Promised Box Set

by James Kipling

  She nodded and he knew there was a question on her mind. “Why do you care so much about this? I know you know them both personally, but it seems like you really care about Sasha.”

  “I don’t care about her in the way you are insinuating. Sasha has been with Martin ever since they were in high school. She could have had anyone she wanted. Her brother Rodney sure as hell didn’t approve of them being together, but he kept his opinion to himself the entire time. He wanted her to be happy, and since Martin was always preaching the ‘one woman forever’ spiel, we all thought he was for real. Now it just looks as if he lied to our faces, and the moment Rodney finds out, he is going to be a handful.”

  “I see,” she began. “I’ll help you get all the evidence, Boss. It is just going to take a few minutes. You said that she has a security system in her home?”

  “Yeah, it’s one of those newer top-of-the-line models.”

  “Well, she does live in a private building and she has a security system for more than protecting her home. I am more than certain she will have cameras,” she said. David watched her pull up a screen and she began typing. They were not just seeing the feed of Carly from her computer, but they were also seeing the rest of her residence.

  “Wouldn’t top-of-the-line security be impossible to break into?”

  “Everything can be broken into,” she said. “People are predictable and that is exactly why it is easy to gain access to their information. Most people use the same passwords and then when they log into something it remembers their password. They hit ‘yes’ for it to save, and it is uploaded into a database that can be hacked. It holds not only their passwords, but saved credit card information, their addresses, names—everything is saved. People put too much trust in technology and they all have this mindset that their information is not going to be stolen, but it does inevitably happen.”

  “Well, hopefully you can’t find anything on me,” and as he said that, he realized he was challenging her. She looked away from him and he heard her fingers striking the keys. As several tabs opened and disappeared, he wondered what she was doing, then he saw his own picture, but it was back from when he was in college and there was all of his information on the screen.

  “It looks as though I have found something,” she said and there was a smile on her face. David was not sure how to feel at the moment. All of his information was right there in front of him and anyone could gain access to it. His identity could be stolen. He realized Emily was much more talented than he was when it came to hacking into things. He was very basic, but she was on a completely different level.

  “Well, that is just disconcerting. Uh, so with the information that we have on Carly…” he began. He was not too sure what to say or how to approach it. He just wanted all of his information to be gone off the screen.

  She locked her screen and she turned towards him. “Would you allow me to compile the evidence you need to provide to Sasha?”

  “You sound too excited about this.”

  He watched as color formed on her cheeks. Was she blushing? Why would she blush? She brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and bit her lip.

  “I was always hoping to be able to do more than just take messages and schedule appointments for you all day.”

  David looked away from her. Now he felt as though he had been ignoring her wants, but why should he feel bad? Emily had never told him about her desires to do any of this, and that was not his issue. Now that he knew though, he wondered if he would actually be able to close up shop. He knew it was possible he would have to let her go, and he did not want that.

  “I see. Well, I wish you had told me sooner. I thought you were busy enough with everything else, and I didn’t realize you wanted to juggle more.”

  “I am busy,” she smiled. “But I am very good at multitasking.”

  “Well, I guess we will have to see how well you actually do multitask.”

  She blushed again and he realized what he said could have been taken wrong. He hoped that she didn’t take it the wrong way. He was awkward enough without talking. Now that he was, he realized he should probably shut up. She smiled.

  “I think you should be getting home,” she finally said. “I will have everything on your desk in the morning.”

  He nodded, but he could not help but feel reluctant to leave. He enjoyed being in her company, but he knew he had to go. There were a few things he needed to do anyway. She was seeing him out and he turned back towards her. He needed to say something. “Look Emily, this might be the only case you can work on. Once I stop taking these domestic cases, we might be out of work for a while.”

  Emily took a step closer towards him and she looked him in the eye.

  “I know that, Boss, but that’s fine. We will work through it all together.”

  David nodded. She had opened the door for him and he stepped outside. He wasn’t too sure he wanted to leave but he finally walked to the gate. He opened the gate, went through and shut it. He heard something beep and he saw that the security had been set. He could not deny that Emily was extraordinary. He looked over his shoulder. Part of him wanted to see her there, but she was not.

  Continuing to walk down the road, he had no idea where he was going and was wishing again that he’d driven his car today. He hailed a taxi once he made it to the main road. Sitting in the backseat, he knew where he needed to go.

  Chapter 5

  He hadn’t sat in this kitchen in well over a year and his mother was bubbling with excitement. She was putting dinner together as quickly as she could, as his father walked in through the front door. He appeared to be exhausted, they’d had multiple functions at the diner and things just went better when he was there. He paused for a moment.

  “David, what the hell are you doing here?”

  “Rick,” his mother said. “What is the matter with you? Since when is having our son in the house a bad thing?”

  “No, of course not, and I am sorry that came out wrong. I was just not expecting to see you twice in one day. What’s the matter?”

