Chapter 12
Warren looked up when the rustling of a note being pushed under his door filled the still night air. He was still in his shirt and trousers, but he had taken his boots off. Walking silently in his stockinged feet, he moved to the door and picked up the note.
It was his note returned to him.
What does this mean?
Instantly his palms were sweaty, his heart hammered in his chest, and he wasn’t at all certain that he wanted to open the note and read it.
This had to be the answer to his question, but what would it be?
What if she said that they should keep it strictly professional, or even worse, that they should, at most, be friends?
He should just do it. Just open the note and read it.
Do it!
With his fingers obeying some hindbrain that Warren wasn’t certain he had any control over, he opened the note. His eyes slid over his own words. They were safe. He knew what they said. And then they slid down to the new words.
Written in Dorothy’s fine, elegant hand were four little words that stopped Warren’s heart for a second.
“I would love to,” he read out loud, the words not really making sense to him. “I would love to.”
And then it hit him like a punch to the face. “Oh! Oh goodness!” he exclaimed. This was such wonderful news. Should he sit, or should he run around the town letting everyone know?
The hindbrain made some sort of decision then, and he threw his door open.
She was there in her gown, looking every bit as stunning as she usually did. No, in fact, with the slight flush in her cheeks, Dorothy looked even more beautiful than ever.
Warren walked over to her and, wrapping an arm around her waist, drew her into a tender kiss. It was sweet and passionate, and best of all, she kissed him back just as passionately. They were both rather breathless when they parted at last.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting that,” Dorothy whispered, her voice delightfully husky.
“Me neither, to be honest,” Warren said, flushing a bit and unable to resist running his thumb over her soft, full lips. “I don’t know what came over me.”
She chuckled. “Whatever it was, it was … very nice.”
That made Warren’s cheeks heat up further and he dared to lean in and steal another kiss, a softer one this time, after which Dorothy beamed at him. “I think we should go and get some sleep. We still have a lot of work to do tomorrow.”
His heart dipped a little. He didn’t want to sleep.
He wanted to stand there with one arm around her waist and look at her.
Warren wanted to drink her in, to memorize each line in her brow, each freckle on her cheeks, each fleck of amber in her brilliantly green eyes.
He wanted to run her auburn hair through his fingers and feel how soft it was.
In short, he just didn’t want to leave her side ever again.
But of course, reality didn’t allow for that.
He nodded. “Yes. But let’s meet for breakfast early and we can steal a few minutes to ourselves before we hit the books.”
She nodded. “That sounds like a plan. Well, good night,” she said softly.
“Good night,” he said. This time he took her hand and kissed it. “Sweet dreams.”
Dorothy smiled. She stared up into his eyes, and Warren had to fight the urge to kiss her all over again. Would it be so bad?
They leaned in closer and then she planted a chaste little kiss on his cheek. “If we don’t just go, we’ll be here all night. Not that I would mind at all, but Mac needs us to help him, which means we each need some good sleep. Now, I’m going to open my door and go inside. Okay?”
He nodded even though he didn’t want to.
Dorothy turned the handle and opened her door. She backed into the room and, with a final kiss blown from her palm to him, she closed the door.
Warren stood there staring at the door. So, this was love. It had taken its fine time getting to him, but now that it was here, he almost didn’t know what to do with it.
He went back to his room, got undressed, and climbed into bed.
For a while he lay there, replaying the kiss over and over again and thinking they might as well have continued kissing, for all the sleep it seemed he was going to get.
Then he whispered a prayer of thanks to God and managed to finally drift off, still smiling as he did.
Morning came and despite not having as many hours of sleep as he usually would get, Warren was wide awake and ready to face the day. He felt as though he’d imbibed multiple cups of extra-strong coffee, putting a bounce in his step even before he actually made his way to the dining room.
As he opened his door and stepped into the hallway, Dorothy came out of her room toting the heavy carpetbag.
Warren locked his door and then hurried over to her. “Morning! Let me help you with that.” For a brief moment he was afraid things would be terribly awkward between then, but then she grinned and all was well.
