Vanishing Day Page 5

  “Goodog, Eegee! Goodog!”

  Towel dried and more awake now, Lori pulled on a loose sundress and pushed her feet into a pair of sandals. She asked Shannon for the brush and sectioned her hair into a loose French braid. With the sun out and no black Jeeps in sight, they walked down to the coffee shop where Logan said she got the cinnamon roll.

  The place was called Tava’e’s. The large, Polynesian woman playing chess in the back booth must be the owner. Nice place. Warm, inviting. No sea breeze this morning, though. Burning hot already by the time they hiked back up the hill, Shannon made it about halfway before begging to be carried.

  As soon as Shannon went down for her nap, Lori took one of the new burner phones off the top shelf of Shannon’s closet. All morning she’d been deciding what to say. Now that the house was quiet, she just had to work up the nerve to say it. Taking one last look at Shannon’s innocent, vulnerable face solidified her resolve. She closed the bedroom door softly behind her, walked into the living room and dialed.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello, Garrett. It’s Lauren.”

  He may know where she lived, but she didn’t have to tell him her new name.

  If he was surprised to hear from her, his voice didn’t show it.

  “Have you come to your senses yet?” he said.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, I have.”

  “Good.”

  He didn’t sound surprised at that. Obviously, he misunderstood.

  Lori took a deep breath.

  “I don’t know how you found us, but I know you were here. Shannon saw you yesterday. You frightened her.”

  “If my daughter is afraid of me, it’s only because of the lies you’ve told her,” he said.

  “I’m not going to argue with you, Garrett,” she said.

  She thought very carefully about how she said this next part.

  “I’m not coming back,” she said, then added, “and this time you’re going to leave us alone,” before he could interrupt.

  Garrett barked a laugh.

  Lori pictured him, wheeling around in his office chair, looking out over Elliot Bay. Powerful man with powerful trappings. She had no idea he was still in Orange County, just a few miles away.

  “And why would I do that?” he said.

  “Because I have evidence, Garrett. Names, dates, bank accounts. I have it all.”

  “You’re bluffing,” he said. But he wasn’t laughing anymore.

  Lori took a steadying breath.

  “The Cayman accounts, for one. The IRS would be very interested in these records, Garrett. So would Mr. Yoshimoto.”

  Silence.

  Lori gathered her courage.

  “I gather your number one client is a man who likes his privacy and wouldn’t want you exposing him or his friends. “

  “How...?” he sputtered.

  “I’m not stupid, Garrett. You don’t hide your tracks as well as you think you do. I was an accountant when you met me, remember? Back when I had a life.”

  She was on a roll now, feeling powerful.

  “Are you threatening me?” Garrett growled.

  “No, Garrett. I’m just telling you how it is this time,” she said, “I don’t have the energy or desire to hurt you. I just want you to leave us alone. Let us go, Garrett. Just let us go. As long as you leave us alone, this information won’t go anywhere.”

  Click.

  He hung up.

  That went well.

  Hands shaking only slightly, Lori dialed again.

  No matter what Garrett did now, she knew what her next step had to be.

  First, she called the babysitter and asked if she could watch Shannon over at her house with her other charge, Quinn. Sort of a play date. Haley checked with her mom and said, sure, bring her over anytime.

  “Quinn’s already here. He’d love to have someone to play with,” she said.

  That gave her a couple of hours. Next, she dialed Logan, who answered on the first ring.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Logan, this is Lori.”

  “Hi, Lori, what’s up?” Logan said.

  Grateful for the interruption, Logan stood up from her desk and stretched, looking out of the studio windows towards the ocean. The first couple of days in the school year she spent in the classroom giving her welcome speech to each new class of students starting the Fractals program. This morning she was back in the office, catching up on paperwork before her Oregon trip.

  Lori plowed ahead, “I just wanted to tell you again what a great time Shannon and I had Sunday. Thanks for inviting us.”

  “No need to thank me,” Logan said, “Everyone enjoyed meeting you. Shannon is adorable. Glad the babysitting thing worked out. Bonnie said Haley loves watching Shannon.”

  “Shannon likes her, too. In fact, I dropped her off over there about an hour ago. She’s having a play date with Quinn. Bonnie said it was OK,” Lori said.

  “I had another reason for calling... am I interrupting anything?”

  “No, go ahead,” Logan said.

  ‘Well, this is going to seem like an off-the-wall question, but I wanted to ask if you knew where a good pet store was in town. Shannon’s birthday is coming up in a few weeks and I’m thinking of getting her a real dog to replace that stuffed one she drags around. She loves dogs and I always had one growing up.” Lori said.

  “I figured you might know because you have a cat. That big, tortoise-shell cat is yours, right?”

  “Yes, he’s mine. That’s Dimebox,” Logan answered, “He’s napping on my desk as we speak. I get his food and litter from Chewy.com, but if I run out I use Pet Emporium. They’ve got most everything you need. It’s over off Geranium, north end of town. They don’t sell any animals there, though, except maybe some fish.”

  “Oh, that’s OK, I wouldn’t buy the dog there. Pet store puppies are usually taken from the mom way too early. They can have lots of health and behavior problems later on,” Lori said.

