Subject Seven

Chapter Four
Evelyn Hope

“Daniel Clarkson.” George Mulchahy slid a piece of paper across Evelyn’s massive desk in her study. “He just paid off his car, his house and his time-share in Malibu. He also deposited fifteen thousand dollars into his savings account.”

“People make money, George. Even when they don’t work for us anymore.” Evelyn’s voice was dry and calm. She wasn’t easily shocked. If she had been, she’d surely have never gotten to where she was in the world.

George tsked under his breath and crossed his arms. His suit was impeccable and his hair was perfect and if it weren’t for the atrocious glasses he insisted on wearing, he could have been called handsome, in a stuffy sort of way. He was one of the very few people who knew her that could get away with making that rude little noise in her presence. He was Evelyn’s second-in-command.

Evelyn sighed and then forced a small smile. “Obviously you think I’m missing something about Dan’s sudden income increase, George. Would you like to enlighten me?”

“Funny, isn’t it? Dan suddenly runs across a spare fifty g’s just two weeks after Martin Hanson gets hospitalized in the same city.”

That got her attention. “Really?”

George nodded. “Seems Martin was getting extra money for a while too. A look back in his records shows about one hundred and twenty-five thousand extra dollars in spending showing up around his house. New garage, finally got that little boat he was always talking about. Paid cash for it. All of it over the last six months.”

“Really? Are we sure he didn’t just have a paper route somewhere?” Evelyn leaned back in her leather seat and stared at her second. There were a lot of reasons that she’d chosen him as her personal assistant, but one of the main ones was simply that he was one of the most paranoid human beings she had ever met. And that made him valuable. He just didn’t trust anyone, and that especially included ex-employees who had too much information for their own good.

George made that tsking noise again, and Evelyn lifted an eyebrow and stared at him until he looked away. It was okay to get a little cheeky, but she wouldn’t tolerate anyone, not even her personal assistant, getting rude with her.

Properly chastised, George looked at his clipboard. She knew it was for show. He had a mind that was too sharp to need a clipboard, which was one of the other reasons she’d hired him and kept him close over the years.

“Martin went to work for Danforth Pharmaceuticals after he left here. He didn’t know that you own both companies. You’ve been good to him over the years, but he’s also been very frugal. Martin wouldn’t so much as buy a pair of dollar sunglasses on a too-bright day. You know it; I know it.”

She waved her hand for him to get to the point. “Let’s not rehash old news, George. Tell me why you think something is going on.”

His eyes were unreadable behind the eyeglasses. “Twenty thousand dollars, Evelyn. Like clockwork, every month, but there’s no paper trail. He’s paid for everything in cash.”

“It’s hardly like Martin to get careless.”

“Wasn’t that why you had me relocate him in the first place, Evelyn?”

She frowned, remembering the whole sordid affair better than she liked. Martin hadn’t been the only person she had removed from Janus on that day, not nearly the only one.

Thinking about the cleanup after Seven got away threatened to make her emotional again. Her hand reached up and touched the gold chain around her neck. The chain held exactly two items. One was her wedding ring. The other was the tiny tooth she had bronzed when it fell from her baby boy’s mouth. She’d traded it out for a dollar bill and told Bobby that the tooth fairy had taken it. The next week Tom had the silly thing bronzed for her and carefully added a hook to let her string it through the very chain she still wore. A little something to hold close to her heart was what he called it, and she did then and she did now. Even when the hatred she felt for Seven was overwhelming, the love for Bobby was still real.

“Really, George, why didn’t I just have them killed and be done with it?”

George let one of his little half smiles show for a second. “Because you were trying to look nice and clean for that General Saunders at the time.”

“Oh, pish. I should have let you handle the details.” She waved her hands as if trying to dispel an unexpected stench.

“Live and learn, Evelyn.”

“Too true. Very well, why don’t we find Martin and bring him in for a conversation?”

“Should I bring in Dan as well?”

Evelyn shook her head. “Not yet. It’s possible that they simply got lucky at the track or some such; best to let him think we aren’t keeping tabs until we have to let him know, don’t you think?”

George reached past her and picked up her phone. She watched his fingers race across the numbers and pretended to ignore him telling one of the teams to grab Martin as discretely as possible. Discretion was a good thing, especially in their business.

When the call was done, George looked at her and waved his fingers. “That should be that. I’ll keep you posted.”

“What on earth would make them start talking after all this time, George?”

“Some people forget how close the past is, Evelyn.”

She nodded and steepled her fingers, resting her chin against the tips of her manicured nails for a moment. George stayed where he was. He knew when she was thinking and when she was done with him, which was still another reason she had kept him around so long.

“Just to be safe, George, I want you to move the main warehouse to a new location. And I think it’s time we got rid of the old compound. I don’t want any connections to those days.”

He sniffed. “If you think it’s necessary.”

“You brought this to my attention, dear boy, not the other way around.”

“Touche.” He left the room a moment later. Evelyn watched him leave, never moving from her seat.

If someone was digging into the past, there might be serious repercussions for the company.

Only a handful of people knew where all of the bodies were buried. One of them she trusted. Two of them had recently gotten an unexpected bonus from an undisclosed source.

“Unacceptable.” She spoke aloud only because she liked the sound of her own voice. “Absolutely unacceptable. I’ll not have anyone ruining what we’ve worked for.”