Hell and Back

by Dirk Greyson

  “It should be the only one with something inside that would rattle.”

  “Then I got the right one.” Gage smiled, and they finished the drive in silence. Once they pulled into the office garage, they got out and went upstairs together, Gage holding Forge’s hand. He checked that all the security was working, which it was, and then they went in to the living area and placed everything they had on the table.

  Forge opened the box and handed Gage the drive they’d found in the safe. Gage inserted it into his computer and located the empty file. He opened it and highlighted the file to make any text appear. There was nothing.

  “Dammit. I was so hopeful.”

  Forge stared at the blank screen too. “So was I. There wasn’t anything in the safe. We’ve gone over it more than once. We even checked all the coin cases to make sure there wasn’t anything inside and turned everything else upside down.” He sat back and closed his eyes. “I’m so tired of all this.”

  “I know you are. But you’re the only one who knew Granger well enough to figure this out. He loved puzzles, so how would he hide that password? He said it was there, and we have to assume, at least until we have nothing else to go on, that it’s still there and he didn’t remove it. Granger knew he was in danger or he wouldn’t have left the note in the jade box.” An idea popped into Gage’s head. “Do you know which cloud storage service Granger used?”

  “I think it was the Microsoft one,” Forge said with a heavy sigh.

  Gage had intended to bring up the interface, but what good was it going to do? “Let me make you something to eat and you can lie down for a while.” It was going on dinnertime, and they had had so much excitement. Gage was starving, and Forge had to be hungry as well.

  “Okay,” Forge said, with no energy at all.

  Gage put aside what he was thinking and scooted closer to Forge. The mystery would still be there in a few hours. Forge needed some comfort now, and that was so much more important. He gathered Forge to him, and they sat quietly with Gage holding him tightly. Forge trembled in his arms more than once.

  “I honestly thought they were going to kill me. I saw who they were, and there was no going back from that. I can testify as to what they did.”

  Gage knew just how lucky they were that the man in the back seat got scared and pushed Forge out of the car. Forge was lucky to be alive, and Gage quietly beat himself up for putting Forge in danger. He thought he’d done the right thing, that Forge would be safer here than with him. Plans should have been made to… he should have been better prepared. Instead, he’d made a mistake that had resulted in… he’d nearly lost Forge. Gage buried his face in Forge’s hair as his thoughts came in ragged spurts and fragments. Maybe he was too close to this job. Lord knows he was too close to Forge. Maybe it was impairing his judgment.

  “It’s all right,” Forge said softly. “You can stop muttering under your breath. I know what you’re doing, and you need to stop.”

  “But I almost lost you.” The fear he’d felt in the car reared up again, this time more severely, threatening to overwhelm him. Gage quivered and closed his eyes to try to regain his composure. “I lost you for seventeen years, and then I almost had you for less than a week because I wasn’t good enough to protect you.”

  “I was the one who fell for their trick, not you. If anything I put myself in danger because I didn’t listen to you. I was safe here. Even with them out here, they couldn’t get inside to me, and you were on your way back already. I’d have been fine if I’d have stayed where I was. Instead, I let someone I didn’t know scare me.”

  “You thought it was Harv.”

  “But it wasn’t, and if I’d have been thinking clearly, I’d have known it wasn’t him and would have been just fine. So stop beating yourself up.” Forge held him closer, and slowly some of the tension and recrimination racing through his mind settled down. “None of us is superhuman.”

  “No, we aren’t.” Gage sighed and wished to hell he had been superhuman. Then Forge wouldn’t have been kidnapped and they would have a clearer picture of what exactly was going on. He nodded and slowly stood to go make them something to eat.

  Forge sat back and reached for his phone. “I need to talk to Granger’s parents.” He dialed the number, and Gage left the room to allow Forge to talk in peace.

