As soon as Hugo, Alexia, and Carina were out of the house, Holly slumped against the wall and sank to the floor. A strangled sob escaped her. She had no idea what she was going to do. Victoria was gone, and Holly felt entirely to blame.
Why hadn’t she listened to Victoria? They could have stayed together and hired extra security, but no, Holly had to play detective and try to figure it out for herself. She was only now discovering just how far out of her depth she was.
Her phone rang. “Hello?” she answered, desperation obvious in her tone.
“Carter? You all right?”
“Jazz? No. No, not really.” Holly rubbed at her face and tried to refocus her attention.
“What’s going on?” they asked.
“Victoria’s gone missing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, no one knows where she is. It’s only been a couple of hours, but this just doesn’t happen with Victoria. She never disappears like this. It’s almost impossible with the amount of staff she has surrounding her.”
“I’m coming over,” Jazz said. They already sounded like they were on the move.
“I’m at the townhouse,” Holly said.
“I know.” Jazz read off the address. “I pinged your phone.”
Holly’s eyes widened as an idea came to her. “Can you ping Victoria’s phone?” She gripped her mobile like it was a lifeline.
“Doing it now,” Jazz replied.
Holly could hear the sound of typing and then a sigh.
“It’s switched off,” Jazz said. “The last known location is Arrival. That’s kind of why I was calling you. It’ll be easier for me to show you in person. I’ll be there soon.”
Jazz hung up, and Holly let out a frustrated sigh. She didn’t have time for Jazz to arrive and show her something; she needed to take action now.
If she had any idea what kind of action that should be, she’d be doing it.
“I’m useless,” she said out loud. “Completely useless.”
She walked over to another table in the hallway and snatched up a picture frame. It was a black and white image of Victoria and Holly in Central Park. Alexia had taken the photo on her phone while they weren’t looking. It was one of Holly’s favourite images. Holly was looking up at the sky, and Victoria was looking at her as if no one was watching. They both looked happy.
Holly knew that her relationship with Victoria was a blessing, she knew she was deliriously happy and luckier than most, but it was only now that it was at risk that she realised how important Victoria was to her. She didn’t know if she could go on without Victoria in her life.
She heard scratching on the floor and turned to see Izzy walk into the hallway.
“Aw, I forgot about you,” Holly said. She crouched down and held out her hands for Izzy to come to her. When the big Newfoundland got to her, she wrapped her in a hug. “We’ll get her back, girl. I promise.”
Holly sat on the floor, one arm draped around Izzy, and started making phone calls. She tried Victoria again, as well as a couple of departments in the building, just in case. Building security at Arrival refused to speak to her, and Holly didn’t want to raise the alarm just yet. She knew this kind of thing would hit the press very quickly if she wasn’t careful.
She didn’t know how much time had passed when there was a knock on the front door. Holly looked up. Izzy looked up. Then, they looked at each other apprehensively.
“Come on, Izzy,” Holly said as she stood.
They both approached the door, and Holly tentatively opened it.
Jazz stood on the doorstep, eating an apple. “Hey, Carter. Nice dog.” They barged their way in. “No news?”
“No. Nothing.” Holly closed the door again.
“I did some digging,” Jazz said. They looked around the hallway. “Wow, this place is huge. Where can I set up?”
Holly pointed towards the kitchen. They both walked in, Jazz making a beeline for the table and taking various laptops and cables out of their bag.
“Drink?” Holly asked. She felt wired but knew she needed something in her stomach if she was going to be any good to anyone that evening.
“Sure, coffee’s good,” Jazz said.
Holly started setting up the coffee machine, looking at Jazz to indicate she was listening to whatever they had to say.
“I did some digging,” Jazz repeated, “and I caught something. Tiny little thing, but it got me thinking. Anyway, it led to other little things and before I knew it, I’d come across something really big.”
Holly hadn’t seen Jazz so excited about something before. Whatever they had managed to uncover was obviously very big news. Holly just hoped it didn’t implicate Victoria in any further crimes. She couldn’t stomach the idea of Jazz finding apparent concrete evidence that Victoria was in fact a distant relation of Bonnie and Clyde.
“Victoria didn’t set up the account,” Jazz announced.
Holly let out a sigh of relief. It was the first good news she’d heard in a while.
“It’s a really sophisticated plot,” Jazz continued, “but there’s a big issue.”
Holly leaned on the countertop. “I don’t know if I can cope with any more big issues today, Jazz.”
“The money is gone.” Jazz sat down and opened the lid of a laptop. “This evening, it all vanished. And I can’t track it.”
“How much are we talking about here?” Holly asked.
“Nineteen million dollars, give or take.”
