Read Zero Break for Free Online Page B

hesitated, then gave in to her impulse. “I’m not a nosy person, you understand, but I like to know what’s going on in the department. It helps Mr. Nishimura to have someone like me around.”
    “I’m sure,” I said. “When I was a kid, my mom used to help out in my dad’s business. And she was always the one who kept track of him and the other guys.”
    She smiled. “Then you understand. One of Zoë’s jobs was to monitor contracts and grants. Though she wasn’t the friendliest person, she did get to know the people at the various companies.” She lowered her voice. “I understand she got one of them to hire a friend of hers.”
    “What company would that be?”
    “A Chinese firm. I have a card here.” She opened her desk and pulled out a vinyl storage book for business cards. After flipping through a few pages, she drew one out of its plastic holder. The front of the card was in English, the back in Chinese ideograms.
    The company name was Néng Yuán, which didn’t tell me much, though the logo was a stylized wave. The president’s name was Xiao Zenshen. “You know anything about them?” I asked.
    Gladys turned to her computer and started typing. “They have a grant from the state to explore wave power,” she said. The boat trip with Levi Hirsch came to my mind again. It looked like I was going to be calling him. That was okay; he was dating Terri Clark Gonsalves, my best gal pal from high school, and Mike and I often double-dated with them.
    Gladys looked up. “The rest of this is pretty scientific. I’m afraid I don’t understand much of it. I can print it out for you, though.”
    She hit a couple of keys and the printer behind her desk came to life. “Do you know the name of the friend she got hired there?” I asked.
    Gladys shook her head. “It was just something I overheard. But Miriam might know more.”
    We took the printout from Gladys, and she led us back through the maze of corridors and introduced us to Miriam Rose. She was a young Filipina, probably late twenties, in a white blouse with a floral print wrap skirt. Big round sunglasses were propped on her head, and she had a red silk rose pinned to the right shoulder of her blouse.
    Gladys introduced us. I could see she wanted to stick around and hear what Miriam had to say, but I smiled and thanked her for her help, and said we’d be back to her if we needed anything further.
    Miriam worked at a tiny cubicle, just big enough for a worktable and a rolling chair. The walls were plastered with photos of what looked like her family – middle-aged parents, Miriam, a younger sister and an even younger brother. She was a cat lover, too; there were pictures of a fat calico sunning on a white sofa, Miriam holding the cat, the cat playing with her brother and sister.
    She smiled at Ray and I could tell from the way she held his hand a little longer than she held mine that he was the best one to take lead. “Is there someplace we can talk?” he asked her.
    She led us down the hall to a small lunchroom that smelled of stale coffee. “Sorry,” she said, lifting the glass pot off its warming stand. “Somebody always leaves the coffee to burn.” She began cleaning the pot. “I was so upset when I heard about Zoë. We were friends—well, not out-of-work friends, or anything. Zoë was quiet. But we ate lunch together sometimes. We both like sushi, and we’d bring in different stuff for each other to try.”
    She filled the pot with water, ripped open a bag of coffee and poured it into the filter, then joined us at a round table.
    “Did Zoë ever mention any problems she was having?” I asked. “Anyone threatening her, for example?”
    “I got the feeling she was having problems with her ex,” Miriam said. “She never came right out and said he was harassing her, but sometimes she’d get a call, and she’d be angry. I never asked about him, though.”
    And never knew that the ex was a woman, I figured. That’s a big problem when