"You want to do what?" I interjected halfway through the explanation of their plan. I'd heard enough to get the general idea and there was no way in hell.
"In and out." Lyle reached out to me placing her hand on my own.
Dejecting her touch I jumped off the countertop and made a bee line for the cabin door. I don't know where I intended on going but the air was too thick in there for me to think. Judging by their plan they weren't able to either. "No, absolutely not."
"May I know his movements and-" She trailed after me outpacing my angry stomps to stand in front of me blocking the door.
"What about Frankie? Why can't he just computer it or whatever?" I pointed back to the bathroom where I heard an annoyed 'tsk' in reply to my oversimplification of 'computering it'.
"Frankie is able to get into the system, but only so far. I'll go in, copy the files and then be done. The whole thing will be less than twenty minutes. I promise. In and out." She smoothed her hands over my arms in an effort to calm my trembling limbs. I hadn't noticed I'd begun vibrating with anger at the thought of Lyle going back to the city.
"In his office?"
Her features were set in a calm gaze as she nodded slowly. "Yes."
Rationally I knew I couldn't keep Lyle from breaking into Monroe's office. If we wanted Frankie to continue his research she needed to copy the files. That was the only way we had any hope of pinning Monroe down, but in my heart I couldn't bear the thought of all that could go wrong. There had to be guards and security cameras and alarms and whatever else a multi-million dollar corporation employed to keep their secrets safe. Especially if their president was a paranoid murderer.
Who would be watching her back?
"I'm coming with you."
I waited for her to tell me it was too dangerous, to shake her head in absolution, to give any kind of excuse as to why it should be her and not me – I had an answer to every rebuttal -yet there was nothing. Instead she stayed still. Her freckled eyes held mine, reminding me of how she had sized me up on the train the night that I told her I would take her to Mo Soileireacht.
I wondered what she'd seen in me the first night, when we decided to act as partners. Was it the same thing that brought her back to me after I broke our partnership?
She raked her hands through her hair. "I probably can't say anything to talk you out of it, can I?"
I shook my head.
We would break into room 321 together.
After five minutes of arguing I convinced Frankie to leave his hermitage and join Lyle and I in the living room for dinner. We plotted out the details over pancakes and on Frankie's side, more Cheetos.
He pointed to his computer screen with orange dotted fingertips. In looking over Monroe's business finances he found inconsistencies. Modest scale withdrawals over a period of months that grew incrementally larger within the last year. Frankie could find no explanation for the pattern, but if Lyle and I were able to recover the last few years of finance reports starting the date Monroe took his Vice President position and compare it to the previous VP's, any inconsistencies would be enough reason to believe he was stealing money.
Looking over the numbers I did the quick math in my head and my eyes bugged out of my head. Over two million dollars. The bastard was not just a liar and a murderer but he was getting away essentially, with burglary. Impressive to some but I couldn't help to stifle the bile coming up in my throat.
"And that's just if this shit started when he got to VP. Who knows what he did before." Lyle added.
"There's definitely more," Frankie said sifting through his bag of what was now orange dust. "From what I found he moved up the ladder faster than anyone in the company- no doubt thanks to the father in law."
"And now he is at the top." I finished recalling the news interviews publicizing Monroe's takeover of the corporation.
"Not yet," Frankie replied nonchalantly as he produced the last Cheeto from the bag before proudly plopping it into his mouth. "The publicity is all hype, The father in law is still the legal president."
"What?" Lyle and I said in unison staring wide eyed at our friend.
"They haven't signed the papers. He may be acting as the president but he won't gain actual control until they both sign an official contract."
"When is that?" I almost jumped at the question.
"Best guess is next week. They're circulating a memo to media outlets and their own people that there is a big announcement coming. The gossip around town is that the father in law is sick and the turn of power is actually moving a lot quicker than usual."
"Then why has he been assuming the role to the public if he isn't really the president?"
Frankie smirked and looked from Lyle to me. "He's a fucking ego maniac."