In the kitchen, James pulled a rare soda out of the refrigerator as a treat then paced back into the living room. He was anxious to see Melody and almost called Ginger's house, but hung up the phone before he finished dialing. Then he spotted the box in the corner of the room and decided to take advantage of the time to read through some of Angela's journals while he waited. The research team hadn't made any more progress, and he hoped that perhaps she had written an idea down that she planned to test later, maybe giving the current team something new with which to work.
The spines of the journals each bore a date, surprising organization for his late wife, and he pulled out the three from the last year of her life and settled back on the couch to read. He skimmed through the first few pages of the first book, and then his pulse picked up and he started over again, reading more carefully. He had to reread a paragraph at one point to make sure that he read it right the first time.
He sent me another stupid rose today. Why that man would think I would consider him over James is beyond any rational thought. He seems vain enough to think that I will just swoon and fall for him and give away all of the data we've worked so diligently to assemble over my entire career. If he would spend as much time conducting his own research as he does trying to woo me, he would probably arrive at the answer much sooner than I will.
We are so close, I can almost taste it! Soon, we'll have the algorithm perfected. Compression, encryption, data recovery, and indexing — all of it will be obsolete …
James kept reading. He found so many similar entries. How had this gone on right under his nose?
I think I spoke well at the conference today. There were, as usual, mostly men in the audience, but once I start speaking they get past the blonde hair and start listening. I was able to bounce several ideas off some of the leading men in the industry, and realized that I've been on the wrong course. Once I realized that, the answer came popping into my head.
We will, hopefully, be marketing them within nine months. Rikard was there, too, and threw out several questions to try to trip me up. Hopefully, I succeeded in making him appear as ignorant as he really is. I finally confronted him about somehow copying my research. He walked away and never addressed my accusations.
I'm so glad I listened to my instincts and removed him from the team. I think I'm going to start looking into his background. If I can bring myself to remember, I'll ask James how to go about doing things like that. If he doesn't know, Kurt might. I think he did something similar when we hired the R&D team at the office.
James read faster and faster, searching for anything to give him a clue as to the last year of his wife's life. He remembered how jumpy she'd been, how much more distracted than normal. His stomach tightened when he realized how different the past and future would be if she'd only come to him with these problems. He knew she hadn't intentionally shut him out or excluded him or omitted telling him about these things. More than likely, knowing the way Angela's mind worked, it just hadn't ever occurred to her to bring it up in conversation.
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CHAPTER 38
"WHEN will you get a chance to move into your new house, Melly? I can't wait to see the whole thing completely decorated. Morgan, you should do some before and after pictures, maybe do some sort of book on what you do there," Ginger said as she dished up salad. As far as Melody could tell, the only thing Ginger ate was salad. She spared a wistful thought as to how long it had been since she'd eaten James' red sauce. She decided to ask him to make a big batch she could freeze for the next time he went out of town.
Morgan sorted through what Ginger said. "We'll have it ready in about two months. She'll move in completely then, but her piano is already there. We have strict instructions not to touch the room it's in. I think Melly is afraid that changing the color of the paint will affect the acoustics," she said as she poured dressing on her salad.
"What about the book idea? I'm sure it will sell with it being Melody Mason's house and all," Ginger said. "People will jump at anything they can to have something about their favorite superstar. Look how many awful looking boots people are wearing these days. They might even start painting rooms mint green."
Melody looked up and squinted her eyes, swearing she heard a tinge of viciousness in Ginger's tone, then shook her head. Ginger didn't have a vicious bone in her body. "Some things need to remain private, Ginger, like the color of tile in my master bathroom." Melody took a sip of her tea. "What's this I hear about you and Suarez dating?"
Ginger giggled and put a hand to her chest. "His name's John. When you say Suarez, I have to think about who you're talking about." She put her chin in her hand and sighed. "He's so stiff and proper."
Melody met Morgan's eyes over the rim of her glass and burst out laughing.
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KURT ducked under Roberts' arm and took the shot. The basketball hit the backboard and bounced off the rim. Mike got the rebound and made a perfect shot for the game point. The four men walked slowly off the court to their bags, pulling water bottles out, then collapsing on the bench that sat on the sidelines.
Kurt wiped the sweat off his forehead. "I'm getting too old for this," he groaned.
Suarez laughed and lay on the ground, looking up at the darkening sky. "You should try working out with Montgomery. I'm able to pretend until I'm out of his sight. One day, I'm going to disgrace myself and start crying just like a little girl right in front of him," he said. "After that, I can handle this, no problem."
Kurt grinned. "Been there, friend," he said sympathetically.
Roberts put his elbows on his knees and let his hands dangle between his legs. "Is this supposed to be good for us?" he asked.
Mike shook his head in disgust. He felt pretty good, himself. "What would your women say if they saw you like this?"
