Page 61 of Robin and Marian
Slowly, he lowered the frame and found himself staring at another safe behind it. This one was simpler than the one out in the open, with only a combination lock on it. Still, almost impossible forhimto open, but he had an expert with him. “Tuck, get over here!”
Tuck abandoned the computer to check it out. Robin noticed that Tuck had left behind a weird screensaver. It was a big cross that matched the one on his chest. It was his signature. “No, no, no.” Robin went to the computer. “Get this off.”
Tuck shrugged, playing with the codes on the safe. “How else will Guy know we’re behind this?”
“He isn’t supposed to. That’s the point.” Robin couldn’t get into the computer. It was already locked. “What else did you do?”
“I changed the codes, sent off a few emails to his companies, changed his Facebook status. He’s got internet on there. Do you know how nice it is to finally get the internet?”
Robin couldn’t believe that he’d trusted him. “Get over here right now and fix what you’ve done! We can’t leave a fingerprint behind.”
“No?” Tuck opened up the safe. Robin’s mother’s jewels were in there, hanging out in the open. Shrugging his shoulders, Tuck went to close it again.
Robin propelled away from his chair to stop him. “No!”
“No?” Tuck repeated in a state of true confusion. “If you take these, he might know…”
“Thathe can know!” Robin pulled the jewels out. It wasn’t all of them, but it was a respectable amount. “I’ll leave a message in their place to thank him for holding them for me.”
“So you get all the fun and I can’t leave a few jokes behind?” Tuck tottered over to the computer and began to expertly break his way back in again. Robin had to admit that Tuck’s gift of hacking, no matter how twisted, was useful, and in an instant the possibilities hit him like a two-ton truck. He couldn’t believe he’d almost squandered this opportunity. He leaned over Tuck’s shoulder, his voice echoing the urgency he felt. “See if you can’t find anything in there that might implicate him for what he did to me. And if that doesn’t work, find something in there that might take him down for what he’s doing now.” Robin let out a shaky breath. “Find out if his charity is even real!”
“Okay, Prince of the Forest, one thing at a time.” But Tuck loved the challenge, and his fingers flew over the keyboard like a hacker in a cheesy spy movie.
Looking back at the empty safe, Robin closed it and dropped the jewelry into the black bag he’d brought before replacing the painting on the wall. There were still more jewels to recover, so he spent his time poking around the office to find them.
“C’mon, make this difficult for me!” Tuck yelled at the screen. “I found the contracts with a simple search in his browser. Anyone can do that!”
Robin was tempted to look, but he had his own mission. He perused the bookshelf next, and pulled out the books until he finally spied another safe with a combination on it. “What code did Guy use on that other safe?” Robin asked.
Tuck momentarily broke his concentration from the screen to glance up. “The date that you were arrested.”
The anger hit Robin like a punch to the gut, along with the suspicion that the smear campaign against him and Scarlett was personal. He channeled that anger into getting the combination open. He tried the date of his arrest first, but that didn’t work. Then, since Guy seemed a sentimental guy, he tried the date of his parole hearings. Nothing happened. Guy’s birthday? Didn’t work. The day his cousin’s parents were married, when they divorced. They all were duds until Robin put in the day his own father had died and it clicked open. He felt sick.
“I found the money that Guy embezzled from those investors!” Tuck sang.
Robin’s hand stopped short from opening the safe. “Can you get it back?”
“No, they went into these stocks for his new business with Jana Prinz. I’m beginning to think those two aren’t really dating.”
Robin was stunned. “Do you have proof? Can you uncover that?”
Tuck treated him to a long impatient look like he was stupid. “Welcome to my world.”
A terrifying mix of hope and relief ran through him. Their problems could be over by the end of the night. Maybe his friend could send this evidence to Guy’s newspapers and business associates while he was at it. Robin opened the safe and wasn’t surprised to find the rest of the jewels tucked away into the back, along with some papers.
“Ah ha!” Tuck smacked his lips and took on a gossipy tone. “Looks like Guy made deals with a few of Nottingham’s government officials—the same ones who voted for the tax hikes. They’ve all got stock in his new company. Jana Prinz is bringing in her ski resort. That’s why Guy’s after Elinor’s mountain. Yup, yup, he’s working on getting her to sell, and theHunger Gamesgirl and her twin brother, and that snobby couple. He wants all their land. Oh, look, there’s Old Man Pete—ha, Guy will never get him to do it. He hates your cousin… of course, he can try to get his land by other means.” He scrolled through the document. “And we have plenty of proof of insider trading and corruption. Guy’s the Illuminati of Nottingham. We can nail them all to the wall with this.”
Robin could scarcely believe what he was hearing. Marian had definitely made the right call to entice Guy away so they could find this. He reached for the papers behind the jewels just as Tuck let out a groan.
“Bad news,” Tuck said. “Guy’s got himself a new fall guy.”
“Who?” Robin edged to Tuck’s side, not sure if he wanted to hear.
Tuck grimaced. “Alan. Maybe it’s not so bad. How much do you like him?”
Robin looked down at the papers in his hand and saw they were the physical copies of contracts, some of them from government officials; some from Jana Prinz. Alan’s signature was all over them—just as Scarlett’s had been the first time around. Robin’s heart sank.
If they turned Guy in for this, Alan would be the one going in for him. Guy had officially tied their hands and wrapped them up in chains for good measure. “Can you scrub Alan’s name from the computer? We’ll just destroy these.” Robin shoved the contracts into Tuck’s hands. “That’s all of it, right? Make it so it’s only Guy who’s implicated?”
