Free Shadow Account by Stephen Frey Page B

she’d chosen. She’d simply made the most of a bad situation—and what God had given her. Done what was necessary to escape a dusty, west Texas trailer park. Left her mother and two sisters behind at sixteen with $107 in her purse and a few clothes in an old Samsonite suitcase. Uncertain of where she was going or how she was getting there. Now she had almost a hundred grand in a Miami bank. She’d come a long way from west Texas.
    But she wasn’t satisfied. A hundred grand wasn’t nearly enough. She wanted more.
Deserved
more, dammit. The plan had to work. Failure wasn’t an option.
    The knock on the door was barely audible over the grinding music in the background. “Hey!”
    “What do you want?” she snapped.
    “Five minutes.”
    She didn’t bother answering. They could wait. It was time for her to start taking control over every facet of her life.
    Which was how the whole thing had started.

7
    “Good afternoon. Morgan Sayers investment banking group. How may I direct your call?”
    The woman’s greeting was practiced and professional. “Is Todd Bishop there?”
    “Mr. Bishop is in Europe. May I put you into his voice mail?”
    “Do you know when he’ll be back?”
    “Not until next week. Let me trans—”
    “This is his brother-in-law,” Conner interrupted. He wasn’t going to wait until next week to start digging.
    There was a brief pause at the other end of the line.
“Brother-in-law?”
    “Well, brother-in-law to be. He’s marrying my sister, which is why I’m calling,” Conner continued. “It’s very important that I talk to him as soon as possible. He and I need to make some arrangements.”
    “Todd is getting
married
? My God, I had no idea.”
    “I doubt he’s told anyone yet,” Conner said. “He and my sister are trying to keep it quiet.” Which wasn’t true. Not according to Liz, anyway. She’d told him there was a huge engagement party at a Connecticut country club one weekend last month. And that formal announcements had been mailed out back in June. “They aren’t planning to actually tie the knot for a year.”
    “Oh.”
    The woman at the other end of the line sounded confused. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Don’t understand what?”
    “I . . . I don’t want to say anything wrong,” she said hesitantly. “Maybe Todd and Martha got back together before he left for Europe Sunday evening.”
    “Martha?”
    “I’m going to put you into Todd’s voice mail,” said the woman quickly. “I don’t think I better say any more.”
    “No, wait—” But she clicked off the line, and the voice mail greeting started.
    Conner listened to the voice briefly but ended the call without leaving a message.
    Martha. Maybe that was Todd’s pet name for Liz. He shook his head. Doubtful. Besides, the woman who’d answered the phone thought Todd and whoever Martha was were separated. Liz hadn’t mentioned anything about a breakup. She would have told him.
    Then again, maybe she wouldn’t.
    So there were two possibilities. Todd Bishop was the wrong man, or Liz had been lying about the engagement. If she’d been lying about the engagement, maybe she’d been lying about a lot of other things, too.
    Conner called Jackie Rivera’s office next.
    “This is Jackie Rivera.”
    “Jo, it’s Conner.”
    “Hey there,” she said, her voice coming to life when she realized who it was. “Isn’t this a surprise? Conner Ashby actually calling me back when he said he would.”
    He felt a quick twinge of guilt. He needed something from her. That was why he’d been so prompt.
    “Unless of course you’re calling because you need something.”
    “Uh . . . maybe.”
    “I hate you,” she said, laughing. “Well, I should. But I don’t.”
    In every pound of sarcasm there was at least an ounce of truth.
One of Jackie’s favorite sayings. “Jo, I need to ask you some accounting questions.”
    Jackie had been an accountant for thirteen years, and she