Weaving the Strands (19 page)

“Hi there,” she said. “How are you doing? Did you
make it through your surgeries okay?”

“Yes. Everything here’s fine. Just another day.
Except Judy Young and her Schnauzer just left here. She tells me that Mayor
Martin is hosting a ‘really grand, formal Christmas high tea at Rosemont.’ That
she’s doing the most amazing invitations, the decorations are stunning, and
it’ll be the social event of the season.”

Maggie laughed. “She’s something, isn’t she? I’m
having a few people over for tea two weeks from Sunday.”

“You didn’t mention it last night. Am I invited or
is this just a woman thing?”

“Of course you’re invited! I didn’t mention it
last night because I just thought of it this morning.”

John was silent for a moment. “You’re amazing. And
crazy. You know that, don’t you? But after the way you got the Easter carnival
going last year in only a few weeks, I have no doubt that this tea will be a
huge success. People’ll be talking about it for decades to come.”

“I don’t think it’s that big a deal,” she replied.

“
Au contraire
, my dear. You’ve done it
again. I’m here to help you. What can I do?”

“I don’t have any idea. I haven’t thought too much
about this,” she said. “I’d love your help. Why don’t I take you to dinner
tonight so we can put some plans together?”

“You’re on.”

“Come over after work and we’ll go from there. In
fact, how about I pick up takeout from Pete’s on my way home and we stay in and
make plans?”

“I’ll never say no to staying in with you. Not
sure how many plans we’ll get made, but I’ll do my best to fight you off.”

Maggie laughed. “After last night, you’re going to
have to! See you later.”

Chapter 41

Frank Haynes locked the door of
Haynes Enterprises and watched as Loretta Nash got into her car and pulled out
of the parking lot. He returned to his office and placed the call he’d been
thinking about all day. Professor Upton picked up on the fourth ring.

“Don. Frank Haynes here.”

“Frank, how’s it going down there? Any more
untimely deaths?”

“No. But that’s one of the reasons I’m calling.
I’ve been thinking. Maggie might be right about Wheeler. He may have been
connected to the mob. God knows, he wasn’t smart enough to think up that
sophisticated embezzlement scheme on his own.”

“So you want to call the feds in, too?”

“Not necessarily. Chief Thomas and Scanlon are
more than capable of handling it. What I’m worried about is Maggie. As you said
the other day, she’s in over her head.”

“I said that
she
feels she’s in over her
head.”

“Come on, Don; you think so, too. If Westbury were
the sleepy little town it’s supposed to be, she’d be more than capable of
handling the duties of mayor. But we’re up to our eyeballs in trouble. We need
someone with experience.”

Haynes paused to let Upton comment. When Upton
remained silent, he continued. “You agree with me, don’t you? And she’d admit
it, if she were honest with herself. She didn’t choose to run for the position after
all. And now she might be in real danger. We should encourage her to resign.”

“She’d never do that; she’s no quitter.”

“I’m not so sure. We owe it to her to try, don’t
we? You care for her, and so do I.”

“Who’d fill the gap, Frank? What’s the process?”

 “The council would select longterm
Councilman Russell Isaac to serve until the next regular election.”

“Wasn’t he defeated in the special election?”

“He was, but that was because of a backlash
against Wheeler. He’s clean and capable. He filled in when Wheeler resigned,
and he can handle the job again.”

Both men remained silent.

“She’s getting hate emails from constituents. You
said it yourself, Don; she’s doubting her capability. And now Chief Thomas and
Alex Scanlon are at odds with her. We’d be doing her a favor to encourage her
to resign. Plus, we both feel that Westbury would be better off under different
leadership. The town needs someone who can bring people together.”
And it
wouldn’t hurt to have someone in office who wasn’t determined to uncover every
detail—every participant—in the fraud scheme,
he thought.

“You could be right.” Upton sighed heavily. “And I
might be able to help. I’m looking for someone to be an expert witness in a
fraud case I’m working on in California. It’ll require a tremendous number of
hours for the next year and will involve frequent trips to Los Angeles. If she
wasn’t the mayor, Maggie would be perfect.”

“And she’d love going to California because she
could see her family. This could be the carrot we need to convince her to
resign.” Haynes sounded almost giddy.

“And the fee she could charge is very high; this
would be an extremely lucrative engagement. Cases like this don’t come along
very often—”

“All the more reason to phone her,” Haynes
interjected.

“I was thinking of offering the opportunity to
her, even before you called.”

“Good. Then it’s settled. Let me know if there’s
anything I can do to help convince her.”