Roberts didn't even look up. "I don't have a woman so much as I have child support payments that keep my ex-wife and her boyfriend living in the manner to which they have recently become accustomed."
Mike went back to the court and started shooting hoops. He knew the three of them wouldn't be able to stand sitting there admitting defeat if he was out on the floor playing. He looked at his watch. His wife wasn't expecting him for another two hours.
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JAMES finished the first journal, then grabbed the next one, making sure the dates on the spine were sequential. So far, he hadn't found anything new, just repeated entries about what Šabalj did on a certain day. He felt such anger that he had a hard time focusing on the words on the page.
Halfway through the second book, he grit his teeth as fresh rage rippled through his system.
James is in London today. He says he'll be back tomorrow, but I know that he'll call tonight and tell me he'll be back on Sunday. If he wasn't such an honorable man, if I didn't know how much he really loved me, I'd swear he was having an affair.
I had to go to that party last night at Dr. Epstein's house. Somehow, Rikard Šabalj managed an invitation, and he was there with his girlfriend. I'd been sitting in the corner, writing some notes that had just occurred to me on a way to maximize the space while retaining data integrity. We want to standardize on this with the solid state devices because it should allow us to more than quadruple the compression rate while allowing for ultra precision digitizing. Anyway, I was making my notes when she came over and sat next to me.
It's funny, but during dinner, I could have sworn there wasn't an ounce of intelligence in her head, but in the privacy of those chairs, we had the most interesting conversation about the software being utilized by the film industry. She asked me if I had a hard time getting respect because of my hair color, giving me the impression she did. I answered positively, not wanting to be rude. What was her name? Some sort of spice, I think.
James started flipping through the pages, looking for other references to a spicy 'girlfriend'.
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"HEY, I have an idea! Let's go to your new house, Melly. I want to see wha
t's been done so far," Ginger enthused, putting the last dish in the dishwasher.
Melody checked the time. Still early. "Sure, if Morgan doesn't mind."
"Kurt won't be home for another hour. I want to show you the floor we found under the rug in one of the bedrooms, anyway. You may want to keep it and restore it, rather than put down new carpet," Morgan said.
"Ooooooh," Ginger cooed as she dried her hands on a dishtowel, and put it down. "I love old houses. Let's go."
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IT was in the last journal that James finally found what he had searched for all along. A piece of yellow paper fell out of it as he turned the page. He opened it up with shaking hands and saw that the front and back were covered in formulas and notations. His quick glance meant nothing to him, and he decided he would give it to the research department to see if they could decipher it. Flipping to the last page, he found the last entry.
She came over yesterday in tears, saying how Rikard has been cheating on her. She told me it was over between them, and she was no longer going to be working with him on any of his projects. It may be wrong, but I'm glad it happened. Rikard Šabalj is such a jerk. He's still sending me roses all the time, but the cards with them are getting to be a little scary…
….Ginger called today after I realized how close we were, and I was so excited that I told her. I needed to tell someone, and James was in a meeting. Besides, I should let the team do their thing before telling him. He has more invested in this than being an interested husband…
….I told Ginger that the team would be testing out my theory next week, and she seemed really interested. Maybe I can convince her to come work with us. Get in on the ground floor. We could use a mind like hers.
He snatched up the house phone and dialed. Still unable to reach Melody's cellphone, James tried to call Ginger's house, but got no answer. Then he called Morgan's cell, but there was no answer there, either. He almost threw the phone against the wall, then tried Melody's cell again, but got her voice mail. The thud the phone made when it hit the wall did nothing to make him feel any better.
He grabbed his keys and, on the elevator ride, pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and sent Melody a quick message, hoping she'd check it tonight.
Driving out of the parking garage he nearly collided with a car coming in. He swerved to miss it and turned in the direction of Kurt's house.
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MIKE looked at his watch, and knew he had to leave soon. The game was getting boring, anyway. He had just grabbed his bag to go when James stormed into the gym. He looked surprised at first to see who was there, but recovered quickly.
"Rikard Šabalj had a partner," he said. He sat down, but then stood back up.
"What are you talking about?" Kurt asked.
"Angela kept a journal for years. She must have had twenty of them. I got them from Diane's about a month ago, but hadn't gotten around to reading them until tonight." He sat back down, and told them what he'd just read. He could tell from the expressions on their faces that no one believed him at first.
"Come on, James. Ginger Patterson? She's pretty and rich but, James, she's an air-head," Kurt said, then looked at Suarez. "No offense, man."
Suarez had spent a lot of time with Ginger over the last few weeks, and suspected James was onto something. "No she's not. She hides it well, but if you pay attention and look under the hood, you realize something. She's actually very intelligent and extremely observant as well as being a student of human nature."
Kurt didn't think he could recall Suarez ever assembling so many declarative sentences together in his presence before. Roberts interjected, "Like what you were telling me about the other day?"
