Sugar Rush

by McIntyre, Anna J.

  He immediately noticed the silver Honda Accord parked along the edge of the drive. That was probably Lexi’s car, he guessed. Perhaps Ethan was punishing his granddaughter for not parking the automobile in the garage, which would explain her morning walk. Ethan Beaumont was almost obsessive about parking his cars in the rear garage.

  Jeff found his employer waiting for him in the study. The elderly man sat behind his oversized mahogany desk, talking on the phone when Jeff entered. Ethan waved him into the room and pointed to the chair facing the desk.

  “I believe I saw your granddaughter,” Jeff said, when Ethan finished his call and placed the handset back in its cradle.

  “Did you? How did you know it was her?” Beaumont studied his young assistant.

  Barnett hadn’t changed his clothes since the two parted ways early that morning at the airport. The younger man still wore tan slacks and a red-and-tan golf shirt. He hadn’t had an opportunity to shave in over 24 hours, and the thick stubble covering his normally clean-shaven face distracted from his preppy look. Even his neatly trimmed, light brown hair looked uncharacteristically disheveled.

  Not as tall as Beaumont, the twenty-six year old assistant’s stocky physique barely reached 5’ 11” in height. Regular trips to the gym kept the younger man’s muscular body in prime shape.

  “The portrait,” Jeff explained.

  “Yes, that portrait is a remarkable likeness. Excellent artist. Where did you see her?”

  “She was getting into a red Volkswagen, at the Mission and Third Street intersection.”

  “Ah, very good. Then you’re ahead of the game.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “That’s why I called you here. You’re the only one I trust to handle the situation.”

  Jeff didn’t respond. He sat, silently listening, curious about how getting a glimpse of the granddaughter had anything to do with his job.

  “What I’m about to tell you is to be kept in the strictness confidence.”

  “Certainly, sir.” Jeff sat up a little straighter in the chair, focusing on every word.

  “It’s been arranged for some time that my granddaughter and Jerome Peters are to be married.”

  Jeff didn’t respond to the news, although it wasn’t what he expected to hear. Jerome Peters was much older than Lexi, and not a particularly handsome man. Actually, that was a bit of an understatement. Behind Peters’ back, Jeff overheard a couple of the women from the office refer to Peters as a troll. Beaumont’s partner was, however, a very wealthy man. It was not unusual for attractive young women to marry rich older men, even when those men looked like trolls.

  “Let’s just say the girl has had a change of heart. Lexi’s always had a bit of a rebellious streak, like her father. Of course, I can’t let that personality flaw destroy her future like it did my son’s. Soon, she’ll discover she was behaving rashly, and come back home and do what is the best for her future. In the meantime, I can’t have the vulnerable girl exploited by some opportunist who might seduce her or lead her down some unsavory path. I need you to keep an eye on her, and report back to me what she’s doing.”

  “You want me to spy on her?” Jeff asked, trying to conceal his distaste for such an assignment.

  “I want you to put her under surveillance. You have the necessary technical skills. I’m sure you’re perfectly capable of setting up some sort of concealed recording device. I don’t want her to know she’s being watched. It’s for her own good.”

  “Yes, sir.” Jeff shifted uneasily in the chair, wondering how long this little assignment would last. While he wouldn’t mind spending time watching the lovely, yet not-too-bright Lexi Beaumont, the thought of bugging the girl made him uncomfortable.

  “The red Volkswagen belongs to her friend, Angie. That will put you ahead of the game; we now know where she went. Before you leave, I’ll get you the address. I imagine she called Angie from her cell phone, when she left here, asking for a ride. I suppose I should have anticipated that, and had her cell phone disconnected. I’ll take care of that later.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “My granddaughter’s had it very easy since she moved here. She thinks that, now that she has graduated from college, she’s free to do whatever she wants. That is technically true, of course, but she doesn’t realize that to earn her freedom, she can’t expect me to pay her way. When she learns the world is not so easy when someone isn’t picking up the tab, she’ll be back, and do what is ultimately best for her future. Someone like her can’t survive on her own. Unfortunately, she’s just like her mother. I need to teach her a lesson, before she gets herself in serious trouble. That’s why I need you to keep an eye on her. Report back to me; let me know what she’s planning.”

