by J. S. Cooper
“Yeah, that makes sense.” I felt slightly disappointed at his report. That was nothing new. “Hold on, Blake. Hey, Jakob, how did you and your brother know Steve?”
“He was an intern for my dad when he was a teenager.” Jakob continued playing with my breasts as he spoke. “He’s been with the company for a while. My dad trusted him a lot and he’s been on the payroll for many years.”
“You’re with Jakob, aka Mattias?” Blake’s voice was low. “Are you joking?”
“I’m with Jakob, yes, but he’s not Mattias, Blake. In fact, there is no Mattias.” I sighed, not wanting to have to tell the whole story. “They made Mattias up.”
“They made Mattias up?” Blake was in awe. “Like Parcher in A Beautiful Mind?”
“Yeah, though they told me Tyler Durden in Fight Club.”
“Holy shit! Let me get this straight—Mattias Bradley is a figment of the imagination? Was Jeremiah Bradley crazy? Did he have split personality? Manic disorder? Did he suffer from paranoid schizophrenia?”
“Blake, he just made up a fake kid to help protect his real kid from gold diggers,” I said, aware that Jakob was listening intently to every word of the conversation.
“Oh, okay, not as exciting then.”
“So anything else on Steve, aside from the fact that he was tight with the Bradleys?”
“Bianca, he wasn’t just tight with the Bradleys. He was tight with your father as well.”
“What?” I fell back against the couch, shaking my head. “That doesn’t make sense. How do you know that?”
“How does he know what?” Jakob’s eyes searched mine. “What did he say?”
“Blake says that Steve was friends with my father as well.”
“Are you sure you want to tell Jakob everything I tell you?” Blake asked warily. “Are you sure we trust this guy?”
“I trust him.” I gave Jakob a quick smile.
“If you’re sure . . .” Blake sounded uncertain.
“I am. Anything else?”
“Yeah.” Blake’s voice got excited again. “So Steve lives in a shitty apartment in Washington Heights, right?”
“I guess, if that’s what you’ve found.”
“But guess what? About two years ago, he started renting a house in Jersey City. A house that costs way more than his apartment in Washington Heights.”
“So?” I took a deep breath. “How is that relevant?”
“At his apartment in Washington Heights, he has full cable—I’m talking HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, sports channels, everything.”
“Okay.”
“And at the house in Jersey, he has no cable, not even basic.”
“So?”
“So this seems like a guy who likes TV. Why would he have every channel known to man in one place and nothing in the other?”
“Oh yeah, I guess that doesn’t make sense.”
“It only makes sense if he’s not spending much time in the new place—if he’s not home to watch TV, why pay for cable, right?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Which then makes us ask the question . . .”
“Who does live there?” Jakob was frowning at me and I knew he wanted an update. “So Blake found out that Steve is renting two apartments. One in Washington Heights and one in Jersey.”
“Jersey?” Jakob frowned. “No, he definitely lives in Washington Heights. I know this because my father kept trying to get him to move downtown, but he always refused. He said Washington Heights is his home and he would never leave.”
“Did you hear that, Blake?”
“Not well—why don’t you put me on speaker.”
“Good idea.” I took the phone away from my ear and pressed the speaker button.
“Still here, sweet pea,” Blake answered with a laugh. I saw Jakob frowning as he looked at the phone and then at me.
“Blake, be serious.”
“I am.” His voice changed. “You know I’m here for you and I will do something really bad to anyone that tries to harm you. I’m like a ninja in the night. You won’t hear me coming, but I’ll be there.”
“Is he threatening me?” Jakob looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
“I guess so.” I gave him a small smile. “Blake, enough joking around now.”
“I mean it.”
“Blake, this is Bianca’s boyfriend, Jakob. I know you know about our past, but I am committed to Bianca and finding the truth. I have never hurt her and never will. You have my word on that.”
“That’s good to hear.” Blake sounded less sure of himself and I reached over and gave Jakob a kiss on the cheek.
“You’re both very sweet guys, but enough.” I laughed lightly. “What else did you find out, Blake?”
“Steve has over a million dollars in cash split among three savings accounts. He has no living family that I can see. Can you corroborate that, Jakob?”
“I don’t know about the cash.” Jakob frowned. “But I can corroborate that he has no family. Both of his parents died when he was a kid. That’s kind of why he gravitated to my father so much. My dad trusted him like a son. That’s why David and I trusted him, that’s why I had him come to the island. I thought his allegiance was to me and my family.”
“Maybe it is,” Blake cut in. “But maybe his allegiance is to David and not to you.”
“I don’t think that’s it,” I said. “David seemed legitimately perplexed to find out that Steve had gone rogue and disappeared. I don’t think he was behind it.”
“Neither do I,” Jakob added. “At first when we were on the island, I did wonder if it was my brother, but I’ve thought about it from every angle and it wouldn’t make sense. Not at all. There has to be a third party involved.”
“So was he close with anyone else besides my dad and the Bradleys?” I asked stiffly. “And do we know why we think he was close with my dad?”
“He worked with your dad in the new product development department. He was almost like an apprentice.”
