by Lisa Harris
“Unless the FBI finds out that Stella has been asking questions. They come here to talk to her, they’re going to find us in the building.” Earl extended his hand. “Don’t leave without me.”
Sienna nodded. “I won’t.”
And now she had to keep her word.
They walked back to the table where they had left the laptops. Sienna logged in. “You sure this is secure.”
“Yep. No one will know where you log in from.”
Sienna checked her work emails. “Interesting.”
“What?”
“Mr. Gavard is not cancelling the conference. It will start on Tuesday instead of Monday so we can all have a day to mourn.” Sienna looked at Earl. “Monday. Only Mr. Ford’s favorite day of the week.”
“Really?” Earl chuckled.
“Really. He liked every day he made money.” Sienna sighed. “I still need to go to Tybee Island.”
“Is Mr. Gavard expecting you? You’re not his assistant.”
Sienna didn’t answer as she scrolled through the avalanche of emails that had flooded in. “Here’s one from Noreen. She’s Mr. Gavard’s personal assistant.”
She read the email and then summarized it for Earl. “She wants me to send her Mr. Ford’s speech. Mr. Gavard is going to handle both the opening and closing remarks in Mr. Ford’s place.”
“So she’s not asking you to fly there in person?” Earl asked.
“They asked, but I won’t go.” Sienna felt relieved that her job at GOOP was over. “I’m resigning.”
“You told them?”
“Not yet. As soon as I have time, I’ll sit down and write a resignation letter.”
Chapter Twelve
By the time Cayson cracked the whistle USB, it was past lunchtime. The whistle was a disappointment. Cayson promised to work on it some more, suspecting there were hidden files.
Reluctantly, Sienna left the USB with Cayson and his team.
When Deshon picked up Earl and Sienna from the Binary Systems headquarters in Alpharetta, Georgia, for their drive to Savannah and Tybee Island, it was three o’clock on a cloudy Saturday. Fortunately, it was still summer, and the sun wouldn’t set until later.
Sienna was forever grateful that Earl had agreed to accompany her to Tybee Island.
Deshon came bearing gifts of new clothes from a nearby store. Earl and Sienna had ordered and paid for them online, and sent Deshon to pick them up.
After a late lunch of leftover Chinese food and pizza from the night before, they left the Binary Systems office in Alpharetta and made their way south through downtown Atlanta in the pouring rain.
Deshon was quiet at times, but at other times he liked to tell stories as he drove the rental SUV. Sitting in the front passenger seat, Earl kept cutting off Deshon whenever the latter had a story to tell. Sienna was irritated by Earl’s interruptions, and she wasn’t sure what had come over him. To his credit, Deshon took it all in stride, throwing smiling glances in the rearview mirror at Sienna every now and then.
Perhaps the content of the whistle USB had bothered Earl. Ever since Cayson and Leland had decrypted the USB drive, Sienna had been wondering what was going on. The conversation was clipped.
“Let’s listen to the conversation one more time,” Sienna said. “I don’t recall Mr. Ford having a cold in the last couple of months. His voice still sounded odd to me.”
“Didn’t you say he was on vacation for a couple of weeks?” Earl asked. “Maybe he was sick on his vacation.”
“He would’ve told me.”
“Now we’ll never know.” Earl turned the volume up and tapped his phone. The conversation filled the vehicle.
Gavard: Two weeks, Finn. Just two weeks.
Ford: It matters not to me what you do. All I ask is you leave Dana out of it.
Gavard: She’s already in it whether she likes it or not.
Ford: I don’t think you heard me. Leave her out of it.
Gavard: I’ve paid her. It’s done.
Ford: Tell me how much and I’ll reimburse you.
Gavard: You can’t afford it.
Earl paused the recording. “We’re missing lots of pieces.”
Sienna agreed. “The missing segments could change its meaning altogether.”
“If Dana held back the rest of it, then she’s complicit in something.”
“I get the impression that she had been at the wrong place at the wrong time.” As she said that, Sienna wondered if she believed it anymore.
