Ex Delicto (7 page)

Aiden

Xavier looked like he was going to faint on the spot as the other lawyer shook his hand.

And when the man introduced himself as Tony I wanted to sucker punch him right there in the office.

He turned to shake my hand. “Tony Kailer,” he said.

I glared at him and kept my hands in my coat pockets. He didn’t even blink, just kept that smarmy smile on his face and his hand outstretched the whole time.

“Aiden Carmichael,” Xavier cut in, breaking the silence. “He’s a partner at the firm I’m working at.”

Tony moved towards Xavier and put an arm through his. “I don’t think he likes me,” he said, smiling straight at me.

Xavier pulled away and I got in between them. I had a few inches on Tony, and I made good use of them staring down at him.

“Let’s just get to work, Tony,” I said.

“Ooh, the protective type,” he said, but he backed off and went to sit at his desk. “What can I do for you two then?”

I sat down in one of the two chairs in front of the desk. Xavier stayed standing.

“What are you doing here, Tony?” Xavier asked.

“What does it look like? I work here,” Tony said. “Going on a year now.”

“A year,” Xavier murmured.

“Yep. Did you just start working?” Tony asked.

“Yeah,” Xavier said, fidgeting a bit. “Well, I took that year off, you know, so I didn’t graduate with you.”

“I never got a straight answer as to why you took that year off in the first place.” Tony leaned over his desk towards Xavier. He smiled and whispered, “Did I really break your heart that much?”

Xavier frowned and looked away.

“That’s enough of that,” I said, and stood up. “If you’re not going to help us I’ll find someone who will. Xavier, let’s go.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Oh for God’s sake, I was just having a little fun with him. Sit down already.”

“’Fun’? You have to be a real asshole to consider that fun,” I said.

Tony shrugged and smiled. “Whatever. Maybe I just don’t take everything so seriously like you two. Anyway, you want my help or not?”

To my surprise, Xavier sat down and opened up his laptop. I followed suit.

“We need the financials on someone,” Xavier said, his jaw set. “Sorry, I need to pull up the employee number on my computer. We were in so much of a hurry we didn’t even write it down.”

“I can wait,” Tony said, leaning back in his chair, clearly enjoying this.

The wait while Xavier’s laptop powered up felt like an eternity. I continued to glare at Tony.

“So where exactly are you working again?” Tony asked.

“Dunhill, Dougan & Smith,” Xavier said.

“Well done,” Tony said, smiling. “It figures you’d go straight to the big time.”

“You’re not doing too badly yourself,” Xavier said. He smiled but his voice was tense. I still couldn’t read him all that well but I could tell that much.

“You’re looking great,” Tony said, sparing a glance at me to see how I’d react. “A little skinny, maybe.”

“Looks fine to me,” I said.

“Here, look, the file’s up,” Xavier said, his voice panicky. He read out the employee number and Tony typed it out to look up.

He blinked as he looked at the screen and the smile came clean off his face. “What the hell is this? Michael Patterson? But he has like, six transactions on here. This can’t be right.”

“Yeah,” Xavier said. “It’s a fake Michael Patterson. And all those transactions are fraudulent. Someone created the account and made all those transactions to look like the real Michael Patterson did them.”

Tony’s eyes practically bugged out of his head. “What the fuck?! Who the hell—”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Xavier said, his voice soothing. “We need to know the bank that the fake Michael Patterson’s checks were deposited into. This company is direct deposit only, right?”

“Right,” Tony said, his eyes still dubious.

“So what bank did they use? I need the account number and the routing number. Plus anything else you might have,” Xavier said.

“Fine,” Tony said, and clicked on a few things. “That’s all I have, the account number and routing number.” He pulled a notepad out and began writing, then ripped the sheet off and handed it to us. “Here they are.”

“Thanks a bunch, Tony,” Xavier said.

Tony frowned at Xavier. “Umm, am I in any danger here? Whoever did this works at this company. If he finds out I know anything…”

“Well, don’t tell anyone,” I said.

“Easy for you to say,” Tony said. “What if the guy who did it finds out I talked to you? What if he asks me what we talked about?”

“Lie,” I said. “You seem like you’d be good at it.”

“Fuck you,” Tony said.

“Hey, guys, come on,” Xavier said. “Tony, I don’t know what to tell you. We’re going to figure this matter out as quickly as we can. Maybe by the end of the day. If you’re that worried, pretend you feel sick and duck out. Though that might make it look like you know something.”

