Fate and Destiny (26 page)

If the dire situation
concerning Destiny’s future was not the reason for Matt and
Doreen’s visit, then this evening would feel more like a family get
together. Doreen still chatted endlessly, excitement rippling over
her. Matt struggled for a moment trying to decide if she had
stopped talking at all since they left the diner. Shrugging it off,
he unpacked food.

“
We brought dinner from
Nancy’s.” Interrupting Doreen, Matt handed out warm containers,
forks, and napkins. “The special tonight is lasagna with garlic
bread.”

Inhaling the scent of
garlic and tomato sauce, Destiny closed her eyes, passing the box
under her nose.

“
I can’t remember the last
time I had lasagna. This smells wonderful.”

Andrew didn’t stop eating
to speak, his agreement ending up more as a jumble of noises than
actual words. The fork in her hand heavy under a helping of
lasagna, Doreen was the only one of the group talking instead of
eating.

“
Dew! You will not believe
it, but Nancy has taken quite a shine to your big friend Doug. She
finally found a man taller than she is! She almost became a puddle
in the middle of the station. I thought I was gonna have to mop her
up into a bucket and pour her outside!”

The fork moved closer to
her mouth. Her lips almost made contact when she suddenly stopped
and pulled it away.

“
Oh! And Sammy should be
here soon. He got into some computer and found evidence to save
Destiny.”

The fork finally found its
way into her mouth. Scooping another forkful, Doreen smiled,
looking around at the others. The smile faded as she scanned from
one face to the next. Everyone else stopped eating. Destiny’s fork
rested in the motion of cutting off another bite. Andrew’s jaws
locked. Matt looked like only an act of God would keep him from
strangling her. She swallowed hard.

“
What? Did I say something
I shouldn’t have?”

“
Damn Doreen!”

Matt gave up on counting to
ten to deal with his sister, choosing to let fury take over
instead.

“
You could at least let
them finish eating! Why do you think we came early? So we could eat
and get them settled before we sprung that kind of news on them!
You don’t know when to keep your mouth shut and speak at the right
times! This is why you aren’t allowed to go on calls with
me.”

He tried counting to ten
again. He made it to three.

“
We don’t even know what
Sammy has yet. He might not have what Destiny needs to prove DeMont
killed his father and framed her for it. Unless you saw the
paperwork with your psychic powers or something? I didn’t think
so!”

Biting his tongue, Matt
shut his mouth. Doreen’s face fell and tears welled in the corners
of her eyes. Shadow padded over and lay next to Doreen, eyeing Matt
with his famous ‘how could you’ look.

Destiny jumped up from her
chair, racing to Doreen and grabbing her hand.

“
Sammy found my files? He
has them?” Unable to quell the nervous excitement flooding over
her, Destiny didn’t hear Matt. Focusing completely on Doreen,
Destiny only wanted to hear it again.

“
Please. Tell me. Sammy
has something that can prove I didn’t do any of this?”

Andrew, accustomed to the
opposite personalities of Matt and Doreen, stood from his seat on
the edge of the bed, moving to Destiny’s side.

“
Don’t get too excited
just yet. No one knows what your files contain except you. We don’t
know what Sammy has. What if it isn’t what you expect?”

Rubbing Destiny’s arm that
gripped Doreen’s hand, Andrew weaved some of Matt’s caution into
Destiny. Eyes wide, grinning from ear to ear, Destiny let go of
Doreen, spinning around to face him. She wrapped her arms around
his shoulders in a quick hug before letting him go.

“
It doesn’t matter! Don’t
you see? If he got in the system once, he can get in again, and I
can tell him exactly what to look for and where to find
it!”

Clapping her hands, Destiny
danced around the room, hugging each person in turn, even Shadow.
Her celebration was short lived as Shadow’s barking followed by a
knock at the door interrupted. Already on the move, Destiny reached
the door before anyone else could recover from her thorough
hugging. Flinging it wide open without a care for her personal
safety, Destiny continued the hug fest by throwing her arms around
the man standing in the doorway.

