CHAPTER 8

Monday proved to be a very challenging day. I waited at the front desk to lead Beautiful and her team to the conference room. She arrived with Lenny, Eddie and Frank. I wasn't aware Eddie joined her team. "Hi sexy," she purred as she rubbed up against me. The man stationed at the front desk was shocked. I played my part and gently moved her away from me. She gave me her bedroom eyes and said, "If you knew what I could do in bed, you wouldn't be pushing me away. Be my lover. I won't tell anyone if you don't." She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me into a heated kiss. He knew I was married to a woman named Stephanie with wild curly hair, but he has never met her. She straightened her hair for the meeting today.

Her team watched as she heavily flirted with me. Feigning disappointment when I broke the kiss and stated, "I'm a happily married man. My wife is going to be so pissed when I tell her another woman kissed me today. You better hope she forgives me." I noticed Frank and Eddie could barely maintain their blank faces.

Pulling herself together, she looked towards the front desk employee and said, "Hello. I'm the CEO for Sleuth Investigators. We have an appointment with the core team at 11:00 in conference room 2. My team members are Eddie Gazarra, Frank Plum and Lenny Stankovic."

After he was shot last month, Eddie decided to accept Stephanie's job offer. It paid the same as the Trenton Police Force, but the hours and benefits were better. Shirley, Beautiful's cousin, was relieved when Eddie finally left the force.

"One moment ma'am. I'll tell Mr Manoso his appointment has arrived."

I barely contained my laughter as he placed the call. "Fraser, I'll escort this gorgeous, sexy woman and her team to the conference room."

He mumbled, "No wonder they say he's a playboy. Women seem to just hang off him." We laughed when we saw his face blush.

"Darling, did you enjoy yourself?"

"Baby, it was worth it. Thank you for playing along." We maintained our distance in the elevator, keeping the men on the monitors guessing. I was hoping they'd assume Frank was the CEO and the female was his executive assistant. With her hair straightened, people didn't readily recognize her. They were used to seeing her wildly curly hair loose or pulled into a ponytail. She looked like a completely different woman with her long hair straightened and hanging smoothly down her back, nearly touching her waist.

We entered the conference room with Frank leading the group. Ranger greeted him, "Pleasure to see you again, Mr Plum." They shook hands. He greeted Eddie and Lenny next. He reached his hand towards Stephanie. Shock and recognition registered on his face as he questioned, "Babe?"

"Good morning Mr Manoso. Please call me Steph or Stephanie," she politely and professionally requested. I watched as she looked around the room and watched Tank take a seat next to Ranger. "Will Mr Brown be attending the meeting?"

"He's patching up Cal," he said as he glanced at his watch. "The remaining core members will arrive shortly."

I watched Beautiful open her messenger bag and hand out files to each member. She placed the extra copies in the centre of the table for the remaining men to grab.

A small medallion was hanging from a chain around her neck. When Cal, Hal, Bobby, Ram and Woody entered the room, I saw her gently squeeze the medallion and leave it on display. I wondered if it was the one Hector designed to carry a micro camera and microphone. As I watched her from across the table, she slightly raised her chin, answering my silent question. She was having Hector record this meeting.

Once everyone received a file, Ranger began the meeting. "Good morning. Mr Plum, the CEO..." Stephanie quietly cleared her throat.

"Please excuse my interruption Mr Manoso. I would like to formally introduce my team. Mr Frank Plum is in charge of strategic planning and research. Mr Eddie Gazarra and Lenny Stankovic are my best private investigators. Everyone here already knows my name. I'm the CEO of Sleuth Investigators."

Ranger's face registered shock before he slammed down his blank face. He briefly glanced my way, wondering if I was also involved with the company.

"Morning," she began. "I would like to explain the reason for our meeting today. Sleuth Investigators, SI, is a privately owned company. As of this morning, SI has 15 staff members. Another 10 prospective employees are in the interview process. We recently signed contracts with the FBI, CIA and DEA. A new member of my team is currently negotiating a contract with the Mayor and TPD chief of police. SI runs similar searches as Rangeman, but we use more intricate and invasive programs. My IT wizard created these programs for the sole use of SI. Given the level of security clearance Mr Frank Plum holds in the military, he could run searches for any government missions in which Rangeman employees are involved. SI could provide you with better intel to complete your missions with relative ease. Please review the document sealed in the manilla envelope. Eddie, Lenny and I have not viewed the contents of the envelope since we do not have the required security clearance."

I opened the envelope and read the document. "How did you get this information Beautiful?" I asked.

She looked at me to give me the answer. "Frank is currently negotiating a contract with General Buchanan. According to the General, the last mission Ranger, Tank, Bobby and you jointly completed, was completely FUBAR'd due to faulty intel. He provided Frank with names and the original intel. Frank ran the names through our system and created the report in your hands. If you read the intelligence gathered from SI programs, would you have devised a different strategy to find your target?" she asked.

Ranger stood up, "I thought you didn't know the details of this mission."

She took a deep breath and answered, "I don't. However, General Buchanan personally called me to inquire about my company. He's meeting with other military members to discuss SI gathering intel for future missions. After a few Skype calls, he's working with the government to grant me the required clearance to assist Frank." I was surprised and impressed. She never mentioned any of this to me.

"What else can your company do?" Bobby asked.

"We work on cases to prove infidelity in marriages, prove fraud or embezzlement in companies, follow money trails for money laundering. If anyone has deeply buried secrets, we have the ability to uncover them."

