She was very absorbed in the conversation she was having on the phone. David walked over to her and put down the bag and the coffee. She finally looked up at him and smiled a half smile. She still seemed to be focused on whatever was in that e-mail, then she locked the computer and turned all of her attention onto him.
“Thank you for breakfast, Boss,” she said. He could hear that she was somewhat anxious and was curious to know what was going on.
“Is everything alright? You don’t seem like yourself this morning.”
She looked down and nodded. “Yeah, we received an e-mail from Renée Zsolney and she is wanting to divorce her husband. I know you were talking about closing up shop,” she hesitated. “But this is Renee Zsolney.”
David thought on it for a moment. The Zsolney family was wealthier than the Valentini family. If he took on this case he would receive a check much larger than the ones he had been receiving. He would be able to close down the office until he finally landed a case involving something more interesting. He shrugged, “I will think about it.”
Emily nodded and she watched as he took his coffee and bagel into his office. She sat there. She could not respect him any more than she already did. This case would be as lucrative as striking oil, and he had to think about it because he was not interested in the money, just the job. She smiled to herself and shook her head. Taking in a deep breath, David definitely was not a typical man.
###
It was nearing three in the afternoon when Sasha finally arrived. She was dressed in a bulky trench coat and she smiled at David who had been waiting ever since he received her phone call earlier that morning. There was something about Sasha that appeared different, and he was not too sure what it was. They walked into his office and he shut the door.
“To what do I owe the pleasure,” he inquired, as he made his way behind his desk.
“You know something,” she said. “I know you do because he mentioned the two of you going to lunch with one another. What did he tell you?”
“I do not feel comfortable disclosing that bit of information until I have everything tied in a bow for you, Sasha. Look, I have no issue telling you now, but…” and his voice trailed. He knew he had said too much. A look of fury and sadness washed upon her features.
“Why? Am I just not good enough?”
David was at a loss for words like always. “Sasha, you are perfect and he even admitted that while we had lunch. He is not himself as you know, and because of that he is not too sure what he is doing.”
“I have the right to know everything you know,” she said.
“Yes, that is true. I just do not want to tell you until I know you can win this divorce case.”
Sasha nodded. “I understand, and I will not act irrationally the moment I know. Look, I need to know what is going on. I have to know if the man I have given my heart to has in fact betrayed me.”
He tried to look away but knew he had to answer. “He admitted to sleeping with another woman, but he also said that after it was all finished he felt guilty about it.”
“This woman he is sleeping with, is she someone I would know?”
“I am not sure, but he did admit that he was torn about getting a divorce.”
She nodded. “Catch them in the act,” she said. “I want proof he is unfaithful, because I will take that bastard for everything he has.”
Sasha got to her feet and David knew that she was hiding something from him as well. He was unsure of what it was, but he knew he would have to investigate her as well to make sure that when he compiled all of his evidence he knew nothing could be thrown out by something she was doing.
Leaning back in his chair, he heard Emily knock on his door. He was angry, but he knew he could hide it well. “Come in.”
She stood in the doorway looking concerned for him. She did care about him as a person and not as her boss. He didn’t understand if that was significant in any way. She closed the door and sat down in the chair. He leaned forward and put his hands on the desk. She reached out and she put her hands on top of his, looking him in the eye.
“Boss, I have no idea how you are feeling right now, but I know it must not be good. I am not sure you have a lot of people to talk to about things like this, so I want to let you know that I am here for you. Whatever you need.”
David was lost in her eyes and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to look away. Emily made everything seem better, and he had this urge to hold her. He wanted to show his affection towards her, but he wasn’t sure how to go about it. These feelings he had should not even exist and he knew that, but they were there and they were not going away.
“I am fine, Emily, thank you,” he lied, and it obviously did not fool her.
“Say that if you like, but just know if you need anything, I will be at my desk.”
He was filled with conflict about his feelings towards the divorce of two of his closest friends, and he was very conflicted about the way he was feeling about Emily. There was also conflict about closing up shop. He knew that if he did that he would go months, or even longer, without a client. He knew his funds could last him for eight months, but after those eight months had passed he would have to let go of Emily. He had to pay her to be around and even if she came from money, he was not going to treat her any differently.
He finally got up and walked to the door. Emily heard him come out and smiled at him. “I am going to leave for the day, but I am going somewhere that I think you should see.”
Emily seemed to wonder what was going on, but just smiled and got to her feet. She followed behind him and they were on their way out.
###
They were in the North Woods Plaza where the diner stood alone from the other buildings. David could see that Doubles was fairly busy. He grabbed the silver handles that always looked like pipes to him and pulled them open. Emily stepped in and looked around. Like most diners, the theme was in the Seventies, but it was not as cramped as the other ones he had been in. He saw Stan standing at the booth and smiled.
