Corey

by Dale Mayer

  “Because that’s where Greg lived. The office was his room. But that day he wasn’t there, he was pacing in the yard.”

  “Why didn’t you see him when you drove in?”

  “I parked on the street and took the walkway up to the front door. When I rang the bell and knocked, nobody answered. I knew he was expecting us, so I opened the door and walked in.” She gave a wry smile. “It was the last time I was allowed to have Joshua with me. Greg kept him that day and ever after. It was the last time I was allowed inside his house too.”

  “And the driveway, where is that in relationship to the front door?”

  “It wraps around the side of the house. I could see him when he paced in front of the glass doors to his office, so I know he didn’t see me take the pictures.” She stopped for a long moment, thinking. “It sounds like you’re accusing me of something.”

  “I’m not. I want to make sure we have your story straight, in case things blow up, and all of this has to go to the police. The minute there is any confusion, they start tearing apart your statements, and then they start looking for more conflicting statements.”

  She nodded, but he could see her shoulders slump.

  Corey added, “It’s only going to the police if there’s a bigger issue. They already know about the death threats and that your place was vandalized. I’m not sure what we’ll do with these photographs yet.”

  “I didn’t recognize anybody in the pictures, but the sexual nature worried me.”

  “It’s not the sexual nature that worries me,” Warrick said quietly. “Several of these are high-profile businessmen, and some are in politics.”

  She gasped. “So they are being blackmailed?”

  “They are images somebody might potentially pay money to stop from surfacing,” Corey corrected. “But we don’t know yet if Greg was actually blackmailing anyone. For all we know, he could have come across this packet in the street and had spread it out, figuring out what to do with it.”

  “Damn. So there is a chance he’s still a good guy?”

  Corey snorted. “There’s a chance, but it’s mighty slim. I’d say the chances are much better he was putting the screws to somebody who was refusing to pay. But again it’s all conjecture. We need more information, a lot more.”

  Chapter 4

  As far as she was concerned, that was great news. She bounced off her chair and raced over. “Which people do you recognize?”

  Warrick pointed out the image on the laptop. “He’s in the cabinet. I don’t have any idea who the woman is, but here’s a picture of his wife.” He tapped the screen. “Different women. Now that doesn’t mean they haven’t recently separated, but there’s a good chance this photo was taken for blackmail purposes.”

  He switched images. “I can’t identify either of these two men, but enough of their faces are showing that someone who knows them can easily recognize them.”

  “Well, there’s not a whole lot else showing, given the position they’re in, unless you’re looking for moles and birthmarks.”

  “What about the spreadsheets?” Corey asked.

  “I was just working on those. Everything’s abbreviated. But it shouldn’t take too long to decipher them.”

  Corey leaned over to see what was on the screen. “Send me the spreadsheets. I’ll get my laptop up and running, and we’ll see if we can figure out what we’re looking at.”

  Warrick nodded. “Sending now.”

  Corey walked over to his bag, grabbed his laptop and came back. “If we can prove these are blackmail payments, then we need to track down bank accounts—preferably back to Greg.”

  “What will they do to him if we can prove he’s blackmailing people?”

  “Well, he’s looking at jail time for sure, but it’ll take a while for the process to go through. You will certainly have reasonable doubt for your son to stay with him. That’s hardly the environment anybody wants a child to grow up in.”

  “Well, that’s good news,” she said with feeling. “I don’t wish him any ill. I just want him to stop trying to destroy my relationship with my son.”

  With Warrick on the hunt for more clues from the pictures, she poured another cup of coffee, went back to the couch and sat in a position where she could watch the two of them. They were both fierce as they dug into the problems facing them. She hadn’t been friendly when they had first arrived, but, right now, it was such a comfort to know they could actually recognize what they were up against and could find the people in the photos. She didn’t know how much good it would do, but at least she didn’t feel quite so alone anymore.

  She sat for a long time, before saying in frustration, “I feel so useless. Isn’t there something I can do?”

  Corey said, “Write down everything. Record everything you saw, so we have something to refer back to. Let’s not have faulty memories or contradicting statements later on.”

  “Everything?”

  “Start with the day you took Joshua to his father’s and found all these photographs until today.”

  She got up and found one of the two notebooks she’d brought with her. It had been on her list to do something like that, but, with Corey urging her, it seemed like a good time now. She refilled her coffee from the thermos, grabbed a notebook and headed out onto the deck. She’d loved being here before and hoped sitting outside would help soothe her soul as she ran through the list of everything that had gone wrong.

  It had only been two weeks, but it seemed like her life had been flipped upside down and twisted inside out. She had shed so many tears over the loss of her son that she didn’t think it was possible to have any left, but she found she was wrong as she started writing down exactly what had happened and when.

  She’d had to refer to her phone several times for calendar dates. But when she got into the timeline of it, it took ten pages of writing to get it all down. By the time she laid her pencil to rest, she was exhausted. Pulling all that crap out of her brain had been like pulling roots out of her heart.

