Chapter 32
Like yesterday, Barry escorted Mac to the dock and watched her and her team leave. Mac looked like she wanted to ask him something—probably about his mission today—but there were too many ears listening in.
Her team was curious about him, but Mac avoided any questions. She didn’t know how to explain him without giving away she was looking into Miles. Though after the warning yesterday, it was obvious what she was up to. However, her team was good enough not to ask questions about that.
“Be careful,” she said, staring up at him intently as if she expected this to be the last time they saw each other. This was a walk in the park for him. She had nothing to worry about.
“I will. I’ll see you when you get back. I’ll be waiting at the hotel.”
“Are you going to go through stuff before I get back?” she questioned hesitantly as if she thought he was going to keep her in the dark about what he found.
“I’ll start a preliminary search, but I’ll save some for you to help me go through.”
Mac nodded and gave him a kiss before getting on the boat.
After watching her leave, Barry went back to his hotel and checked the cameras that he’d placed last night.
The construction team was already well underway.
In the back of the hotel where the crane was, it was now moved closer to the tree line, and people were standing at the back of the building looking up.
So, the broken window had already been discovered. Barry brought up the program to check the recent audio from Annabelle’s bag.
“I can’t believe this keeps happening. There wasn’t even a storm this time,” Miles ranted. Barry heard something smack a solid surface and then a crashing sound as if Miles had swiped his hand across his desk and knocked everything over. “I can’t catch a break on this project.”
“I don’t know, Miles. The crane was near it.
Maybe one of the workers dropped something that hit the window and was afraid to report it,” Annabelle replied in a placating tone.
Barry may not personally care for the woman, but he hadn’t been lying when he’d said she was underutilized.
He didn’t know what the draw was to working for a man like Miles.
“I don’t pay people for their incompetency. If that’s the case, they can pay for the window this time. I’m tired of it coming out of my budget. We’re already months behind schedule and in the hole on cost.”
“That was the concern with building on this side of the island. We’ve been over this numerous times. But I won’t beat a dead horse,” she quickly added. Barry didn’t doubt Miles was giving her a death glare at that moment. “I’ll take care of the window situation.”
The timestamp on the recording was thirty minutes before Barry had walked Mac to the docks. Barry checked the data on Annabelle’s phone. She had already called the repair service. It had been shortly after her conversation with Miles. It was sad the woman had them as a saved contact in her phone.
Barry pulled out his phone and called the number. “Sunrise Windows, this is George; how can I help you,” a man answered cheerfully.
“Hi, George, this is Stephen with MB Hotel. I just want to confirm what time the repair team is coming.”
“Of course, sir, the team is scheduled to be there at ten today.”
“Thank you so much.” Barry hung up and checked his watch. He had two hours until they would be there. He would sneak in with the team and get inside. Hopefully, Miles would be out of the office to avoid the noise at that time, and then he shouldn’t have any problems getting onto the computer.
As he waited for time to pass, Barry continued going through data on Annabelle’s phone. There weren’t any new emails. He scanned through her photos, and they were only of job sites, nothing personal. This woman had no private life; everything was work-related.
He looked up her in the database. Annabelle Delaney, thirty-one years old.
Graduated from Cornell with BS degree in business administration almost eight years ago.
She’d graduated top of her class and started at another company, worked for them as a project manager for three years before moving on to work for Miles.
Now why would a person with this kind of background switch from a lucrative company like that to menial paper-pushing. She was capable of so much more. Was it loyalty that kept her? Or something else?
It looked like Miles Banks wasn’t always the rich businessman. He had caught a lucky break in politics and gotten backed by financial supporters to start his hotel chain, and then he’d branched out a few years later.
Annabelle had started working for him before he’d gotten his start. It had been a risky gamble for her to make that career change. Obviously, it had paid off, but it could have gone a different direction.
Barry checked his watch; it was time to go.
He grabbed his keys and headed for the hotel.
He pulled over into a dirt parking lot near a hiking trail and walked back to the hotel just as the window van was arriving.
He hurried up the trail and came onto the job site, but panicked for a moment when he didn’t see the van.
He’d seen it driving up, so it had to be there.
It clicked in his brain that it might be in the back of the hotel where the window needed replacing.
Barry kept his head down as he crossed the dirt path; none of the workers seemed to notice him.
They were all focused on their own jobs and didn’t mind the other workers.
So many people were coming and going, it was like an ant hill preparing for winter.