  Beaumont’s words sounded a little odd to Jeff. Didn’t he just say she was like her father? Is she like her father, mother, or both? Jeff wished he had the luxury to tell Beaumont he hadn’t been hired to babysit or play Sherlock. Unfortunately, he couldn’t risk being abruptly terminated. In the current economy, one needed to be employed before finding a new job. He understood how lucky he had been to land such a well-paying position after completing his Master’s Degree. Perhaps it wasn’t his dream job, as he was often sent on tedious tasks, but it did include interesting travel and good medical benefits.

  Beaumont handed Jeff a debit card and told him how much he could spend. Jeff thought the budget was excessive, considering the task. Ethan rummaged through some index cards on his desk, until he found what he was looking for. He handed a card to Jeff. It was the contact information for Lexi’s friend, Angie.

  “Assuming Lexi will be staying with her friend, I want you to rent an apartment at Angie’s complex. Try to get one as close to her unit as possible. Lexi will undoubtedly be staying there. Purchase whatever you need to set up surveillance.

  “As soon as you can verify she’s there and has her computer and camera with her, contact me immediately. I’ll be filing theft charges this afternoon, and will need to know where she and the stolen merchandise are.”

  “You’re having your granddaughter arrested?” Jeff was appalled and forgot to conceal his reaction. Ethan only chuckled at his assistant’s response.

  “Don’t worry. I don’t intend to have her actually hauled down to the police station and locked up. I don’t believe Jerome would care for a wife with an arrest record, and I certainly don’t want our family name tainted. It’s just to scare her a little, and force her to give up her precious electronics. If she wants a fancy computer and camera, she can get a job and buy her own. Consider this necessary character building.”

  “Once you file charges, won’t they have to take her in?”

  “Perhaps I misspoke. Technically I’m not filing charges at this time. Just a nice chat with the police chief, who is an old friend of mine.”

  Jeff was relieved Ethan Beaumont didn’t intend to have the granddaughter arrested. Had that been the case, he might be forced to turn down the assignment and risk losing his job. It would be difficult to find a new position if his former employer refused to give him a recommendation, something that would probably happen if he crossed Beaumont.

  As he left the estate, he was approached by the housekeeper, who passed on some disturbing information regarding Lexi and her grandfather. It heightened his hesitancy about the unsavory assignment.

  Reluctantly, Jeff followed his boss’s instructions. His first stop was to the bank to pull out some cash using the debit card Beaumont had given him. The next stop was an electronic shop to pick up surveillance equipment. Questions of moral ethics and the legality of using such equipment made him uncomfortable, yet he made the purchase. The final stop would be the Hillcrest Apartments, where Angie lived, to see if there were any vacancies.

  Chapter Three

  “I still find it hard to believe, even for your grandfather,” Angie said as she led the way into her apartment and tossed the keys on her kitchen counter. Lexi followed her friend and closed the door
behind them. “Isn’t Jerome Peters that creepy little man who finds it impossible to keep his hands to himself?”

  “I’m afraid so. But to his credit, he’s never accidentally touched me when Grandfather was in the room.”

  “Gross. And your grandfather expected you to marry him?”

  “I confess; this one totally caught me off guard. While walking to meet you, I kept running the morning over in my mind, asking myself how I might have handled the situation differently. But I couldn’t come up with anything.”

  “I still can’t believe he kept your clothes! What does he think he’s going to do with them?”

  “I imagine he’ll throw them away. I really don’t care about the clothes, but I have a couple of boxes in my closet upstairs that I should have grabbed. But I was so desperate to get out of there before he asked for my computer and camera—since he paid for those, like he did the car.”

