Chapter 4
Boone’s Café
Among all the coffee shops Kate has been to since moving to Fort Worth, Boone’s has that inviting and cozy ambiance. The welcoming aroma of coffee beans, milk, caramel, and sugar pops out as she steps inside its fine walls. They’re the only shop offering chagaccino too. It’s a healthier alternative and she loves how the regular barista expertly blends the chaga mushroom powder with a shot of espresso.
“Hello! Can I have--” The rest of her order flew in the air as the barista popped up on the counter. Perfect round eyes sparkling at hers. Lucy’s hair is pulled back by the latch of a snapback bearing the café’s logo. She’s wearing a red button up dress shirt and khaki pants under a light brown apron tied around her slender waist.
“One chagaccino, with a shot of espresso and extra almond milk,” Lucy grins as she slides the cup to her.
Kate shakes her head when she realizes she’s staring. “You work here?”
“Part – time,” her eyes falling on Kate’s injured hand, “I see you shed off the hand brace.”
“It’s still tender but much better now.” She raises her right hand, and gives Lucy ten bucks.
“On the house,” Lucy holds her hand in between hers. “My apologies again for this,” she says, pulling Kate’s right hand under her chin. “Walk you to work?” Lucy withdraws her hands carefully before Kate can say ‘No’. She turns her back on the counter, eases off from the apron, folds it and places it on the prep table. She proceeds to take off the snapback and places it on top of the folded apron.
Kate lifts the cup to her mouth, watches Lucy through her glasses sway her curls free. Her face warms, unsure if it was from Lucy’s touch on her hand or the steam coming out of the cup’s spout. She darts her eyes across the café as Lucy grabs her backpack and steps out of the prep area.
“Would you like to wipe that off before we head out?” Lucy asks.
“Huh? What?”
“Your glasses. They’re fogging up,” Lucy points out.
“Oh,” she pulls her glasses forward to let in cool air defog them then push them back on a spot on her nose bridge. “There, all good. Thanks.”
— — —
They cross the street, alternately clearing their throats and exchanging polite smiles. Kate slows down a few times to check on her phone. Each time she does, Lucy takes that time to glance over Kate. Has she always worn eyeglasses? They look heavy, and it gives her face a stern image. Far different from their first ‘meeting’ at The Rockwood even though she was all red in fury and obviously holding back tears in pain then. And those lips … Lucy pulls her lips in and turns her head forward when Kate catches her staring. They continue to walk in silence, Lucy’s steps getting heavier as they reach the first set of stairs outside the building. She pauses, tightens the grip on her backpack as she looks up at Stellar’s emblem by the main entrance to the lobby. Her stomach keyed up as pictures of employees sneering and talking behind her played like a montage in her head. Kate stops mid steps to glance down at her.
“Something wrong?” Kate asks, watching Lucy reach for a pair of large, heavily tinted sunglasses from the pocket of her backpack and puts them on. Lucy takes a deep breath then steps up beside Kate. “Are you trying to draw attention to yourself?”
“Quite the opposite,” she scrunched her nose.
Kate laughs, “not gonna work.”
“No?”
“No…” Kate tilts her head, “but why?”
“You’ll see,” Lucy folds the sunglasses and slides it back inside her backpack as Kate eyes her with a puzzled face.
— — —
They walk side by side through the lobby, swiping their company IDs simultaneously. Kate watched her closely. A string of ‘good morning’ ensues as they reach the line of employees by the elevators. All eyes directed at Lucy, who nods to acknowledge the greetings while passing through. The path cleared for them. Once in the elevator, Lucy holds on to a button and waits for the others to get in. “Come on. Y’all can hop in,” she says. But, no one steps inside. The apprehension was so palpable. Some gave her a sly smile and a mocking look? Like her being here again is a stupid idea. “No? Okay. Y’all have a good day then,” Lucy releases the button and hits the floor number of the Finance Unit.
Kate finds the whole interaction strange. Why does it seem like the employees were avoiding being in one place with the daughter of the company? She raises her phone to check it again then puts it down as the elevator door closes. “You could have used the service elevator for the executives, you know?”
“Boring,” Lucy waves a hand, “and I am not an executive.” She points at Kate’s phone. “You might wanna reply to his messages. Boyfriends can be annoying when they don’t get a text update, yah know.”
Kate wriggles, “huh! Not a boyfriend!”
Lucy laughs at Kate’s utter disgust. “Girlfriends are even worse,” she pushed.
“Not a girlfriend either,” she says flatly.
“Oh, no time for love?” Lucy sounds surprised.
“It’s not for me.”
Lucy grins, leans back and winks at her, “you’re missing out a lot, Kate.”
“I don’t have time for those right now,” Kate glares at Lucy, flustered by her bold flirting.
Lucy hums and rocks her heels back. When they reach the Finance Unit’s floor, Kate lifts her chin and steps out as soon as the door opens, leaving Lucy scurrying behind her.
