I nodded, returning to the refrigerator to get some food. Some fresh strawberries and a tub of yogurt.
“My sister got kicked out of school.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Yeah?”
“Turns out that was why we were all called down to the beach house for the weekend. My mom told me while you were getting dressed last night.”
“What are they going to do?”
“My mom suggested we give her a secretarial job.”
“Now probably wouldn’t be a good time.”
I grabbed a couple of bowls and carried everything over to the breakfast bar. “This will be resolved in a couple of days, right?”
“Hopefully. But someone’s making threats against you. Do you really want to bring your eighteen-year-old sister into that atmosphere?”
“Not really.” I handed her a bowl of yogurt. “But what do I do? Mom thinks she needs to understand the consequences of not getting an education.”
“Make her get a job at a fast food restaurant. A couple of weeks of asking, ‘Do you want fries with that?’ will probably teach her that faster than working under her two adoring brothers.”
I laughed, the image that idea produced almost too much.
“I should call my mom and suggest that. She might actually go for it.”
Adrienne smiled, clearly enjoying the image, too. And then her phone rang. She said maybe two words, and then she jumped off the stool.
“I have to go.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“We might have a lead.” She turned on the stairs and looked down at me. “Stay here. Don’t go anywhere.”
“Adrienne…”
“Trust me.”
She came back down a few minutes later, dressed in a pair of black slacks and a white blouse, and kissed me softly.
“I’ll be back.”
And she was gone, just like that.
Chapter 14
Adrienne
My dad was waiting for me at the gate, his old Mustang idling roughly.
“It’s a gated community,” he said, gesturing at the guard who was eyeballing us from his little gatehouse.
“I’m aware of that.”
“Why did you spend the night?”
“Because you should know as well as I do that these gated communities are not as secure as they might appear.”
“Yeah, but it’s unlikely someone would make a move at him in his own home.”
“Just like it’s unlikely they might do it at his office, but you told me to stick by him until we figured out what’s going on, remember? Just doing what you told me.”
He glanced at me, that look on his face that said he suspected I wasn’t being completely honest with him. But he didn’t say anything else.
“What’s going on?” I asked as he eased the car onto the interstate, moving around a couple of slower cars as he headed toward the office.
“Robert thinks he might have figured out where the emails are coming from.”
“Yeah? I took a look at Jacob’s computer, but I couldn’t find any evidence that he’d sent the emails, or that anyone had hacked into the computer to send the emails.”
“No. I think you’re right. I don’t think that Jacob has anything to do with what’s going on.”
“Who do you think it is, then?”
My dad glanced at me even as he again moved around a slower moving car. “What do you think of this Montgomery fellow?”
I shrugged. “He’s a good guy trying to do a good thing for people.”
He gripped the steering wheel, twisting his hands on it for a minute. He seemed agitated, and I didn’t understand why. He glanced at me again, really looked at me, like he wanted to say something but he wasn’t sure how I would take it. I knew that look, too.
“What is it?”
He shook his head. “There’s some things about the emails that just ain’t right, mija.”
“Like what?”
“Like the way they were routed through different IP addresses. The IP addresses that were chosen. The way it was made to look like the brother did it.”
“Someone’s trying to set Jacob up.”
“But why? He’s got just as much to lose if this theft happens as the Montgomery fellow, right?”
“Yeah, I suppose so.”
“Then why try so hard to make it look like he did it?”
“I don’t know.”
“And why now? The device has been in development for, what, five years?”
“Something like that.”
“Why wait until the week before the patent is supposed to come through, a week before they’re free to go public with it, to try to steal it?”
“You don’t think whoever’s doing this is really after the device?”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t.”
“But what could they be after?”
“Maybe somebody’s just trying to fuck with this Montgomery’s head. Or maybe he’s trying to fuck with us.”
I shook my head. “This isn’t Lucien’s doing.”
“How do you know? I’ve seen it before. Executives who want to create drama before releasing a new product. Or executives with mental issues who want attention.”
“That’s not Lucien. If he were like that, I think I would know.”
My dad looked at me, his eyes narrowing as he stared so hard at my face that I had to look away.