“God damn it,” he said. “Yeah, no, I’m not leaving here until this guy is arrested. Are we done here?”

Xavier chuckled. He actually looked amused. I didn’t blame him. Now that this guy wasn’t turning on the charm, he looked like a complete tool.

“Yeah, I think we’re done,” Xavier said. He smiled over at me. “We’re done, right Aiden?”

“Definitely,” I said.

“Then get out of here,” Tony said. “And make sure no one sees you.”

We closed the office door behind us and went back to the elevator. As we waited we burst out laughing.

“What did you ever see in that guy?” I asked.

Xavier shook his head. “I genuinely can’t remember.”

My cell phone rang. I showed the display to Xavier.

“Greg,” I read. “One second.”

“Sure,” he said.

I answered the phone. “What’s up, Greg?”

“Hey, we need the laptop back,” Greg said.

“We?”

“They’re done with the arraignment and they’ve already posted bail, so Patterson and his lawyer are on their way over. They want to look at the files.”

“Don’t you have a copy?” I said.

“I would if you hadn’t taken the backup with you too,” he said.

“Ah, fuck,” I said, and patted the flash drive in my pocket. “Sorry. Let me just email them to you. We need to head to the bank.”

“Fine,” Greg said, and hung up.

I turned to Xavier. “Hey, I need to get access to a computer around here and send this to Greg. You mind waiting downstairs?”

He shook his head. “That’s fine.”

“Sorry about this,” I said.

I watched Xavier walk into the open elevator and waited until the doors closed to go find a computer I could use.

Xavier

I smiled as I went down the elevator.

When I saw Tony, all those old feelings came back. And the more I talked to him, the more I felt like I was getting ensnared in the same old trap again. He’d grabbed my arm, making me feel like we were just as close as ever. Then he made fun of me for having my heart broken, pushing me away again. The whiplash disoriented me.

Before, I would have fought back when he pushed away, trying to stay close to him. I probably still would have if Aiden hadn’t been there. I couldn’t imagine why. Maybe it was just habit. Maybe there were some residual feelings there. For whatever reason, I was still vulnerable to Tony’s tricks.

Until he freaked out over what we found.

Suddenly there were no tricks, no traps, no games. I saw Tony for what he really was. A coward who cared only for himself. He hadn’t even thought to express concern for me possibly being in danger as well. He didn’t actually have it in him to think about another person.

And at that point, if there were any residual feelings, they evaporated away in a second. And the only thing left was Aiden. The man who was gentle with me, who protected me, who actually did think of me, and who would never break my heart and then make fun of me for it.

It was the closure I never even knew I needed. I felt free.

Which was why I was still smiling when I got off the elevator.

I went outside and even the rain had stopped. The skies were clear. I closed my eyes and smiled. Then I went to find an out of the way place to wait for Aiden. I turned and noticed someone watching me, a man in a suit smoking, who turned away instantly when I saw him.

A feeling of dread hit my stomach. I didn’t like the way he was looking at me. It didn’t look random. It looked deliberate. I was suddenly conscious that I was holding the case with the laptop that held all the incriminating data.

I walked in the opposite direction and tried to shake it off. I was just being paranoid. Then again, it wasn’t like I came outside expecting to be watched. I’d been so lost in my thoughts about Tony and Aiden that I’d forgotten all about my fear. And there was so much at stake.

I should wait upstairs, or at least in the lobby. Even if I was being paranoid, it wouldn’t hurt to take precautions.

I turned around to go back inside and the man who’d been watching me before was coming after me. Before I could even let out a gasp he was upon me. He grabbed my arm, hard, and I felt something solid jab into my stomach. I looked down and saw the silver of a gun barrel.

“Don’t kill me,” I whispered.

“Do exactly what I say and I won’t have to,” the man said. He pushed me towards a waiting black sedan. “Get in that car. Now.”

“Okay, okay,” I said, my voice shaking. I opened the door and got in. The man shoved me over so that I was sitting in the middle seat. He closed the door and draped one arm over me, his gun in the other hand.

“Go!” he said, and the car accelerated away.

My heart was pounding out of my chest and my breathing was ragged.

“You should take me back,” I said, and the words sounded stupid before they were even out of my mouth.

The man laughed. “Yeah. Right.” He gestured to me with the gun. “Give me your cell phone.”