  Logan didn’t know much about dogs, but it was obvious Lori did.

  “I was just about ready to drive over to the district office,” Logan said. “I can show you where it is. I want to get one of those little balls with the bells inside for Dimebox. He keeps losing them. He entertains himself for hours batting those things around.

  “If you want to follow me over there. It’s kind of hard to find. GPS takes you the wrong way on that street. If I lose you, it’s behind the Chevron station.”

  “Sure, if it’s not too much trouble,” Lori said.

  She wanted to trust Logan completely, tell her everything, but she didn’t dare. Not yet.

  “And if you’re hungry, there’s a little place across the street, ocean side, where we can grab lunch before I have to get back to work,” Logan said.

  “What time do you want to go?” Lori asked.

  “Now is good ... meet you downstairs in ten?” Logan said, “Just need to straighten my desk up.”

  Lori hated to use her new friend, but she really didn’t have any other options. Besides, Garrett didn’t know Logan, so she didn’t think what she had in mind would put her in any danger.

  13

  Garrett fumed.

  Bitch! How dare she!

  How could she be so cruel? After all he’d done for her! Everything he did was for her and Shannon. This was simply intolerable. He hadn’t done anything wrong. Mr. Yoshimoto was the crook, not him. Not really. Until Mr. Yoshimoto came along, all his clients were just regular clients. His hedge fund made them money. No huge ups, but then, no huge downs either.

  Garrett was proud of the fact that with only an MBA from a marginal state school, he beat the odds and found his niche early in his career. Finance came naturally to him. He saw the big picture. He saw trends. After working on Wall Street for only a few years, he o
pened his own hedge fund company. Without too much effort, he made good money.

  About that time, he met Lauren. She worked for one of his clients, Jim. Tucker Medical Supplies. They took a short-cut through accounting on the way to his office. Garrett passed by and Lauren looked up from her work. She had the perfect look and demeanor—sort of a quiet, competent type. He learned she was from a good family, a little higher up the social ladder than his. Good wife material.

  Not taking any chances, he gave her the full-court press. He’d even paid a guy to give him a crash course in horseback riding lessons, so he wouldn’t embarrass himself the weekend her family invited him up to the house. The happiest day of his life was when she said yes. Which made her current treachery even tougher to take.

  When Shannon came along, she quit her job to stay home with the baby, like she should. He gave Shannon everything. For a while, everything was perfect. Then Lauren started acting up, so he had to hire Neal. She wasn’t happy about it, but he convinced her. He was important now. They needed protection. He just wanted to keep his family safe.

  Over time, expenditures started outstripping income, no matter how much the hedge fund made. He had to get the downtown Seattle office. The Beemer. You didn’t attract big clients with a shared office and receptionist in Everett, driving a Toyota. All the extra expenses would have been manageable, but he took too many risks in 2008.

  In 2009, his hedge fund started looking pretty anemic. So, when Yoshimoto’s people first approached him with a healthy infusion of cash, he’d readily accepted.

  After exhausting the usual instruments, he put his new client’s money in real estate, hotels, and restaurants. When even that couldn’t handle the mounting cash flow, he recommended crypto. Specifically, Monero, and a little in ZCash, the most untraceable of the cryptocurrencies out there. The man’s money wasn’t going to stay in those invisible accounts long, so it didn’t matter if crypto lasted or not. It was just a temporary stop in the laundering process. Since neither the purchases or sales of Monero could be traced to any individual, it was the perfect vehicle through which to funnel his new client’s funds. Garrett prided himself with always being a step ahead of the curve.

  Mr. Yoshimoto was very pleased. Garrett never asked where the cash came from.

  Not used to such riches, Garrett splurged. And why not? Growing up, his family wasn’t the poorest on the block, but he never felt he had what his friends had. And it was fun. Lauren sure enjoyed all the perks. She didn’t ask where all this money was coming from. He bought the estate out in Cambria Hills. Took Lauren and Shannon to Aruba, business trips to Asia and Europe, got the membership at Cedar Falls. Golf wasn’t something anyone in his Irish, working-class neighborhood ever took up, but he quickly had an under 15 handicap and a set of personalized golf clubs.

  As fast as the spigot flowed, they sucked up the water.

  In this new world of plenty, Garrett started neglecting his other clients, some of whom started to complain—vociferously. One even threatened to report him to the SEC. He’d started taking some of Yoshimoto’s money to keep his other clients happy, reporting returns that didn’t exist. He knew he couldn’t keep this up forever.

  That’s why he’d been sweating bullets. If Yoshimoto had any inkling Garrett’s business might come under the scrutiny of the SEC, he’d pull every yen and dollar in a heartbeat.

  And it was all Lauren’s fault! He was forced to deal with her when he should be figuring out how to keep the lid on everything. His whole business was unbalanced. If Mr. Yoshimoto ever pulled his money, it would collapse.

  Even this catastrophic possibility would be the least of his worries. He’d never asked what Mr. Yoshimoto did, but from the looks of his drivers, and the ridiculous amount of money he was trusting Garrett to funnel through whatever creative avenues he could come up with, he had a good idea what would happen to him if his number one client was ever unsatisfied. In any way.

