The Emperor's Revenge (Oregon Files 11)

Munier moved his lips twice while the guard was away, like a whisper. At first, Juan thought he was speaking to himself, but it seemed too deliberate, on third glance, as if he were responding to something being said to him.

Juan looked back at Gretchen. “Someone’s talking to him. He could be wearing an earpiece that we can’t see.”

“That’s my thought. Rivard thinks he hired a hacker to build the computer virus for him, but I think someone forced him to do this. I’ve studied Munier’s dossier and he was a family man, made a lot of money, and didn’t have a gambling problem.”

“Some people think they never have enough money.”

“True,” Gretchen said, “but he wasn’t the violent type. Assassinating three men, including his vice president? No, Munier is the type to take his chances with a lawyer, not try to cover his tracks with this killing spree. Believe me, I’ve seen plenty of bankers get away with crimes you’d think would send them to prison for years.”

“But that doesn’t explain why he made a mad getaway from the police and killed himself when he got cornered.”

With no more answers from the video, they went down to the garage.

They spent an hour trying to reenact how Munier might have killed two guards and stuffed them into the back of his vehicle. They concluded the middle-aged banker could have accomplished it, but it would have been a physically draining experience.

“Where was he before he came to the bank?” Juan asked.

“Many witnesses saw him get on a yacht called the Achilles to attend a party during the Grand Prix. Rivard concluded that was intended to be Munier’s alibi.”

“No one s

aw him leave?”

“If anyone did, they haven’t come forward yet.”

“I’d like to talk to the crew.”

“You can’t,” Gretchen said. “The Achilles is gone, along with a dozen other yachts. Few of them wanted to stick around after the Grand Prix was called off.”

“Without witnesses, it’ll be impossible to retrace his steps and find out if anyone was coercing him.”

“The police are talking to his wife, but she seems to be as shocked as everyone else.”

“Maybe Linda will be able to shed some light on the situation when she gets back.”

Juan’s phone rang. It was Eric.

“Did you find something?” Juan answered.

“You could say that,” Eric said with excitement. “It’s a message from the hacker.”

ELEVEN

Just as Juan and Gretchen reached the bank lobby on their way to Munier’s office, Linda walked through the front door with a grim look on her face.

“Bad?” Juan said.

“The entire garage was gutted,” Linda said. “Munier hit a fuel tank dead-on. He was driving an electric car, and the lithium-ion batteries ignited and cooked it good. The bodies were ash and bones, one in the driver’s seat and two in the trunk. They had already been taken to the morgue, but the car was still there.”

“Did you see anything that stood out?” Juan told her about their suspicion that Munier was being coerced.

Linda thought about it and then her eyes lit up. “I talked to the crime scene investigators and they did mention one odd detail. There was an extra cell phone in the car.”

“You mean one of the men inside had two cell phones on him?” Gretchen asked.

“No, they found the cell phone on the floor of the front seat, like it had fallen there. It seemed to have some plastic residue melted onto it. They thought it might have been in a bag, but I got a gander at it. It looked to me like the plastic from a zip tie was wrapped around it.”

Gretchen gave her a puzzled look. “You mean the phone was lashed to something?”