FicWad

Gregory Cameron was a man in his early fifties. He was tall and rangy, with brown hair, lightly salted
with gray at the temples, and expressive brown eyes. Right now, the expression in them was one of
concern. When his secretary had announced Michael, he was curious enough to have her show the
younger man in. But when Michael told him why he was there, Gregory became worried.

"Mr. Knight, Kelly is not that type of person. If she disliked Arthur Peterson, she had good reason. He
treated her with utter contempt, both publicly and privately. I wish I knew why. But she had other
resources she could use to stay away from him. She would have had no motive to kill him. My God, he's
her father!"

"Then what about you?"

"What about me? I told the police, and now I'm telling you, I had no reason to kill him."

Arthur Peterson told my employer that you have been trying to buy him out. And I understand that you
recently had a loud argument with him. Right here, in fact."

"Well, yes, we did have words. He was - well, the subject of the argument is irrelevant. Suffice it to say
that he made a comment that I took great exception to, and I lost my temper. But it never came to blows,
and never would have. I calmed down shortly after he left. And yes, I have tried to buy him out, but
that's hardly a reason for murder. And it's never been a secret. Peterson's company has been going
downhill since he took over after his wife's death three years ago. I knew Maureen; she started that
company from scratch and made it into a thriving concern. I wanted to bring it back to what it was before
she died."

"Just how far downhill has it gone?"

"Their stock prices have slipped from a high of 84 dollars a share to 12 dollars a share. Their credit rating
is also slipping. You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say that Peterson had been deliberately sabotaging
the company.

"Why would he do something like that?"

"I don't know, Mr. Knight. But his obsession with hypnotism, and the money he was spending on
experimentation in that field was just plain crazy, especially since the results have been minimal, at best.
And it's lucky for the company - and its employees - that someone other than myself has cared enough
about it to buy up much of the stock. Otherwise, it would have gone under some time ago."

Michael gazed at him for a long moment. "So you know about the hypnotism. Did you also know about
the information he said he'd obtained?"

"What, that so-called vital information? It wasn't a secret. Just about everyone had heard about that and
most of them wrote it off. Mr. Knight, I don't believe he came across anything like that. He wouldn't
have known vital information from a 'Honeymooners' show."

"But it appears that someone believed him, and killed him because of it. And now, they may try to kill or
kidnap his daughters, since he planted parts of the information in each of their subconscious minds,
hypnotically."

"Try to kill them? Have any of them been hurt?"

"Nothing has happened yet. But all three of them are under my protection until we find out and catch the
person who killed Arthur Peterson. So if you had anything to do with it, I suggest you think again about
going any further with your plans."

"I've already told you, I had nothing to do with it! I have no reason to want to kill any member of that
family. I'm very fond of those girls, especially Kelly. Hell, I could wait another month or two, and buy
the company for a song, no matter what! Time was on my side, Mr. Knight. It still is."

Michael stood up. "Let's say I believe you. And between you and me, I'm inclined to; your arguments
make sense. If you have any idea who might be behind all this, tell me."

"I wish I did, but I haven't a clue. But I'll do some checking around and see if I can come up with
anything."

"You do that. I'll be in touch." Michael turned and headed out. On the way, he called KITT and asked
him to contact Devon to check on the financial condition of RTC Enterprises.