Chapter 42

Business was brisk at Haynes
Enterprises during the weeks before Christmas. People weren’t just buying
gifts; they were going out to eat, too. Swamped with work for the first time
since she had started, Loretta was finally feeling useful. The uptick in
revenue had lightened her boss’s mood, as well. When he wasn’t barking orders
at her, Frank Haynes was pleasant enough, she supposed.

Loretta was absorbed with this week’s payroll when
she heard Haynes’ cell phone ring through his closed office door. Though
muffled, the urgency of his tone in response to whomever had called brought her
to full attention. She was leaning across her desk to eavesdrop when he tore
out of his office, shrugging into his coat with his phone to his ear. He
charged the door then turned back to her.

“I’m on my way,” he stated firmly into the phone
and hung up. “Store number eight’s been robbed.”

Loretta gasped. He held up his hand to stop any
conversation.

“Nobody was hurt. The store was packed, and it’s
chaos over there. I’m going to talk to the police and shut the place down for
the rest of the day. God, this hurts revenue,” he spat. “Everybody gets nervous
about going in the place. And all because some tweaker wanted a little cash.
The idiot just got what was in the drawers; he didn’t go after the safe. What a
pain in the ass.”

“I’m glad everyone is okay,” she stated lamely.
She reached for her purse and started to come around the side of her desk. She
assumed he would send her home; he’d never left her there alone before.

“No. You stay here,” he ordered. “I need you to
answer the phone; the media will be calling. You’re to tell them that Haynes
Enterprises is grateful that everyone is safe and appreciates the careful
actions of its employees in handling the situation. And the quick response of
the police.”

Loretta typed furiously while he spoke and nodded
her understanding.

“Can you stay late tonight?” he asked. “I don’t
know how all this is going to play out.”

“I think my kids can stay at their afterschool
sitter’s house.” She picked up the phone. This might be her one and only
opportunity to be at Haynes Enterprises without the watchful eye of Frank
Haynes. “I’ll call her now. I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Haynes was halfway to his car before she finished
her response.

***

As he had predicted, the media
began calling before he had even left the parking lot. Loretta handled them all
on the fly. She smiled in satisfaction when she hung up on one especially
persistent reporter. She hadn’t gotten flustered and didn’t allow herself to be
drawn off the message Haynes had given her. She was quite good at this.

She leaned back in her chair. It was almost six
o’clock. The phone had been quiet for the last ten minutes. Her kids were
cleared to stay at the babysitter as long as necessary; it was the holidays,
and the woman needed the money. Loretta wondered, did she dare snoop around a
bit?

She rose from her desk and crossed the room to
look out the window at the parking lot. She needed to be sure that Haynes
wouldn’t walk in on her going through his office. He’d fire her for sure, or
worse. She shivered involuntarily. Maybe it was the company he kept; that
Delgado creep was a thug straight out of central casting. She had no reason to
think that Haynes was anything other than an honest, successful
businessman—a bit formal and unfeeling maybe, but not a criminal. Still,
her gut told her to proceed very carefully.

Loretta threw the deadbolt on the entrance to
Haynes Enterprises. It was after hours and Haynes wouldn’t question this
precaution. She closed all of the blinds and turned off her radio. She needed
to be able to hear his car pull up. That should give her enough time to get
back to her desk.

She entered his office. Papers were scattered
across his desktop and his computer was still on. She had never been farther
into this room than a few feet in front of his desk. She noted the orientation
of his chair before she sat down; she’d have to make sure everything was exactly
as he’d left it.

Loretta gingerly sifted through the paperwork on
his desk, all of it related to franchise agreements. She turned to his computer
screen and found the same reports. She’d toyed with the idea of snooping around
in his computer, but didn’t dare. She wasn’t sure she could restore it to its
current setting.

She leaned back in his chair and scanned the
office. She carefully slid open his top desk drawer and was greeted with a neat
array of pens and pencils. She was sliding it back into place when her knee
brushed something sticky on the bottom of the drawer. Loretta slid the chair
back and got down on her knees to look. On the underside of the drawer, she
found a small metal key affixed to the underside of the drawer with an old
strip of tape, curling at the edges. Loretta’s heart leapt into her throat.
This was it. She knew it.

Loretta checked her watch—almost seven
o’clock. Haynes could be back at any time. She surveyed the papers on his
desktop; they were as he had left them. She quickly went to the reception area
window to make sure he wasn’t driving into the parking lot. She had to find
what that key opened.

Loretta slipped off her shoes and left them by her
desk; she didn’t want to be hampered by her heels if she needed to move
quickly. She returned to his office and slowly circled the room, looking for anything
that locked.

