Page 22 of The Sheik's Kiss

“Not a chance. My father went to the building inspector and showed him what was going on. The building inspector shut down the building site, then started inspecting Dillbrook’s other job sites.” She shook her head. “It was a mess for a long time.”

“Then what happened, Mandy?” he asked.

She was silent for a long moment, then sighed. “The executives asked to meet him at one of the sites,” she started, but her voice broke and it took her a moment to start talking again. “Unfortunately, he didn’t know that they had something special set up for him.” She wiped a tear away as inconspicuously as possible. “He was pushed from the fourth floor of the building. Right onto a pile of…” she choked back a sob and Zahir immediately pulled her into his arms.

“Hush!” he whispered into her ear. “You don’t need to tell me more unless you need to talk about it.”

She breathed in, then out. And then burst into tears. “I’m sorry!” she whispered in between sobs. “This happened years ago. I should be over it!”

“You aren’t over it, eazizi,” he told her, stroking her back as he tightened his arms around her. “Can you tell me what the police said when they arrested the people?”

She laughed, but the sound came out as more of a hiccup. “The coroner labeled his death as a suicide.”

He was silent for a long time and Mandy eventually calmed down. She pulled back and wiped at her tears. “I’m so sorry about that,” she told him, then brushed the lapel of his tuxedo, wiping away the makeup she’d inadvertently left there.

“What are you sorry for?” he asked, taking her hand and leading her over to a bench. They sat down, then turned and watched through the wall of windows framing the courtyard as the other guests danced and laughed, drank expensive champagne and seemed to be having a wonderful time, completely unaware of the emotional upheaval happening in the darkness outside.

“I’m sorry for wasting your time. I’m sorry for crying. I’m sorry that…,” she sighed and shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know.”

“You’re not wasting my time, Mandy,” he assured her softly, his voice deep and rumbly in the darkness. “In fact, I appreciate the trust you show to me by opening up about your past.” He pushed a lock of hair out of the way. “Why do you think your father’s company killed your father? If the coroner ruled his death a suicide, then what makes you think that something nefarious happened?”

She smiled and unconsciously leaned towards him, exhausted after the emotional outburst. “My father wasn’t suicidal, Zahir.” She sighed. “My father was a very happy man who was madly in love with my mom. He and I would grill burgers for dinner on Friday nights while my mom relaxed. He would bring her wine and flowers every Monday. He taught me how to ride a bike. We were planning a trip to the lake for a long weekend the month after he was killed.” She shook her head. “I read a lot about suicide after he was killed, wanting to understand why. So, I started to investigate.” She grinned up at him. “That and the invoices I found were my first taste of forensic accounting. I went through all of the files, invoices, letters, and documents in his desk and all of the emails and text messages on his computer and phone. I dove into every detail I could find.”

“And what did you discover?”

She leaned back, unaware of how her shoulder leaned against his chest. “First, I did the calculations for his fall. If he jumped, then the trajectory would be one way. If it was an accident, then there would be a different trajectory. But his fall was too far out. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t calculate the path for either of those scenarios. The only way he could have fallen where he landed was if he was pushed.” She was silent for a long moment and sighed deeply. “I took that information to the coroner.”

“What happened?”

She let out an inelegant snort. “The man patted me on the head and said I was a good little girl, but that he wouldn’t change his ruling.”

“What happened to the executives of Dillbrook Construction?”

She didn’t answer for a long moment. “I wasn’t wealthy enough or powerful enough to bring them down. But I’ve kept all of the evidence. I have proof that they were using inferior materials, that they violated building codes. I kept all of the evidence in a box for years. When I graduated from college, I took it to the police.” She tilted her head up to look at him. “There’s no statute of limitations on murder.”

“I know that.”

“So I tried to convince the police to look into my father’s death again.”

“What did they say?”

She grimaced. “They patted me on the head and told me I was a good little girl and that I should get on with my life.”

“So, you decided to become an accountant so that you could become wealthy enough to put them in jail?”

She shook her head. “I packed everything into a safety deposit box and hid the key. After I went to the police, my apartment was broken into. I don’t have proof of who broke in, but I’m sure it was someone hired by DillBrook to find the evidence that I was trying to get the police to consider.”

“But they didn’t find it?”

She grinned but he couldn’t see her expression in the darkness. “Nope. The boxes were stored in a security box at a bank in a different town. If they’d bothered to look in the drawers of my first apartment, they would have found the key. They could have gotten rid of the evidence. But I still have it.” She shrugged. “Just more evidence that they are stupid.”

He chuckled. “So, you have evidence that DillBrook was knowingly using inferior materials and circumstantial evidence that someone, you’re not sure who, pushed your father off the building.” He nodded, taking it all in. “And this is why you keep your distance from me. Because you don’t trust powerful men.”

She tilted her head, then nodded. “Yeah. I guess that’s the issue in a nutshell.” She suddenly realized that she was leaning against him, enjoying the feeling of warm security. Mandy shifted away from him, and suddenly, she felt a chill.

Sighing, she brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes. “It doesn’t help that you’re going about this wife-search business in such a cavalier manner.” She looked away, saying, “I know that you’re a very busy man, but bringing all of these women to Sidrina so that you can interview them seems a bit…callous.” She looked up at him. “I understand why you’re doing it, but bringing women to you so that you can choose one of them to be your wife is something that only the wealthy and powerful in this world can get away with. It might be fine in your world, but it merely reinforces the perception that you live by different rules.”

He considered her words carefully, then nodded. “I see your point. But would it help if I told you that my process is to get to know the woman I intend to marry so that I can ensure that she and I are compatible?”

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