Numbers Never Lie (Crimson Romance) (10 page)

Cook frowned. “Why’s that?”

“Everyone concentrated on Sophie and the accounting department head, I guess.” Knowing what he knew about Nate now, he wondered if Nate hadn’t followed up on these yet simply because his thoughts focused on his Dad. “I had planned to get with Cheryl after this and start working on them.”

“Good. Then don’t let me keep you. And I want an update before you leave on Thursday. Tell me what you find on these guys.” Cook pushed the manila folders back to Trev and motioned at the door, then he flipped his cell phone open. “Cook here,” he blurted into the phone as he waved and turned his back.

Trev walked down the hall to Cheryl’s office. He didn’t knock, just walked in and stood over her desk.

“Good morning, Trev.” Cheryl’s eyes looked up over the reading glasses that perched dangerously low on the end of her nose. “How’s the investigation going?”

Cheryl’s ability to dig out seemingly unimportant but helpful details had helped many an employee bring closure to their cases during her many years with the agency. She had the unfortunate curse of looking older than her forty-three years, especially with the addition of the reading glasses. In her twenties and thirties, she admitted to wearing them to appear smarter so she’d be taken more seriously on the job. She refused to allow her abilities diminished by her small stature and feminine looks. Her ability to look older than her years was a great asset then as it gave her a look of experience and credibility. What she lacked in experience, she over-exuded in intelligence and perseverance. Now, though, the glasses proved a necessity and less important as a tool to support her many years of proven excellence on the job.

“It could be better, which is why I’m in the office the next few days. There’re a few people I’ll need your help on. I’m fairly certain one of the lead targets we’ve been tailing has little or nothing to do with the investigation. Plus, I want to pull a few things on each and every staff member in the accounting and IT departments. No one really sticks out right now, but I’m pretty sure that if we get the bank records, as well as personal property information on some of them, we’ll see some alarms. I also want job history, home addresses for the last ten years, and purchase history, if you can get it.”

“No problem.” Cheryl gave him a professional smile. “Bank record requests and purchase history usually take two to three days for that large a group but it shouldn’t be a problem. What else?”

“Here’s a list of the names. The files are minimal on these and it’s not enough to really work with. Start with the top one there. If I could get that as soon as possible, it would help tremendously.” Trev decided to take a different approach than he’d been instructed. He wanted to concentrate first on the staff around Sophie and the accounting manager. “Here’s what I’m looking for on each person.” Trev handed the list of names and details to Cheryl.

By four
P.M.
, Trev had addresses, phone numbers, family details, past employers, and past addresses on Anna and Jake. Thomas and Callie required more time. Cheryl unearthed criminal background checks and credit information. She had relationship status, aliases, family members, and details of all available criminal and civil cases. Trev sat at the conference room table and spread the information out in organized piles. Most of the information came in electronic form and he’d do further analysis with the data itself, but this was a start. Once he’d seen enough, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed Nate.

“Hey, man, are you busy?”

“I’m always busy. What do you need?”

“I need someone to tag another person for a few days. Just a few days, shouldn’t require much. I want to know everyone she talks to, everywhere she goes, where she lives if it doesn’t match what we already have, what she does on her off time, etc. Get as many pictures as possible. Then I want to do the same with another person. Can you do it or is there anyone else available? They’re both women. Her assistant and a friend.”

“Is this related to the current case?”

“I think so, but it may not be anything. I just have a hunch.”

“Okay. Send me the address and I’ll get someone on it. You know I’m going to see my dad, right?”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry. Can you get someone on it before you leave? And just update me if something’s found?”

“Sure, no problem.”

“Sorry to bother you, man,” Trev said.

“No bother. I’ll be back Thursday morning. I’ll check in with you as soon as I hear something.”

“Great! Thanks!” Trev hung up and sent the address for Sophie’s assistant Anna Kinnier via text to Nate. He leaned back in his chair and sat there looking at the file in front of him. He wondered if Benton & Stanley had done background checks on their staff recently. Two of Sophie’s friends — ones he’d met — had records. One a simple possession charge, the other aggravated assault. The assault charge on Thomas set off warning bells, even though it eventually dropped off his record. The possession charge from six years earlier was on her best friend — and it wasn’t just a marijuana charge, either. People with that history sometimes carried residual problems. He wondered if she remained clean, if she’d stayed out of trouble and away from her past associates.

