by Drea Stein
As she walked towards her desk, the look on Heather’s face said it all. Caitlyn wondered if she should even bother to take off her jacket and then thought it would look bad if she didn’t. She thought for a second about how the scene should be played. She needed them to believe she was hiding something, stonewalling them, but that she thought she was innocent. Because she was, and someone knew it.
“Mr. Harris wants to see you,” Heather told her. She looked so pained that Caitlyn almost wanted to ask her what was wrong. But she did not, simply smoothed her hands over her jacket and played dumb.
Sam was in his office alone. Caitlyn shut the door behind her and took a seat, not waiting to be invited.
“Caitlyn.”
Caitlyn smiled, trying to fake a braveness she did not feel.
“Why were you in the office last night?”
“Excuse me?”
“We have security cameras, you know, and they showed you coming into the office in the very early morning hours.”
There weren’t security cameras in the office, just in the lobby. Caitlyn swallowed. She hadn’t quite thought about that. Still, though, they wouldn’t know what she’d been doing once she’d been inside the office.
“I had some work to do.”
He looked at her, his blue eyes gazing directly at her. “I find that hard to believe. How did you get in?”
She shrugged. Not much she could say there, without dragging Noah into it.
Sam went on. “Caitlyn, I have been informed that there are some irregularities with your accounts.”
“My accounts?” This time, instead of fear, she felt anger. It was happening again.
“Yes. Inconsistent accounting, amounts missing. I am launching a full investigation into it, and until that time, I am suspending you without pay from all firm-related activities.”
Caitlyn saw that Sam was trying hard not to gloat. He thought she was done, out of the way, an obstacle removed. So, she let him believe it, protesting her innocence and even letting her eyes water. But he was adamant, would not show her anything. He did not bring up what had happened in London. At the end, she collected herself and her dignity and got up to go.
“Caitlyn.”
She turned.
“This looks bad. I thought…” He paused. “It’s just that Maxwell trusted you so much.”
She looked at him and nodded.
Head held high, she marched out. Eyes followed her out. She took her coat and said nothing to Heather, who just looked at her, a look of despair.
“Don’t worry, Heather; it will all be okay,” she told her.
“It’s not true,” Heather burst out. “I told them it couldn’t be true.”
“I promise. It will turn out all right.”
Caitlyn’s reassurances seemed to help, and Heather dabbed her tears and gave Caitlyn a big hug before letting her go.
There was a security guard waiting for her at the elevators.
“I need to escort you out, Miss.” He was young, and they had once had a friendly relationship. He didn’t quite take her arm, but he was uncomfortable. He asked for her badge and then for the keys.
“I don’t have the keys.”
He looked at her.
“But how did you get in last night?”
She shrugged and gave him the badge. She walked out the door and to her car, driving first to Noah’s. He deserved an explanation and what information he needed to figure things out.
Chapter 50
“Listen, boss, I’m sorry to bother you with this.” Noah looked up. He had come into the office, after finding that Caitlyn had disappeared. Now Sam Harris stood in his door. Noah fought back his irritation. He didn’t need this, not with all that was happening.
“Can it wait?” Noah said, with a wave of his hand.
“I’m afraid not. There have been some new developments with the situation I discussed with you.”
Noah frowned. There were a lot of situations, weren’t there?
“At the party. The accounts, the irregularities.”
“Yes, of course.” Noah sat up, apprehension rippling through him. Sam stepped into his office and closed the door.
“Well, there have been a few developments – something serious, at least in terms of the amount of money that’s been moving around.”
“What are you saying?” Noah asked carefully.
“I think we have a thief. And I think I know who it is.” Sam sat back in his chair, concern rippling over his face.
“A thief?”
“Oh, yes, I think your father was aware of the situation, which was why he came to you. The amounts gone … well, this is big. It could ruin, destroy the whole firm. Everything your father built.”
“My father,” Noah said, but even to him, his voice sounded far away.
“I know he trusted her, but I think that it was misplaced, very misplaced. These things can be hard to trace, but I do have a friend who works in private banking. In the Caymans.”
“Caymans?” Noah swallowed, trying to think fast.
“I think, now that we know where to look, things will become pretty clear. I don’t have to tell you that we might be better off keeping this sort of thing quiet, of course, pursue some sort of private action. Last thing we want to do is tip her off. Have her make a run for it, you know?”
Noah looked carefully at Sam Harris, who leaned forward and pushed a single piece of paper towards him. Noah picked it up, glanced at it and nodded.
“You’re exactly right. Something needs to be done,” he said.
Chapter 51
They were facing each other, like tigers ready to pounce. He looked at her and hated himself. She was close to tears, he thought, dark color suffusing her face, her lower lip unsteady, her whole body twisted and coiled.
“Are you saying you don’t believe me?”
He looked at her, reaching for her. “No, of course not, I know it’s not true. But there’s something going on.”
She felt a rush of relief. “Well, it’s the right answer, but it took you too long. If you had to think that hard…” Caitlyn picked up her jacket and started to move away from him.
