Chapter 8

"Okay, I'll try"

I could feel the relief flood through Jensen after I'd said that, so I was hoping that he wasn't placing too much hope on me. I didn't want to let him down.

"I'll get Xander to work with you, he's a genius with computers"

I looked over to Jenson because if Gregory expected me to work with someone then where would that be? No way could I go back to Seattle, somehow the place brought back too many memories.

"Your place, Greg?"

"Sure, they can use the satellite office there"

I was pleased that Gregory caught on quickly to what Jenson was asking because I would have been afraid to claim that going to where he worked in Seattle would be an issue for me. The place wasn't Rangeman but it was too similar for my liking.

Everything happened quickly after that with me accompanying Gregory out to his car. Jenson was staying with Anya and looking around for any clues that Robert may have left at their house, and I was on my way in a dark grey land rover with Gregory. I wasn't sure where we were going but recognized as we drove around the bay. This was the way to the coast.

As I got out of the car, I could recognize the smell of the salt in the air so knew that I was somewhere near to the beach. I stood by the car trying to work out how that made me feel and to be honest wasn't sure. In one way I felt comfortable, the breeze as it caressed my face seemed to welcome me but then the idea that I'd felt that the sea could be my salvation frightened me.

"Chloe. The office is just there"

I looked ahead of me to see a low glass building hiding amongst the grass, the structure seeming to disappear amongst the background. As we walked down a blocked path, I started to appreciate its beauty. Personally, I'd never really been someone who had taken much notice of the structure of a building, probably because most that I'd visited were typical houses or run down factory units. As we approached, I knew that it wasn't built with ordinary glass because I couldn't see anything inside. Strangely we walked down steps to get inside, through a glass door that led inside and into a huge area. It seemed that the entire building was open with areas designated for different uses. The place was well lit with the sun coming through the roof and it was as I looked up that I realized the shape of the building. A high point sloped down in different directions to meet the glass walls, the shape now obvious as being a hexagon.

"Xander, have you linked into the servers from the main office?"

Turning I was aware of a figure sat down in one of those high backed office chairs but couldn't see anything of him.

"Yeah, I'm in. Just transferring the data now"

I followed Gregory as he walked over to a long table where computers sat and watched as the chair rotated. If this was Xander then he wasn't what I was expecting. I was seeing a young man who to be honest looked scruffy, not an image of someone who would work for Gregory. He looked skinny with torn jeans on and a bright yellow T-shirt that had a picture of a motorbike on the front. His hair was a dirty blond, down to his shoulders that kept falling across his face. His face though, yes he was young, was frowning behind the glasses that he wore making me wonder why.

"Are you the one who found Charlie?"

I just looked back at Xander because it was as if he couldn't believe that I'd been the one to do it. In the end I just nodded my head at him, surprised when his face broke out into a smile.

"Cool. It'll be interesting to see where you go with this then"

Gregory had now pulled over an equally impressive chair next to Xander and indicated that that was where I needed to be.

"I'll leave you to it. Xander, any developments then let me know"

I was sat next to Xander as he began to show me on his computer what had already been done, okay maybe he was flicking down the screen a bit too fast for me to really take in what was there, so reaching to my side I grabbed a notepad and pencil.

"Xander just tell me what you've done then let me read through the files myself"

Maybe it was an alien concept to him to use a pencil and paper, but for me it was a way of allowing myself to think. He did as I asked though, so I soon had several of the main points recorded.

Those consisted of Robert's financials, his phone records and any travel that could be found. There was also a lot of research on companies based in Estonia and those here in Canada that dealt with toxic waste. A lot of work had already been done but as no one seemed to be able to find any patterns or leads as to where Robert could be, I knew that I'd have to think outside of the box. That was what I did wasn't it.

With my pad and pencil, I started a fresh page and began to make notes on areas that I felt were important. I was pretty sure that any legitimate companies wouldn't be involved so started to write down other avenues to explore.

