Hawaii Can Wait (The Girls Series) Page 8

  “That’s understandable. It must be very hard on Carolyn not to go to him to comfort him. They are truly close.”

  “She mentioned that, but then she said that if we are going to continue the ruse that we are in Hawaii, she can’t very well go to the hospital. She said everyone is well convinced our trip has not been interrupted.”

  “I think that is the right move. A.J. has enough on his mind and if he is starting to lose his way, Suzi can report back to Carolyn and she can just magically appear.”

  Adeline smiled. “My sentiments exactly.”

  “Do we have a plan?”

  “Carolyn got Suzi’s permission for Roland to send a team to their home and look for anything that might be of benefit. I’m not clear on the details, but it seems that A.J. and Suzi had traveled to Suzi and Barry’s old home to pack things up and while they were out of town, Barry attacked Cara. I could be wrong about the sequence of events. At any rate, Suzi has given Roland permission to investigate to whatever extent he deems necessary, wherever he feels it will be of help. From their home to their personal papers, she is holding nothing back. Their shared house was deemed a point of interest. Roland said that now that they have permission, he will have people at the house in thirty minutes.”

  “Good.”

  “They should be making entry about the time Carolyn and Suzi arrive here.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then we tell Carolyn what we came up with last night. I don’t want to do anything she doesn’t approve of. This is her family. She should make the decision.”

  “You’ve been good about that, Adeline. I respect you for it.”

  “Thank you. Especially in my current circumstance, I feel now, more than ever, how unsettling it is to not have control over your own life. My children have seen to that.”

  “As soon as we get this whole Barry deal under control, we’ll figure out your stuff.”

  “I look forward to it.”

  “Me, too. People just don’t know the damage they do to their own people.”

  “Anna, I’ve put water on to boil for tea. Can I fix you a cup?”

  “I’d love that. There are some store-bought croissants in the fridge. I thought maybe we could do some breakfast croissants, if you’re interested.”

  “That sounds lovely. Angélica, one of my runners, my gosh it has been a while, must have been two or three cycles ago, anyway she taught me how to make those in the microwave. Shall I do so while you finish up?”

  “I can’t imagine having staff. Or runners. Or going through so many people in my house. How can you do that?”

  “I hire young people from the university and work around their schedules. Mostly kids who need help and have run out of options where finances are concerned. There are two things I insist upon. Loyalty and discretion. If they show up on time, if they do as I require, if they can keep their mouths shut, they will find that their financial struggles are far less than they anticipated.”

  “That’s nice.”

  “The discretion is mainly that they not tell anyone else that their struggles have been lessened. I don’t want people working for me simply because they think I’ll pay off their student loans. Corruption takes on all forms and it can be ugly.”

  “Good point. Well, I have one more feeder to do, then I’m gonna clean my hose. I just have to dunk it to get the green off, then I’ll be in. How about we eat in fifteen minutes? Does that work for you?”

  “It does. I’ll have breakfast on the table in fifteen, or should we wait for Carolyn and Suzi?”

  “I’m sure they will have already eaten and I’d be shocked if Suzi actually walks in the door. That little girl has a lot on her mind. She is so torn. I wish there were more we could do for her.”

  “What we can do is find her husband before he does something even more egregious than he already has.”

  “True. I’ll be in and washed up in fifteen.”

  The breakfast croissants were perfection. Adeline had decided to prepare the meal on the stove instead of the microwave and the whole house smelled of ham, spices and warm croissants.

  The table was set with a lovely service, more casual than the one they dined on the previous night.

  “Your dishes are just beautiful, Anna.”

  “Thank you. The ones we used last night were a gift from my grandmother just before she passed. These are from my nephew. The one that will make an appearance any time now. My garage is full of his belongings. I told him to find a new place to store them. I want my car in my garage, not his athletic equipment and such.”

  “Is he in the process of moving?”

  “He is a couch dweller at the moment.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Not through any fault of his own, really. He is a good kid. Bright boy. He played by the rules. While half his friends were street pharmacists and the other half were either going into the military to survive or running the streets, my nephew, he is actually another grand-nephew, he went to school. Buckled down. Did good. Got good grades. Graduated. Then the economy went down the tubes so he decided to stay in school and get another degree. He did that. Graduated with some distinction, but the economy hasn’t picked up as fast as he hoped it would. He is in that circle where you need experience to get experience. He’ll figure it out.”

  “What type of work is he looking for?”

  “I couldn’t tell you exactly. He is a computer genius. The school’s words, not mine. He also is very interested in psychology. Did his minor work in that. He is also quite a talented mathematician. Again, according to the professor that went out of his way to talk to me about it. I’m sure something will come up.”

  “It’s hard for children these days.”

  “It is. His student loans are going to come due long before his income catches up to his ability, but that is a concern for him to deal with. His parents warned him. As did I. He will work it out.”

  “Perhaps you could give me a copy of his resume. I would be happy to see that it gets in front of some people of prominence. I, of course, can’t guarantee anything, but I’d be happy to make the effort.”

