Page 46 of Out of the Shadows
Margo couldn’t do it.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “wrong office.”
Chapter Sixteen
Jack showed Laura the photo Margo sent him of the third man who had been bidding on Unit 238.
“I’ve never seen him before,” she said.
The man was anywhere between thirty and forty, with short dark hair, a square jaw, and a couple days’ growth of beard. He wore dark sunglasses, a generic black baseball cap with no logo, a black T-shirt, and dark gray khakis. He had the stance and body of someone who regularly worked out. The photographer had zoomed in so Jack couldn’t get a gauge of this height.
Jack didn’t know what specifically was going on, but he and Margo had been going back and forth on a theory now that they had the Bishop Securities report. The company was legit, though they sometimes walked the legal line. Jack considered them a “fixer” for businesses, to help make problems disappear. But committing a felony? He didn’t see it.
Their report was clear: They were hired Saturday morning to locate Charlie Barrett and pay him for the files. They had run a background on Charlie and sat on his apartment and his work from 4:00 p.m. Saturday through Monday at noon when Margo ran them off. He hadn’t shown up. They returned Monday at 4:00 p.m. and stayed all night. Again, Charlie hadn’t shown. They’d taken photos of every person entering the building, and on Saturday night they had taken a vague photo of two men entering at 1:10 a.m. and leaving an hour later. One of the men could have been the man in the ball cap. They hadn’t seen what vehicle they’d arrived in.
“Rapperson wanted the files, but I don’t see him committing a major crime like a hit-and-run or trashing your house to scare you. Hiring Bishop was logical for him, and when they learned about you, they reached out to you at your clinic instead of home because you would feel safer there with people around,” Jack said. “They didn’t want to intimidate you, they wanted your cooperation.”
“How did this other guy get my address?”
“There are a half dozen ways,” he said. “He could have found it in Charlie’s condo, or by running any number of public reports.”
“Then why run me off the road?”
“Either he wanted to scare you or he wanted time to search your house when he knew you would be out. He didn’t care whether you were hurt or not.” That angered Jack greatly—that this guy would hurt innocent people to get to Charlie.
Laura rubbed her temples. “And he’s looking for those files too?”
She sounded skeptical, and Jack didn’t blame her. It seemed a lot to go through for legal records. “I don’t know if it was the files or something else. We have the files now, and while there is potential blackmail material in the records, nothing has jumped out at my mom as being worth all this trouble. Your friend Bob said that there was a smaller box that Charlie took with him. Maybe that had something valuable inside.”
“Why is he in LA?” Laura asked as she paced the kitchen. “Why hasn’t he called me? How could he put the kids in danger like this? Dammit! I need to talk to him.”
“For what it’s worth,” Jack said calmly, “I doubt Charlie knew what he was getting into.”
“I don’t care!” She turned to the kitchen window above the sink and put her hands on the counter, took a long, deep breath. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
“Don’t apologize.”
“Good. Because I’m not sorry that I’m mad, I just don’t want to take it out on you.”
“Margo has a theory. Charlie worked on Thursday, and he could have overheard Rapperson and his lawyer talking about the storage unit. He likely didn’t know what specifically they wanted inside it, just that there was something valuable. He may have gotten it into his head that he could profit off it. The auction was at three Friday, which coincides with him leaving work at lunch and would have given him enough time to go to the bank and withdraw cash, then rent a U-Haul.”
“He did not think this through. He never thinks anything through. That’s why we lost the house, lost every dime in the kids’ college funds, why I left!”
The kids came in with Luisa at that moment. Cody’s face fell, and Sydney ran through the kitchen and down the hall.
Cody went to his mom and hugged her. “It’s going to be okay, Mom.”
She hugged her son and said, “Yes, it will. I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have heard that.”
“Daddy means well,” Cody said, sounding almost grown-up.
“I better talk to your sister. You okay?”
“I’m fine. Luisa rides, can we take the horses out later? It’s too hot now, but after dinner? Please? And she wants to see Nimbus, she might want a kitten!”
Luisa laughed. “Not me, kid. But I might be able to find a home for one.”
“The horses need to be exercised, after dinner would be great. I’ll be right back.” She followed her daughter down the hall.
