She Left Me Breathless

by Trin Denise

  Edward jumped up from his chair, startling her. He jabbed his finger at her face. “I don’t want you around that woman and if that means quitting your job then that’s what you’ll do.”

  Rachel sighed. “Fine, Edward. I will look for another job,” she said in resignation. She was too tired to argue.

  “Women like her are trouble. She’ll try to turn you queer. She’s probably trying to turn Caitlyn queer, too. Hell, she may already have. That’s what her kind do, you know.”

  Rachel shook her head and had to try hard not to laugh at the absurdity of his statement. “No, Edward, I didn’t know that’s how they recruited their women.”

  “I meant what I said. I don’t want you anywhere around that perverted woman,” he said as he downed half the contents of his glass.

  “Whatever you say, Edward,” Rachel said as she turned and went back to the kitchen. She had fully planned to tell Edward about her new job assignment but after seeing his reaction toward Sydney, she knew that was no longer the smart thing to do. She would keep to her usual routine in the morning and dress in her business attire as if she were going to her job at EMCOR. She would pack an extra set of clothes and change into jeans once she arrived at Sydney’s house. If she was going to do this, she might as well be comfortable, at least as comfortable as she could be around Sydney Welsh. She wondered if Sydney would be there or if she would have free reign to make whatever changes she saw fit. Whatever the case may be, she hoped with any luck, she would be able to go in, get the job done, and be out of there and out of Sydney’s life for good. If she could pull this off, she didn’t see any point in telling Edward.

  She sat down and laid her arms on the table. She felt a lump in her throat and was powerless to stop the tears streaming down her cheeks. She laid her head across her arms. How in the world did she ever let her life get this messed up? This was not even close to the life she had dreamed of for herself. She raised her head and wiped the tears from her face just as the back door opened.

  “Hi, Mom,” Alyssa shrieked happily when she saw Rachel. The bubbling eight-year-old was the spitting image of Caitlyn. She came over, wrapped her arms around Rachel’s neck, and kissed her on the cheek.

  “Hi, baby,” Rachel said, forcing a smile on her face as she tucked a strand of Alyssa’s hair behind her ear.

  Alyssa leaned back to look at her mother’s face. Her eyebrows pinched together. “Are you okay? Have you been crying?”

  Rachel felt her heart break as she looked at her youngest daughter. She could see the concern in her bright blue eyes. Just like Caitlyn, Alyssa was just too intuitive for her own good.

  “I’m okay, babe, I just have a slight head cold,” Rachel said with more confidence than she felt. “Did you have a good time at Christy’s?”

  “We had a blast. Oh, and I made you something,” Alyssa said as she reached into her coat pocket. She pulled out a small yellow colored daisy made from felt and handed it to Rachel. “There’s a magnet on the back so you can put it on the refrigerator.”

  “And that’s exactly where I will put it. It’s beautiful, baby. Thank you. I love it.” Rachel wanted to cry.

  “Is Daddy home yet?” Alyssa asked.

  “He’s in the living room honey and I’m sure he will be happy to see you, too.” Her heart swelled with love as she watched Alyssa leave the kitchen. She is the reason why I have to stay and make this marriage work she told herself for the thousandth time.

  Sydney closed the door to Caitlyn’s office. She laid her briefcase on the table next to the coffee maker. She grabbed two coffee cups and filled it with hot steaming liquid. She took the cups over to the desk and sat them down.

  “Thanks,” Caitlyn said without taking her eyes off the computer monitor.

  Sydney slid a chair over next to her. “You’re most welcome,” she said as she watched Caitlyn maneuver the mouse around the screen.

  Within a few seconds, several pages of code scrolled down the screen. Caitlyn clicked her mouse and the page stopped. “See this line of code here?” she asked, pointing at the gibberish on the screen.

  “Yeah, kinda looks like all the rest,” Sydney laughed. Although she knew how to use computers, the intricacies of how these things actually worked still baffled her.