Surprised but quick to
assess the situation, Sammy hugged her back, smiling at her as they
embraced right into the room, Destiny kicking the door closed
behind him. Grinning wickedly, she held Sammy out at arm’s length,
scrutinizing him up and down. He certainly didn’t match her idea of
a computer nerd. No glasses, no overbite, no pocket protector.
Sammy was almost as tall as Andrew, only a little leaner. His thick
dark blonde hair was a few shades lighter than his brother’s, but
the captivating smile and sparkling brown eyes were almost
identical.

“
I’m guessing you are
Destiny and my cousin Doreen already spilled the beans about me
being here didn’t she?”

Laughing, he glanced over
to catch Doreen rolling her eyes at him. Pulling a large manila
envelope from under his coat, Sammy presented it to the woman who
only then took her hands off him.

“
I believe this is what
you are so excited about.”

Grasping the envelope, not
taking the time to pry the tines apart, Destiny ripped the top
open. Pulling the stack of papers free, the room collectively held
its breath while she scanned the top page. A tear trickled down her
cheek as her eyes left the page to focus on Sammy.

“
This is it.” She quickly
flipped through the rest of the pages, pausing only briefly on
each. “This is all of it. This is the final report I took to Marcus
the night he died. I haven’t seen it since then. How can I ever
thank you for this?” She clutched the papers to her chest, tears
flowing anew as she stared at Sammy.

Embarrassed at her
gratitude, Sammy studied the toe of his boot.

“
It only took maybe an
hour or so. It was actually harder than I thought it would be. You
had a lot of passwords on that thing.” Tipping his head, he brought
his gaze back up to meet hers. “I actually think they have the
computer sitting in a techie room. Somebody is trying to get in and
get information out of that computer, but you encrypted it, hid it,
and password protected it. I don’t think they’ve figured out how to
get in yet.”

Her sparkling smile came
back and communication passed between them without either of them
saying a word. Sammy liked her. She almost stumped him, and some of
the best programmers in the world hadn’t even come close. Destiny
turned to show Andrew the papers gripped in her hand. Everyone
gathered around her to share in her joy and excitement. Sammy
remained off to the side near the front door, his own excitement
growing.

“
There’s more.”

Sammy produced another,
smaller, white envelope from the inside pocket of his coat. Holding
it out, all eyes watched as Destiny took the envelope in her hands,
finger sliding under the edge of the paper to tear it open.
Curiously, she studied him for a moment as she pulled the folded
sheets of paper from the envelope.

Nervous twitters and
excitement gone, Destiny dropped to her knees. Afraid she was on
the verge of passing out, Andrew and Sammy both reached to catch
her. Hands grabbed her as she sat on her legs on the floor, paper
in hand. Eyes ready to pop, she looked to Sammy, not believing what
she held.

“
Destiny, what is it? Are
you okay?”

At the concern in Andrew’s
voice, she handed him the paper, eyes glued to Sammy.

“
That can’t be real Sammy.
You made that up.”

He shook his head, grinning
enough to shame the Cheshire cat.

“
Nope. It’s completely
real. I stumbled across it when I was trying to find your
files.”

Andrew read the document he
held, absorbing every word while Doreen and Matt tried to read over
his shoulder. Doreen wasn’t as tall as any of the male members of
her family. Frustration won out.

“
All right already! Would
someone please tell us what it is before I explode?”

Andrew looked at her as if
he had never seen her before.

“
I think it’s Marcus
DeMont’s will.”

He looked to Sammy for
verification.

Sammy nodded, hands clasped
together behind his back, enjoying the reactions. He couldn’t
torment them any longer.

“
It seems Mr. DeMont had
quite a fondness for a certain Destiny Fisher, and left her as sole
owner of the Diamonds Casino and Luxury Hotel in fabulous Las
Vegas, Nevada. He also bequeathed to her the princely sum of $60
million for the continued operation of the casino as well as her
own personal use. The remainder of his monetary holdings and other
investments are to be placed in a trust fund for his only surviving
son and heir, Charles DeMont.

