Acts of Desperation(61)
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I tried the knob, but the door was locked, because yes, I was going to let myself in. I banged on the door and rang the bell until I heard his footsteps.
“Jesus!” he said, throwing the door open. “What the hell—”
I pushed past him and turned around as he was shutting the door. I paid little attention to the fact that he’d recently gotten out of a shower. I assumed his ride home wasn’t air conditioned enough and that he sweated through his suit. Served him right. “No, it’s me Sember, but you might be meeting him by the time I’m through with you,” I said with my hands firmly planted on my hips.
“I take it you heard,” he said, running his hands alongside his head to tame his towel dried hair.
“Yes, I freaking heard. Are you out of your mind? We need to go down to the courthouse and stop the papers. Now!”
“Sem—”
“I can’t believe you went for this and didn’t try to talk her out of it. You said you’d take care of everything! You’re supposed to be the best.”
“I am the best, and if you’d stop talking for two seconds I can explain,” he said.
“Grab your shoes and you can explain in the car,” I said, walking back up to the door. I stared at him and waited for him to move. He had on one of my favorite pair of his low hanging, gray drawstring pants that clung perfectly to his hips and a white t-shirt. And God, he smelled good. “Come on.”
“No.”
“Don’t ‘no’ me. Yes. Grab them and let’s go! This is some stupid scheme that Anders has cooked up. You know damn well he has money hidden somewhere.”
“I know. Seven hundred and fifty thousand that I’ve found so far.”
I took my hand off the door. “What?” I said, gaping at him
“Come in and I’ll explain.”
“You found it? But…” He grabbed my hand, and I walked through his freshly showered downdraft as he led me to the kitchen. I sat down at the island and he walked around and stood across from me at the sink.
“I knew he was full of shit when Sarah asked me to draw up new papers. I pulled her aside and told her it was a bad idea, but she wouldn’t listen. I’m not sure what Anders has been saying to her, but he’s got her completely convinced that he has nothing and that what he’s doing is for her benefit.” He laughed. “It’s pretty ridiculous.”
“I know. But I don’t understand.” I crossed my hands in my lap, trying to make sense of what he was telling me.
“I haven’t found all of it—yet. I’ve only just found some, but I know there’s more. I started looking the day after he collapsed in the office. I’ve devoted every waking hour of my life since then to finding it. I’ve gone through every line of his records: business, travel, personal and then some. I was getting close then they approached me with this divorce idea. The way Anders asked for the papers to be written, it sounded like he knew eventually the money would be found, but this way when he does die, all the money would go into a trust for the kids. They wouldn’t get anything until they turn eighteen, so Sarah would have a tough time raising the kids on what she’d be making. That sick bastard really wants her to have nothing.”
“I know. I don’t understand it. It’s like a personal vendetta he’s carrying out,” I said.
“Exactly. And given Sarah’s state of mind at the moment, I was afraid if I said anything to her about it she’d tell Anders, and he’d have a chance to move the money or something worse. Hell, one phone call and he could give it all to a Nigerian prince, and then there really would be nothing.”
“Ok, then why did you go in there with a judge and have them sign papers if you found it? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Well…I didn’t.”
“I saw you, and Sarah told me what happened. She said they signed the papers—they’re divorced and the documents are being filed right now.” I was still waiting for that one piece of the puzzle to fit everything together. None of this made sense.
“It was faked Sember—I staged it. They signed legitimate legal papers but there was no judge in that room.”
“What? Well someone was in there. If it wasn’t a judge then who was it?” I asked.
“Fritz,” he said with a smirk. “And the papers have already been lost. It’s a pity how careless people are within the legal system these days.”
“Fritz?”
“I had him pretend to be the judge. We rehearsed, and he went in and gave an award winning performance. Anders and Sarah signed papers, and as far as they think, they’re divorced. Sarah thinks she did the right thing and Anders thinks he won. In the meantime, I’m going to keep looking until I find it all. I’ll tell her everything after he dies.”
“Jax, you could get disbarred for this.”
“I could, but I’m trusting the people that know the truth to not say anything. I did it for the right reasons.”
“Why?” I shook my head. “Why would you do that?”
He looked down to his hands folded on the island. “I want to see your sister get what’s rightfully hers, but mostly…” He looked up at me. “I did it for you.”