  It was an emotional experience because she was afraid of missing anything. As she sat in the morning sun, she thought about what it was she really wanted out of this. And all she really wanted was her son back. She didn’t give a damn if her husband got away with blackmail or not.

  She didn’t wish blackmail on anybody. But, if a man was stepping out on his wife, then it was time for him to go home and decide on one or the other. It had been devastating for her to find out her husband had been cheating on her during their whole marriage. To find out her husband had a son the same damn age as her own and that her husband was still in contact with his entire other family was … brutal.

  She wasn’t looking forward to the divorce process. Greg was wealthy, powerful, with friends in high places. She didn’t hold out much hope of a happy ending. If he was a criminal, and they could actually prove it, that would give her a chance to get Joshua back. If nothing else, if he knew she had this information, he might buckle under and let her have Joshua part-time.

  But then she remembered all the threats she had received and figured that wouldn’t happen. She got up, wandered back inside, dropped the notebook on the coffee table and said, “That’s as much as I can remember.”

  The men nodded, but neither really appeared to be too interested.

  “Do you think, if I just told him that I have all this information, he would back off?”

  Corey slowly raised his head, his gaze piercing and dark. “Hell no. All that would do is put a noose around your neck.”

  “I’ve already done that, haven’t I?”

  “It depends,” Warrick said. “If Greg is trying to blackmail somebody, and the victim wants the goods, Greg could let the victim know what you’ve done so someone else comes after you. And,” Warrick added, “in this digital age, it’s hard for the victims to know if they received all the copies of the images or other documentation Greg might hold over them.”

  “Jesus.” She sagged into her chair. “And then th
ere’s the problem that my son is likely the one who told my husband what I did. Will Greg hurt Joshua because of it?”

  “I doubt it. Joshua’s very young. Chances are he doesn’t understand the photos or what you taking pictures of them actually means. But don’t kid yourself, Greg certainly does. And, if he’s the blackmailer, he’s already playing the angles to figure out how to fix this, how to get himself out of trouble and how to put it squarely on your shoulders.”

  She stared at them. “I hope you’re wrong. I didn’t have anything to do with this.”

  “And that’s why we have to track down the bank accounts. It’s the only way to prove you aren’t the blackmailer—by proving the money went into his account—and his account alone.”

  She shook her head, dumbfounded. “How the hell did this get so screwed up?”

  “A couple things. The company you hung with and the photos you took pictures of. I highly suspect it’s very simple. He knows you took photos of what he had, and now he has sent somebody after you. If that’s the case, we just have to make sure you’re safe until we can nail his ass to the wall.”

  *

  Corey studied the documents in front of him. Beside him, Warrick said, “You know that we’ll have to tell the police about this.”

  Corey glanced up to see if Angela had heard. She appeared to be oblivious, sitting on the other side of the table, nursing the cold cup of coffee in her hands. She looked exhausted, her face drawn and pale. It wasn’t hard to see how these last few weeks had played on her. Losing her son had to be the worst. He knew how she felt, as he’d felt the same way twelve years ago. At least her son was alive, and she remained in a fighting spirit to keep him close to her.

  He still felt like there was something suspicious about her taking pictures of the photos, but he wasn’t sure that was a fair assessment. “Yes, we’ll have to tell the police. It would be nice if we had a little time to work on this ourselves first.”

  Warrick looked at his watch. “They’re not even in the office yet.”

  At that Corey chuckled. “Sure enough.”

  “What are you talking about?” Angela asked.

  “We need to contact the police. Not only to let them know you’re alive and well but to let them know about these photos and the spreadsheets.”

  She leaned forward. “Are you sure that’s wise? What if they don’t mean anything? I don’t want to end up in more shit.”

  “And yet, at the same time, if Greg is blackmailing somebody, you will have a much better chance of getting your son back legally.”

  She slumped in her seat.

  He watched, seeing the fear whisper across her face. “You’re really scared of him, aren’t you?”

  She frowned, played with the handle on the coffee cup. “He has never hit me,” she said slowly. “He was never been abusive to Joshua. Greg’s not a physically violent person. But there’s just something about him. He’s scary.”

  “Interesting observation. When do you think you started being afraid of him?”

  She glanced over at Warrick as if surprised at the question, but she didn’t toss it off. She thought about it for a long moment. “I might always have been a little wary of him. Nervous. I was always a little bit scared. He was all-powerful, very dashing. I couldn’t really believe he was interested in me. I’m not even sure I loved him in the beginning. I was just mostly bowled over, picked up from one world and put into another so fast I didn’t really understand what was going on. So I was always in awe.

  “But when that became fear, I don’t know. And yet it wasn’t overt. It’s not like he threatened me. At least not until he started to threaten me with Joshua’s custody. But it was just that sense of power behind him, a little bit of meanness in him. When he did business deals, he made sure he always got exactly what he wanted. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t good for the other guy. That only made him happier. He wanted what he wanted and didn’t care how he got it.”

  “If we showed you faces, do you think you could recognize any of his business associates?”

  She frowned. “Probably. But what difference does it make who he did business with?”

  “Do you know what type of business he ran?”

