Big Data: A Startup Thriller Novel

Chapter 20

We stared at each other in disbelief, both thinking the same thing. It had to be Taye. Did Thor know about Gaia? Maybe, but maybe not. Taye hadn't told Alex about Gaia during his brief interrogation. But chances were good that Thor did know about Gaia.

Though this brought up many questions, there was one thing we knew for a fact: I couldn't leave the state. My hands were tied.

As if Alex could read my mind, he said: "Maybe I could go try to get ahold of the kid."

"You won't get past the front doors at Ancien. You're not a cop any more, and our security is incredibly tight. Our customers demand it. Even in our facilities that don't have physical servers, we can't let outsiders mingle with employees. It's a huge no-no for us. Always has been. And what would you even do if you were able to find him?"

Alex didn't say anything for a long while.

I wondered how this kid could get across the country so quickly without getting spotted at the airport. And why would he end up at my company headquarters? If he wanted to talk to me so badly, why not try to find me at my hotel? Of course, that would have had its risks, but Taye didn't seem too concerned about risky behavior. Maybe he figured I'd already gone home.

But then again, I barely knew the kid. And he was clearly out of his mind for pulling that stunt at the stock exchange. Maybe he was making up all that death-rate stuff in a desperate bid for fame. I'd certainly run into my fair share of lunatics. What if he was just another?

I broke the silence, "Well, I guess that's it then."

I stood up and turned back to the police station. Alex didn't look up to say goodbye.

"That's it?" asked Alex.

"What am I supposed to say? Really?"

"Less than a day ago you were trying to convince me not to give up."

"That was before I got arrested for two felonies. It's over. My hands are tied. What business do we have investigating this in the first place? Let's just leave it to the people whose job it is to investigate."

"Those buffoons couldn't find a monkey's ass if it were sitting on their nose."

"But when we tell them that Taye crossed state lines, they'll bring in the FBI," I argued.

Alex laughed a full-hearted belly laugh.

"And why are they going to believe us?"

"My phone's dead, but we can tell them what the message said."

"A black kid's locked in a room with a rich white dude in California? That lead will go cold faster than your sandwich."

I looked down. I'd forgotten I'd even been hungry.

"Let me explain something to you, Luna. Those two starry-eyed buffoons in there are trying to win their way up the ladder as quickly as possible. They hand the case to the FBI, and they lose their chance at a promotion."

"But they'll never find him on their own."

"They don't know that for sure."

"Maybe Thor's holding the kid in the locked room because he called the police himself. Maybe the FBI is heading to Ancien's headquarters as we speak."

Alex rolled his eyes. I sat down again.

"What? How do you know that's not what's happening?"

"Occam's razor."

"Huh?"

"What's the simplest explanation? That somehow Taye, a high-profile young black man, escaped prison on his own, made his way to JFK Airport, evaded all the police there, was able to get through security with bogus identification, and showed up on the other side of the country?"

"Well, when you put it that way."

"Someone helped the kid. He's a genius, but he's definitely no criminal mastermind. Toilet paper rolls? Really? It stands to reason that he's probably still with whoever helped him. Simplest answer."

"But why? What's Thor have to do with all this?" I asked.

"You're asking the wrong question."

I went silent. I understood what Alex meant. I knew what question I needed to be asking. And trust me, I was asking it. But I didn't know the answer.

"You can't go find Taye," I said.

"Right."

"So, I have to go find him."

"Not necessarily. You could forget about the whole thing. The unexplained deaths. The strange ties they have to your company. You could let the cops pump you for information over the next few weeks. Let the case cool down. Eventually, they'll get tired of playing cat and mouse with you and let you go. Then you could fly back and hope that Taye's still there. Maybe he'll even still be alive."

"Let me ask you something," I said.

"Shoot."

"Why do you care so much? What's in it for you?"

"You know how some cops retire and can't reintegrate into the real world? They keep thinking about that one case that got away? The one that never got solved? Then they eventually blow their brains out, right?"

"Oh, Alex—"

"No, no, no. That's not me. I solved all my big cases. When I was–when I left, I left with a clear conscience. Sure I had open cases. But none that haunted me."

"Then what?"

"A death that I thought I understood."

"And now you think it might be murder? Connected to whatever this is?"

"If I let Laurel and Hardy run this, I'll never know the truth. And it's the not-knowing that will lead me to blow my brains out."

I looked around the park. There was a boy playing hopscotch and holding his mother's hand while she talked on her cellphone. A businessman was reading a newspaper. A delivery boy sped by on his bike. He nearly hit the little boy, but the mother didn't notice.

"Well, then. Let's go before I change my mind."