“Don’t go. Listen, I had no idea you would take my keys and do something stupid like break into the office.” Noah ran his hands through his hair. He’d been proceeding carefully, working with his team of investigators and a lawyer. No matter what, his lawyer had said, they didn’t want to spook the perpetrator. They had to catch the crook red-handed.
“Stupid?” Caitlyn shook her head.
“Listen,” Noah said. “It’s true. There are some problems with your accounts. I’ve had a team looking into it.”
“My accounts. Do you think I would steal?” Caitlyn was angry, her body tight and coiled again.
Noah wanted to reach out and grab her, pull her close to him, but he knew she wouldn’t let him.
“No, I don’t, but someone is.”
She seemed to relax a bit after that. “So, you know about it?”
“Not that much yet. And I don’t know who. I haven’t even told Sam Harris what’s going on. No one can know, yet. We don’t want to tip our hand.”
“What made you think…?”
Noah sighed and told her about his meeting with Michael. “Hopefully he’s well on his way to London. But it got me thinking, about what you told me … Tony Biddle’s account. That friend of Adriana’s. So I called a security firm. They have lawyers, accountants, everything we need to figure it out.”
“But you don’t know everything yet?” she asked.
He shook his head. “But I need to ask you for your patience; let this all play out. If the person who’s doing this knows we think it’s you…”
“He, or she, will do something stupid.”
Noah nodded. He could tell she was still mad. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. These things are delicate.” He wanted to pull her to him, tell her it would be all right, that he would make it right for her. He took a step towa
rds her, but she moved back.
“Don’t touch me, yet. There’s more that you need to know.”
Caitlyn took a deep breath, pulled a thick envelope from her bag and threw it onto the counter between the two of them.
“It’s all in here, Noah. It will make sense. And I don’t care what you do with it. I won’t tell anyone, and no one has to know. I think it will be okay now; your money made it so. But I can’t be involved anymore. I thought coming back would give me some peace, let me be me again, and well, it seems like I got sucked in just like everyone else did.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.” His forehead creased, and he looked at the envelope but did not touch it.
“It’s all in there,” she repeated. “Look at it, and you can decide what to do.”
She picked up her bag, and he rose from where he was sitting.
“Are you going?” he asked, and she thought she heard panic lace his voice.
“Caitlyn, don’t,” he said. He pulled her close, and she let him. He touched his lips to her hair, put his arms around her back and pulled her in.
Finally, she pushed away, gently, then harder.
“No, Noah. No. I thought … I thought I could get away from it, thought I could leave it behind. But I can’t. Our choices stick with us. There are always consequences. I wanted to get away from here so much, I went too far away. Now I am not sure I can ever come back.” “Caitlyn, where are you going?” She had picked up her coat. “Caitlyn.” He felt panic rushing over him. He couldn’t let her go. This wasn’t what he had meant to happen.
He moved to go after her, but she turned around, just inside the door.
“Noah, if you trust me, let me go.”
She let herself out, and he stood there, alone and miserable, not sure what to do. Let me go, she had said. It was what she had said to him years ago, after her grandfather’s funeral. He had gone to her, to tell her that he would stay with her, be with her as long as she needed him to. And he had been told to let go, to let her go, to leave for his own life. He had left her then, let her go. And now. He sat down on the bottom step of the stairs, looking around him at this big, empty house that wasn’t his.
Believe in me, but let me go. The hell with that, he thought, as he heard her car pull away. Caitlyn Montgomery was not getting away from him. Not this time, not ever again.
Chapter 52
“You don’t look so good, my friend.” Chase handed him a beer and threw himself down on the couch next to his friend.
“She told me to let her go.” Noah took a pull of his beer, found that he didn’t really want it and put it on the low coffee table. He had come to Chase’s place, the suite of rooms he kept in the Osprey Arms.
“Caitlyn left?” Chase gave a long whistle. “What did you do to her?”
“What makes you think I did something?”
Chase laughed. “Because with you and her, it’s usually you who screws it up. Didn’t I tell you to go back and say sorry to her? And you didn’t. Before I knew it, the two of you were three thousand miles apart and miserable.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“Exactly,” Chase said, taking a sip of his beer. “So, what happened, really?”
Noah ran his hands through his hair and scrubbed them over his face. “There’s something wrong at the firm. Money missing, unaccounted for.”
He filled his friend in on what he had learned so far from Ted and his investigation and what Sam Harris had told him.
“Oh,” Chase said, and there was something in his voice that had Noah looking at him.
“You knew about it.”
“No, no way.” Chase held up his hands. “But I think Caitlyn did.”
“The money is missing from her accounts,” Noah said.
Chase laughed. “Well, you don’t think she did it, do you?”
“Of course not. And I told her that. But things just don’t add up. And, well, the evidence is pretty clear that someone did it.”
“And that’s why she left, because you didn’t believe that it wasn’t her?”
Noah looked out the window. Chase had taken rooms that overlooked the marina and the harbor. It was quiet down there, but the tall lamps threw out great pools of light.
“There was something more,” Noah said, and told Chase about what Michael St. John had done.
“Well, that sounds like something that bastard would say. He’s got a nasty reputation.”
“I know.” Noah told Chase about the call he had made. “It didn’t take them long to find out all the stuff on him. Apparently his family has some deep pockets, so things keep getting covered up, but he’s a pompous ass with a mean streak.”
