by Jolie Day
However, did that now mean that his second suggestion could also be true?
Mira grunted and padded towards the bathroom to hop into the shower. The doctor – and Connor, as she remembered with a grumble – had been right with his prognosis. Her shoulder didn’t hurt anymore, and the wound had healed well. She decided to take her time getting ready and to then drive to the company. Mira shouldn’t have any problems with regards to her credentials and the earlier she got there, the better. She wanted to take a good look at everything before Russell, Luke, or Miss Philips turned up there. As she walked out of her suite, she shoved Peter’s card into her bag. She wore a professional looking gray suit, a finely striped shirt, and practical pumps with only three-inch heels for her first day at Dumont Ltd. Mira had a suspicion that her brother-in-law wouldn’t make it easy for her and might even give her some degrading tasks like unpacking incoming packages or other similarly low-key and somewhat unimportant jobs. Since she had agreed to “learn the entire business from scratch”, she would have no good reason to deny such menial jobs or tasks.
And why should she? As the cab drove along the still quiet streets in the city, Mira thought about her father. Whether he had been a stooge for the Mafia or not, Dad had never been too proud to take on an honest job and to get his hands “dirty”. Whenever they had been short on people, he would pack boxes or empty coffee beans from the sacks into the machines, which would then sort them into smaller and more convenient 500g packages. He had written invoices and at the very beginning of this company, he had even been the one doing the deliveries. He had been the salesman, company founder, and owner, as well as being the guy doing any odd job, all at the same time. Suzanne had told her that their mom had also helped during the very first days of Dumont Ltd, when the company had still been small. Her sister had spent most of her days at their grandma’s, who Mira had never had the chance to meet. At some point, when the company abruptly (those had been Suzanne’s words, Mira remembered them specifically) began to make money, their mom had stopped working.
The mom Mira remembered had filled her days with a lot of charity work instead and at some point during her work there, she had met Connor at one of these charities. In retrospect, Mira wondered if her mother had actually been satisfied with being a stay-at-home mom instead of working towards even greater success for Dumont Ltd. As soon as the air between them had cooled off a little, she had to ask Suzanne about it.
She shook her head as she realized how bizarre her life was at the moment.
Mira didn’t even have words to describe the way her life had gone over these last few weeks. She could hardly remember a time when she had less control over her life than she had today, apart from the months after her father’s murder, of course.
She paid the cab driver and was secretly relieved that it was the same concierge in that little glass house who had been there last Friday, greeting all visitors and employees. He even remembered her face and welcomed her by calling out her name with a big smile. “You will be the first at Dumont Ltd today,” he mentioned. “If you need anything, please just dial zero. I will be more than happy to help.” Mira thanked him and then took the lift up to the company floor. Obviously the employees of the firms that occupied the other floors in this building, were early birds. It seemed to take forever to finally reach her own floor.
Half an hour later, Mira had started up the computer in Ms. Philips’ office. Of course, it was password protected and after trying two random possibilities without any luck, she gave up. She didn’t know if a third attempt would block access to the computer, so she stopped herself and went to make some fresh coffee instead. She placed a bag with crispy fresh croissants that she had bought on her way there, next to the coffee machine.
She pondered how she could get access to all of the old files and documents. Mira didn’t even know if they still existed and if they were even available in paper form, or if someone had actually taken the time to scan and save the documents onto some data storage device. A quick search through Ms. Philips’ office hadn’t produced anything interesting so far. Mira had been careful not to leave any evidence of her search and to leave it exactly as she had found it. She could never be too careful, even though it was highly unlikely that this woman had played a significant role in the events leading up to her father’s death, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Mira looked at her watch. It was only 6:30 am. She still had a little bit of time to have a good look around. The first employees probably wouldn’t show up before seven o’clock anyway. She tried to remember what time Russell had usually left the house in the morning, during one of her rare visits to her sister’s place. She could not imagine it would be earlier than 7:30 am. He drank too much, even two years ago, and he was definitely not one to rise early.
She stepped out into the hallway and looked to her left and right.
She slipped sneakily into Russell’s office, worried that someone might see her. Her heart raced, even though she reminded herself that she had every right in the world to be in any of these rooms — his included. As she opened the door, she wondered if she should have a good enough explanation for her snooping ready, just in case someone did surprise her. What could she have wanted in her brother-in-law’s office?
“Dammit,” she said loudly and was horrified at the sound of her voice. Mira swallowed and felt her way along the wall. There was the switch. She was extremely relieved when she saw that the office was empty after all. She walked over to his meticulously clean desk and thought about sitting down in his chair. No, that would have been childish. However, she did slink around the massive table and pulled open the drawers, one after the other. The top one contained a daily planner and an expensive looking pen. She peaked into the journal and found the page for the previous Friday. This was the perfect opportunity to find out the name of the older man who had visited Russell and whom she thought had looked familiar to her. Nothing. There was no entry on Friday. She skimmed forward through the pages and noticed that very few appointments had been jotted down in this book. If she was to go by this planner, then Russell had an incredibly unproductive life here in the company. What was he doing all day?