Outside her window, a soft rain began to fall. A MARTA train whizzed by going the other direction next to the highway. The city carried on all around them.
“Or she planted her phone in the suite to record whatever went on while she was away,” Earl said. “Randomly.”
“Either way, she’s in WITSEC and we won’t be able to ask her,” Sienna said. “Let’s hear the other segment.”
Earl nodded. “I have some theories about this one.”
Ford: I’ll go to your wife.
Gavard: Too late. She already knows.
Ford: She does?
Gavard: Yep. And she wants me to clean up this mess or she’s getting a divorce after Christmas.
Ford: It’s your fault you don’t have a prenup.
Gavard: I don’t care. I have Dana.
Ford: Only because I let you have her.
Gavard: You moved on to that mailroom clerk.
Ford: She has a name, okay? Genevieve.
Gavard: Whatever. Thanks, little brother.
“Let me take a stab at this.” Deshon tapped on the gas pedal as they left Buckhead and traffic picked up as Highway 400 merged into Interstate 85, which was also Interstate 75. “Those two brothers fell for the same woman, Dana, but the younger brother conceded to the older brother.”
“That was my guess too.” Earl fist-bumped Deshon.
“Let’s see whether Helen has a different take on the analysis,” Deshon said.
“Speaking of whom, Helen wants me to ask if you’ve thought of working full time for Hu Knows. Part-timers get part-time fun, you know?”
“Is she thinking of sending me to the Savannah office?” Deshon asked.
“To start with. Technically, there would only be three PIs in Savannah if you come onboard: you, Cade, and me. The rest are at large or in Europe.”
“Let me ask you something,” Deshon said.
“Sure.” Earl put away his phone.
“Why does Hu Knows have two offices in Europe? Why not consolidate Brussels and Athens?”
“Good question. Helen is in Athens because her mother is in jail there. When she gets out, Helen has to stay in Europe because her husband is an ex-con and he can’t yet get a visa to come here.”
“Europe sounds nice.”
“I used to envy Hugo when Helen sent him to run the Brussels office,” Earl said. “There I was, stuck in an old office in Savannah. Now I don’t want any of the European assignment. I mean, I want to go there on vacation, not to work.”
“Makes sense. So have you gone?” Deshon asked.
“I was supposed to this week,” Earl said quietly.
“Oh.” Sienna gasped from the backseat. “I ruined your plans. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s not your fault,” Earl replied. “I can always take another vacation. You can’t always have another life.”
“You get to spend time with me—a woman on death row.”
“You won’t be if we take care of your enemies.” Earl sounded determined.
“Only God can take care of my enemies.” Sienna reminded him.
“Yes.” Earl nodded. “And when this is over, we could make a trip to visit Europe, whoever wants to go.”
Sienna raised her hand. “I want to see the world if I make it out of Tybee Island alive.”
“I suspect that the Brussels and Athens offices might merge someday.” Earl speculated.
“Then where would Hugo go?” Deshon asked.
“I don’t know this for sure, but
I am guessing that Helen would let Hugo run the one office, and she would just float among the branches. She prefers to work at home, and she doesn’t really care for office work like administrative stuff.”
Sienna’s ears perked up as she listened to the guys talk. “I love admin stuff. Don’t tell me you don’t have an office manager for Hu Knows?”’
“You’d think that with such a growing company, we would.” Earl chuckled. “However, Helen is a control freak, and no office manager or administrative assistant has lasted over six months.”
“Sounds like a challenge,” Sienna said.
Earl turned his head slightly. “You want the job? You could apply and see what Helen says.”
“If GOOP goes down, I’ll be out of work soon,” Sienna said frankly. “I still have expenses, with Mom’s care.”
“I hear you,” Earl replied. “Say, have you considered applying to the Savannah Senior Living Resort on Tybee Island?”
“I heard of it, but it might be too expensive for me.”
“If you work at Hu Knows, you can probably afford it,” Earl said. “Besides, they also give discounts to veterans.”
“They do? My Uncle Tabbebo is a Navy veteran.”
“That’s cool,” Deshon chimed in. “Where did he serve?”