  In the kitchenette, he found Margie had made sure the refrigerator was stocked, and got out the things to make BLTs. Whenever he was stressed and needed comfort food, that was what he wanted. He used the microwave to cook the bacon, cut up a tomato, broke the lettuce leaves, and started making toast. Gage listened but didn’t hear any shouting or arguing, so he hoped things were going as well as could be expected with Granger’s parents.

  “I don’t think so,” Forge said rather loudly, and Gage realized he’d jumped the gun. “I’m sorry about all that’s happened, but Granger’s will is still in effect and that’s all there is to it.”

  Gage peered around the corner to where Forge stood in front of the sofa.

  “He did what?” Forge glanced his way and then began pacing. “No. That isn’t going to happen, and I’m sorry to have to say this, but unless you have a newer will….”

  Gage set the knife aside and took the finished bread out of the toaster, then put in some more before standing next to Forge.

  “I see. So you were only assuming. But it seems Granger didn’t update his will, so everything will come to me, including his partnership in the law firm, which I have already spoken to Francis about. He’s well aware of my position.”

  Gage put his hand on Forge’s shoulder just to let him know he was there to back him up.

  “I understand what that meant to Granger. Francis is trying to get me to settle quickly, typical lawyer, so he can get the share in the partnership cheaply. But that isn’t what’s going to happen. We’ll see it through the end of the fiscal year and then go from there….” Forge began pacing again. “No. I intend to split the proceeds of the sale of Granger’s partnership with you. It was his life’s work and I won’t cut you out of that. But I’ll do what I think is best, and you’re going to have to leave it at that for now. I don’t want to make any quick decisions at this point.” Forge relaxed, and Gage assumed the tone of the conversation had eased. “Yes… I’ve instructed them to release the body directly to you. Tell me what arrangements you’ve made and I’ll come down.” Sweat broke out on Forge’s forehead. He listened for a few more minutes and then said a very quiet goodbye, ending the call with tears running down his cheeks.

  “I take it the call didn’t go well.”

  Forge shook his head. “Francis called them about Granger’s partnership. He seemed to think that since we were in the process of separating, Granger probably had a more up-to-date will, which he couldn’t find and they don’t have, or that they should put pressure on me to sell him Granger’s portion of the partnership. He didn’t say it outright, but they got the impression that Francis would make it worth their while to get me to sell right away.” Forge turned and fell into Gage’s embrace. “They used to be like my parents, and now I don’t know…. The last few months have been hard for them too. Believe it or not, I know they did their best to try not to take sides, and they gave Granger hell for his affair.” Forge held him tighter.

  “You know, they’re Granger’s parents, and when push comes to shove, blood is thicker than water.”

  “I know. It just seems like I’ve lost so much in a short period of time. A year ago my life was so good. Granger and I had a relatively happy life, his family was my family… we… damn….”

  Gage held him and said nothing, letting Forge work through whatever he felt he needed to.

  “It was all just a fucking illusion. I try to think back to happier times, and all I see now is the lead-up to the two of us falling apart and Granger’s affair. What I thought was solid was really just sand, with our lives built on it.”

  “No, it wasn’t. Things change—people change. Would the Granger you fell
in love with allow people like Stanley Lucci and his family into your lives? I somehow doubt it. Granger changed, and as the years passed, you did too. What you both wanted grew along different paths. It happens.”

  “But what if that happens to us?” Forge asked. “Or am I jumping ahead?”

  “It won’t happen to us. It can’t.” Gage took Forge’s hand and placed it on his chest. “I feel you right here, and I always have. I carried the young man who sat next to my hospital bed in my heart for years, and now he’s grown up… into you. That space inside… it’s all yours and it always has been. So as we get older and slow down, you’ll still be there. Maybe the passion will cool between us, but the heat will still burn. I expect things to change—maybe Granger expected you to stay the same. I don’t know. But you can’t beat yourself up over it.”

  Forge lifted his head to meet Gage’s gaze. “It isn’t that. It’s like the life I thought I built was an illusion. How can I trust my judgment after that?”