“Oh, thanks,” Dorothy said, squeezing his hand as he took the bag from her. “It’s surprisingly heavy with all those books. Are you ready for a day of crunching numbers?”
Warren nodded. “It’s my second favorite thing to do.”
“Oh? And what’s the first?” she asked.
He grinned meaningfully and knew she understood when she flushed and grinned back.
“Oh Warren,” she scolded him. “You know we have to be professional.”
“Only after breakfast. Until then we’re not on the clock,” he said.
Dorothy bit her lip and then, her eyes darting down the hall in both directions, she stood on tiptoe and lightly kissed him before laughing and turning back to her room door.
She locked the door and they walked down the corridor, with Warren floating on air.
Michael was already up and sitting at a table with Mac. They were deep in conversation.
“Those two are becoming close,” Dorothy said, nodding in their direction. “Do you think we should go over there?”
“Why not?” Warren asked.
They walked to the table. Michael and Mac looked up.
“Ah, you’re both up,” Mac said, smiling. “Good. Come have a seat.”
Warren pulled out Dorothy’s chair for her and then took a seat himself across the table from her. He put the carpetbag at his feet, settling a foot on a strap so it couldn’t be slid out without him noticing. What it contained might be worth more than gold to the right people.
“Look, there’s a lot to get through today, so have breakfast, and I’ll show you to the cabin,” Mac said.
“Maybe someone less prominent should do that,” Warren suggested. “I get the feeling that you’re constantly being watched.” He had spotted Foster nursing a mug of coffee at a table in the corner.
Mac sighed. “You’re right. Sadie can show you. Perhaps if I keep Foster and Barnes busy, they’ll never know you left.”
“Yes, we’re going to have to be careful,” Michael said. “I told Mac he needs to head back to New York to show Devlin and Harding that he means business. They can’t take his company.”
“Without knowing everything that’s going on there, I wouldn’t recommend it,” Warren said.
“There are things happening at the firm that Mac hasn’t been privy to.
Dorothy and I need another day or so to track everything down.
Once we do, you can go there with the facts and figures in hand, and then they can’t wriggle out of it. ”
Mac nodded. “You’re a wise man, Warren. It makes good sense. Anyway, I doubt we’ve seen the last of Brett and his gang. I’m sure they’ll try something soon. I have my guys around the hotel keeping their eyes and ears open. We’ll know what they have planned soon enough.”
After breakfast, Warren and Dorothy went to find Sadie.
She was at the reception, speaking to Agnes. They had serious expressions that melted into smiles when Warren and Dorothy approached.
“You know what to do,” Sadie said to Agnes, who nodded.
“I’ve got it under control.”
Sadie turned to them. “Off to the cabin?”
“Yes, if you’ll show us the way,” Dorothy said. “I don’t think I ever went there as a kid.”
Sadie sighed. “It was a place where Douglas and I could be alone, so I doubt we took you there. I’ll be happy to show you. It’s not hard to find, but it is secluded.”
They set off. The sky was overcast, but it wasn’t raining yet.
The air was chilly and puffed out in front of them in little clouds.
Dorothy and Warren followed Sadie down the steps to the beach.
They followed a path to their left that led under the tree canopy, and it was quite dark under there on a gloomy day.
At first, the path was easy to see and to follow. It was obvious that people walked it often. They came to a place where several rowboats were lined up on the beach. From there the path took a turn to the right and seemed to disappear entirely.
“From here you have to pay attention,” Sadie said. “It’s not far, but you can get turned around. Just remember to keep the lake on your right all the time.”
Warren thought this was an odd thing to say until he was well on the new trail.
Then keeping the lake on his right was good advice.
The path wound this way and that through the trees, avoiding places where the water lapped right up to rocks with no beach whatsoever.
The trees dipped their toes in the water in places, and the wood looked quite wild in comparison to the areas they had been before.
When there were patches where the trees parted enough to see the lake properly, Warren was surprised they couldn’t see the hotel anymore. In fact, the whole lake looked different. The slopes ahead of them were less forested and the lake looked larger and rounder.
