Seasons of Love (12 page)

Headlights flashed through the kitchen window. Riley and Grandpa headed out the door to greet Zane. He stepped out of his car, and without thinking about her actions, Riley flew into his arms. He held her tight as if it were the most natural thing to do. The warmth and security she felt within his muscled frame comforted her. When she became aware that she was clinging to Zane, she distanced herself.

“I’m… um… sorry about that. It’s just that this whole mess…” She gestured toward the office and averted her gaze from his questioning eyes.

“No, no. It’s all right.”

Zane nodded to Grandpa. “Sorry you’ve had to go through this, Robert.”

“It’s not your fault, son.” He placed his hand on Zane’s shoulder and squeezed. “I’m just glad you finally got here to help calm Riley down.”

Wide-eyed, Riley gazed at her grandfather. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Come on. Let’s go inside.” Zane gave her a sympathetic smile and grabbed Riley’s arm.

“You kids have fun. I’m heading back to bed.” Disgruntled, Grandpa turned his back to them and walked to the house. “I’ll listen for Chad. No need to worry.”

“Can you tell me what happened?” He started toward the office.

She ran ahead and stood in front of the door. “No, we shouldn’t go in here. Let’s talk in the kitchen.”

“We won’t go in. But I want to see for myself.”

“All right.” Riley opened the door for him.

Brows furrowed, Zane stood in the doorway, his gaze roaming over the destruction. With a deep frown, he nodded at Riley. “I’ve seen enough. Now tell me what happened.”

She descended the porch steps and walked with him to the house.

“I got up to check on Chad because of his fever. I saw lights on in the office again, and at first I thought it was you. So I dressed and came outside in time to see the vandals drive away.”

He held the door for her as she entered.

“Did you see what kind of car they drove, their license plate?”

“It was too dark to read the license plate, but I saw a sedan. Not sure of the make. It looked like an expensive model, though. I’ve already told all of this to the police.” Riley shuddered when she considered how close she’d come to walking in on them.

Zane pulled her to him, embracing her. “Are you cold?” He rubbed her arms to generate heat. But instead she felt the warmth rushing to her cheeks.

“No, I’m really not cold. Just shaken. Oh, Zane, the longer I stared at the papers strewn over the floor and the overturned boxes, the angrier I became. It’s so… frustrating.”

She pushed away from his attempt to console her. “I don’t understand why anyone would do this. It makes no sense. And all the hard work you’ve done is for nothing. It’s not like we have a problem with vandals out here. What do you think, Zane? Why would someone do this?”

His expression grim, he said, “I can’t tell you how relieved I am that you didn’t walk in on them. There’s no telling what they might have done. In fact, don’t come out here at night alone for any reason.” He nailed her with a convicting stare. “What if something would have happened to you? What about Chad?”

“But I thought it was you.” Her voice cracked with emotion.

He placed his hands on Riley’s shoulders. “I’m sorry about that. About everything.” He hung his head. The stress and tension she’d watched dissipate from him over the last several weeks were back in full force.

A sense of foreboding pressed against her thoughts. Zane’s strange questions came to mind.
“Did you have a chance to talk to him before he died?”
All her doubts about his reasons for working on the farm whirled in her head, creating a tumultuous whirlpool of suspicion. But she’d put them to rest already and tried to dismiss them again.

“Grandpa said that no one has ever done this before. I’m thankful they were only interested in destroying the office and didn’t venture to the house. I get the sense they were looking for something, but I can’t imagine what. Can you?”

A shadow flashed across Zane’s features. Riley’s pulse raced. Her mind played tricks on her, persuading her to suspect that the vandalism was related to Zane and not to Sanderford Cranberry Farms.

“I don’t want to give you the wrong impression.”
His earlier words danced in her mind, mocking her.

She turned her back to him and began rinsing out her coffee mug at the kitchen sink. “Do you think it was vandals, Zane, or do you think they were looking for something?”
And what?
She wanted to voice her last question but dreaded the answer; she could hardly breathe while she waited for his reply.

It never came.

Riley lifted her face and stared at the ceiling, taking a deep breath. She turned to face Zane, and what she saw in his eyes shredded all that was left of her hope.

The look in Riley’s eyes squeezed Zane’s chest like a vise. He’d never meant for this to happen, for things to go this far. His mind reeled from the shock that Sanderford Farms had been targeted. Why had they waited until now? Zane rubbed his stubbled jaw.

He hastened to Riley, put his hands on her shoulders, and peered into her eyes. They shimmered with a mixture of hurt, anger, and distrust. “Remember when I asked you to believe me, to trust me, when I said that I was helping with the farm because I owe it to John—for your sake and Chad’s?”

She nodded slowly.

A sharp pain shot through his chest at what he was about to tell her. “Riley, I think you need to sit down.”

She snapped out of her stunned expression and pulled away. “No, tell me everything. Now.” Her voice sounded distant, unfeeling.

He grabbed her, forcing her to face him. “I meant every word. In fact, it didn’t take long for my desire to help you with the farm to become something I wanted to do for you, regardless of John.”

Riley stumbled to the chair and slumped into it. “Tell me why you came to work here. The truth.”

Zane ran both hands through his hair and blew out a breath.
Where do I begin?
“The night that John died, I heard him leave you a message.” He cleared his throat. “The corridors in our office suite echo, and well… John hadn’t closed his door. I mistakenly overheard him.”

Riley quirked her left brow. “And?”

“I heard John say he’d sent something to you. Then as he hung up, he said it might be a matter of life and death. He sent something he considered to be very important to you, Riley.”

Riley covered her face with her hands then let them drop to her lap. “What else?”