“
The trust fund is to be
monitored by Marcus DeMont’s attorney and there are a ton of
stipulations as to what he could do with the money until he met
certain guidelines. Then, he would receive the entire trust fund,
no strings attached. Those papers Andrew’s holding are a scanned
copy of the original, signed by Marcus DeMont, and dated three
months ago. I would assume the original is either already with the
attorney or it’s in a safe deposit box somewhere Charles wouldn’t
find it.”

Still in shock, not quite
understanding all she read and heard, Destiny broke the stunned
silence.

“
Marcus knew all along
Charles was stealing from him. Why would he leave so much to me? I
didn’t do anything to deserve it.”

Andrew sat on the floor
with Destiny, smiling at her and stroking her hair.

“
You were his friend. You
locked yourself away from the world to protect yourself from being
hurt. I bet Marcus was lonely, thinking everyone who got close to
him wanted something from him, especially if his own sons’ behavior
was any example of what the man dealt with every day. He knew you
were a good person who didn’t care what Marcus had, but about who
he was. It’s hard to find people like that.”

Doreen squealed.

“
My God! You’re a
millionaire! And you own a casino! This is incredible!”

Matt, always the voice of
reason, remained calm.

“
Not yet. Sammy, I need a
copy of those documents to send up to Vegas after I review them
with Fred Murphy.”

At Destiny’s confused look,
he clarified for her benefit.

“
He’s our lawyer in town.
Don’t look worried. He practiced law with the largest firm in New
York before settling down here. He’s top notch. Anyway, while
that’s being done, we still have to get Charles locked up and
charged and get Destiny cleared. Speaking of which, Doreen and I
have to get back to the station so Doug can call Charles and see if
we can get anything incriminating out of him.”

Destiny stood on wobbly
legs, certain she would slam to the floor if it weren’t for Andrew
holding her up. Shaking, she hugged each member of Andrew’s family
as they retrieved their winter gear, put it on, and headed out the
door amid cheerful goodbyes and congratulations. Suddenly alone
with Andrew and Shadow, she sunk to the bed, the last few minutes a
blur. Marcus left her a fortune. A fortune she would have gladly
handed over to Charles if he would have let Marcus live.

26.

Driving back into town,
Matt and Doreen stopped by the diner to pick up Doug. The dinner
rush was over and only a handful of locals sat around the counter
drinking coffee or eating a late dinner. Wiping slush from their
boots onto the welcome mat, Matt and Doreen greeted the patrons
before taking seats at the counter next to Doug. The big man sat
back in his chair, feet on the bar that ran along the bottom of the
counter, engaged in a conversation with the man next to him. Doug
introduced them.

“
Matt, I’m sure you know
Frank Simmons. He’s the foreman for the county road
crews.”

Tipping his head to Frank,
Matt nodded.

“
Sure do. Known Frank for
years.”

 
Reaching across
Doug, Matt shook Frank’s hand.

“
How’re you doing Frank?
How’s the family?”

Frank was long and lanky,
his skin leathered by years of working outside. His eyes were kind
and strong with a deep sense of understanding and discipline, most
of which developed while Frank and his wife Catherine raised ten
kids.

“
Good. Good. And yours?
Your mom sent Christie over a box of cookies for her birthday. I
don’t know how she remembers all of them.”

Matt shared in Frank’s
laughter. His mom was notorious for sending out food for every
occasion to everyone in town. Matt couldn’t figure out how she kept
up with everyone either.

“
Are you ready Doug? We
need to get going.”

Something about Doug was
different from when they left him there a few hours ago. For one
thing, a huge grin spread across his face, erasing the dopey look
he typically carried. Also, his manner was very relaxed and
comfortable. His eyes shone and glimmered. Looking at him now, Matt
decided Doug could easily pass as a local working man, simply
enjoying a cup of coffee with friends. No image of the hired killer
lurked under the casual stance. Matt tucked this understanding away
in the corner of his mind.