The filing cabinets opposite his desk were
unlocked. She had been in all of them at one time or another. Another quick
look confirmed that they contained only the employee files and leasing records
she was familiar with.

She turned to his desk and credenza. They held
nothing more than carefully labeled files on each of his stores and records
detailing every penny he had donated to the community. All neat, clean, and
orderly. There was no reason to keep any of this a secret, she thought. Unless
he wanted to conceal his wealth, but that was belied by his constant grandstanding.

It didn’t add up.

Frustrated at having come to a dead end, Loretta
stood and meticulously returned his chair to its original position. She
double-checked to make sure that every drawer was completely closed.

On her way out of the office, she noticed that the
small painting hanging to the left of the door was askew. She absentmindedly
straightened it, then stopped dead in her tracks. A bead of cold sweat ran down
her back. Had it been crooked when he left, or had she jarred it by opening and
closing the filing cabinets underneath it? Would he notice it?

She opened and closed several of the drawers and
the picture didn’t move. It must have been crooked when he left, she reasoned.
She’d need to set it that way again. As she adjusted the frame, the back caught
on something. She pulled the bottom of the frame forward and pressed her face
against the wall to see what lay behind the picture. And there it was. The door
to a small wall safe, no more than eight-by-ten inches, with an opening for a
key.

Loretta gingerly lifted the picture from its hook.
I’ve hit pay dirt,
she thought. She had just succeeded in removing it
from the wall when she heard the telltale sound of a car coming down the driveway,
fast.

Loretta panicked as she realized that Haynes had
pulled up. He’d be at the bolted door in moments. He must not find her in his
office.

She replaced the picture on its hook, set it on an
angle, and hoped it looked like it had when he’d left his office earlier in the
afternoon. She hurried to his desk and replaced the key under the middle
drawer, managing to get to the front door just as he was inserting his key into
the lock.

Chapter 43

After rushing out of Haynes
Enterprises the afternoon of the robbery, Loretta was surprised that Haynes
didn’t even enter his office when he returned later that evening. He looked
exhausted, and his complexion had a gray cast to it.

“Are you feeling all right?” Loretta asked.

“I’m fine. Get your things,” Haynes replied
impatiently. He clearly wanted to lock up and leave.

She quickly complied. When she tried to ask how
things were at the restaurant—to get the details of the robbery—he
cut her off saying they’d go over all of it in the morning. She was almost to
her car when he called out to her.

“Thank you for staying late tonight, Loretta. I
appreciate it.”

“No problem,” she answered.

“I’ll pay you overtime,” he grumbled.

He reached into his wallet and pulled out a small
stack of twenty-dollar bills. He motioned to her as she was unlocking her car,
approached, and thrust the money into her hands.

“Here. This is for the babysitter. Thanks again.”

Then he turned on his heel without waiting for her
response.

***

Loretta arrived at Haynes
Enterprises before seven the next morning. She was anxious to observe him in
his office. She had wanted to arrive by six fifteen, since she knew Haynes was
usually there by six thirty, but her kids had been sluggish after their late
night the day before. She finally deposited them at the babysitter’s at six
twenty and headed straight for the office.

Relief that Haynes had not yet arrived turned to
impatience as she waited for him in her cold car. He finally pulled up at seven
fifteen. She met him at the door.

“Good morning, Mr. Haynes,” she said in her most
cheerful top-of-the-morning-to-you voice.

Since he didn’t remark on her being there so
early, she decided to blow her own horn.

“After what happened yesterday, I figured you
might need me. I got here half an hour ago.”

When he turned to her then, she saw that even that
small movement took effort. He looked even worse than he had the night before.

“You’re not feeling well, are you, Mr. Haynes?”

“I’m fine,” he replied through gritted teeth. “And
thank you for coming in early,” he added as an afterthought.

He unlocked the door and held it open for Loretta
to precede him. Without further conversation, he headed directly to his office.

Loretta settled herself behind her desk and
resumed her work on the payroll. She was relieved to see that he had left his
door ajar, so she could surreptitiously keep an eye on him. He spent the
morning reviewing his product orders for the next month.

She knocked lightly on his door at eleven fifteen,
letting him know she was going to the bank to make the daily deposit. He didn’t
turn around from his computer, contenting himself with a tiny wave to
acknowledge that he had heard her.

Miffed at his dismissive attitude, she set off.
Who did he think he was that he could ignore her like that? If he took such
little notice of her, would he even know if she took some extra time and did a
bit of Christmas shopping? She’d combine the bank run with an early lunch hour.

After she had completed her business at the bank,
she headed to the superstore at the edge of town. It was busy on this weekday
in early December, and her shopping took longer than expected. She kept
glancing at her watch, telling herself she needed to get back. Then the memory
of Frank Haynes’ seeming indifference to her flooded back, and she continued to
shop.

