Betrayal (28 page)
Authors: Fern Michaels
Debbie had received a letter from the bank. Her home was going into foreclosure. Someone was screwing with her. She was going to find out who, and when she did, she would make that person wish they'd never laid eyes on her.
Kate knew that, in good conscience, the only thing for her to do was confess what she'd done. She called Coleman and asked him to come to her apartment. It would be easiest to explain things if he was there.
Coleman arrived ten minutes early.
“So this is where you've been hiding.”
“I guess you could say that. I think it will be easier for you to understand what I'm about to say if I can show you a few things. Follow me.”
Kate took him to the small room she'd converted into an office. “Sit down.” She directed him to a kitchen chair she'd brought in earlier. She sat next to him in her desk chair.
“I told you I wanted to ruin the Winter family.”
“That's only natural after what they put you through. I've heard my share of stories from people, Kate.”
She typed her password in and logged on to the Internet. She took the disc from her minisafe and inserted it into the computer. A few strokes later, she brought up the information she wanted Coleman to view.
“Knowing I couldn't do physical harm to either of the two, I thought about Debbie. Money has always been her top priority. Even over the girls. She came from a poor family. She spent most of her high school years working in a deli her mother owned. I guess because she was subjected toâI wouldn't call it poverty by any means, but the blue-collar life of her mother, I think she longed for wealth and the status she assumed it would bring. I'm speculating here, so bear with me. After I came to my senses, I decided the best way to hurt the Winters was financially.”
She whirled around in her chair, allowing room for Coleman to get a bit closer to her monitor. “This is what I've been learning the past five years.”
Kate allowed him to read the financial reports on the screen. “After working with the IRS for all that time and taking all the courses I could, I can get into just about any system. Banks, schools, credit card companies. Pretty much anything.”
She waited for Coleman to comment. Nothing. She went on with her story.
“I hacked into Debbie's bank and emptied both of her accounts. She's now forty-three thousand dollars overdrawn. The bank obviously believes she took the money herself. It was an Internet transaction. I'm sure the bank manager thinks Debbie was lying when she told him she hadn't a clue what was happening to her money. Said she was going to sue the bank.”
“How did you know this?”
“I knew about when Debbie would learn of her accounts being overdrawn. The Sun Bank calls their clients first thing if the account is in the red. Debbie's been a good customer, so they called her, I'm sure. Knowing how they work, I was at the bank opening a new account when she came storming in. She was furious. I guess you could say I laughed all the way
from
the bank.”
from
the bank.”
Kate watched Coleman, gauging his reaction.
“I'm listening, Kate. Go on.”
“I hacked into the credit card companies' databases. Deb had several cards, all with balances, but nothing terribly high. I maxed out all the cards and put a hold on all the accounts. I learned she had three mortgages on her house. I tampered with the mortgage companies' figures, and now the Winter home is in foreclosure.”
Coleman grinned. “I hope to hell I never piss you off.”
“So, tell me what a horrible monster I am.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I'm not going to say what you're doing is right, but I will say I can understand why you're doing it. Revenge is sweet, especially when you can choose the method by which it's delivered. I wouldn't want you to get caught, Kate. Some of these acts are federal. Bank tampering, for instance. I suppose you were aware of this from the beginning?”
“I was. And I didn't care if I got caught. That was what enabled me to continue with my plan. I didn't have a life without Alex. It didn't matter if I spent the remainder of my life a free woman on the outside or inside a jail cell.”
“And what's changed about that now?” Coleman asked.
“I want to live again. I don't want to spend the rest of my life behind bars. Alex wouldn't have wanted to see me end up this way.”
“No, he wouldn't. I assume you're going to tell me that you have something else in mind?”
“Sort of. I haven't worked out all the details. It's my hope that when all is said and done, Alex's death will be avenged and the Winter family will suffer, but in another way. That's the part I haven't quite worked out yet. So that's why you couldn't find me the past five years. I didn't need any distractions in my life. If I was to ruin the Winters, I had to concentrate on that and nothing else. There wasn't room in my life for anyone else.”
“Are you telling me you have room in your life for someone now?” Coleman asked.
“I would like to try and make room for someone, Coleman. That's all I can promise at this point.” Kate couldn't commit to anything more.
“Seems fair to me. Now that you've cleared up the past five years, tell me what can I do now to help you . . . move things forward?”
Kate was dumbfounded. Coleman wanted to help her?
“You'd be willing to . . . This is illegal. You just told me so. I can't ask you to break the law. Hell, you're an attorney.”
“I know. I won't break the law, Kate. But there are ways between the cracks.”
“I never had any intention of keeping all that money. After I read Alex's letter, I think I've been given a bargaining tool.”
