Numbers Never Lie (Crimson Romance) (4 page)

“Hey Trev, every time I hear this song it reminds me of New Orleans,” Nate stated in his ear. “They played it all the time at that little sandwich shop where I spent all that time during the insurance fraud investigation after Hurricane Katrina. Remember that one?”

Trev nodded without answering. The mangled stir-stick dropped out of his mouth. Trev stared down the street, his eyes fixed on a target, unwavering.

“Hey, are you there?”

Trev shook his head, pulled the earplugs out of his ears and dropped them into his pocket.

Sophie Henderson was walking toward him, her strides moving in sync with the sound of the music, hips swaying rhythmically back and forth. She moved like a cat. He wasn’t sure if that would be the pet variety or the large predatory kind, but she definitely had that smooth, slinky step. Her hair had started to fall out of the knot she’d put it into that morning and small tendrils were whipping into her face as she moved. She wore a sky blue blouse with a black belted skirt and heels. Her stride was a little long, which made the movement of her hips even more exaggerated. The streetlight changed at the block before the coffee shop and she stopped, waiting for the traffic to clear. Once it passed, she sped toward him like she timed her steps to go with the song over his head.

Without thought, Trev swallowed deeply and muttered. “Damn.”

Trev forced his gaze from her and looked around the area to see what else was going on. Quite a few people moved by, but no familiar faces, and nothing to catch his attention. This area of Houston remained pretty busy during lunch hour and right after work, but during the other parts of the day, it was manageable. Nothing like New York, Chicago, or some of the other cities up north. This was why he preferred working the southwest region of the states. The cities were more spread out and while the populations were still pretty big, getting around was easier, and you could still get a little “breathing room” somewhere — you just had to find it. Plus, even the winter rain and wind proved bearable — although the summer heat got a little tough sometimes.

Quite a few people headed out to lunch, passing him as he waited. No one stood around and, unlike him, no one seemed focused on Sophie’s movements.

He bent and picked up the stick from the ground, then pitched it and the coffee cup into the trashcan next to the door while she crossed the street toward him.

“Hello there.” She smiled as she came up to him, holding out her hand.

Trev nodded, his eyes narrowed as he looked at her face. He took her hand and shook it briefly, noticing she wasn’t wearing a jacket even though it was still a little windy.

“Decided to ditch the jacket after all?” He raised a dark eyebrow. One look at her bronzed legs told him that she wasn’t wearing stockings either. Surely, she was freezing. Even in Texas, the temperature stayed pretty cool in late February.

“No, but I was running late and already downstairs in a meeting so I didn’t go back up to my office. I probably should have — it’s a little chilly out. Thanks for meeting me.”

She hugged herself a little to warm up. Curiously, he noted that Sophie wanted to meet “during” lunch, not “for” lunch. She didn’t really say why, but he assumed it was work related. If it were, though, why didn’t she just ask him to come by her office?

So, maybe it wasn’t work. He liked that thought. Anything that gave him time to learn about her was good. She mentioned meeting here because it was easy to get to. He wasn’t interested in going inside though, not this time. He didn’t feel like running into Stacy at the counter. Besides, what guy really wanted a croissant or muffin for lunch? Or a sandwich loaded with bean sprouts, avocados, and no meat? That’s all the coffee shop served.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

The past few weeks of watching her, investigating the other staff, and reading all the files told him all he needed to know about her basic habits. She was a workaholic and hardly ever ate lunch so he wasn’t sure if she just wanted a coffee or something more substantial. As if on cue, his stomach made a muffled, churning noise.

“A little,” she responded. Thankfully, she ignored his stomach noises.

“Let’s go down the street. There’s really no decent food in this place.” He motioned for her to walk ahead, then saw her shiver as the wind came around the corner of the building. He thought to give her his jacket but he hadn’t worn one either, so he shifted her to his other side to block the wind. He thought about putting his arm around her, then internally kicked himself for the thought.
Too forward, man — don’t do it
. The song on the speakers faded as they moved away and Trevor mused that he’d never think of New Orleans again when he heard that tune. A new image of a black skirt, bronzed legs, and black high-heeled shoes with straps across the ankles would be forever burned into his brain.

