by Maggie Thom
August gave her a strong, warm hug and then he leaned down and kissed her. It felt so right but all that kept going through her mind was that the timing was wrong. She pulled back, giving him a soft smile as she stepped away.
“I have to call Tarin,” she said. She took out her phone. “Tarin... hi... yes, it’s done... no... we’re okay. A bit shaky... do you know if Father kept meticulous files? I found a file room... oh you know about it... anyway Mr. T said he’s what got Father started. Do you know anything about that... Okay. We’ll leave in about ten minutes and meet you guys in Father’s private parkade... Okay. Bye.”
Tijan leaned against the edge of the desk. “Tarin says Father is meticulous but something like that he wouldn’t keep at the office. She thinks it might be at the house. She wants to take me there.”
Something raw was churning inside her at the mere thought of going there. August moved to stand in front of her. He lifted her chin so she was looking at him, although she was sure her vulnerability was glowing like the northern lights.
“It’s okay. I’ll be there with you. I’m going to get Bill. Tell Mary you’re booked for the rest of the day.”
Tijan felt like she was in a bit of a time warp as the three made their way out of the office. She was going to the house that she should have grown up in—or could have, if her father had wanted her.
Chapter 52
“Mary, I’m out for the rest of the day.”
“You can’t. Eleanor just called; she’ll be here at four. She said she has some urgent legal information for you and it has to be done today.”
Tijan hung up, wondering what the lawyer had that was so critical. She’d deal with that later. Right now, they needed to meet with her sister, Guy, and Graham.
Tarin ran up to Tijan and grabbed her, staring at her intently. Nothing was said between them but she understood everything in Tarin’s expression. It reminded her that although this was the scariest thing she’d ever done, meeting her sister and finding this connection was more than she could have hoped for.
“Okay, who’s got the recording?” Guy asked as soon as they joined them in the middle of her dad’s private parkade.
Tijan frowned as she stepped back from her sister and looked at Guy. She remembered them talking about someone wearing a wire but she knew it hadn’t been her. She’d forgotten all about it. Her focus had been on how to get this deal done and get the incriminating evidence against the man.
Bill stepped forward and opened his shirt. Gently, he removed the microphone taped to his chest that had captured all that had been said. Guy took it and handed it to Graham.
“We listened in from downstairs in your hotel room. We heard it all and have it recorded. Guy and I will go back to the office and analyze it right away. Then we’ll hand it over to the CSIS.” Graham held the microphone carefully in one hand.
“And the document?”
Tijan handed a copy to Guy but he shook his head and pointed to Graham. He took it and immediately checked the last page.
“This is perfect. Good job, Tijan. We have his signature. We can use it.”
“I know you had said you needed it but what are you going to do with it?”
“Create some incriminating stuff.”
What they were going to do with his signature intrigued her but she didn’t allow herself to ask. In some ways, she felt she was better not to know.
“Did anyone else feel that he signed too fast?”
“Maybe but we’ve got his signature, so we can use it against him. Tijan, you have done amazing with this. My heart felt like a boxer was punching on it from the inside the whole time you were in there. Guy said he’d come with us out to the house—just in case.” Tarin pressed her hand to her chest.
“Mine too! I was sure Mr. T could see it. God that was crazy.” She bent over and placed her hands on her knees.
“Are you okay?”
She was a little startled when she felt August’s hand on her back. She straightened up. “My legs have never been this shaky, even after chasing cattle in the mountains for a week.”
Five pairs of eyes were fixed on her. Heat crawled up her cheeks as she realized it was another reminder of how very different their worlds were.
“Tarin, I can’t go to the house right now. I need to wrap up a few things. There are a few staffing issues I’ve been dealing with.”
Tarin shrugged. “Maybe it’s time we pulled you out. I can easily deal with that kind of stuff.”
Tijan wanted to say, “God, yes,” but the words wouldn’t come out. Catching Mr. T seemed to be all she’d needed to do and that was now finished—or would be soon. But something told her there was still something to find, something to solve. If she stepped down now, that put Tarin at risk and the thought of that made her sick. Her sister had a son that was dependent on her. Tijan couldn’t imagine how she would feel if something were to happen to her. “I—”
“—can’t. Because you’re worried about what might happen to me.”
Tijan’s head snapped up as she looked at her sister, who seemed almost as stunned as she was. Almost at the same time, they grinned.
Graham groaned. “Oh man, I can see that you two reading each other’s minds and finishing each other’s sentences could be a problem. For me.”
His dramatic voice and slap to his chest made everyone smile. It also made Tijan appreciate him all the more. He was a good guy. She was really happy for her sister.
“Yeah. I’m pretty happy too.”
Graham snapped his head back and forth between the two of them. “See. See. It’s already happening. I can’t take anymore. I have to leave.”
He walked to the Hummer but said over his shoulder, “Really, we need to get this done.”
“My cue.” Tarin looked sternly at her sister. “Be careful. I think everything is okay but we still don’t know who shot Father. Mr. T is the likely candidate but—just be careful.”
“Bill, you can come with us. We’ll take you home. We’re all done for today.”
Bill shook his head but didn’t say anything.
