Promised Box Set

by James Kipling

  That was puzzling to Aiden for he understood there were only three people on the boat that day. It was supposed to have been a sailing trip for the Dunmores and Butlers, but Steve had an important meeting switched at the last minute so he told his wife to go without him and they would all meet for dinner later. The bracelet wasn’t a feminine design so he had assumed it was his father’s.

  “Was it your wife’s?” he asked. I It was also possible someone else had dropped it sometime before the ill-fated trip that day – during a larger party, perhaps.

  Steve had a stricken look on his face as the memories overwhelmed him. “No. You two will have to excuse me. I’m late for an appointment.”

  As Steve left, Aiden and Mason exchanged curious looks. Both were concerned by the suddenness of Steve’s departure. The older man had an aged look to his face that had not been there moments earlier, and both could see he was hiding something.

  To whom had the bracelet belonged? Was there another man on the boat that day? Had Mr. Dunmore’s wife been having an affair? With these new unanswered questions, an old conviction that his parents’ deaths were no accident was resurrected. He had to find out who the bracelet belonged to.

  ****

  It was a clear, summery Saturday afternoon. The trip had been planned weeks earlier but at the last minute there was a change in plans – the time of his meeting with the Japanese company Steve had being trying to sign a deal with was bumped up. The plan was for him to meet the others at the docks afterwards but if he didn’t show by a certain time, they would go sailing without him.

  Zoe was nine and insisted on accompanying her father to meet the Japanese businessmen. It was the first time she had shown an interest in her father’s business and he was proud his daughter wanted to spend the day with him instead of on the boat. The women had long looked forward to the trip because it had been a while since the two couples had spent some quality time together. Aiden’s mother had given birth a few months before, and Zoe’s mother wasn’t in the best of health.

  He recalled that day as if it was fifteen hours earlier rather than fifteen years.

  How could someone be in two places at the same time? he wondered, for he had seen that bracelet the day his wife died.

  “Could it be?” he wondered aloud. “No, it’s impossible.” Somehow, Steve could not get the thought that the bracelet was tied to the death of his wife and friends out of his mind. Could their deaths have been murder after all? The police had ruled it an accident but all these years he’d felt something was missing, and now the bracelet turned up.

  He hadn’t been the only one who thought it strange that three people could die so easily of carbon monoxide poisoning but that’s what the coroner said. An investigation showed the exhaust had been inadvertently blocked and the boat’s idling sometime in the water had allowed the deadly gas to accumulate. On top of that, they had been drinking which made them more susceptible to falling asleep without noticing the gas. Their deaths were ruled accidental.

  Steve knew the bracelet was one of a kind. He should know. He was the one who had it custom-made as a birthday present. There was no way the bracelet had gotten on that boat unless David Warner was there that day. However, Steve distinctly remembered David being present at the meeting they had that day in his office. He was sure he had seen the bracelet that day for it fell off and he offered to have the clasp fixed, but David told him he was taking care of it.

  Chapter 6

  She’d foolishly agreed to a second date with Lucas. It was Friday and Zoe needed a break. With nothing better to do, she agreed to a movie and maybe dancing afterwards, if she was in the mood – and she didn’t plan on being in the mood. He picked her up around seven and they drove in silence to the theater. Lucas knew her well and when she leaned her head against the seat and closed her eyes, he knew she was deep in thought and wanted silence.

  Try as she might, she couldn’t get Aiden and his grandmother out of her mind. His blue eyes would appear out of nowhere. Soon she would be hearing his voice in his absence. What is it about him? she asked herself.

  The theater was full but Lucas had bought tickets earlier so they went through, bypassing the long line out front. They stopped to get nachos, which were her favorite, popcorn, and drinks. At the last moment she snuck a chocolate bar into their order.

  They were on their way into the movie when she saw him. It was like seeing a carbon copy of the man she’d been unable to banish from her mind earlier. The hair and eyes were the same, only he was much younger. Zoe couldn’t believe what she saw and thought maybe he was a figment of her imagination. She stopped and stared for a minute. It was hard not to. The boy was arguing with a security guard and looked like he was about to be escorted from the building.

  “Something wrong?” Lucas asked when she stopped.

  “No,” she replied with a smile.

  Following her gaze, he saw the commotion. “Don’t get involved, Zoe.”

  Ignoring him, she moved towards the youth and the guard. The closer she got, the more prominent and shocking his eyes became. The shape of his face and even the way he dressed was similar. The difference lay in his demeanor. Whereas Aiden was laid back and calm, this young man – undoubtedly his brother – was ready to explode. She recognized a little hellion in him because she had been the same.

  “Excuse me.” The guard turned at the sound her voice.

  The man stopped his arguing and stared. Meanwhile Lucas stood a foot or so behind Zoe and waited impatiently. He could tell the guard was taken with the redheaded beauty before him. The younger man looked annoyed and ready to bolt but it appeared his manners prevented him from leaving.

  “Can I help you?” the guard asked in a calmer tone.

  “I couldn’t help wondering what the commotion was about.”

