Bloody Genius (Virgil Flowers, #12)(76)

Rosalind: “He did patent trolling. The most unethical . . . I don’t think he still does it, he got in some kind of trouble.”

“Tell me about patent trolling. Sergeant Trane mentioned it, but I don’t remember the details,” Virgil said.

“Nash has some kind of technical or scientific background. He’d look for companies or labs that were doing research toward a certain product. Something that can be monetized. What he did was, he’d figure out what must be part of that product when it’s finally produced.”

“Give me an example,” Virgil said.

Ann jumped in. “Supposed you knew Apple was doing research on cell phones, so you draw up plans for a tiny microphone, or speaker, because you know the phone will have to have those things. Then you say your tiny speakers are to be used in cell phones and you patent them without any research at all,” she said. “When the iPhone comes out, you sue, claiming it infringes on your crappy patent. Usually, it’s a bunch of unethical lawyers, and all they have going for themselves is the willingness to sue forever and be a nuisance until the company they’re suing finally buys them off.”

“Okay. Trane told me about this guy. But you don’t think he’s still doing that?”

Anderson said, “I heard—I don’t know where—that he moved over to industrial spying. Instead of faking patents, he’s looking for people willing to sell out original research. Real research. Go to Motorola and figure out what they were doing with phones and then try to peddle that information to Apple.”

Ann said, “I heard—I don’t know if it’s true—that some witness got caught lying in court about one of his patent trolls, and it looked like he could be in serious trouble, and so could the law firm he was working with. Subornation of perjury or something.”

“I heard that he and the law firm broke up, and that’s when he went to industrial spying,” Anderson added.

“And he might have approached somebody at this lab?”

“Not Barth, but a couple of surgeons over at the med school who worked with us. They told him to take a hike and reported Nash to the university,” Anderson said. “The guy lives here in the Minneapolis area, and he’s been known to snoop around Medtronic, Boston Scientific, 3M, St. Jude, and a whole bunch of hearing aid companies. Either Medtronic or Boston Scientific actually got a restraining order against him, is what I hear.”

“Any hint that he might be violent?” Virgil asked.

“Yes!” Rosalind said. “He was arrested for assault after he was caught trespassing somewhere. I remember seeing it in the Star Tribune. I don’t remember where he was trespassing, but I remember the story.”

“The problem with Nash is, he has an alibi,” Virgil said. “If I’m remembering right, he was at a convention that night. There were several people who were willing to back him up on that.”

“Then he probably did it for sure,” Anderson said, leaning toward Virgil, a light in his eyes. “One thing I remember Barth telling me about him is that he always has an alibi. He never moves without an alibi. He’s been arrested at least a couple of times, but always had a story. Wasn’t there, didn’t do it. Wasn’t there when somebody talked directly to him. Barth and I were laughing about it. I was anyway.”

“Interesting,” Virgil said. “Boyd Nash.”

“That’s him,” Rosalind said. “I got a little chill when I thought of him. I think he could be something.”



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Back across the river again in Minneapolis, Virgil found Trane, Cohen, Hardy, and a Hennepin County assistant attorney named Harmon Watts in an interview room at the jail. Virgil pulled Trane out—“We only need one minute”—and in the hallway told her about Boyd Nash.

“You think it could be something?”

“The lab people thought it was something,” Virgil said. “I think we’ve got to take a serious look at him.”



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Back in the interview room, Watts asked, “What’s the history here?”

Virgil said, “You guys have to handle the details, I’m here as Maggie’s assistant. But I proposed to Mr. Hardy that we weren’t so much interested in the various possible charges against Miz Cohen as we are in getting complete cooperation from her.”

“How will you know if you’re getting complete cooperation?” Watts asked.

“Because if we don’t think we’re getting it, we walk away and refile,” Trane said.

“I’m going to need a false arrest waiver,” Watts said.

“We’re okay with that,” Hardy said.

Cohen said, “Wait. False arrest? Can we sue them for this?”

“Not really,” Hardy said.

Watts: “If you don’t sign the waiver, we don’t drop the charges and you go to jail. ’Cause it wasn’t a false arrest, but we don’t want you coming back later saying that it was.”

Hardy: “She’ll sign.”

And so on and so forth. Cohen signed, Watts picked up the paper, said, “Bless you all,” and left.



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