“Ah, David,” he said. “It has been too long, my friend.”
Stan had a thick Italian accent and he didn’t appear to have changed much over the past year or so. He smiled. “Yeah Stan, it has definitely been too long. Anyways, this is Emily and she is a coworker of mine. I would actually like for Pops to meet her.”
“Well, let me go and check that your usual table is ready, and I will go see if your father is available.”
David nodded as he watched Stan scurry off. He turned to Emily, who was looking around and seemed to be admiring the place. David wondered if she had ever been here before and if so, he wondered when. He practically grew up here and he would have remembered if she had been in here before when he was there.
It took about a minute and he saw Stan come back. “Your booth is ready and your father will be right out.”
“Thank you, Stan,” he said, as he was leading Emily through the menagerie of people and chairs. They made it to the corner booth. David never understood why he loved this spot more than any other in the diner, but when they were first getting ready to unveil it, he had chosen this spot and it had remained special to him.
Sitting down, he realized Emily was sitting across from him and that these tables seemed closer together than he remembered. He could feel her knee and adjusted. He was wondering if maybe he was making this more awkward and uncomfortable than it should be, when his father arrived.
“David, it’s a surprise to see you. And who is this beautiful woman you’ve brought with you?”
“Emily Valentini. She is my assistant, and I brought her here to see what her father had done for our family.”
His father nodded, “Well, the last time I saw you here, Miss Valentini, you were about three years old and you only came up to my knee.”
Emily seemed confused about what was going on and they looked at one another. “Do you not know about your father’s investment?”<
br />
“No sir, I do not.”
“I see. Well, back in college, I was good friends with your father. We were both in law school together and then I dropped out to take care of my pregnant wife. I was working at this very diner, but it was under different management. After about three years of working here, old Sal had fallen into debt and he sold me this place dirt cheap, but the only thing was, it would not meet code and I didn’t have the money to do what I needed to. Your father loaned me the money. He technically owned part of Doubles, but he did not want any part of it. If it was not for your old man, I would not be where I am now.”
Emily was at a loss for words. She nodded. “He was a good man.”
David could see that she seemed somewhat upset and he was not too sure how to comfort her. He looked to his father for guidance. He was the one who always knew what to say and he nodded. “He surely was. Is there anything I could get for the two of you?”
“My usual, please,” David said and looked at her.
“Surprise me,” she smiled.
His father looked at her and nodded. “I will be right back then.”
David looked back to Emily and she seemed to want to hide her feelings. He was not too sure what was wrong. Talking about her father seemed to be a touchy subject for her, he wondered why. He smiled at her. He wanted to make her laugh, he wanted to make her feel better.
“So, is everything alright with you?”
“Of course, everything is just perfect. I see no reason why it wouldn’t be.”
“Don’t lie to me,” he chided. “Look, I am horrible at talking to most people, and especially at comforting them, but there is obviously something on your mind.”
Emily shrugged. She did not know how to respond to him. She wanted to tell him everything that had happened—everything she knew, but she couldn’t do that. Her father died a well-respected man and she was not going to tarnish his memory.
“You know, if I decide I really want to talk about it, I will come find you and we will have a chat about it, alright?”
There was nothing else he could do but nod. His father walked out from the kitchen carrying two of his famous shakes. He set them down smiling at both of them. “These shakes are what most people rave about. David, here is your peanut butter and chocolate shake, and for you, our vanilla chip. I would have made you the same one but as I remember, you have a peanut allergy.”
Emily seemed stunned at the fact that he knew she was allergic to peanuts. He smiled and walked away. She turned to David and he smiled at her. The atmosphere here was much different than the one she had grown up with. It was relaxing and she could see how alluring it was for families.
“After we are done here, what would you like to do?” As soon as those words passed his lips, he realized it sounded as if he was asking her on a date. This would not be classified as a date, would it?
“We should go back to the office and see if there is anything we need to do. I know you need to find out what you can about that Carly person.”
Taking a sip of his shake, he nodded. “Would you like to assist me in that?”
“Why would you need assistance?”
“I know there are things you can do that I can’t. You were caught hacking into your school database when you were twelve.”
“To prove my teacher was a pedophile and should not be working as my English teacher,” she hissed in a whisper so no one else would be able to hear.
“Regardless, you are more versatile in hacking into things than I am and that is exactly what I am going to need.”
“Why? You have never needed it before.”
“Well, this time it is not going to be so simple. Carly has a security system at her residence and it is located a private building. I am able to get in there, but getting into her home without being detected myself is an impossible task.”
She nodded calmly not wanting to seem excited. When she wanted to be his assistant it was because she thought the work would be interesting, but she mostly spoke with people, set up appointments and took their money. Now she would be able to contribute in a way she had not been able to before.