  “You want head answers to heart questions,” Gage said softly. “And you’ll never get anywhere like that. Stop trying to think your way through everything and let yourself feel it. Your heart will tell you what it wants. Mine has been speaking loud and clear for days, and it’s never wrong. I bet yours isn’t either.” Gage raised his eyebrows and continued holding Forge until their stomachs rumbled in near unison.

  “Okay. I guess that’s enough wallowing in self-pity for today,” Forge pronounced. Gage rolled his eyes. “Okay, it’s enough for the year.”

  “Now that’s the Forge I remember. Never let anything get you down for long.” Gage patted Forge’s leg and stood to return to the kitchen to finish dinner.

  GAGE BROUGHT in a tray with two plates and a pile of sandwiches—he’d cooked the entire pound of bacon—glasses of iced tea, and tons of napkins, setting it on the coffee table.

  “Are you feeding an army?” Forge teased as Gage set out plates and passed out the initial sandwiches, which didn’t last very long. They were obviously hungry and devoured two each before slowing down. “Okay, I take that back. You were feeding an army of two.” Forge drank some tea and set his glass down.

  “Are you done?”

  “Just resting,” Forge told him, then reached for a third BLT once Gage did. “You know, this is going to blow my diet for weeks.” Forge ate the sandwich with just as much gusto, although more slowly this time. “God, those are good. It’s been a long time since I had one. Granger—” Forge stopped midsentence. “They weren’t his thing.”

  “He didn’t like BLT sandwiches? Why on earth did you ever date him? These are like the comfort food of the gods. There’s mayo and tomato, crispy lettuce, and bacon—lots of bacon—and I subscribe to the ‘everything feels better after bacon’ philosophy of life.” Gage waved his arms dramatically, and Forge leaned back in his seat, laughing deeply. “There must have been something wrong with him. It’s bacon.” Gage waved his hands to make his point, sending Forge into another fit of laughter.

  “What about vegetarians?” Forge teased.

  “I understand they have tofu bacon. I don’t know how it tastes. But let’s see. There’s turkey bacon and veggie bacon… why? Because everyone loves bacon. It’s one of the basic food groups: milk, meat, fruit and veg, grains, and bacon, lots and lots of bacon.” Gage couldn’t hold it in any longer, laughing right along with Forge. He liked that he could be ridiculously silly with Forge.

  As the laughter wore down, Gage lay back, his head against the sofa cushions, staring up at the ceiling. “Jesus Christ!” He groaned and sat up straight, a light coming on. “Why in the hell didn’t I think of it before?”

  “What?” Forge asked.

  “The password. It was in front of our faces all along. We were looking inside the file, but what if it was simpler than that? What if the password was the name of the file?” He jumped to his feet and raced to his bag for his computer. Gage pulled it out and hurried back to the table. He opened the laptop and signed in. “Okay. Let’s try OneDrive and see if this works.” Gage brought up the sign-in page, and Forge told him the email address to use. Then he grabbed the jump drive and entered the name of the file, Granger&Forge, just the way Granger had saved it. He pressed enter and got a message that the account or password was incorrect or invalid. Gage tried again to no avail. “Maybe it’s iCloud.”

  Forge shook his head. “Granger didn’t use Apple products. Not even an iPhone. He didn’t like them.” He help up his iPhone with a grin. “I thought he was crazy, but that was his opinion.”

  “Then we could try Dropbox.” Gage brought up the application login and entered the email address and password. There weren’t many cloud options left. Gage crossed his fingers and pressed enter. The screen went white and then the computer indicated it was working. Then the Dropbox main screen came up with all the stored file systems listed, right there in front of him. “We’re in.”

  “Holy cow,” Forge said.

  “Yes. Holy cow is right.” There were a lot of files and directories. “It’s going to take a while to go through all of this.”

