Author's note.
Just... thanks. To Dr Mark, TheSwiss, and you all.
PM
Caleb 66 -- Revenge
I lay in bed staring at the ceiling. I'd gone into the other suite, leaving the girls, since I routinely went to bed before they did. I didn't want to force my bedtime on them and they, in turn, didn't want to keep me awake doing what they were doing.
We called down to reception and had all the trash removed from unpacking all of the various purchases that had been made that day. The maids had also been in and made up the beds and cleaned the rooms while we'd been out.
That thought reminded me that we'd have to buy new towels. I didn't think Amanda and the girls would have thought about that when they'd been out on their buying spree. That could wait until we found a house. I was chafing that the realtor hadn't gotten back to me. I'd though that their office was open on a Saturday. Sundays, I'd noted from the website, was for viewings only.
The other thing, well actually the primary thing, that was keeping me awake was the fact that I'd recognized one of the arsonists that had attacked our house. It was obvious to me who had given the order, although I still did need to exclude one possibility. I would do that in the morning. It wouldn't take more than an hour. I could finish up some other business while I was there too. It was a niggle but I wanted to put it to bed.
I centred myself, using a meditation technique to clear my mind, and allowed myself to slide off into sleep.
When four o'clock came around, I found I was once more surrounded by girls. The bed was a king, but there was hardly a spare inch of space. Sarah once again had joined us, but was snuggled up between the twins, behind me, while Ness was sandwiched between Jules and Melanie, who I was spooning.
I slid out of bed, Melanie being the only one who woke. She still had the habit of the street and woke up at the slightest movement.
"Go back to sleep," I told her.
"I should train," she said without enthusiasm.
"Take a break," I said. "There's plenty of time."
She didn't take much convincing and settled down again putting her arm around Ness who, in her sleep, snuggled back into the older girl's embrace.
I rode the elevator down to the first floor and exited the hotel. The valet jumped up, surprised to see anyone out at this time. It took less than ten minutes for him to bring my truck out to me.
Walter Greenwood's house was about fifty minutes drive away and, given it was early Sunday morning, the roads were clear. I didn't see a single car for the first thirty minutes.
I arrived in the Greenwood's neighbourhood just after five. I'd have less time than I thought although, it being Sunday, I doubted that many people would be up and about this early. The kind of workers that got up at that time didn't live in this kind of neighborhood.
I parked my truck a few blocks away and jogged down the sidewalk towards their house, noting that all the properties around were in darkness. A quick scan of the surrounding area showed that there were a couple of dogs, but they were also asleep inside. It seemed everyone was slumbering.
Stopping as if to tie my shoelace, I scanned Walter Greenwoods home. There were three minds in there. Two together in a bed, I figured were Walter and his wife, and the other would have been Trevor.
I found which of the two in the double was Walter and slid into his sleeping mind.
It was definitely him that had set us up for the baseball bat attack. At the time he'd tried to attack me, and I'd tripped him into his car, he'd called his lawyer, Knight. Knight had told him to call the police and report the assault. He told him to ask for a particular captain in the department and he'd make sure the right officers were sent out to deal with it.
After that hadn't worked, Greenwood had spoken to Knight once more, and they had decided I needed to be put in my place. Of course, actions like that didn't come cheap and Greenwood had paid Knight twenty thousand to arrange the beating.
After yet another failure, Greenwood told Knight that he wasn't going to spend any more money and that the responsibility for dealing with me was Knight's. He didn't order the torching of our house, but there was certainly the implication that something more was going to happen. He'd left it in Knight's hands as to what.
I searched Greenwood's mind for something that I could use to get my revenge. When I was done, I had found more than enough but wasn't sure exactly how to utilize the information. I decided to hold off for now and discuss it with the girls. They had been equally affected and should have a say in the retribution.
It was just after six by the time I'd returned to the Nines. I handed my keys to the valet and he took my truck away. I decided to go for a run.
The girls had ordered breakfast by the time I got back to the room about ninety minutes later. Mary looked at me as I entered, indicating a covered plate which they had saved for me.
"I thought you'd be back sooner," she said. "It's probably cold."
I grinned at her. "I decided to go snooping," I said. "I'll tell you about it in a minute."
After a quick shower I returned to the room and, with the bacon from the breakfast and a couple of slices of bread, made myself a sandwich. I sat down to eat as the girls watched me expectantly.