  “I thought they were birthday gifts.”

  “Yes, all three were gifts, but Grandfather giveth and Grandfather taketh away.”

  “The old bastard. What was in the boxes?”

  Although Lexi considered Angie her best friend, they had known each other for less than two years, having met during their junior year at college. They had initially met at a party hosted by a mutual friend. Once they realized they were both going to the same school, and each would be graduating in December instead of June, they had decided to see what else they had in common.

  Lexi had majored in graphic design and Angie in photography. Angie came from a close-knit family, with supportive parents and overbearing brothers, while Lexi had been raised by her wealthy and emotionally detached grandfather.

  “Some sentimental stuff from my parents. After they were killed, he hired someone to clean out our house—got rid of everything—before selling the property. He never even asked me if I wanted anything, and I was still in shock. I never thought to ask. Hell, I was only ten at the time.”

  “So, what was in the boxes, if he got rid of everything?”

  “My parents had some really close friends, Joe and Carolyn Manning. They didn’t have kids, but I remember they were always really nice to me, and they often vacationed with us. I remember one year going to Hawaii. It was a blast.

  “After my parent’s funeral, I only saw them one other time. They stopped by my grandfather’s house. It was probably a month after the funeral. Grandfather was on one of his business trips, and I was left with the housekeeper. They brought me two boxes, filled with random stuff like photographs and some things Mom had loaned Carolyn, but hadn’t yet been returned.

  “Carolyn and Joe stood up for my parents when they eloped, and she had some great pictures. Those were in the box, along with photos from trips we’d all taken. Fortunately, I scanned all the pictures a long time ago, so those aren’t really lost to me, but I would like to get the originals back.”

  “Lexi, if you say your grandfather sold your parent’s house, wouldn’t that be your money?”

  Lexi laughed ruefully at the question. “I asked him that when I was in high school. I confronted my grandfather once, and he informed me my father had borrowed a considerable amount of money from him. When my parents died, and their estate was liquidated, all proceeds went to pay off my grandfather.”

  “I really don’t understand how you’ve been as nice to him as you have all these years, considering the mind games he loves to play.”

  “It’s all about control. Grandfather has an obsessive need to control everything around him. He tried it with my father and failed. I’m all he has left.”

  “I never understood why your parents appointed him as your guardian, especially considering their relationship with him. Hell, my sister-in-law made a point to make me guardian of her and my brother’s son, if something happened to them. She said her parents would be the last people she’d want to raise Joey.”

  “I suppose my dad loved his father. Maybe he felt Grandfather was in the best position to give me what I needed financially, since my parents died broke. And I suppose that was true, to an extent. I went to good schools; I never went hungry. And even though he took the car back, he can’t take away my education. I’m pretty lucky to have a degree and no student loans.”

  “True. And you still have your computer and camera, which will help generate some income until you land a job. You can stay with me, like we planned.”

  “Something about the computer and camera is bugging me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t think my grandfather expected me to walk away from the car so quickly. I’ve a feeling he assumes I’ll come home after I think about it. But I won’t, and knowing him, he’ll start obsessing on the camera and computer. I have this gut feeling he’ll want them back.”

  “Well, tell the old bastard to shove it, because they belong to you now!”

  “I suppose, but just in case,” Lexi opened her bag and removed the laptop. She placed it on Angie’s kitchen table and turned it on. The password to Angie’s Wi-Fi was already in the computer, so when the laptop powered on, it immediately connected.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m going to move some of my files to my Dropbox and change some security settings. If my Grandfather finds a way to get this back—and knowing him, he will—I don’t want any of my personal files left behind.”

  “Now you’re just being paranoid.” Angie scoffed. “If he was going to take it away from you, he would have already. Anyway, I’m not about to let that old bastard into this apartment.”

  “I’ve just learned to never underestimate my grandfather. Plus, I find it especially unsettling that I didn’t see the Jerome Peters thing coming. He totally slipped that one by me. This is precisely the reason I got my own cell phone.”

