Motor Mouth - Janet Evanovich [90]
“What did he do?” Felicia asked. “He cheat on you?”
“No. He’s my brother-in-law,” Suzanne said. “He rudely killed my husband before I had the chance to do it myself. And now he’s planning to swindle my kids out of their inheritance.”
“You have no proof,” Ray said.
“It’s always a mistake to mess with a mother,” Suzanne said.
“So this is where Ray went after he talked to Hooker and me,” I said.
“It was easy,” Suzanne said. “I told him I wanted to talk to him in private about transferring the boat over to him. He came up here. I hit him with a blast from a stun gun, trussed him up, and I was in business. I guess the moron never told anyone he was coming here.”
“Ask her about the chip,” Ray said to Suzanne.
“Shut up.”
“Ask her!”
“What about the chip?” I said to Suzanne.
“Ray and Oscar have a product in R and D that’s worth a lot of money. They didn’t realize I knew about it, but I keep my ears open.
“I knew it was ready for sale, and I knew Oscar was using it on the cars. It got him a championship, but more than that, it was a flashy way to demonstrate the technology to prospective buyers. I was willing to be the good corporate wife and keep my mouth shut. I was even willing to be the good ex-corporate wife and keep my mouth shut. I’m not willing to be the widow who sits by and watches the slime-bag brother rape the company.” Suzanne’s frozen eyebrows narrowed ever so slightly. “So I had to bring Ray in for questioning, right, Ray?”
Ray gave her the death glare. And Suzanne ignored it.
“And now the prototype has disappeared, and Ray doesn’t want to tell me where it’s wandered off to,” Suzanne said.
“I told you where the chip is,” Ray said. “Jesus, why don’t you just ask her?”
Suzanne kept her eyes on Ray. “Ray has this insultingly ridiculous story he’s constructed about the product disappearance. His contention is that you and Hooker have it. And it gets even better. He claims you got this particular product by stealing a car hauler. The same hauler that was supposed to carry Oscar back to Mexico.”
“Are you talking about the gizmo in the gearshift knob?” I asked her.
Suzanne turned to me, mouth dropped open, eyes as wide as they’d go on Botox. “I thought he was lying. The story was insane. I mean, who would believe something like that? Don’t tell me it’s true!”
“It’s true,” I said.
Suzanne tipped her head back and gave a whoop of laughter. She looked over at Beans. “I guess the tooth marks in Oscar make sense to me now. You should give him an extra dog biscuit for that one.”
“He thought Mr. Dead Guy was a big chew toy,” Felicia said. “He’s just a puppy inside.”
“So where’s the circuit board?” Suzanne asked. “Do you have it?”
“Not exactly. But I know where it is.”
“And it’s safe? You can get it for me?”
“Yes.”
Suzanne gave a sigh of relief. “You can’t imagine how much time and money went into the making of that thing. It’s my sons’ future.”
“So it wasn’t about the boat?”
“Not entirely. The boat was just part of it. By the time Ray’s executorship ran out, there wouldn’t have been anything left of the company. Ray would have stripped every asset from it.”
Ray didn’t say anything. They’d obviously had this conversation before and it didn’t end well for Ray.
“There are a couple things I don’t understand,” I said to Suzanne. “I know the value of traction control in a race car, but I get the feeling this is bigger than just rigging a contest. Why is this one little circuit board so important?”
“The technology has the potential for wide use,” Suzanne said. “Everything on that tiny circuit card is exclusive to Huevo. The concept, the programming, the wireless technology, and the battery composite are all straight out of development and have never before been seen…anywhere. If the circuit board fell into the wrong hands, it could eventually be unraveled and the technology could be stolen. The battery alone is worth hundreds of millions. The wireless technology will revolutionize the aircraft industry.”
“So you wanted to get it back just so it wouldn’t get