Chapter 1 #2
After multiple searches through every database she knew of and was able to access, all she could find were redacted military records.
“Why is there nothing on him? Everyone has a footprint online. Everyone!” She cocked her head to one side, trying to remember his younger brothers’ names.
“Colt. That’s one.” She repeated the search for Colt McKinley and repeated the process for Remi and Talon when links from their old high school page connected them together, and once again came up empty-handed.
“This isn’t possible.” She wasn’t the best hacker on the planet.
Hell, she probably wasn’t even in the top twenty percent.
But she was good enough that she should be able to find something.
Google normally knew everything and could find anyone.
“If they are living in the Stone Age, then there is only one way to get answers.”
She picked up her phone, punched in a number from memory, and put the phone to her ear as she waited for her call to be answered.
“Hello.”
“Hey, Momma, it’s me.”
“Jorja, baby. You must have heard me thinking about you.”
Even from across the miles, her momma’s warmth filtered through the phone and wrapped around her like a blanket. “Hi, Momma.”
“Is everything okay? It’s the middle of the night where you are.”
She could picture her mom settling into the couch, pulling one of her knitted Afghan blankets around her, and settling in to chat with her.
This was one of the reasons she loved talking to her mom.
There was nobody else on the planet who made each and every person they spoke to feel like all their attention was on you.
While it had been annoying while she was a child, now that she was older, she appreciated it more than she could say. “I couldn’t sleep.”
“You mean your brain is running a hundred miles an hour again?”
Even though it was said fondly, she could hear the concern in her mom’s voice. “Something like that. I have a work problem I was trying to figure out.”
“Ah, is there anything I can help you brainstorm?”
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my mom.
Who hasn’t got the foggiest idea of computers but is happy to listen to me ramble on if it helps me work out a problem with them.
“I’m not sure, Momma.” This better not backfire, but if anyone knew anything about the McKinleys, it was Momma.
“Do you remember the McKinley boys from school?”
Her mom didn’t answer for a heartbeat and Jorja just knew her mom was trying to figure out why she was asking about them.
But bless her, she didn’t immediately jump to any conclusions.
“I do. They still live over on Oak and Sixth. I bumped into one of them shopping with their grandpa over Christmas. Such a handsome boy.”
“Are they all back living at home?”
“Oh, no, no,” her mom replied. “I believe they have a business in Europe. In Italy, I think.”
“Italy?”
“Yes. At least that’s what their momma said. Why?”
“I just need to get some information, and I think Gunnar, that’s the oldest one, right? Might be able to give it to me.” She held her breath.
“Yes, Gunnar. He got divorced a couple of years ago. I’m thinking that’s a good thing as that wife of his was running around with every man old enough to wear long pants while he was deployed,” Momma said.
“He’s better off without that one, that’s for sure.
All them boys are divorced now. The younger ones are Colt, Remi, and Talon.
I don’t know why they got divorced, but I’m guessing it was for similar reasons to the oldest boy.
Why these women marry soldiers then carry on like they aren’t married while their men are off risking their lives for our country is beyond me. ”
She could tell her mom was gearing up for a rant and tried to steer her back on track. “Me too, Momma. Do you know how I can find them?”
“Why don’t you look them up on that computer of yours?”
“I tried that…”
“I suppose they are still doing that secret stuff,” her momma mused. “They have a business name. Let me see if I can find it.”
Jorja knew without being told that her mom was flipping through the notepad she kept next to the couch.
Her mom wrote everything down. If she heard gossip or a tidbit of news, it went into that notebook.
She’d been promising her mom that when she died, the first thing she’d dispose of would be her notebooks.
While her mom loved to know what was going on, she was also a vault who didn’t like to pass that information on.
“There it is.” Her mom must have found what she was looking for. “Their business is called quadruple X, that’s four X’s.”
“Isn’t that like a mint or something?”
Her mom snorted. “I said that too.” Her laugh was contagious. “Why on earth would they call a company Four X’s?”
Jorja had no idea what they’d been thinking. “Maybe one of them used XXXX as a place filler and it stuck.”
“They are boys, so that’s more than possible,” Momma agreed. “If you can’t find them with that name, call me back and I’ll phone their momma and ask her for an email or a phone number, as I know you don’t really like talking on the phone.”
“You, Momma, are a genius.” She could send Gunnar and his brothers an email. “I’m going to go see if I can find them. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Everything else is okay, right?”
“Yes, Momma, I promise.” She leaned back against the pillows; she could spare a couple of more minutes to chat with her mom.
“Good, good,” Momma replied. “Now I know you are itching to get back to work. One of my shows is about to start, so I don’t want to keep you longer than you have to spare.”
“I love you, Momma.”
“I love you too, child. Call me again soon, okay?”
“Bye, Momma.”
She hit end on the call and went back to her laptop, pulled up a search engine, and went looking for a company called XXXX in Italy. Once she found the website, she searched for a menu and contact details and found exactly nothing.
Well, shit. How the heck can they expect to do business if there is no way for a potential client to contact them on their pages?
Even if they didn’t have their contact details on the site, she figured she could make an educated guess at what the emails might be. She opened up her personal email and double-checked the spelling on the photo of the list.
Oh, I thought his name was spelled different, I didn't even notice when I was searching earlier.
To: gunnermckinley@
From: jjaBuchanan1982@
Subject: Home I was a couple of years below you in school. My momma wants to do something special for your momma. Can you get back to me so we can bounce around some ideas?
Thank you.
Jorja
She read over it a couple of times, then decided that sounded perfectly reasonable, and hit send.
Her inbox immediately populated with an email.
Her heart sank and she already knew what it meant but went and opened it anyway.
She scanned the email, “of course you bounced. Let’s try info@.
” Once again, the email bounced back. After trying every combination she could think of, she was up to ten attempts when she gave up.
There was only one thing for it; she’d just have to go to Italy and tell him in person.
“Okay, I’ve always wanted to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Rome.
” Even so, she couldn’t just drive around Italy and hope to bump into one of the McKinleys.
She needed a better plan than that. She pulled up another database, this time for Italian registered businesses.
That would be her starting point. She’d figure it out from there.
She set everything up to run. If she was going to drive to Italy tomorrow, then she needed some sleep.
Maybe, somewhere in her dreams she could come up with a logical reason why she was doing this.
An explanation which didn’t result in Gunnar and his brothers thinking she was insane would also be helpful.
She carefully moved her laptop onto the floor and flipped off the light.
If she didn’t know what she would say by morning, then she had more than a thousand miles to figure it out.
That would have to be good enough for now.