  David was not too sure how to tell his father what was going on in his head, but he knew he needed to talk to him. His father was the most logical person he knew and he trusted him. “I just needed to talk to you about something.”

  His father smiled and walked over towards him. Patting him on the shoulder, he pulled a chair out and sat down next to him. “And what is that something on your mind?”

  “I don’t know how to say this, because it is something you don’t approve of.”

  “What? Dating your coworkers? Emily looked as if she was into you, too.”

  “What? No! That is not what I am here to talk to you about; there’s something else.”

  “There’s a girl,” his mother interjected. “Who is she?”

  “Mom, there is no girl. I don’t think so at least; but that isn’t why I’m here, anyway. I need to talk to you about my business.”

  His father scrunched up his nose. “What is going on, son?”

  David knew his father had not approved of him changing his major. They had never fought so much about anything, and it was because of that fight that David had not been around as much. He knew that was wrong of him, but after the things that had been said—he knew he was being immature about it and he needed to get past it. However, he was not too sure if his father was over it either.

  “I am successful,” he started. “But the cases I’ve been working on are for people wanting to catch their cheating spouses. I can’t stand them anymore. I always thought it would be different, and I want it to be different.”

  “David, there is no way to change your clientele. All you are going to be able to do is wait for the right cases to come along.”

  “And what happens if they don’t come?”

  “Then you deal with it. I have a feeling you already knew this was going to be the answer. Now, can you please tell me why you’re really here?”

/>   He had never been able to keep anything from his father and sighed. “You remember my roommates, Rodney and Martin?”

  “Yeah. I remember they had come to the diner a few times, back before I knew you had changed your mind about what you were doing for school. Why?”

  “Well, Martin was with Rodney’s sister. They had always seemed to be perfect for one another and well, Sasha came to the office and she suspected Martin was cheating on her. I mean this was the sort of guy who always wanted to be with one person forever. I admired him for that, and now he’s throwing it all away and I have the proof to back it up.”

  His father was silent for a moment and his mother was listening intently. She very seldom spoke out in conversations unless she was directly asked. David never knew why, but it was not his place to ask.

  “Some people are imposters. I don’t know why he couldn’t have stayed with the same woman, but if he had been serious at one point there might have been a major change in their relationship that drove him away.”

  “She can’t carry a child, but that should not mean anything. There are other ways of getting a child into this world. Hell, there are children just waiting for a loving family to adopt them!”

  “Son, there has to be something else going on in their relationship that they haven’t told you. There are several sides to a single story and right now you have only heard bits and pieces of it. Maybe it’s time for you to look into it further. I mean, that’s what you are good at, right?”

  He shook his head. “I am going to close up shop after this case. I don’t think I can take this any longer. I don’t think I can continue helping people get divorced. Yes, it is a lot of money, more than I ever thought I would be making, but it’s just not worth it any more. I need something better. I want to help people find those they have lost. I want to find out who is responsible for their disappearance. I want more.”

  “We have always supported you, even if we didn’t approve. I know you have an idea about what you are doing.”

  David wasn’t sure what else to say, and his father continued to look at him. He seemed to know there was something else on his mind, but he wasn’t willing to talk about it. The oven beeped and his mother quickly pulled out the lasagna tray. He had to admit it was nice to be with his family and he could not help but like it. One day he wanted this—a family.

  Chapter 6

  He was back at the office and had barely spoken to Emily the next morning. He was reading all the information she had gathered for him. She had not left anything out and what he was reading wasn’t making him happy. He was half tempted to call Rodney and tell him everything that had happened—Rodney would kill Martin if he knew what was going on. Even he hadn’t known. Then again, there wasn’t enough evidence in this file alone to say that he had indeed carried out the deed, but David seemed to know it had been him.

  He heard the knock on his door and allowed her to walk in. She must have known how long it would take him to read over everything. She stood there in the doorway, wearing a pencil skirt and purple blouse. She was gorgeous. He finally looked up to her eyes.

  “I know there is a lot going on in your mind and I was wondering if you wanted to talk about it.”

  “You’re right, I do want to talk about this, but not to you. I am so sorry if that sounded rude, but there is someone else I need to talk to about this.”

  Emily nodded. “I understand. If you change your mind I will be at my desk.”

  No words came out of his mouth and all he could do was nod. Emily knew what he wanted and left him in his office, with the door shut. He picked up his landline and made a phone call out. He was surprised when Rodney actually picked up the line.

  “This is Rodney,” he said.

  “Hey Rod, it’s me, David. How have you been?”

  “I’ve been good, man, and what about you? It’s been a while!”

  “It sure has. Would you want to catch up sometime?”

  “Yeah, let me look at my calendar and I’ll get back to you. Is this the best number to reach you at?”

  “Yes. I will be leaving the office around six this evening, so give me a call beforehand.”