How did Robert find out about this toxic waste?

Who was his contact to verify the information?

Where was this contact based? Estonia, Turkey or Canada?

How did Hennley fit into this and why did he meet Robert in Turkey?

What did Robert intend to do if he followed the route of the toxic waste?

I knew that he would have written an article that would be published but wasn't naive enough to think that he would reveal anything until he knew exactly where the waste was or who was involved.

"Who the hell is Hennley"

I hadn't meant to say that out loud and jumped slightly when an answer came back to me.

"Jackson Hennley. Newspaper mogul. He's a large shareholder in quite a few papers. Why?"

I didn't answer, instead I chose a search program on the computer in front of me and input his name. Xander must have been watching me because he was suddenly giving me information to input into the parameters.

"Why are you looking at him?"

"Just curious. Can you pull up his financials?"

I heard the cracking of bones as Xander flexed his hands together before watching for my results to come up. I didn't like the look of the man on the screen. He had dyed black hair swept back from his forehead, dark brown eyes that looked to be squinting from the screen and a mouth that were thin lips pressed into a line. He looked as though he hated the idea of having to be photographed. It didn't give exactly where he lived but listed his properties which all looked to be based in large cities. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston. He'd been divorced twice and had a child from each marriage but from what I could see the children were with their mothers. Looking at what information was there it was obvious that he'd had someone doctor it. There were no records for where he'd been born or grew up or family, other than through marriage. A lot of information was missing.

"I don't like the man"

I thought out loud.

"The only financials that I can find refer to any business transactions, nothing personal"

Which fueled my feeling of unease about this man. The problem was how to find out more detail about him.

"Chloe, are we looking at Hennley, because he's a very powerful man because I don't see him being involved in something like this"

"I don't think that he is directly, but, maybe it's just that he was the last person to see Robert that has me looking"

Because that meeting was really bugging me. I was aware of Xander looking at me and was arguing with myself how to move forward without looking stupid. Most of those methods would be what I'd have done as Stephanie Plum looking for a lead on an FTA. Hennley wasn't FTA but for some reason I knew that he might be key to us finding some answers. There was no one to talk to that could help, not that I wanted to do that. Neither did I want Hennley to find out that someone was looking at him because in the past doing that was what usually got me into trouble.

"Tell me what you want me to do"

I turned to Xander hearing him say that not sure what he was asking. I just assumed that he would follow though from something that he already had.

"I'm good on computers, I can get into sites and find out anything but I aint a strategic thinker. I suppose what I do best is to find something when I'm told to do it"

Wow he was being very honest with me, but I'd never had anyone or access to anyone who would do the grafting for me. I was used to the tedium of searching through for things myself.

"Okay, find out where Hennley got the original capital from to break into the businesses that he has or used to have"

I was going to look at his first wife because she was the earliest history for Hennley that I had. Rina Lember was the maiden name of his first wife, and she had only been twenty years old when they were married. She was born in Chicago from a family who were first generation immigrants from Eastern Europe. That in itself was interesting. The marriage had lasted for five years with a daughter who had stayed with her mother and both women had changed their names back to Rina's maiden name. Financials for Rina were average which told me that Hennley hadn't made it into the money at that time.

"Second wife. She inherited shares from her parents, and it looks as though there was no prenup when he divorced her"

I nodded to Xander and looked back over at my screen aware that Xander had gone quiet. Shit, I wasn't used to working with someone especially if they were reliant on me giving them work to do.

"You know that search you did for Robert's phone. How far back did you go?"

I watched as his screen changed and as he scrolled to the bottom.

"The day that he left home, six weeks ago"

Maybe that wasn't far enough back. Robert must have been in touch with someone before then if he was following up on a lead.

