Wounded Animals (Whistleblower Series Book 1) (12 page)

I stared at him, and his bemused look fell to neutral. I didn’t know if Alison was picking up on all this, but she didn’t say anything.

“Is there some reason I’m here, Alison?”

She seemed to have been lost in thought, and caught herself. “Yes, of course. The whole IT department is off-site for training, so I was hoping you could get Glenning and Thomason set up at some workstations. They’ll need display port adapters, keyboards, mouses, and whatever else. I thought you could put them in the empty cubes near yours.”

“We’d appreciate it,” Thomason said, then he pointed at his chest. “Not a tech guy here. I’m a little ashamed to admit it, but I always have to have my son set up my computers and phones for me.”

I stood up, still with my eyes on Thomason. “Sure, whatever you want. Follow me.”

Alison stood first, throwing the meanest glare in her arsenal at me. I wasn’t kissing the asses of the big-wigs the way I was supposed to. Well, she could forget about that. I would ram pencils in their necks before I’d cower before these thugs dressed up in Italian suits and shiny loafers.

We all walked out of the conference room together, then Alison left us, glowering at me one last time for good measure. I walked them through the cubicles until we had reached my area, where I knew no one would be.

I spun on my heels, teeth clenched, ready to take a swing. “What the hell is going on here?”

“We just need you to set up workstations for us,” Glenning said. “I thought we already explained that in the conference room.”

“That little dance in there was cute, but you can cut the shit right now. You want me to break your other wrist?”

Thomason leaned against a cube wall and started picking dirt from his fingernails. “Your attitude seriously needs some work.”

“And you thought taking me to the top of Eldo Canyon for some hiking against my will would fix that?”

“No,” Thomason said. “We needed to chat, and I wanted to go for a hike. You’re so conspiratorial.”

“No more games. Where is my wife?”

“We keep telling you, Candle, your wife is not our concern.”

The ire grew inside me. My hands reached out and grabbed the first thing I could find, which happened to be a stapler. Wouldn’t do enough damage, but I didn’t have access to firearms in the office. I felt silly holding it, but it was too late to back out on that now. “I don’t even know what you people want from me. Tell me why you’re here.”

Thomason glanced at the stapler, then stepped closer to me. “Okay, it sounds like we need to clear the air. You want to know why we’re here? We have a meeting with the Director of Support, and the company thought it was significant enough to fly us out here. But, also, we’re wondering why you came in the office today.”

I stammered, unable to come up with a good reason.

“First Paul shows up dead, then Keisha mysteriously vanishes, so we’re wondering if maybe you came in to access the company directory? Perhaps you were thinking of getting in contact with the rest of your training class and having a chat with them about their travel plans? You know, as in, trying to warn Martin or Darren?”

“Something tells me Darren isn’t in too much danger,” I said.

Thomason smiled and shared a look with Glenning. “Tucker Candle, always the smart one. Okay, we’ll break this whole thing down to its most simple elements. Stop looking for your wife. Stop trying to contact police or anyone else. Stop attempting to communicate with the rest of the trainees from boot camp.”

Glenning stepped in front of me. “I understand that when you gave your statement about Paul’s murder, you claimed to have not known him. That seems like an awfully foolish thing to say to the cops.”

I’d said it to Shelton, who certainly wasn’t a real cop, but Glenning was right. If there were an official record of that conversation in some police database, that would not reflect well at all on me.

Glenning dug in his pocket and passed me a business card. Shelton’s. Another for my collection.

“You want answers? Talk to Shelton, and stop making trouble for everyone. Keisha was your fault. We didn’t want to do that.”

“I met Keisha during her boot camp,” Thomason said. “Such a bright young lady.”

“Her death wasn’t on me,” I said, but wasn’t sure if I believed it.

“Just call Shelton. Stop resisting and listen to what the man has to say.”

I glanced at the card. “And what if I say no?”

“Then,” Thomason said, “things are going to get a lot worse for you.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I didn’t find Martin in the company directory. Still couldn’t remember his last name, and I searched through my emails but couldn’t find any trace of his existence. If there was a way to get in touch with him, I had no idea what it was.

