In Secret and Shadows 10

Chapter Ten

Jason materialized in one of the supply rooms of Lake Technologies. Lisa was hanging onto his arm. When she had heard what Jason was planning to do, she insisted an going with him. Knowing that he wasn't going to be able to talk her out of it, he agreed.

As soon as they arrived. Jason pulled out his tablet and punched up the blueprints that Stevie and Ashley had gotten for him before they left.

"Alright," he whispered, "according to this, the file room that Matt started his investigation in is right next door, and that's where we're going to start."

Lisa nodded. Jason put the tablet away and they moved to the door. Jason opened it just a crack and peered out into the hallway. A woman in a beige pant suit scurried by and into one of the offices.

"Okay," whispered Jason, "Let's go!" they slipped out into the hallway and hurried through the neighboring door into the file room.

"Okay," said Jason closing the door, "We're looking for financial records from three years ago."

Lisa nodded and started going through some boxes looking for hard copies while Jason sat down at one of the computer terminals to see what he could find.

"I hope the password that Ashley gave me still works." Said Jason. he entered the password and the mainframe came up. He started scrolling through the files that popped up.

"There's nothing here." Said Lisa

"Yeah," sighed Jason, "There's nothing here either. I should've known that Devlin would know better to leave any incriminating files laying around the file room or on the mainframe home screen.

Just then they heard running footsteps approaching.

Jason jumped up and grabbed Lisa's hand.

"Someone's coming!" he said, "He teleported them back to the supply room." he and Lisa stood next to the wall and listened to the voices. They realized that one of the voices was Devlin! It sounded like he was talking to an IT guy.

"Are you sure?" he was saying

"Yeah," said the IT guy, "It was Matt Lake's old password, and it was used to log into the mainframe from here."

"Someone is here." Said Devlin, turning to the security guard that was with him, "Search the building from top to bottom!"

"Oh, how could I be so stupid!" hissed Jason face palming, "I should have known he would be having the logins monitored!"

"Don't be so hard on yourself," said Lisa, "I didn't think of it either."

Suddenly, the doorknob on the door of the supply room began to turn, Jason grabbed Lisa's hand and did another quick teleport. They reappeared in Devlin's office.

"Why did you bring us here?" asked Lisa

"Because I wanted to snoop in here and it's one place those guards won't come." Replied Jason

"But Devlin will probably be back here in a minute." Said Lisa, "So we'd better hurry!"

Quickly they began looking around. Lisa began checking the file cabinets and Jason began checking the desk. Suddenly he saw something on the desk that made him stop dead in his tracks. It was a picture on the desk. In the picture were, Devlin and Lydia, they were in what appeared to be a tropical resort somewhere in the Caribbean!

"Lisa, let's get out of here," he said taking a picture of the picture, and pictures of every detail in it, "I can prove Matt Lake is innocent. I can get him out of Jail."

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At 5pm the next afternoon, Matt Lake walked out of the prison completely cleared of all charges.

Matt gave his daughter a hug for the first time in three years and they both savored every second of it. Then he hugged Stevie. There wasn't a dry eye among them.

Then he turned to Jason, and shook his hand earnestly.

"I don't know how you did it?" he said, "But Thank you."

Jason smiled and motioned over behind Matt.

"That's how." He replied

Matt turned and looked. The State police were unloading prisoners from a paddy wagon.

Matt's eyes widened at the sight of the first prisoner.

"That's Lydia!" he exclaimed, "She's alive!"

"Yeah," said Jason, "There never was any murder. Devlin and Lydia conspired to fake her murder and frame you for it, and the papers we found with Lydia in the Virgin Islands explained why."

"You were on the verge of discovering Devlin's scheme," said Ashley, "He had convinced some investors that stock in the company was about to sky rocket. So, they put in massive amounts of money."

"But he was just pocketing the money," said Matt nodding

"Right," said Lisa, "when he realized how close you were getting, he and his girlfriend cooked up an elaborate scheme to get you out of the way."

It started with Lydia getting you mad at her by trying to wreck your marriage with that phony affair story."

"Right," said Stevie, "Then Lydia faked her death with the staged crime scene and arranged for you to show up just in time to get caught."

"After she was 'dead' she ran off to the Virgin Islands to hide, taking the incriminating financial records with her."

"But the trial, Ashley getting stonewalled, the buried FOI request, how did they do all that?" asked Matt. "How did they get the phony evidence admitted into to trial as evidence?"

"They had help," said Jason pointing at the paddy wagon again.

Matt turned and looked again. Several more prisoners were being unloaded.

"That's the Chief of police, the postmaster, the assistant District Attorney and the Deputy Mayor!"

"Yeah," said Jason, "they were all in on it. Long story short, they were some of Devlin's greedier investors and he convinced them that they'd never get the money they were expecting if they didn't get you out of the way!"

"So, they used their influence and offices to frame me, convict me, lock me up, and bury the case!"

Jason nodded.

"That's right."

"Just one more question." Said Matt, "how did your figure out that Lydia was still alive much less where she was."

"Guys like Devlin always make at least one mistake, because they think they're a lot smarter than they really are." Replied Jason

"What was Devlin's mistake?" asked Matt

"That picture of himself and Lydia on his desk." replied Carole

"I don't get it." said Matt, "That picture could have been taken before she 'died' three years ago."

"Impossible, that picture was taken at the Coral Cove Resort," said Jason, "and it was only built two years ago. I know all this because I've been there."

"Yeah," said Carole, "when he told us that, we all realized that Lydia was still alive, so with some help we tracked her down and the rest is history."

"Yeah," said Carole, "Captain Harwell of the State police said that Lydia started singing right away and by the time they brought the rest of the co-conspirators in, they were all so busy pointing fingers at each other that it shouldn't be too hard to convict all of them."

"Wow," said Matt, "and Thanks to you all I'm finally free!"

Ashley suddenly threw her arms around Jason taking him by surprise.

"Thanks," she whispered. She pecked his cheek.

The girls whistled and hooted.

Ashley and Jason let go of each other and blushed red.

"Hey Jason," said Stevie, "You wouldn't happened to be single, would you?"

Ashley looked mortified,

"Stevie!"

THE END…PLEASE REVIEW…and thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it!