Suarez nodded. "She put that together in two minutes. It took us and the FBI task force the better part of six months."
Roberts raised an eyebrow and offered, "She's a trapdoor spider."
James had no idea to what they were referring and assumed it was some private post date conversation the two of them had shared. "Whatever. I tried to call her place and everyone's cell, but I can't get an answer. Where else would they be?"
Kurt started to get worried. "Come on, guys. Ginger's been Morgan's best friend since college."
"I know what I read, Kurt. Now, think. Where might they have gone?" James asked.
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MELODY sat in the back-seat of Ginger's car, wishing she'd told them to go on without her. She felt restless and edgy, and didn't feel like oohing and ahhing over wallpaper, paint swatches, and floor tiles. She missed James, and knowing he was due back tomorrow made it worse. She pulled her phone out, and saw that he'd sent her a message.
At home. Call my cell when you get this message.
"Hey Ginger," she said, "Can I use your phone?"
"Sorry, Melly. No signal," Ginger said, then looked at her with the rearview mirror. "What are you doing?"
Melody shrugged. "Playing with an app." She sent James a quick message.
Going to the new house with Ging and Morg. Meet me there if not too late. Miss your voice. No cell service here.
They pulled into the driveway and she tossed her phone back into her purse and tossed her purse onto the back-seat. Then she got ready to pretend to have a great time when all she wanted to do was rush home and see her husband.
They walked through the house, discussing things Melody really couldn't find the energy to care less about. They were now in Morgan's element. As long as the place was big enough for her to entertain, and had room for her piano, Melody was happy. She wandered away from them eventually, and made her way to the music room, where she sat down at her piano and began to play. At first, the songs sounded haunting and dark, sad and melancholy. She realized it and intentionally started to play some more upbeat songs, waiting for Morgan and Ginger to finish looking at some wooden floor.
Her heart skipped a beat when she glanced up and saw David Patterson standing in the doorway to the room. She frowned and stopped playing, wondering what he was doing there. "David. You gave me such a fright! I didn't know you were coming over. What's up?"
"I'm here to talk with you. I've heard some disturbing rumors." David slowly came further into the room, his hands in the pockets of his coat. "I've heard rumors that you're leaving the label, Melly," he said quietly.
She'd known they'd have to have it out eventually, but she'd hoped it would happen later in the year, and at some conference table with Hal sitting next to her rather than somewhere personal like her future home. "I'm considering all my options, David. A man of your business acumen, I'm sure you wouldn't want me to do anything less than my due diligence."
"The only options you're considering are which other labels will offer you a better deal." His voice no longer came out quietly, and his face started to turn red.
Melody noticed a very unprofessional vein throbbing at the older man's temple. He looked like he was on the edge of rage. She felt her heart skip a beat and tried to think of a way to defuse this. "I'm not prepared to discuss this with you right now, David. It's kind of inappropriate, actually. Let's set up a meeting so that we can all keep this about business."
David shook his head. "Melly, you never realized something that I don't have time or patience to teach you. You have to realize that everything is business all the time."
Ginger and Morgan came into the room. "Hello, Daddy," Ginger said as she kissed her father on the cheek, "Glad you could make it."
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CHAPTER 39
"WE can't just sit here and do nothing," Kurt said, pacing the room.
They'd exhausted places where the three women could have gone. "Maybe they just went shopping somewhere," Mike said. "They've been friends for years. There's no reason to think something bad will happen today."
James' phone vibrated. He quickly accessed the message and stood. "They're at our new house," he said, already headed to the door.
They took two cars and sped their way to the other side of the city and out of to
wn. James felt like he was being spurred on. Not that he was being paranoid but that it was important that he get to Melody now. He kept looking at his watch, wishing they could go faster.
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"HELLO, love," David said to Ginger, "Told you I'd be here."
Ginger reached her hand into her father's coat pocket, "Yeah, well, you're late." She pulled out a .38 caliber pistol and pointed it in the direction of Melody and Morgan. They both stared at it, not fully comprehending what they were seeing.
Melody finally asked, "What's this all about, Ginger?"
"What's this all about? Money, honey. Billions of little dollars," Ginger said. She waved the gun, going between Morgan and Melody. "But, for added spice, revenge, too. Daddy here owes James Montgomery some payback and I owe you."
Melody and Morgan stepped closer together. "If you owe me and he owes my husband, then Morgan has nothing to do with it." Melody said, her confused mind tripping all over the place, trying to find some rationale behind this whole scene. But it didn't make sense.
Ginger put her head back and laughed. "I could let Morgan leave. Except she's part of my little plan. You took someone I loved. I am going to take someone you love while you watch. It's that simple."
Melody was close to a snapping point. Her heart beat furiously and a roaring in her ears almost drowned out Ginger's voice. "What are you talking about?" she whispered.
A Melody for James (Christian Suspense) Page 33