  “I appreciate that more than you know, Adeline, but I don’t want to base our friendship on what you can do for me and mine. I don’t ever want you to think that I took advantage of your kindness or your place.”

  “I would never think that, Anna. The fact that you are so sensitive to it is lovely, but it would be no imposition at all for me to simply place his resume in front of a hiring manager here and there.”

  “I’ll ask him. I know he would be grateful and I know he would never do anything that would embarrass you for taking a chance.”

  “Good.”

  As they sat down, the doorbell rang and Anna hurried off to let Carolyn in the door.

  A moment later a handsome young man walked into the kitchen with Anna.

  “Adeline, please meet my nephew, Jochen Mangan. Joey, please meet my friend Adeline—”

  Before Anna could finish, Adeline cut her off. “Adeline is fine. Nice to meet you, Jochen. May I call you Joey?”

  “Please. You are one of the ladies that decided to go to Vegas and Hawaii, right?”

  “That’s right.”

  “I’m sorry your trip was cut short. I know my aunt was really looking forward to it.”

  “As was I, but we have only delayed the trip, not cancelled it.”

  “That’s good to hear. I’ll get out of your way. I just wanted to check on you, Aunt Anna, and make sure you don’t need anything and that my stuff isn’t too much in your way.”

  “I can live with it, but you need to stay focused. Do you have a copy of your resume with you?”

  “Out in the car.”

  “Go get it. I got a friend that is willing to put you in front of some people. No promises.”

  “Aunt Anna, I’m ready to ask if you’d like fries with that. This is just killin’ me. I’ve been working since I was twelve. You know that. I don
’t like this life at all. I was supposed to be a homeowner by now. If things don’t look up I might be sooner than I thought.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I’ll be living in my car.”

  “You know we won’t let it get that far out of hand. You can stay here, Joey.”

  “I appreciate that, but you’ve been taking care of people all your life and it’s your turn. I know you wouldn’t be comfortable having me or anybody else in your house when you weren’t here. I’m not going to do that to you. I’ll go get my resume and get out of your way.”

  “You are never in the way, child.”

  “I’m gonna leave the resume on the front table. It was nice meeting you, Adeline. I hope you can get back to Hawaii soon.”

  “Thank you, Joey. I look forward to seeing you again.”

  Anna shook her head as she walked over to sit at the table. “He’s a good boy.”

  “He seems like a lovely young man. Why did you not share with him that it was I who offered to put his resume in front of people.”

  “Two reasons. First, you didn’t want him to know your last name, so that must mean something. Second, if it doesn’t work out, I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable should you see him again.”

  Adeline laughed. “I didn’t want him to know my last name because I didn’t want him to be uncomfortable should one of the organizations that bears my name choose to interview him. That is always such an intimidating affair.”

  They heard Joey’s voice from the front room. “Aunt Anna, you have a guest.”

  “It’s just me, Anna,” Carolyn called.

  Joey escorted Carolyn back to the kitchen. “It was nice to meet you Carolyn. You too, Adeline. I put the resume on the table, Aunt Anna. I’ll just get out of your way. Anything you need?”

  “No, we are just fine, child. Thank you.”

  After Carolyn confirmed that she had already eaten, the girls immediately focused on finding Barry and all the decisions they needed to make.

  First was to do no harm.

  Not to Barry, they couldn’t care less what harm came to that monster. Their focus was to do no harm to Suzi or Cara. They needed to make sure they were protected physically and emotionally. Although it was obvious to all of them that both young women had already suffered a great deal, they didn’t want them to suffer any more.

  They needed to do something to assure that Barry would be gone for a very long time.

  That’s how Anna phrased it.

  Gone.

  While Roland and his team made it their first priority to physically protect Cara and her family, most of whom were at the hospital all the time — making the logistics that much easier — the girls decided their job would be a little less physical.

  With Anna to organize and educate and Carolyn and Adeline as worker bees, they were semi convinced they could actually be of help.

  Adeline answered the knock on the door and three nice young women dressed in jeans with black polo shirts with Roland’s company logo on the collar came in and went about setting up all kinds of computer equipment in the den.

  Each of the women had a laptop. The young women set up a large monitor that the girls could send information to so it would be easier for them to share information. They installed a powerful desktop and all kinds of hardware that made it all work together seamlessly with a printer, a scanner and more.

  Once they were done, they gave Adeline contact information should they have any problems, then a quick lesson for Anna so that she could use the equipment easily and then they left.

  Although the young women weren’t condescending in any way, probably because they had been told that Adeline paid their salary, the girls got the distinct impression that they were being indulged. That Roland and company weren’t expecting any grand results from their efforts.

  They fully expected to prove the youngsters wrong.

  Carolyn sat in front of her laptop. “So, where do we begin?”

  Adeline laughed. “You could start by showing me where to turn this thing on.”

  As Anna started toward her, Adeline laughed. “I’m not that unfortunate. I can turn the machine on, I just have no idea what I should do with it once I have it going.”

