Even if it turned out that they were right, this meeting she was about to head into was not a waste of time—at least not for her—because while Lou and Walter sat and hashed out specifics, she had plans to go and search for the bonds in Gloria’s office. Ditto tonight with the board meeting. Kelsey would do whatever it would take to dig up those bonds—which had to be cashed in on Monday, the day after tomorrow, or they would expire and become worthless.
She made it to the office by three fifteen, and she went straight to the front door, not the back. Sneaking in at night with her father’s code was one thing, but trying to pull the same stunt in the light of day—especially when she knew Walter would be coming in soon as well—would have been, at the very least, unwise. If the front desk was manned, she wouldn’t need a code at all.
When she reached the front door, just as she’d hoped, she spotted someone there despite the fact that it was a Saturday. Even better, the person currently on duty was Ephraim, who buzzed her in the moment he spotted her through the glass entrance.
“Hey, Eph,” she said as she stepped inside. “I’m surprised to see you here on a Saturday. Are you guys still on a ramped-up security schedule because of last week?”
Ephraim stared at her strangely before answering. “Nope. We’re on a ramped-up security schedule because of last night.”
“Oh?” She kept her expression blank as she continued across the wide lobby toward his desk.
“Yeah, it’s the strangest thing. From what I hear, your pop is pretty incapacitated these days. And yet somehow he managed to get into the building anyway—and up five flights of stairs, no less. Amazing, isn’t it?”
Kelsey hesitated before answering. “Wow. That is amazing. Have you told anyone else about this incredible development?”
He held her gaze for a long moment. “No. I reviewed the security footage from the fifth floor elevator bay and reception area and didn’t see anything or anybody. Then I took a look around up there myself, in person. Considering that I couldn’t find any signs of, uh, maliciousness or vandalism or anything like that, I figured it could wait until my Monday morning report for Mr. Hallerman. Doesn’t seem to be any need to rush and let him know ’bout it today.”
She wanted to hug him, but instead she just gave a quick nod. “My father has always appreciated your loyalty to this firm and to our family.”
“Well, I hope your father—or somebody else in your family who happens to work here—will be able to straighten out this mess real soon and it won’t matter anyway.” His expression was stern but loving.
“That’s the plan,” she replied, forcing a smile. “Or, I guess I should say, that’s the prayer, anyway.”
“Amen to that.”
With a grateful smile, she continued on to the elevator, took it to the fourth floor, and headed down the hallway toward her office. Despite being fully in the right, it felt odd to be here now, almost as if she were an intruder. Nevertheless, Walter knew she was coming in today, so at least she wasn’t breaking his ridiculous rules at the moment.
Flipping on the lights, she stepped into the room and looked around, glad that nothing seemed amiss. Her favorite sweater still hung from the peg on the wall. The files she’d been working on Tuesday morning still sat neatly at the corner of her desk. It was almost as if she’d been gone ten minutes, not three days.
She couldn’t believe so much had happened in such a short time.
Kelsey would have liked to process things a bit, mentally speaking, but she knew she couldn’t dawdle. With less than forty-five minutes until she was to meet up with Lou and Walter in Walter’s office, she needed to get busy. Even without taking Cole’s Ponzi theory into consideration, there was still more homework to do on the merger she would be proposing later tonight.
Her laptop was at home, so she flipped on her desktop computer instead. As it powered up she went to the file drawers on the far wall, her own personal archives. Digging through them, she pulled out all the paperwork she had ever acquired regarding Strahan Realty Trust. Besides the large original investment she had orchestrated five years ago, there had also been several small loans in the years since. Back at her desk, she signed into her computer and then pulled up the record of all payments—both loan repayments and dividend earnings—that B & T had ever received from Lou’s company. She printed out that information and then returned her attention to the files she had taken from the drawer. Reaching for the earliest one, she flipped it open and began skimming through it, just to refresh her memory of the terms of their original agreement.
As she worked, it wasn’t long before she came across the old investment analysis sheet Gloria had first given her to start the ball rolling. Unable to resist, Kelsey looked for the figures Cole had accused her of remembering incorrectly. She felt a surge of righteous indignation when she spotted them, two items in a list of specifics about the deal. First was the line that read, Client commitments totaling $485,000, followed by the one that said, Personal investment totaling $950,000.
She was right! Cole was the one with the faulty memory.
A part of her—the childish, vindictive part—wanted to scan a copy of that page and email it directly to him with the words “I told you so!” written in big block letters across the top. She didn’t, of course, but just in case she ever had the opportunity to share that information with him in a less vindictive manner, she scanned it in anyway, feeling smug and guilty at the same time.
Returning to her work, she continued to review the files. Once she was finished, she went into her email and was relieved to see that Cole had sent over his reports, just as she’d hoped. They were attached to a brief note, one that said, simply:
Kelsey, thought you might find these helpful. Best wishes on your merger and your life.
