Charade (Swept Away, #1.5)(17)

“That sounds great. Love you.”

“Love you too,” I said quickly and then hung up. I jumped off my bed and walked into my living room to stare at the papers on my coffee table. I’d been trying to piece together the information in them before Rosie had called.

Notes

Some point in the past—Dad, Jeremiah Bradley, and Arnold Maxwell form Bradley, London & Maxwell. They were all school friends?

From what I can tell—Jeremiah had the financial backing, Dad had the inventions, and Arnold had the charisma (still need to find out more about Arnold).

Creations and Patents—Dad created the self-painter, the mosquito zapper, the battery operated fridge, and 75 other products that are now sold all over the world.

Dissolution of company—Dad had a contract drafted to dissolve the company and take his patents with him.

Mother’s death—Car accident occurred one week after Dad had paperwork drawn up.

Bradley Inc.—Formed one year after Mother’s death.

Other facts I know—Dad was an employee of Bradley Inc., he never mentioned ever being more than that to me, he never had much money, he never talked about Bradley or Maxwell. However, there are a few old photographs of my parents with me as a child and some other couples. Why did my dad stay at Bradley Inc. if Jeremiah had stolen his patents? And why stay if he thought Jeremiah had something to do with my mother’s death?

My deduction—Jeremiah Bradley had my mother killed because he wanted to stop my father from taking his patents from the company and essentially all of the money. Only it doesn’t make perfect sense. Once again I am left with the question as to why my father had stayed at Bradley Inc. if Jeremiah had done something shady.

Proof—None

Proof Needed—paperwork showing the financial makeup of the company, how Bradley Inc. was formed, what happened to Arnold Maxwell, my father’s role in Bradley Inc. Who owns the patents?

I read through my list a couple of times and sighed. I was no closer to getting any of the information that I needed. And my deductions were based on intuition rather than any real facts. I grabbed my father’s letter again and reread it for the thousandth time. Why, oh, why couldn’t he have provided me with more in-depth information as to what he thought had happened? It would have made this so much easier. If I at least knew I was on the right track, I’d have a better idea of what to look for.

I picked up my phone and called David to ask him to dinner on Wednesday. I was glad that Rosie had suggested a group dinner. This way it wasn’t just me bringing up his brother again. Every time I thought I was going to get to meet Mattias, something came up. It was as if fate didn’t want us to meet.

“Hello.” David’s voice was bored as he answered the phone. It was a far cry from his eager tone when we had first met.

“Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to come to dinner with Rosie and me on Wednesday? I was thinking maybe we could make it a foursome and you could invite your brother as well.”

“Oh, that sounds cool. I’d love to meet Rosie. I’ll ask Mattias, but who knows what he’ll say, he’s always busy. I’m pretty sure he’s going through a merger right now.”

“Oh, really? Who is he merging with?”

“Shouldn’t you know that already? As a shareholder?” His tone was clipped and I bit my lower lip. He was right, I should know that as a fake shareholder. I’d been slipping in my role and I knew that if I was an actress, there was no way I’d be in contention for an Oscar. I just had not committed to the role well enough.

“I must have missed the email they sent.”

“I see.” He paused. “By the way, I got the ‘Just to say hello’ card you sent me. That was really sweet of you.”

“I’m glad you liked it. I wanted you to know I was thinking of you.”

“Yeah. It was thoughtful. A bit girly, but thoughtful.”

“Hey, David,” I said slowly and took a deep breath, “I’m doing this research project on businesses in New York City and I was wondering if it was possible for me to go through the archives at Bradley Inc., as I’d love to include them in my paper.”

“Archives?”

“Yeah, old paperwork? I’m sure there has to be a room with that information, right? A place where all the older documents are archived? Maybe I could even speak to Mattias and see what he knows about the founding of the company. I’m sure your father must have spoken a lot about the early days.”

“He sure didn’t say much to me.” David’s tone was bitter. “All I know is that Dad inherited some money from his uncle and used it to start his company.”

“He must have been very smart to have turned it into a multi-billion dollar business.”

“Honestly, I don’t think Dad did that well in school.” David spoke candidly. “I remember my mother always saying that he was lucky to know the right people, people with brains, or something like that.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I don’t really remember. My parents didn’t get on that well. It wasn’t really a love match, more a marriage for status.”

“Status?”

“My dad had some money and my mom had the blue blood. She could trace her ancestry back to the Mayflower.”

“Wow, impressive.”