Save Me from Dangerous Men (Nikki Griffin #1)(16)

“I might sign it,” I said. “And I might not. Depends on a few things. Including what exactly you want me to do.” I had pegged him for a blackmail job. He seemed the type. A male or female prostitute with an illicit video, maybe a rogue coke dealer—some enterprising and immoral figure realizing they’d stumbled across a gold mine in the form of Mr. Gregg Gunn.

He was on his feet. “Okay,” he said. “But I should begin with some context.”

I nodded. Trying to resist the urge to check my watch.

“I’m the CEO,” he explained, “of a company down in Sunnyvale called Care4 that plans to revolutionize childcare. We make monitors and sensors that can live-stream a child’s every sound and gesture to a parent via cloud-based wearable technology.” He reached into his briefcase again, this time handing me a small white object that resembled a golf ball. There was a slight indentation on one side so it could be placed on a surface and not roll. “Motion and voice activated, longest battery life on the market, HD video, multiple microphones for stereo audio, widescreen lens with digital zoom.” He sounded proud enough that he could have been talking about an actual child.

“Looks good. When I have kids, I’ll come find you,” I said, turning the little ball around in my hands. There was a tiny aperture in the sphere, barely visible. A lens. I tossed the thing into the air, caught it. The material felt like some kind of polymer and was very light.

I handed it back to Gunn but he shook his head. “Call it a souvenir. I have plenty more.” He smiled easily. “I hand those suckers out like business cards.”

I shrugged and put the thing on a nearby bookshelf. “So you sell cameras?”

“In a sense. We like to think of ourselves as being a communications company that happens to be in tech. We sell communication. That’s what today’s busy mothers and fathers crave—constant communication and uninterrupted access. Four million babies born each year in this country alone. The daycare and childcare services market in the U.S. is over fifty billion. Care4 stands at the crossroads of technology and the fundamental humanity of parenting—”

I felt like I was drowning. “Save the pitch. Whatever I can do, it’s not going to be writing you a check.”

He stopped, startled, and laughed. “You’re right. What we do doesn’t matter, does it? The point is, there’s a huge amount of money at stake. And unfortunately, in this day and age, corporate espionage has never been a greater problem.”

I glanced at my watch. Dinner was out. I could get some popcorn at the theater.

“The Chinese and the Russians are the worst,” Gunn was saying. “But these days it’s everywhere. All over the world, gangs discovering that cybercrime is a lot easier than trying to move heroin over a border.” His fingers tapped his knee. “It’s a cesspool, Nikki. Everyone willing to steal, cheat, bribe.”

I could have made some guesses by that point. I didn’t. The point wasn’t to convince a client you were smart. The point was to shut up and find out what they wanted.

“Recently,” Gunn went on, “we have had crucial intellectual property stolen. We suspect a specific employee is taking it.”

“And that’s where I come in.”

“That’s where you come in, yes.”

“A question.” I didn’t wait for an okay. “You run a big company down in the Valley, but you’re here talking to me. Why aren’t you at one of the big firms that specialize in this?”

“Good question.” For the first time he sat still. “I could go to one of those firms, but they’re in my world—we move in the same circles. I can’t risk even being seen visiting one of them or people will suspect there’s a problem. That’s all it takes for word to get out that we’re in trouble. There are sharks everywhere, circling, looking for weakness. You see, Nikki, we’ve received several rounds of funding and we’re on the verge of receiving our last private investments before a public offering. If investors spook now it would be catastrophic.”

“So what do you want me to do?”

“I need this employee followed. We have to learn what she’s taking and who she’s giving it to.”

“Why not just fire her?”

Gunn nodded as if he had expected the question. “I wish it were that easy. But then whoever she’s working with will keep probing for another weak spot until they find someone else. We need to learn who is trying to steal from us.”

It had been a slow month. I had the time. I shrugged. “Sure.”

Gunn smiled. “Wonderful. How do you bill?”

“Retainer up front,” I said. “Hourly or daily rates after that. Depending on what I have to do, how far from home it takes me.”

He turned to his briefcase a third time and handed a bulging manila envelope to me. I opened it and saw stacks of green bills. I pulled out one of the stacks, seeing “100” on the corner.

“That’s twenty thousand dollars. Is that sufficient to begin?”

Usually my retainers were a few hundred dollars. So much for the movie. “Can I offer you a drink? Water? Scotch? Coffee?” I figured twenty grand bought him a drink.

Gunn shook his head. “I have.” He took out a bottle filled with a murky green liquid. “Cold-pressed juice. The vegetables all come from a sustainable farm down in Gilroy. Want me to send you a case?”