No Reservations

by Natalia Banks

  Albert warned you about this, Lorraine had to tell herself. He said the board would stop at nothing, he as much as promised it!

  The living room was empty and quiet around Lorraine, who only realized then that her gun was in her purse and her purse was in the family room.

  Should have practiced more, I’m still a terrible shot. Hope I can use it right, Lorraine silently muttered, if I have to use it at all! Please God don’t let that happen!

  The silence around her gave Lorraine time to calm down and reconsider. Remember the gun safety classes, Lorraine urged herself, most gun deaths are accidental and happen in the home. I don’t wanna spin around and shoot Jeremy as he walks through the front door.

  Lorraine spotted her purse on the coffee table across the room. Shouldn’t have left it lying around like that, Lorraine admonished herself. Kayla or Ashe could have found it, accidentally killed themselves or the other. Stupid!

  She reached the purse and grabbed it, her heart beating faster.

  It’s okay, nobody’s hurt, a lesson well-learned. Gotta take it easy, gotta stay in control.

  But, another dull thump grabbed her attention and Lorraine reached in for the Colt .36. It was heavy in her hand, slick with her palm sweat as she set the purse down. With one hand on the gun and the other had supporting the first, Lorraine held it pointed harmlessly upward, easy to lower, point and shoot, but one step removed from a spontaneous and tragic misfire.

  Thump.

  The sound drew Lorraine toward the kitchen and then toward the utility room down a short, second hall.

  Thump, thunk.

  Lorraine’s fingers craned around the gun, finger twitching over the trigger.

  Thump.

  Lorraine stepped toward the laundry room. The sounds weren’t from either machine, they were to isolated and irregular. Something else was causing those sounds, something or someone. Lorraine pulled the door to the laundry room open, jumping back and aiming the gun. The little room was dark, but seemed empty.

  It seemed empty.

  Lorraine reached over and clicked on the light, expecting a hand to reach out at any second and grab her wrist, pull her into the room and slam the door behind them. She had no idea what she’d be facing or whether she’d have any chance to escape … or survive.

  Click.

  Lorraine jumped back again, peering at the newly lit laundry room. The machines were still and silent, the cabinet doors closed, everything in place.

  Thump. Thunk, thump.

  There was only one other source of that sound, and it was the little closet on the side of the washing machine, where the hot water heater was housed. It was a small closet, but big enough for a man to hide in, to lure a small woman in and then ambush her.

  Lorraine renewed her grip around the gun as she reached for the little door to the water heater cabinet. She reached slowly, another thunk pulsing from within that little closet. Her hand reached closer to the knob, closer, fingers finally wrapping around it.

  She pulled the door open and jumped back to aim the gun from some safe distance. But, the closet held only the water heater, another thump coming louder, unmuffled by the opened closet door.

  Lorraine spat out a relieved sigh, smile breaking, a chuckle bubbling in her throat as the tension poured out of her, muscles easing, gun lowering to point at the floor.

  She turned, but came face to face with a man’s grim expression, a fearful cry leaping out of her mouth, body shaking with instant terror. He grabbed her wrist and yanked the gun out of her hand and she stood helpless before him, rigid with fear.

  “Lorraine, take it easy!” Lorraine refocused to see Griffin standing in front of her, holding her gun, his face calm but curious. “Lorraine, what’s wrong, what is it?”

  Lorraine quickly unwound again, stammering even if she could clearly see the folly of her own anxiety. “I … I heard something … ”

  “So you decided to assassinate the hot water heater?”

  “No, I … I thought somebody might have broken in.”

  Griffin looked at her again, shifting his head to get a better look at his wife, his beloved, as if there were some new aspect to her that he’d never considered.

  My God, Lorraine realized, he thinks I’m crazy!

  Maybe he’s right.

  Griffin led Lorraine out of the utility closet and into the kitchen. “I … I guess I just got a little carried away, that’s all. Those thunks and thumps, but it was nothing.”

  “All right,” Griffin said, low and soothing.

  “There is something I think you should take a look at, Griffin. It’s about the company.”

