That Which Maddens and Torments

THAT WHICH MADDENS AND TORMENTS

Published by Christopher Keating at Smashwords

Copyright 2015 by Christopher Keating

Also by Christopher Keating

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Original book design by Don Foote. [email protected]

This book is a work of fiction. All characters and incidents are fictional and are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Dedicated to all of my friends in Mason who put up with me while

I was writing this novel, and at other times, as well.

Prologue

We know you have the Veritas report, Professor. Just give it to us or tell us where we can find it, and we’ll leave. No one is going to hurt you, but I must know where to find the report.

Seth Kern had been good to his word. They hadn’t hurt him – so far. In fact, they had treated him quite well. It didn’t really change things, though. They were waiting for him in the apartment when he arrived and forced him to sit at the table. Kern sat with him while his partner, Conrad Holiday, searched his place.

Are you comfortable, Dr. Chriswald? Can I get you something to drink? Maybe something to eat? Kern asked.

The old man shook his head. He was short, with a small potbelly and his small glasses gave him an almost caricature look of a studious professor. His receding hairline failed to hide the glistening sweat.

Why are you still here? I answered all of your questions. I don’t have the report. There were only so many printed, and they were strictly controlled. I never received a copy.

Please, Professor. Don’t lie to me. You’re an old man, and it wouldn’t take me long to force it out of you, but I don’t want to do that. Tell me what I want to know, and we’ll be on our way.

He was a scary looking figure. He wasn’t large or muscular. He was actually only about average height and slim with a sharp, angular look to his face. His hair was so blond it was nearly white. But, there was a look about him that made you think this was someone to avoid, someone who would make you cross the street so you didn’t have to walk by him. His light-blue eyes were the eyes of a dead person, staring at the world without feeling.

He was sitting patiently with the professor when Holiday came back.

I can’t find anything. It’s not here.

Kern looked at the old man and said, We’re going to have to do this the hard way. You will not like this. But, don’t worry, it won’t take long. You’ll give in quickly enough.

Surprised at how fast the old professor could move, Kern was caught off guard. Before he could react, Chriswald jumped from his chair and raced across the room - not towards the locked door, but away from Kern – towards the window. Without uttering a sound, he went head first through the window, shattering the glass as he did.

Holiday started to run after the old professor until Seth stopped him.

No! Someone might see you. He’s done. It’s five stories to the sidewalk.

Oh, man! He killed himself! We made him commit suicide. I can’t believe it! This place is going to be crawling with people. We need to get out of here.

Kern could already hear the screams outside and calmly nodded his head, Did he have some kind of phone list?

Yes, but I didn’t have time to copy it. If we take it, someone might notice it's missing.

We’ll have to take the chance. He knew he would be forced to talk, and he was willing to die instead. That means he hid it somewhere, and didn’t want to tell us. He might have sent it to someone he knows for safe keeping.

They let themselves out, carefully locking the door behind them and left the building before anyone had a chance to see them. The clamor out front helped cover their escape. People were looking to see what the fuss was all about and weren’t in the hallway.

Once clear of the building Conrad asked, Did you mean it? Were you going to let him go?

Yes. I wasn’t paid to kill him, just to recover the document. A dead body always results in an investigation. Besides, what was he going to do? Tell people about the report? Even if he did, people would have ignored him. It would have been another crazy conspiracy theory without proof or evidence. No, he wasn’t a threat to us.

What’s this report about? Conrad asked him as they calmly walked away from the suicide scene.

I’m not sure and I don’t really care. The people that pay us feel it is something that can’t be leaked and want it back. That’s all we need to know.

He wasn’t concerned about the dead professor. They had been careful breaking in and had made sure to not leave any evidence of their presence as they searched the apartment. He had no idea what kind of explanation the police would come up with, but he was sure it wouldn’t involve the two of them.

He was more concerned with what to tell his client. The professor was dead, and the only lead they had was an address book. He had been in bad situations before, however, and would explain it somehow. Besides, he knew his clients wanted the report so badly they would not object too much. They would let some things slide as long as Kern was making progress.

