Acts of Desperation(64)
“French?” I said, confused.
“He messed up.” He grinned. “It was his only mistake. So I thought if there are no banks housing large sums of money for him in the states, and Sarah said huge chunks of money went missing after she filed for divorce then the only thing that could make sense was an off-shore account.”
“Holy shi—” I covered my mouth.
He smiled and raised his brows. “The two most well-known places are the Caymans—which would make no sense since he was flying to New York—and Switzerland. And what languages do they speak in Switzerland.”
I paused for a beat. “French I assume?”
“Well French and German mostly,” he said.
“Oh my gosh, Anders’s mom was Dutch so he knew some Danish and German—enough to get by I imagine—and Sarah mentioned a long time ago that he was learning to speak French because of one of his new clients,” I said, taking a moment to digest it all. “So what did you do? Start calling every hotel and bank in Switzerland? The Swiss are known for their secrecy. There’s no way they would just give information out about their patrons travel over the phone.”
“I have a few tricks up my sleeve...and a couple of friends in convenient places. I worked closely with a couple of my buddies, actually the same ones I met up with at the bar the first night I saw you. They are my go-to computer geniuses. I mentioned this situation to them and the off-shore account I was trying to find. They said the simplest way to find it was to hack in to Anders’s email. And, sadly, that was a lot easier than it sounds.”
“Well aren’t you kind of amazing.”
“They don’t call me the best for nothing baby.” He laughed, and yes, I rolled my eyes. “We found the bank and the first account after only about a day. And voila, the first chunk.”
I laughed and nodded as he went through the rest of his discovery. Anders had woven an intricate web of lies, and Jax had figured it out. We continued to work closely together over the next few days and were able to find another account with more hidden money without much effort. When all was said and done, we located over a million dollars, and there was the possibility of more still lurking in the shadows. It was more money than Sarah would have ever imagined—it was more than I could have ever imagined. All of it proved how deceitful Anders really was. I pictured him laughing on the inside believing he’d fooled Sarah—again—but now the joke was on him.
****
When I got the call from Sarah that Anders’s body was failing, I dropped what I was doing to be with her. I arrived just as the kids were leaving the Hospice facility with my parents. I watched from my car as my parents loaded two very upset little boys into the back seat of their white Toyota Camry. My dad got behind the wheel, and they drove away.
I walked through the glass doors and down the hall to Anders’s room. A nurse was pushing a dose of something into Anders’s I.V., and Sarah was seated at his side holding his hand.
“How’s he doing?” I said, pulling my chair up next to hers.
“He’s in a lot of pain. He can hardly speak anymore. She just gave him some more pain medicine to make him more comfortable,” she said, looking at me for a split second then right back to him.
I watched as he drew in shallow breaths, and although I felt awful for Sarah, I felt no sympathy for him—I couldn’t. I wondered if this was God’s way of making him suffer for his sins. The way he’d manipulated my sister’s mind and took advantage of her innocence was reprehensible. He deserved every bit of the agony he appeared to be in.
The nurse leaned down and spoke softly to Sarah. Sarah nodded her head as the nurse patted her shoulder then she left us. After the door shut, I looked down at his frail, yellowed hand under my sister’s healthy pink skin, then up to his closed eyes. My pulse began to race as I debated with myself. Could I let him die thinking he pulled it off? I came to my decision within seconds. I couldn’t. I couldn’t remain silent and watch my sister suffer senselessly.
“I need to tell you something, Sarah.” She looked up at me curiously. “I can’t just sit here and watch cancer eat away at this shell of a human being and his decaying soul—”
“Sember!” Sarah said.
“Please, hear me out.” Sarah grimaced, but I continued. “He lied to you Sarah. Jax and I found what he’s been hiding.”
“What?” she said with a sigh. “You have to let it go and now isn’t the time to do this.”
“He’s not broke and the divorce was a scheme to leave you with nothing.”
Anders’s heavy lids blinked open, and he opened his mouth to speak, but only a weak groan escaped. “Shh…,” I said, holding my finger up to my lips. “It’s my turn to talk now. I think you’ve said enough, don’t you?” I looked at Sarah. “Jax thought something was off weeks ago, and he went digging through all of his files. We found it.”
“What are you talking about?” Sarah asked then she looked at Anders. “What is she talking about?” But Anders only closed his eyes and turned his head away.
“It’s pointless. He’s incapable of telling the truth. We found his money—just over a million so far, but there could be more.”
Sarah took her hand off his as if his poisoned flesh suddenly burned her skin. She slumped back in her seat and let the information slowly sink in. “But…why would you do this to me? Are you really that evil?” she asked, staring at Anders. “Look at me!” But he remained motionless and silent. “LOOK AT ME!” Her skin flushed with rage.