Cole
Ouch. In just two short lines, he had managed to convey every ounce of his anger—and twist the knife a little further into her heart. Deeply saddened, she printed out the information he’d sent and was about to click out of her email when another message from Cole popped up. Opening it, she expected to see another attachment or two, but instead it was just a note, which read:
Sorry about that last email. I should have cooled down before I hit send. Just because it’s clear that you and I are better off apart doesn’t mean I have the right to be hurtful to you. I do wish you the best with whatever solution you end up using to solve your company’s current problems. I’m sorry my team and I couldn’t be more help. Please feel free to contact Flash or Thriller directly if you have any further questions.
I also really do wish you the best in life. You are a special person and will always have a place in my heart.
Cole
Kelsey stared at the screen for a long time. In a way, this second letter pained her even more than the first. Words of farewell said in anger seemed far less permanent somehow than those said with kindness.
Their relationship really was over.
With a heavy heart, she rose from her desk. It was almost time to go upstairs to meet with Lou and Walter, almost time to get the ball rolling. The success of scenario number two contained a lot of contingencies—it could work, if Lou wasn’t running some elaborate scheme, if he and Walter could hammer out the specifics, if the board approved the deal, if Kelsey didn’t find the bonds in the meantime—but at least laying the groundwork for a deal was better than doing nothing.
She headed to the printer, pulled off the pages Cole had sent to her, and took a moment to look through them. When she came to the last one, she did a double take. Like her, he had managed to dig out his old investment analysis sheet for Lou Strahan’s business venture. His sheet also had a list of specifics about the deal, including client commitments and personal investment. Except his said, Client commitments totaling $125,000, and Personal investment totaling $400,000.
Overcome with a wave a dizziness, she reached out and placed a hand on the wall to steady herself. She reread the document two more times, just to be sur
e she was seeing what she thought she was seeing. The forms were identical—same date, same executive summary, same exact info—except for those two amounts, which had been altered.
It was clear as day. They had each been working from different figures.
One of them had been given fabricated data.
She pulled out her phone and dialed Cole’s number, praying he would take her call. He answered on the fifth ring, his voice flat and distant.
“Yes?”
“I’m sending you an email right now. Can you take a look while we’re on the line?”
“I guess. Hold on.”
Dashing over to her desk, with trembling hands she sent off her version of the form she held in her hand, the one she had scanned earlier. “There,” she said softly. “It should show up any second.”
She held her breath as she waited. Finally, she heard him gasp.
“Do you see what I see?” she whispered.
“Kelsey, where did you get this?”
“I did the same thing you did. I looked up the old numbers. My old numbers. I wasn’t going to send them to you. I just needed to reassure myself that I was right. But then I got your version, and I realized—”
“We were set up. We were working from different figures.”
They were both silent for a long moment.
“Do you understand what this means?” he said. “For one thing, it means Lou was lying.”
“Or Gloria. She’s the one who gave me this information.”
“It means you made an investment based on vastly inflated numbers,” Cole said.
“It means you may be right about Lou’s pyramid business structure,” Kelsey replied.
“It means…” His voice trailed off.
“It means you and I were both right, because we didn’t have the same information. I would never have made such a high offer based on your figures.”
“I would never have made such a low offer based on yours.”
After a beat, he ended with the obvious. “It means our breakup was predicated on someone else’s lie.”
Kelsey closed her eyes. “Oh, Cole,” she whispered. “If only we could turn back the clock…”
“I know, but don’t say that, Kels. There’s nothing we can do about it now. And we both had a lot of growing up to do. I truly think God used that time apart to make us stronger, to lead us to new places, new challenges.”
“Judging by today’s fight, I don’t know that we got all that far.”
He groaned. “Look, I overreacted and I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how much of that stuff I was still holding on to until it came up this afternoon. Obviously, forgiving you all those years ago wasn’t enough. I needed to release it completely and let it go. I thought I had, but…Well, let’s just say I should never have let you walk out of here earlier like that, much less sent you such a cutting email once you were gone.”
“At least you followed that up with another, kinder version.”
“Yeah, also intended to cut, just couched in a little more civility.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “What a mess we are. Will we ever get this right?”
“At the moment, Kels, I think our relationship is not our most urgent problem. It’s almost four o’clock. What are you going to do?”
She hesitated, relishing the way he’d referred to their “relationship.” Did that mean they still had a relationship, one that might possibly be saved after all?
Your will, Lord, not ours.
Trying to focus, she looked at the clock. It was three fifty-two.
“First things first,” she said. “Can you hold on a sec?”
“Of course.”
Setting her cell on the desk, Kelsey reached for her office phone and called down to security. When Ephraim answered, she asked if Walter had come in yet.
“I haven’t seen him, but he usually goes up the back stairs anyway, so that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Want me to check the security code log-in?”
“Um…no. I’m sure he’s here by now. How about Lou Strahan? Has he come in yet?”
“I haven’t seen him either. Is he supposed to?”
“Yeah. Walter and I have a meeting with him.”