Tijan frowned but approached him slowly. She touched his arm tentatively. “Thank you for your help today and for protecting me. You were amazing... but I think I’m okay now.”
“I’m staying.”
Tarin waved as she climbed in the Hummer. “Okay. We’ll see you all later.”
Tijan nodded as she watched them leave. Tarin seemed so happy and content. This world of concrete and business dealings and back-stabbings didn’t seem to faze her. A part of her was envious. Tijan realized she wanted to stay behind to see what she could learn about her father. Going to the house with Tarin seemed unfair. Unfair that she hadn’t even known it existed. Unfair that she hadn’t been a part of this life at all.
She headed back into the office. As Bill made a point of walking between her and August, she got the distinct impression he had wanted to stay to protect her from August.
Chapter 53
There was a soft click and then Guy was standing by her desk. Tijan looked at him and then at the back door she’d just come through. She thought he’d left.
“August, I don’t want to pull you away from this but the parts you ordered are in. And I guess another machine is down. Can you call Perry and see if he can fix any of it? Or walk him through it?”
August looked at Guy for a moment as though he’d been caught skipping school. Tijan didn’t blame him; that world was so far removed from what they’d been doing for the last week or so. And he’d been hired to be their mechanic. A dark red flush crept up his cheeks.
“Sure.” He pulled out his phone and dialed. And waited. “Call me when you get this, Perry. It’s urgent.”
“No answer. It’s probably better that I go out there and figure out what’s going on.” He looked at Tijan, holding her gaze for several moments. “I...”
“It’s okay. That’s what you were hired for, not to be my bodyguard. Besides, with that recording they shou
ld be charging Mr. T by the end of today?” Tijan looked questioningly at Guy.
“Within a few hours. We just want to make sure there’s a copy of that recording. We’ve had them go missing in the past when we’ve handed them over to the authorities. We’ve learned to keep our own copies.”
“Things should be quiet here, right?” August looked at Tijan before turning to Guy.
Guy nodded. “Bill is here. And I’m staying too. I have some work to do but can do it from here. I really don’t want to be seen on this floor, though. I’m going down to the restaurant, find a quiet corner and make some calls. I’ll have a good view of the front, so if anyone unexpected arrives, I’ll know.”
August smiled but looked at Guy. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”
Guy followed him to the far corner of the office. Tijan was listening with only half her attention but she was sure that he was questioning leaving Bill as her bodyguard.
After a couple of minutes of whispers, August turned to face her. He gave her a long searching look. “Be careful. This isn’t over yet.” He seemed reluctant to go as he walked slowly to the door, hesitating before opening it and walking into the parkade.
“I’ll go down the back way as well.”
Tijan felt a bit deflated and abandoned, even though Bill stood off to the side at full attention. He seemed to be the only one fully immersed in his role.
Sitting at her desk, she placed her hands on the gleaming surface. Other than her keyboard and monitor, her desk was empty. Opening one of the drawers, she examined its contents: pens and a pad of sticky notes. Going through each drawer, she was surprised to see them empty. The bottom right drawer was where she found the papers she’d been asked to sign. She pulled them out and called her sister.
“Tarin, did you ever find out about those legal papers I was to sign?”
“I forgot about them. I’ll contact Jason and see what he says. I’ll get back to you right away.”
Tijan booted her father’s computer. Randomly opening files to see what he stored there, she realized she didn’t even know what she was looking at. There were spreadsheets with numbers that she couldn’t even fathom. Finding it fascinating, she read through several such documents. It was quite a while later that she stopped what she was doing and looked up. Bill was still standing at attention just inside her office door.
“It’s okay to sit down, Bill.”
He glanced at her but didn’t move. Her computer beeped and she turned her attention back to the screen. An email announcement had appeared. She clicked on it and when it opened, she realized there were at least a thousand that hadn’t been read.
Groaning, she started skimming them. Reading through, she noted there were several from managers of the other hotels in the C-Lite Hotel Chain.
At first everything sort of blended as if they’d been written in Russian. Finally, one word grabbed her attention: linens. As she continued down the list, she saw there were several emails with that word in the subject line.
She had a spooky feeling she was being watched. Her immediate response was to look at Bill. He was standing at attention with his hands held behind his back, vacantly staring at the window. She glanced around the room as she considered the possibility of hidden cameras, despite the search for bugs. Then she remembered her computer could be accessed remotely. She stared at the monitor and the webcam that sat on top.
Inching herself slowly sideways in her father’s very comfy, leather chair, she made sure she was out of eyesight before pulling out her phone. She knew she was being a little paranoid but the whole situation she’d been involved in was making her a little wary. She texted Tarin.
‘Can someone remotely watch me through the webcam? Are you?’
‘No. Why?”
‘I get the feeling that someone is. I might just be reacting to everything but I feel watched. Am I paranoid?’
‘Don’t worry that computer is not being used for remote access. It has a lot of security and no one would have had time to do that.’
Tijan kept glancing at her computer as though it was going to come to life and pounce on her. Feeling really unsettled, she stood up and moved over to the couches. That didn’t help at all. Even though the webcam wasn’t facing her, she felt like it was tracking her every movement.