Trevor glanced at the couple passing them on the sidewalk, then looked across the street at the group deep in discussion at the light. “So, are you from Houston originally?” He wasn’t much on small talk but orders were orders. His required him to get acquainted with her and spend as much time as he could building trust, so they could find out what was going on. Since he already knew the background answers, asking the questions would give him a feel for her honesty. Although, if she really acted as part of this scheme, honesty would certainly not be one of her most favorable character traits.

“No, I grew up in a small town in Illinois. Very nice place but pretty low key.”

“Low key is good sometimes. It keeps a person out of trouble.”

She gave him a sideways glance. “I wasn’t much of a troublemaker. Too many goals and big plans to waste it causing trouble.” Her voice was heavily laced with annoyance. “Besides, in a small town, everyone knows what you do and tells your mom if you do anything the least bit out of line. No one wanted to mess with my mom, not even me, so I made sure I stayed on track.”

“She sounds like a pretty tough lady.”

“Persistent is more how I’d describe her — very persistent about her expectations. While she loved the small town for herself, she wanted more for me.” Sophie looked wistfully down the street as they walked. “She wanted me to be more like my father.”

“What was he like?”

“Brilliant. Very business savvy. He could turn water into money. He loved the glamour and hustle of the city life.”

“What about as a father?” Trevor asked.

“I don’t know … he was gone before I was old enough to spend much time with him. We got together a year ago but the whole thing was so awkward because we didn’t really know anything about each other. We tried and he seemed kind of sad about it.” She raised her shoulders and sucked in a breath. “How did we go from talking about where I’m from to what kind of dad I had?”

Even though he didn’t enjoy the talking part all that much, he had a knack for listening — always did have. He found it kind of interesting, the discovery process. While he often said very little, he could learn a lot about people by letting them do the talking and somehow that encouraged them to be candid with him.

“I don’t know. I guess I’m just a good listener. Sorry if you didn’t want to talk about that.” He realized they stood in front of the Mexican restaurant that he’d eaten at a few times. “How’s this for lunch?”

“Good for me.” She smiled, crinkling those macadamia nut eyes.

Once they were seated with menus and drinks, Trev’s curiosity got the best of him. They’d had enough idle conversation so it would be appropriate to ask. “So, what is it you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Well, first tell me about your consulting work. What’s your specialty? There are so many different types of IT consultants nowadays. I have something that may need someone but I’m not sure you’d be interested.”

He expected this would come at some point and he had an answer prepared. “I’m a security analyst. I do security audits, forensics, data analysis for security purposes and advise on better ways to secure a company’s data and network.” He spat it out easily because to some extent it contained a large degree of truth. He had gone through the FBI’s most rigorous data analysis training and forensics program. While he mainly worked on the front line, observing and interfacing with their targets, his expertise in security, and specifically forensics, was strong — very strong. That, in addition to the year-long psychiatric analysis training, a requirement for his field, made him capable of studying suspects and data in a fraud investigation better than almost anyone else in his division … or at least he thought so.

He watched her face to see her reaction to his information.

“Wow, I didn’t expect that!” She seemed surprised. But not afraid, he noted. “I expected you to say that you’re a server guy or maybe a network person. A security consultant is a little more intense than I expected.”

He could almost see her mind mulling over his words. He wasn’t sure if she was pleased or apprehensive. She certainly didn’t look completely scared … probably a good sign. Man, she was beautiful. A guy would have to be dead not to notice. He wondered how many men she’d been involved with. The notes were a little sketchy on that part. Not relevant, he chided himself. Still, he wanted to know.

