Lying Low

I just got back to my room after Sunday brunch. I didn’t like what I saw down there. It looks like the Committee is meeting. Stan Metzger of the PNW Publishing Group walked in to breakfast beside Renee Fortier, the founder of one of the largest internet services groups in the country. I was really shocked to see the CEO of Allied Cellular with him.

11:00 a.m.

I ran to my room and decided to call Cinnamon. I used my Deb Riley SIM and she answered on the first ring.

“Deb, where are you? I’ve been so worried,” she spoke as soon as she answered.

“Well, I’m fine. I’ve been really lucky. How are you?”

“Well, Seattle is a mess. Downtown is fine and so is your apartment on Capitol Hill. Parts of town are still without power and the East Side is a virtual blackout. According to the news there’s 700,000 people still without power.”

“Good Lord!” I exclaimed. “I’m going to need you to go down to my office for me.”

“I already did,” Cinnamon answered. “In fact, that’s where I am now. It’s a mess.”

“No power?”

“Oh you’ve got power, all right,” she answered, “but it looks like someone came in and searched the place. When I say a mess, I mean everything is torn up and it looks like someone came in and vandalized it during the storm. A window was broken in the big office and there’s water damage. I called a glass company to come and replace the window for you.”

“You are terrific, Cinnamon,” I said. “Please be sure Maizie’s bed is cleaned up. I don’t want the poor girl to lie on any glass.”

“That’s the strange thing, Deb. There wasn’t any glass on the inside of the room. I think the window was broken from the inside. In fact, I think there is a chair missing, but I was only in here once.”

“I need you to give me a survey of the room,” I said, panic just at bay. “I want you to stand in the middle of the big office and start facing the window, then describe the damage as you turn to your left.”

“Sure. There was the window. The sofa was torn up pretty badly. It looks like it was cut open with a knife. Maizie’s bed is pretty much shredded. There’s an overturned pedestal table with a vase broken on the floor. There’s the door to the outer office.”

“Wait,” I said. “What about the television screen mounted on the wall.”

“There’s no television screen. Oh, I see. There’s a wire cut off hanging out of the wall. It looks like they took the screen. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I answered. “You are at the door into the office, continue left.” I held my breath.

“There’s a bathroom that is okay except that all the shelves have been torn out of the medicine cabinet. The desk drawers are all lying out on the floor and everything is dumped out of them. Everything that was on the desk is dumped on the floor. The desk is turned upon edge. There’s another pedestal table near the wall and a painting that has been slashed open and torn off the wall. The curtains were pulled down from the windows. There’s a recliner chair, but I’m sure there used to be another chair near the window. And the coffee table is upside down. I’m sorry, Deb. It’s really a mess. I got the window replaced, but I haven’t done anything else but take pictures of everything so you can file an insurance claim.”

I breathed. Cinnamon couldn’t have missed another room behind the desk with shelves for computer servers. The Vault was still secure.

“Do you want me to do the same thing in the outer office?”

“No, that’s okay. It sounds like I’m going to have to pretty much start over furnishing the office.” A tear was leaking out my eye. Everything that was Dag’s was destroyed. Even Maizie’s bed. “I’m not going to ask you to clean up the office, Cinnamon, but thank you for getting the window repaired.”

“Wait till you see the bill.”

“I’ll bet they gouged me on that one,” I said. “I’m going to want to go through everything that’s left to see if there is anything that is missing, so you can pretty much leave things the way they are till I get back.”

“I’ll make sure everything is kept for you, Deb,” Cinnamon said softly. “But I’m not going to let you come back to this mess. Is there anything here that you especially don’t want me to look at? I’ll try not to be nosey while I’m cleaning.”

“Really, Cinnamon. You don’t have to do that.”

“You hired me, remember?” she said.

“Yeah. Are you sure you want to work for me? It can get kind of dangerous.”

“Pharmaceuticals were getting kind of boring,” she said. “I’m going to quit the day job.”

“Cinnamon, did your boss know you were there Thursday night?”