  “I lost my ticket,” the blue-eyed boy said. He was no more than seventeen and Zoe was sure he was the same boy she’d seen come out of the Aiden’s house that night.

  “Is that it?” she turned to the guard. “That’s why you were making a scene?”

  “But ma’am, the rules…” he began to say.

  “Here,” she handed her movie ticket to the young man. “Have mine. Are you alone?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Lucas was not pleased. He started to protest but Zoe gave him the evil eye so he backed off. He really wanted to see the movie with her. They left the theater in silence and decided on a stroll in the mall. It wasn’t what Lucas had in mind when he’d asked her out again, but it would do. It was the price he was willing to pay if it meant getting her back.

  Zoe had no idea what came over her or why she even cared about the boy. She was naturally curious, or at least that’s what she told herself. His eyes, the hair color, and the way it fell to his nape were the same as Aiden in a way that fascinated her. There was something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on. It was as if she knew him. She knew better; there was no way she knew this boy. He reminded her of someone from her past, but who?

  “Are you okay?” Lucas inquired. They were walking along the fountain in the middle of the mall where quite a number of people tended to linger.

  “Hmm,” she murmured. “Take me home, please.”

  At that moment a little boy jumped in the water where it pooled below the cascading fall. As the boy’s mother scolded and made to pull him out of the water, the child’s shrill scream at the chill of the water brought a memory to the surface in Zoe’s awareness.

  It happened while they were at a lake. She couldn’t have been more than ten years old. “I dare you,” she said but the boy hesitated. He wore a navy blue t-shirt and cut-off jeans. “No, it’s too cold,” he replied. “Chicken, ha ha ha, chicken.” “Okay, I’ll do it.” Before she could count to three he jumped into the icy cold lake. When he didn’t surface immediately she jumped in after but the water was so cold she almost froze. Hands gripped her and pulled her to the surface and air. When she o
pened her eyes, blue ones stared back at her.

  “Oh my God!” she twirled towards Lucas. “It wasn’t you!”

  “What?” Lucas was confused.

  “I thought it was you. All this time, I thought it was you who saved me.”

  “What are you talking about, Zoe?”

  “The lake. I remember it clearly now.”

  “What lake?”

  “Never mind; it wasn’t you.”

  Confusion almost got the better of her but the memory was clear. What little she’d remembered about an incident some fifteen years before had been muddled until now. She’d thought the person who saved her was Lucas. She thought the boy she’d dared to jump into the lake was Lucas but she could never clearly recall the boy’s face. How could she have forgotten him?

  “Please, I need to go home now!” she stated firmly.

  Zoe wanted answers and the only one who could provide them was her father. Who was he? All she could see were his eyes. Her memory was still a bit scattered but at least she knew now it wasn’t Lucas at the lake that day but another boy…with eyes like the boy at the theater. “God!” she said aloud as Lucas maneuvered the car out of the parking lot and onto the busy street.

  “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Lucas asked impatiently.

  “It has to do with something that happened before I met you. It’s no big deal,” she replied, turning her head to look out the window.

  Lucas knew he was being dismissed so he drove the rest of the way in silence with his jaw clenched. As he let her off in front of the house, the front door opened and a tall, dark-haired fellow stepped out. He was dressed in blue jeans and a dark blue muscle shirt. Lucas had never seen him before and was curious to learn who he was. He was about to ask Zoe but jealousy pierced his heart when her face lit up at the site of the good-looking man.

  “Mason!” She scrambled from the car and ran into his arms.

  Lucas was tempted to drive off but waited for an introduction.

  “Hey, beautiful,” Mason greeted Zoe. “Back already?”

  “Ahem,” Lucas cleared his throat as he stepped from the car.

  “Oh, Lucas, this is Mason, my friend from school.”

  “Lucas,” Mason said with an outstretched hand. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

  “I’ve heard nothing about you,” Lucas remarked coolly as he took Mason’s hand. Lucas could not resist putting extra pressure into his handshake. Amusement creased the corner of Mason’s mouth as he returned the pressure. The two men faced off, sizing up one another. There was a will of strength and Mason could sense Lucas was jealous. He laughed inwardly as he pictured Lucas’s reaction should he ever meet Aiden.

  “Hey, is Daddy home?” She turned to Mason who said yes. “I’ll call you,” she directed at Lucas.

  It was the third time that night Lucas felt like he was being dismissed. He didn’t like the feeling but for Zoe, he would endure anything. She was probably still punishing him for the wedding fiasco. For good measure, he pulled her close and kissed her soundly on the lips. She knew what he was up to and was not amused, refusing to kiss him back.

  “He’s a possessive one,” Mason proclaimed as Lucas left the driveway.

  “Argh,” she groaned as she shook off the feeling of Lucas’s grip on her arms. “Where’s Daddy?” She stomped into the foyer looking for her father.

  She found him in his den. “Daddy?”

  “Hmm, back already? What did Lucas do now?”

  Ignoring his remark, she asked him about a boy she’d known when she was a child. “Who was he?”

  “Who?”

  “He had blue eyes, very blue eyes. I thought the boy was Lucas but it wasn’t. It was Aiden, wasn’t it? I remember I was the one who made him jump into the lake. When I didn’t see him come up I called… I called… I called Aiden!”