I wonder. If he had the report, why didn’t he take it to the press? Kern said, almost to himself.

Holiday shrugged his shoulders. Maybe he was thinking about blackmail?

Kern shook his head. I haven’t heard anything like that. From what I can tell, the people involved would have paid and moved on. No, I have a feeling there is more to this. It might be important.

With a sigh, he pulled out the address book and began thumbing through it.

Hopefully, one of these people knows something, he said, thinking out loud.

Chapter One

She realized something was wrong as soon as she opened the door and saw the suitcase. She knew he didn’t have any trips planned.

Uncle Lee? Are you going somewhere?

Josephine Black walked through the dining room into the apartment’s living room. Filled with comfortable furniture, this was clearly a room intended for daily use and not reserved for when guests arrived. A built-in bookcase occupied one entire wall and was filled with neatly arranged books, all protected by glass doors with light etchings along the edges. Jo found Lee Smoling sitting in his favorite reading chair, staring out the window.

What’s going on, Uncle Lee? Is something wrong?

Yes. I received the news Winfred Chriswald died a few days ago. Even after decades in New York City, he still had a soft accent from growing up in Iowa.

She had met her uncle’s friend several times and liked the gentle old man.

Oh, I’m so sorry. What happened?

They don’t know. He fell through his window somehow. There was no indication of any kind of foul play and nothing to suggest suicide. They ruled it an accident.

But, you sound like you’re not sure.

Oh, I don’t know. He was an old man, and he might have tripped like they said. I just have a feeling.

So you think there may be more to it?

No, I guess not. They said there wasn’t any evidence of anyone else being there. But, I know he was involved with something, and I have to wonder if it got him killed.

What do you mean? What was he involved with?

His attitude suddenly changed and he smiled at her.

Listen to you, Jo! Acting like a reporter already, and you haven’t even gotten the job yet.

Well, it doesn’t seem like the right time to tell you now, but the fact is, I got the job. I came right home to tell you about it.

He got up out of his chair and gave her a big hug.

I am so glad to hear it! You worked very hard; you earned this job. The Evening Star! That is a fine newspaper. I am proud of you. When do you start?

I start part-time next week until graduation and then I’ll be full-time right after that. I’m assigned to the science department, and I’ll be working for Bill Chandler.

That is such good news. I’m glad you told me. I needed to hear something good.

But, what about you, you poor dear? Where are you going?

I need to go to Winfred’s funeral and to visit with his family. He raised some fine children, and I want to be there to do what I can for them. They told me they would have called sooner, but they couldn’t find Winfred’s address book and it took them a while to find my phone number.

I understand. How are you getting to the airport?

I already called a taxi. It should be here soon. I’ll be gone less than a week.

They sat and talked for a few minutes before the doorman rang to tell them the taxi had arrived. Josephine offered to carry his bag to the cab, and as she picked it up she noticed the large envelope he was carrying.

Just something I need to drop in the mail, he said when he saw her looking.

I can do that for you, she volunteered.

No, no. I’ll take care of it. But, there is something you can do for me. Take that bag of papers there and see they’re destroyed. Don’t put them in the garbage or recycle. They’re personal papers I needed to clean out. I don’t want to take the chance of someone reading through my dirty old laundry. See if you can find a shredder at the university.

She helped him out to the taxi and watched as it went out of sight before returning to the apartment living room.

The tall brunette was an attractive figure standing in the middle of the room as she looked around. She had spent a lot of time here, studying and discussing her classes with her uncle, sometimes debating with him.

The apartment always seemed so empty without Uncle Lee. He was an amazing man, and his presence could fill the room. Not that he was a large man. He was in good shape for a man in his 70s – tall and slim. Only his full head of white hair indicated his age.

He was an intellectual, though, so intelligent it felt as if you were in the presence of a great mind. And, she thought, you would be right. He really was a great mind. She felt privileged to have had him as her private tutor while in college, and he brought out the best in her.