“Come to my place,” she said. “I have more equipment there than we do at the office.”
“Okay, that would be fine with me.”
They were silent again for a moment. His father was bringing out their food. He sat down with them with his own plate of food. Emily looked to the two of them. They were very similar, but David must’ve gotten his mother’s eye color of light brown. She looked down at her plate and saw a burger sitting there with a pile of French fries.
Picking up the burger, she bit into it and it tasted heavenly in her mouth. As she sat there in that booth, she felt as if she was part of a family.
###
David was staring in awe all around him. Everything in her home was decorated so modestly, yet eloquently. Nothing was too eccentric but it was not simple either. It was warm and lovely. He saw Emily was staring at him—studying him. He felt uncomfortable for a moment but he smiled.
“I love this.”
“Yeah, it is beautiful here. So, please follow me.”
Falling in line behind her, they walked down the hall and made it to a door that looked as if it should have been a cupboard under the staircase; but as she opened it, he saw that there were stairs going down as well.
“The basement has always been my domain. My mother always saw to it that I had my own space—away from my father and from her as well.”
He could not help but wonder if there was something wrong. Maybe something had happened when she was younger and that was why she acted the way she did, but he knew he should not pry into her life, even though he wanted to.
As they made it to the landing, she turned toward him and he stopped. The way she was looking at him was intense, and he attempted not to be awkward, but he was no good at that. He waited until she spoke.
“Why did you want to be an investigator?”
He was taken aback by her question and he realized he had really never talked to her about this before. She took a step back and it was somehow easier to breathe.
“I thought it would be a lot more fun than being a stuffy lawyer or tax consultant like everyone else. I wanted to get involved in investigations and help people. Truthfully, I thought there would be more to it than these domestic cases.”
“And you did not want to be a cop?”
“Why would I do something silly like that? Cops have their job, sure, but they have limited power and there are so many chains of command they have to go through they can hardly breathe. By being an investigator, I don’t have to go through anyone else. I have the freedom to act on my own without worrying about breaking some policy that prohibits me from doing my job.”
“So basically you can do something illegal without being detected.”
“Saying ‘illegal’ makes it sound so bad. I perform illegitimate actions in order to do my job, so I can help people get divorced a little more fairly, and… it pays fairly well.”
“Phrase it however you wish, but some of what you do could send you to jail for several years.”
“Or I would get fined, but regardless, it doesn’t matter. By the way, why would you want to help someone do such a thing anyway?”
“For the thrill,” she smiled, and stepped into a large room. For being in the basement, it sure didn’t seem like it. It was wide, open and spacious and he could see she had several monitors, two flat screens and a rolling chair.
“I probably shouldn’t ask who you hack, should I?”
“I do not hack anyone unless I am asked to do so.”
“And how do you not get caught?”
She scoffed as if it was a ridiculous question.
“I have my ways,” she said, as she sat down and rolled over to one of her desks. She moved the mouse a bit and all the monitors came to life. She got the keyboard and he watched in awe as they were beginning
to do different things. She turned towards him.
“Did you say that this Carly girl works with Martin?”
“That is what he said to me.” She started typing a few things into a search engine he had never seen before. A list of names that were highlighted came up and she picked one out of the list. He saw a picture come up with her name right next to it: Carly M. Everett. She had pitch-black hair and stunning blue eyes; and from what he saw she was only twenty-one years old compared to Martin’s twenty-nine.
Emily began doing something else; she had a live feed up and he saw her working her magic. He looked at Emily and she smiled.
“You are smart for being a Luddite, because I now have all of her information on my screen and she doesn’t even know it. Now we can see what she does. We can even go through her browsing history, but that isn’t all either. I can access all of her medical records.”
“Now who is the one doing illegal activity?”
“It is not illegal if you don’t get caught,” she said. Her eyes were scanning over the computer and she seemed to be able to process everything on her screens within seconds.
“And I was only caught once, and like most things I learned from my mistakes.”
She stopped and she turned her chair towards him. “What is the information you need to provide in order for Sasha to win her divorce?”
“Any proof of infidelity. That way she can prove that he is in default of their prenuptial agreement.”
She moved away from one of the screens and he realized she wanted him to read what was on it. They were e-mails from Martin to Carly. He realized that he had been lied to by Martin. He already knew that Carly was pregnant, and he was the father. If tone was able to be conveyed within text, it seemed to David that Martin was more than excited. He was going to be the one to file for divorce before Sasha even had the chance, and all he needed now was proof.
“I don’t know if that is the proof you were looking for. Is there anything else you would want me to find?”
He looked at her and he was not sure what to do. “I want more than that pregnancy test to give to Sasha. I want pictures. Hardcore evidence.”
Promised Box Set Page 56