“He was injured in the Korean War. He rarely talks about his experiences, so we never ask. Now he’s taking care of Mom, his only sister.” Sienna tapped Earl on his shoulder. “What about you? Did you serve?”
“Army Special Forces.” It was all Earl said.
“Well, I was in the Girl Scouts,” Sienna said. “Troop leader.”
“That’s noble,” Deshon said.
“Right. Very noble,” Earl echoed. “Have you ever gotten into trouble, Sienna?”
“Well, when I was four years old, I burned down my dad’s barn,” Sienna said.
Everyone laughed.
“Where was that?” Earl asked.
“North Georgia. Outside Dahlonega.”
“So you’re from there?”
“No. My family is from Savannah,” Sienna explained. “When I was three years old, my parents divorced. Dad moved back to his family farm in North Georgia. Mom stayed in Savannah, where she met Mama Hu and her family. I was in preschool and then kindergarten, so Mom didn’t want me to move around the country. She waited until I was in middle school and then she took off. I stayed with Mama Hu until I graduated from high school.”
“Where did your mother go?” Earl asked.
“I found out later that she was in jail. She was serving time. She couldn’t even go to my high school graduation. I hated her for it until I found out what happened.” Sienna blinked. She did not want to talk about it any more. “How far are we from Macon?”
“An hour and half from Midtown,” Deshon said. “If it makes you feel any better, I was adopted.”
“Really?” Sienna asked. “Ever thought of finding your biological parents?”
“Nope.” Deshon drove into traffic heading toward downtown Atlanta. “How did you end up in Savannah, Earl?”
“Well, it was a career move. After my Army days, I needed a job,” Earl said. “Helen was looking for a former Special Forces with a particular skillset.”
“What kind of skillset?” Sienna asked.
“I do everything.”
“That’s all you’ll say?”
“That’s all I can say.” Earl’s voice sounded serious.
“Is that why the FBI allowed you to tag along with her?” Deshon asked. “I mean, don’t they usually use their own undercover agents?”
“Two words: budget cuts,” Earl said.
“Oh, and here I thought Helen pulled strings.” Deshon chuckled.
“Strings?” Sienna said. “To me, their strings are not connecting. There are knots. And some parts are cut.”
“And we don’t know who is pulling the strings,” Earl added.
“Right.” Sienna looked outside the window. They had just driven past Georgia Tech to their right, and were heading toward the center of the city. Traffic wasn’t as bad as weekdays, but they had a long way to drive yet. She leaned against her seat back and wondered if she could take a nap all the way to the Georgia coast.
“Based on everything we know about the case, who do you think is pulling the strings?” Earl asked. “Deshon, you start.”
“On the outset, it seems that Gavard is in charge, from the way he talked down to his brother,” Deshon said. “However, it’s entirely possible that Ford is the wizard.”
“Sienna?” Earl asked. “Thoughts?”
Sienna appreciated being included in the assessment even though she wasn’t a private investigator. However, she had access to data pertaining to the case. “I don’t know, to be honest. I do know that I don’t trust Agent Kimball.”
“Neither do I, even though Stella told me to trust Kimball,” Earl said. “I don’t know if I can, to be honest.”
“You asked her out to dinner,” Sienna countered. “So you must trust her to some degree, right?”
Deshon laughed. “He asks everyone out.”
“He sort of asked me out too,” Sienna said. “Although we already are pretending.”
“At least we’re not pretending to be married,” Earl said.
“Speaking of which, if you do get married, will you still go undercover like this?” Sienna asked.
Earl shrugged.
“What would your wife say?”
“I won’t know until I get there,” Earl said.
“Do you think you’ll ever get there?” Deshon asked.
“Sure,” Earl said. “Someday, I want to settle down and have kids. God will show me who my true love is.”
“Oh, a hopeless romantic former Special Forces hero.” Deshon glanced at his colleague. “Are you blushing?”
“I’m not.” Earl cleared his throat. “Hey Sienna, I wanted to ask you about sharing a suite at the conference instead of being in two separate rooms. I can’t protect you from a room down the hallway.”