  He needed to get whatever records Lauren had. Yesterday.

  14

  Her car engine almost didn’t turn over, but finally it caught. She had no trouble following Logan’s cute convertible to the pet store. Lori hoped they’d have what she needed inside.

  Located in a small, stand-alone building behind the Chevron station, the Pet Emporium’s hand-painted, wooden sign welcomed four-legged customers with a water bowl to the right of the front door and a rubber paw-print mat. Logan pushed open the door and Lori followed.

  “Dog stuff on the left, cat stuff on the right,” a passing employee said, over the top of a huge bag of dog food they were carrying up to the front counter for a customer. “If you need help finding anything, I’ll be right back.”

  Logan went to the right to find a jingle ball for Dimebox. Lori turned left.

  “KONG toys?” she asked the cashier, who just finished ringing up her customer.

  “Halfway down the second aisle,” she said, “You want me to show you?”

  “No, I’ll find it, thanks,” Lori said.

  It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for, a shrink-wrapped package housing a lumpy, blue, hard-rubber dog toy. She selected one for puppies. It looked kind of like a headless Michelin man...or maybe a decapitated snowman.

  Logan came around the corner, jingling a package of balls with bells inside, waving what looked like a fishing pole with several feathers on the end.

  “Found ‘em! Couldn’t decide, so I’m getting both. Did you find anything?”

  “KONG Classic,” Lori said, holding up the package. “They’re virtually indestructible. You hide dog treats inside and they have to work to get them out - awesome when they’re teething.”

  “Excellent choice!” the cashier said from the front of the store.

  After gathering a few more items, then spending an inordinate amount of time picking out a puppy collar and leash, the two women took their purchases to the front, paid, and put them in their respective cars.

  “We still have time for lunch,” Logan said, pointing across the street to the sandwich shop, “We can walk.”

  Excited about finally taking some positive steps in her plan to deal with Garrett, Lori realized she was hungry.

  Logan agreed to hide everything at her place until Shannon’s birthday. Lori had no idea how she was going to explain there was no puppy in Shannon’s immediate future, but she’d cross that bridge when she came to it. Logan offered to put everything in her car now, but Lori said she wanted to wrap them first. That meant she would have to spend more of her dwindling money to buy some gift bags and ribbon, but it was important. She had one more item to add before taking it over to Logan’s house for safekeeping.

  Logan said her meetings should be over by 5:00 p.m. or so. Lori could come over any time after she saw her car in the driveway. Ben was coming over later, but they weren’t going anywhere tonight. She’d be home.

  Lori thanked her and got into her own car. She didn’t like lying, but she didn’t see any other way. She hoped Logan wouldn’t slip up and mention a puppy to Shannon. She would be so disappointed when no puppy arrived.

  Someday, she would get Shannon a dog for real.

  With about an hour to spare before she had to pick up Shannon, Lori still had time. Laying her supplies out on the dining room table, she got started. First, with a pair of sharp scissors and some muscle, she removed the KONG Classic toy from its package.

  Why do they make these so hard to get into?

  Holding the bulbous toy small end up, she checked to make sure the design hadn’t changed. It hadn’t. Through the center of the hard, rubber toy was drilled a 1-inch wide hole. The idea was to hide dog treats in there, or stuff it with peanut butter, to give your teething puppy a workout. Great idea, and perfect for what she had in mind.

  Scotch tape ... did I remember to get tape?

  Yes!

  Tearing off a small sec
tion with her teeth, Lori picked up the silver flash drive she just retrieved from her back pack, taping it deep inside the hole. She hoped this particular Kong would never be chewed on by a puppy.

  Good.

  Unless you knew to look inside, you wouldn’t know anything was in there. Still ... if you turn it sideways, it showed. Grabbing a small, green bag, she ripped open the top and pulled out a few dog treats to stuff on top. Checking it from all angles, it passed the test. No flash drive in view. Even if for some reason someone peeked inside, all they would see would be toy and treats.

  Quickly placing the KONG Classic with some other toys in the large, stainless steel dog dish the fictitious puppy would have to grow into, along with the collar and leash, she placed it all in a large gift bag and tied the handles together with blue ribbon. Apparently, this was going to be a boy dog.

  Satisfied with her work, she hid the bag on the top shelf of her closet. Once Shannon was asleep, she’d run it over to Logan’s house. She sighed, suddenly tired after the expenditure of optimistic energy after only a few hours of sleep.

  Someday, Shannon. Life will be normal again ... someday.

  At least the flash drive would be safe. As soon as she had some more money or was able to establish a new identity and open a bank account, she could put it in a safe deposit box, but in the meantime, this would have to do.

  Garrett didn’t know in what form she’d stored the evidence, and even if he did, he would never think to look for it at Logan’s house.

  15

  Logan seemed really excited to be part of the surprise for Shannon. She’d even tossed in a doggy bed to line the crate at the last minute. She was a soft touch. Sally’s son, Quinn, called her Aunti Ogan. She fit the bill. She could see Logan as being everyone’s favorite Aunt.