Chapter 11. Scene of the crime.
The flight back to Oslo only took about a half hour. From the airport they caught a cab to the Ice Palace.
The Ice Palace was not a huge building compared to some of the others around it, but just as Anne had described, it did make you think of ice when you looked at it. The windows were tinted a cool reflective glacial blue colour that struck Chris suddenly when he realized they were almost the same colour as Anne's eyes. He realized he'd never be able to look at ice again with out thinking of her. But that was a good thing. He smiled to himself.
As she led Chris though the front door, he couldn't help but notice the same unstoppable confidence in Anne that he'd seen in the police station. Once again she had that aura like she owned the place. Chris chuckled to himself remembering that she DID own this place. Besides that, he enjoyed following her. The view was spectacular. In her business suit and skirt, he had a hard time this morning keeping his eyes off her legs. His mind kept flashing to images of Anne and himself in the kitchen. Her hands sliding across his bare chest, arms and legs wrapped around each other. He tried to keep his eyes up and focus straight ahead. He didn't want people at her work to see him for the first time as the guy who stared at her ass all the way in to the building.
Chris mentally slapped himself. Anne really did have him under a spell. Her sexual teasing this morning didn't help either. He couldn't believe he was doing this. He'd never been the type to ogle women or to objectify them in any way. But with Anne, he couldn't take his eyes off her. It wasn't some lustful mental groping or some fantasy objectification. He found himself attracted to everything about her. He felt a need to just be with her. "God help me." He thought. He could just imagine Jeff right now, telling him how he was whipped, and teasing him with whipping noises. Chris laughed quietly to himself. He didn't care. If being whipped meant being with Anne, every lash was worth it.
As they entered the office tower, the front foyer was huge. It was several stories high and the glass walls of the exterior made it look even bigger, letting in natural lighting. As they passed the front information desk, everyone inside either smiled at them or greeted Anne with a "Good Morning". Everyone here knew her, or at least knew who she was. Chris just nodded and smiled trying to keep up. He did notice a couple odd lingering stares. One or two people, he surmised, had obviously read the tabloids and made the connection.
When Anne had told him it was a tower, the word "tower" didn't really register. He didn't really make the mental connection in his head as to the size of the place. Somehow he'd pictured a much smaller building with a factory in the back and a dozen people sewing things. "How big is this place?" He stared with awe.
"The building is fifteen stories." Anne smiled back enjoying the stunned look on his face. "Manufacturing is on the lower levels, design and marketing in the middle and executive offices on the top. Fifteenth floor also has Elise's and my apartment suites." She pulled him into an elevator and hit the button for fifteen.
"How many people do you employ?" Chris was baffled. Until now, the size of Elan didn't really register until seeing it.
"We employ about three hundred people here, give or take, and a few more in our other locations around Europe." Anne smiled back, enjoying the look on Chris's face.
"All this," he waved around with his hand, "just from sitting around sketching models as a teenager when you were bored?" Chris smiled shaking his head in disbelief.
Anne stopped for a moment at the comment. "Funny how journeys begin, isn't it." She winked at him before continuing.
When they exited the elevator on the top floor they were greeted by the receptionist. She was a striking blond woman in her late forties that was impeccably dressed. The name Lene Holm was displayed on a small plaque on her desk. She spoke in Norwegian to them and Anne made quick introductions for Chris before leading him down the hall to her office.
"Our apartment suites are the other way." Anne explained, pointing back down the hall past the receptionist. "It's usually where we stay when we're in Oslo."
As they entered Anne's office, Chris saw it was actually a shared office for both Elise and her, as there were two desks facing each other, but as Anne explained, she didn't use it very often. Much of her work was done on another floor where she worked with the designers and marketing teams. She had another office with them, a few floors down.
Anne crossed the room, dropping her things on the desk and stood at the window staring out at the city. She let out a soft sigh. To her it felt like just getting here had taken almost all of her energy. She felt tired.
"Hey, princess." Chris spoke quietly. He'd noticed a change in her posture and presence. He put an arm around her as he joined her by the window to admire the view. "You okay?"
"Yeah. Sorry, but could you not call me that. Princess, I mean. It's just..." She looked downcast. "I'm sorry Chris. It all just seams so daunting."
Chris thought she looked as if she wanted to say something but she held back. He put a hand on her back and rubbed gently. "Sorry. I didn't mean to..."
"It's not you." Anne turned and hugged him. "Sorry, I...I'll explain later okay." She let go and stared out the window again. "I love the view here. It's the simple things like this that I'll miss if things don't work out."
Chris stared out the window. It really was a great view.
"Come on. Let's get busy." Anne turned to the desk.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Chris asked.
Anne paused and closed her eyes to clear her head. "Umm...Anything to confirm the conditions or terms of whatever deal Hans made. It should all be on file." Anne sat down at her desk and turned on her computer. "Could you open the second drawer of that filing cabinet." She pointed across the room.
Chris crossed the room to the filing cabinet and opened it. "What am I looking for?"
Anne ignored him for a second as she became lost in data on her computer. She began printing out page after page. Her fingers flashed across the keyboard at an impressive speed.