I took it out of the laptop case and handed it to him. He looked it over, I guess to make sure I hadn’t tried to call anyone, then put it in his pocket.

“You’ll get it back when we’re done,” he said.

Was he telling the truth or was he lying? Did I dare to hope that he wasn’t going to kill me after this?

“Where are you taking me?” I asked. There was no disguising the panic I felt. Was there any way Aiden would know what happened to me? What would he think when he went outside and didn’t see me there? Would he just think I went back to the office without him? Or would he worry, call someone maybe? I felt my heart drop. There was no way. Even if he called someone, they’d never find us.

“Just a little ride,” he said, his voice calm and even, almost disinterested. When he put the phone in his pocket, he took out a flash drive and handed it to me.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“I need you to override the files on that laptop there,” he said.

“The files,” I repeated dumbly.

The man smiled. “Yeah, the files. You know exactly which ones to override, don’t you?”

I didn’t answer.

He laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He pressed the gun to my side and suddenly became agitated. “Hurry up! I don’t have all day.”

“Okay,” I said, sucking in a breath. I got my laptop out as fast as I could and turned it on. Before it was even fully booted up I inserted the flash drive. Sure enough, the files were for every fraudulent transaction we’d uncovered.

“Get to it,” he said.

“I am,” I said, trying to disguise my annoyance. I knew there was no way out of this. I’d have to straighten it out later. But I wasn’t dying for this. I overrode the files.

“Good,” he said. “Now I’m assuming there’s a backup.”

“My b—yes,” I said. I almost told him my boss had it, but I didn’t want this man going after Aiden. I wouldn’t let anything happen to him.

“Override those files with the ones now on this laptop,” he said. He pulled the flash drive out of the computer and put it in his inner breast pocket. “And any other place where these files are.”

No wonder he wasn’t going to kill me. He needed me to do more of his dirty work. But I was so desperate to get out of this car that I would agree to anything. “Fine,” I said.

“Good. Now, you know what will happen to you if you don’t do this.”

I felt sick to my stomach. I had been feeling a little calmer since I realized he wasn’t actually going to hurt me, but now I felt scared again, knowing that I wouldn’t really get away from these people. “Yeah, I have a general idea,” I said.

“Just chill out. If Michael Patterson gets convicted, you’ll never hear from us again,” he said, pulling out a slip of paper. “Okay, when you’re done, call—”

He was interrupted by the sound of a police siren. We both looked back and saw the police car behind us.

“What the fuck?” the man said. He turned to me, gun still pointed at me. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything!” I said, scared out of my mind. “How could I have!?”

“Do you have another cell phone?”

“No! You want to check?” I said. I opened up my jacket, pulled out my pockets.

He felt around the pockets of my jacket and pants before satisfying himself that I didn’t have another cell phone. He turned to the driver. “Hey man, were you speeding?”

“On a New York City street?” the driver said sarcastically.

“God damn it,” the man said, running his free hand through his hair. “Okay, just be cool.” He looked at me. “That goes for you too.”

“Fine,” I said.

The driver pulled the car over and left the engine idling. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw two officers approaching.

“I don’t like this,” the man beside me said.

One officer went to the driver’s side window, one came to the window behind.

“Everyone step out of the car, please,” one officer said.

“Is anything wrong?” the driver asked.

“Please step out of the car, sir,” the officer repeated.

The other officer gestured to the man sitting beside me. They both got out, and I followed after. The officers frisked the two men for weapons, finding a gun on each.

“You’re both under arrest,” the officers said, and read them their rights. They led the two men to the police car and put them in the back seat.

I realized they didn’t even search me.

Another police car arrived and pulled up behind the first. The new officers got out and joined the first responders. I stood staring dumbly as they talked amongst each other. Then the first officers left with the two men in their backseat, leaving me with the two other officers.

“I’m Roche,” the older one said. “This is Cooper. Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” I blinked. “How did you know?”

“We got a call from someone that you were abducted. Said he was your boss. He gave us a license plate number and a description of the car.”

I chuckled. “I see.” I had no idea how Aiden knew, but it had to have been him.

“We’d like you to come down to the station,” Cooper said.

“Sure, of course,” I said, following them to their car.

Suddenly the adrenaline subsided and I shivered. I realized how much danger I’d just been in, and how much Aiden had done for me. Roche opened the door to the police car for me and I got in. When I sat down I hugged myself and tried not to fall apart.