Free KISS THE WITCH by Dana Donovan

sit, which we did, although he remained standing, his
pacing nearly wearing a rut in the floor.
    “ If you don’t mind me
saying, Mister Ferguson, you seem mighty uneasy about
something.”
    He looked at me, started to speak and then
returned to pacing.
    “ Are you all right? Who
were those men downstairs, the ones you walked out?”
    He stopped at the window, pulled back the
blinds and peered out nervously. He let the blinds go with a snap,
turned to me and said, “They are watching, Detective. They are
always watching.”
    “ Who?”
    “ Those men and the rest of
them.”
    “ Are they organized crime?
Are you in trouble?”
    “ Oh, if you only
knew.”
    “ Tell us. That’s why we’re
here.”
    He shook his head. “I can’t tell you. I’m
sorry.”
    “ Okay, then tell us about
QE647. As I said downstairs, we know what it is.”
    “ Then what more can I tell
you?”
    “ You can tell us if it’s
true. Have you succeeded in creating a viable quasi essence
compound, the essence of life?”
    “ Detective, I signed a
confidentiality clause, a contract of secrecy. All I can tell you
is that QE647 is a super sweetener. That’s it.”
    “ You’re sticking to that,
are you?”
    Carlos laughed. “Ha, good one, Tony.
Sticking to that. Funny.”
    “ Mister Ferguson. You
signed a contract. Did that contract include murder?”
    “ Excuse me?”
    “ Murder. Of your
employees, Gerardi, Brookfield, Williams, Delaney and your own
secretary, Julie McSweeney?”
    “ Those were accidents,
every one of them.”
    “ Or made to look like
accidents.”
    “ I don’t know anything
about that.”
    “ Come now, Mister
Ferguson. You are either very stupid or very loyal. I don’t know
which.”
    “ I think stupid,” said
Carlos. “Who would be so loyal as to put their head on the chopping
block to take a murder rap?”
    “ Good point.”
    “ What do you mean? I
didn’t kill anyone.”
    “ Maybe not, but so far the
case is leading us down a road mired in murder, and all the road
signs point to you. So, what do you say? Do you want to tell us
what we’re up against?”
    “ What you are up against?
You are up against a robber who stole company materials and company
secrets. Is it asking too much of you to do your job and get it
back for me?”
    “ Why didn’t you call the
FBI or the State Police?”
    “ I told you. This case
does not warrant a federal investigation, and it is out of the
jurisdiction of the State Police.”
    “ That may be true, but
still you didn’t call them.”
    “ Detective, involving
those branches of law enforcement would have resulted in bad press.
Do you know how quickly a story like this can go viral on the
internet? My investors would not like that one bit, believe
me.”
    “ Those suits downstairs,
are they your investors?”
    He hesitated, but gave it to me. “They
represent my investors.”
    “ So they know.”
    “ About the theft. Yes,
they know. Of course, they know. They know everything.”
    “ Except who stole your
compound,” said Carlos.
    Ferguson turned his head away. I stood and
brushed the creases from my lap. “Mister Ferguson. Something tells
me you got yourself in a whole lot of trouble. If it is not of your
doing, we want to help you. If you are hiding your culpability,
however, we will figure it out. Either way, you need to come clean
eventually.”
    “ I think we are done here,
Detective.”
    “ All right then, thank you
for your time. We’ll see ourselves out.”
     
     
    On the ride back to the office, I asked
Carlos what he thought about Ferguson’s demeanor.
    “ He’s scared,” he said,
and I agreed. I told him I got the impression Ferguson wanted to
tell us more, but could not. Carlos suggested it was because his
office was bugged.
    “ Makes sense,” I said.
“Think they threatened him?”
    “ The suits? Oh sure, no
doubt. In fact, it won’t surprise me one bit if we wake up tomorrow
to find that Ferguson had himself an accident.” He let go of