“Wait until you hear about Allan Peters. You won’t believe it!”
“Tell me,” Mason insisted.
She relayed the encounter with the FBI agent and told Mason about the photo. He was appropriately shocked by the whole thing and wanted to know why the man wasn’t yet behind bars. Before she could explain further, her father showed up, dressed in a suit and tie.
“Morning Daddy. It’s Saturday, why are you dressed in a suit?”
“I’ve got a meeting,” he told her.
“On a Saturday?” she repeated skeptically. “With whom?”
“Nothing to worry about,” he reached over and patted her hand. She and Mason exchanged looks as they wondered what Steve was up to.
Steve was the first up from the table and he kissed his daughter on the cheek, then left. As soon as her father was gone, Zoe got up and started pacing the floor. She had no idea what was wrong with her and it made her agitated. Her stomach churned and even the coffee did no good. Mason was concerned and inquired what the matter was.
“What’s got you so worked up?”
“I don’t know. I should just call and tell him I’m not well,” she told her friend.
“Who?”
“Aiden. He’s coming over. I invited him the other day to come over so we could get information from some past employees.”
A smile played on his lips. “That’s what’s got you nervous?”
“I’m not nervous. I’m not,” she protested but Mason was not convinced. “We kissed!”
“Ha! I knew you liked him,” he exclaimed.
“No! I don’t like him, you moron,” she insisted.
“Then why are you pacing, looking so anxious?”
“Argh! Never mind,” she gave Mason a scathing look before heading inside, leaving him gaping after her. “Nincompoop!”
Shaking his head, he got up from the table and caught up to her as she reached the stairs. “So, tell me about it,” he teased.
“There’s nothing to tell. Why are you on about Aiden?”
“I like the fellow. You should go out with him,” he responded.
“If you like him so much then you date him,” she hissed, striding up the stairs with Mason in pursuit.
“Did you at least like the kiss?” That stopped her in her tracks.
Expelling a huge ball of air, Zoe plopped herself down on the top step. “Oh Mason, I… Yes,” a pained expression crossed her face as she admitted it.
“Come here,” he sat beside her and pulled her into his arms. “When are you going to admit defeat?”
“Never,” she mumbled into his shoulder. “Oh Mason, what am I going to do? He’ll be here any minute. I hate him so much. How can he do this to me?”
“Zoe, you don’t hate him,” Mason assured.
“Yes I do. I detest him at the very least.”
“You resent him because he’s been breaking down your walls,” he stated emphatically.
With incredulity in her voice she replied, “What?”
“You heard me. You resent him because he is breaking through your rough exterior.”
She pushed him away and got to her feet. “I hate you!” she called, walking towards her bedroom and slamming the door. “Grrrrr,” she flung herself on the bed and let her frustration out into the pillow. Why couldn’t Mason just let her continue on in denial where she was comfortable?
She lay like that, with her face buried in the pillow for several minutes. Slowly she began to calm herself before checking the clock. It was 8:48 when a knock came at her door. Reluctantly she pushed herself up and pulled the door open.
It was Emily. “You have a visitor, Miss Zoe,” she said softly.
“How many times do I have to tell you, it’s Zoe?”
“Sorry,” the girl smiled.
“Oh, they’re here already?”
“There’s only one man and yes, I showed him in.”
One? She wondered. Aiden shouldn’t be alone. She double-checked herself in the mirror before following Emily. She had to consciously stop herself from changing or brushing her hair again. Having Aiden there was making her a wreck and she had no idea what to do about it. She tried to forget the kiss but couldn’t and it was making her crazy.
She saw Lucas as she entered the room and groaned loudly. He turned and she could see that he looked ragged from his hangover. He was still wearing his clothes from the night before and they were badly rumpled.
“What are you doing here?”
“Zoe, we need to talk. Please hear me out,” Lucas begged. “I know I hurt you and it’s going to take some time to forgive me but, I love you Zoe,” he hesitated and shuffled on his feet before reaching out and taking her hand. “Will you marry me? Please?”
Zoe wasn’t sure she’d heard Lucas correctly and stared at him longer than she should have. Nervously he shifted from side to side, still holding her hand.
“For the record, Lucas, I have forgiven you; in fact, I think that what you did, while humiliating for me, was the right thing. I meant what I said last night. I don’t want to be with you like that again. I don’t want to marry you.” She chanced to look at his face and watched as something hardened. She pulled her hand away and tried to find something that would soften him up again. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to hurt you like this, but—”
“Ahem,” Richard cleared his throat from behind her.
She turned to see Aiden and Jack standing in the doorway. Richard nodded and departed, leaving an awkward silence as all four looked from one to the other.
“Is he the reason?” Lucas demanded.
His tone got under Zoe’s skin and her embarrassment at having her invited guests witness such a display drove away her prior consideration for Lucas’s feelings. “He isn’t the reason I don’t want to marry you, Lucas. You are. You’re unreasonable, possessive, and lazy. Now, for the last time, leave.”
A blank expression crossed his face and he straightened his shoulders. “Very well. If that’s the way you want it.”