“Okay. Well, he hasn’t shown up so far.”
She exhaled with relief. “Good. When he does, could you detain him for a few minutes? Walter and I need to speak privately first, and we don’t want to be interrupted.”
“Sure. Just call back when you’re ready for him. What time is he supposed to come?”
“Any minute now. Our meeting’s at four.”
“Okay. You got it, Kelsey.”
She hung up and returned to her call with Cole. “All right, at least I’ve headed Lou off at the pass. What’s my next move, other than alerting Walter to all of this?”
“I was just trying to figure that out. Do you think I should come over there? I could gather more information for you. There’s a chance Lou is innocent in this, you know. Maybe it was all Gloria’s doing.”
“Maybe.”
“Then again, maybe they did it together. There’s a chance something was going on between the two of them we didn’t know about.”
“You mean like they were in cahoots?”
Cole cleared his throat. “Yeah, well, or maybe they were even in a, uh, relationship.”
A relationship? Lou and Gloria? With a start, Kelsey remembered her conversation with Yanni at the funeral home, about her and Vern’s affair. “Gloria knew,” Yanni had said. “She knew and she didn’t even care.”
Was it possible the reason Gloria didn’t care was because she was involved in an affair of her own?
Her mind racing, Kelsey thought back to the time when Lou worked at B & T. He and Gloria had been close friends and colleagues, but to her recollection there had never been even a hint of impropriety between them. Gloria was an attractive woman, but she was older than Lou by a good ten years—and in many ways she acted even older than that. If anything, her demeanor toward him back then had been that of elder stateswoman, so to speak, the same as she’d been with almost everyone in the company—superiors, peers, and underlings alike.
“This may be tacky, but I think I need to call Vern,” Kelsey said to Cole. “He’d tell me the truth.”
“If he knew about it.”
“Who else could we ask?”
They both thought for a moment.
“Didn’t you say your EA keeps an ear to the ground?” Cole asked.
“Yeah, but if Sharon knew Gloria was having an affair, she would have told me already. Besides, she’s only been working here for two years, so if it’s something from before, back when Lou was still on staff, she wouldn’t have any reason to know about it.”
“True…wait. Remember Brooke, who used to work in human resources?” Cole asked.
“You mean ‘Babbling Brooke’? The office gossip?”
“That’s the one. She might know something. Back when I was at B & T, she knew everything about everyone.”
“Maybe, but do you have some way to reach her?”
“As long as she hasn’t changed her number since she retired. How about this, you call Vern and I’ll try Brooke. Between the two of us, we might find some answers.”
Kelsey glanced at the clock. Three fifty-four.
“Okay. Let’s text each other when we’re done, and then we can talk.”
“Sounds good.”
Once they had disconnected their call, Kelsey pressed the speed dial marked Gloria—Home. With a surge of sadness, she realized she’d have to change that now, removing it from speed dial and changing the listing to read Vern Poole instead.
Fortunately, Vern answered her call right away. She felt terrible having to ask such a question the very day of his late wife’s funeral, but in light of all Gloria had done lately, she really had no choice in the matter.
“Vern, it’s Kelsey. I am so sorry to bother you, especially today, but I need to ask you an important question—and
it’s really urgent. Are you where you can speak privately?”
“I can be. Hold on a sec.”
Listening, she could hear the murmur of voices in the background and then the sound of a closing door.
“Sorry about that,” he said, coming back on the line. “I have family staying here, and we were just going through some old photos.”
“No, I’m sorry. This shouldn’t take long.”
She looked at the clock. Three fifty-six. Time to head upstairs to talk to Walter. She could finish her call on the way.
“I don’t know how to say this other than to just come out with it. Vern, do you know if Gloria was involved with Lou Strahan?”
“Involved?”
“Were…were they having an affair? Either recently or at some point in the past?”
Vern was silent for a long moment. “Funny you should ask that. I was wondering that very thing myself, a few weeks ago.”
Kelsey’s eyes widened. “You were?”
“Yeah. It’s a long story.”
“I’m listening,” she told him as she gathered up her papers, turned off the lights, and headed down the hall.
“Well, it started one night when we were getting ready to go to the ballet. She was in the shower and I was in the bedroom, getting dressed. I accidentally dropped a cuff link into one of her open drawers. While I was digging around in there trying to find it, I ran across an envelope hidden under some clothes. It was one of those brightly printed folder envelopes, the kind you get when you buy tickets to a show. Anyway, I was nosy enough to take a peek. Like I expected, there were tickets inside, real expensive ones, for VIP seats to a big Broadway musical. I thought they were for the two of us and she was going to surprise me with them.”
“Let me guess,” Kelsey replied, remembering her conversation with Detective Hargrove about Rupert and Rhonda and how they had spent their first evening in town. “Were the tickets for a Monday night show? This past Monday night?”
“Yes, actually. How did you know that? There aren’t that many Broadway shows that even run on Monday nights.”
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