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“You wouldn’t behere if you didn’t already know that,” Richard Myer said. He shrugged. “Mylawyers think that my best route now is to say as little as possible to avoidcreating problems for my company. I’m inclined to agree.”
Amber guessed thathe was worried about the legal implications for his company. She knew that theyneeded to persuade him to talk anyway, or they could be there for hours,sorting through documents. Every moment they wasted was a chance for the killerto either get away or worse, take another victim for one of his sick games.
“Mr. Myer, weunderstand that you might be concerned about the legal implications, but we’rehere to find out the truth about what happened to Thomas Jackson and EmilyChen. If there’s nothing to hide, then there’s no need for you to be worried,”Amber said.
Myer narrowed hiseyes at her, as if trying to figure out her motive. “And what do you thinkhappened to them?”
“We suspect thatthere’s a connection between their deaths and the recall of one of your company’sproducts. We’re looking for any evidence that might lead us to the personresponsible,” Simon said. He seemed to guess at Myer’s concerns. “The FBI isn’tinterested in your company, Mr. Myer, only in the reasons that someone might bekilling people connected with it. Now, you can make us go through every scrapof paper in this building, looking into every facet of your business as we go,or you can simply talk to us.”
Myer sighed andleaned back in his chair. Amber could see him debating with himself about howmuch to say and what to do next. She could see the tension in him. Then heseemed to come to a decision.
“Very well. I’llcooperate as much as I can.” He gestured to his lawyers. “Out, all of you.”
“Mr. Myer,” one ofthem began, “I really don’t think that’s—”
“It’s my decisionto make. Now, out.”
The lawyers filedout of there, looking worried as they did so. Amber suspected that it was meantto be a gesture from Myer of just how candid he was about to be with them. Amberwondered if they could afford to take it at face value.
Myer sat there fora few seconds after that, as if considering what to say next. Maybe he wasthinking about how much he could afford to say, before it caused too muchdamage to his business.
“Our recall wasfor the WM 120 model car. There were safety issues that meant that it wasn’tpossible to keep building it.”
“Whatkindofsafety issues?” Francesca asked. It occurred to Amber that she might not bewilling to let things slide in the way that Amber and Simon could.
Myer hesitated fora moment before answering. “That’s a matter of public record. There wereproblems with the brakes. We had reports that they were failing at high speeds,which could be fatal. We had to recall all the cars and fix the problem.”
“How many carswere affected?” Amber asked.
“About twenty-fivethousand,” Myer answered. “We followed all the proper procedures and notifiedall the customers affected.”
“How quickly?”Simon asked. That was the crucial question. Stanley Anderson had insinuatedthat the company had tried to cover things up, that they’d lied to avoid theworst consequences of what they’d done.
Richard Myer didn’tanswer for several seconds. “You understand that if you repeat this outside ofthis room, I will deny that I said it. I will not let my company be draggeddown by this. We’re only just surviving the recall as it is. There have beenlawsuits, but there could be many more.”
“How quickly?”Simon repeated.
Richard Myerlooked uncomfortable. “Not quickly enough. The 120 fell under Thomas Jackson’sdivision. He thought he could handle things, quietly bring the cars in and sortout the problems, try to spin the marketing so that we wouldn’t be affected toobadly. He tried to make it seem as if the problems weren’t known about by hisengineers from the start.”
Amber got thefeeling that the company’s CEO was throwing Thomas Jackson under the bus, usinghim as a scapegoat now that he was dead and couldn’t defend himself. Amber felta sense of unease settle over her as she listened to Myer’s words. She couldn’tshake off the feeling that there was more to this story than Myer was tellingthem. She suspected that he’d almost certainly known more than he waspretending now.
“Can you provideus with a list of all the customers affected by the recall?” Francesca asked.
“It would beliterally thousands of people,” Myer said.
“And how many werehurt?” Amber said. “How many were killed? How many accidents were there?”
“I don’t haveprecise figures on hand,” Myer said. “Dozens at least. Possibly hundreds. Whydo you think my lawyers want me to hold back as much information as possible?”
Amber leanedforward. “Mr. Myer, the FBI needs your full cooperation if we’re going to getto the bottom of this. More lives are at stake, and we need to know the truth.That means knowing who might have a reason to hate your company enough to dothis.”
Myer sighed and satback in his chair. “You’re right, Agent. I’ll do what I can to help you.”
“Thank you,” Simonsaid. “Can you provide us with all the documents and reports related to therecall? And we’ll also need a list of all the employees involved in theproduction of the 120 model.”
Myer nodded. “Ofcourse. I’ll have my assistant gather everything and send it to your office.”
“Thank you,” Ambersaid. “And one more thing, Mr. Myer. Did Thomas Jackson ever express anyconcerns about his safety or the security of the company?”