“Want to explain?” Coleman quizzed.
Kate had spent most of the night reworking her plot. It wasn't foolproof, but it wasn't illegal either. She explained her plan to Coleman.
“You've an excellent mind. You would've made a powerful opponent in a courtroom. So, when do we get started?”
“I say there is no time like the present.”
Kate and Coleman spent the afternoon making plans. If all turned out well, she would walk away from this a free woman. First, she had a lot of hacking to do.
Debbie couldn't concentrate on the contract she'd been reading for the past hour. Her world was unraveling minute by minute. She hadn't convinced that idiot at the bank that she wasn't responsible for overdrawing her accounts. She contacted her attorney as promised, but he hadn't come up with anything yet. Said it would take a few days. Well, dammit, she didn't have a few days! Lawyers. Always thought the world was on their time clock. Their slow-ticking time clock. Billable hours, they called it. Debbie knew exactly how long it would take for Simon Lewis to get his ass to the bank. Unless he crab-walked, there was no way in hell it should take a “few days.”
Of all times for Sara to get herself knocked up, she has to do it now? That girl amazes me. One minute she acts like a three-year-old and the next she acts like a woman of the world. Sara knows how to play people around her.
Of course, she'd learned from a master. Debbie was an expert manipulator. Only she chose what and whom she wanted to manipulate much more carefully than her daughter.
What a loser Josh was. She could just visualize Sara and him raising a child together. She certainly had her work cut out for her with that girl. But she couldn't think about Sara or Don now. If something didn't happen soon, they'd all be penniless and out on the street.
Debbie knew someone was after her. She didn't know who it was or why they had chosen this time to screw with her, but she would find out. When she did, there would be hell to pay.
Meanwhile, she had an office to run. For a while, she hoped. Until this crazed stalker or whatever the hell she wanted to call the person was found out. Indeed, for all she knew, she could lose her office that very day. Simon had told her to go to the police. She'd been very adamant when she said no. They were the last people on earth she wanted poking into her business. She obviously could not explain why that was so when Simon had asked. She had simply said no and left it at that. He couldn't bring them into this without her permission. Let him do the job himself. That's what she paid him for.
Debbie thought about her life growing up. She'd had to work her ass off at the deli. When her mother hadn't been drunk, she'd been on her ass like white on rice for something all the time. Had she taken care of next week's order? Where were the menus for the next week? Why did she order that brand of cheese? Had she done her homework? It was constant. The only time she got any relief were the times her mother was passed out drunk. Which was often, but not often enough, as far as Debbie was concerned. She wanted a different life. She didn't want to sell ham and cheese and smelly sauerkraut. She wanted luxuries. Nice homes and cars. Clothes that were the envy of all. But most of all, she wanted a man in her life to take care of her. When she met Don, she thought she'd found the perfect man. He was as ambitious as she was. He hadn't had an easy life either.
Together they would change their lives. She'd had such good intentions. Then she met Alex Rocket. After meeting him, she decided she'd made the wrong choice. Alex had so much money, he didn't know what to do with it. It was family money, but Alex was an only child. He'd get his hands on it eventually. He already had quite a stash if you saw the car he drove, the clothes he wore. Don told her Alex was down-to-earth. Money meant nothing to him. His parents bought the clothes and the cars. Alex was content to drive an old beat-up pickup that had belonged to his father when his father was a young man.
Debbie didn't believe Don for a minute when he'd told her about Alex. She tried to make a play for him on more than one occasion, but nothing ever came of it. He would tease her, telling her he had a girl. Anna. She was so delicate and sickly the first time Debbie met her. Alex had married her. Hadn't even invited her and Don to the wedding. Though, to be sure, he hadn't been invited to theirs. Who would have wanted to attend anyway? She and Don had married in the courthouse one rainy afternoon. Still, she was shocked to learn Alex was married. All chances of snatching him, gone.
Then Anna got even sicker. She didn't know how long they were married, but Alex was shocked when she died. Don and Debbie went to offer their condolences. They'd stayed for a few days. Then Don had to go back to work. They had just moved to Florida. Don was working his way up the ladder. Debbie insisted he go home without her, telling him she'd stay with Alex a few more days.
One thing led to another. During Alex's mourning, she'd seduced him. Emily was the result.
A couple of months later, she'd gone to Alex telling him she was pregnant with his child. There were some doubts on his part at first. But then Emily was born. As she grew older, she became the exact image of Alex. They'd decided not to tell anyone what had happened between them. Debbie agreed, but inside she was seething. He could sleep with her, but he wouldn't marry her. She told him she would divorce Don. Alex insisted he couldn't hurt his best friend any more than he had already. He had promised to take care of Emily for the rest of her life.
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