Trev sat in a car in the parking garage when Thomas Brand and Sophie came from the building. They talked as they strolled to their cars, then she moved past him. Trev had made sure to choose a dark corner where his presence couldn’t be seen. Sophie’s car exited the garage and drove away, but Trev wasn’t concerned about that. He planned to tag Thomas tonight. The background file on him had shown a criminal record as well as an alias. That, along with the assault charge, was enough to suggest good old Thomas concealed a past he wanted hidden. At least he wanted to conceal it from Benton & Stanley.

Trev spent the next two days following Thomas. By Wednesday night, he decided nothing about Thomas indicated involvement. The guy had a pretty colorful past for sure, but his interest in Sophie was apparently just that. Thomas had been in a lot of trouble up until he turned twenty, spent some time in jail for the theft of a four-wheeler that he totaled while joyriding with friends. He then cleaned up his act and started going to college at night while working days for a roofing company. A New Jersey transplant, he left there when he graduated. He moved to Houston with a new degree in computer science and a new name. The new name didn’t make sense. Trev figured he’d ask Cheryl to check that.

Thomas frequented a health club on Smith Street, where he sometimes spent a couple of hours or more working out at night. Trev watched from outside as much as he could, but never really saw Thomas talk to anyone other than the staff. According to the file, the assault charge occurred at the health club. One of the staff eagerly provided the details. It was filed by a girlfriend he’d dumped. Apparently, she wasn’t very happy about being jilted and attacked him in the parking lot. He tried to hold her off and in the process knocked her down. Later, when he threatened to file charges also, hers were dropped.

The sound of his cell phone jolted Trev back to reality as he sat outside the health club Wednesday night. He chewed on the stir stick from the coffee he’d purchased at the drive-thru earlier, remembering a skirt, heels, and the song “Suzie Q.” Not like him to drift off like that. He frowned.

“Yeah?” he muttered into the phone without dropping the stick in his mouth.

“The first chick was apparently boring as hell, man.” Nate didn’t say hello or how’s it going, he just stepped straight to the facts. “She has two kids. She gets them right after work and goes home. She lives with her mom — or her mom lives with her, I don’t know which it is. I can find out if you want. Other than that, there’s nothing. She gets very few calls and isn’t seeing anyone.”

That pretty much matched with the information Cheryl derived.

“Okay, well I thought it might be good to check her out. She’s Henry’s — I mean Sophie Henderson’s assistant, so she might have access to all her email, passwords, etc.” He mentally crossed one name off the list. “What about the other girl?”

“That’s a little more interesting.” Nate baited Trev a little, making him wait for the details. “Callie’s residence didn’t match with the records. She’s in an apartment that she’s only had for the past four months. Prior to that she lived down in Stafford.”

“Why does that matter? People move all the time.”

“The address she lives at now is two blocks from Sophie,” Nate added flatly. “Before Stafford she lived in New York and worked for a large real estate company in their IT department.”

“Really? She doesn’t sound like a New Yorker.”

“She’s not. She graduated from Stephen F. Austin in ninety-nine and took an internship in New York. Apparently she hated it and moved back to Texas the following year.”

“Okay, so she moved close to her friend and decided to get away from the cold. What else?” Trev didn’t see any relevance yet on her, either. He began to think he’d wasted everyone’s time on these other people.

“There’s a boyfriend, too. A really creepy guy — dark hair, dark mood, and around almost every night. Gone by morning.”

“No kidding? She acted like she was single and looking when I met her the other night.”

“From what I’m told, this is not the kind of guy you bring home to Mom or introduce to your friends.”

“Hmmm. Maybe he’s not really a boyfriend.”

“Probably not, more like a boy toy if you ask me. Some girls really like the bad boys. Hell, most girls like the bad boys.” Nate’s voice remained monotone.