Zoe refrained from provoking him further despite the fact that ‘What else have I been saying for the past twenty-four hours’ was on the tip of her tongue. She heard him let himself out, slamming the door behind him. All heads turned towards the entrance when they heard the screech of tires as Lucas drove away.
“Did we come at a bad time?” Aiden finally asked. Jack had tactfully been looking around, amusing himself with the art pieces and photos on the wall, ignoring the scene.
“No. You came at a great time. Please have a seat.” She was about to add ‘make yourselves at home,’ but wasn’t sure how that would sound.
“Have you had breakfast?”
“Yes, we had something,” Aiden seemed more nervous than she was and she found it comforting.
“I could eat again,” Jack piped in. Aiden gave him a reprimanding look but he ignored it. “I’m still hungry. We only had cereal.”
“Have a seat on the porch. I’ll be right back,” she gently commanded, pointing them to the table outside.
She left to get Emily and have Lizzie bring them breakfast. The girl was shy but wanted to please Zoe, so when Zoe asked that she join them at the breakfast table, she quietly agreed. She introduced Emily to Jack who stared at the girl so long Aiden had to nudge him. Zoe was glad. Emily was about Jack’s age and she was a bright girl.
Aiden kept stealing glances at Zoe whenever he got the chance and on occasion she caught him in the act. This did not get by Jack and he was amused to see his brother so nervous around a woman, even as his own attention was frequently distracted by the unnerved Emily. Jack had never seen Aiden like that. As soon as Jack finished his pancakes and eggs, he asked Emily to take him on a tour of the premises. The two teens disappeared into the gardens, which Emily insisted were most impressive in the early morning before the flowers had a chance with wilt in the heat.
After breakfast, Zoe ushered Aiden into the den where Mas
on’s files were. Zoe noted that Mason had conspicuously vanished from the house. He’d probably left before Lucas had arrived, otherwise he would have run interference.
The den suddenly seemed small so she suggested they work on the porch where they just ate. By the time they got back, the table was cleared and they got down to business. She had brought the landline phone out so they could call the people on their list.
Aiden still had no clue the largest part of the case was solved and she wasn’t sure she should tell him just yet. Agent Boon had asked her to keep it to herself and she wasn’t sure how far the secret should extend. She told herself it was just a matter of time until he learned the truth so she kept silent. After all, Agent Boon could call at any time with word. What better time to tell Aiden everything?
They made little progress with the calls. Most of the former employees wanted nothing to do with Dunmore Corp, few admitted to recalling anything out of the ordinary happening during their time with the company, and the most commonly cited motive for having left the company was ‘personal reasons.’
During the last ten or so years there were two members of staff who had been dismissed suddenly, four resigned, and one had disappeared altogether. It was the disappearance Zoe was most focused on. She had forgotten to mention it to Agent Boon but was sure it was something he’d be interested in. She just needed a stronger understanding of what had happened before she would be comfortable approaching the imposing FBI agent. While Aiden called the others and explained the situation, asking them what they knew, Zoe tried to locate anything about the one who had disappeared.
She learned that in fact, the employee, whose name was Trevor Mills, was officially a missing person’s case and had not been found despite five years of search efforts. His parents were still working with the police to try to find him. This sent off alarm bells in Zoe’s mind. When she was told the young man had disappeared, she thought it had meant he quit without informing the company or leaving a valid address or phone number. She expected to find him working elsewhere, not missing.
She got hold of Trevor Mills’ parents but they didn’t have much to say on the matter. In fact, she thought his father had been unnecessarily dismissive. Aiden was looking at her intently. It seemed he’d overheard the conversation and his thoughts were aligned with hers.
Zoe was adamant about visiting the man’s home to speak to his parents in person. She wanted to hear exactly what happened from his parents. She wanted to know if the man was in trouble. Did he run away? Was there something in his past he might be running from, or, could the unthinkable have happened?
She wanted to leave right away. They told Jack and Emily that they would be out for a while and to mind Richard and Lizzie. The teens had either completed their tour or grown bored with it and drifted into the living room to watch ridiculous reality TV. There was some sort of marathon going on so the chances of them leaving the couch for anything but lunch were slim.
“I’ve got eyes on them thanks to the security cameras,” Richard assured Zoe and a visibly wary Aiden before they left. “If anything looks funny, I’ll send Lizzie in with snacks.”
They took Zoe’s car and drove the fifteen miles to Saratoga arriving there in twenty minutes. Zoe reiterated what little she’d gleaned from some newspaper articles about Trevor online. At the time of his disappearance, he was twenty-three and freshly graduated from the Cupertino City College. He’d worked at Dunmore for only six months when he suddenly stopped showing up for work. Further checks with the company showed that his official disappearance was reported to the HR department during the police’s investigation but most of them thought he’d simply been more dramatic about his manner of walking off the job than previous interns and that it was the police’s business to find him and Dunmore Corp’s job to find someone to replace him.
As Zoe parked in front the large brownstone building Aiden turned to her and said, “I wanted to apologize for the other day.”
“What about the other day?” she asked.
“The kiss. I’m sorry… I don’t know what came over me…” he trailed off.
“Forgotten. Let’s get this over with shall we?”