  Anna volunteered. “I think the first thing we should do is look for connections.”

  Carolyn took a breath. “Meaning what, exactly?”

  “I read an article in the paper not too long ago. Did you know that something like six thousand people get murdered every year in this country and their killers are never caught?”

  “Six thousand people are murdered?”

  “No, six thousand people get away with murder. That got my attention, I found it curious, so I did a little bit of research. You know what I think? I think that the vast majority of crimes are solved by either someone blabbing to somebody they shouldn’t, or somebody being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or just plain luck.”

  Adeline shook her head. “I’m certain the law enforcement professionals would disagree with you, Anna.”

  “I’m sure they would. That doesn’t make me wrong.”

  Carolyn seemed to agree with Anna. “You know what else is interesting? Although all the technical stuff has gotten better and better, there are actually more and more unsolved crimes.”

  “How can that be?”

  Anna allowed the disgust she felt to seep into her voice. “I’m not sure I know the answer to that. I think I read that back in the day, cops caught about ninety percent of the murderers out there and now it is down to something like sixty percent. Maybe it was sixty-five percent. Either way, that is a lot of people getting away with murder.”

  Carolyn’s eyes were round. “That simply can’t be right.”

  Anna countered. “I read there’s something like a couple of hundred thousand killings that haven’t been solved since nineteen eighty. Can you imagine?”

  Adeline sounded so sad. “Lord, help us.”

  Anna brightened. “My point exactly. I think we can do better at this than Roland and his people because we think old school — as Joey would put it — and they don’t.”

  Carolyn was newly horrified. “Are you saying that you think Barry killed someone?”

  “I wouldn’t completely discount it. Look at what he did to poor little Cara, but that isn’t what I meant to convey. A criminal is a criminal. If we can learn a little bit about Barry and we can find a pattern or maybe some people he knew from his past, then we have a chance at finding out that he said something to somebody and they’ve just been keeping it all in.”

  Adeline wasn’t convinced. “I find that highly unlikely.”

  Anna was slightly offended. “Maybe you’re right. You have a better idea?”

  Adeline immediately regretted her comments. “Actually, no. Not at all. At the very least, if we follow your plan, we will have something for Roland and company to start with.”

  Carolyn, always cautious, chimed in. “Just remember that real life isn’t like television. We aren’t going to figure this out in twenty-two minutes or however long the average show is now. Anna, just tell me what it is you want me to do. I think you have the best handle on this.”

  Adeline leaned in. “I agree. Anna, you are at the helm. Please, direct us.”

  With that, they were off.

  They bumped and bungled their way around the World Wide Web and tried to find anything and everything they could about Barry.

  They came upon any number of sites that offered to provide for them every detail of Barry’s life, for a price. Some of the sites offered a very low price.

  Feeling defeated, Carolyn let out a sigh. “You want to buy one of these packages and see if they tell us anything we don’t already know?”

  Adeline shook her head. “Actually, I think I will leave that to Roland. I’ll ask him to provide us with that type of information. Anything else you want from him? I’ll give him a call.”

  Adeline came back into the room m
inutes later carrying a sheet of paper. She had a smile on her face.

  “Roland’s people have set up an email address for our use on this project. When I explained a little bit about our approach, he sounded genuinely interested. He said if we need any technical support to call Kimberly. She is the taller of the young women that were here.”

  Anna was reenergized. “Sounds good. Now let’s get started for real.”

  Ten minutes later the computer made a sound letting the girls know they had their first email.

  When Anna opened the email, and then the files, they were astounded at the amount of information Roland’s crew was able to amass in such a short time. “No wonder you pay him the big bucks.”

  Adeline gave them a sly grin. “He is particularly motivated. Shall we see what we have here?”

  Anna hit a number of buttons and the printer started printing at a phenomenal rate. “Remember taking shorthand? I remember when a typewriter was a useful tool. When the electrics came around, I was amazed. Technology is moving so fast it is no wonder man can’t keep up.”

  Adeline nodded. “I agree. A conversation for another time, but I think at some point, man is going to have to sit back and evaluate just where we are in all of this.”

  Anna was skimming the paper, grabbing each sheet as it came out of the printer. “I don’t want to be around if they don’t figure it out soon. Would you look at this?”

  Carolyn approached. “What is it?”

  “Well, right here it has the name of a young woman on a lease with Barry. When did Suzi and Barry start dating?”

  Carolyn searched her memory. “I’m not certain, but if memory serves, it was well before that lease was signed.”

  “Maybe she’s a relative.”

  “Should be easy enough to find out. Go to Facebook and type her in.”

  Unfortunately the name was a common one. A lengthy list appeared. Anna sent it to the big monitor.

  “It’s gonna take some time. We can probably put some parameters in there and shorten the list. Maybe by geographic area and age and things like that. Who wants to take this one on?”

  “I will.” Carolyn raised her hand as if she were back in the classroom.