Kevin gave a hurt look. “Hey, I didn’t get any cookies. I helped unload all that furniture. Not like this slacker, showing up when the work was done.”
Derry shrugged. “Would say I’m sorry, but I’m not.”
The four took their seats as the joking tapered off.
Natalie said she wanted to ask the blessing.
“Dear Lord, we thank You for this food and this opportunity to spend time with our friends. I ask You to bless the food to our bodies, and I ask a special blessing for the new life growing within me. Amen.”
Derry didn’t wait until the end of the prayer before his eyes popped open. He stared at Natalie. “You’re—expecting?”
She smiled from ear to ear, and Kevin answered, “That’s the big news I wasn’t allowed to share.”
“That’s terrific!” Derry exclaimed.
Sara didn’t say anything. The conversation rolled on without her.
Natalie added, “We’re so happy. We’ve been praying for a baby for over a year.”
Derry asked, “Are you going to keep working after the baby’s born?”
“No, I’m planning to quit in six months.”
Sara had an inquisitive look. “Why do you need to quit work? Won’t they give you time off? Don’t you like the money?”
“I like the money, but I want to stay home with our baby.” Natalie rubbed Kevin’s hand with her thumb as she smiled.
“But you’re going back to work once the baby’s old enough to be put in daycare, aren’t you?” Sara took a bite of potatoes.
Kevin cut into his steak. “We’re not planning to put our kids into daycare, or public school, for that matter. Natalie’s going to stay home and school them.”
“Homeschool them?” Sara glanced at Natalie for confirmation.
“Yes, I want to homeschool our children.”
Softly, almost too softly to be noticed, Sara mumbled, “I was homeschooled.”
It took a moment for everyone to register her comment. Natalie responded first. “You were? How’d you like it?”
“I don’t remember much about it. I was only homeschooled when I was young, before my father died.”
This was the first time Sara had shared any of her past. Derry turned his full attention to her. “How’d he die?”
Sara’s head was down. At this question, she raised her gaze briefly.
“He was killed in a car accident when I was almost twelve. After he died, my mother tried to continue homeschooling us, but it was hard. She worked the night shift, and tried to teach us during the day. It was very tough on her, but we were doing okay. That is, until a neighbor, who didn’t like us, turned my mother in for child abuse. It wasn’t true. My mother loved us, and we loved her. She never hurt us in any way.”
“What happened after she was turned in? Did they make you go to public school?” Natalie’s voice was soft, filled with compassion.
“A social worker showed up one day. Said that leaving us alone all night was too dangerous. My oldest brother told her he knew what to do if we had any problems, but she said fourteen was too young to take on that kind of responsibility. She took us away. They sent me to live with a foster family in south Denver, never to see my brothers or sisters again.” Sara’s body shook a little. “I still miss them.”
Tears ran down her face. She just let them flow.
Derry started to reach for her, but pulled his hand back. “What about your mother?”
“She came a few times to see me. Each time, I wanted to go home with her, but they wouldn’t let me. That made me mad. After a few visits, they told me she could no longer visit me. They said it was my fault, because I acted up too much after her visits. All I wanted was to be with her.”
Silence filled the room. Sara wiped her eyes with the palm of her hand.
“The Motovas, the foster family, were nothing but a bunch of liars. When no one was around, the boys—”
Natalie reached over and put her hand on Sara’s. Sara pulled away and tightly hugged herself, sobbing. Derry was unsure what to do or say.
It was clear Natalie had seen this before. “Sara, it’s okay. You don’t have to say anymore. Did you tell the social worker about it?”
Eyes and nose red, face wet with tears, Sarah peeked up at Natalie. “I told them, but they didn’t believe me. No one believed me. The father said I had an overactive imagination. How would he know? He was always at work. I think he worked all the time to get away from his wife. Playing with chemicals was better than being around her. I was all alone. After a while, I just kept my mouth shut. Telling others only made it worse. I tried to fight them, to keep them away from me, but I was too weak. Nothing I did helped.” Shoulders shaking, she reached for a napkin to dry her face. Kevin jumped up, and grabbed a box of tissues. He set them in front of her.
Anger rose in Derry. How could this happen? He wanted to find out who these people were. He wanted to punish them for what they did to Sara. Part of him was ready to jump into his car and track this family down. The other part of him wanted to take Sara in his arms, and let her know she was safe—that he would not let anyone hurt her ever again—but he controlled his anger, and let Natalie comfort Sara.
Natalie’s eyes filled with tears as she slipped out of her chair and knelt by Sara. Sliding one arm around Sara’s back, she used the other to hold her hand. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re safe here.”
Sara sat up a little, and looked at the table in front of her. “I did everything I could to stay away from them. I tried running away, only to be brought back. Those nights were the worst. By morning— I wanted to kill myself, but I was too afraid.
“I started spending as much time as I could at school or at the library, studying. The library offered computer classes. I took them all, and read everything I could get my hands on about programming. Computers can’t hurt you. By the time I was sixteen, I was teaching many of the classes. It gave me a reason to be gone all the time, and a way to earn my own money.”
