On the Road [again] (The Girls Series Book 3) Page 5

  “The good news is, we can come back in a week and try it again.”

  “Or we can come back in a couple of days for a color change.”

  Adeline rolled her eyes. “Or we can simply figure out another approach. There has to be a reason Pickles used this address.”

  Carolyn blew on her thumbnail. “Because she didn’t want her real address to become a part of the public record?”

  Anna checked her nails again. “Maybe. But she isn’t exactly a full-on criminal.”

  Adeline ignored her nails. “She has been arrested multiple times. Just what is your definition of a criminal if she is not eligible for that distinction in your eyes?”

  Anna sounded a bit defensive. “I have family members that have been arrested multiple times, and they’re not criminals.”

  “Yes, but your family has the added complication of being people of color living in the South. Any number of the young people who have worked for me in the past have shared with me that there is a much higher likelihood of they or their minority friends being harassed. Although, I must admit, I am from a time and place that my first thought when someone was arrested is that they must have done something to draw the ire of the authorities.”

  Anna calmed. “I will admit, not each of them is a complete innocent, but some of them have been, and it is a difficult situation.”

  Carolyn added, “I think that Pickles is less than completely innocent, but perhaps it was her circumstance.”

  Adeline shook her head. “That is no excuse.”

  “Maybe she was hungry and stole food.”

  Adeline shrugged. “Perhaps, but I would think that she could have found something to do other than a crime. The economy is a problem right now, but her crime spree seems to have started when things were still relatively stable.”

  “Well, I’m going to keep an open mind… ”

  Adeline all but snapped, “Are you saying that I am not?”

  “No, not at all. All I’m saying is that I don’t have all the facts yet, and I don’t want to start looking for answers with answers already in mind, or I’ll miss something.”

  “Very well.”

  Carolyn’s voice was gentle, as if she were speaking to a lost child. “Are you alright, Adeline? You seem stressed.”

  Adeline seemed to instantly adjust, drawing up one side of her mouth. “You mean bitchy?”

  The girls had to chuckle at the bald honesty and terminology coming from the mouth of such a sophisticated and well-heeled woman.

  Anna smiled. “Okay, you can use that word if you like. Are you alright?”

  “More nonsense with my children.”

  Carolyn touched her arm gently. “Would you like to talk about it?”

  “It would seem that things are more complicated than I would have thought. I’m not certain if I shared some of the details of the break-in at Cara’s apartment. We were able, through some good work by both Cara and Roland, to identify one of the ne’er-do-wells as my grandson. I thought it was simply a case of rotten parenting resulting in a rotten child. When it comes to my older children, my response is somewhat programed. I think it unfortunate but deserved.” Adeline looked for judgment in the eyes of either of her friends, but all she found was compassion.

  She continued, “There is evidence to support the fact that my grandson broke into Cara’s home and planted information on her computer. At first the assumption was that he had done so to destroy me — at the directive of his parents, my children — and to make life very difficult for Cara in the process. It would seem that the whole situation is more complex than that. I’ve had a group of young people from Roland’s team working to get information. I will leave all those details for another time. I am confident in their findings. Confused, but confident.”

  Adeline paused while she found the words she wanted. “It would seem that my grandson has actually evolved despite his parents, and there is the possibility that he was, in fact, trying to help me. It would seem that he chose Cara for the very reasons his parents despise her. Because she is both my trusted employee and because it was she who stepped in and saved me. He assumed that Cara would find the files and that her loyalty to me would see to it that the whole mystery would unravel. He did not count on the fact that Cara is not as technically savvy as he assumed she would be.”

  Anna’s voice was gentle. “Why didn’t he just come to you?”

  “He has been at war with his parents for such a long time that he assumed that if he were to approach a legal authority, or me directly, that his allegations would be disregarded as those of a troubled youth trying to exact some kind of vengeance on parents that, to all outward appearances, are perfect. Had he come to me, I would hope that I would be more welcoming than the authorities, but looking back at the state I was in, mentally, physically, and perhaps even spiritually, I may have rebuffed him just as he feared.”

  Anna took Adeline’s hand. “I can see why you are troubled. What can we do?”

  “The part that disturbs me the most is that I have a grandson whom I have such little involvement with that he couldn’t come to me, even when he thought that coming to me would save my life.”

  “Adeline… ”

  “I’m sorry, Anna, but watching you make arrangements for your Jordan and watching Carolyn work so hard to assure the safety of her granddaughter and great-granddaughter just heightens my awareness of my own shortcomings.”

  Anna’s response was immediate and impassioned, to say the least. “That really isn’t fair. I have always had a very good relationship with Jordan’s mother. Carolyn has always had a very good relationship with Suzi. To compare our situations with your situation is not a fair comparison.”

  Carolyn decided to tread carefully. “Two things. I do not have a good relationship with my adult children. I would describe it as nonexistent, really, but they have never wished me any harm. And, Adeline, one of the best pieces of advice I’ve had since all this ugliness started with Barry is not to take responsibility for things I have no control over and to treat myself kindly and move forward.”