Many guys had asked her out over the years. Although she had dated some of them, she didn’t feel any connection with them. She always felt they were only interested in her because of her good looks. She had an intelligent, aggressive mind to go with her beauty and wanted someone who could match wits with her, as her uncle did so well.

As she looked around the room, she noted everything was in its place. She knew he loved having her live with him while she was in school, but she also knew it drove him crazy to have anything moved out of place. That was the way his mind worked; it had taken some time for them to adjust to each other.

His library demonstrated how orderly his mind was. All books were lined up perfectly on the shelves in the proper order. At least, they were in the proper order according to her uncle. No one else seemed able to figure out the method he used, but he could call her on the phone and direct her to a specific book if he needed her to look up something for him. She moved some of the books a few times, just to see if he would notice. He did.

Jo enjoyed their time together. True, there were times when the lifestyles of a young woman and an old man clashed, but those times were the exception. Once they established boundaries and each adjusted they had had a very good relationship. She learned not to rearrange things. He learned to accept some changes. Eventually, they worked out a happy medium with which they could both live.

Lee Smoling received his degree in physics from MIT and went on to Princeton for graduate studies in geophysics. Equipped with a brand-new Ph.D., and the help of his professor at Princeton, he went to work at Hudson University as a junior associate professor and never left. Eventually, he became a full professor and even the department head of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences before heart disease forced him to take early retirement, becoming a professor emeritus. When he retired, he left behind a legacy of scientific discoveries, as well as a long list of students, many of whom went on to become accomplished professors themselves.

Everyone who knew Lee admired and respected him. This led to a large group of acquaintances and associates, but none closer than his longtime friend Winfred Chriswald. They had worked together – and fought together – on many papers, oftentimes over a table full of empty beer bottles late into the night. Some of their best work was done then. Too bad it wasn’t anything they could publish. And, together, they had grown old.

Chriswald was the one to move away when they were young. He met a wonderful young lady, and the two of them had received positions at another university. Lee didn’t mind because he, too, had found a woman to love. She was everything he had ever dreamed of in a woman. Lee was Winfred’s best man, and Winfred was his. They were both very happy with beautiful, loving brides, great new careers and the frontiers of science before them until the flu took Lee’s young wife away from him shortly after they married. He never forgot her or remarried.

Chriswald was heartbroken for his best friend. He did everything he could, but he always felt a little guilty he had found happiness and his best friend suffered such a tragedy. Later, when his wife also died, he understood Lee better and was finally at peace with what had happened.

Jo had always looked up to her mother’s brother as she was growing up and loved to hear his passion when he talked about his field of study. He had been her inspiration and mentor in her pursuit of a minor in geophysics in addition to her major in journalism. He was the reason she ended up where she was today.

Considering his sorrow over his friend’s death, she didn’t have the heart to tell him she was moving out after graduation.

§§§§§

When Jo Black left for the university the next day, Seth Kern and Conrad Holiday were watching. They stayed where they were for several minutes to make sure she wasn’t coming back. Finally, Kern turned to Holiday.

Let’s go. The old man is in North Carolina, and she has classes all morning. We should have as much time as we need.

Holiday didn’t bother asking how Kern knew that information. Kern, he found, had resources Holiday didn’t know anything about, and he preferred to keep it that way. He was paid well for his work, and that was all that mattered.

Dressed as maintenance workmen, they approached the doorman and produced paperwork showing they needed to work on the electrical system in the building. The doorman reviewed the papers, checked their IDs and looked in their bag. The equipment was genuine – Holiday knew his stuff.

Where will you be working?

Holiday told him, We won’t know until we’ve had a chance to check out the system. A fault overload has been detected coming from this building, and we’ll need to track down the exact cause.

OK. Here are visitor badges. Be sure to wear them at all times and please be sure to check out when you leave.

Sure, can you direct us to the electrical room?

Kern admired the way Holiday was able to get in buildings so easily. He didn’t know how he got the papers and IDs, but he knew Conrad was always able to have the right item to do the job. Any time he wanted access somewhere, Holiday was his go-to guy.