“Yeah, and speaking from a guy’s perspective, we’re all bad boys, given the chance. You know you’d give your right arm to be someone’s boy toy.” Trev laughed at the possibility.

“Hell, yeah. Who wouldn’t?” An appreciative chuckle came through the phone.

“Okay. Well, thanks man. Oh, hey. How’s your dad doing?”

“So far, so good. He hasn’t had any more fainting spells but he’s taking it easy. They’ve scheduled surgery for next week. Putting in a pacemaker. I’m still coming back tomorrow, though. It’s really weird being here. Like everyone’s just watching every step he takes, waiting for him to fall or something. We’re all driving him nuts. My sisters are crying all the time. I’ve got to get out of here.”

“I don’t blame you. I’m not very good at that kind of thing either, but it’s good that you went.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m glad I came, too.”

They hung up. Trev found it interesting, and vaguely odd that Callie entertained a life Sophie didn’t know about. They seemed to be best friends. Normally your best friend is the first one you talk to about that kind of fling. They might find it exciting to talk about this bad boy, sex-capade thing, wouldn’t they? Maybe not.

Thursday, Trev waited outside the front door of the Benton & Stanley building, perched against one of the concrete abstract art pieces that graced the front of the building. He considered it might be disrespectful to lean against something they likely paid several thousand dollars to put in, but to him it was just a chunk of ugly concrete. Apparently the birds agreed with the analogy. The top of it was completely covered in bird crap. At least three birds roosted on it at that moment, about five feet above. A sign in front of it talked about the artist and what the piece represented.
Amazing that people actually get paid for this stuff.

Sophie found him looking up at the birds to make sure he didn’t become a target when she approached.

“Hey there,” she said with a hint of a smile. Apparently, she was over her angry mood from the other night.

“Hey yourself. Ready to go?” he responded lightly.

“I thought I’d just give you the data and then you can be on your way, if that’s okay.” She started to reach into her purse.

“No.” Trev grabbed her arm and glanced around the area looking for familiar faces, of which he saw two. An older, gray-haired gentleman on her staff, along with her assistant. Both seemed to be rushing off to lunch, headed in different directions. “Let’s get out of here. I have some questions for you.” He pulled her into step beside him and walked with her toward his car, parked down the street.

“Why can’t you ask me here?”

“Too many people around. I think it would be better to be somewhere where no one sees you handing me data from your office, don’t you?”

“Oh, okay. Although I don’t know that anyone would notice.”

“Probably not. Better safe than sorry.”

“You make it sound so clandestine.” She giggled. “Like we’re spies and I’m passing you secret information.”

Trev grinned to lighten the mood a little. No need to alarm her unnecessarily. “Do I? Sorry,” he said sheepishly.

“Where are we going?” Sophie asked later as they drove down the street headed south, out of the city.

“I don’t really know. I didn’t make a plan.” Trev thought about taking her to dinner, or maybe a movie, but that would be kind of “date-ish” and as much as he’d enjoy it, it wouldn’t fit what she expected of him. This merely presented a chance for her to give him the data so he could start digging into the transactions. Still, he was hungry.

“Then why don’t I just give you this,” she pulled a USB drive out of her bag and placed it on the car’s console, “and you can take me home.” He clenched his jaw at her apparent rush to get away from him.

“I could do that.” He said it very slowly then looked at her sideways. “Do you have plans this evening that you’re in a hurry to get to?”

“What?” she seemed startled. “No, not really. I just didn’t want to take up any more of your time.” Her stare made him uncomfortable. She kept looking at his mouth. His thoughts shot back to the kiss he’d forced on her in the parking lot last week.

“If I was worried about that, I wouldn’t be here.” Trev pulled the car into a small parking lot and killed the engine.

“Oh, well … ”

He turned to face her. “Listen, you’re uncomfortable because I kissed you, right?”

“Well. Yeah, of course.”

“Just forget it. Consider it over with. It was just to help you out of a bind, okay?” He watched her face, noticing that her cheeks seemed to have a little more color and her lips, full and shiny with lip-gloss. She looked fantastic. He wanted to smash his lips against hers again and lick the lip gloss off. Forget it? Yeah right. Easier to say than do.