Chapter 15

Igot to thinking on my way home that none of this made sense. Who would spend two years on a setup just to get access to business contacts? There were many venture capitalists in the world, so why Mark? Why our company?

Were they going to use him as a puppet or something like that? Was it just the money? No, knowing what I know now, I don't think it's about money. Maybe for Jack and Jessica, it is, but not for whoever is guiding them.

I went home and pulled out my journal with the names of all the companies and their owners that Jack had shaken down over the years. "What was the last company before ours?" I tried to see the connection, but nothing was jumping out at me.

A software company in Simi Valley is a long way removed from us, and from what I could see so far, there was no correlation to us. We had no clients in common, had never done business with that particular company, and knew no one on their executive list.

Looking at the other companies going back at least ten years, there was no way to tell how they chose their victims from that either, so I was back at square one. There has to be a pattern, something that shows how they work, but I couldn't pinpoint it with what I had.

If what Melissa said was true, then Jack had met Trudy at rehab. But did he check himself in to meet her specifically to get to us, or was it a chance meeting? There were too many variables, and each one needed to be looked at. I forwarded the information to Cierra as promised along with a note at the end asking those very questions.

What could a pedophile ring want with a venture capitalist? Given Mark and his family own a number of businesses as well, but none of them seems to be the target. What was it they were after? Was it his reputation? His clientele? His money? What? And why was he chosen?

I sent off one more text to Cierra as a thought hit me. Since Jack had changed his name when he moved here, maybe he had used aliases elsewhere. The name Jack was on his resume to sell himself to us, but who was he all the other times? We need to find all of his aliases, but how?

* * *

As luck would have it,I saw a text exchange between the two of them that yanked me back to reality. Apparently things were taking too long, and there was no progress made on her end, so they were going to up the ante, which to me meant she was going to turn up the heat in her seduction bid.

This I can deal with. I almost wish that this was all there was to it instead of the horror that these two were involved in. As Mark"s assistant, Jack is privy to his appointment schedule, so he knows where he'll be at any given time.

I got the address of the restaurant where Mark was supposed to have a business lunch for the next day, where they were planning another sneak attack, and called up Melissa, asking her to join me and why not bring Trudy along. Even though she hates her guts, the two have been known to socialize from time to time.

I didn't say anything to Mark that night since the place was a well-known restaurant that I had been to before, so me showing up there at the same time as he wouldn't be such a stretch, and I could play it off as a coincidence.

Tonight was another slow burner where he teased and played until I was almost out of my mind before joining us together. I find I can't tell which I prefer anymore, the long, drawn-out nights of passion or the quick, fiery couplings that leave us both bruised and too tired to draw our next breath.

I was almost jumping out of my skin the next day. Now that I knew that Mark was onto me, there was really no need for me to hide, but with that said, I had made up my mind to make things just a little bit difficult for those two.

I left the house way before lunchtime and made a trip to the pet store. I found what I was looking for and swung by Jessica's stolen apartment. I didn't need a disguise this time around and no one batted a lash when I walked in the door because why would they?

I claimed to be doing a spot check, which sent everyone into overdrive. I took a look around a few empty apartments that were waiting for new occupants before asking to be left alone to make a call. Once the coast was clear, I made a quick stop at Jessica's place to leave her a little surprise to top off the day I was sure she was going to have.

The stench was unbearable. How the hell has she been living in there? You'd think after all this time, the smell would have abated, but it only seemed to be getting worse. That could be due to the nailed-shut windows.

I set the thermostat on a timer and turned the temperature to the mid-eighties before leaving. By the time she returned, it should be cool again but the added heat was bound to enhance the smell.

I changed Mark's table upon reaching the restaurant to one upstairs and kept a lower table for my lunch date with the girls in a window seat so I could see who was coming and going. I was surprisingly calm for someone who was filled with cold rage.

I saw Mark arrive and left the table for the restroom so we didn't run into each other. Melissa and Trudy were set to arrive ten minutes later, which they did on time, and not five minutes later, I saw Jessica making her way to the restaurant door.

As soon as she walked in, I called out to her from my place at the table. "Oh, hi, Jessica, isn't it?" She looked like she'd seen a ghost when she saw me sitting there, and I beckoned her over. "Are you off today? Why did you come all the way over here on your lunch hour?"

"Oh, um, I like the food here; it's worth it."

"Why don't you join us? Melissa, Trudy, this is Jessica; she works for us. Come on, now you don't have to eat alone." I pointed her to the only free chair, and she had no choice but to take a seat.

She kept looking around as if expecting someone with a confused look on her face. "So, we didn't really get to talk a lot the last time we met? What exactly do you do at the company again? Mark never mentioned you, and when I mentioned meeting you that night, he didn't seem to recall who you were. You'll have to excuse my husband; he"s very bad with names."

"Oh, well, I'm new, so we don't really know each other that well."

"Oh? I thought you've been there for a few months already. I heard you were a friend of Jack's…"

"Who said that?"

"Oh, someone at the party mentioned that you two seemed kind of cushy." I gave her one of those fake commiserating looks people give each other.

"Oh, speaking of Jack, Trudy, you know him; you were the one who recommended him to us. I didn't know that until I was praising him to Melissa, and she mentioned it." I was watching Trudy's reaction, and she was genuine in her response, so I learned two things: she had no idea who Jessica was, and she wasn't part of their scheme.

"How is he working out? It's been a while since we've seen each other. More than a year, in fact. I'm glad it's working out; I felt so bad for him, poor guy."

"Why do you say that?"

"Um, maybe I should order?" Jessica interrupted, and I hailed the waiter for her before going back to my conversation.

"Go ahead, Trudy; why did you feel bad?" She shrugged her shoulders.

"No big reason, really; he just seemed really down on his luck, is all. What's that place he's from again? Some little shit town in the Midwest? He just seemed destined for bigger and better things, and the way he lost his job due to the catastrophe in the world and was stuck out here with no prospects after he left the clinic, I kinda felt sorry for him."

Trudy always was a dingbat with a heart of gold. She's sweet in her own way, but the girl has never met a pill she didn't think looked like an MM. I kept the conversation going in that same vein while watching Jessica out the side of my eye, enjoying her discomfort.

Five minutes before she should have been leaving to go back to the office, if she didn't want to be late, I accidentally spilled half a glass of red wine in her lap. "Oh no, how clumsy of me. Waiter, may we have some seltzer, please? You should go to the restroom and try to wipe that up. Since I was the one to make a mess, I will give you the rest of the afternoon off. You can't go back to work like that."

I smiled apologetically and got to my feet until she stood and walked to the restroom with the plastic cup of seltzer and a handful of napkins. Almost as soon as she left, my husband and his lunch guests came down the stairs deep in discussion.

"Mark? Funny running into you here?"

"Sweetheart, what are you doing here? Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce you to my wife."

"I'm not crashing, I promise; the girls and I were here for lunch." I pointed to the table where Melissa and Trudy were behaving for once and not sniping at each other.

"I guess I'll see you at home; I won't keep you." He kissed my cheek, and I sent him on his way, watching until he disappeared from view. He was long gone by the time little Ms. Homewrecker made it back from the restroom.