  Caitlyn shook her head. “Well, it’s not. In fact, it’s very different.”

  “I have no idea how you can tell but I sure am glad you can.”

  “We had a visitor Friday night,” Caitlyn said, turning in her seat to look at Sydney.

  Sydney frowned. “How can you tell?”

  “Remember the key loggers I installed on the executives desktops and laptops?”

  Sydney nodded.

  “I also installed them on my desktop as well as yours.”

  Sydney’s eyebrows shot up. “Why ours?” she asked, wondering what could have possessed Caitlyn to do that.

  “I figured that if whoever was behind the embezzlement somehow figured out that we were onto their little scheme, maybe they would use mine or your computer to access our system, hoping to throw us off.”

  Sydney was impressed. “And?” she asked, her lips curving into a smile.

  “They did. Actually, they used mine,” Caitlyn said.

  “You’re kidding?”

  Caitlyn shook her head. “They accessed it Friday night, Syd.”

  “Friday night,” Sydney repeated the words. They were silent for several seconds. “That was the night of my Christmas party,” Sydney said as she sipped her coffee. “Do you have an idea of what time?” she asked.

  “Eleven-ten,” Caitlyn said then added, “I could kick myself in the ass over this.”

  Sydney’s head shot up. She looked at Caitlyn. As long as she had known the young woman, she couldn’t recall ever hearing Caitlyn swear. “Why do you say that?” she asked.

  “Because, when I wrote the new code to alert me if our system was accessed I also added code that would forward the information to my Blackberry the second it happened and it just so happens, I locked it in my desk drawer and didn’t find it until this morning.”

  “You are way too hard on yourself, Caitlyn.

  “It was irresponsible of me, Syd. If I had taken my Blackberry, we may have been able to catch the perp in the process.”

  Sydney laughed. “The perp, huh?”

  “You like that?” Caitlyn asked, grinning from ear to ear.

  Sydney chuckled. “Yeah, I do but I don’t want you to even think about confronting anyone by yourself. If and when you get another alert, the first thing I want you to do is call me.” When Caitlyn didn’t say anything, Sydney nudged her with her shoulder. “You hear me, Caitlyn? I’m dead serious, here.”

  Caitlyn shook her head. “Trust me, Syd. I have no intention of confronting anyone by myself.”

  Sydney rubbed the sides of her temples with her fingertips as she thought about her Christmas party and the time regarding the so-called break-in at Welsh. “You said it came in on your Blackberry at eleven-ten?” When Caitlyn nodded, Sydney continued. “It could have been any of the execs seeing that the only ones left at the party at that time were you and me.”

  “I know. I thought about that already. However, I do have some good news,” Caitlyn said, a look of smugness on her face. She paused to a take a drink of coffee. She smiled at Sydney.

  “Not funny, Caitlyn,” Sydney laughed at Caitlyn’s obvious attempt at theatrics.

  “I know the owner’s name of the Salami account,” she said finally.

  Sydney’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. That is not what she expected Caitlyn to say. “You’re serious?”

  “Dean & Rodgers Bank and Trust and the account belongs to one Carlos Delgado.”

  “How in the world did you figure it out?” Sydney asked in amazement.

  “It was pretty easy actually. I wrote this simple little logic program that looked at any type of transfer, totaling one dollar or less. I then had it crosscheck those transfers to see if any account received
twenty-five or more deposits allocated to the same bank and Mr. Delgado won the prize.”

  “You are absolutely incredible, Caitlyn. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you,” Sydney said and she meant every word.

  Caitlyn leaned back in her chair and laughed. “You’d probably go broke.”

  “You’re probably right. What do you—”

  The intercom buzzing on Caitlyn’s phone stopped Sydney from finishing her question.

  Caitlyn looked at the caller ID and pressed the answer button. “Hi, Maureen, what’s up?”

  “Hey, Caitlyn, I hate to bother you but is Sydney with you by chance?” Maureen asked through the speakerphone.