Holly blinked a couple of times. “How much?”
“This account has been siphoning money for years. Big amounts, small amounts, for years. It adds up.” Jazz typed something on the keyboard. “If I still thought that Victoria had opened the account and found out now that she’s gone missing, I’d think she was on the run.”
Holly groaned and flopped onto the countertop.
“Exactly,” Jazz agreed. “Whoever is doing this is very clever. Diabolical, but clever.”
Holly stood up, walked over to the table, and flopped into a chair. “Let me get this straight. There’s been an account set up at Arrival for years, and it looks like Victoria set it up. Money has been transferred into it for years. This evening it all vanished, at the same time Victoria vanished.”
“You got it.”
“But you know Victoria didn’t set up the account?” Holly asked hopefully.
“Well, I can tell that it wasn’t her. Unless she’s a computer genius and she’s playing us all,” Jazz said.
Holly thought back to the evening when she taught Victoria how send a direct message on Twitter. No one could accuse her of being a computer genius. She was barely proficient.
“So, you don’t have any evidence, you just know it’s too sophisticated for her?” she guessed.
“Exactly. It wouldn’t stand up in court, but I can safely guess that she didn’t do this. But whoever did…”
Holly felt a shiver run up her spine at the thought of the person who was carrying out such an enormous scam. Nineteen million dollars was a lot of money. Money worth killing for.
“She might be dead,” she whispered. Suddenly she was struggling to breathe. The thought that Victoria had been killed so that some faceless criminal could have their money was more than she could stand.
Jazz stood up and put their arms around her. “Hey, Carter. It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure this out. We just need to follow the trail. Everyone leaves a trail. You’re a journalist, you know that.”
Holly took a few deep breaths and tried to get herself together. Jazz was right. She needed to compose herself or she’d be no good to anyone. She nodded to indicate she was okay and sat up a little taller. She wiped the tears away from her cheeks.
“We need to know when she left Arrival, and what she was doing before she left. There might be a clue,” Holly said. “We have to go to the office.”
Jazz sat down and shook their head. “No, we have everything we need here.” They cracked their knuckles before dancing their fingertips over the keyboard.
Holly dragged her chair around so she could see the screen. Lines and lines of code appeared and disappeared with blistering speed. Suddenly, the screen flashed, and then a desktop with the Arrival background appeared on the screen.
“Is that…” Holly trailed off.
“Victoria’s computer. We can see what she was doing, emails, everything,” Jazz explained.
More lines of code came up, and emails started to pop open.
“All work crap,” Jazz commented, boredom clear in their tone.
Documents and images opened and closed, and Holly struggled to keep up with everything she was seeing. It was a glimpse into Victoria’s day but at high speed.
“There’s nothing here,” Jazz complained.
“Wait.” Holly pointed at the screen. “Go back. There were pictures of Paris when I was there. Why was she looking at them?”
“Reminiscing?” Jazz guessed.
“Not her style. Not at work.” Holly leaned in closer. “There’s something here. I can feel it.”
Jazz pressed some more buttons and let the timeline run at normal speed. Holly watched as the cursor ambled around the screen, clicking images and folders. She didn’t know why, but she knew there was something there. It wasn’t Victoria’s normal work; it seemed out of place.
“You look hot with long hair,” Jazz commented.
“Thanks,” Holly said.
“You’re okay now,” Jazz added quickly. “Not that I’m coming onto you.”
“Yeah. I get it, thanks, Jazz.” Holly narrowed her eyes at the screen. “There. She’s looking at that image far longer than the others. Can we zoom in?”
Jazz typed something, and the image filled the screen.
“It’s her and some guy.”
“That’s Gideon,” Holly said.
“There’s you in the background. You look pissed.” Jazz pointed at the corner of the image.
Holly furrowed her brow. “I don’t remember this at all.”
“Well, you look like you want to murder someone.”
“I do,” Holly agreed.
“Who’s the guy?” They indicated a figure just within the frame.
Holly cocked her head to the side. “I… don’t remember. He seems familiar, but I’m not sure.”
The image flashed, and the desktop vanished.
“That was the last thing she looked at before she turned the computer off.” Jazz turned to look at Holly. “Seems weird, right?”
“Very,” Holly agreed.
She knew she’d seen the man before, but she couldn’t quite place him. She bit her lip and tried to remember where she’d seen him. Nothing was coming to her, and she knew stress was playing a big part in that.
She cursed her broken memory and willed herself to relax, hoping that injecting some calm energy into the moment would help her capture the fleeting recognition and put a name to the furious face. She closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath.
It was then that the doorbell sounded.
They both turned around and looked towards the hallway.
“Expecting company?” Jazz asked.