"Do you have any secrets?" Ram asked.

"Yes. I have a huge secret. Do I have permission to share Daddy?"

He nodded. "For years I wondered why Helen never treated me as her daughter. Yesterday, the results of my tests finally arrived to prove my research. Helen is really my aunt. Grandma and Grandpa Mazur were unable to have children and adopted Helen when she was a few days old. Evelyn, her twin, was adopted by another Burg family, Steve and Veronica Milton. Steve was a doctor. Veronica and Edna were close friends before they adopted the girls. They often organized play dates for Evelyn and Helen, attempting to keep the sisters together in some manner. At Helen's fourth birthday party, Evelyn was extremely jealous of the gifts she received. Her gifts weren't even that expensive, but they had more sentimental value than the expensive gifts Evelyn received. After separating the girls from a fight, Edna and Veronica ended their friendship. Both woman felt their daughter was in the right. Steve immediately applied to other hospitals, hoping to leave Trenton. When Evelyn was 5, Steve accepted the position of Chief of Cardiology at Johns Hopkins. Several years later, Frank Plum at 20 years old, married Helen Mazur at the young age of 18, before leaving on his first tour with the Army. Less than one year later, Helen gave birth to my sister Valerie. Due to a complicated delivery, Helen had a hysterectomy and couldn't have anymore children. While Frank was away on tour, Helen wrote a letter telling Frank how happy she was to discover she had a biological twin sister. The sisters were planning to meet the following month. Helen wanted to ensure Val was old enough to handle travelling to Maryland. Evelyn returned to Trenton with Helen since she was homeless and had nowhere else to go. Helen was visiting her parents when Frank returned home the following year. He had no idea the woman he took to bed that afternoon was his wife's twin. She left while Frank was asleep. Do you have anything to add Daddy?" she asked.

He picked up from where Steph left off. "Helen found me naked in bed a few hours later. She asked why I was naked and smelled of sex. I said we made love when I got home a few hours earlier. Helen smashed the bedside lamp, cursing her sister. She looked throughout the house calling for Evelyn, but she had already left. Nearly 9 months later, we received a call to pick up a newborn girl from a hospital in Newark. Evelyn gave the nurse my name and phone number. She informed the nurse I was the baby's biological father. Evelyn passed away a few minutes before we arrived to retrieve Stephanie. Like Helen, she hemorrhaged after giving birth. The doctors were unable to stop it in time to save her life. Evelyn gave birth to Stephanie when Valerie was 2. She got into legal trouble and was disowned by her adoptive parents."

I looked at the other men surrounding the table. Each of them displayed expressions of awe. "That's amazing Angel," Cal said. "What made you research your mother, I mean Helen?" he asked.

"She said she tried to raise me as her own, but I really made it too difficult for her. When I asked her what she meant, she lightly tapped my cheek and said, 'nothing dear, I'm just rambling.' We've come a long way to repair our relationship during the last few months. Even though she isn't my biological mother, she is still the only mother I know. Do you mind if I show them?" she asked Frank.

"Go ahead Steph." She opened a program on her laptop and projected the display onto the large screen located at the back of the conference room. Entering Dad's name produced many pages of results. Quickly bypassing his military records, she concentrating on his civilian life. As she viewed the marriage certificate, a few more documents for Helen Plum appeared. I heard several gasps as each new result appeared.

"With this program, when you start viewing specific documents, other linked results appear to provide a more complete picture of the subject. See here?" She clicked the link for Helen Plum. "It shows her birth parents and siblings. She only has a twin sister. Her mother was only 15 when she became pregnant with twins. A few years later, her mother was admitted to a long term facility following a car accident which left her in a coma. She passed away a few years ago." Beautiful led them through the documents until she arrived at the final one showing Evelyn as her birth mother.

"Why did you need test results?" Ranger asked.

"In order to prove the effectiveness and accuracy of my program, I needed irrefutable proof. Would you have trusted the search results without the DNA proof?" she asked Ranger.

"No," he simply stated. As I observed him flipping through the research, I noticed a small smile appear. He was obviously impressed with my wife's company programs. It would take days for Rodriguez or Silvio to receive the same data gathered by the SI programs.

She looked at me as I gave her the sexy, lopsided smile she loves. "Shall I continue with a new search Ranger?" she asked.

I could see the resolve on his face before he answered, "Not necessary. Have a proposal on my desk by 0900 tomorrow." She reached into her bag and pulled out an envelope.

He raised an eyebrow as I watched her pass it to him. "Your proposal, Mr Manoso." she stated.

Last night I questioned why she drew up a proposal prior to the meeting. She said, "You'll understand tomorrow." Her confidence completely blew me away. She's right, I do understand.

I offered to escort her team to the lobby. Before leaving, she approached Fraser. "Hi Fraser, I'm Stephanie Santos, Lester's wife. I apologize for the prank Les and I played on you earlier." She gave him a small box of truffles. I wondered how she knew he had a weakness for truffles.

"Apology accepted Mrs Santos. I hope to see you again." She gave him a finger wave as I escorted her outside to her SUV.

"I'm so proud of you Baby. You hooked the teams interest when you pulled Frank's information. Your program works faster and more efficiently than our current programs." My phone pinged as I kissed my beautiful wife goodbye. I checked the message as her SUV pulled away from the curb.

'My office in 10.'