The Mystery of the Lakeshore Ltd - An Eleanor and Lydia Mystery

Chapter Eight

"Hmm," said Eleanor. "Riley discovered that his father was in financial trouble."

"Not just a little, either. Once Riley started digging, the hole just got deeper and deeper. He followed the trail to the end, and it looked like the old man had made some seriously poor choices, but he never owned up to any of them. When business turned bad, he took out a bunch of loans to keep up appearances. The wife got a new Bentley for Christmas last year, for cripe's sake, and keeping Riley in school and out of jail meant keeping a river of cash flowing to our city's finer institutions."

"After a while, loans catch up with a man," Eleanor pointed out.

"Yeah, but when banks get fidgety, there are other places to get money."

Lowell scoffed. "The kind of places that collect interest in the form of broken kneecaps."

Chet agreed, and they all contemplated that in silence for a few seconds. "Then these Granger people came along. They had the right names, the right connections, and to all appearances, the right technology. It was looking like they were going to do what Apple did in 2009."

"I can't help but notice you're pretty familiar with finances in a way most young people are not," Eleanor pointed out.

"My goal in life was to be the guy in charge of the Cruise family fortune. Yeah, I know about these things."

"Did you help your friend piece together the clues he found?"

"Yeah, and what we found was that Granger was the old man's last shot at making it all right again."

Lydia's eyes narrowed. "Until you found out about Larisa."

If Eleanor had ever seen a young man so visible wilted, she couldn't remember it.

"It was crazy, man. Riley had a party and everyone was drinking and this guy, Eddie, was with Larisa. She was so freaking hot and totally out of his league. I mean, that girl is the real deal, but rumor is she's kind of easy, too, so... I mean..." He shrugged.

Eleanor reached over and put a firm but gentle hand on Lydia's shoulder out of fear the girl would crawl across the table and scratch their key witness's eyes out.

"Next time we saw him, Riley made a comment, and Eddie goes off about how smart she is and what she's working on. He said he was bummed out, said she was the kind you do take home to mom, you know, but she was moving to DC and then he starts talking about what she's going to do there and--"

"And so the freaking golden boy decided to have her killed." Lydia burst out of her chair and started pacing.

"No." Chet drew himself up. "I already told you. Nobody killed anybody, as far as I ever knew. Riley made a plan to follow her and steal her research."

Lydia froze in place. "You just said you knew how smart she is. If she came up with the plans once, she could do it again."

"Sure, but it would take time."

It was as if Eleanor had been looking through a blurry lens that had just clicked into focus. "And by then, Granger would have all of it patented and the family fortune would be saved."

Chet nodded. "But it didn't go down like we thought. I followed her onto the train, and when she got up to go to the dining car or the bathroom or something I grabbed the papers."

"Why the blood on the seat?" Lydia asked.

He snorted. "That was proof that God mocks me. Just when I got the papers from her bag, I got a freaking nosebleed. It was a bad one. I covered my face and high-tailed it out of there before everyone noticed the stranger bleeding all over the single girl's stuff, you know?"

"So where's Larisa?" Lydia asked.

"What am I? A freaking detective?" Chet shot back. "Look, you gotta believe me about the girl. I mean, I was the one who basically set it up for you guys to get away, right? Riley's freaking out bad. I'm not saying he's killed anybody, because he hasn't as far as I know, but I'm not saying he isn't capable, either. He wanted me to kidnap you and stop you from digging any further. He thought maybe we'd be able to find a way to use you for bait or... something. I don't know. It was all going sideways by then."

"You could have said no," Lydia said.

"If you think that's true, you haven't been listening. I had to do it, but how could I help it if you escaped, right?" A shiver zipped through his shoulders. "I might not be pure as snow, but I'm not going to go around hurting old ladies for cash, either."

"A relief," Eleanor said. "Tell me, Chet, you say you have no idea where Ms. Johnson has disappeared to, but what about her work? Do you know where her notes are?"

"Yeah, sure. They're in Rodney's office."

Lydia gripped the back of her chair with both hands. "You implied Rodney didn't have anything to do with all this."

"The old man doesn't have any idea what we did or how we did it, but when we handed him the golden goose, he didn't ask too many questions. He set up some kind of a meeting to pass the papers on, but the other guy got sick and postponed until next week. As far as I know, the old man's got everything locked up in his office."

Eleanor met Lydia's eyes. "I don't know how to find your friend, yet, my dear, but I suggest a bit of cat burglary might keep her work safe until we can figure out the rest."

Dropping back into her chair, Lydia shook her head. "It's too dangerous."

The poor, sweet, innocent child had no idea what real danger looked like. "It's not dangerous for two old folks. As our new friend has pointed out, people are reluctant to harm frail elderly people, and if we get caught, there's not a judge in the state who will send a ninety-year-old widow to prison." She looked at Lowell. "What do you say, Mr. Lopez? Ready to become an accessory to a felony?"

He laughed, wheezed, coughed. "Sounds more exciting than pruning the roses for the third time this month."

Eleanor pinned Riley with a stare. "You are to stay here. Talk to no one. Do nothing, do you hear me? We have more control over what happens to you from here forward than you can possibly imagine."

He melted back down again. "Yes, ma'am."

A spark of excitement flitted through Eleanor's heart. Maybe Larisa Johnson was alive after all, and maybe they could even save her research. The game was afoot.