"Well?" asked Ness impatiently. "Where exactly did you go snooping?"
"I went and had a look at Walter Greenwood," I said.
"Did he burn our house down?" asked Sarah.
"Not directly," I said, "nor did he order it burned down. He did order the thugs with baseball bats. When that didn't work, he just told Knight to 'do something' but he didn't specify what."
"Then what are we going to do about him?" asked Ness. "We can't go to the police, we have no evidence."
"I was thinking of something a little more circumspect." I said with a predatory grin. I went on to explain what I had found when I'd plundered Greenwood's mind. He had a lot of secrets, many of which, if they came to light, could see him ruined, and probably imprisoned for a long time.
"First," I said, "that tax loophole that Trevor mentioned. Aside from that, there is a lot that the IRS would be very interested to find out about. If they were to get their claws into him, I have no doubt that life would become very uncomfortable.
"Then there are the clients he's been ripping off. I'm sure that the SEC would be interested to hear about that. Not to mention the clients themselves. He's skimmed literally millions from his clients over the last ten years. I've no doubt that they will each want their pound of flesh."
"We need to be a little careful about that," said Mary. "We don't want an irate client taking matters into his own hands. While I'm more than happy to see him go down, I don't want us to be responsible for his death."
I thought about that for a few minutes. Mary was right. Dianna had told me that Knight represented some people I didn't want to tangle with. If Greenwood and Knight worked together, how many clients did they share? Had Greenwood been stupid and greedy enough to skim from people who would be likely to take more direct action when showing their displeasure?
"Stick to the IRS," said Jules. "They will cause him more than enough problems. He'll lose a lot of money, and probably spend some time in jail. He may even lose his trading license as well."
"Makes sense," said Amanda. "If any of his more dubious clients find out what he's been up to, it won't be because of us. But I still don't see how we are going to do this. No matter what we know, we still don't have any proof."
"He does," said Sarah. "Perhaps he could get an attack of 'conscience' and decide to turn himself in?"
All eyes turned to Sarah, and she looked around self-consciously. "What?" she asked.
In the end we decided that would be our course of action, but not yet. We needed to find out more about Knight, and decide what to do about him, before we did anything about Greenwood.
Since it was Sunday, there was little that could be done about Knight. Greenwood didn't know where he lived and, therefore, neither did I.
We spent the rest of the day doing what we would normally do on a Sunday; catching up with schoolwork and just spending time together. For dinner, we decided to go out to a local Italian restaurant. That brought back memories of my first 'date' with Ness, although there hadn't been quite so many people there that time. Josh and Louise had come with us, but Gracie and Dana hadn't come back from viewing the apartments they'd gone to see. I presumed they were getting some dinner while they were out.
I lay in bed that night, reflecting on what I wanted to do the next day. I needed to take the gun safes to a locksmith and see if they could be opened. I wanted to see if anything inside had survived. I'd been told by the fire officer that he didn't think that they would, given the heat of the fire, but I'd also been told by others that they should have.
I also wanted to swing by Knight's office again. This time, however, I wasn't going in. I needed more information before we could decide exactly what to do about him.
The next morning, I saw the girls off to their respective days and then started my errands for the day. Neither Josh and Louise, nor Gracie and Dana, had come up to our room. Although I didn't see any particular reason for them to do so, I still felt a little sad that we seemed, even in such short amount of time, to be drifting apart. I figured that would resolve with Josh and Louise when we moved into our new house, wherever that would be, but Gracie and Dana? Were they going to drift out of our lives now? I hoped not.
I started at the locksmith, feeling incredibly foolish, when he opened both safes in a matter of seconds.
"Just because the biometric or digital locks are damaged," he said, "doesn't mean the safe is trash. These have a key override, which I was able to use to open them."
He opened my safe first and, despite the appearance of the outside of the safe, the inside looked exactly as it had when I'd last opened it to put my Glock in. Everything looked perfect. I lifted both of the weapons out and examined them. They looked fine. I'd strip them and give them a good cleaning later to be certain. I grinned at the locksmith, happy that Dean's present hadn't been ruined.
Gracie's weapon was equally undamaged and, after leaving the locksmiths shop, having purchased two new safes from the same manufacturer, went to the FBI office to return it to her.
