"She does have a tendency to drop off the radar," I warned him. I twisted my tissue. "There is one more thing." I described seeing Anke talking with Payslee's lawyer and the well-off older couple.
"Hmm," he said. "I'll look into that. They may be potential investors of some kind. Or it could be some sort of other scam."
I gave him the name of the restaurant and the time I had seen them.
"Here's my card," he said when we got up to leave.
"What am I going to do?" I asked, trying not to cry.
The FBI agent looked at me sympathetically. "Cheer up," he said. "To be perfectly frank, you probably won't get your money back. But Anke is definitely going to jail. She did an astounding amount of illegal activity for someone so young."
I looked down at my shoes. The FBI agent pulled a piece of saltwater taffy out of his pocket and handed it to me.
"The elderly woman at the general store gave this to me. I'm not a big sweets person, but maybe this will cheer you up. She also wrote her number on it and told me to call her."
I tipped my head back and laughed. "Ida is a character."
"These small towns are great, aren't they?" Agent Donley said with a grin and patted my shoulder. "Just let me know if anything changes or she moves. Also, don't talk about this with anyone. I don't want to tip off Anke. Especially in a small town, word gets around."
I mimed zipping my lips. "I won't say anything," I assured him.
On my way back to Svensson PharmaTech, I felt lighter than I had in weeks. The authorities were taking care of Anke. I had done my part. I knew Agent Donley had said not to talk to anyone, but I felt like I needed to come clean to Mace. It was his company, and he should know. I walked into his office, fully intending to tell him. But he wasn't there.
"He left already," Anke said. She and Adrian were in her office.
"It was really weird," Adrian said. "Usually he doesn't leave that early. But now we have the office to ourselves." He smiled at Anke.
"Oh," I said. "Okay."
"What did you want to talk to him about?" Anke asked, blinking up at me.
"Just about the website," I lied.
She looked at me assessingly. "I see."
I stayed late at the office, working on the pitch presentation for the landowners of the parcels that the Svenssons needed in order to move the factory. I lost track of time and didn't get back to the Svensson estate until after dinner. I was excited about the presentation. It was going to be very convincing, I hoped.
The house was dark when I came back. I wondered what had happened with Mace. Maybe it was a family emergency?
I half expected him to come knock on the tiny house door, but he didn't.
Where was he?I wondered as I curled up alone in the loft of my tiny house.
60
Mace
Henry wouldn't stop talking about the trains after we left the pizza restaurant.
"You're obsessed with them, aren't you?" I asked him.
"Train! Train!" he chanted, twisting in his car seat.
Remembering what Josie had said about spending time with Henry and letting his energy out, I took him to the train park. I pretended to chase him around the locomotives as he shrieked.
We drove back late to Svensson PharmaTech. As I cut back through town to the road that led up the hill to my company's offices, that was when I saw it—Josie and a tall, handsome man. She was laughing at some joke he told her. He even gave her a piece of candy. She was the flirty, sensual woman who had made me fall in love with her. I gripped the steering wheel, resisting the urge to swing the car around, run over there, and beat the man to a pulp.
Set a good example for Henry, I ordered myself and kept driving.