  “You remember,” her father said quietly. He was sitting behind his desk going through files. His wire-rimmed glasses perched on his strong nose. He looked at her intently and said, “Now that you remember, maybe you’ll find the truth.”

  How could she have forgotten? They must have been close if their families were at the lake together. She remembered the lake her parents used to take her to as a child. She remembered a man with sandy hair and a beautiful blonde woman with a baby.

  She pushed the unearthed memories aside so she could spend the night with Mason digging into the accounts, trying to get some answers to a different mystery.

  Chapter 7

  Something wasn’t right and as Mason dug deeper, things began to unfold that could cause a lot of grief. What he was certain of was that someone with big connections was behind the embezzled company funds and it definitely wasn’t Aiden. Mason needed concrete proof before saying anything definitive to Zoe so he started using his father’s connections to help him.

  The name Allan Peters kept popping up on bank accounts receiving substantial checks from the dummy corporation. Money would leave Dunmore Corp and go into the account for Globex. Then every month small checks would go into Peters’ bank account until all funds were gone. That wasn’t all. Before Globex came on the scene, there were several other corporations and charities all created under the names of persons who had worked at Dunmore Corp where the same procedure for funneling off the funds was used. What was interesting was that Allan Peters was the only one who appeared to have collected any money personally.

  Mason had to call in a few favors to find out about this Allan Peters and his bank accounts since it wasn’t something the Dunmore accounts would show. It seemed to Mason that money started disappearing from the business about twelve years earlier. There were several people still working with the company in positions that would have allowed them access to company funds so they had to tread lightly lest they accuse the wrong people. It wouldn’t help if in the process of catching the thief they angered longtime and valuable employees enough to make them quit. It was also important not to let on anything was amiss so as not to alert the culprit and give him/her time to get away before charges could be filed.

  There was the trusted Mrs. Henry who, despite having been with the company since the beginning, was a mystery to everyone. No one really knew who she was or anything about her family for that matter. She was a deliberately private person. But what better way to protect herself than using a man’s name on the illegal transactions? In came David Warner, Steve’s long-time and trusted friend who he allowed to manage the department. Could there be lingering resentment over having been passed over for a promotion in favor of a personal friend? Of course, Warner had access to the same information as Mrs. Henry. Mason put several names on a plausible suspect list and proceeded to investigate their backgrounds.

  In the meantime, Steve was having trouble deciphering the mystery of the bracelet. He was questioning the reliability of his own memory; after all, maybe he had confused the meeting with the Japanese company for another meeting when David had worn that bracelet. But that still didn’t explain how the bracelet ended up on the boat… He decided to take some steps to settle his mind and called a retired detective friend who had worked in the police department at the time of his wife’s death. Robert Styles was now a private detective but he knew the case well. Robert arrived and was ushered to Steve’s den where there was privacy to talk.

  “I haven’t heard from you in so long. Something must be wrong,” he joked.

  “What makes you say that?” Steve replied, offering the PI a Cuban cigar.

  Robert took the rolled tobacco and sniffed it lovingly. He noted they were the real deal, not the knockoffs frequently sold on the black market. He pocketed the cigar, saving it for later, and accepted the drink Steve offered.

  His black, beady eyes scanned the den and noticed how little it had changed in fifteen years. The old behemoth computer had been replaced with a smaller, sleeker model but almost everything else remained the same. He’d been to Steve’s office at Dunmore
Corp many times. They’d even met for drinks on a few occasions but he’d only been to the house on a handful of occasions during the initial investigation.

  He remembered Steve at the time of the accident and what a wreck he’d been. Not long before, he had lost his own wife to cancer so he knew exactly what Steve was feeling at the time. The two of them had been friends ever since. The memory of his own loss remained fresh, even so many years later, so he knew Steve must still be grieving on some level too.

  Robert ran a hand through his neatly trimmed black hair. It was a habit of his whenever he felt helpless. He took a sip of the cognac and the smooth liquid ran like velvet over his tongue. It bred a warm sensation in his stomach that he liked.

  “So, Steve, where is your daughter? When are you going to let me meet her?”

  “Soon, but before that I want to run something by you.”

  “Shoot.” Robert was anxious to hear what his friend had to say and sat at attention in the leather chair across from the desk.

  “The items you found on the boat, are they still in storage?”

  “We didn’t hold onto much since the deaths were ruled as accidental. We have the wine glasses your wife and friends used and a few personal effects. Why?”

  “There might have been someone else on the boat that afternoon.”

  “Who?” Robert’s interest was piqued. He knew there could have been something they missed but his superior had wanted to wrap up the case quickly. When the coroner said it was carbon monoxide poisoning, his boss decided there was no need for further investigation.

  “At the time, he was a business acquaintance and my friend.”

  “You want to see the items?”

  Steve thought maybe there were some other clues that might give him answers. “Yes.”

  “I’ll see what I can do, but it won’t be easy. The case has been closed for a long time. Anything else?” He was certain Steve wanted more than just to see the items in question.

  “I’d like you to reinvestigate the case.”