CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Kate had been working in the building all afternoon, moving from one location to another, as the employees were used to her doing. Just before closing, she carried her laptop into the accounting department and opened it on one of the empty desks. A few minutes after five, the last employee in the department walked out the door, leaving her alone.
Kate headed for Solomon Daniels’s office, the CPA she believed kept the second set of books. The door was locked, but the lock was nothing out of the ordinary, just there for privacy.
Pulling on a pair of latex gloves, she made short work of the mechanism, her hours of practice paying off. She opened the door, slipped inside, sat down at the computer and stuck in her earbuds. As soon as the computer booted up, she checked in with Tabby.
“It’s asking for the password,” Kate said. Inside her gloves her palms were sweating.
“I’m going to give you a code. Type it in, then sit back and wait.”
Kate typed in the code and the computer went to work. “I’m in.” Blocking thoughts of the penalty for hacking, she focused on Tabby’s instructions.
“Go to menu, then to the folder you want to access.”
Kate clicked the menu tab and a list of folders popped up.
“Click on the one you want.”
She recognized the company names Atrias and Winman, clicked the first one up.
“Highlight the files you want,” Tabby said. “Pick the ones that seem most important. The more time it takes, the more likely you are to get caught.”
A chill slipped through her. Kate took a steadying breath and studied the list. With no idea what to choose, she picked files that connected to something she and Jason had learned during their investigation. Half a dozen with the wordHoustonin the title, two files that referencedForrester Trucking. Three withBlue Bayou. The files started downloading.
In the Winman folder, she found a list of residential apartment buildings in Dallas and Houston, motels in both locations, and also two big shopping malls. The computer was running hard.
She was almost done when she heard someone in the outer office. Her heart lurched in fear, and adrenaline shot into her blood. The computer kept running. Only one of the files she had chosen remained. She ducked behind the desk, and prayed whoever was outside wouldn’t come into the office.
Instead, a key slid into the lock, the door swung open. It was Solomon Daniels’s assistant, Tobias Reeves, a young man with high ambitions. One of the commercial real estate salesmen from the second floor was with him, Dapper Don she had jokingly called the slender blond man whose last name she couldn’t recall.
“Looks like Mr. Daniels forgot to turn off his computer,” the salesman said.
“I’ll turn it off for him.” Tobias started forward and Kate held her breath. The machine had stopped running, but the screen was still lit. As Toby rounded the desk on one end, Kate quietly slid around the desk on the opposite end, keeping low and out of sight.
“Maybe he left it on for a reason,” the Realtor said. “I do that sometimes.”
The assistant paused. “You might be right. I’d better leave it alone.” Turning, he walked back around the way he had come, grabbed the file he needed, and the men left the office.
Kate’s heart was still racing, pounding in her chest, when her earbud crackled to life. “Got it, Kate,” Tabby said. “Time to go home.”
Relief poured through her. “Thanks, Tabby.” Shutting down the computer, she pulled off her gloves and stuffed them and the earbuds into her pocket, walked out and closed the door. Shutting down her laptop, she grabbed the handle and hurried across the room.
Her heart was still beating a thousand miles an hour with the remnants of fear and exhilaration. She was smiling as she texted Jason, opened the door and stepped out into the hall. Her smile slid away when she came face-to-face with Victor Markum and Arthur Wiedel.
Jase got the text, but he couldn’t breathe easy till he met up with Kate on the bottom floor. It wasn’t part of the plan. She was supposed to leave the building and head directly for her car. He was supposed to leave separately and meet her in the parking lot.
But the back of his neck was tingling, a sure sign that something was wrong. He wasn’t a guy to leave loose ends, and if he left the office and Kate didn’t show up outside, he might not be able to get back in—or at least not in time.
He was standing in the lobby, watching the elevator descend, the weight of his Kimber comforting where it rode in its holster beneath his pin-striped coat.
The doors dinged open and Kate walked out, but she wasn’t alone. Jase recognized the men from their photos—one polished and sophisticated, the other rough-and-tumble, like a dockworker in a borrowed suit. Victor Markum and Arthur Wiedel.
“This way, Ms. Gallagher.”
Jase pasted on a smile as he strode toward her. “Kate! There you are. What happened? You’re late. We’ve got to hurry. Turtle Creek won’t hold our dinner reservations.” He took her arm and started leading her away.
“Just a minute!” Markum caught up with them. “I’m afraid Ms. Gallagher is going to have to cancel. She has some work to do before she can leave for the weekend.”
