Jack smirked a little, and Carter couldn't help but smile. "I guess I'm not that useful. I can't believe you don't like her. You two have an equal amount of faith in me."
After breakfast, Carter and Jack had two horses saddled. As Carter left the house, his riding boots clopping on the floor, he snagged one of the bouquets of flowers on a side table.
There was a bridle path leading to the cemetery, and he and his father rode at a slow pace. It was just starting to be warm enough to be outside without multiple layers of clothing. Margot's head poked out of the saddlebag, and she barked periodically at Gus as he ran after the horses. When the forest opened up to the expansive, manicured lawn of the cemetery, the corgi ran off to sniff the new smells.
Jack and Carter dismounted and walked their horses to the familiar gravesite.
"I miss them too," Jack said as they stood in front of the headstones of Carter's cousins.
"It just feels so wrong that they're here; they're in the groundright below us, but they aren'treallyhere. It just seems strange when you think about it, that we bury our dead. The Hindus burn their dead because it's supposed to be the start of reincarnation, and returning the body to the elements starts the process."
"That's pretty morbid," Jack replied.
Gus wandered back over to them, and Jack reached down to pet the dog.
"I just wish they weren't dead. It's like I'll never be happy."
"Allie doesn't make you happy?" Jack asked carefully.
"I don't know," Carter replied. "I don't know if I can ever be happy."
They rode back to the house in silence. Stefan had lunch waiting for them after they took care of the horses.
While they ate, Jack tried to make conversation.
"I heard your grandfather has a new…"
"Sugar baby?" Carter said and made a face. "And you think I have bad taste."
"Do you know the girl?"
"No," Carter lied. He didn't want to tell his father that it was Allie's friend Stacy, not when his father seemed as if he was finally starting to warm up to Allie. Not that it mattered at all since Allie seemed mad at Carter.
Allie and Carter ignored each other on the car ride back into the city, and at work that Monday, she was all business.
"I hope you brought some computer glasses," she told him when they arrived at the office. "These files are waiting for you."
"What am I looking for? Is this really necessary?"
"Yes, it is," she said sharply. "Look for any anomalies, anything out of the ordinary."
Carter sighed and put in his headphones. He opened the first file.
"This sucks," he muttered to himself. He let a techno remix start playing as he slowly went through the file.
As he worked, he timed how long it took him to go through ten pages. Backing out the calculation, he estimated it would take him the next month to look at all the files on the server, working evenings and weekends.
Groaning, Carter thumped his head down on his desk. "I can't do this."
"This is your job," Allie said.
"I need help."
"Liz and I have our own work. Stop thinking, and just do it. Sometimes you have to brute-force your way through."
For the next few weeks, Carter went through documents fourteen hours a day. While eating lunch at his desk one weekend, he was scanning through documents of invoices and noticed something.
"Huh," he said, "that's weird."