Their table sat rather low to the ground; her long legs didn’t seem to fit under it any better than his. He moved his legs to the side as soon as he sat but she had tucked hers under the table in an uncomfortable, sideways sprawl. It didn’t last long though, and now she moved her legs to the side and crossed them in the aisle next to her chair. On her slim ankle, above the strap of the shoe, a small silver bangle caught the light from outside the window and sparkled a little. A silver sunburst dangled from the chain. For some reason that seemed totally out of character for the outfit she wore, more like something she would wear with a sundress or shorts on the weekend rather than at work.

When his eyes returned to her face, his skin warmed up quickly when he noticed that she’d seen him staring at her legs, her ankles, and the bangle. She didn’t say anything though, thankfully. An unreadable expression crossed her eyes as she held his gaze for a short while.

“Yeah, I guess I’m a little more intense than most people would expect.” He smiled a lopsided grin, trying to make light of his work, and take the attention off his wandering glance.

“I suppose in that line of work, a customer would want you to maintain a certain edginess or intenseness — or maybe the word is ‘awareness’ — that’s higher than the norm.”

She didn’t know how accurate that statement really was. Being exceptionally aware of your surroundings, subject, and any and all evidence was pretty critical to successfully resolving a case — that’s why he was good at it. As if to prove it to himself, he noted the three waiters staffing the restaurant. Two male, one female. Each of them handled four to five tables. The larger male must be new. It was obvious by the way the other two kept helping him with his tables, filling glasses, etc. The owner’s picture graced the wall by the door. His real face resided in the kitchen. Apparently, he was also the head chef today.

A wind chime over the door jingled every time someone entered or exited the door, which made it easy for him to know when the surroundings would change. The chime was in the shape of Texas at the top with small copper tubes hanging off of it at the bottom. He’d surveyed the room earlier and knew each of the twenty-plus tables and had a basic idea of the people at each.

This time when the low jingle sounded, he watched a group leave the third booth down the wall. Immediately following their departure, two people entered. The man and woman looked somewhat familiar. They weren’t part of Sophie’s team but he had seen them leaving her building before. Oh yeah, he recognized the guy as the CEO and the lady was one of the board members. He made a mental note to check on them when he got back. They didn’t appear to see her yet so it could be an unimportant entrance but he didn’t necessarily see it as a coincidence, either. Regardless, he made sure to glance that way periodically. As he remembered, the CEO was also a workaholic who primarily spent lunch hours at his desk and weekends at the office. Strange that two supposed workaholics would both go out on the same day to the same place. It was unlikely that they planned it since he and Sophie had arrived by chance.

“Awareness. Yes, that’s pretty accurate,” he stated flatly as he brought his attention back to his own table and company.
She fidgets
, he noticed. She hadn’t done that before. Now, she seemed a little nervous. She played with her napkin and rubbed her hands together. Did their presence bother her? If so, she’d done a good job of pretending not to see them.

“So, are you working on a project right now? Anything interesting?” she asked.

“Yes and no. I’m sort of in between things, which is nice. There are a few loose ends to tie up on some old projects but that should be done pretty soon. I worked a lot of investigations in Louisiana a while ago so it’s nice to be back for a while.”

“I’ll bet it is. What’s Louisiana like?”

“It’s a mess right now from the hurricanes. Katrina really demolished New Orleans and parts of Mississippi. Those poor people will probably spend years rebuilding. Some of it just needs to be bulldozed over so they can start from scratch.”

“What did you do while you were there?”

“Insurance fraud investigations and audits mostly. I also did some security infrastructure installations for companies in the process of rebuilding.”

“So, it sounds like you travel a lot?”

“Sometimes.”

“You’re from here?”

“No.”

“But you said it’s nice to be back.”

He found it interesting that she noticed his use of words. “I live here now, but I’m not from here … originally.”

“Oh.” She watched him as if waiting for more, but didn’t ask.

“I’m originally from Oklahoma. I grew up on a ranch there. My parents are still there. I went to college in Norman like most kids from my area. I got interested in security when I saw some of my college buddies trying to hack the network to gain access to test scores, and all that stuff. I decided to be on the other side of the fence — it seemed — safer.” It was easy for him to make up this part. A mixture of truth and fiction, just enough. Same story, different locations.