  “No. I knew him as a property developer, but once I asked him and he said he dealt in information. But I don’t know what that meant. I understood he was somebody who made deals happen. But I was never invited into that world.”

  Corey felt something inside of himself stall. “Information. Now that’s an interesting way to put it.”

  “Did you ever hear any yelling or could you tell if there was any violence in his office?” Warrick asked.

  Again she looked surprised by his question. “No. He’s not some gangster. I don’t exactly know what he did. A lot of IT work was involved. But all his business dealings were civil. The only time I actually remember him arguing was the day I was there with Joshua. And he was arguing outside, so I couldn’t hear him.”

  “Did he normally work in his office at home?”

  “Yes. He wasn’t much of an outdoor person. He’d never walk on a beach with me or walk through a park. If he walked anywhere, it was to get from point A to point B. Otherwise we drove. Or he had one of his businessmen drive me around.”

  “Businessmen?”

  “Man of business? One of his admins? I don’t know what the title was. I remember he said it once, and it struck me as funny, kind of old world. It’s like his men of affairs or something like that.”

  Corey tucked away that information away. “Can you tell us about any of the people or companies he dealt with?”

  She shook her head. “I spent most of my time alone. He was in the office at home or away at his business office. But I never went there. I don’t even know where it is.” She sat for a long moment, thinking. “This is very strange because I realize this whole segment of my life is a blank. It’s like I brushed up against him, but I was never really part of his life.”

  “Maybe that’s a good thing,” Warrick said. “If his world is about to come crumbling down because he deals in information”—he held up his phone and wiggled it to draw her attention—“then maybe you won’t go down with him.”

  She stared at him, then at the photos. “Are you actually thinking maybe his business was blackmail?”

  “Lots of times companies want information on another company so they have leverage against them in contract bidding, with planning commissions, stuff like that,” Corey said. “Say he wanted to throw up a multilevel development, and somebody was blocking him. Information on that person he could use as leverage makes the block crumble, and he gets his way.”

  “Well, Greg certainly likes having his own way.”

  “So you can see that as something he would be good at?”

  “Not only good at,” she said quietly, “he excelled at it. He’s a shark. Buying and selling.”

  Chapter 5

  Angela hopped up from the couch, wandered into the kitchen and said, “Are there any sandwiches left?” She turned back to Warrick. “I’m not sure why, but I’m still really hungry.”

  “Have at it.” He pointed to the counter where he had dropped all the foodstuffs.

  She grinned. “Did you guys expect me to be without food when you picked up so much?”

  “We eat a lot too,” Corey said, absentmindedly studying the laptop in front of him. “It’s habit when we’re on the road to make sure there’s enough.”

  She eyed the several different sandwiches still wrapped up individually, snagged a roast beef and some cold water and walked back out to the deck. It was still early, but there was a little heat to the sun now. She called over her shoulder, “I’m going to walk down to the lake.”

  Neither man answered. Good, she could have a few minutes to herself.

  It was a little upsetting to think she’d spent so much time with Greg, and yet she had not really understood who he was. She would never have said she was naive, but, after seven years, she hadn’t
known her husband at all.

  She hoped Joshua was doing okay. She missed him so. Of course one of the real reasons why she’d married so fast was because she’d been desperate for that family she’d always wanted. She’d always hoped for a big fancy wedding with all the pomp and ceremony, but Greg hadn’t wanted the publicity and had instead taken her to the minister’s office.

  It had been a bit exciting because it had been so fast, as in being swept off her feet. But it had left an awful lot behind in terms of the romantic fairy-tale wedding she’d always dreamed of. Maybe she should have been suspicious of him then.

  What she hadn’t considered was how possessive he was. If the baby was his, then he wanted to own it. She wasn’t sure he wanted to love Joshua as much as she did, but Greg wasn’t going to let Joshua go in terms of Greg’s legal rights. Joshua was too young to understand what was going on, even now, but he was certainly learning quickly.

  She sat down on a big rock by the beach. There wasn’t any sand. It was a very rocky shoreline with various plants fighting for survival among them. She could relate.

  When she finished the sandwich, she folded the wrapper and put it in her pocket, then stood with her cup of water in her hand. She wandered out onto the dock. She didn’t know where to go from here in her custody battle. Her only hope was those photos. But, if she turned those into the police, what was she to do then? Would that help her case or make her look worse in the eyes of the judge?

  She’d have no leverage at all. And, if the police were bought off—because of course Greg dealt in information; and, therefore, that was a possibility—maybe the blackmail case would get closed without any justice being done. Of course she’d have the copies she had originally taken. She could always contact a newspaper or contact some of the people in the photos.

  She winced at that idea. It just felt dirty and ugly to be part of that. And what good would it do her? It would only enrage Greg.

  Just as she started to relax and enjoy the sparkling light of the sun across the water, she thought she heard an odd sound behind her. Maybe the crunch of a dead branch? She crouched and spun. Had the men heard anything? She peered through the trees, studying the shadows. That was a problem with the heavily treed area. It was great cover for somebody approaching, but she was standing in the open.