Once in, they spent some time in the electrical room to establish themselves as genuine workers. Holiday opened up electrical boxes and started checking the circuits with his meters. Suddenly, he gave out a low laugh.

The funny thing is they really do have an electrical issue. This circuit is drawing more current than it’s supposed to. I’m guessing its debris in the AC condensers on the roof, but it’ll give us a good excuse to be moving around the building. And, I think the third floor would be the best place to start looking for the problem.

Kern and Holiday carefully checked the third-floor hallway to ensure no one was there before Holiday went to work on the apartment door. It took him only a few seconds to open it.

Pretty simple. They must rely on the building for security.

They moved inside and closed the door behind them. A quick look around the apartment confirmed it was empty.

OK. Let’s get this done before someone starts to look for us, Kern said as they put on gloves.

Silently, they began a thorough search of the residence, beginning at one end and proceeding in an orderly manner. Kern checked his watch and realized they had been there longer than he wished. He was concerned the building security would notice they hadn’t been around and encouraged Holiday to hurry. He was searching the bookcase when he looked over and noticed a small gap between two books on the next shelf. From this angle, he could see the dust on the shelf had been wiped clean, as if someone had pulled a book out. Without looking, he put the book he was holding back where he found it and told Holiday, We can leave. It’s not here anymore.

§§§§§

Holiday had insisted they go to the roof and clean out some electrical boxes. Debris was putting a strain on the system and if there was an actual overload the building management would wonder why the two workers had not fixed the problem.

You said you didn’t want anyone to know what we were doing here. If someone starts asking questions it might tip them off about us, Holiday said. They both agreed it would be better if that didn’t happen.

The job took only a few minutes before they retrieved all of their tools and returned to the lobby. They kept their heads down while they signed out and returned the badges.

The doorman asked if everything was alright. Holiday smiled, told him about the roof and responded with enough technical talk the doorman was satisfied, without understanding everything Holiday said. Then, with tool bags in hand, they exited the building and disappeared into the sidewalk crowd.

§§§§§

Josephine’s stomach was telling her it was getting close to lunchtime. Classes, library research and disposing of her uncle’s bag of old documents as he had asked had filled the morning. Normally, she would spend the afternoon working on projects or doing research in the library. But, it was nearly the end of the semester and the April spring days were so nice she felt less motivated than normal and decided to spend the afternoon at home.

Despite a hot dog from one of New York’s ubiquitous dog carts, she was still hungry by the time she got back to the apartment and went straight to the kitchen to make herself a sandwich. Placing the bread on the counter she happened to notice her uncle’s medication bottles. He took what he needed with him when he traveled and would leave the large bottles behind. He was always very particular about them, and they had to line up perfectly along a grout line between the countertop tiles. It wasn’t that he was OCD; he just liked them that way. Science depends on precision, he would say. Closing the drawers or cabinets too forcefully would knock them out of line, and he would quietly put them back. After a while, she learned to make sure they were lined up the way he liked them. She stood there with her hand on the loaf of bread, staring at the bottles. There was no doubt about it – they were out of line.

She looked around the kitchen and didn’t notice anything else out of place. With a mixture of curiosity and trepidation, she carefully checked the rest of the apartment. No one was there, and nothing seemed to be missing.

She checked the living room and was about to decide she must have knocked the medicine bottles that morning without realizing it, but she made a quick inspection of her uncle’s books before forgetting the matter. Many of them were rare and very valuable. It was possible, she thought, but not likely, someone broke in and stole a book. They would have to know a lot about books, but she looked anyway, and it was then she noticed one of the books was upside down. It was absolutely unthinkable her uncle would do that.

There could be no doubt about it; someone had been in the apartment.

§§§§§

When asked, the doorman told her someone had visited the building during the morning.

Sure, Ms. Black. Some workers from the electric company were here checking out the electrical systems. Why?

Oh, nothing special. I just noticed some debris in the hallway outside my uncle’s apartment. I was wondering, did the security cameras happen to get a picture of them? In case they come back, I can mention to them they should be more careful about cleaning up after themselves.