  “What are you going to do?” Forge asked as the application asked if he wanted to install the agent on his computer. Gage clicked yes, and after a fast install, he began downloading the files. There were thousands of them. “Are these his client files? I don’t want to compromise anything.”

  “No. These are all about the Lucci family. Look at how they’re organized. He must have gathered information on them for a long time.” Gage whistled. “God, if he were alive, they’d probably disbar him for breach of fiduciary duty, or as an agent of the court knowing about criminal activity and not reporting it. Where in the hell did he get all this?” Gage was just looking at the file names and organization, and the amount boggled the mind. He sat back as meg after meg of information came down to the computer, as file system after file system populated.

  “Holy shit,” Forge said, pointing to a set of files. “Open those.”

  Gage complied, and Forge lifted the computer onto his lap. “Don’t move or delete anything,” Gage warned.

  “I won’t,” Forge said breathlessly as he opened and looked through document after document. “Son of a bitch! The Luccis weren’t Granger’s clients—they were Francis’s! He brought them into the firm.” Forge turned the screen so Gage could see it better, and sure enough, there were copies of client engagement files, signed by Stanley Lucci and Francis Peterborough. “That bastard.”

  Gage let Forge look through the files, Forge getting redder and angrier by the second. “That bastard,” Forge repeated… again and again.

  “What?”

  “That bastard!” Forge nearly yelled. “I thought Granger had gotten mixed up with these people, but it was Francis. Granger was collecting data on them to try to protect himself. All these documents have Francis as the author.” Forge shook with rage. “This was all that asshole’s fault. Shit.”

  “Okay.” Gage took the computer back. “Let’s not jump to any conclusions.”

  “To hell with that! I’m going to jump to a bunch of conclusions here. Francis took on the Lucci family as clients, and Granger got wind of what they were doing. He gathered the information and saved it off. My guess is he wouldn’t go to the police because of his jurist ethics and beliefs, but he saved the information in case something happened to him.”

  Gage sighed. “That’s one way of looking at it. But we don’t know yet. There’s a lot to go through.”

  Forge nodded. “Then we’d better get started. Because I’m going to spit-roast Francis when I get my hands on him, and so not in the good way.” He stood, pacing, muttering under his breath, and occasionally throwing an air punch while Gage continued going through the information.

  “We have to call Coleridge,” Gage said. “There’s too much here for us to keep this to ourselves. He needs to have this to turn over to federal authorities. It will bring down the entire family organization.”

  “But what about Francis?
Do you think he had Granger killed?” Forge asked. “I thought it was the Luccis because he knew too much, but I bet Francis had it done because he realized Granger might be gathering information. Which was stupid.”

  Forge was on a tear, and Gage figured it was best to let him run himself out. He continued going through the files and had to admit, it didn’t look particularly good for Francis or the Luccis. Granger had a ton on all of them, and it was a sure bet that once all this got out, there would be investigations—and God knew what would come of it all.

  “Look at this.” Gage turned the computer.

  Forge stopped pacing and came over. “What am I looking at?”

  “A confidential memo from Granger to Francis.” Gage gave Forge time to read it. “Looks like Granger wasn’t happy about the clients Francis was bringing in and was worried it would damage the firm.”

  “Damage it? This is going to kill it. There will be no firm once this comes out.” Forge sat back as though he’d been beaten. “All of Granger’s hard work will evaporate like fog in the sun. He was trying to save the firm and pressure Francis to drop them as clients so they could move forward.”

  “You don’t drop people like the Luccis. Once they’re in the door, they don’t leave the party willingly.” This was really bad. Gage grabbed his phone and sent a text to his father. He received an immediate answer that his father and his mother were having a fine time. Then, with a sigh, he phoned Coleridge. This couldn’t wait until morning. Gage had to go through a number of people to get to Coleridge, but he was persistent.

  “I’m sorry to bother you this late, but Forge and I figured out how to access Granger’s files.”