It was shortly after one thirty when she pulled
into the lot at Haynes Enterprises. Had she lost her mind? She hadn’t intended
to be gone that long. If he took her to task, she would tell him that her son
had gotten sick at school and she had needed to pick him up and take him to the
babysitter. He’d never check her story.

She quietly opened the door to Haynes Enterprises
and slipped behind her desk. No point in drawing attention to herself. She cautiously
glanced toward his open door; he was not at his desk. He must be rummaging in
his filing cabinets. She turned back to her computer and became absorbed in the
accounts payable report. When she glanced at his office thirty minutes later,
she was surprised to see that he still wasn’t at his desk. She paused to listen
but couldn’t hear any sounds coming from his office.

Alarmed, she rose and approached his door. She
raised her hand to knock when she saw, from this vantage point, what she hadn’t
seen from her desk. Frank Haynes was on his knees under his desk, slumped over,
clutching his stomach and chest. His breathing was shallow and sweat trickled
down the sides of his face.

“Oh, my God.” She raced over to him and snatched
the phone from his desk, dialing the emergency number. “You’re going to be
fine,” she told him. “I’m calling 9-1-1.”

“No,” he gasped. “I’ll be okay. Just help me up.
Indigestion’s all it is.”

She eyed him closely as the emergency dispatcher
answered. “9-1-1. What is your emergency?”

Loretta hesitated as Haynes attempted to pull
himself back into his chair. Watching him double over in pain convinced her.
“We need an ambulance at Haynes Enterprises.” She gave the address. “Frank
Haynes may be having a heart attack.”

He tried to protest, but Loretta remained firm.
“Mr. Haynes, something is terribly wrong. You need to go to the hospital.”

He finally nodded his assent.

“The paramedics will be here soon,” she reassured.
“You’ll be in good hands shortly.”

Haynes fumbled in his pants pocket and extracted
his keys, which he dropped on the floor. Loretta bent and retrieved them.

“These are your office keys, right?’

Haynes nodded imperceptibly.

“I’ll make sure that everything’s locked up
tonight, and I’ll open up tomorrow. I’ll keep the office running while you’re
out,” she said, feeling a twinge of excitement at the prospect of being in
charge.

“Is there anyone I should call?” she asked, as the
sound of a siren could be heard approaching.

With great effort, Haynes croaked out, “Delgado.”

Loretta pretended not to hear; that was the last
person she wanted to contact. “I’m going out front to meet the ambulance,” she said
as she skirted his desk. “Hang on. Help is here.”

***

The events of the last two days had
taken a toll on Loretta. She was exhausted. The ambulance crew told her that
Haynes’ vital signs were all strong; they didn’t think he was having a heart attack.
The son of a bitch had managed to grab his cell phone, and she heard him make
the call to Delgado, asking him to keep an eye on his office. She knew what
that meant for a creep like Delgado; he would use this as an excuse to drop by
and harass her. She desperately wanted to take this opportunity to unlock that
wall safe and examine its contents, but she didn’t dare if Delgado might come
charging in at any moment.

She didn’t have long to wait. Delgado swaggered
through the door of Haynes Enterprises shortly after four. He greeted her
warmly, as if they were old friends bearing a common burden.

“My dear,” he said, grasping her hand in both of
his, rubbing her wrist in a way that made her flesh crawl. “I know this has
been very frightening for you.”

Loretta extricated her hand and stared at him,
without speaking.

“I’ve just come from the hospital,” he stated.
“Frank asked me to make sure you’re all right.”

She knew this was a lie; Haynes wanted to make
sure his business was all right. She continued to stare at him.

“Mr. Haynes is going to be just fine. I want to
assure you of that.”

Loretta nodded.

“He hasn’t had a heart attack, as you feared. They
think he has a kidney stone.”

She nodded again. “I wondered about that after
they took him away. I guess the pain can mimic a heart attack.”

“Exactly,” he replied.

“So what are they doing for him? Are they keeping
him in the hospital?”

“Yes. They’re going to do some new procedure to
break up the stone. They’ve got him on morphine, so he’s not feeling any pain.”

“That’s good. He was miserable.”

“He was lucky to have you by his side,” Delgado
said, his breathing quickening as he moved closer.

Repulsed, she involuntarily took a step back.
“When will he get out of the hospital? When will he be back to work?”

“They don’t know yet,” he replied. “Couple of
days; week at the most. But don’t you worry about anything. Frankie’s asked me
to stop by every day. I’ll be here whenever you need me; as much as you need me—for
anything you need,” he concluded suggestively.