I gave up in the afternoon and left the office. As I slid into the driver’s seat of my car, my body felt heavy. That was probably the weight of despair replacing the buoyancy of hope, or that’s how my college philosophy professor might have phrased it. I was defeated. Opportunities kept springing up, but Shelton and his flunkies countered every move I made.

“If you’ve got any brilliant ideas, brain, now’s the time to let me know,” I said to my reflection in the rearview.

My brain had nothing to say for itself.

I left the parking lot and headed toward the highway, on the long commute up from the Denver Tech Center to my house. Light traffic slowed me enough that I had plenty of time to think. Still, nothing great came to mind. Only that my stubbornness was becoming problematic for me.

Then I saw the exit sign for Englewood. That was where Grace’s boss Rodrick lived. Something came over me and I exited the highway and started driving toward his house. The feeling was like a churning compulsion telling me to get to Rodrick’s house and see him. Maybe he would know what to do.

I navigated through his neighborhood until I pulled up in front of his house. Didn’t see his car out front. My heart sank. It was still mid-afternoon, he was probably at work and wouldn’t be home for hours.

I walked to the front door and stopped just short of ringing the bell, then stood there like an idiot for a couple minutes, greeted only by silence. This was possibly the dumbest idea I’d had yet. What would I do if his wife came out here?

But when I turned to leave, I saw his car turn the corner. He gave me an odd look. Not surprising, since the last time I’d seen him, I’d embarrassed both myself and him in front of his whole office.

What a stupid idea it had been to come here. No idea what I was thinking. I had to get out of here before I said or did anything else I’d regret.

He pulled into the driveway, blocking me in. Quickly, he jumped out of his car, with a massive grin. He didn’t seem upset. “This is a surprise.”

“Rodrick, I’m so sorry, I made a terrible mistake.”

Genuine worry crossed his face. “Something wrong? If you don’t mind my saying, you look like hell.”

The tears threatened to pour. “I know, I know. I shouldn’t have come here. Do you think you could back out so I can leave?”

I pressed the unlock button on my remote, but he eliminated the distance between us and stood with his hands on his hips. “Candle, you got to tell me what’s going on with you. Yesterday morning, you show up at my office all bent out of shape, and now you’re at my house, looking like you’re on the verge of crying. Is this about Grace?”

I nodded.

“Something’s going on with you two. I knew it. If you need to talk, just let it out. You can tell me anything.”

Rodrick wasn’t a stranger, but we weren’t friends, either. Polite conversation at backyard social gatherings and the occasional beer at Grace’s work events, but that was the extent of our relationship.

I didn’t know where to begin. And it dawned on me that I had probably put Rodrick’s life in danger by coming here. The people watching me knew I had called the cops, knew I’d gone to the bar to look for Kareem, they must have known I was here now.

“I don’t know if I should tell you.”

“If Grace is gone, it’s not too late to get her back. I’m guessing that’s what this is all about, isn’t it?”

I leaned against the hood of my car as the pressure in the back of my neck turned into a throbbing pinch. “Sort of. It’s a lot more complicated than that.”

“You want to come inside and have a beer? You can meet my son.”

He seemed so friendly, which baffled me after what a jerk I’d been to him yesterday at his office. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

He chewed on his lower lip. “You’re scaring me, buddy.”

“I’m sorry to have troubled you. I really should go home and be alone for a while.”

“Do you want me to come check on you later? Maybe tomorrow?”

The thought of him showing up at my house unannounced nearly sent me into a panic. “No, please don’t do that. I’ll be okay. I just need to get a good night’s sleep.”

He didn’t look convinced, but he took a step away from me anyway. “Alright, buddy. If that’s what you want. Maybe you’ll feel better after you get some rest.”

I lingered, hoping that he would demand the truth out of me, but I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t put his life in danger, if coming here hadn’t already.

He backed his car out into the street. Without a goodbye, I got in my car and drove home, slamming my fist against the steering wheel until it went numb. I was defeated, and I knew it. The situation was not going to get better. Might as well give up.