“I don’t know.” Even though she trusted Helen—and therefore, she had to trust Earl—Sienna wasn’t sure about taking their fake relationship that far.
“Maybe they have adjacent suites with a door in the middle,” Deshon suggested.
“Good idea,” Earl said. “I’ll ask Cora. She knows we’re coming.”
“Thank you, Earl,” Sienna said.
“Don’t worry. Our job is to make sure you don’t get killed.”
Deshon chuckled. “You might get hurt, but we won’t let you get dead.”
“Yeah, our jobs are not easy,” Earl explained. “We get paid to do this, so I hope you don’t get the wrong idea, Sienna.”
His voice sounded genuine.
“Don’t worry about it.” Sienna drew a deep breath. “When this is over, they’ll put me in WITSEC and you’ll never see me again.”
“If we catch the criminals who are pulling the strings, you might be able to live free and not have to change your identity,” Earl said.
“Speaking of WITSEC, is it possible to find out where Dana is?” Sienna asked.
“No. The US Marshals know, but we won’t.”
“Something is not adding up.” Sienna closed her eyes. Tried to recall her visit to Dana the day before. “Why did the FBI take that moment to whisk her away to WITSEC?”
Suddenly she realized it. “It was me. I brought her would-be killers to her house.”
“I would imagine they already knew where she lived.”
“I don’t know, Earl. It was her hideout.”
“Her own safe house?” Earl chuckled. “With a would-be assassin at the kitchen window and a gunman who walked toward Sienna in the living room and asked for the whistle.”
“Good questions,” Sienna said. “Hopefully, we’ll get some answers once we get to Mr. Ford’s beach house.”
“Is there another way?” Deshon asked.
Sienna shook her head. “The safe is in the basement of
the beach house. He gave me—and apparently only me—the combination.”
“Why?” Earl asked. “Why you?”
“Because he trusted me,” Sienna said.
“Still, we’ll need some help if we get ambushed.” He turned to Deshon. “You sure you can’t come? Cade and I could use an extra hand.”
“I wish I could.” Deshon kept his eyes on the road.
“No, he can’t come,” Sienna said. “He has to feed Wyclef.”
“Important job,” Deshon said.
“You have no idea. You’re my hero because you’re taking care of my cat. If I could bring him with me…”
Earl cleared his throat. “No cats—or pets—allowed on this business trip.”
A car horn startled Sienna. Someone had improperly changed lanes. “Whew. That looked like a wreck almost happened.”
Above the highway, planes crisscrossed the sky of Atlanta outside the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. One hour to Macon, and three hours closer to the island of reckoning.
Deshon would be leaving them in Macon and driving back to Sienna’s house to feed her cat. In Macon, they’d hop in another car and drive to Savannah. They would get there before dinner and it would still be Saturday.
“When we get to Macon, I don’t mind driving,” Sienna offered. “I know the way to Savannah and Tybee Island.”
Neither Earl nor Deshon said anything.
“Are you afraid I’d drive somewhere else?” Sienna asked.
“I want you in the backseat so you don’t get picked up by the street cameras.” Earl swiped his phone. “Cade will be waiting for us in Macon. He’ll follow our rental car just in case.”
“Are you expecting trouble on the road?” Sienna asked.
“Yes, since we don’t know who your enemies really are.”
Sienna nodded. She prayed for God to show her who the enemies were. Like Deshon said earlier, the most obvious people were Gavard and Mr. Ford. With Mr. Ford dead…
Why would Gavard come after her? Dana hadn’t told Sienna enough to make the latter an enemy to the executives. Gavard was more a salesman, carrying GOOP to the multi-billion dollar company it now was. Ironically, he wasn’t the majority partner.
With Arun and Rocco dead, dare Sienna put Dana on the lineup? Dana had been her friend for over three years. Even though Dana had problems, Sienna could not imagine that Dana could be an enemy, even though Sienna was disappointed that the whistle USB yielded nothing of substance. She had been half-expecting a list of names or transactions.