  “Oh, dear. Having my own words brought to my attention.”

  Anna smiled. “See, now that is a lovely way to use words. I would have said something like ‘having my words thrown in my face,’ but that would make it sound very negative, and the way you said it made it clear that it wasn’t intended to be negative at all. The way people choose to use words is important.”

  “Very true.” Carolyn nodded. “I certainly didn’t mean to throw words in your face, Adeline. What I meant is that you can’t take responsibility for other people’s choices.”

  “I understand that, Carolyn, and I appreciate your bringing it to my attention. You are, of course, correct. I need to remember that. Isn’t it funny how one can become so focused on problems and solutions involving others and never have the slightest clue how to cure one’s own ills?”

  “That’s a whole lot of ‘one’s’.”

  Adeline tried to find the humor in it but was unable to. “It was two, was it not? I am afraid I am a bit confused by this latest revelation regarding my offspring. I now have the dubious responsibility of holding my children responsible, while not allowing the ramifications to injure the one person — in that subset of the family — that actually tried in his own dysfunctional way to assist me. And all the while keeping any and all information from his parents that might indicate he is more supportive of me than they might suspect. I do not wish to cause difficulties for him.”

  Anna was already organizing her thoughts. “That could be tricky, but I have a couple of questions. First off, why do you have to keep his heroics from his family? I would think that you would be proud to tell them that their son isn’t a little, well, let’s say brat, but my initial thought was a little more crude.”

  “If they determine that he is no longer one of them, his life becomes complex. Where will he live? What will become of his assets? What about future wealth as determined by family resour
ces?”

  “See, life is just easier without all these financial entanglements. I’d just kick my kids to the curb and invite my grandchild to join me in the exercise.” Anna’s humor fell flat.

  Carolyn said, “We’ll figure it out, Adeline. You know we will help in any way that we can.”

  “I am aware of that, although I must confess, the thought of putting you girls in that position troubles me. I hate to burden you that way.”

  Anna was firm. “It’s no burden.”

  “You say that now, but I fear that if you become involved in any way, even the most pedestrian, my children will make it their mission to cause as much of a fracas as possible. Look at all Cara was put through, and she was wholly innocent and unaware. The person putting her through the trauma, my grandson, was only trying to help me. Just think if his intent had been more nefarious. The problem is what these people lack in conscience and morals they more than make up for in funding and hangers-on. They could quite literally destroy your reputation and make life quite difficult.”

  Anna shook her head. “I don’t have anything or anybody to worry about. Don’t you give it another thought. I don’t have much, but what I have, they can’t take from me. If they did their worst, those that love me would love me anyway, and those that don’t love me, well, I just don’t care what they think of me.”

  Adeline was touched by the fierce loyalty of her friends. They had been part of her life only a short time, but they were more loyal to her than members of her own bloodline. “I understand, but what if they go after Jordan?”

  “What do you mean by ‘go after’?”

  “That is precisely the point. I have no way of knowing.”

  “I understand your concern, truly I do, but I simply can’t imagine your children going to such lengths. And on the off chance they did, then we would deal with it then. I can’t imagine they would do such a thing. Yell and bay at the moon, I can see that, but go after a child that is multiple generations away from me, I don’t see it.”

  “There is an appreciable amount of money in question.”

  Anna smiled. “I’m sure there is. I’ve seen your house, Adeline.”

  Adeline didn’t meet their eyes. “I’m sorry. Perhaps I’m not making myself clear. When you think of large sums of money, perhaps you think of celebrities or persons who make a listing in some financial magazine. Those persons listed are not the persons who have been blessed with the largest wealth. As my financial advisers phrase it, there is a difference between being rich and being wealthy. Then there are those of us who remain uncategorized. On the ladder of wealth there are many rungs. I am not at the top of that ladder, but the top is well within sight. People at my level of wealth are at risk simply because of their financial situation, but unfortunately the threat is most often from within. In the last few years there have been a few of us outed by media, but the majority of us, those who share my rung on the ladder, are quite anonymous. I read just a day or two ago that the list of the richest people of the world has been altered. Number three has been anonymous for some time. If my sources are correct, and I assure you they are, number one, two, and three on that list wouldn’t make the top twenty in the real financial world. Sixty-five billion, indeed.”

  “I had no idea.” Anna gave it a moment of thought. “You’re right. My first thought would be to take the money away from your children and send it directly to the grandson that saved you, or at least tried to save you, but then you would just be placing a large target on him. If they were willing to do harm to you, what would stop them from doing harm to him?”

  “Precisely.”

  Anna rubbed her chin. “I’ll have to think on this one for a while.”

  “There is no hurry. Although I can get things accomplished with some rapidity when I choose, this is a complex problem that I want to stew on for a bit.”

  Carolyn brightened. “Cara?”