“No. I wasn’t actually supposed to be there. I just hid out until I thought it was safe to come and see you. The girls aren’t supposed to be at a party with a group they work with professionally. You know what I mean? It’s something about a law called “quid pro quo.” Your responsibilities as a hostess never cross with your responsibilities in your day job.

“So the CEO of your company was there Thursday night,” I said. “Can you tell me anything about him?”

“Mostly he’s a really nice man. I never even saw him for the first year I was with Bio-Research. He sent me a congratulations letter when I got promoted to Sr. Marketing Manager. You know, that’s the thing, Deb. The members of the Committee all seem like really nice guys. I don’t know who they all are, but the one’s I’ve met have been the least likely to, you know, want to have sex with you on the sofa. They all seem to have their minds somewhere else.”

“Yeah. On money,” I said absently. Well that might mean that I won’t have as much trouble with Mr. Rentz as I was afraid. “Tell me about Mr. Reinholdt’s family,” I asked.

“He has a nice wife who looks like she came out of a Pillsbury cookbook, if you know what I mean,” she giggled. “I think he has three grown children, but that’s really all the personal information I know about him.”

“Cinnamon, we’re going to have to get you more curious about things if you are going to work with me,” I laughed. “But seriously. You should probably go back to work for Bio-Research. You know I can’t pay you anything like what they can.”

“I hate my job, Deb,” she answered. “I don’t need a lot of money. I’ve been careful at saving up from my job and my tips,” she said. “That’s one of the things that we were taught when we went to the Condo. If any of us were found to be using drugs or spending too freely, we were cut off and not allowed back. We’re all pretty clean-cut. But I don’t want to be a pharmaceuticals Marketing Manager. It’s just what they said I was best suited for. It’s boring. Your work isn’t boring, Deb. I told you Thursday night, I’ll be anything you want me to be for you.”

“Cinnamon, don’t pin too many hopes on anything personal on that. Quid pro quo laws apply to our relationship as employer employee just like they do at Bio-Research. And as much as I like you, I’m really not gay, or even bi. I just don’t happen to be very lucky with men.”

“Tell me about it, sister,” she sighed. “Well, unless you are firing me, I think I’ll start cleaning up this mess.”

“You are a treasure, Cinnamon,” I said. “Be careful.”

Geez. I’m sure Dag gave me that lecture at least once. And look how I behaved. What have I gotten myself into?

5:00 p.m.

I’d call that a little bit of a close shave. I have limited electronic resources here. I can’t depend on gadgets other than my laptop and my cell phone. But I’ve got eyes and ears. And I intend to find out what is going on at that meeting tomorrow.

I put on my khakis and headed up the beach with a pair of cheap binoculars I bought at a kiosk on the beach. Brenda’s house sits on a couple of acres of beachfront land about two miles north of San Pedro. You can get there via a sandy road that comes in at the security gated front entrance, or by water and the beach. There’s a security guard that patrols the beach and makes sure that walkers keep moving and don’t pause on Brenda’s 200’ of beachfront. I passed the security guard and waved to him. I figure if he gets used to seeing me, he’ll pay less attention to me. This time, as soon as I passed Brenda’s property, I cut up away from the beach onto the property next to it. It is still under construction with a 1.5 million dollar price tag. I thought at first it was 3 million, but the Belize dollar is 2 to 1 against the American dollar. I went up to examine the new construction. There were no workers today as it is Sunday. I climbed up to the second floor and found a window that gave a reasonable view down into Brenda’s property.

I’d been watching for about fifteen minutes and had yet to actually see anything, but I’d identified both a dining room and bedroom window that were visible from this perch. If I got a camera before the meeting tomorrow, I might be able to photograph them all arriving from up here. I could add that to the evidence that I’d sent Silas. I wondered why he hadn’t moved to stop the Committee from coming down to Belize, but maybe he was just being extra careful so as not to repeat the problems he’d had when he arrested Brenda. Well, that was his problem.

“If you try the attic window you can see the pool area and the living room patio,” a voice said behind me. I nearly fell out the window. He’d come up so quietly behind me that his presence was a complete surprise. I was face to uncomfortably close face with Mr. Ray Hawkins, Prince Charming.