Chris stood watching her with amazement and fascination. He knew she must have some pretty good office skills to get where she was today, but had never seen her like this. Up till now, he'd only seen Anne on a personal side. Here in the office, it was like a switch went off and she turned all business and professional. He admired her.
"There you are." She mumbled quietly with satisfaction. Anne hit one more button and the printer spit out a few more pages. She looked up at Chris who was eyeing her with keen interest. "What?" She stared at him for a moment before reality caught up. "Oh, sorry," Anne shook her head, " I kind got lost there."
"Yeah, you kind of disappeared. Do you still need anything out of the cabinet?"
"No, probably not, but grab it anyway. There's a few folders of bank statements for our investments. Grab the the most recent few. We may not need them. I think I found what I needed." She grabbed the pile of paper in the printer and began sorting and reading.
Chris was feeling a little useless. He didn't really know his way around an office or the paperwork side of business. "Can I get you anything? Coffee, tea..."
"There's a kitchen and lounge down the hall on your left. I'd love some tea, thank you." She looked back down at her papers as Chris opened the door to leave. "Wait," Anne looked up. "Sorry, I don't mean to treat you like this, I..."
"It's alright," Chris smiled back. "In the wilderness, I might be King, but in the office, I'll happily bow to you and fetch refreshments." He teased. "I know I'm not much help here. I'm just happy to be here with you. Anything you need Anne, just ask. Okay?"
A smile overtook the concern on her face. "Thank you." She felt a warm glow inside herself at Chris's caring nature.
Chris headed down the hall and found the lunch room. On one side it was a full kitchen with a high table and bar type stools along it that all faced out the window to the same spectacular view that Anne's office held. The other side of the room had a couple sofas and chairs around a glass coffee table with magazines spread out on them. Chris put the tea kettle on and then turned to stare out the window for a while, searching out across the city to the ocean in the distance. He sat down on the stool and just watched everything going on below. People buzzed around like insects fifteen stories below. Cars and trucks whizzed to an fro. It really wasn't a whole lot different then studying wildlife in the outdoors, Chris thought to himself. From up here, even the hectic hustle and bustle of city life looked peaceful in its own way. There was a beauty to it that he appreciated. A harmony.
He was startled out of his mental wanderings when the tea kettle went off and began to whistle. Pulling the plug he made a cup of tea for Anne and set it aside on the table to steep before sitting back down to enjoy the view again.
His mind was lost somewhere between memories of the blue white glaciers of the Andes and the glacial blue eyes of the woman down the hall, when she spoke to him from behind.
"Hey."
"Oh, hey. Sorry, I guess I got distracted by the view. Your tea is ready though." Chris slid the cup over to her.
"Thanks." She sat down beside him with an armload of papers. "Are you any good with investments and finances?" She began spreading out a few papers.
"Not any better then the average person I suppose." He shrugged. "Why?"
"I'm a little confused about something." Anne handed him a few pages. "This is the most recent investment deal made here at Elan. I'm certain it's the deal Hans made that Elise is so worked up about."
"Okay. So how bad is it?" Chris inquired.
"That's just it. It's not. I don't understand. Here look." She pointed to the page. He's invested some money into some company that I'm unfamiliar with. But it's not a lot of money. If the company folds and we lose out, it's not going to bankrupt us. It'll hurt a little, but we'll recover. But the odd thing is here." She handed him another set of papers. "He took out a loan to cover the investment. The terms are a little harsh if we fail to pay it back on time, but we have the capital to cover it right now."
"Maybe Elise has that capital earmarked for something else. I've heard of companies taking out loans they don't need and then paying them back. It can be good for business relations between companies and sometimes it's more to help benefit the company loaning the capital."
"I thought you were a man of the wilderness. Where did you learn business?" Anne eyes him with a new interest.
"You tell me your secrets, I'll tell you mine." Chris looked smugly at her.
Anne smiled and kissed him. "Count on it."
"Who's the company he got the loan from?" Chris asked.
Anne looked annoyed. "ARI."
"Who's ARI?"
Anne's look of annoyance faded to one of surprise at his question. "ARI is a huge world market based in Oslo. It was started and is still owned by a multimillionaire, in his early thirties who, I have to admit, has done very well for himself in spite of his wild and aggressive reputation. They specialize in investments, markets and acquisitions, but they are also very diversified in various retail markets. One of them is sports clothing. The owner thinks he's a real outdoorsman." Anne rolled her eyes slightly. "So in a way they are competition. Elan is more into a mix of every day casual dress clothing to higher end dress wears, but our markets do cross
"Let's step back a minute. You said something about harsh terms?"
"Yeah, basically if we default on the loan, Elan's share stock becomes forfeit as collateral to cover the loan." Anne explained. "But even so, it doesn't amount to enough share value to have any controlling influence on us. And like I said, we have the capital to cover it. So I don't see what Elise is so stressed about." She looked up at Chris. "What am I missing?"
"Go back to the terms. What kind of timeframe are we talking about. When does Elan have to pay it back?"
"Thirty days." Anne replied.
"Thirty days from when? When's it due?"
Anne began digging through the papers again. "It should be here...but I don't see it."