  Griffin’s eyes sank to shrewd slits. “What about it?”

  “Have you ever heard of a subdivision called Westmorland Holdings?”

  “Westmorland Holdings,” Griffin said, carefully eyeing both Jeannie Gallagher and Dennis Douglass. “Where is it?”

  Dennis shook his head a bit, as if confused. “Liquidated, years since. We used it for that deal on the waterfront, but we shut it down afterward, the way we usually do. What’s this all about?”

  Lorraine said, “I’ve got a full company portfolio, it has several holding companies like Westmorland, all real estate holding companies, and none of them are in the file you gave me.”

  “Because there all liquidated,” Dennis said. “I thought you were looking for available land holdings in the company. What would have been the point of giving you a lot of outdated information?”

  “I said I wanted to see everything from the past ten years,” Lorraine said, impatience inspiring her newfound sense of authority.

  “My concern isn’t just this particular project, or even this particular holding company. But, if I discover there’s an overall pattern here, or that money is somehow being extorted from Phoenix Enterprises, I’m going to bring down the full brunt of the law on every head.”

  Dennis and Jeannie shared a glance, then looked back at Griffin and Lorraine. Jeannie nodded, eyes wide. “Of course, Mr. Phoenix, absolutely. We didn’t realize there might be anything wrong — ”

  “I’ve been in charge of the accounting for years, Mr. Phoenix, there’s no discrepancy that I know of. And I have to say, I feel like I know this place like … ” Dennis paused for some private reflection, drawing Lorraine and Griffin’s attention. “Where did you say you got that previous profile from?”

  Lorraine paused, uncertain how much information she should share. But, she also knew there were only so many sources and time to answer was running out. “Ki Fong, as a matter of fact, from your own Board of Directors.”

  Jeannie shook her head. “Ki, that figures.”

  Griffin asked, “Why’s that?”

  “He’s got a terrible grudge against me, thinks I hate him because he’s Chinese. But Griffin, you know that’s not true.”

  “I should hope not.”

  “The reason I’ve been hard on him is that, well, that’s my job. I can’t let every hair-brained idea get to the top, I’m supposed to filter those out.”

  “I know that,” Griffin said calmly, “I don’t fault you for doing your job.”

  “The way he glares at me from across the conference table,” Jeannie shook her head, eyes dipping low, lips pouting just a bit, “sometimes I was afraid he might do something … violent, in the dark of night. I mean, he’d have records of where I live and everything.”

  Griffin asked, “Has he ever … touched you?”

  “No, not … not like that. I was just never sure what he was capable of. And the more I had to say no to him, I don't know, the less confident I became in what he might or might not do next.”

  Lorraine said, “You really think he’s capable of that?”

  “I don’t know. I’d keep an eye out in the back of my head if I’d done any clandestine dealings with him.”

  Lorraine wasn’t sure how take that, as a warning or a ruse. Griffin didn’t seem interested in airy threats, vague insinuations, or idle theories. He sa
id to Dennis, “I want a copy of everything, Dennis, collected and emailed to my offices, right now.”

  “Of course, Mr. Phoenix, not a problem.”

  Dennis turned and clicked a few keys on his keyboard, but he paused and gazed at the screen, drawing Lorraine, Griffin, and Jeannie toward it. The screen started flashing gray and blue, not responding at all to Dennis’ clicks and taps on the keyboard.

  Griffin asked, “What is it? What’s going on?”

  Dennis reached over and pushed the power button on his computer tower, the screen going dark. Fifteen long seconds later, he pushed the button again and leaned back.

  Lorraine asked, “What did you do?”

  Dennis shrugged. “I didn’t do a thing, Mrs. Phoenix. But that’s not to say that somebody else didn’t plant a bug in our system.”

  Griffin repeated, “A bug?”

  “Computer virus,” Dennis clarified.

  Jeannie rolled her eyes, shoulders slumping. “Oh no, Ki Fong … ”

  Griffin asked, “What about him?”

  “Minor in computer tech,” Jeannie said.

  “Where is Mr. Fong now?” Dennis asked.

