Free Lucky Charm by Valerie Douglas Page A

of the company name encircled by arrows pointing inward at the edge of the blotter. He found another doodle on a piece of scrap paper in the trash. Marathon and Genesis Co., another finance company, had been linked with doodles of more arrows. When Bill doodled, if it was good thoughts they were circled, circles within circles. Bad thoughts had arrows like lightning bolts.
    Those jagged lines had been everywhere.
    It was thin, but it and the phone call were all he had.
    Next time he’d have to be careful and probe Marathon’s defenses a little more circumspectly to try to find a way past them. Even now he didn’t know how they’d spotted him. He’d missed something about their security. He knew more than a little something about that, he thought wryly, or he should. What was it he’d missed? That was something else he’d have to check.
    It was too soon to try again, though, he thought as he stepped out of the shower and toweled off, using a corner to clear the steam from the bathroom mirror. One glance convinced him of that.
    The bruise on his face would make things more difficult. It made him noticeable – something he didn’t want. That was one advantage women had, they could hide bruises behind makeup. That wasn’t an option for him. A troll through the public records was called for, instead. He’d try to track down the connection between Marathon and Genesis through more conventional means. What he could do, he would. Public servants didn’t care if you looked as if you’d had a run-in with a Mack truck. Matt didn’t expect any more satisfaction from there than he’d had in San Diego or Sacramento but it had to be done. The bases had to be covered.
    Outside of the general similarity in product – finance – there didn’t seem to be a connection between the two companies.
    Making himself a little space, he pushed through some yoga to loosen up his muscles a little more before he dressed. The sun salutes weren’t so demanding on his body. He knew some guys found yoga a little too… something…but the stretches were perfect for times like these.
    Then he headed for the library.
    The local newspaper archives were a little more interesting. Marathon made the financial pages a little more often than he would have expected. For what was essentially a fairly esoteric product for most of mortal man, they seemed to have a highly developed publicity machine. He found little blurbs about Marathon’s financial wizardry everywhere. Joe Public was actively encouraged to consider investing with Marathon as a sure way to see a steady return, especially Joe Senior. And he did. The financial ratings were good, sometimes very good. Nothing spectacular but it did catch the eye. In none of those articles, though, did he read the explanation for Marathon’s success where others had failed. Nor did he find any connection to Genesis.
    All the financial pundits gave glowing reviews.
    Matt wasn’t certain why that bothered him but it did. Maybe it was simply the notion of having all the talking heads raving about Marathon that made him wary. It wasn’t normal for any of them to have the same opinion on anything. The last time that had happened it had been Bernie Madoff.
    Perhaps it was simply paranoia over the circumstances of Bill’s death talking.
    There was still, however, the truism that just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean someone isn’t following you . In fact, they’d made a movie with Mel Gibson about that. At the moment, Matt wasn’t willing – yet – to chalk it up to that.
    Instead, he returned to his hotel room.
    Surprisingly, they had a good wireless Internet setup, as he’d discovered when he’d gone on line to find a nice, out-of the way hotel, but promises like that didn’t always held true. In this case it had. He e-mailed Darrin to ask him to do some checking for him. Phrasing it carefully, he tried to pique Darrin’s interest without specifically telling him what it was about Genesis