Okay, that wasn’t fair. Successfully running a business also entailed a lot more than just talks with partners and could include dinners or events in or outside of the office. However, Mira couldn’t really shake the uncomfortable impression that Russell Forbes was nothing more than a… how could she describe it… representative. The face of the company to the outside world, a puppet who had given his name in order to convey an image of integrity.
Then again, there was no real proof of any of this, Mira cautioned herself and looked at the second drawer. She should not let her feelings of emotional disgust towards her brother-in-law get in the way of, or be distracted by, her gut feeling. Facts alone would count. She looked into the second drawer. Its contents were just as disappointing. She found yet another very expensive pen. This one was even engraved. Ah, maybe this was a present from Suzanne. She read the engraving and couldn’t suppress a little giggle. No wonder that Russell hid this gift in the depths of one of his drawers with this lettering. In the third drawer she found cigars and a bottle of whiskey. Another unsurprising find and also nothing that provided any new information. The three drawers on the right-hand side were also all unlocked. She didn’t learn anything from those either, apart from the fact that her brother-in-law had weird sexual preferences, which she didn’t want to investigate any further. She pulled a face and closed that one drawer slightly more energetically than was necessary. She pushed harder and noticed that something had gotten stuck. Something crinkled.
She fell to her knees and pulled the middle drawer completely out of the desk. Was Russell that dumb that he would tape incriminating documents underneath one of these drawers?
Yup, he was. Her fingers felt for the envelope. Before she could get it and have a look at it, she heard the lift doors open and then steps coming down the hallway.
Dammit! Quickly and as quietly as possible, Mira shut all of the drawers the way they had been before, got up on her feet, and walked as calmly as possible, despite as her pounding heart, to the door.
“Hello? Who is there?” Mira stepped out into the hallway and looked to her left towards the lift. The hallway was completely empty. All doors were shut.
Nobody was there. Apart from the sound of rushing blood inside her ears, there was no noise. She turned off the light in Russell’s office and closed the door behind her. Just in case. If someone had come to work earlier than expected, then she didn’t want to get caught snooping around underneath her brother-in-law’s desk — owner or not.
The light in the hallway went out.
And suddenly, Mira had a sour taste in her mouth.
The darkness caused stars to glimmer in front of her eyes. She searched with her fingers for a light switch in the hallway, but there were none. She moved forward slowly. “Hello?” she called once more, even though she knew deep inside her fearfully racing heart that she wouldn’t get an answer.
She felt her way along the wall, step by step. From her left side she could hear an undefined noise. It made her jump. And then she started to feel a terrified shiver creep up from her cramped stomach all the way out to her limbs.
One more step. Somewhere here was the door to Ms. Philips’ office. Her sweaty hands searched in the darkness for the door knob. Why had she closed the door to Russell’s office? If she hadn’t done that or if she had at least opened it again, then she would have had a little bit of light from the room fall through the glass front of the reception area.
Maybe she should just go back there.
She took one more step, but then decided against it and turned around to return to Russell’s office.
Out of the corner of her eye she thought that she saw something move.
Without thinking she turned around and started to run. Her mind was screaming at her that she was fleeing into the wrong direction — at the end of the hallway was just a wall, but her instinct told her to just run away.
Mira hadn’t taken three steps when she suddenly stumbled and fell onto her knees. That pain was, however, nothing compared to the burning sensation she felt as someone grabbed her by the hair and brutally pulled her up. Before her desperate brain was able to understand the basics of what was happening to her, the perpetrator had pushed one arm around her neck and pressed her closely against their body. She could hear her own forced breath trying to escape her partially closed throat.
“This is your last warning,” a male voice whispered into her ear. As if she needed any further confirmation that her attacker was actually a man, she could feel his disgusting erection pressed against through the thin fabric of her trousers. His breathing was also abnormally quick, but not out of fear, like hers. He held her with his left arm close to his body. His right hand now worked its way up underneath her shirt and jacket until he reached the collar of her top. Then he tore the fabric apart with just one jerking motion. Mira thought that she had heard the buttons of her shirt fall onto the floor, which was almost impossible, since they fell onto carpet. She felt his hand on her naked skin. He wore gloves and his fingers were rough, when he found her breast and squeezed it just a little too hard.
She bit herself on the lip so that she wouldn’t scream. Then he cupped her breast and started to stroke it, which was almost worse. The cold smooth leather on her skin felt like a foreign object, greasy, and so revolting that she felt nauseous and almost wanted to throw up.
She only realized that he had left her when a door fell shut behind her.
Her legs were shaking uncontrollably as she searched for a door, any door to any room, where she could go and hide. It was Ms. Philip’s office she found first. She whimpered without crying tears and leaned against a sideboard, before looking down at the damage that asshole had caused. All of her buttons had been ripped off. After a short while, Mira walked stiffly out into the hallway again and now in the light that fell through the open door, collected the seven tiny buttons. Then she stood up and closed her blazer so that no one would see that she was now pretty much naked underneath it.
