Chapter 9

As Xander returned to his work I thought through what he'd said and realized that Jenson had been the one for me, the one who had helped me by being there for me. Maybe Jenson saw something that he thought was worth the effort, even when I couldn't see it. I started to pick up the papers that I'd dropped onto the floor when I must have fallen asleep. I didn't have time for self analysis now, I needed to find Robert.

I ended up with papers scattered around me on the floor. This was what we had so far but now I needed to look for the threads between them.

"We have boards, would that help?"

"Yeah, and maybe some colored highlighters"

I'm sure Xander mumbled something as he disappeared, but bless him, he returned with a large blue board that he leant against the side of the couch. Okay maybe it would have been better on a wall, but I could cope with kneeling in front of it. Once the groups of pages were pinned up, I started to highlight sections that I thought were important. Down one side I had the information on Rina and could now read the marriage certificate. One witness was Rina's sister but the other one, who I assumed had something to do with the groom intrigued me.

"Xander would you run a search on a man named Eric Lucas, please"

I placed a news article that had gone to the printer of an announcement for Rina's marriage to Hennley, pleased when it showed a group photo with names underneath. and then started to look through the information on Elise. I was moving back and forth between the papers when my eyes landed on the phone records for Robert that Xander had just given to me. He'd managed to add names for most of the incoming and outgoing calls but there was one number that had no name next to it. Maybe that was the call that had started Robert on his investigation, because it had been three weeks before he'd left home.

I just knew that I was on the right track but if someone were to ask me how I knew that, I wouldn't have been able to explain it to them. The number didn't crop up anywhere else, so I was back to looking at the computer.

"What are you looking for now?"

I sighed trying to put into words what I wanted to do so in the end went with what I wanted to know.

"This company, it's a haulage company out of Detroit"

"Okay, so names of employees?"

"Yes, but I want to know who Elise was seeing. I'd, err, usually go into Facebook but"

As Xander never said anything I allowed him to lean over and start typing on my computer not really knowing what he was doing.

"Put her name in that box, if she uses Facebook then work out which is her. It should take you into her page"

I raised my eyebrows at Xander because I think that he'd just hacked into Facebook for me. The name Elise Rember only came up with a Detroit base for one person, so I went into her page. Her homepage had a photo of her that was far prettier than the one that I'd found in the search. It gave her basics as a profile which I already knew so I started to read through the comments thread. They were the typical comments that anyone would post. A lot of likes between friends, not much of interest to me so I clicked into her friends. A lot. She was a popular girl so one by one I clicked into those friends, only the men, because I was looking for someone who might be a driver at the company where she worked. It seemed like hours later when I had two possibles. One of them was obviously partnered up with another woman but that left one who seemed more of a loner.

"Could you run a search on James Rayner please?"

"He works at Sherringtons as a driver"

I nodded to Xander as he raised his eyebrows at me, sure that he had no idea where I was going with this. Okay that done I needed to backtrack to that name on the marriage certificate.

I hit the mother load an hour later. Eric Lucas, the friend of Hennleys ran a logging company near Lillocet in British Columbia Canada. That wasn't what interested me though, what was more important were complaints in a local paper by residents of the number of trucks going into the area. The damage inflicted on the land through logging was thought to be the reason for the loss of wild life and new foliage but one comment had piqued my interest. "It's like something has poisoned the land"

The area was vast with a sparce population so I assumed that we were talking about an area that was miles from anywhere and somewhere few people would go to. Heavy machines and trucks would be seen as part of the logging industry so not out of the ordinary. So the idea of taking waste there and burying it wouldn't be noticed and unknown to me was the fact that Canada took a lot of waste from America, heavy metals, solvents, and sludges. Hazardous wastes that might include materials that were toxic, cause cancer or may explode. So why not add to the waste coming in, especially if it paid well.

The icing on the cake for me was that Eric's brother owned the haulage company. I felt that everything fit together but I still had to work out where Robert was. I was pretty sure that Hennley had contacted his friend, Eric, to warn him. Maybe Hennley wasn't involved but he'd been the one to betray Robert.

Looking up from the board I saw Xander watching me and then as I looked beyond the glass realized that it was dark outside. I stretched my arms above my head and arched my back trying to get the aches to move. I was about to stand up and walk around when there was a hiss and feel of air moving past me carrying that unmistakable scent of salt and seaweed.

"Do you know what time it is?"

