Allie was profoundly relieved. “Thank you.”
Luellyn’s face fell as if she’d just remembered something that pained her. “I remember Thomas making some statement…later.” She shrugged. “No wait, I’m wrong. This was perhaps a year after that day when you and Tommy were playing. Maybe days after the accident that took your parents’ lives. Yes, that’s right, just before what would have been Tommy’s fourth birthday. Christmas was only a few weeks away.”
“My fifth birthday was in the January after the accident,” Allie said, hoping to help prompt her memory. “I don’t even remember Thanksgiving since the accident had just happened. But I do remember that it was the worst Christmas and birthday of my life.”
“Thanksgiving.” Luellyn held up a finger as if to emphasize the point. “Yes. Jane and I got together that last time. This was when she mentioned Thomas having a plan. She also said something like Thomas thought Jerry had grown too much of a conscience. I didn’t understand what she meant and said as much. But she ignored the comment and moved on. Her brain worked that way after Tommy’s death. Skipped around and sometimes obsessed over seemingly unimportant things.”
“Seems an odd statement to make.” Steve pointed out exactly what Allie was thinking.
“It does.” Luellyn nodded. “I have no idea what he meant, but I heard through the grapevine that Ledwell was having growing pains. Serious growing pains. With the nature of the work they did, back in those days, one can only imagine the sorts of things you had to be willing to overlook.”
She had Allie’s curiosity cued up now. “You mean like ethical challenges?”
Those appeared to be the biggest stumbling blocks today in the warp-speed research and development of AI. Many wanted to take a step back, to slow down the forward momentum until better ground rules could be established. Some wanted it stopped altogether.
“I suppose so,” Luellyn agreed. “Without a conscience for our guide, what might we humans be capable of under certain circumstances?”
A bell chimed somewhere in the apartment.
“That’s my cue,” Luellyn said. “We have a special lunch on Sundays for anyone who no longer has family to visit—or just for anyone who wishes to attend.” She stood. “I hope you’ll forgive me, but I never miss our special lunches.”
Steve and Allie stood as well. “Of course,” he said. “We appreciate the time you’ve shared with us already.”
“It was so very nice to meet the two of you.” She looked from Steve to Allie. “I hope you find the answers you seek and that you’ll share anything you find about my Jane with me.”
“You have my word, Mrs. Talbert,” Steve assured her.
Allie and Steve walked to the main restaurant with Luellyn and watched as she joined her friends. Allie admired that, despite all the sadness in her life, the woman had managed to find a way to go on.
“I sure hope I’m partying and socializing when I’m ninety-three,” Steve said.
“She certainly sets a high bar,” Allie agreed.
Allie suddenly wondered why she had allowed so much time to pass without jumpstarting her life beyond work.
Fear, she decided. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the uncertainty. Keeping her routine was far easier than putting herself out there and wondering what would work and what wouldn’t.
She furtively watched Steve as they made their way back to his SUV. Somehow this man had her thinking a whole lot more about what she should be doing for herself. Thus, the sudden interest in the future.
How ironic. After all this time of hiding and pretending not to notice the world going on without her, she unexpectedly realized she was missing so much.
Just in time to be framed for murder.
Steve braked at the end of the long drive before turning onto the highway. He shot her a sideways glance. “You worried about what Madison said about your father?”
Allie pushed the other concern away and nodded. “The timing is tough to ignore.” She bit her lip. “Do you think my father was against something Ledwell was doing? Maybe strongly enough to make himself a target? The same as the others involved with the SILO project?”
“If the crash was no accident,” Steve began as he pulled out onto the highway, “then there had to be an impetus—something that motivated the step. When you consider the work Ledwell was doing—is still doing—it makes a great deal of sense that there would be issues from time to time. Those issues couldn’t be allowed to become a real problem, if you know what I mean. No backing down. Not when you were racing against competitors to achieve something so big—something no one else has.”
“Like the first robot to look human,” she offered. “To act human?” The various companies involved would insist those sorts of things were not the primary goal and had only recently become actual priorities. But what if that was a lie? In Allie’s opinion, based on her limited knowledge, it probably was.
“Something like that, yes. At this point, I think it’s safe to assume that if your parents’ car crash was not an accident then it had something to do with the work at Ledwell—with SILO. That can only mean the company was doing something not acceptable for the time. Whether it was illegal or not, it may have been something your father wasn’t willing to turn a blind eye to. And it was likely something the company wanted to keep secret.”
“We need to find Lucille and Dennis.” Allie needed someone who could tell them what had been going on at Ledwell twenty-eight years ago and why her father had to be silenced.
Was that also what had gotten Thomas Madison murdered? Had the burden of all those secrets suddenly grown too much for his conscience after all these years?
Chapter Eight