“Did you earn enough to move out?” Derry asked.
Sara gave him a quick glance. All he saw was hatred and pain. Now he understood why she had never been willing to share her past.
She glanced at Natalie. “I got even.” The tears continued, but her demeanor changed.
“What’did you do, dear?”
“By the time I was seventeen, I was the top computer geek working at the library. I learned how to hack into any computer. I hacked into the Motova’s computer, and discovered why this family wanted foster kids and only took girls. They were recording everything they did, selling it on the Internet. I was so furious, so humiliated.”
Sara’s body shuddered again as she clenched her fists.
“There wasn’t anything those boys could have done worse than that. They stole my life, my innocence. I wanted to kill them and their mother.”
“You didn’t, did you?” Natalie pulled back a few inches and peered into Sara’s face.
“No. Maybe I should have, but I knew I’d get caught. Instead I looked at the camera angles, searched the house, and found them hidden in the walls. They were in my bedroom and the bathroom. Snooping around on their computer, I found I wasn’t the first.”
“Oh, my dear. I am so sorry.” Natalie gave Sara a hug.
Derry’s anger mushroomed. Who were these animals? If he could find them, he’d make them pay.
“That’s when I tried to get even.” In a flash, Sara’s expression went hard.“I couldn’t let anyone else see the pictures and videos of me. I felt that if anyone else saw them—” She broke down again.
“Shh, it’s okay. No one here’s going to judge you for something you were forced to do. What they did to you was their fault, their sins, not yours.” Natalie rubbed Sara’s shoulder.
“I destroyed every copy
of me I could find. Then I took pictures of the hidden cameras, and tracked down the names and addresses of the other girls who had lived with this family. I made copies of all their pictures and videos to use in court, contacted a lawyer, and showed him what I had. He said he’d help me.
“But he needed money. To pay him, I tapped into the family’s bank account and learned they had made a lot of money by selling the pictures. They had a little over $26,000.”
Sara grew quiet.
Derry needed to know how this story ended. “What happened?”
“I got caught. The family discovered the missing money and took me to court, bringing a counter suit against me. They accused me of not only stealing their money, but of vandalizing their computer. Of cutting holes in their walls to plant false evidence. We tried to get the other girls to testify on my behalf. Most of them wanted to forget it ever happened, and refused to testify. A couple did step forward to help, but we couldn’t use any of the pictures or videos in court. Their lawyer was better than mine. He got all our evidence banned from the courtroom. They came up with their own set of witnesses who claimed they had lived in that house and nothing ever happened to them. They said the family was always loving and good to them. It came down to my word against theirs.”
“And?” Derry’s anger was growing again. He hated this helpless feeling and wanted to do something, anything, to make things right for Sara.
“My lawyer, the man who was supposed to help me, struck a deal. The other side agreed to drop all charges and allow the records to be sealed, if I turned over all the evidence to them and paid back the money.” Sara’s tears had dried up sometime in the last few minutes. “In exchange, the family would no longer be allowed to be foster parents.”
“That’s not right.” It was the first time Kevin had spoken since Sara started her story. “They should have been punished for what they did, gone to jail.”
“I gave back four thousand dollars, and kept the rest. They really couldn’t tell the courts that I still had more of their money. They would have had to explain where the money came from, and that would prove I was right. At that point, I left. I was seventeen.”
***
Sara ended the meal with most of her food untouched. She just wanted to go home. Derry offered to walk her. At first she declined the offer, but finally gave in. The walk was quiet. Derry was at a loss for words. How could anyone go through what she’d been through, and not hate the world?
Sara was a strong woman, much stronger than he’d realized. After seeing her tears and hearing her story, he was amazed she had survived at all.
As they approached the guesthouse, Sara slowed, stopping at the door. With her head still down, a soft “thank you” escaped her lips.
Reaching up, he pushed some of her hair back, touching her cheek. “For what?”
She raised her head, just enough for him to see into her eyes. “For walking me home. For not saying anything. For just being here.”
Before he had time to think, Sara stood on her tiptoes and gave him a light kiss on the cheek. Then she was gone.
Derry stood unmoving for a few seconds. Finally, treasuring the feeling of her lips on his cheek, he made his way back home. His anger over what had happened to her conflicted with the emotions set on fire by that one little kiss.
***
New tears flowed down Sara’s face. Tears of anger and rage. She’d told Derry and the Knights her deep dark secret. Something she swore she’d never tell anyone, ever. Now she had no choice. She had to run. They had power over her now. She was nothing but a throw-away toy in their eyes. Something to be used and dumped when their church project was done. There was no way she could stay, even if she wanted to.
She watched Derry slowly move toward his house. Why’d he have this kind of effect on her, causing her to tell everything?
He acted sweet about it. Like he really cared. Could he? Or was she just a new charity case for him? Maybe that’s what she’d been all along.
