Well, you're not wrong about that." Cannon nodded to one of the uniformed officers. "Read her her rights, Bill."

"Mr. Svensen! Please help me!" Elise shouted back at me as the officer led her away.

I nodded to her as Cannon scribbled something in his notebook and turned toward me. I could tell this gumshoe was going to give a hard time.

"Okay, Svensen. What's your story?" He stared at me for a few seconds. It was obvious he didn't like me. But most police detectives don't like private eyes, especially when we solve the cases they can't crack. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

"Yes, several years ago you investigated the theft of a laptop computer at BSI over on River Rock."

"That's right. You were a janitor, right?"

"Yes, I was."

"And now you're a P.I.?"

"Yes, I am. I took a correspondence course. Here's my license to practice in the county of Sacramento." I removed my private investigators license from my wallet and handed it to him.

He made a scoffing noise as he looked at the license and returned it to me.

"I thought you had a thick Norwegian accent back then. Where'd it go?"

"Well, the correspondence school also offered a speech course, I took it at the same time as the detective's course. The school also offers a course in computer repair, I'm sure you've seen the ads on TV with Sally Struthers."

"Yeah, well, I think this is an open-and-shut case. She sawed her boss' head off with a chainsaw, we'll figure out the motive later."

"I don't think so, Detective Cannon. When she came into my office..."

"That was her second big mistake. I want you to stay out of this investigation, Svensen. You're way out of your league here. Leave this to the professionals."

"That woman is my client, and I have every right to..."

"I'm going to give you this last warning, Svensen, stay out of this. I suggest you go back to changing urinal cakes."

And with those encouraging words, he left.

I got to the Folsom Police Department early the next morning. They had booked Elise and were getting ready to transport her to the County jail where she would be held until her arraignment.

Although I didn't believe she murdered the CEO of GigaCalc, there was a lot of evidence against her. Detective Cannon had been questioning her all night. When I got there she was a mess. She told me that Cannon had gotten her to admit that several hours before the murder, Timothy Koober, the CEO, had tongue-lashed her in front of a crowd of fellow employees. Apparently she had made reservations for the Marketing Department for a flight to Dallas. They were to attend a software convention there. However, upon arrival, the marketeers discovered that Elise had failed to make hotel and rental car reservations. Her excuse, and it made sense to me, was that they had failed to check those boxes on their travel requisitions.

Koober reamed her a new one publicly and Cannon had the motive he was looking for.

"Mr. Svensen? Do you believe I didn't do it?"

"Yes, I do. I'm going to contact a lawyer friend of mine for you. His name is Mickey Penn."

"Thank you."

"It may take a few days before he can see you. In the meantime, despite Cannon's warning, I'm going to check out some other suspects. Now, who do you think killed your CEO?"

"I've thought about this all night. There is only one person I can think of."

"And who's that?"

"The one person I would suspect the most is Nick Harrigan, the VP of Engineering."