“Woah, woah… slow down,” Lucy calls her. Kate marches on. Lucy catches on and tugs Kate on the elbow to a stop, “I’m.. sorry.. A bit intrusive.. I get it,” she says in between puffs of breath.
Kate squints, “I sent you the accounts I want you to look into. If you have any questions, just send me an email.” She turns to leave, pressing her lips together to hide a smile. When she reaches her desk, she takes in a few slow breaths, lays the cup of chagaccino and her phone on top of it, pulls out her chair and sits. She recalls what just happened in the lobby. So, the laid back princess does not like special treatment?Admirable. The vibration of her phone on the table snaps her from her inner thoughts. She scans the room, glances over to the right and then the left before picking up her phone to read Kai’s text message. She types in a reply: Same place. Same time.
— — —
The Bluebonnet Garden - Fort Worth, Texas
To the eyes of the passersby The Bluebonnet Garden is just another flower shop in Fort Worth. The letters on its sign board is spelled with a digital print of Texas’ state flower, the bluebonnet. The storefront is a row of large, sturdy windows made of thick opaque glass adorned by beds and pots of different types and colors of roses, lilies, daisies, sunflowers, some tropical flowers and green plants. Kate pauses to smell the collective fragrance and marvels at the aesthetics of the shop. She steps inside, welcomed by the various flower arrangements on display.
“Ah… same energy today, Kate,” a woman with a red hibiscus behind her right ear greets her.
“Hello, Carla… Same dark, broken, vengeful energy?” she says in a scratchy voice as she gives the older woman a lopsided smile.
Carla returns a genuine smile, “I can sense it’s about to change though,” she says matter of factly that had Kate’s raising her eyebrows. “Well,” Carla declares dramatically. “The botanist and the horticulturist awaits,” she dipped her head to a door with a small carving of a bluebonnet on the center, a sign with big bold letters: ‘AUTHORIZED EMPLOYEES ONLY’ plastered below it.
Kate treads her way to the door, slides in a bluebonnet shaped key and unlocks it. She retrieves the key, steps inside, lays her fingers on a scanner which prompts the wall behind her to split open.
Behind the split walls, Ernie and Kai are huddled in front of three large screens exhibiting five photos of their current persons of interest. Her eyes are instantly drawn by the last photo on the right. Lucy, in a red and white racing suit leaning on the hood of a tuned sports car, cradling a helmet on her hip, the radiant smile on her face reaching her pretty eyes.
She hears Ernie clears his throat. “Yes. Yes, Mr. Botanist,” she rolls her eyes at him to cover her embarrassment for getting caught staring at Lucy’s photo. “You were saying?”
Ernie threw Kai a bemused look then smirks, “I asked, would you like us to do a rundown of the info we have on Taras so far?”
“Ok. Yes, please,” she scans the images of Ybrrahim Tara and his four children on the screens.
“Dr. Liam Miguel Tara,” Ernie flicks a button on the controller in his hand, to focus on an image of a man in his late thirties. “Head of the Emergency Department (ED) at Fort Worth Medical. Active volunteer at the Lone Star Community Health Center. Soon to be married to your…” Ernie points his chin to Kate, “roommate, Abbigail Preston, ED head nurse in the same hospital. The doc is a man of sports. Loves to bet on every major game of most Texan teams. Baseball, football, basketball and cricket. In negotiation to buy the Mavericks from Mark Cuban. A little ambitious on that if you ask me,” Ernie shakes his head in disbelief.
“Atty. Lauren Grace Tara - Rahimi,” he switches to a picture of a woman in her mid thirties. “Current executive officer for Finance, former member of the corporate counsel of Stellar Energy Group. An art enthusiast who splurges on exotic pieces. An advocate of women’s art. No suspicious bank or phone activities so far. Married to the current executive officer for Operations, Alistair Rahimi, who is best friend to Leonard Antonio Tara,” Ernie pauses at the sudden darkening of Kate’s facial features whose eyes are locked on to the image of the Taras eldest son. He shoots Kai a wary look.
“Do we have something new on him?” Kai asks, breaking the tension in the air.
“Leonard Anthony ‘Lenny’ Tara, former head engineer of the Operations unit. Currently working his way to become a full cenobitic monk at an Orthodox Monastery in Austin -–”
“Huh! Washing his hands off his crime?” Kate scoffs.
“One case at a time, Kate,” Kai says. “Besides, we don’t have anything to incriminate him on the drilling site incident yet.”
That got Kate to turn her whole body and face Kai. Her eyes hardened and narrowed in slits. “Are you dismissing all my evidence against him, Holman?” she asks, blood rushing through her veins.
Kai lifts his arms in the air. “Not dismissing. But it’s not enough to pin him as a suspect either, Whistler.”
“All the data I have points to him on the day of the drilling site incident that took —”
“Wait! Wait! Hold on!” Ernie cuts in. “Must I remind you both that we are on one and the same team, here?”