“So, you’re not taking his word for it that she was out for some sort of vendetta?”
“No,” Noah said, “but she didn’t really give an explanation. Just handed me this.” Noah pulled out the envelope of papers Caitlyn had shoved at him and tossed it to Chase, who neatly caught it.
“Have you looked at it?” he asked.
Noah shook his head. “I haven’t had the time.”
“Mind if I?” Chase asked, and when Noah nodded his assent, he slipped the sheaf of papers out of the folder.
Noah stood up, unable to sit for any longer. He paced the room, filled with restless, nervous energy, his mind going over what Caitlyn had said to him, what he had said to her, how in a matter of minutes everything they had built up had managed to come undone.
“Noah, I don’t think Caitlyn’s been entirely honest with you,” Chase said, and Noah turned to look at his friend. Chase’s expression was serious, and Noah felt his heart skip a beat.
“What is it?” He almost didn’t want to know if it were true. Perhaps he could go now, tell her it was okay, no matter what.
“Well, there are two things.”
“Okay.” Noah wasn’t sure where this was going.
“First off, Caitlyn doesn’t need anyone’s money.”
“Well, I know she’s not broke, but that house, the car, her clothes, it all has to cost money. And she makes good money, but it does seem like she must spend it as fast as she makes it. Lucas didn’t leave her much.”
“Noah, Caitlyn doesn’t need anyone’s money because she’s already rich.”
“What do you mean, rich?” Noah didn’t understand what Chase was trying to say.
“Caitlyn is quite rich. She doesn’t like to talk about it, but she was or is part owner of two restaurant chains, two websites, a video production company, a sailing goods company and an Internet start-up that recently went public.”
Noah felt his knees grow weak. “What are you saying?” he asked, though he was beginning to have a pretty good idea.
“Caitlyn’s been investing in companies since she was a teenager. I guess she took whatever she inherited from Lucas and began investing. Remember how about three years into TechSpace you needed more money? I was dry at that point, and I know you were pretty desperate.”
“There was a last-minute private investor who wanted to remain anonymous.” Noah remembered it well. He had been on the ropes, about to see everything he had worked for go down in flames. But the infusion of cash had been just what the company needed, and they had been profitable ever since. It hadn’t been a loan; it had been an investment, and when TechSpace went public, that chunk of the company had been worth several million dollars.
“She was the anonymous investor?”
Chase nodded. “It wasn’t her first or last. Like I said, she’s part owner of a pizza restaurant chain, a couple of media sites, and I’m proud to say, of North Coast Outfitters, though I intend to buy her out in a few months.”
“But how...?” Noah said and then answered, “Playing cards?”
Chase shrugged. “Caitlyn keeps her secrets. But when you needed money, she was there for you. She didn’t think you would accept it from her, or if you did, that you would feel like you owed her, so she kept it quiet.”
“And I took it
, believing my idea was so brilliant there were people lining up to fund it.” Noah thought of something. “How did you know about this?”
“I plied her with too much champagne one night, and let’s just say that’s when I realized that she was so not over you.” Chase watched him with sympathetic eyes. “I know it’s not my story to tell, but the two of you keeping secrets from each other is driving me crazy.”
“Secrets. I’m not keeping secrets. She’s the one who...” Noah ran his hands through his hair. He didn’t know what to think, except that, once again, he had doubted her.
“She never asked for anything in return, did she?”
Noah shook his head.
“She just wanted you to be happy, to have your dream.”
“I really did screw it up this time,” Noah said, the realization crashing down on him. Once again he had let her walk away.
“I think she would be willing to forgive you. After all, she wasn’t exactly honest with you.”
“What do you mean?” Noah saw that Chase was looking down at the papers he had given him.
“I think she was trying to protect you.” Chase rose and handed a few pages to Noah. He looked at them, not sure what he was supposed to see, and then it hit him. Suddenly it all made sense why his father had needed his money so badly.
Chapter 53
Noah looked at Ted Waters. He had taken the red-eye in from California, and though he yawned, he looked well pleased with himself. He was short, stocky and had biceps like Popeye. It had all been simple, especially once Noah had given him the evidence from Caitlyn. It hadn’t taken too much work, becoming obvious once you knew where to look – someone who was living above their means. A quick check of financial records had them honing in quickly.
“It looks like he’s been skimming for a while now. The red flags are there if you look closely enough. Everything’s just a tad too nice. And he and his wife pay for a lot of it in cash. Questions to a few of the local and not-so-local merchants turned that up.”
“So, how does it work?”
“Well, we’re not entirely sure, since you said you wanted to keep this matter discreet, but just as your associate showed you, it looks like real statements were being diverted to a post office box, then doctored statements were being sent out instead. The doctored statements showed healthy accounts with modest growth, while, in reality, the balances have been drawn down for quite a while.” Ted’s biceps bulged as he tapped a list of names. “Targets fit the profile, generally senior women, for whom the firm does not present the bulk of their assets. For the most part, they don’t take money from the account. If they needed money, your guy just moved it around, so that no one person ever got suspicious.”