  “Yeah, I’m here, Maureen,” Sydney answered.

  “I have Ms. Christopher standing at my desk. She says you’re expecting her.”

  Sydney glanced at her watch. It was ten after seven. “Can you direct her to Caitlyn’s office please?”

  “Will do,” Maureen said, then disconnected the line.

  Within seconds, there was a knock at the door. Maureen pushed the door open and stood to the side to allow Jackie in. “I’m calling it a day,” Maureen said, looking at Sydney.

  “Okay, thanks, Maureen, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Jackie turned to Maureen and smiled. “It was nice seeing you again, Mo,” she said, holding her hand out to Maureen.

  “Likewise,” Maureen smiled as she took the big woman’s hand in hers. “Goodnight, Caitlyn, Sydney,” Maureen said and then left the office, closing the door behind her.

  “I think she likes you. You should ask her out,” Sydney teased.

  Jackie’s cheeks flushed pink with embarrassment. She crammed her hands in the pocket of her grey hoodie. “Nah, I don’t think so. Being single is so much more fun than lugging around dead weight.”

  “See, that’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Sydney laughed. “Maureen says the exact same thing you just did. You two would have a marriage made in heaven.” Sydney winked at Jackie. “I’m pretty sure she’s not interested in men although I’ve never seen her with a woman.”

  “What makes you think that?” Jackie asked, her eyebrows rising.

  “For the past few years and just like clockwork, she gets roses monthly from a secret admirer named John and she has no idea who he is. When the flowers come, she just shrugs as if she couldn’t care less,” Sydney laughed.

  “That would drive me crazy not knowing,” Caitlyn said.

  “Me, too but I guess if you don’t care, then it doesn’t matter,” Sydney said with a shrug.

  Caitlyn laughed. “I think it’s kinda creepy.”

  Jackie looked at Sydney and smiled. She then walked over to Caitlyn and offered her hand. “Hello, Caitlyn, I’ve heard so much about you from Sydney and I didn’t get a chance to meet you the other night or offer my congratulations on your new promotion.”

  “Okay, okay. I get it,” Sydney said in response to Jackie changing the subject.

  Caitlyn shook Jackie’s hand. “Thank you and it’s nice to meet you as well.”

  “You want some coffee?” Sydney asked.

  Jackie pulled out a chair on the opposite side of the desk and sat down. “Nah, I’m good,” she said, leaning back in the chair.

  “How’s the research coming?” Sydney asked.

  “Not as good as I’d like. Without some proof that I know what I know, they’re calling my bluff and keeping their mouths shut tight.” Jackie crossed her legs at the ankle.

  “I may be able to help you out on that.” Sydney got up from her chair and went over to her briefcase. She snapped open the lid, pulled out a brown paper bag, and handed it to Jackie.

  Jackie opened the bag and peered inside. “I think this should do it,” Jackie said, looking at the glass with a napkin wrapped around it.

  “Good. Now how long do you think it will take?” she asked, looking at Jackie.

  “I need at least three or four days. May take a little longer depending on how quick my contact at the bureau can move.”

  “When you find—”

  “I will call you immediately,” Jackie said before Sydney could finish her sentence.

  “Fantastic. Now I have another little matter that we,” Sydney looked at Caitlyn and winked, “need your help on.”

  “I’m all ears.”

  “Caitlyn, can you write down for Jackie, the name of the bank and holder, and the account number regarding our internal problem.”

  “Sure.” Caitlyn wrote the information down on a post-it-note. She ripped the paper off the pad and handed it to Jackie.

  Jackie read the information. She looked at Sydney and frowned. “What would you like me to do with it?”

  “We have a major problem. Someone is embezzling money from my company and whoever is doing it accessed our main computer system. They reconfigured the computer programming code in order to pull it off.”

  Sydney paused to refill her coffee cup. She leaned against the desk. “Caitlyn was able to trace the stolen money to the account written on the paper in your hand. I want to know who Carlos Delgado is, where he’s at and I want my money back and I want whoever’s behind this in a jail cell.”