"Here," Chris said sliding the mug over to her as she settled in to a stool at the table. "Sip your tea and let me read over everything." Chris buried himself in the paperwork, not speaking a word for over fifteen minutes. He finally sighed looking up, "I don't see it. The deal is just as you described. It's nothing to get excited or stressed about. It is odd that the term date isn't here though." He began sorting the papers neatly. "Anne, I don't know your sister very well but, could she have misread all this? She's been under a lot of stress from what you've told me. With the problems of Hans's infidelity, could she have made a mistake?"
"No. Absolutely not." Anne defended her sister. "This isn't that complicated of a deal. There's no way she'd misinterpret this. She too smart."
"Who's the company Hans invested in?" Chris asked.
"I don't know." Anne picked out a page and scrolled down it. "Here, Mahan Incorporated. I've never heard of it."
"Why don't you go do a little research on that, see what you can find out. I'll keep digging through this stuff."
"Okay." Anne stood, kissing Chris on the top of his head, she returned to her office to see if Google had anything helpful to say.
Chris buried himself back in the paperwork. He didn't know a lot about investments, let alone corporate ones, but most of this was just a lot of adding of numbers and cross checking details. You didn't need to understand the percentages and returns to understand the basics of the deal. He lost himself in paper for over an hour before his stomach began growling for lunch.
Chris gathered up the mess of documents and headed back to the office.
"Hey." Chris walked in to see Anne looking even more frustrated than when had last seen her. "Found anything?"
"No. I haven't a clue who Mahan Incorporated is. I can't find any record online. Why would he invest in something so obscure? It doesn't make sense."
"Maybe he got a hot tip from someone. Has he ever made reckless investments before?" Chris inquired.
"No. Not that I know of." Anne looked skeptical.
"Anne, I've got two suggestions. First, lets go for lunch. Second, I have a friend who's really good at this stuff. Would you mind letting her come have a look?"
"Lunch, yes. And as for your friend, no, I don't mind at all if she can figure this out."
"Let me give her a call on the way to lunch."
Elise banged the clumped up snow from her crampons with her ice axe before planting the axe firmly in the snowpack beside her and dropped her pack and gloves. Pulling her sunglasses off, she wiped the sweat from her forehead on her sleeve and stared at the blue sky and the surrounding mountains. The view from the summit was so exhilarating. It had been far too long since she had been here. She couldn't remember the last time she'd climbed up here. It had been many years. Pulling off her cap, she took out her ponytail and let her hair blow into the wind, cooling her. She closed her eyes and looked up, letting the sun shine on her face and listened to the sound of the wind whispering to her.
Elise took a deep breath of fresh mountain air before opening her eyes and squatting down. She retrieved her lunch from her pack and sat down to nibble on a sandwich. She stared down into the valley hundreds of meters below her as she chewed. With her eyes she traced a small creek that was fed from the glacier and lead through the open moraine, through the trees and past a couple small clearings to where the cabin could just barely be seen. If you didn't know it was there, you'd never see it.
Elise remembered the first time she'd seen the cabin from up here. She had climbed up here with her father on the day of her ninth birthday. The family had come up to the cabin to celebrate and her father, as promised, guided her to the summit. She had begged him for over a year to bring her here. She was so excited when she finally got to go. When he pointed out the cabin down below, she couldn't believe how tiny it looked. She remembered seeing her sister and her mother as little specs in the clearing adjacent to the cabin and waving wildly at them hoping they could see her. As they turned to leave and head down, Elise made her father promise to bring her back next year. But next year never came. He was killed the following winter. It was almost ten years before she was able to return here.
Elise wiped a tear from her eye. She smiled through a couple more trickling tears at the memory. It always hurt thinking of what happened to her parents, and coming to the cabin always brought the memories back, but somehow, being up here it wasn't so bad. Everything was better up here. She felt stronger, more alive. The freedom here felt so good. She never wanted to leave the peak. But she knew if she wanted to be back before sundown she needed to leave soon or she'd be spending the night in the snow.
Elise finished her sandwich and enjoyed a long drink of cool water before putting her bottle away. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, put on her cap, sunglasses, backpack and mitts and retrieved her axe from the snow. Before setting out she began to dig in the snow with her axe. It would be less than a meter she knew. She had dug down only half a meter when she hit rock. Clearing a small hole in the snow, Elise reached in and pulled out a small stone. A summit stone. She smiled to herself and put it in her pocket. When she got down she'd put it in the jar on the mantle with the other six she'd collected. Right next to her fathers jar of stones.
Elise took one last look at the view, soaking in as much as she could, and then started her decent. She had only taken a few steps, however, when the cawing of a raven caught her attention down below. She stepped closer to the cliff edge. It was over a three hundred meter drop to the moraine. The raven soared below her, caught in a thermal, circling around and around, gaining altitude. She could almost sense the freedom of being able to fly like a bird. It was invigorating. The urge to leap free of the world and soar came to her like an overwhelming surge. She wanted to be that bird. She wanted that freedom. She wanted to fly.
Elise stepped closer to the edge, closed her eyes and stretched out her arms...