"Take the phone and Robert's travel records back four weeks before that"

If Xander thought it was a stupid idea he never said, instead I was pleased to see him working at the keyboard. I went back to Rina Lember, noting that she'd remarried five years ago and had relocated to New Orleans. A quick search on the new husband had him as older than her and that he was a retired bank manager. Their finances were solid, so I assumed that they were living a quiet sedate life. For some reason I was interested in following up with the daughter wondering if she had anything to do with her father.

Elise Lember was now thirty one years old and was living in Detroit, not that far away from where she'd been born. She worked for a haulage company as the secretary for one of the bosses and was classed as single. Interesting that her job had something to do with trucks and moving products. No such thing as coincidence went through my head which had me shaking my head. That expression was true, but it was who had always said it to me that had me pushing it from my thoughts. Not going there.

"Xander, can you pull up phone records and financials for Elise Lember, Detroit"

Okay, I could get used to having someone else pull together reports. I needed to find out more about Elise Roberts, personal things which could be in the reports that Xander was pulling. Knowing that I would have to wait for those reports I went back to Hennley's first wife and the time when they were married. I pulled up their marriage certificate and sent that for printing, it being sideways on the screen and being hand written, made it difficult to read, then minimized the programs that I was on. I wanted to find some photos or even a newspaper record for their wedding so started to look at the apps that I had.

"Xander, is there a way to search for newspaper reports?"

A finger against my screen pointed to an app so I was quickly opening that. Once I'd input Rina and Hennley's names along with the date of their marriage, I hit the return button. That might take time so while I waited, I sent a lot of the reports that Xander had produced to the printer. Feeling a bit restless as I waited, I spun the chair around to look at my surroundings. Opposite me were three wide steps that led down into a kitchen area so on an impulse I got up and walked over and down. There was a coffee machine, one of those expensive ones where you stuck a mug under the nozzle and coffee appeared. As I waited for that to work, I looked through the fridge and found some milk and also some premade sandwiches and plastic bowls with cut fruit in.

"Xander, do you want a coffee?"

Feeling obliged to ask him especially as I'd taken it for granted that I could help myself.

"Err, yeah. Black, ta"

I took him his coffee and one of the sandwiches before going back into the kitchen area for mine. I took a coffee and some fruit to the area with a couch and low table before collecting the papers that were accumulating in the printer tray. I needed to start and look through the information that we had before I got waylaid in a wrong direction, consolidate and start to look for patterns or anything that started to look as though it was linked together.

It was someone shaking my shoulder roughly that had me suddenly waking up. I automatically jerked back from the touch aware that tears were in my eyes. Sitting up slowly I wiped my hands down my face trying to get myself under control before facing anyone. Images from dreams were still there, playing like a slow motion film. As the shaking began to fade, I realized that Xander was crouched down in front of me and felt embarrassed that not only had I fallen asleep but that he had to wake me up from a nightmare.

"Sorry"

What else could I say. Sorry for falling asleep, sorry for disturbing him with my dreams and maybe sorry for the sad pathetic excuse of the person that I was.

"Don't be. I'm sorry that I don't know what to do. I'm not much good with people"

That suited me fine because at least he wouldn't ask questions or expect an explanation.

"Shit happens and sometimes it just takes time to come to terms with it"

I looked over to Xander surprised with what he'd just said. It sounded as though he knew what he was talking about, as though he'd gone through some shit himself.

"Sorry. I had some bad experiences when I was a teenager so I know what it's like"

After that revelation he was standing up and walking back to his chair, almost as though he was embarrassed with what he'd confessed to. I didn't want to pry or even try to think of what he was talking about, but it did make me realize that there were probably a lot of people out there who felt like I did. How did they cope with the feeling of guilt, how did they carry on with their life? Did they try to do what I was doing? Was what I was trying to do working? That was when I realized that it wasn't what I was doing that was helping but what other people were doing.

"How did you get past it?"

I don't know why I asked or even if I should have but as Xander turned round to look at me I could feel some connection to him.

"Helping hands. Gregory found me and he was the one who showed me that I was worth it"