  Lorraine, Griffin, and Jeannie glanced at one another, shaking their heads. Griffin said to Jeannie, “He works under you, Jeannie.”

  “Well, um, yes that’s right, but … I didn’t know anything about this, I swear.”

  Griffin sighed, exasperated. “I just mean you’re the person to track him down, Jeannie.”

  After an awkward moment, Jeannie said, “Oh, right, I’ll go see if I can find him. I’ll bring him to your office, Mr. Phoenix.”

  “Do that.” Griffin turned to Dennis as Jeannie scurried out of the office. “You’ve got backups of everything, of course.”

  “We were just transferring everything over to the Cloud. As soon as we’re back online, I’ll retrieve what we’ve got.”

  Griffin and Lorraine shared a silent glance before Griffin nodded and led her out of the office, saying to Dennis, “Keep me posted.”

  “Yes, sir,” Dennis offered before Griffin and Lorraine left, slamming the door behind them.

  Chapter 13

  Lorraine and Griffin left the office while the IT guys came in and tried to fix the system. It would be at least forty-eight hours, which left the two an agonizing stretch of suspense and quandary. Sitting in the back of their limo, crawling down crowded Fifth Avenue, Lorraine folded her arms in front of her stomach from the increasing nausea she’d felt since those computers went down.

  “What does this mean for us,” Lorraine asked, “for the company?”

  Griffin was staring off, distant, clearly reflecting and not liking what he was seeing in that reflection. “Not sure,” he said, his uncertainty only stirring the nausea in Lorraine’s belly. “Depends on how much was backed up to that cloud thing, how much we lost.”

  “You really think Ki is responsible?”

  This caught Griffin’s attention, and he turned from the window. “You’re talking about Jeannie and Dennis.”

  “He is in charge of the accounting department. If anybody would be involved in embezzling from the company, if anybody would be well-placed to cover up any syphoning of funds, it’d be him, right?”

  Griffin nodded. “And he’s definitely involved with Jeannie.”

  “You picked up on that, too?”

  “Oh yeah, I’ve known it for a while now. Not that I object; to that, anyway. You think those two may have cooked up some pillow talk conspiracy?”

  Lorraine didn’t have to think about it for too long. “Set up a shell company, one of many, and route the funds to an outside account. Basically, they’d be buying and selling real estate with your money — ”

  “Our money,” Griffin said.

  “And keeping the profits.”

  Griffin scratched his chin. “I’ll put in a few calls when we get back to the penthouse, have the books audited.”

  “But Grif, if Jeannie and Dennis were ripping off the company, they’ll both just disappear, wind up on some island somewhere.”

  “Where Ki already is?”

  Lorraine had to nod as the limo turned a corner. “That’s a good point. It does seem suspicious, him just disappearing.”

  Griffin nodded, turning his gaze back to the window. “Could have planted that computer virus, malware would have set it off at a certain time, and by then he’s long gone. Who knows what he did or where he went? Could have flown out yesterday straight after work for all we know. I suppose I’ll have to hire a PI to track him down.”

  The limo drove on, closer and closer to home.

  “I don’t know, Grif. I mean, how would Ki have known to run at just the right time? Presumably, he’s been up to this for a while.” As Lorraine thought it out, other things occurred to her. “And why would he have given me that profile with Westmorland in it if he was the one stealing the money? He would have buried it, no?”

  Griffin gave it some thought. “Makes sense. Unless he was planning on pinning it on Dennis and Jeannie. I always did sense the tension between them.”

  “Yeah, Ki mentioned it to me, too. But that’d be a pretty clever plan.”

  Griffin shrugged. “Ready to leave at the drop of a hat, set up that virus, maybe make it look like Jeannie and Dennis planted it, implicate them in the whole mess. I don't know, seems almost too obvious, now that I think about it.” Lorraine sighed, leaning against Griffin. He put his loving, comforting arm around Lorraine and pulled her close. “Don’t worry, baby, we’ll figure this out.”

  “I guess my learning centers are on the back-burner.”