Tijan had a feeling she was going to have a weird quirk of being like an owl when all this was over. She would stare intensely at things while her head whipped from side to side. It might even spin all the way around by the time this was finished.
Chapter 54
Tijan was about to buzz Mary but felt she needed to thank her face to face. Exiting her office, she came upon Mary’s desk as she was intently reading a stack of papers.
“Mary?”
The woman’s head snapped around and the mulish look on her face stopped Tijan immediately.
“Are you alright?”
Mary turned away, setting the pages face down on her desk before turning back to talk to Tijan. She pasted on a smile but it didn’t eliminate the angry red splotches on her face nor did it reach her eyes.
“Sorry. A family matter.”
Tijan relaxed a bit. That she could understand. “I hope it’s nothing too serious.”
Mary shrugged. “What did you need, Tarin?”
There was a hard edge to her voice that Tijan hadn’t heard before. She’d been business-like and direct but she’d never had that tone. It really gave Tijan the feeling that she was pissed off at her.
“Thank you for dropping everything earlier and running those papers off for me. I truly appreciate it. Sorry to take you away from your other work. I know you’re very busy.” Tijan smiled warmly at her.
“It’s my job. That’s what I do, drop things to run things off. I do what needs to be done around here. I keep this place running smoothly even while your father is away. I stopped again to see him at the hospital but they wouldn’t let me in. I understand he’s awake. How is he?”
“He’s getting better.” Tijan felt a bit guilty; apparently the hospital wasn’t sharing that he’d been moved to a different location.
“I hear he had pneumonia. I tried to get him to go to the doctor but he wouldn’t. Your father is stubborn. I’ve tried to make sure he has taken care of himself over the years but he rarely listens.”
“Yes, he is stubborn. I just came to tell you I’ll be busy the rest of the day. If you need me, I’ll be on my cell.”
“Have you been out to check on things at your father’s house?”
Tijan’s shoulders tensed up, feeling like she was on a spooked horse ready to bolt.
“Actually, that’s where I’m going right now.”
“That’s good. Usually, I go and ensure everything is fine. He’s had me many times in the past look after his house. I didn’t this time because he hadn’t asked. But I know his staff is quite efficient but everyone needs someone looking after them that just isn’t about a paycheque.”
“Okay. Thank you, Mary. I’ll see you later. If you need anything, call.”
“Oh, Tarin. Wait. Remember Eleanor has an appointment with you at 4:00. That was the latest I could put her off. Something about some legal documents. I hope she isn’t trying to convince you to sell this place?”
Even though Mary’s face had softened while they’d talked, the mention of Eleanor seemed to bring back the angry face. And there was something in the way she said, ‘sell this place’. Tijan wondered if she’d read the documents she’d photocopied. But there hadn’t been time.
“Did you sign those forms that give you managing control over the business while your father is away?”
“I do have them but I took them home last night. I’ll get them back to you soon.”
“Nothing is legal until you do. And you know it’s temporary. That means nothing you sign is legal until you officially sign that document giving you control.”
“Thank you for letting me know, Mary. Make an appointment with Eleanor for early next week.”
“She won’t be happy at the delay.” Mary reached for her phone but stopped. “JT is up for VP of Operations. He’d be good at it—if you want my opinion.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, Mary.” Tijan turned and left even though she was sure that Mary had a lot more to say. Their whole conversation didn’t sit well with her but she had no idea what it meant.
She closed the door but before she could make her way across the room, she heard some loud muffled sounds. They appeared to be coming from the main part of the office. Turning on her heel, she retraced her steps. As soon as she opened the door, the raised voices hit her.
Chapter 55
“Someone sabotaged the equipment.” August felt an anger he hadn’t felt since his mom died and he’d been helpless to stop her downward spiral. The harvesting machine parts he’d been waiting for had been pounded and sawed. It looked as if it should have been in a junk pile. The main frame was still intact but looked like a really bad art design with jagged pieces of metal hanging off it.
Guy swore. “Any idea who?”
“I don’t see Perry but I can’t imagine he’d do this. I just got here but wanted you to know immediately. Someone is pissed. Any ideas?”
There was silence for a moment. “The list is too long. Damn. We were just getting things running smoothly after that last attempt a year ago.”
“What happened?”
“Someone tried to sabotage the winery by replacing our wine with vinegar and then sending it out on the market. It brought a lot of unwanted media attention and almost brought us down. We caught that person, but I can’t help wondering if this is related.”
August whistled. “What do you want me to do?”
“Can you close the doors and lock it up? Do not tell Dorothea or LJ. I’ll tell them but not quite yet. Let me get back to you.”
August felt sick. Even though he’d only been there a few months, he was already feeling quite attached to the place. It was obvious that for someone to do that kind of destruction, they had to be really angry. Rather than leave immediately, he decided to check the place once more to determine what kind of damage had been done. The shop didn’t have a lot of space to begin with but with all the debris, he had to be careful where he stepped. Circling the machine, it didn’t look any better from any other angle. He noticed the older machine in the corner hadn’t been touched. Curious, he stepped toward it.