  “How much is missing?”

  “Over four million dollars,” Caitlyn answered.

  “Wow,” Jackie said, shaking her head. “Have you called the police?”

  “No and I’m only going to do that as a last resort. If this gets out, it could affect the price of our stock and send it to the basement.”

  “How did you discover it?” Jackie asked, looking at Caitlyn.

  Caitlyn looked at Sydney, not sure how much information she should divulge. Sydney nodded for her to go ahead.

  “No one except for Sydney knew that I was in the process of adding a whole new computer system and when I ran a beta test I discovered the discrepancies in our accounting numbers. From there, I wrote new code to find the missing funds, which I did.”

  “Sounds pretty technical to me,” Jackie said. She was impressed. She knew Caitlyn was a computer wiz kid based on everything Sydney had told her but she never really had a handle on just how intelligent the young woman was until now.

  “You ever hear of the Salami Technique?” Caitlyn asked.

  Jackie nodded. “Sure. In my line of work, there’s not much I haven’t seen or heard of.”

  “Well whoever did this, hacked into our system on Friday night,” Sydney said.

  Several seconds went by without any of them saying a word. Jackie folded the paper and put it in her pocket. She looked at Sydney. “Well, I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have any answers but if I was a betting person, I’d say it was an inside job.”

  “We agree,” Sydney said as she brushed her hands down the front of her jacket. “There aren’t too many people here at Welsh who have the knowledge and access to our computer system, which narrows it down to one of my executives. I will gather all of their information and fax it to your office. Once you trace the bank account, I would like you to take a close look at my execs. Check their bank accounts. See if they are living beyond their means or if they have any unexplained expenditures, etcetera.”

  Jackie stood up from her chair. “That should be easy enough to do. Most people with that kind of money sitting around will have a hard time not spending it.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Sydney said as she walked Jackie to the door.

  “I’ll get started on the bank account first thing in the morning and keep you posted.”

  “Thanks, Jackie. I appreciate it.”

  “Not a problem. I’ll put a big rush on our other little matter, too,” Jackie said and then left the office.

  Sydney turned to Caitlyn. “Let’s get out of here kiddo.” She grabbed her briefcase off the table and waited for Caitlyn to close her computer down.

  Chapter 6

  Rachel, with a duffle bag slung over one shoulder, her laptop over the other, and an armful of swatch books, walked up the porch st
eps to Sydney’s house. She repositioned the books on her hip and used the key Sydney had left on her counter. She unlocked the door, shoved it open with her hip, and stepped into the foyer. Once inside, she kicked the door shut with the back of her foot.

  She immediately noticed a white note card leaning up against a candle on the entryway table. With a groan, she dropped the swatch books and duffle bag on the floor.

  “I can only imagine what this says,” she said as she picked up the card and begun reading it aloud.

  “Good morning, Rachel. If you’re reading this little note, then it’s obvious that you decided to keep up your end of our little deal—wise choice.”

  Rachel made a growling noise in her throat. “Wise choice my butt. You gave me little choice.” She slid her laptop bag off of her shoulder and let it slide down onto the floor beside her feet. She leaned back against the table as she continued to read the note.

  “Please make yourself at home and feel free to take a look around so you can better familiarize yourself with the layout of the house. I have also taken the liberty to set up a design room for you. Go down the hallway located on the opposite side of the family room, the second door on the right is just for you. I have some things to wrap up at work this morning but once I’m done, I will be home so we can talk about the changes I would like for you to make. If you need anything at all, just ask Edna. If you haven’t met her yet, I’m sure you will soon, especially if you’re tracking up her clean floors with your messy shoes. ” The note was signed, Sydney.

  “I’m glad to see that somebody is happy,” Rachel mumbled as she looked at the small ‘Happy Face’ Sydney had drawn directly beneath her signature. She then looked at the floor and saw the little puddles from where she had tracked in snow. “Crap, Edna’s going to kill me.”