Derry slid open the back door, and disappeared inside. This would be the last glimpse of him she would ever see.
A new ache formed deep inside.
Oh, why can’t I find someone like him, who would really love me? Love me in spite of my past.
She pounded her fist against the wall a few times before spinning around and rushing to the bedroom. She threw herself on the bed, and buried her face in her pillow. Hiding from the world, she cried herself to sleep.
Chapter 38
Derry sat at his desk, completely zoned out. His mind wasn’t on his work, it was on Sara and the childhood she endured. How could anyone be so cruel? The foster family was more than cruel, they were downright evil. He drifted back and forth between anger and pity. Anger at the family, anger at the system, anger for not being able to take that past away, anger for not being able to stop what they’d done. And pity for Sara, pity for what she’d endured, pity for her having to live with the memories, pity for how she must think of herself and others.
The music from his phone tugged him back into this world. It was playing Lamar’s ring tone.
Not Lamar, not now.
His hand acted on its own, as much out of habit as thought. “Hey.”
“Have you got the name of that bank yet?” Lamar’s voice was impatient.
Sitting up straight in his chair, Derry shoved the emotions aside. “No, not yet. I’ve been—”
“Look, I need the name today. I could get a warrant to search the records myself, but you said you’d get it.”
“Sorry, I’ll get right on it.”
“Good. I need it by ten. Think you can get it to me by then?”
Derry checked the time. It was a little past eight. “Should be able to.”
“I’m counting on you.” The line went dead. Something was up. This was out of character for Lamar.
Derry slid his phone back into his pocket and placed his hands on the keyboard. Taking a short quick breath, he resolved to learn the truth, no matter where it led him.
As he typed, he said a silent prayer for Sara.
***
“I found another account under Sara’s new name.” Kai sat at her desk. Levy paced behind her.
“Where?”
“It’s here in Denver. There’s not much in it. Less than ten grand.”
“Tap into it and move the money out.”
Levy’s pacing irritated Kai, making it difficult to stay focused. He stopped occasionally to check her progress.
Kai had anticipated this. She’d spent all day Sunday breaking into the bank’s computers. She was ready. “No problem. I’m all set up.”
“Good. Move that money, along with the money in the Nigeria National account into my new account. I want her broke, penniless. Here’s the password for her Nigeria account.” He handed Kai a slip of paper.
She typed as she talked. “It’ll take about twenty minutes for all the transfers to go through.”
Levy won this round against Sara. Sooner or later, he won every round. Sara was stupid to steal his money. If she had just left, he might have forgotten about her after a while. She might have gotten away. But Levy would never let her keep his money.
“Once you’ve verified the transfers, send Sara this message. It should flush her out.” Levy handed Kai a second sheet of paper. Without waiting for a response, he pivoted toward the door and left, taking the tension with him.
***
Sara woke earlier than normal. From her dark living room window, she watched Derry getting ready for work. Once he was gone, she lay daydreaming on the couch. Part of her wanted to talk with him one more time, but how could she face him after she had confessed her past? Now he knew what she really was.
Betty’s words came back to haunt her. “Men don’t want a woman like you. Haven’t you figure
d that out yet?”
Rousing herself, Sara needed to get moving. Derry left for work over an hour ago, and she would never see him again.
Nevertheless, she was drawn to the house. She used the excuse of leaving him a note. What would it say? Forgetting the note, she walked into his bedroom and took a seat on the edge of the bed. This is where she really first met him. He saved her life. Even with all the pain from that day, she remembered feeling safe when he was in the room with her. She ran her hand under his pillow as a small tear formed in the corner of one eye. Why couldn’t she have a normal life? Why couldn’t she have someone like Derry?
The answer was clear. It was because of what she was—dirt. She stood and headed out of Derry’s home, and out of his life. She entered the guesthouse and went straight for her computer. It was time to get to work. She couldn’t leave any traces behind of who she was or where she was going. The computer needed to be wiped clean.
Turning it on, she checked her email one last time.
Sara,
I have your money, all of it. You are now broke and completely worthless. Next, I will have you. Without any money to pay off your friends, they will give you up. Vance is waiting for you.
L
The message sent a shiver down her spine.
He has my money? All of it? How?
Sara logged into her offshore account. It was empty.
He knows my new last name. How? That’s impossible.
Had Levy found her other account? She checked her local bank. Also empty.
She glanced toward Derry’s house. Could he have told Levy? Why would he do that?
“Men don’t want a woman like you.”
Can’t be true; Derry wouldn’t do that, would he?
Determination to survive overtook her emotions. It didn’t matter if Derry told Levy her last name. In a few hours she’d be gone and free of them.
She should never have let her guard down. Derry got too close. She stayed too long. She checked the time. Nine-thirty. There was more than enough time for everything she had to do.
First things first. She needed a new account, one Levy wouldn’t find. It had to be a numbered account, leaving no tractability to her. An account in the Bahamas should do the trick.
Fatal Transaction (Thriller & Suspense, Cyber Crime) Page 20