The kiss wasn’t forgotten, not by a long shot, but they were both relieved to pretend it was.
When Trevor Mills’ parents opened the door, they were older than Zoe and Aiden expected and could easily be mistaken for his grandparents. Zoe didn’t ask but she figured they had him in their late 30s or early 40s. Aiden was thinking the same thing. It was Mrs. Mills who invited them in, offered them refreshments, and a look around Trevor’s room. Her gruff husband sulked and wandered off, disappearing into what looked like a basement.
Mrs. Mills apologized for the way her husband had spoken with them over the phone. He was having one of his bad periods, she informed them. Sometimes it would hit him fresh and he’d snap at anyone.
Moving on from the subject of her husband, they asked her about Trevor. She led them down a hall and couldn’t stop gabbing about her son. She talked of how happy her son was to get the job at Dunmore, though he was just a junior accountant. She said that a couple of weeks before her son disappeared he appeared to be working on some important documents and brought home a lot of files. He would work through the night and on weekends.
“Trevor was working on something big,” she said. A tear formed in the corner of her eyes.
“Do you know what it was?” Zoe asked.
“No. He wouldn’t say and I know nothing about accounting.”
“Did he leave any files here at home, do you know?” Aiden asked.
“His desk is still here. I don’t know if there are any files in it. The police didn’t find anything, but you can take a look.”
The room looked clean and had a faint musky scent. Mrs. Mills guided Zoe towards the cherry desk where her son had done his work. There was a desktop computer but no files were found on top surface or in any of the drawers. She was about to leave the room when Aiden found something.
“Maybe this will help?” he was holding a thumb drive between his fingers. “Ma’am, do you mind if we turn this on?” he indicated the computer.
“If it will help find my son, then by all means, go ahead. I’ll leave you two to your sleuthing,” she said, softly closing the door behind her as she left.
Aiden booted up the PC and plugged in the small USB device. There were several folders on it but one in particular caught his eye. In the folder were two more, one named ‘Doctored Accounts’ and the other ‘Actual Accounts.’ He first clicked on the ‘Doctored Accounts’ folder and saw several JPEG files and an Excel file. They were digital photos of the hard copy account books kept in the office. The Excel file summarized the information from the photos. He opened the other folder and found what appeared to be the original accounts in another set of JPEGs and Excel file.
“Are those what I think they are?” Zoe was peering over Aiden’s shoulder.
“We have evidence that he either found something on his own or he helped to doctor them and held onto these for insurance.”
“Do you think he was involved?” She asked.
“I don’t know… What’s this?”
There was another file but it was encrypted and Aiden couldn’t open it. The file name was a series of numbers, which made them all the more curious. He powered off the CPU, turned off the monitor and unplugged the device.
Zoe couldn’t promise she’d find their son, but she did promise Mrs. Mills to do her best to find out what happened to him. The kind woman was happy someone from the company cared about their son and allowed them to take the thumb drive with them when they left. Any answers, even the worst, were better than none.
Neither Aiden nor Zoe could get what it contained off their minds. Zoe allowed Aiden to keep it after some cajoling on his part. He would try and decipher the encryption.
She had thrown the keys to him as they left the old couple and as they got back on the roadway, s
he couldn’t help noticing how strong his forearms were as they steered her car. He’d looked at her in wonderment before hesitantly getting behind the wheel of her precious BMW.
Jack and Emily exchanged numbers when Zoe and Aiden returned and he announced it was time for them to head home. Mason had reappeared and was giving Zoe significant glances when Aiden wasn’t looking. When they were gone, she managed to put off any by bringing up their trip to the Mills and what they’d found before Mason had a chance to speak.
On Sunday afternoon, Zoe hadn’t heard from Agent Boon yet but Aiden called to let her know he’d opened the secret file. It was a summary from Trevor’s bank account which had had money paid into it every week for three months. The weekly payments were five thousand dollars each, but the last payment on the account was thirty thousand. It was right after that payment that he vanished.
“What do you make of it?” she asked Aiden.
“I don’t know. He may have been paid to help or he could have been blackmailing someone… It’s hard to say.”
Chapter 13
By Sunday afternoon he knew he was being followed. He figured the authorities had caught up with him but there was a second tail on him and he had no idea who that was. David had spent twenty years looking over his shoulder so he was an alert man. Nothing escaped his notice easily – except perhaps Barbara’s cheating. That seemed to have been going on a while before he caught on to it.
He’d driven home at a slow speed to make sure he wasn’t mistaken. He wasn’t. There was the usual black SUV behind him and further up the street was a black sedan. He’d worked the plan over and over in his head for two decades and now was the best time to execute it.
He entered his driveway as usual and used the remote to open the garage door. As soon as the door closed he sprang into action. A few strides took him to the den where he opened a safe hidden behind ‘The Old Guitarist,’ a replica of the painting by Picasso. He pulled out a pouch with documents, a bag with a latex mask, and stuffed all the cash in the pouch. The stash of cash seemed smaller than he remembered but he had no time to double-check it. Several passports were stuffed in a corner. He rifled through them and finally decided on three.
Promised Box Set Page 18