“How do you know this?” I asked softly.
“The less you know about how I got the information the better. Let’s just say that there was some conflict at a company picnic one year.”
“What?” Jakob spoke up. “When was this? I don’t remember any conflict with Steve.”
“He trashed a table and threw some punch bowls on the ground after he got into an argument with the company attorney, Larry Renee,” Blake said in a rush. “Someone wanted to press charges, but ultimately they were dismissed.”
“Who wanted to press charges?” Jakob and I said at the same time.
“I don’t know,” Blake said, annoyed. “The police report didn’t list the name of who wanted to file the charge, it just said ‘complainant.’ I think the name might have been whitened out and written over. But get this—” He paused for dramatic effect.
“What?” I said hurriedly, my heart racing at this news.
“Steve wanted to file a countercomplaint. But he wanted to file murder charges.”
“Murder charges?” My jaw dropped as I stared into Jakob’s intense blue eyes. “Who did he say was murdered?” I swallowed hard as I waited for the news. Was this my first outside confirmation that my mother had been murdered?
“He stated, and I quote, ‘Jeremiah Bradley had my parents killed and I want him to rot behind bars for his sins.’ Crazy right?”
“What happened?” My voice was faint with shock. That was not what I’d expected to hear.
“The charges were dropped. I don’t see any open investigation into what he said. It was like he never continued with it.”
“If he thought Jeremiah killed his parents, why would he work for him? Why would he become like a son to him?” I shook my head and looked at Jakob to see how he was reacting. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“It does.” Jakob nodded slowly, his brain working in overdrive as we sat there. “It makes perfect sense if he wasn’t really and legitimately interested in being close to the family
.”
“What do you mean Jakob?” Blake asked curiously. “From all accounts, he’s been working at the Bradley Corporation for years. Maybe he got drunk one day and made the accusations and then sobered up and recanted.”
“Or maybe he realized that the police didn’t believe him and the courts weren’t the way to get justice.” Jakob looked thoughtful. “Maybe he’s been playing my family all these years. Maybe he’s just been waiting on the perfect time to exact his revenge.”
“That would explain the hatred he seemed to have for you on the island,” I added. “I think that’s why I was so shocked to find out he was working for you. There seemed to be no friendliness from him to you at all.”
“We were never the best of friends.” Jakob made a face. “But I trusted him. I thought he was loyal.”
“So you guys think he’s been rogue from the beginning?” Blake sounded excited.
“Yes,” Jakob said tightly. “I think he must have been.”
“So then we need to get to the bottom of his story,” Blake continued. “We need to find out why he thought his parents were murdered by Mr. Bradley, why he turned rogue on the island, what he hoped to accomplish, and we need to know what happened at the picnic.”
“The picnic? Do you think that’s important?” Jakob sounded annoyed. “Don’t we have the information we need from that? We know what’s in the police report?”
“We know that he had a complaint at the station. We don’t know why he got angry in the first place. And we don’t know if his anger is also aimed at Bianca.”
“Me? Why would he be angry at me?”
“Well, he was close to your dad. . . .”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, if he was faking it with the Bradleys, he might have been faking it with your dad as well.”
“I guess.”
“And there’s one other thing that struck me. . . .”
“Yeah?”
“Remember how you said the lawyer told you that you had a sibling?”
“Yeah?”
“What if that sibling is Steve?” Blake rushed out. “I know it’s a long shot, but with the information we have available, it could be highly possible.”
“You think Steve is my brother?” My heart slowed and the blood drained from my face. “No, he can’t be.”
“And there’s one last thing,” Blake continued. “I don’t know if it’s important or not.”
“What’s that?”
“So that third guy that started the company? Maxwell?”
“Yeah?”
“He just disappeared around the same time that Larry Renee started working as the company attorney. And Larry’s the attorney who was responsible for cleaning up the Steve mess.”
“So you think there’s something between Steve and Larry?”
“It would make sense, right? Maybe Larry is the mastermind behind all of this,” Blake spurted out. “Maybe Larry is the one that set this whole thing up. Maybe he’s the mastermind, the Hitler or the Stalin, in the operation.”
“But Larry is in hiding.” I paused. “Or maybe not. Maybe Larry is pretending he’s in hiding.”
“So we think Steve and Larry could be hiding out together?” Jakob rubbed his forehead. “And if that’s correct, why would Larry care to put this whole thing together?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out.” Blake’s voice dropped. “I need you guys to go through all the papers Larry gave you once again. Look for anything that can be helpful, and then we’re going to try and find Larry. I think once we find Larry, we find Steve. And when we find both of them, we can figure out what’s going on.”
“How are we going to figure that out? Do you think they’re just going to tell us?” I asked in disbelief.
“Maybe with a little help from my friend.” Jakob gave me a tight smile.
“Your friend?”
“My Taurus 709 Slim nine-millimeter.” Jakob cocked his head. “I find a gun to the head usually gets people talking fast.”
“I could lie here with you all day.” Jakob nuzzled my neck as we spooned on the couch after getting off the phone. I felt his arms tight around my waist as he cuddled me to him.