Bastard, she thought as she tried to find a spark of another feeling other than fear. She would not call the police. She would also not sink into Connor’s arms, who just wanted to wrap her in cotton wool and lock her up in a box somewhere, until the danger was over. And Peter? Maybe, she thought. But first she needed to lift up her chin and do exactly what she had come here for. Feeling scared had to wait until later.
After all, this attack proved one thing above all: Mira was on the right track. What was annoying was the fact that it would be useless to question the concierge or maybe even ask him to hand over the security camera recordings. She had noticed that on most of the other floors there had been plenty of employees around, even at this time. Also, the camera only covered the entrance and not the individual floors, staircases, or the lift.
“Last warning”, the man had said. Something familiar darted through her memory, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.
“Mira? What on earth are you doing here so early?” She jumped again when she heard her brother-in-law’s voice behind her and yelped before she could stop herself. “And why is the light not coming on?”
“I’ll have a look at the fuses — maybe one of them blew out,” she heard Luke’s voice say. Mira’s eyes came back into focus. Both men stared at her suspiciously. “Is everything alright?” Luke and Russell stepped closer. Mira couldn’t help but flinch, as she retreated instinctively. It cost her all of her strength not to run away from them. Luke looked at her curiously and when his gaze fell onto her clenched hand, which still held the buttons of her shirt, she quickly let it slide into the pocket of her trousers to hide the little things that would immediately give away what had happened here.
“Have you lost the power of speech? And where the hell have you been hiding for the entire weekend?” Mira saw one big vein pounding on Russell’s forehead. Luke had gone to look at the breaker box near the coat rack at the entrance to their offices. Shortly after that, the lights in the hallway lit up with a quiet humming noise.
“Mira, for god’s sake, talk! Why are you staring at me like that?” Russell grabbed her by the arm. “Suzanne has been trying to reach you. She is beside herself with worry. Have you spoken to her?”
“Don’t touch me,” Mira said quietly between tightly pressed teeth. When Russell didn’t make any attempt to follow her demand, she had to wrestle her arm away from him. Luke’s worried face appeared behind Russell’s broad back.
“I don’t have to notify my sister about every single step I take, where I am, or where I am going. I am 25 years old, dammit!” She noticed that she had screamed at her brother-in-law.
“Calm down,” Luke intervened. He lifted up his hands in a pacifying gesture. “Russell only means well.” Mira wanted to snort loudly, but she was unable to make a sound when she saw the pitiful look these two men exchanged with each other.
Russell nodded towards Luke. “I am so very sorry,” he began. “But there is a reason why your sister needed to talk to you.”
Exactly. Where was Suzanne anyway? Didn’t they want to start working here and investigate this place together? Then she noticed that Luke had told her something very important. Her world suddenly came to a stop. Even before he could speak the words, she already knew what he would say. “I truly am so very sorry,” he repeated once more. “Your mother died early Saturday evening.”
Mom was dead. Now only she and Suzanne were left.
Chapter 20
Everything was black, as far as the eye could see.
It was so surreal. Instead of crying, as they would expect from her, she stood stiffly next to her mother’s grave and stared down at the coffin that was being lowered into the deep, dark hole. She didn’t feel anything other than numbness and nothing was able to penetrate that thick layer of it. No grief, no pain, no sorrow. She didn’t even have
tears in her eyes, despite the fact that her throat felt tight and swollen.
The funeral of Francesca Dumont had attracted so many more people than Mira had expected. She didn’t even know a third of those attending, squeezing her hand, and expressing their condolences either with a subdued voice or openly sobbing. She embraced the anger she felt when these strange people told her just how sorry they were about her mother’s death, since it was somewhat easier to take than the coldness and lack of emotion during all those previous days. The worst for Mira were those who wanted to take her into their arms and hug her. By now she had retreated so far back that one more step would reunite her with her mother, because she would undoubtedly fall into the hole and land on top of the coffin. Only Luke, who had been one of the first to come to them, and whose words had been neither pitying, nor insensitive, didn’t make her want to scream.
Over the last few days, she had often wondered if he might be the mysterious informant that Peter had infiltrated into the company. She could easily imagine Luke as an undercover agent. His calm, confident manner easily fitted her idea of a protector, who would watch her secretly. The only thing that didn’t fit with her theory, was the fact that he had worked at Dumont Ltd for as long as Russell had. Although, now that she thought about it, Peter had never mentioned whether he had brought his V-man in recently or not.
“Pull yourself together,” Russell hissed between clenched teeth. He stood between the Dumont sisters — each of them holding onto one of his arms — and he acted as if he was the one suffering the most. “Behave yourself…” Mira wasn’t sure who his words were aimed at. He could just as easily be talking to her or her sister Suzanne.