“It wasn’t until after the funeral when I decided to look at John’s laptop that I discovered it missing along with all of his hardware and storage devices. I just… couldn’t bring myself to go into his office. Had to give myself time.”

She pushed herself from the chair and moved to face him. “So what are you saying, exactly? I still don’t understand why you came to work here.” Her voice was riddled with emotion. “Unless you’re looking for whatever the vandals were looking for here, too. That’s it, isn’t it?”

Her brows knitted in confusion, and her pain was evident in her frown.

With all of his being, Zane wanted to make her understand. “I never intended to use you. I only wanted to protect you. You have your hands full, and I wasn’t sure about any of this anyway.” Still, he kept the burden of John’s possible murder to himself.

“Did they find it?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Do you remember getting anything from John in the mail?”

“If you could tell me what we’re talking about, that might help.”

Riley’s voice sounded steady, and she appeared more composed, more accepting of the circumstances. Despite the situation he’d placed her in, she remained resilient.

“My vision for Cyphorensic was to enter the growing computer forensics field.” He glanced at Riley and noted a question in her eyes. “Computer forensics is used by investigators to determine if illegal activities have transpired on a computer system. I brought John on board, but because he’d already begun work on creating a new standard in encryption code—meaning hack-proof code—that’s the direction we took. I can count on one hand the programs out there that are considered undecipherable. The government uses them.”

His explanation complete, he shrugged. “That’s where we’re at. The only conclusion I can make is that whoever stole the computers must have wanted John’s software. But they can’t open it because John’s work can’t be hacked. Obviously, they’re looking for the key to crack the code.”

Riley shook her head. “Why would they think they could find it here? A password, for crying out loud.”

“Not just any password. John would have created a complicated algorithm.” What would Zane have done had he needed access to the software?

“Great, just great.” Riley rubbed her arms.

“Hold on.” Zane paced as he thought. Riley waited, seeming to understand his need for concentration. Then it dawned on him. “That’s it.”

“What’s it?”

He gripped his chin. “They must have hired another hacker to break the code but were unsuccessful. It’s the only explanation. Apparently, their tactic hasn’t worked, and now they’re searching again. They must think I’ve hidden it somewhere.”

“Still, why don’t they just confront you? Ask for it?”

“Hear me out. I’ve wondered why they haven’t confronted me, too.” Zane hesitated. He didn’t want to reveal to Riley that he believed John had been murdered or had been involved in something illegal. “Maybe they hope they can find John’s key by following me. If they were to confront me too soon, they might risk losing the key for good, now that John is gone.”

Riley shook her head, her expression grave. “Zane, eventually, if they don’t find this… password…”

“That’s why we have to find it first.”

“But I still don’t know what we’re looking for.”

“What we’re looking for is both simple and complicated. John enjoyed creating puzzles to solve, hidden treasures. John has hidden the key. He has left us the clue of where to find it. I’m sure of it.”

“So what is the clue? The sooner we get this solved, the better.” She thrust her hands on her hips, determined.

“Well, there’s another problem. I don’t even know what the clue is.” He dispelled her wide-eyed expression with a wry grin. It relieved him to see her appear to have overcome the situation. Her strength amazed him.

More than anything, he wanted to pull her into his arms, but he steeled himself and instead raised his arms out to her as if making an offering. “I’m so, so sorry, Riley. I never meant for any of this to happen. I thought I would figure it out, that I could manage it on my own. I didn’t want to give you something else to worry about.”

She pressed her lips together and turned away then began wiping the kitchen counter. She stopped. Her actions indicated that she still held animosity toward him. He watched her reach into her jeans pocket and pull out a small tube, probably her lip ointment. A familiar, nervous act he’d seen her perform numerous times. When he considered all he’d come to know about her, down to her constant need to moisturize her lips, a sense of longing coursed through him.

“You’ll have to bear with me, Zane. This has been information overload for me. Right now, I just don’t know what to think. I do know we’ve got to find that clue. You should have told me this from the beginning.”

Riley twisted her hair back and pinned it with a clip she’d pulled from a drawer. He watched her reflection in the glass of a picture hanging on the wall.

And then he knew where John had hidden the clue.

Zane unlocked the entrance to his condo, the events of the night reeling through his mind. He closed the door behind him, locked it, then shut his eyes and leaned back against the sturdy steel casing. The cold penetrated his clothing while he repeatedly knocked the back of his head against the door, furious with himself for allowing the situation to escalate.

He’d finally become convinced that he’d made a mistake—that the stolen computers were a simple matter of theft with no ties to John. But he could afford no such errors again. Come morning, he would hire his own private investigator.

He flipped the switch on the wall, but the sofa lamp did not yield its light.

Fear gripped his gut.

He stood motionless and listened, hoping he hadn’t stumbled into trouble.

After his eyes adjusted to the moon’s rays filtering through the blinds, he recognized the same chaos he’d witnessed at the Sanderford Farms office. Only the culprits had done much more damage to Zane’s residence. His leather sofa had been upended, along with the lamp and side table. The chairs had fared no better.

He hoped the culprits wouldn’t decide to return. Zane could not understand what good could come of scattering papers and overturning furniture in order to search for their treasure. If anything, he believed it would only make the hunt more difficult.

John had counted on his need for order to alert Zane to his clue. He clenched his jaw, gritting his teeth. The item had been before John the whole time, sitting on the desk in the open, when it should have been hanging on the wall out of his workspace. He was relentless to keep his desk tidy and free of anything that would distract him from his work, considering even a picture clutter. No one would have noticed an object out of place in John’s logically arranged office. No one except Zane. Yet he had missed it.