I was looking at Gregory as he asked that but to be honest, I had no idea.

"She's onto something so I didn't want to distract her"

Okay, was I ready to explain what I'd discovered? Was I even on the right track for finding Robert?

"Chloe, anything is better than what we have now"

Gregory walked over to where I was standing obviously puzzled at the board stood against the side of the couch and the papers littering the floor, but he never said anything. Xander came over with more pieces of paper and sat down next to Gregory on the couch, both of them watching me. I couldn't sit down so instead as I walked back and forth in front of them, I got straight to the point.

"Two men are responsible for moving and getting rid of the toxic waste. Eric Lucas owns a haulage company in Detroit and his brother owns a logging company up in British Columbia, Canada. Eric organizes the transport and Trevor organizes for it to be buried. I think that Robert's contact was a woman called Elise Rember and that she learnt what was going on through her boyfriend, James Rayner, who drives for the haulage company where they both work"

I could see that Gregory wasn't convinced at what I was saying, and I almost told him to wait and hear me out first before he dissed what I'd said.

"Elise Rember is Hennley's daughter, but from what I picked up there's no love lost there, and Eric Lucas was Hennley's best man at his first wedding so they're friends"

"Shit"

Was not what I was expecting to hear from Gregory. I thought that those connections were good, no more than that, they were solid. Could I have been so wrong?

"Robert?"

I looked at Xander for this one because it was only because he'd done as I'd asked of him that he'd been able to actually discover that Robert had come back into the States just after Hennley had. Knowing when Hennley had flown back from Istanbul he'd hacked into homeland and not only had the flight manifests but also the images that were recorded at passport control.

"I never even considered that Hennley was involved"

I could hear how disappointed Gregory sounded and knowing that he'd already spoken to Hennley probably felt like a fool for being so easily shrugged off.

"He isn't as such, but I think that he tipped off Eric and that Eric has Robert. That ship is due to dock in the next few days, and I bet Eric is going to have Robert on one of his trucks. He'd think that taking Robert to the waste site would leave no clues to his whereabouts. James Rayner has disappeared as well, which doesn't look good"

I was also a bit worried about Elise but according to her Facebook page she was still posting but would Eric hurt her knowing who she was, that it had been her who had passed on an anonymous tip?

"Elise probably needs protecting because I'm sure her name will come up soon especially if someone gets heavy handed with Robert. They'll want all leaks plugged"

That was when I sat down and pulled my feet underneath me. I felt absolutely shattered no doubt the rush of adrenaline from all of the work wearing off now, but I felt that I'd done my bit. Gregory was stood talking on his phone and without a word he disappeared through the door. Hopefully he'd be planning the next stage, to find Robert and get him home. I relaxed not knowing of anything else that could be done. All of the information that I'd used was saved onto the system so names and addresses could be accessed. My eyes felt gritty and heavy, and it was easier just to close them.

I came awake slowly looking ahead of me. I was puzzled for a minute as to where I was, until I recognized the bank of windows ahead of me. As I let sleep fall away, I felt okay, no remnants of dreams plagued me as they usually did. Turning slightly, I was aware of a blanket over me and that I was now on the couch. I could have sworn that I was on the chair before I fell asleep. The need for the bathroom had me getting up so stretching as I walked, I went down the steps into the kitchen and then through a door at the side where I knew the bathroom was.

I splashed water on my face and dragged my hands through my hair. It was still straight and short but stuck up all over the place. Looking closely, I thought that I could even see the start of a wave at the roots. Sighing to myself I decided that I looked as good as I could. There was no getting rid of the pale skin or sunken eyes but the red marks on my cheek were slowly disappearing. Replacing my gloves, I was disappointed that the scars seemed so obvious, before returning to the main room.

I came face to face with Xander who held out a mug for me.

"Well Beautiful"

I frowned and took a step back because hearing that name sent goosebumps down my back. That was a name that someone else had called me and brought back too many memories of someone I'd thought of as a friend. Yeah, Lester had always been so supportive of me and could always make me laugh. He was one of Ranger's men and over the past few years I'd got to know him well. We shared interests in films and music, and I found conversation easy with him. Now, I was sure that he had the same feelings as everyone else did and that he wouldn't be wanting my company anymore.