He came around the corner and saw the van parked facing the hotel. The back doors were opened, and several men stood around it. The front passenger door was open too; Barry saw there was a jacket that matched their uniform and a hat.
Barry walked to the front of the van, put on the jacket—which was a little small for his frame; hopefully no one noticed—and pulled a hat low over his face.
The team branched off, and a few headed for the propped open door in the back of the hotel. Barry used that opportunity to join the rest of the work and headed inside. He made sure to stay in the back.
A guard checked the leaders’ name badges and allowed them access to the elevator. The team laughed and joked with each other as they rode it up to the eighth floor. No one seemed to notice he didn’t belong. He just kept his head down and his shoulders forward to make himself appear smaller.
They filed out of the elevator and were stopped at the end of the hall. “What are you doing here?” Barry heard a guard. For a moment, he panicked that Miles was still there, which would make the transfer that much harder if not impossible.
“Replacing the window,” the leader informed him.
“Let me see your orders,” the guard demanded.
The leader handed them over, and the guard scanned the contents thoroughly before handing them back. The guard used a key card and unlocked the door, then held it open.
“Be quick.”
The leader just nodded, and the team entered the office. Barry didn’t see anyone in the room, so Miles must be out, but his guards were there to keep an eye on things.
The team immediately went to the window and got right to work on cutting around the window frame. They moved with an efficiency that said they did this quite often.
The door remained open, and the guards watched them. The desk sat right in front of the window, so Barry used that to hide himself.
He shook the mouse, not at all surprised the computer was password protected. He pulled a sub from his pocket and plugged it into his phone. Using the monitor to block him, Barry sat up and inserted the other end of the sub into the port.
He sat back down on the floor and typed on his phone to remotely log into the computer. Once he was in, he went the file drive and started the transfer.
He set his phone on the desk chair and pulled out an audio device from his pocket before he planted it under the desk in the far corner. Miles would never see it, and it would be impossible for him to bump into it unless he was rooting around under the desk.
He wished he could do a visual camera, but with the guards on lookout, he’d never get it put into place.
Barry stood up when he was done and assisted the team so as to look like he was a legitimate part of the group. He started cleaning up the mess and putting tools away as the team used suction cups to lock onto the window and pull it inside.
Barry checked his phone and saw the download was finished. He pocketed his phone and turned to see one of the workers looking at him. His face was red and flush like he was struggling.
Barry rushed to help the team pull the window to the floor. He slid into place alongside one of the others and gripped the suction cup, helping pull it inside.
They walked it down the hall and into the elevator and then out to the van. The new piece of glass had already been removed and was attached to the crane and being lifted into the air.
He helped push the broken window into place and stepped back as the team strapped it down. Barry used that time to slide out of the jacket and hat and put them back into the front of the van. Then he calmly walked away.
He walked more briskly across the front yard. He looked back to see if anyone was following, but the coast was clear. He turned back around and came to a screeching halt, almost slamming into Annabelle.
She looked up at him with wide eyes of fright at almost being bowled over. “Sean,” she gasped breathlessly, placing a hand over her chest as if her heart was galloping.
“Annabelle, hi.” He played it off casually, not at all worried about being seen there.
“I’m shocked to see you here,” she said, sounding calmer.
“I had a small gap in my schedule and came to see if I could get some work done.”
Annabelle looked him over. “Without your tools?”
Damn, she was observant. “They’re in my truck. I wasn’t sure what I needed so I wanted to scope it out first.” Barry looked up at the hotel. “Progress looks about where it was last time I was here.”
Annabelle’s face pinched into a grimace. “Don’t remind me. It will take a miracle to get things ready for the grand opening in three months.”
“Have there been any reservations yet?”
“Oh yes,” Annabelle replied, not sounding happy about it. “Somehow I’ll have to figure it out.”
“I still say you’re too good for him and should get your due credit.” He had told her that at their dinner meeting too.
Annabelle smiled ruefully. “Well, I appreciate you saying that.”
“Well, I won’t keep you. I’m sure you have a million things to do, as do I,” Barry commented, ready to leave the premises.
“I do. See you around, Sean. Maybe we can have dinner again soon. I had a lot of fun.”
“Me too. I’ll check my schedule and let you know.
” Barry nodded and walked around her down the pathway toward the main road.
As soon as he was far enough away from the hotel entrance, he jogged to his car.
Barry didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until he was inside the car. That had been close. Too close.
He started the car and put it in drive, ready to get back to the hotel and go through the data he’d pulled, hoping there was something incriminating on it.