Water Dictatorship Part 3

Angelo decided to just do what came naturally. If he didn't come up with any clues in the next couple of days, then he'd go home.

Statistically, it's about twelve times more likely that you'll be killed by someone close to you than by a complete stranger. So the logical course of investigation was to dig into Randi's close family.

That meant John Marlowe primarily.

Angelo turned to the computer in the hotel room. It was a generic model that the hotel provided so that businessmen could generate more reports, hold more teleconferences and look at more dirty pictures from the net. Angelo turned it on and logged into the network. Then he tried to contact his computer at the Vista City Police Station. He had powerful search engines in it, and heavy duty network access.

The hotel computer beeped and complained at him. There was an incompatibility somewhere. Both computers used the wildly popular Geos operating system. It wasn't as though they had much choice. Geos dominated the market. Technically the Geos system was mediocre, but it was powered by a marketing juggernaut. More technically apt systems never developed the following or the number of applications that piled up behind the Geos system.

The problem was in the networking. In Vista City they used the generic GeosNetwork, the widespread companion to the Geos system. Again it was technically mediocre, but widespread and convenient to use.

The Century Hilton used the Los Angeles Business Network, the company owned and run by John Marlowe.

The problem seemed to be in convincing the two compet.i.tor networks to exchange data cooperatively. Eventually Angelo had to agree to pay a service fee to both networks before he could access his working computer.

A quick search showed that Randi's parents lived in Minnesota. A whereabouts search authorized by Angelo's police status turned up the data that Randi's father was checked into Minneapolis General Hospital. Mrs. Aiken had used her ATM card in the hospital within eight hours. The reason Mr. Aiken was in the hospital was listed as treatment for prostate cancer. Angelo shelved Randi's parents. He would return to them if anything seemed to warrant it.

Then Angelo turned to John Marlowe. The LABN had glowing biographies and the happy opinion that Marlowe was a visionary. The GeosNetwork didn't even want to admit that he existed. It took Angelo a good deal of effort and riding his Vista City Police status pretty heavily before he got into any serious data.

The Los Angeles Business Network was the only serious compet.i.tor to the GeosNetwork in Los Angeles. Other compet.i.tors had been forced out of the market or out of business altogether years ago. GeosNetwork used it's huge profit margin from other areas to finance cut-throat tactics in Los Angeles. John Marlowe survived by owning a cable television company and turning it into an electronic powerhouse. With the equipment inherited, modified and invented by Zox Cable, the Los Angeles Business Network reached everywhere in Los Angeles like an octopus. In order to build and buy all of this equipment, John Marlowe and his companies were all in hock up to their eyebrows. Multimillionaire John Marlowe was close to being broke. If things kept going the same way, Marlowe and the LABN had another eighteen months at best before GeosNetwork won the battle for the hearts, minds and computers of Los Angeles.

The next morning Angelo walked into the downtown precinct of the LAPD. His Vista City badge was once again prominently displayed. Again, no one gave it a second look and he had total access to the building.

Angelo took the elevator up to the fourth floor and walked down the hallway to the far side of the building. That was where the Investigations department of the downtown precinct was housed. Not too much had changed there since Angelo and Marcus last stepped through the doors on their way out. It was Angelo's first visit in two and a half years.

Angelo walked onto the old office work floor and saw Anderson and Franks hard at work at their desks.

Angelo walked up to them and said "Good morning."

Anderson looked up and became very serious. Franks started to grin merrily.

"Well, Detective, what brings you down here?" Franks smirked.

Angelo put his file of photocopies on her desk. "I was digging around and I came up with a couple of things that might interest you."

Anderson said "I thought I asked you to lay off this thing."

"He's not the type." Franks said.

"Sorry, I'm not." Angelo admitted.

"Okay," Anderson conceded. "One thing. You're a visitor, here. This is our case. You are a.s.sisting us, not the other way around. Do you read me, Detective?"

"Sure." Angelo said. "I don't want to cause any trouble."

Franks snickered. "Sure you don't."

"What have you got?" Anderson asked.

Angelo gave them a run down on his data.

"Well, that's interesting." Anderson said when he was through. "I wonder how it relates to the wife's death?"

"I don't know, yet. It's just one or two pieces. We can make more sense of it after we get more pieces." Angelo said.

"We don't even know if the wife's death was foul play. The current theory is that it was an accident." Franks said.

"True. The pieces may line up that way. We don't know until we have the pieces in hand."

"Ahem." Captain Brown said.

Angelo turned to see his old supervisor standing over him with a characteristically sour look on his face.

"h.e.l.lo." Angelo said. He wanted to say annoying things to his old boss but found that he was still locked into the role of straight man. Marcus was the one who would make the snide comments, and then Angelo would keep a deadly straight face that sent Brown through the roof.

"Well, if it isn't Ex-Detective Mancuso." Brown said. "I thought I made it plain the last time. You aren't welcome here."

"Actually, I'm still a Detective." Angelo said.

"Not around here you're not! What makes you think that giving cows parking tickets qualifies you to come in here and bother my Detectives!?" Brown yelled. Brown's yelling was legendary in the downtown precinct.

"I had some information that might be valuable in the Aiken-Marlowe case." Angelo said. "I was reporting it to the police. That's what citizens do, isn't it?"

"Citizens?! You think you're a citizen? You're a G.o.dd.a.m.n peeping tom, that's what! Mr. Marlowe's the citizen around here. He brings in money and jobs and good press that this town sorely needs. I won't have you chasing people around digging up skeletons out of their closets for no good G.o.dd.a.m.n reason. Is that clear!?" Brown shouted.

"It was just some background data, chief." Franks said. "Detective Mancuso just saved us digging it up today is all."

Brown whirled on Franks "Oh, is that so? What, are you taking f.u.c.k up lessons now? Let me tell ya, Detective Mancuso is the one to talk to about that!"

"Captain, don't you think you're taking this a little too seriously?" Anderson asked. He had a resigned look on his face. Evidently Franks and Anderson were Brown's favorite targets now that Angelo and Marcus were no longer there.

"Seriously? SERIOUSLY!? You don't think that maybe World War Three is serious, Anderson?!" Brown screeched.

"World War Three?" Franks asked. She was grinning at Angelo.

Angelo rolled his eyes.

"This man and his maniac slacker of a partner invaded the Russian Consulate and shot the h.e.l.l out of it! They killed five Russian citizens and injured fifteen others including the Russian Consul! We're lucky they didn't nuke Los Angeles!" Brown yelled.

"We thought they had Anya Donovitch in there." Angelo explained. "We thought her life was in danger." It was an old story, and Brown never listened, anyway.

"Hot pursuit doesn't count for RUSSIA!!" Brown thundered. "They could have held her up to the d.a.m.ned window and strangled her in front of your eyes and you still weren't allowed in! I told you so repeatedly before you ever went in there!"

"Well, you don't see the Russian Mafia smuggling drugs into L.A. too much anymore." Angelo said. Some times it seemed as if Brown forgot who were the bad guys and who were the good guys.

"No, but now the Russian Military has a G.o.dd.a.m.n ICBM targeted on my a.s.s!" Brown yelled.

"What happened to this Anya person?" Franks asked.

"We don't know. She wasn't there. With her gone, our whole case fell apart. That's why Brown was able to get rid of us." Angelo said. "The other times we were able to bring in enough evidence to convince everyone. That time, the witness skipped out and left us holding the bag."