Loretta ignored his innuendo. “That’s very kind of
you, but I can manage the office for a few days on my own. We just finished
payroll and the accounts payable. It’ll be slow the rest of the week. I’ll be fine.
But thank you for your kind offer,” she added hastily.

“Just the same, Frankie asked me to keep an eye on
things around here, and there’s nothing in Westbury I’d rather keep my eye on
than you,” he stated pointedly.

Loretta was accustomed to brushing off randy old
married men; she’d have to keep him at bay while making him think she was flattered
by his advances. She swallowed her disgust. “Why, thank you. That’s a great
comfort. What’s your number?” she asked coyly. “I’ll call you if I have any
questions.”

Delgado gave her his phone number, which she made
a big show of posting by her computer monitor. “So I know where it is at all
times,” she said. Delgado beamed.

“I’ve got to leave a bit early today to make the
bank deposit,” she lied in the hopes of disentangling herself. “With all the
excitement around here, that didn’t get done.”

“You go do that and I’ll lock up. Frank said you
have his keys.”

No way was Loretta giving up those keys. On the
other hand, she didn’t need to antagonize him. She regarded him thoughtfully,
taking in his florid complexion and protruding belly. This guy got drunk every
night—she was sure of it.

“Mr. Haynes likes to open the office early. In the
restaurant business, everything happens before seven o’clock,” she improvised.
“I think we should open by six tomorrow morning. So I’ll meet you here?”

She was secretly pleased to see that her words had
the desired effect.

“Uh …” he stammered. “I have a breakfast meeting
in the morning. With constituents. I can’t be here until about ten. Why don’t
we lock up now and you keep the keys. You can open up, and I’ll come over as
soon as I can. I’ll be here by lunchtime, for sure. Will that be okay?”

Loretta smiled brightly. “Yes, of course. That’ll
be fine. I know that a busy man like you must have a schedule full of important
meetings.”

Her flattery was working.

“Frankie won’t mind. And I’ll be here in a
heartbeat if you need me. Like I said, you just call.”

They headed to the parking lot, Loretta barely
listening to Delgado’s boastful chatter. She knew what she had to do. She had
to get back here as early the next morning as possible to get into the wall
safe. With her luck, Haynes would recover in record time and Delgado would
ensconce himself at Haynes Enterprises as soon as his hangover wore off. Tomorrow
morning might be her only chance to uncover the secrets of Frank Haynes.

***

Loretta arrived at Haynes
Enterprises shortly after six the next morning. She carefully removed the key
from its hiding place under the desk. As she suspected, it unlocked the wall
safe. In that safe she found a solitary item: a jump drive bearing no legend or
markings.

Loretta held her breath as she inserted it into
the external drive of her computer and waited to see if she could open the
contents. All the data was accessible to her—real estate documents, bank
account numbers, and spreadsheets. She scrolled through everything as fast as
she could. From the legal descriptions on the documents, she knew the
properties were in Westbury. The bank accounts were in foreign institutions,
mostly located in the Caribbean. She didn’t have time to figure out what the
spreadsheets meant, but she knew they were related to the other data. Given
that all of this had been kept hidden, she suspected she held evidence of
something criminal. What was it she had heard about there being fraud or
embezzlement from the town? Were these files related to that? She shuddered.
She didn’t know what she expected to find, but it hadn’t been something of this
magnitude.

She froze. What should her next step be? Should
she simply replace the evidence carefully in the safe and forget she’d ever
found it? But what if they (whoever
they
were—she had no idea)
could detect that the files on the jump drive had been opened? She would be
their first suspect. For her own protection, she needed to copy the data.

Loretta checked her watch. It was almost eight.
She’d have to run down to the drugstore on the corner and buy a second jump
drive on which to store the copied data. She had no other choice. She hesitated,
and then decided to take the evidence with her. She closed the safe and
replaced the painting and the key, just in case she found Delgado on her
doorstep when she got back. Chances were good that he was involved in whatever
this was.

She’d get the new drive, take it to her house, and
download and copy it there. She didn’t know how long that would take, and she
couldn’t risk being discovered in the middle of the task. If he were waiting
for her when she got back, she’d say that she’d had car trouble and apologize
for being late to work.

She logged off her computer and turned out the
lights. Satisfied that the office looked like it had when they’d left last
night, she cautiously checked the parking lot and made her way quickly to her
car. By ten forty-five, Loretta had copies of everything she needed. She
breathed a long sigh of relief once she’d returned the jump drive to its hiding
place behind the painting in Frank Haynes’ office and retaped the safe’s key
back under Haynes’ desk.