Page 9 of The Beachside Cafe 4
“Oh, good Lord,” Cheyenne rolled her eyes.
Alex turned the tablet to Jaymee and Cameron so they could see Amanda in the picture in a compromising position with the last man on the list that they needed to see. Daniel Coulter.
“And who is this guy?” Cheyenne asked.
“Daniel Coulter,” Cameron responded, reaching over to take the tablet from Alex. He removed the picture and brought up a file, passing the tablet to Jaymee so she could read it and then hand it to Cheyenne. “He’s the CFO of IDL. He’s been skimming money off the books and sending it overseas.”
“So much greed,” Cheyenne said, visibly shuddering.
“Truer words were never spoken,” Alex said, taking the tablet from Cheyenne.
“I guess that’s where we’re headed next?” Jaymee asked.
Cameron nodded. “We ought to, yeah. But we gotta have a good excuse to talk to the financial office of IDL or they won’t give us the time of day.”
“I think I know what to do,” Jaymee said, an idea coming to her mind. “Doug used to work there. I’ll make up an excuse having to do with his disappearance, files I need to claim or something. Maybe he had insurance through them, maybe stocks I should be aware of.”
She noticed Cheyenne’s confused look and smiled. “Well, none of that will be true, honey. It’s just an excuse to get in.”
Cheyenne nodded. “You just make sure you’re careful, Mom. These people are dangerous.”
“Trust me, I’m not forgetting that.”
SIX
Jaymee hadn’t been to the IDL compound since Doug stopped working for them five years ago. She looked up at the multiple buildings, surprised that she knew what was in each one of them. Well, she had an idea, anyway. What was actually going on behind closed doors was something she didn’t even want to think about.
Her skin crawled when she entered the main entrance of building B, which was the financial offices for IDL. The lobby was huge, with a glass ceiling that was all the way at the top of the fifth floor. The sun shined down onto the reception desk, where one security guard was standing and the other was sitting, staring at monitors that flipped through various areas of the building.
She would have to pass through a metal detector and have a wand run over her before she was allowed to pass to the hallway where there were six elevators, three on each side. Pressing one button activated all the elevators and whichever one got there first was the one she would take.
She signed in, passed through the security check and made it to the elevators unscathed, though her heart felt like it was about to come out of its chest. There was something about being back on IDL property that creeped her out.
Jaymee stepped on the first elevator that came to the lobby and pressed the number three button. Daniel Coulter was the Chief Financial Officer but he didn’t even merit an office on the top floor.
It made Jaymee wonder who – or what – was on those two top floors.
A chill ran over her skin and she decided she better stop thinking about it or she wouldn’t be able to question Daniel without giving her motives away. It was her husband who had been blackmailing Daniel, after all. If the man thought she was doing an investigation of her own and he was guilty of everything going on, she would be in terrible danger.
She stepped off on the third floor to come into a lobby that was just as wide and open and luxurious as the main entrance. A huge white curved reception desk was placed twenty yards from the elevators, with bright lights shining all over, advertising the accomplishments of IDL. The walls and carpet were white and though it was bright with the fluorescent bulbs installed every few feet in the ceiling, there was a shade of blue that made it seem less cold and sterile.
Jaymee walked to the desk and smiled at the woman behind it, who smiled back.
“Can I help you?” the woman, whose nametag said Penny, asked.
“I’m here to see Daniel Coulter. I have an appointment.” She looked down at her phone, pressing the power button so the screen would come on. It said she had six minutes till the time of her appointment.
Penny was tapping at her computer and then nodded, turning her eyes back to Jaymee. “Yes, I see you do have an appointment with him. Let me get him on the phone and let him know you’re here. If you don’t mind just having a seat really quick. I’m sure he won’t be long.”
Jaymee nodded and took a nearby seat on the fancy, thick couch that ran along the wall to her left.
So far, she detected nothing about Daniel Coulter that would exacerbate her trepidation. The building, the company, those things terrified her. Knowing what they were most likely doing – experimenting on humans. But she got no bad vibes from his secretary at all.
“He’ll be right out to get you, Miss Mason,” Penny said, to which Jaymee nodded.
There were pictures of the financial officers hanging in fancy frames along the walls behind and in front of her. She got to her feet and began to look at them all, taking her time before she got to Daniel’s. Penny glanced up at her only once and then looked back at her computer.
The picture of Daniel and Amanda in Doug’s files had been one that was in motion. It wasn’t the only picture of the two of them but none of them – other than a still of the two kissing – really showed his face well. It was obvious who he was, especially from the kissing photo.