  “I always thought it was kind of strange, having two phones, especially when your Grandfather was paying the phone bill.”

  “Right, and the minute he’s mad at me, he yanks away the phone, and all the numbers I’ve saved are gone. I don’t think so. Did you forget the story I told you about how quickly he sold Cricket when I got in trouble at camp?”

  Angie remembered hearing about the incident. It had been devastating for Lexi, to lose the horse she loved, especially so because her parents had given it to her the year before their death. But her grandfather had stubbornly sold the animal, insisting he had every right to, since it was his money that paid for the horse’s keep, and if she could so easily throw away money he spent on camp, then she didn’t deserve the horse.

  It was true that she had never wanted to go to camp—that was something Ethan insisted she do each summer. He certainly didn’t want a young girl underfoot when school was out. But she hadn’t caused the incident that had gotten her sent home. She was the victim. Ethan Beaumont wasn’t interested in some story about how the orphan had become the target of several rich girls, teased unmercifully and forced to endure one cruel prank after another, until one prank caused a fire in the dorm and it was Lexi who was blamed. Without a guardian’s support, no one was interested to hear her side of the tale. The next summer, she was sent to a different camp.

  “When looking back, I think the worst part was that Grandfather made me feel guilty, as if my actions forced him to sell her. Now that I’m older, I understand he was looking for an excuse to get rid of her. He planned it all along. He was just waiting for me to slip up so he could use it as one of his lessons. Had it not been the trouble at camp, it would have been something else.”

  When Lexi finished removing the files from her laptop and updating her security settings, she turned the computer off.

  “You don’t have to work at all today?” Lexi asked her friend.

  “No. I cancelled the photo shoot after you called the second time.”

  “Then, do you think you could take me to the mall? I need to pick up some clothes, a toothbrush, and a few other things.”

  “It’s too bad we don’t wear the same size, then you could just
borrow some of my clothes for now, and slowly build your wardrobe.”

  “The only thing I’m getting at the mall, in the way of clothes, is something nice to wear on a job interview and some underwear. I thought we could stop at the thrift store after the mall. For now, this girl is dressing budget. I’m not about to blow my savings on a new wardrobe.”

  * * *

  Jeff was rather pleased with himself. Lucky for him and his employer, the apartment complex had a number of vacancies, including a furnished unit across the walkway from Angie’s. It was one of the few complexes in town that rented short-term. Confident the manager would run a background check and see he was already renting an apartment nearby, Jeff told the manager he only needed the unit for the rest of January, as his apartment was currently being renovated. The moment he told the falsehood he regretted it, realizing he had no idea if the manager had any knowledge of his complex. When the manager didn’t seem that interested in the information, Jeff told himself he was being paranoid. I’d make a crappy spy.

  He wasn’t sure what he was going to do or how he would proceed. Although he was tech savvy and would be perfectly capable of bugging the apartment or hacking into Lexi’s computer, he wasn’t prepared to do either of those things, in spite of the fact he’d already purchased the items necessary to bug the apartment.

  Since leaving the Beaumont estate that morning, he had cooled considerably at the notion of playing spy, yet understood he couldn’t walk away without the risk of losing his job. For now he would keep an eye on Lexi—from a safe distance—and hopefully, she wouldn’t get herself in too much trouble, thus jeopardizing his job.

  Lexi and her friend Angie were just leaving the apartment when he was unlocking the door to the unit he’d just rented. So as not to be seen, he quickly ducked into his apartment and shut the door behind him, leaving it open just a crack so he might overhear the girls as they walked by the door.

  From their conversation, it was obvious they were on their way to the mall. A moment later, he looked outside and watched as the two climbed into the red Volkswagen and drove away. Jeff opened his apartment door and went outside again. He stepped off the sidewalk and looked into Angie’s window. She hadn’t completely shut the blinds, and he spied Lexi’s large handbag and a laptop computer sitting on the kitchen table.