Cold Case. Faye Kellerman

in a language that only the blessed few could readily understand. Technology beckoned, and she answered the summons like a siren's call. Her mind, the primary organ of her initial betrayal, became her most welcome asset.

      As for her body, well, in Silicon Valley, who cared about that? The world that Genoa eventually inhabited was one of ingenuity and ideas, of bytes and megabytes and brilliance. Bodies were merely skeletons to support that great thinking machine above the neck.

      But even growing up at the cutting edge of the computer age wasn't a guaranteed passport to success. Achievement was surely destined to elude Genoa had it not been for one individual—other than her parents—who believed in her.

      Dr. Ben—Bennett Alston Little—was the coolest teacher in high school. His specialty was history with a strong emphasis on political science, but he had been so much more than just an educator, a guidance counselor and the boys' vice principal. Handsome, tall, and athletic, he had made the girls swoon and had garnered the boys' respect by being tough but fair. He knew everything about everything and had been universally loved by the Twenty-five hundred high school students he had served. All that was good and fine, but virtually meaningless to Genoa until that fateful day when she passed him in the hallway.

      He had smiled at her and said, “Hi, Genoa, how's it going?”

      She had been so stunned she hadn't answered, running away, her face burning as she thought, Why would Dr. Ben know my name?

      The second time she passed him, she still didn't answer back when he asked “how's it going?” but at least she didn't exactly run away. It was more like a fast step that converted into a trot once he was safely down the hall.

      The third time, she looked down and mumbled something.

      By the sixth time, she managed to mumble a “hi” back, although she still couldn't make eye contact without her cheeks turning bright red.

      Their first, last, and only actual face-to-face conversation happened when she was a junior. Genoa had been called into his office. She had been so nervous that she felt her bladder leaking into her cotton underwear. She wore thick baggy jeans and a sweatshirt, and her frizzy hair had been pulled back into a thick, unwieldy ponytail.

      “Sit down, Genoa,” he told her. “How are you doing today?”

      She couldn't answer. He looked serious, and she was too anxiety ridden to ask what she did wrong.

      “I just wanted to tell you that we got your scores back from the PSAT.”

      She managed a nod, and he said, “I'm sure by now that you know that you're a phenomenal student. I'm thrilled to report that you got the highest score in the school. You got the highest score, period. A perfect 1600.”

      She was still too frightened to talk. Her heart was pumping out of her chest, and her face felt as if it had been burned by a thousand heat lamps. Sweat was pouring off her forehead, dripping down her nose. She quickly wiped away the drops and hoped he didn't notice. But of course, he probably did.

      “Do you know how unusual that is?” Little went on.

      Genoa knew it was unusual. She was painfully aware of how unusual she was.

      “I just called you in today because I wanted to say congratulations in person. I expect big things from you, young lady.”

      Genoa had a vague recollection of muttering a thank-you.

      Dr. Ben had smiled at her. It had been a big smile with big white teeth. He raked back his sandy blond hair and tried to make eye contact with her, his eyes so perfectly blue that she couldn't look at them without being breathless. He said, “People are all different, Genoa. Some are short, some are tall, some are musical, some are artistic, and the rarefied few like you are endowed with incredible brainpower. That head of yours is going to carry you through life, young lady. It's like the old tortoise and the hare story. You're going to get there, Genoa. You're going to get there, and I firmly believe you're going to surpass all your classmates because you have the one organ that can't be fixed by plastic surgery.”

      No comment. His words fell into dead air.

      Little said, “You're going to get there, Genoa. You just have to wait for the world to catch up to you.”

      Dr. Ben stood up.

      “Congratulations again. We at North Valley High are all very proud of you. You can tell your parents, but please keep it quiet until the official scores are mailed.”

      Genoa stood and nodded.

      Little smiled again. “You can go now.”

      TEN YEARS LATER, from her cushy office on the fourteenth floor looking over Silicon Valley, about to take her morning hot cocoa, Genoa Greeves opened the San Jose Mercury News and read about Dr. Ben's horrific, execution-style homicide. If she would have been capable of crying, she would have done so. His words, the only encouraging words she had received in high school, rang through her brain.

      She followed the story closely.

      The articles that followed emphasized that Bennett Alston Little didn't appear to have an enemy in the world. Progress on the case, slow even in the beginning, seemed to grind to a halt six months later. There were a few “persons of interest”—it should have been “people of interest,” Genoa thought—but nothing significant ever advanced the case toward conclusion. The homicide went from being a front-page story to obscurity, the single exception a note on the anniversary of the homicide. After that, the files became an ice-cold case sitting somewhere within the monolith of what was called LAPD storage.

      Fifteen years came and went. And then, quite by happenstance, Genoa picked up a copy of the Los Angeles Times and read about a homicide with overtones of Dr. Ben's murder. When she saw the article, she was sitting in the president's chair, located in the CEO's office of Timespace, which was housed on the fifteen through the twentieth stories of the Greeves Building in Cupertino. But unlike Dr. Ben's murder, suspects had been arrested for this carjacking.

      She wondered …

      Then she picked up the phone and called up LAPD. It took a while to get through to the right person, but when she did, she knew she was talking to someone with authority. Though Genoa didn't demand that the Little case be reopened, her intent was crystal. It was true that she had money to hire a battalion of private detectives to investigate the murder herself, but she didn't want to step on anyone's toes—and why should she shell out money when she paid an exorbitant amount of California state taxes? Surely the cash that she would have had to expend in private investigations could be put to better use in LAPD, aiding the homicide detectives in their investigation.

      Lots of money, in fact, should the department decide to reopen the Ben Little homicide and actually solve it.

      The inspector listened to her plaints, sounding appropriately eager and maybe just a tad sycophantic.

      Genoa wanted to reopen the case to do right by Bennett Alston Little.

      Genoa wanted to reopen the case because the more recent homicide brought to mind the Little case and she thought about a connection.

      Genoa wanted to reopen the case to bring a murderer to justice.

      Genoa wanted to reopen the case to bring peace and solace to all of the victims' friends and families.

      Genoa wanted to reopen the case because at this stage in her life, and sitting on 1.3 billion dollars, she could do what ever the hell she pleased.

       CHAPTER 2

      THE CONVERSATION WENT like this: ‘The case is fifteen years old,’ I say. Then Mackinerny responds, ‘Strapp, I don't give a solitary fuck if it's from the Jurassic era; there's a seven-figure endowment riding on this solve, and you're going to make it happen.’ I respond, ‘Not a problem, sir.’”

      “Good