Fatal Error

Fatal Error by J. A. Jance Read Free Book Online Page B

Book: Fatal Error by J. A. Jance Read Free Book Online
Authors: J. A. Jance
and Mark Blaylock and maybe a secretary. Definitely a skeleton crew.”
    “Richard Lattimer or Lowensdale or whoever he is told Brenda that he was an integral part of the design team. Was he?”
    “I think it’s more likely that he was just a cog in the wheel. When the layoffs hit, Lowensdale was let go right along with everyone else.”
    Ali studied a line in the report. “It says here that he was laid off in February of last year.”
    “That’s right.”
    “But that’s over a year before Brenda had any inkling he was no longer working in San Diego. Every time she made plans to go down there to see him, he came up with some phony excuse or another as to why she shouldn’t come to visit. They were in this supposedly serious relationship without ever laying eyes on one another. How on earth could he deceive her like that for so long?”
    “You tell me,” B. said with a smile. “On paper, at least, he’s nothing special. He has two degrees to his credit—a BS from UCLA and an MBA from Phoenix University. He also routinely signed documents with the PE designation, even though there’s no record of his ever having earned it.”
    “Physical education?” Ali asked.
    “Professional engineer. Requirements vary from state to state, but you have to take and pass exams that demonstrate an understanding of all kinds of engineering principles with an emphasis on your own specialty. I suspect he’s an adequate kind of guy.”
    “Adequate but not brilliant,” Ali said.
    “And with a real tendency to inflate his accomplishments. I’m thinking his BS was totally appropriate.”
    Ali agreed and went back to reading. After being laid off in San Diego, Lowensdale had moved back to Grass Valley. His parents—his mother and stepfather—had died in a car crash more than two years earlier, leaving Richard as their sole heir. For a while he had renters living in the house, but after he lost his job and needed a less expensive place to live, he got rid of the renters—evicted them, actually—and then had moved back to Grass Valley in July.
    “What a creep,” Ali said. “He’s spent the past year living forty miles or so from Brenda, all the while claiming he was still in San Diego.”
    “Right. Since he was no longer there, no wonder he needed to find one excuse after another to explain why Brenda shouldn’t go to San Diego to visit him.”
    “What’s this house in Grass Valley like?” Ali asked.
    After shuffling through some extra papers, B. plucked a single sheet out of the bunch.
    “According to his Zillow report, Lowensdale’s place on Jan Road is valued at two hundred eighty-five thousand.”
    “That’s pretty reasonable,” Ali said. “Especially for California real estate. Must be fairly modest, but still, if he hasn’t worked in more than a year, what does he do for money?”
    “He doesn’t appear to need much,” B. said. “He was on unemployment for a while, but there was also some kind of insurance settlement—with an undisclosed amount—that came as a result of the drunk-driving incident that killed his mother and stepfather. His ride is a ten-year-old Cadillac, which, like the house, he inherited from his mother. He apparently orders online and has everything delivered—food, clothing, books, electronics, you name it. His medications come from an online pharmacy in Canada. Oh, and as far as Stu can tell, he doesn’t have garbage service, or at least he doesn’t pay for it.”
    “What about his father?” Ali asked.
    B. gave Ali a puzzled look. “Did his father have garbage service?”
    “No,” she said with a laugh. “Richard told Brenda that his father committed suicide. Did he?”
    “That part was true. His father blew his brains out in his office at the Grass Valley Group/Tektronix plant while Richard was a junior in high school. His mother remarried two days after her first husband’s funeral. She married a guy who was supposedly one of the father’s best friends, which sounds

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