***

I sat on the living room couch, my phone in one hand and Shelton’s business card in the other. I was out of options and didn’t want any more blood spilled because of me. Going to Roderick’s house had been a terrible idea. It was a last-resort, desperation effort that hadn’t gained me anything.

All I wanted was for my wife to come home, and if calling Shelton and doing whatever he told me to do meant that could happen, I didn’t figure that I had any other choice.

I took out my phone, and as I was looking at my reflection in the darkened screen, all of the coincidences converged at a single point. The timing of all the events of the last few days suddenly made sense.

The darkness in Wyatt’s eyes when I refused the job offer yet again in his office. Shelton telling me that he was originally from Austin. Hearing Thomason’s southern accent at the top of Eldorado Canyon.

I knew who was responsible for all this.

I typed a different number in my phone and waited as it rang.

“How may I direct your call?”

“Wyatt Green, please.”

“One moment.”

A few seconds later, I heard the connection. “Candle, my boy, how the hell are you?”

The words caught in my throat, then I forced everything out in a grunt. “I’m ready, Wyatt.”

He chuckled. “You don’t sound so good. Ready for what?”

“I give up. Whatever it takes to end this, I’ll do it. You want me to move to Dallas and accept this job offer? Fine. I’ll do it. I can’t take this anymore. I know it was you who did this, and I can’t fight it because you and your people have beaten every inch of hope out of me. I just want my wife back.”

“Oh well, you see, now we got ourselves a problem.”

I knew it. I knew that all of this was just to toy with me, to drive me to the edge of insanity. “What do you mean?”

“It’s the corporate trainer job, Candle. I’m afraid we’ve already filled that role. You were our first choice, obviously, but you weren’t our
only
choice. We had to work on a contingency plan since you were playing so hard to get this whole time. We’ve offered that position to a trainer out of the Philly office. He’s moving here early next year.”

The cut on my back pulsed and tension in my shoulders pulled my head against my neck. Little dots of white blinked in front of my eyes as the room started to spin. “Wyatt, please. I have to get her back.”

“Now, now, don’t go all soft on me. Maybe your future with IntelliCraft ain’t gonna be what we all planned on, but you can still do something useful for us.”

He had me on the verge of tears. I felt utterly powerless and ready to agree to anything. Everything in my life hung on his words, and I resented and feared him because of it. “What have you got planned for my future? Whatever it is, I’ll do it. I can’t keep on like this.”

“We’d hoped that you’d organically lead us to him, but that didn’t work out. He’s as slippery a bastard as I ever saw, that’s for sure.”

“Lead you to who?”

“If you’d just taken the job when we first offered it to you, this would have been so much easier. But now, we got all these other plans in motion, all these moving parts… it’s an unbelievable amount of work just to keep it all above water. And expensive as hell, too.”

I felt a drop of sweat bead above my eyebrow. “Who am I supposed to lead you to?”

“Kareem Haddadi, you dumbass. Or Muhammed Qureshi, if you like, although he usually goes by Kareem in this country.”

Why did everything always keep coming back to Kareem? I couldn’t fathom how he fit into this equation.

Wyatt cleared his throat. “I always liked you, Candle, but I got to tell you I couldn’t give two shits about your wife. She’s nothing to me. Same goes for Paul and Keisha and anybody else working in design or sales or tech support. I got people chomping at the bit to come work for me, so one’s as good as any other. Am I making sense to you?”

Kitty jumped onto the couch, sat back on her haunches, and stared at me. “Yes, I think I understand the size of the situation.”

“I don’t even really care about you other than what you can do for me. I mean, it’s clear you got some smarts, but you’re not any more special than any of my execs, or your bitchy boss, or anyone out there slaving away in the cubicles. We’re all just pieces of a machine.”

My teeth ground together, sending a jolt of pain into my jaw. Maybe he was right, and he had enough power over me that I couldn’t argue with his opinion, but I still wanted to put him in a choke hold and snap his neck. “What do you want me to do, Wyatt? What is this service my un-special self can do for you?”