Tarin poured herself a glass of wine and sat on the couch. As she sipped her drink, she realized it had been months since she’d last enjoyed a drink—well, except for that slight slip at the office that still made her want to bury her head in shame. Thankfully Graham hadn’t brought it up.
Chance had finally fallen asleep, and she hoped he stayed that way. He’d been quite fussy earlier, whining and clinging, signs she wouldn’t get anything done if he woke up.
“Tarin? Kim and I are going out for a couple of hours.”
“All right. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, just going over to Mom’s.”
Tarin stiffened. “Uh, she hasn’t or won’t—”
“Don’t worry. She hasn’t talked with your dad... in... uhm, a while. She’ll keep quiet. I promise. She’s on one of her usual spending sprees and I need to put some brakes on her. In her bubble, money grows on trees. Anyway, we’ll see you later.”
“Have fun.”
She had really wanted to return to the office, but she couldn’t figure out what lie to tell Bobbie this time. As they prepared to leave, Tarin had a brainstorm to use her friend’s computer. She should be able to wipe it afterward so Bobbie wouldn’t have a clue she’d used it. She didn’t want to involve her friend any more than she had to.
She waited a good ten minutes after they left before coming to her feet. After a quick check on her sleeping son, she made her way upstairs. She plugged the USB into the port and logged on. There were reams of information to sift through and since she really had no idea what she was looking for, she snooped through a lot. Most had to do with sales, business contacts, shipping logs, nothing that was overly helpful. She skimmed through nearly everything she had but there wasn’t anything that really jumped out at her. Sighing heavily, she rested her elbows on the table and placed her chin on her hands. Disappointment filled her as she stared at the screen. What had made her think she’d find anything there? As she was about to close out the files, a niggling little voice urged her to keep looking, so she opened even the deepest buried files, some of which were twenty folders deep. But there was really nothing; just drafts and old files that really should have been deleted and some information stored in a backup file and archived. Frustrated and very bored, she skimmed through about five more. Fed up but not quite ready to quit she clicked on one, not expecting anything of importance. When she saw it was a group of pictures, she was about to close it out when what she was looking at finally registered.
She blinked a few times in disbelief. She flipped through a few of the fifty or so pictures that involved the man from whom she’d stolen the information—photos she would never have guessed in a million years that he would be involved with. He appeared like someone’s middle-aged, kind-hearted uncle in contrast to what she was viewing now.
Could he be the creep behind her lost week? There was nothing familiar about him but as she skimmed through a few of the photos and the vulgarity of the acts, she knew anything was possible. He was doing some unspeakable sex acts. She clapped her hand over her mouth and had to look away for a long moment as her nervous stomach threatened to lose her supper.
They were perverted but they weren’t illegal. Realizing everything she was staring at would most likely remain in her subconscious forever, she finally closed it out. As she clicked on a few more files, she realized they were encrypted. It struck her as odd that he wouldn’t have encrypted the photos, as potentially damaging as they were. She tried a few procedures in an attempt to open the files but nothing she did worked. It would take a special program to break the encryption. She hoped they were answers, maybe even financial files that would show some payments to help her figure out who was behind, all that had and was going on with her life.
Her computer downstairs would work but she didn’t want to chance it. She had discovered that Stephen had secretly accessed the GPS for her car, which was still in Calgary so it didn’t matter but the one on her phone did bother her. Both had been disabled but she wasn’t taking a chance—she knew with him being the control freak he was, he could very well have installed something that she hadn’t found on her computer.
The only other place that would have the software that she needed was at work. She dropped her head into her hands. What am I thinking?
Deciding she had a good opportunity to see if anyone had responded, she logged onto her website. There were several requests to join, some sharing some basic information and appreciation for her website but there wasn’t any in response to her emails. Sighing heavily, she was about to close out when an email came in.
‘I’ll meet with you but don’t expect me to spill my guts. I want to know who you are. And more about your story. Maybe then I’ll tell...’
The email went on to suggest a little restaurant where they could meet on Friday morning. Excitement coursed through Tarin like an electric charge. She hit reply and agreed to the time and date. She had no idea how she was going to get out of work but she’d think of something.
As she was logging off, she remembered that she’d intended to get a new birth certificate. She accessed the government agency website and read what information was needed—information she didn’t have, at least not yet.
She heard Chance whimpering and hurriedly closed out everything, quickly erasing her tracks from Bobbie’s computer while praying that she hadn’t made a big mistake.
She went downstairs to check on her son. He was sitting up crying, his little cheeks bright red. His arms thrust into the air at her. He was her reason for everything she was doing. She crawled into bed beside him and snuggled with him. Several lullabies later, he finally fell back asleep while she lay wide-awake for hours, trying to figure out how to use her computer at work without getting caught again.