“You’ve rounded a promontory, and this is the other side of the lake,” Sadie explained. “And here is the cabin.”
Set back from the water, with a little pebbly beach running up to its front steps, there was indeed a large log cabin.
The porch was deep, and there were rocking chairs and a bench on it.
The large windows were dark and closed. There was no smoke from the chimney, and there was a woodpile on the side of the house.
Sadie led them up to the front door, which she unlocked with a brass key. The cabin was cozy. There was a large living room and a kitchen in the back. Down a short passage were three bedrooms. It was well furnished and, apart from some dust, was perfectly suitable for their needs.
“The outhouse is out the back door,” Sadie said. “I’ll come back later with some lunch.”
She left them.
“Why don’t you get a fire going and I’ll get us all set up to work?” Dorothy suggested.
Warren nodded and went to the woodpile. He brought plenty of wood inside as it was starting to drizzle and then built a fire. The cabin warmed soon enough, and he and Dorothy removed their coats.
Then they settled down to work. The living room was bright, even with the cloud cover outside. It was furnished with comfy chairs around a central coffee table.
Dorothy had placed the ledger he was working on before on the coffee table in front of him and he had spare paper to work on. With pencil in hand, he set to work. As usual, he quickly became immersed in his talk to the point where the rest of the world vanished.
Warren was vaguely aware of people talking around him and things moving. The light changed, and there was a clap of thunder that made him look up and then return to his work.
For hours he puzzled over the figures, tracing them through the books and pages. It was like following a character through the plot of an opera. There were ups and downs, red herrings and twists and turns, but eventually, he had it.
When he looked up, he saw that Dorothy had fallen asleep with a ledger in her lap. The room was bathed in the light of the fire in the hearth and a lamp burning beside him. He hadn’t noticed it being lit.
“Oh? You’re back,” Sadie said as she came into the living room. She was carrying a tray with three mugs on it.
“Did I go somewhere?” Warren asked. “What time is it?”
“Four in the afternoon, give or take a couple of minutes,” Sadie said. “And to answer your question, yes, you did disappear into that big brain of yours. We couldn’t get a word out of you, so we decided to leave you to it. Did you find something?”
Warren nodded. “I have tracked the money, and I know roughly where it’s gone. There are two accounts that aren’t real. I mean, they aren’t companies that the firm has lent money to.”
“Why do you say that?” Dorothy asked, yawning and stretching.
“Did we wake you, dear?” Sadie asked as she came and sat with them on a comfy chair.
“I shouldn’t have fallen asleep in the first place,” Dorothy said. “Go on, Warren, the companies aren’t real, you say?”
“No, they aren’t,” he said. “There’s something wrong with their information. They don’t have the right details. For example, I know for a fact that this address in New York doesn’t exist.”
“How do you know that?” Dorothy asked.
Warren sighed. “My folks own the block, and there is no building with that name anywhere in that vicinity.”
“You’re sure?” Dorothy asked, not making a fuss about Warren’s parents’ wealth, for which he was grateful.
“Positive,” Warren said.
“And this is one of the accounts that the money taken from other accounts is being funneled into?” Sadie asked.
Warren nodded. “There is another account that this happens to as well. Also, there are no general withdrawals. There’s no withdrawal for rent, stationery, or general expenses.
There is a lump sum taken twice a month, and it’s noted as wages.
And that’s it. Now, I don’t know of any company with such a minimal budget that only expenses are categorized as wages.
There is a lot of information missing here. ”
“Yes, that does sound fishy,” Sadie said. “But can we connect any of it to Harding or Devlin?”
Warren shook his head. “No. Not without looking into the companies. They might be board members, and those aren’t listed here.”
“They’ll be on the contracts in the archives,” Dorothy said with an annoyed sigh.
“If we were in the office, it would be dead easy to get them. That is if a contract was signed at all. This is an illegal enterprise, I’m willing to bet.
You’re not going to find a conveniently signed contract.
They would have hidden their tracks better than that. ”
“So now what?” Warren asked. He was surprisingly tired.
“Now we eat and rest,” Sadie said. “We’ll think of something.”