Colby Rebuilt. Debra Webb
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did now. This was his future. This was who he was.
“Shane,” Victoria said as he strode across her office, “thank you for joining us.”
As the boss made the formal introductions, he shifted his attention to the woman seated in front of Victoria’s desk.
“This is Mary Jane Brooks.” Victoria gestured to her guest. “Ms. Brooks, this is Shane Allen, the investigator I was telling you about.”
Medium height, too thin. Mary Jane Brooks looked to be mid- to late-twenties with long red hair that spilled down her shoulders in sassy curls. Her pale, pale skin offered a stark contrast to her vibrant blue eyes.
“Mr. Allen.” Mary Jane thrust out her hand as he approached the chair next to hers.
“Ms. Brooks.” He closed his hand around hers, didn’t miss her tremble as their palms made contact. That she drew her hand away quickly signaled that he, or men in general, made her nervous. He felt certain he wasn’t what she had expected.
“Ms. Brooks has come to us regarding her sister’s death,” Victoria said as Shane took his seat. “Her sister’s remains were among the ones found in the rubble after the explosion at our former building.”
Now there was some interesting and unexpected news. From the corner of his eyes, Shane considered the woman next to him. He’d noticed the detective from Chicago PD in the lobby earlier today, but hadn’t heard any news regarding the visit. If Ms. Brooks had been made aware of the news around the same time Victoria had been, she had certainly wasted no time in looking into the matter.
“Really?” He allowed the word to reflect his surprise. “Was she a client?” he asked Victoria.
“There’s reason to believe she may have attempted to contact this agency,” Victoria explained, “but we have no record indicating she ever followed through. I’ve spoken with the entire staff employed at the time, and no one remembers the name or the face.” To Mary Jane Brooks she added, “Detective Bailen of Chicago PD’s homicide division was here earlier today, and he provided photo ID for that purpose.”
“Rebecca was going into Witness Security,” Ms. Brooks put in, her tone stilted. “She was supposed to testify against her former boss, but she disappeared right before the trial was set to begin.”
Interesting. Shane still had contacts in his former career. He would see what he could find out about the case. “Can you give us a few more details about your sister’s employer?”
“She was the administrative assistant to the CEO of Horizon Software.” Ms. Brooks cleared her throat. “She discovered he had been selling the same software his company designed for the Pentagon to one of the country’s enemies. She reported him to the FBI in late October of last year. The day before Christmas Eve she disappeared. I never heard from her again.”
Shane recalled hearing something about Horizon Software and suspected charges of treason. The whole ordeal had been kept hush-hush until the key witness had disappeared and the case eventually had to be dropped. By then, he had already been employed by the Colby Agency and had only gotten the scoop provided to the media.
“I don’t know any specifics about the case,” he said to Ms. Brooks before turning his attention to Victoria. “But I can try and reach out to some of my former colleagues. Depending on whether there is any hope of reopening the investigation, I may or may not be able to negotiate any useful information.”
To Shane, Victoria showed her approval of his proposed strategy with a nod, while to the woman seated next to him she said, “Detective Bailen offered a possible connection between Rebecca and our agency. Evidently the cell phone of one of her close personal associates had been used to call our agency a couple of times. His name was Jason Mackey. Mackey was scheduled to perform at our annual Christmas party last year. But then he was one of three men who lost their lives to the perpetrators involved in the bombing of the building. Does his name sound familiar to you?”
“Jason Mackey was Rebecca’s boyfriend,” Ms. Brooks said without hesitation. “They’d been seeing each other for a couple of months when she went missing.”
“So they became an item,” Shane suggested, “after she turned Horizon Software in to the federal government for possible treason?”
Ms. Brooks shook her head. “Right before. I’d guess they had been dating maybe a couple of weeks when Rebecca decided to go forward with her plan.”
Shane recognized the potential for a possible set up, but things weren’t always what they seemed. It was possible that Mackey had nothing to do with what had happened to Rebecca, but that was definitely the first place, right after Rebecca herself and her former employer, that Shane would start looking if assigned to the case. That it appeared to Mary Jane that the couple had started seeing each other prior to Rebecca’s decision to thwart her boss might only be because Mary Jane hadn’t known her sister’s intent until well after the decision had been reached. “Was the relationship serious?”
“I think so,” Ms. Brooks said hesitantly. “Rebecca was stressed about the trial. She didn’t talk to me very much those last few weeks.” She clasped her hands in her lap. “And I was a little busy, so I didn’t push it.”
If she planned to leave that statement hanging she should think again. “Busy in what way?”
Mary Jane Brooks looked from Shane to Victoria and back. “Our parents were ill. I was their full-time caregiver.”
Was. “Who takes care of them now?” Shane needed specifics. Anything that related to Mary Jane’s life might have impacted her sister’s.
“They passed away.”
The undeniable shine of emotions in her eyes made him wish he hadn’t needed to ask the question.
“I’m very sorry for your loss,” he offered. That was a real shame. The woman had lost both her parents and now her sister. Talk about a triple whammy.
“What kind of relationship did you and your sister maintain?” Victoria asked. “Specifically, those final months before her disappearance. You indicated that you didn’t talk very often.”
Shane was glad Victoria had asked the question. He didn’t want to sound insensitive, and, coupled with the question he’d just asked, that one likely would have come across as unfeeling or accusatory.
“We were close on some levels,” Ms. Brooks said. More of that hesitation. “Not so much on others.”
“Can you elaborate?” Shane prompted. This was territory the lady clearly didn’t want to go into, which told him in no uncertain terms that all was not as it should have been between the sisters.
“Rebecca loved our parents a great deal, but she didn’t have the patience for taking care of their needs. Her financial resources allowed me to take an extended leave of absence from work and do what needed to be done. That arrangement put a bit of a strain on our relationship,” she confessed. “But we got past it, and I believe we were as close as most sisters. Still—” she shrugged “—I recognized that there was an aspect of her life that Rebecca never allowed me into.”
“Did you perceive that the things she kept from you were work related?”
Ms. Brooks considered Victoria’s question for a moment. “That, and, during those final weeks, her social life. We’d always discussed boyfriends and such in the past but with Jason that changed.”
More of those telltale signs of a possible setup: estrange the victim from those closest to her. “So, you didn’t know Jason Mackey at all?” Shane suggested.
Mary Jane shook her head. “I only met him once. But I knew that Rebecca was a little afraid of him.”
“Did your sister say she was afraid of him?” Shane pushed. “Or is that your perception of how she felt about him?”
“A couple weeks before she disappeared,”