“I was just…” I stammered.

“Just trying to get an exclusive story,” he said. “I can well imagine. Good job figuring out where they were going to meet. Did Jon tell you?”

“No, I… well, yes, I guess so.” I wasn’t sure what to do with this, but from his perspective he’d given me a perfect cover. I could be a reporter on a scoop. “Don’t tell me you are going to try to scoop me on this,” I said.

“No, no. I’m here purely for corporate espionage. When powerful men who wield a great deal of wealth get together, those of us who are left out want to know what they are talking about.”

“Well, if I hear anything I’ll let you know,” I said slipping around him and heading for the stair.

“I’d appreciate that,” he said. “You know, you might get a lot closer if you stick with Jon… what name did he give you?”

“Rentz.”

“Right. Stick with Jon Rentz and I’ll bet he invites you along. He’s always been a sucker for a beautiful face. And body.”

“Thank you very much,” I said curtly. “If you aren’t asking me out, then I guess I have nothing better to do than go with him.”

“I never tread on another man’s soil,” he said. “Not without an invitation.”

“Mine’s not coming and his doesn’t count,” I said. “Just so you know.”

I stormed down the stairs and out the front gates. I walked back along the sand road that fronted the property. He had a good point. Maybe I should play up the relationship with Mr. Rentz and see if he’ll invite me to the party.

I was still musing about that when I got back to the Beach Club and Mr. Rentz stopped me in the lobby.

“Miss Finn,” he said. I turned toward him. “Riley, I hope you will indulge me with your presence at dinner again tonight. That is, if your boyfriend is still under the weather.”

“Mr. Rentz, how delightful,” I answered. “Shall I join you in the Celebrity Restaurant?”

“No, no. I had something more islandy in mind. Meet me down here at 7:30 in beach wear and we’ll go to Elvi’s for a real Island meal.” Beach wear? You lech. Okay, kindly, fatherly, embezzling lech.

“I’ll see you here,” I said gaily and hopped up to my room.

There was one little piece of investigating that I needed to do on-line when I got back to my room. I looked up “Helen of Troy”. I’m not looking for a Homerian epic poem. I’m looking for the owner of a huge yacht that’s still anchored a few hundred feet off the beach at Brenda’s little island home. And I found it. A certain major sports franchise owner who likes to party at sea. I’ll bet that baby is armed.

11:00 p.m.

Played it right. A little flirtation. A little bare skin exposed where my sarong gapped open to show my bikini. A little too much laughter at jokes that weren’t that funny. An invitation to join him for dinner at the meeting he’s having tomorrow. There will be an adequate amount of time for lounging at the pool before dinner, and then dress formally for the meal.

“Oh dear,” I said. “I don’t have a thing to wear.”

“Riley, my dear, I insist that you let me buy you something. I’ll take care of everything. I’d like you to spend the day at the Sol Spa tomorrow. I’ll make the arrangement. They’ll shop for you and bring you a dress and make sure it fits correctly. Something fitting for the party. It will be my little thank you for brightening a few days with me here in the sun.”

“I hardly know what to say, Mr. Rentz,” I gasped.

“Please, call me Jon, dear. And think nothing of it.”

Whoa. It was a little more difficult to extract myself from him tonight as he wasn’t quite as loaded as he got last night. But I managed without injuring him or my pride.

I have to tell you, I spent a long time in the shower tonight after I got home. Ewwwww.

When I got out of the shower I went out onto my deck and looked out at the incredible beach. How I wish I was just here enjoying myself. Down on the beach a man was talking on his cell phone, animatedly waving his arms. It must be awfully hard to hear down by the water. Some people just can’t leave work behind, I thought.

Then he turned and looked up at my window. He stopped his conversation, or else he was just listening, because he stood there looking up at me and I suddenly felt like Juliet on the balcony with Romeo in the garden. Prince Ray Charming raised and hand tentatively and waved.

I waved back then slipped back into my room.