"Okay, how about Angel"

I shook my head as an image of Hector came to my mind. It made me feel so sad that I had lost touch with him, for some reason Hector was the only one of Ranger's men who seemed to look out for me. No doubt he was regretting that now and was probably thankful that he and the other men would never have to be ordered anywhere near me again.

"Baby?"

"No. No nickname"

That was far too close to Babe which was what Ranger had called me and so close that it had strong emotions rising to the surface. No one could ever replace the part of my heart that he had held.

"Okay, forget it. Are you ready to watch what goes down? Gregory has teams in place ready and waiting. That man can certainly get things moving when he needs to"

I took a sip from my coffee as what Xander had said sunk in. Watch what go down? Did he mean somehow see if they managed to rescue Robert?

"No. I'll wait for everything to finish"

And really hope that everything was as I'd predicted. It did make me curious as to exactly what Gregory had planned but I swatted that thought away. Stephanie Plum would have wanted to in on the action but not me. As Xander went over to the computers I went and sat on the couch. I wasn't sure how long we'd have to wait until Gregory had wrapped everything up and it wasn't long before I was feeling a bit antsy at just being sat there. Xander had turned to look at me a few times, so I was surprised when the screen in front of him went black and he came and joined me on the couch.

"A lot's happening. Gregory pulled in a few favors so that things could be synchronized. He's got the port authorities up in Vancouver delaying the ship from docking and questioning what they're carrying. Hopefully customs will stop them from being able to enter the port. Then there are federal agents heading over to Lillocet in British Columbia who are going to be testing the area and hopefully picking up Trevor. Greg has teams stopping trucks as they leave and searching them while others are picking up Eric"

That was one hell of an operation to undertake. No wonder Gregory had to pull in a few favors. I had never really considered just how many people would be involved. In a past lifetime I would have just gone in to find Robert and never considered the greater ramifications of what we'd found out. That was why Stephanie Plum was a disaster, she had never thought through any of her actions. People had been right when they'd said that I was to blame for the many situations that I got myself into and probably for the death of someone that I had loved.

"Chloe, it can't be as bad as you think"

I hadn't meant for Xander to see how upset I was and was lost for what to say to him. As far as I was concerned it was bad.

"Greg found me on the streets of London. I'd run away from home because I worked out that I was in a shit load of trouble. I've always been good with computers. Hell, I found it fun hacking into places. I didn't do anything, well I don't think that I did. I had people chasing me and looking for me which was why I ran. I only thought of myself, I was selfish. I left my laptop with my friend and so they went after them as well"

I wasn't sure I wanted to know what happened to his friend because I had an awful feeling that someone had got to them.

"They were beaten up, got hurt badly and ended up in a coma. Turns out that I'd hacked into some mobster's system. I had the mob and the police after me, so I was going to hand myself over to them when somehow Greg came across me. He made sure my friend got the medical treatment needed and together we put together enough evidence for the police to arrest those mob guys. Then he brought me here and gave me a job. I still think about my friend though"

I unconsciously took Xander's hand in mine as though to comfort him because he was right his behavior had hurt someone, but it couldn't compare to what I had done.

"How about you take these gloves off"

I looked down at my hands realizing that because I was holding Xander's he was more aware of the gloves. Hell, I always wore them now, they were a part of me and my routine when I got dressed or especially if I went outside.

"You know that I helped Greg and Jenson don't you. That time when you decided to take a swim? Don't hide who you are, they are a part of your journey as well"

For a young kid he could certainly be philosophical but not bright enough to understand that hiding from myself was exactly what I needed to do. I was afraid because seeing those burns made me remember how I had got them. Fortunately, we were interrupted by a loud beeping noise that had Xander rushing over to the desk and picking up his phone. As he listened, he turned and from his expression I was really hoping that he had just got some good news.

"They found Robert and that James guy. Greg will be bringing Robert home tomorrow and he said that the woman, Elise, well he has someone who's going to make sure that she's safe"

I nodded my head as the news sunk in and felt so relieved. Maybe I could balance my karma and try to do things that helped other people, maybe that was what I needed to work toward.

"I need to go home. Any chance of a lift"

I'd done what I needed to do so it was definitely time for me to leave. No doubt Greg would have a lot to do to clear everything up and I was sure he must have other work that he'd have to get back to. Jenson would be with Anya until Robert came back so I needed to keep myself occupied.

"You sure?"

I was sure and was pleased when Xander didn't ask any more questions, though surprised when he pushed a piece of paper into my hand that had his email address on it.