“I get where you’re coming from, Kate," Kai says. "I remember agreeing in investigating Noah’s death. I also remember agreeing we do everything by the book as long as we do not forget why we were sent here in the first place,” his eyes discerning, “and that is to investigate Stellar for financial crime.”
When the FBI Finance Crime Unit finally made a case against Stellar, their team was formed and sent to an undercover mission to Fort Worth. Initially, Kai was against her inclusion in the team raising ‘conflict of interest’ as a reason that may cloud her objectivity as an investigator. She was able to convince him otherwise after agreeing on prioritizing their case above everything else. He even agreed to help her investigate the untimely death of Noah in an accident at one of the oil drilling sites owned by Stellar. As long as they keep it within the lines of justice.
Noah’s death . That’s all it took to lose her cool. She draws in a breath to keep her eyes from welling up as news of her older brother’s death six years ago came flooding in. It can’t be like this . She’s always been good at keeping grief at bay. For the good of their mission. She can’t be like this . Too angry. Too emotional. At the mere mention of a reality that she hasn't gotten to live with yet. No. No. She can’t allow this. Not even around Kai and Ernie.
“Do you need a minute?” Ernie asks in concern.
She shakes her head and bites her lower lip to keep it from quivering. “I’m good.” She lifts her chin high, faces Lenny’s brooding image on the monitors, hands on her waist, “what else do we have on him?”
“He quit his job at Stellar after the drilling site incident and has been laying low ever since. His last financial activity on record? Six years ago. He transferred all of what he inherited from the late Mrs. Tara to fund Lucy’s first circuit race in Cologne Bonn. A few weeks ago, he made a phone call to his younger brother, Liam, confirming his attendance at his wedding.”
Ernie hits a button on the controller to bring in focus Lucy’s image. “Lucille Ann Tara, amateur motorsports racing driver. She’s a few units shy of becoming a CPA prior to her mother’s death. Never went back to uni to finish it and chose to learn different skill sets instead. She divided the inheritance money she got from her mother in three parts. A third of it she invested in Boone's Cafe.”
That explains the free coffee. Kate’s lips turn up into a tiny smile.
“A third she keeps in an account that funds Stellar’s non-profit organization, the Lucia Tara Memorial Foundation, that grants scholarships to qualified children of most of the employees of the company.”
That’s generous of you, Lucy.
“Also, the same foundation where she sends half of the prize money she wins in legal competitions —”
“Legal?!” Kate and Kai ask in unison.
Ernie shrugs. “Little Miss Tara here, has been seen in a few underground races where the prizes are more of taking your opponents cars and bragging rights rather than the money. Her choices of courses too are very challenging even for veteran race car drivers. I’m surprised she hadn’t been in any major accidents, yet —”
“Ernie!” Kate calls him out.
“What? She has to be that good or the family is mum on her daredevil escapades, right?” he says. “Anyway... What remains of her inheritance is saved on a time deposit for a long term and that money, Lenny sent her? She turned it into an investment too. Living off with its interest and whatever remains of the prize money she gets from racing.”
Explains the frequent travels.
“That’s rad!” Ernie beams. “She’s the epitome of a rich kid living the dream.”
“When exactly did Lenny funded her first race and how huge is that inheritance money?” Kai asks.
“Three months after they laid Mrs. Tara to rest. Six years ago,” Ernie directs his answer to Kate. “All Tara children inherited eight million dollars each. It’s old family money from Mrs. Tara’s side.”
Six years ago.Was it before or after the drilling site incident? Valuable data racing in Kate’s mind. Shaping them into little puzzle pieces to fit in a bigger picture. She pinches the bridge of her nose. Get a hold of it! “Uhm.. Any news on your boss?” She points at the image of Ybrrahim on the screen and turns around to ask Kai instead.
“Not entirely about the old man. But connected to Lucy here. Who should be on her best behavior at work or else…” Kai tilts his head as he tries to get a read of Kate’s expression.
Kate narrows her eyes, “or what?”
“Jail time,” he twists his neck. “Mr. Tara threatened her with a grand theft charge if she doesn’t agree with his bidding. Work in the family business and stay here. Sly old man if you ask me,” he chuckles.
And that explains the job at Stellar. Kate groans. The new information added a beat to her throbbing temples. She chews on her bottom lip, writhing to suppress her ire against Lucy’s father. “No questionable movement or activities?”
“Now that you mention it,” Kai folds his arms across his torso. “He visited an eye doctor after meeting his daughters. That's his third visit this year and we were instructed not to tell anyone. Not even his children,” he adds. “Anything on your end, Kate? Discrepancies in the ledgers that is?”
Ernie sips loudly on his boba milk tea as he switches his eyes between them.
“I’ve uncovered a trail of missing money but I haven’t pinpoint yet when it all started,” she says. Her thoughts racing around Ernie’s earlier statement. Six years ago, Lenny funded Lucy’s first circuit race. Three months after their mother died. Why?
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