Coming To Reason (A Long Road to Love) (13 page)

He gripped the girls’ shoulders. “I’ll let you get back to
work.”

As he headed to the door, Carrie spoke. “Dan.”

He turned and faced her.

“There is one good thing about this.”

If something positive had come out of the disaster, he
couldn’t see it. “What?”

“She looks to be your sole problem. No one else popped up
in the
analysis
. You should take this as good news because she drags down
the quality of your firm.”

“Goes without saying. Clients aren’t happy when their
employee leaves right after we place them. God knows how many customers I’ve
lost by now.”

“We’ll run the data for you, but she seems to have been
careful not to have too many occur in a single company. Had she done so, your
clients would have complained to you and you would have solved this long ago.”

So Sandra’s greed had spared him from losing his clients,
but left her free to steal from him for years.

“Can both of you stay until this is complete?”

Both heads nodded in unison. Their eyes held concern and
determination. God, he loved them both…in very different ways.

“I’m going to order food from Giuseppe’s.”

They smiled.

“I’ll have the salmon and cheese on bread appetizers,”
Carrie said.

Destiny asked for Chicken Marsala and the same appetizer.

“We can share the appetizer if you want. I’ll can’t each
much.”

Dan’s hand settled on her back. “I’ll order two for the
three of us.”

***

Once in his office, he turned the food order over to Helen.
He called his lawyer and explained the new evidence his girls had found hidden
in the database.

“Sounds good, but I would like to receive a copy of the report
and have a third-party computer expert assess the conclusions. We’ll need him
to testify in court. We can’t use Carrie Hanson.”

“Why not? She’s very articulate.”

“Flint Clarke sent me his investigative report on the
girl.”

Dan’s anger flared. “He should have sent it to me.”

“He told me you hired him a few hours ago to assess her,
but I hired him last week. And if he dares charge you for a second report, let
me know and I’ll fire him. You already paid for the investigation.”

“Beside the Europa incident, what else did he find?”

His questions set Charles off. “Besides? You’ve got a game
killer with a jury, right there. All the prosecutor has to ask is ‘Miss Hanson,
did you bake some chocolate turtles laced with narcotics,
almost
killing two
people?’ and her credibility is dirt.”

“I see your point. But did you find something else?”

“There’s film of some disgruntled employee trying to throw
a cabinet from a fifth story window which would have killed her, but a black-coated
man wearing a mask came to her rescue.”

The one and only decent thing Trent Lancaster has ever
done.
But, still, the whole nonsense escalated until the police arrested Carrie
and Trent.

“I’ve seen the video, but I understood the police dropped all
charges.”

“They dropped the charges on Lancaster, but they never filed
any against Miss Hanson. However, it’s possible she paid for her free pass with
sex.”

His anger flared. “What proof do you have?”

“Rumors. Which also have her in Trent’s harem as his
favorite girl.”

Dan rubbed his temples. “Anything else?”

“Her sister and parents have nothing nice to say about her.
Claim she’s been an embarrassment to the family from day one.”

“Okay, now I’m getting pissed off. Where do these people
live?”

“On the other coast, and stay away from them. They sound
like the suing type.”

“Send the full report and copies of the investigator’s
initial notes.”

“Of course. I’m sorry, Dan. I know you thought she had
promise. But the good news is you don’t need her to solve this problem anymore.”

“Carrie is the reason it got
solved. Without her
help, Destiny wouldn’t have known how to search the database.”

A heavy groan came from the other side. “Why is nothing
ever simple? Any chance Destiny can claim she did this by herself and back it
up with the knowledge of how to do it, if challenged?”

“I’m sure she could. Carrie teaches when she does
something. Destiny insists she learns more from Carrie in a day than her
professors in a semester.”

“And not mention Carrie during her testimony?”

“I don’t know if she’ll agree to a lie of omission.”

“Well, if Carrie is brought up, I can pretty well guarantee
you, Sandra will walk.”

“Charles, if you met this young woman, you’d see—”

“Not happening. Send me the data Destiny prepares and I’ll
let you know your chances of success. Once you review the investigation of
Carrie, step back and assess unemotional
ly
if you
really
want your daughter around Miss Hanson. Everyone who knows
her claims she’s trouble. She’s either causing it, or she’s a magnet, but
either way trouble finds her.”

Charles’s warning caused Dan’s teeth to clench. He had to relax
his jaw to respond. “I’ll send you the information whenever it’s done tonight.”

“If it’s after eight, send it to my fax at home.”

Dan hung up the phone. Was Carrie a magnet for trouble? He
discounted the parents. They had damned near starved their child to death. The problems
Carrie had incurred this last year, he blamed on Trent.

But had she gravitated to other men like Trent in her past?

Helen knocked and entered. She placed a folder on his desk
and left. He opened it to find the investigator’s report.

Upon reading it, Dan’s temper flared.

Charles had skipped all the positive comments she’d
received from her professors, of both genders, and roommates from her college
years.

Additional glowing comments came from professionals who
knew her. Dave Massey and several others had nothing but nice things to say
about her.

Several of Trent’s employees, who had been released during
the turnabout, trashed her as his lackey.