  “Along with everything else P..E. is up to.”

  A nervous tension passed before Lorraine had to prod, “How bad could this be for the company?”

  Griffin shrugged. “We’re privately held, so stock’s not a problem. But, we’ve got a lot of partners all over the world. If they perceive us as high-risk, they could pull out of our various projects, leave us in the lurch. That happens too many times, the whole company goes belly-up.” Lorraine leaned in even closer, the limo getting even closer to home. Griffin glanced at her and said, “So what if we lose every dime? We’ll still have each other … right?”

  Lorraine turned to him with a snap of her head. “Of course, Griffin, absolutely! I don’t care about the money, how can you even think that?”

  “I don’t, baby, of course I don’t. I shouldn’t have teased you like that.”

  “That’s right, you shouldn’t have!” Lorraine’s tone surprised even her, angrier and more frightened than she’d expected. The bubble of tension around them burst and the two looked at each other, old friends and soul mates. They could only break out in a self-conscious chuckle, Lorraine returning her head to lean on Griffin’s shoulder. He pulled her even closer.

  After a brief pause, Griffin said, “Maybe we should take a little trip.”

  “Grif?”

  “Sure, get outta here for a few days, let the dust settle.”

  “Let the — ? Gee, I don't know … ”

  “We need it, Lorraine, you need it. We keep talking about Jeremy taking some time off, maybe it’s time we took our own advice.”

  “Griffin, you really think this is the time to leave the company rudderless?”

  “Actually, it’s precisely the time. On the one hand, the news could pick up on this, and if it does that’s, bad news for us on a lot of fronts. How bad can things be if I’m out on holiday with my family, right?”

  Lorraine could see the logic, but she was less than convinced. “What about your PI, the audit?”

  “Best to let the pros handle things like that, Lorraine. I think we’ve learned our lesson about amateur sleuthing.”

  “You mean … the company profiles? That’s exposed a great danger to the company, Griffin. You should thank me.”

  “And I do, in a million different ways. But, now let’s leave it to the big dogs, eh?”

  Lorraine’s nausea got just a little bit wor
se. “If you say so, Griffin.” She couldn’t help wonder, Why does he suddenly want to get out of town? Is there some danger here he doesn’t want to tell me about?

  No, he’s my husband, I trust him, I have to trust him.

  Chapter 14

  “Nova Scotia?” Lorraine glanced out the window of the private jet.

  “It’s gorgeous there, Lo’,” Griffin said. “Elton John and Billy Joel own summer homes there, at least I think they do. Anyway, it’s one of the most beautiful parts of the world. And I got your dad an invite to spend the day on the set of that show he likes so much.”

  “You did, really?”

  “Yeah, but don’t tell him, I want it to be a surprise.”

  “He’s gonna flip. What time do they fly in?”

  “Six-thirty. We’ll get there early, have a little snack while we’re waiting, a limo’ll be waiting to pick us up, take us to the hotel.”

  Lorraine cuddled little Kayla. “I hope Jeremy has fun in Jamaica.”

  “He’s got as good a chance as anyone.” They chuckled.

  “I hope he stays safe. We should have insisted he go to Hawaii instead.”

  Griffin chuckled. “I think Jeremy’ll be just fine. He’s not exactly a big risk-taker these days.”

  “Yeah … ” She attracted Griffin’s attention, and she explained, “Well, I feel like that’s my fault. He used to be so … so outgoing, y’know? But, after Denver, he’s just kind’a closed up.”

  Ashe looked over from his seat next to the window. “He’s sad because he’s not in love with anyone.”

  Griffin and Lorraine turned with keen interest, on Griffin’s part especially. “What do you know about it, son? Has he been talking to you about that kind of thing?”

  Lorraine asked, “What kind of thing?” Griffin’s silent response was all the answer she needed.

  Ashe tilted his head and arched his shoulders. “He didn’t say anything, I can just tell. Remember after Mom died … ” Ashe glanced at Lorraine with a vaguely guilty expression.

  But, Lorraine just said, “It’s okay, Ashe, she was your mom, I understand that.”