  Adeline smiled. “Yes, that is her term. I think it quite appropriate.”

  “Me too.”

  Adeline took a deep breath. “So, please, let us return to the challenge at hand. Barry and Pickles.”

  “We have spent such a lot of time and resources on my problems. I feel guilty taking away from solving your problems, Adeline.”

  “Don’t be silly. Your problems are vastly more important than mine. The welfare of your granddaughter, your great-grandchild, not to mention my Cara, all rest in our hands. This issue with my children has been ongoing for what seems like millennia. A few more days will do no harm.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Quite.”

  Anna clapped her hands. “Alright then. Let’s get this one done so we can move to the next.”

  “Next?”

  “Project. I don’t really want to call it a problem, do you?”

  Adeline nodded. “Project is a very positive way of approaching the issue. Thank you.”

  “We need a way to track down Pickles. Any suggestions?”

  It took almost an hour, two pots of tea, and notes taken by Anna on three separate napkins, but by the time they parted ways, they had a plan.

  FOUR

  “I’VE DONE A little more snooping.”

  Carolyn perked up at the sound of Anna’s conspiratorial tone. “Snooping is good. What did you find?”

  “I think I’ve found Pickles. The address that we went to? I think perhaps she owns the place. It is in a holding company, but Kimberly helped me trace that.”

  “How in the world did you find that? Public records?”

  “In a way. I found the person I thought was Pickles, then I did a number of Internet searches, and one of the searches I found had Pickles asking questions on a legal forum. She wanted to know if she could put her assets, namely a building, in the name of a minor so that if she were sued, the asset couldn’t be taken from her.”

  “Can you do that?”

  “I guess you can. It isn’t always a good idea. According to the websites I read, if you put your child’s name on the title of your house, then they are half owner and they get to decide if you can sell it or get a new loan on it. Guess it would be difficult to get permission from a six-year-old.”

  “You would think that because the child is a minor and you are the parent, you could sign any document needed.”

  “That would be a conflict of interests, so the courts would get involved, which would be a whole other can of worms, with guardians and all that type of thing.”

  Adeline had been quiet, happy to listen to her friends, but their comments warranted comment. “There are ways around those issues, but unless Pickles can afford excellent legal and financial advice, I doubt she could avail herself of the expertise needed to wend through the various miles of red tape and governmental oversight.”

  Carolyn’s brows knit together. “Wait a minute. How does a woman that is writing bad checks and barely scraping by have enough money to buy property? That is what we’re talking about, property, right?”

  Anna nodded. “Yes. The building we went to, she owns it.”

  Carolyn shook her head. “Well, that’s interesting. I’m not a real estate mogul by any means, but I would think that building is worth a great deal of money.”

  Anna confirmed. “To say she owns, it is a misnomer. As with most purchases these days, and large purchases in particular, the bank actually owns the building, but she is making payments. She is in the process of purchase, and it appears she has a healthy investment in it.”

  Carolyn asked, “How does a girl go from writing bad checks to coming up with enough money to put a down payment on a whole professional building?”

  Anna agreed. “That is a very good question. One we need answered.”

  Adeline thought aloud, “I wonder if there are public documents. In today’s world it seems everything is public. I think Anna proves that more each day. I find it discomforting how much information she can obtain regarding complete strangers. She doesn’t seem to need much more than a name. Just think w
hat she could find out about us.”

  “I would never do that, Adeline.”

  “I may ask you to. If you can find it, given time and dedication, others can find the same. I might want to know exactly what it is the world can find out about me.”

  “If you ever want to know, just ask. So far, I’ve been able to find out about young people. They are not very circumspect about the way they do things. What we thought of as decorum they do not seem to understand. They put all their business out there for the world to see. I doubt I would find as much about you, especially because until very recently you weren’t even aware of all these different outlets.”

  Adeline considered it for a moment. “I would be interested to know if there is anything at all.”

  “I can look. I think you can purchase a service that will scrub the Internet of all the information they can find about you. I’m not sure how effective that is or what it entails. Now that I actually think about it, I’m sure that Roland keeps track of all of this kind of stuff for you.”

  “I am not certain I share your optimism about the competency of my security team. Another thing to put on our list.” Adeline smiled. “Back to Pickles.”

  “Alright. I think that maybe it’s time to turn our information over to Roland.”

  Both the girls were surprised that Anna would say such a thing. She was forever saying that she was reluctant to hand over her work so that the professionals had the real fun.

  Catching the look between them, Anna was quick to explain. “I just want them to confirm my findings; I don’t want them to take any action.”

  Adeline raised a brow. “And why might that be?”

  “Because everything is so convoluted, I don’t want to go barking up the wrong tree.”

  Carolyn suggested, “Why don’t you tell us what you have learned? We can take a look at it. If it doesn’t make sense, then we can think about having Roland and company pursue it further.”

  “That sounds like the best plan. I don’t know why, but somewhere around three o’clock this morning, I started having doubts that I’m on the right path.”