Good looking girls always figure out how to make their looks work to their advantage and Jo was no exception. Men are so easy. Even though he knew he shouldn’t do it, the doorman didn’t hesitate to let her see the security videos.

Jo looked at the book and noticed they logged in shortly after she had left that morning. She waited while the doorman accessed the computerized security system and went to the time indicated. There were the two men, checking in. Both of them wore ball caps and kept their heads down. It wasn’t possible to get a clear view of either. It was the same when they logged out. Jo was about to give up when the doorman made a suggestion.

Let’s check the roof. They said they found some debris up there. The building put in rooftop security cameras a few years ago when kids were going up there to party. Maybe we got a shot of them.

The doorman started working the rooftop security video backward from the time they had logged out until he found what he was looking for. This time, the camera caught them cleaning out some electrical boxes, just as they said. Their faces came into view for only a couple of seconds, but it was enough, and the doorman froze the video at that point. Jo looked at them and didn’t recognize either.

Would it be possible to get a printout of that?

Once back in the apartment she made notes of what she had observed that morning and put them in a folder along with the picture of the two men. Winfred Chriswald died mysteriously, Uncle Lee mentioned he was mixed up in something, and now someone had been in the apartment. Something was going on, and she meant to find out what it was.

§§§§§

Russ Steinhof set his coffee and pastry on the table as he took a seat across from Seth Kern who sipped his coffee while thinking the fat man could stand to skip the pastry, but didn’t say anything. They had been working together for a long time, and Steinhof had become more obese every year. Steinhof paid him very well, and Kern lived comfortably as a result, but Kern didn’t have any sense of friendship with the older man. He truly didn’t care if Steinhof ate himself into the grave.

Well? Steinhof asked between bites of his pastry. The café was crowded, and no one was likely to overhear them, but they were still careful. As long as they kept their voices low it was the best place to hide – right in plain sight. There was nothing suspicious about two men meeting for a coffee break.

We got lucky. We found out this Professor Lee Smoling and Chriswald were old friends. I figured it was the best place to start looking for your document and checked it out yesterday. We didn’t find anything, but I’m sure it had been there.

What makes you think that?

The books in the bookcase were all lined up very exactly. But, there was one spot where the dust had been wiped clean as if something had been pulled out. There were only a few flecks of dust, and it made me think whatever it was, it had been removed recently. The other books had been rearranged to fill in the space. There was just a little bit of space to show something used to be there.

Why couldn’t it just be some book? Maybe he took something to read on the trip.

It’s possible, but why move the other books to fill in the space? If someone takes a book to read, they’ll leave the gap to put the book back when they’re done. My instincts tell me when he heard Chriswald was dead he felt he needed to move the report out of the apartment.

You think he sent it to someone else for safe keeping. It was a statement, not a question.

Yes, I think he was suspicious we would be coming and wanted to make sure it wasn’t there for us to find. There was no evidence he has a safety deposit box anywhere, so we can rule out that possibility. Conrad took pictures of his address book, and we’ll check it out. If he sent it to anyone on the list, we’ll find it.

This is not good. He could release the report to the press at any moment.

I’ve been wondering why he hasn’t. What advantage is there in keeping it secret?

Steinhof pushed his chair back to leave.

That is an interesting question. I need you to talk to Professor Smoling and get him to tell us where to find the report. But, please, no more dead bodies. People ask questions, and we don’t want anyone asking questions.

§§§§§

The first indication something wasn’t quite right with Seth Kern occurred when he was 12 years old. He was waiting for the school bus when his dog ran in front of a speeding car and was killed while he watched. Seth showed no emotional reaction and simply went about his business as if nothing had happened. At first, his parents thought he was hiding his grief. But, eventually, they began to realize he had no feelings about the incident at all. He didn’t enjoy seeing the dog die, but it didn’t bother him, either. It was just something that happened and, to him, it was no different than seeing an apple fall from a tree.

Over time they and other people around him began to notice this lack of feelings. As far as they could tell, he never did anything