“So could I,” I said happily, as his fingers brushed across my breasts.
“But we need to concentrate now.” He pulled away from me and sat up. “It’s time to figure out what’s going on. Your friend Blake gave us some great information. We need to look through the papers Larry gave you from your dad.”
“You know what I was just thinking?” I reached over and brushed a strand of my hair from his face.
“What’s that?” Jakob’s eyes searched mine.
“What if the papers weren’t from my father?”
“You mean all of them?”
“I don’t know. All or some.” I shrugged. “Larry could have easily planted information into that box that he wanted me to see.”
“You’re right.” Jakob nodded. “And it was Larry who provided all the information to me and David. He told me your mom slept with my dad. He told David about the box in the first place and that we should be worried you were coming to take down the company.”
“He seems to be the common thread in everything that’s going on.” I nodded. “Which makes me question the paperwork he told me to search through so diligently. What does he want me to find?”
“Let’s go through the papers again and notate anything we think could possibly be related and then think about whether it was planted for a reason.”
“Yeah, I guess we can do that.” I sighed. “Though, I’ve been through those papers pretty thoroughly.” I held my hands up in despair. “I don’t understand why he would plant that. It basically says that my father was one of the founders of the company when it started. It says that he created the products and had the patents. And that he wanted to leave the company and take his patents with him. For some reason he never left, he never got his patents, and we both know he had no power at the company and made very little money. What could Larry possibly want me to take from that, that could benefit him?” I was confused.
“It doesn’t add up,” Jakob agreed. “If anything, it informs and educates you and puts him and the company in a bad light.”
“Yeah, and the letter from my dad, well, that basically informed me that my mom was murdered. Why would he let me have that letter? Why would he want me to know that information?”
“I don’t know.” Jakob frowned. “But there has to be a reason. And the fact that he told you to look through the paperwork again—he wants to make sure that you understand the importance of all the claims.”
“Why would he care?”
“Is there anything else you haven’t told me? Any other papers? Any other notes? Any secret files from your father?” Jakob cocked his head and surveyed my face.
“No, not that I know of. Why?”
“We need to speak to Larry. Do you have his number?”
“I don’t know where he is—my messages just go to voice mail now.” I sat up as well. “When I spoke to him, his wife called a number from a pay phone. She wouldn’t let me have it. He hung up when I was speaking to him, and when we called right back, the line had been disconnected. I don’t know what happened, but he sounded really scared. I think he was trying to tell me that there was no Mattias as well.” I stared at Jakob, something bothering me. “But if he’s the one behind it, why did he sound scared?”
“He might have been on a pay-as-you-go phone.” Jakob licked his lips and I was momentarily distracted by the tip of his tongue as it glided back and forth. “If the credit on his phone ran out during the call, it would have disconnected and you wouldn’t have been able to get him on the phone again until he added more.”
“I never thought about that.” My mind was buzzing. “But it makes sense. I was wondering how a phone could just be out of service that quickly.” I played with my hair. “So he really was playing me then?”
“He knows all the secrets
of the company, Bianca. He knew that there was no Mattias, of course he was playing you,” Jakob answered me, his face looking thoughtful. “He was really close to both our dads. I think he was a part of the corporation from the beginning.”
“Oh? I didn’t know that.” I paused. “Didn’t Blake say that the paperwork he found said that Larry started after Maxwell left? Oh, how I wish we could find Maxwell.”
“Yeah. I don’t know his whole story.” Jakob frowned. “I just know that my dad trusted Larry more than anyone else.”
“I guess that was good for your dad, not so good for anyone else.” I made a face. “I know my dad trusted him as well, but look where that got him. A dead wife, no shares in a multibillion-dollar corporation, and a horrible life.”
“It doesn’t make sense, though.” Jakob shook his head as he stared at me. “What did Larry gain?”
“Money, duh.” I looked at him for a few seconds, wondering if he was the right person to be investigating this with me. If he couldn’t even figure out what Larry was gaining from this, then what sort of smarts did he have?
“Yeah, so that’s obvious.” Jakob jumped up and ran out of the living room. I stared after him, wondering what was going on. He ran back into the room with the notepad and pen. “Money was his motivator when he was young, but what’s his motivation now?”
“He doesn’t want to go to jail.” I rolled my eyes. “He’s trying to scare me off.”
“No.” Jakob shook his head. “That doesn’t make sense. If that were true, he wouldn’t have given you the boxes or the information in the first place. He also wouldn’t have given you warnings.”
“He’s the one who told David that I wanted shares in Bradley Inc. He’s the one who tipped David off that I was investigating.”
Jakob’s eyes narrowed. “He was, but why?”
“Like I said, to protect himself.”
“Yes, maybe. It doesn’t completely add up.”
“None of this adds up.” I sighed. “The fact is that I only got into the meeting because I used his proxy shares, so I didn’t even have access to be a threat or to seek out your brother until he gave it to me.”
“There has to be a reason he gave you your father’s paperwork and gave you those shares.” Jakob scratched his head. “He could have avoided all of this.”