He moved on to the field notes and learned a great deal
about her
earlier years
from her first roommate. While her parents put her twin
through college, they didn’t give Carrie a penny. Due to their high incomes,
she didn’t qualify for hardship scholarships. So while her sister attended
UCLA, Carrie went to a small, unimpressive college on an academic scholarship.

According to the roommate, the only time her parents had
contacted her was when they ordered her home to attend her sister’s graduation.
They insisted she miss her graduation and pay for her flight to California to
celebrate Caroline’s grand accomplishment of graduating in the top quarter of
her class. Carrie refused, and continued to refuse, even after some brutal
badgering from both parents. She stayed in New York, attended her own
graduation, giving her valedictory speech to a smaller audience.

Dan’s heart hurt for her. How this small, deliberate
ly
starved child
had grown into such a marvelous, optimistic person astounded him. Most people
would have become bitter as hell.

He returned to the final report, pissed the investigator
had
only
included she’d
graduated first in her class of four hundred, but nothing about the obstacles
she’d overcome to attend college in the first place.

Annoyed, he called the investigator. “Did you check her
social security number?”

“Of course. Basic procedure.”

“If it’s so basic, then why do I have one social security
number listed for twenty something different names in my database?”

After a pause, the guy replied, his words clipped and
angry. “I don’t know, Dan. Would you like me to investigate your daughter and
determine if she made a mistake or screwed up intentional
ly
?”

Dan’s temper flared. “The problem began long before Destiny
came to work.”

“Give me a name?”

He closed his eyes and recalled the list he had seen on the
monitor. “Adam Smith.”

After a moment, the man spoke. “No Adam Smith. Which means
you never asked me to perform an investigation.”

Dan groaned. He relied on the consultant to order
investigations, with Greg checking they had done so. “Does Greg send you a list
to verify his investigations correspond with yours?”

“No. I send him a list of names, along with my bill.”

“I want you to do a financial investigation on Sandra
Parker. She’s one of my consultants, should be in your files.” He grimaced.
“And do one on Greg, as well, but send it through Charles. I don’t want Greg
seeing his name on the list.”

“Got it. And these wrong social security numbers you wanted
to slam me for?”

“All the people came from Sandra, starting three months
after she came to work for me twelve years ago.”

A heavy sigh whistled through the phone. “I never slack on
your investigations, Dan. Your business is half my income. I give you a hundred
percent effort. I promise you no one asked me to investigate those people. I
would have caught the false social security number within an hour of receipt.”

“I agree. I jumped to the wrong conclusion.”

“We’ll sort this out. First, I’ll investigate Greg. Sandra
looks guilty as hell, but you need to know as soon as possible about your
second in command.”

The moment Dan hung up, Helen knocked on the door and
entered. “Excuse me, but there’s a gentleman from Top Value with a chair. He
needs Carrie Hanson to sign for it, but she’s not in her office, or Jeff’s, or
the bathroom, or the break room. I insisted I could sign, but he says it has to
be her.

“She’s with Destiny.”

Helen smiled and hurried off.

He decided to watch Carrie receive her ‘tiny’ chair. He
needed his spirit uplifted.

Destiny and Carrie ignored the first polite round of
knocking, but the second urgent rapping got their attention. Destiny jumped up
and opened the door two inches.

Helen spoke from the hall. “Carrie, you are needed to sign
for a delivery.”

Destiny objected. “Can’t you sign for it?”

“No,” echoed Carrie and Helen. Carrie squeezed out the
door. “I’ll be right back.”

“He’s waiting in the lobby,” Helen called after her.

When she arrived, a man with a beautiful, small, maroon chair
stood facing the elevators.

When the doors opened, he rolled it in.

“Wait!” Carrie cried. “Don’t leave.”

He rolled the chair out. “I’d decided you had left for the day.”

Carried recognized the guy as the product manager, Allan.

He pulled a half-inch thick stack of paper from his
briefcase. They sat on the couch in the receptionist area and reviewed each
document. She appreciated he didn’t expect her to sign without reading it.

When he got to the ‘don’t let our competitors know anything
about this product, including its existence’ contract, he even provided verbal
examples of what she couldn’t do.

“You cannot suggest to Trent, or any other competitor, they
might think about serving the small person market. If you meet with them in
your office, you will need to remove it to a safe place during their visit.”

The list went on and on. Finally, he stopped and met her
eyes. “Our lawyers went nuts when we said we wanted you to review our chair.
But Dave insisted you could be trusted and believes we’ll get our best feedback
from you, with quality suggestions for improvements. And I agree. However, if a
competitor gets wind of this, investigators will jump all over you, and if they
find a connection between you and the leak, the company will sue you for every
viable asset you have.”

Carrie frowned. While a beautiful chair, she didn’t want to
lose her house over it.

“They have to prove I’m guilty, right? I’m confident I’m
not going to leak its existence. However, I’m not willing to risk my house on
someone getting wind about this from other people working on the project.”

“They will need to show concrete proof. Both Dave and I
will insist upon it, because we will begin with the assumption you are innocent
until proven guilty.”

She released the air her paralyzed lungs had held since her
house became at risk.

“I will keep my office locked at all times, and when anyone
knocks on my door, I will cover it with a throw before answering. I would offer
to leave the throw on, but I need to sit on the chair as it’s intended.”

Allan nodded in agreement. “I’m assuming you and Trent are
no longer speaking.”