THE VIRON CONSPIRACY (JAKE SCARNE THRILLERS #4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

door to the Mahogany Room opened and two waiters arrived with their food and wine. Todd told them he didn’t want to be disturbed and he would handle the wine pouring himself. He waited until after they left and he and his guests started eating before continuing.
    “Katherine was devastated, of course.” Todd took a sip of his wine and smiled appreciatively. “The death was a shock, and the media frenzy afterward was, well, frankly disgusting.”
    “It was that,” Tierney said. “But what did you expect, Winston? Vallance was the C.E.O. of one of the nation’s largest corporations. He did his swan dive onto a field full of high school kids playing baseball.”
    The food and drink were certainly excellent, Scarne mused, but he wished Todd would stop beating about the bush.
    “Where do I fit into all this, Winston?”
    Todd cleared his throat.
    “Well, I suppose I have to get to it.” He affected a rueful smile. “Mrs. Vallance thinks her husband was murdered.”
    Scarne laughed. He couldn’t help it.
    “I hope you didn’t bill her for that information, Winston. Everyone else on the planet thinks the same thing.”
    Todd shook his head.
    “You don’t understand. She doesn’t believe that the skydiver who killed Bryan was making some sort of political statement and just picked him because he was a handy target. She thinks Campbell, that was the fellow’s name, was put up to it by someone else. It was a murder, just not the one the police assumed.”
    Scarne looked at Tierney, whose face was impassive.
    “She bases that on what?” Scarne asked.
    “Well, for one thing,” Todd continued, “this Campbell fellow specifically asked to be paired with Bryan Vallance when the jumpers were broken down into teams. Gave the guy who was set to go with Bryan some cock-and-bull story about friends in common. Man never questioned it and just switched.”
    “So,” Scarne said, “what’s strange about that? Campbell wanted to kill the head man.”
    “Then, there was Campbell’s family.”
    “What about it? I don’t remember the exact details, but I seem to recall that the cops were sure he killed them. A confession. Lots of forensic evidence.”
    “They still are convinced,” Todd said, “which makes all this so much more difficult. Katherine doesn’t think Campbell murdered his wife and daughter. For one thing, there was another child, a baby boy, who was not harmed. She thinks a truly deranged person would not have spared him.”
    “Deranged means crazy,” Scarne said. “You don’t know what was going on inside the guy’s head. Maybe he didn’t have the stomach or the heart for it.”
    “That’s what I told Katherine,” Todd said, waving a fork with a piece of crackling pork at Scarne. Then he put it in his mouth. “But she’s adamant.”
    “Adamant about what? Who does she think killed the wife and daughter?”
    Now, Todd looked really uncomfortable.
    “Whoever forced Campbell to kill her husband. She believes the family was probably being held hostage until Campbell murdered Bryan , and then killed anyway to silence them.”
    “Does she have anything to back any of this up?”
    “No.”
    “Has she gone to the police with her suspicions?”
    “No. She came to us first, for advice. She knows that without proof she could open herself up to slander charges from some of the people she suspects.”
    “She gave you names?”
    “No. Katherine Vallance sees a conspiracy of some kind and will spare no expense to uncover it. She says Bryan’s death was just too convenient for some other people. But she realizes that some of those who benefited from Bryan’s death didn’t necessarily kill him.” Todd paused. “If anyone did, that is. Obviously, when there is a change at the top, opportunities arise for advancement within the company. But she believes that this goes beyond mere corporate ambition. And there is another consideration. She is afraid that if she is correct and the purported killer, or