  “Sure thing,” he said. “Is something wrong? You sound as if there is something on your mind.”

  “When we go out, I’ll tell you. This is something we need to talk about face to face.”

  “Alright, well I’ll give you a call in an hour or two. I have a client coming in and I’m not sure how long it will take to finish up.”

  “That’s fine. I will talk to you soon.”

  Disconnecting the line, he sat there thinking. He wasn’t too sure how to approach this situation. With everything he had read, he couldn’t believe what he had not been told. He could understand why Sasha wouldn’t talk about it, but Martin should have been able to. It was an event he was certain that Rodney didn’t even know about. No, he didn’t want to talk about Sasha’s personal life, but Rodney needed to know what had happened to his sister.

  Getting up from his chair, he walked to the door. He paused for a moment and wondered if Emily needed to talk about it. She too had discovered this, and even if she didn’t know them personally, he was certain she would be able to understand what had happened. He wondered if she felt something when she read over it.

  Opening the door, he saw her sitting there with her tablet. She looked up at him. She appeared to be deep in thought about something. She spoke, “Is everything alright, Boss?”

  “Everything is—not alright. I guess there are things that I wish never happened. Things that should have been able to be changed, but weren’t. Do you think she didn’t tell me because of how painful the memory was to her?”

  “We don’t speak about the horrors of what has happened,” she said, and it sounded as if she had her own personal experience. “Sasha most likely didn’t tell you because she felt ashamed. How could someone allow that to happen to themselves? She had no control over that, of course, and even if she knows that, she isn’t going to be able to forget. Especially if she had trusted him.”

  David felt sick because he had trusted Martin not to be that type of man, and yet he was. He was repulsed and he knew once Rodney was aware he would want to act irrationally, but he had more to lose. He would do what he needed to by his sister without going outside the law.

  “I don’t see why she would stay with him after that.”

  “She probably stayed because she didn’t think she could be with anyone else. She was probably certain she wouldn’t be able to. Her loyalties were to him before that ever happened and her loyalties were still probably there—regardless of what he had done to her.”

  “He should not be allowed to breathe.”

  “You can’t do anything about what happened. Just give her the material so she has a solid case against him—that way she can take him for what he has; then she can go live her life and hopefully start over.”

  David looked at her and nodded. “I will. Would you arrange for her to come by today? I would like to talk to her before I speak with Rodney, and I would like for you to accompany me. I think she would be more comfortable if there was a woman around.”

  Emily nodded. “Sure thing, Boss. Anything you need.”

  He could not help but feel something whenever he looked into her eyes. Part of him wanted to reach out and touch her, but he refrained. They were both professionals and these feelings he felt needed to be locked away. Besides, he was not even certain she felt the same way, even with the observance his father had made, he was certain there was nothing.

  Turning away from her, he headed back to his office. He knew this was going to be a long night.

  ###

  About two hours had passed and so far they had been unable to get in contact with Sasha. For whatever reason, she was unreachable and David wondered what was going on. It was very unlike her not to be around her phone. Especially since she knew he would be calling her.

  S
itting in one of the chairs, he looked intently at Emily. He wanted to talk to her and tell her what he was thinking, but so far he was unable to do so. She pushed out her seat, walked towards him, and sat down across from him. She was studying him and said, “Neither of us can speculate on what is going on. It is possible that she is just busy. All we can do is wait.”

  “I suppose so,” David said. “What would you like to do?”

  “Well, it is only one in the afternoon. Would you like me to pick up some Thai food and bring it back up here?”

  “That sounds wonderful,” he said. “You know what I like.”

  She beamed at him and got to her feet. “I should be back in about forty minutes. If you need anything, call me.”

  “I will.”

  He stood up as well and walked her to the door. She turned towards him and smiled. “Bye for now.”

  She slipped out of the office and he waited there for a moment, not sure what he was feeling or even why. That was something his mother was talking to him about yesterday. She was saying that he wasn’t getting any younger and that she wanted to be a grandmother. David told her about Emily and she remembered who she was and she approved. They worked together though and wouldn’t a relationship make things more complicated? If they were together he would be distracted. No, he couldn’t be with her and he was just going to leave it at that.

  Walking towards Emily’s desk, he saw that her tablet was there. He noticed there was a crack on the screen. He had never really observed her tablet closely before, but he knew she was always using it. Maybe it had cracked from overuse, then again it was possible she had just dropped it. Technology was so fragile, but as Emily had shown him, useful.

  He stood there for a moment. Just then, the door opened and he saw Sasha standing there. She was distraught and he saw she was not alone. Standing behind her was a woman he had not seen since college, Nancy Shaw. He realized Sasha had tears in her eyes and Nancy seemed to be consoling her.

  “We got messages from your assistant that you wanted to have her come here. What is going on?” Nancy asked. David could not deny that she had changed since college. She had lost weight and looked terrific.