 “Do you often sleep with your clients?” Sally asked. “Once he was done at the club he wasn’t a client and there’s no law against it,” Raul said. “We’re getting off topic. A man is missing. His father gave me a pile of paperwork I don’t understand and a laptop I can’t get into. I’m working some other leads, but I have a gut feeling I need info on that laptop and that it’ll tie into all these,” he thumped the stack of papers and growled, “numbers.” Tad reached over and patted Raul’s shoulder. “The big, bad wolf here is an action man, not a number researcher.” Raul snorted a laugh. “That’s what I have you for.” “Let’s start here, shall we?” Fahim opened the laptop. “I’m not a scintilla, but I have a few tricks in the computing department.” He booted up the computer. “I can’t get inside and see what’s on a computer hard drive the same way a scintilla could, but I can pull some information out.” Resting his hands palms flat on the keyboard Fahim took a few deep breaths. “Don’t break it,” Raul said. Fahim gave him an annoyed look and shook his head. “Oh, ye of little faith.” He gripped the edges of the monitor and leaned forward, touching his forehead to the screen and closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths. “Do I have to make a wish?” Raul quipped. Tad barked a laugh, Sally shook her head and Fahim grumbled, “Jerk.” Raul turned his attention from Fahim to Sally and Tad. They’d scooted their chairs over so they were almost touching and sat with their heads close going through the papers. “Follow the money,” Sally said. “You’re gonna want to write this down,” Fahim said. Raul opened the small notebook he’d brought. “Shoot.” “Capital JX33 lower case zoptt 924.” Fahim turned the laptop around so Raul could see the screen. The password was glowing against the background. After a few seconds it faded away. “How the hell do you do that?” Raul asked. Fahim grinned and spread his arms wide. “It’s magic, dude. The computer password is ‘knots’, that other one is for his e-mail.” Why wasn’t Raul surprised by the computer’s main passcode? It also led him to believe Brandon had likely kept his fetish, and vacation plans, a secret. Which in turn made him wonder how the elder Mr. Lynch knew the details that he did. Raul jotted down his musings and questions on a separate page of his notebook. While Raul searched through Brandon’s e-mails, personal notes and a file marked ‘blog posts’, Fahim and Sally helped Tad comb through the financial documents Brandon’s father had given Raul. He re-read all the e-mails Brandon had sent. None of them offered any clues to point to any trouble Brandon might be having. In fact, his final e-mail to Raul was lamenting the harsh winter they were experiencing up north. They were still there when the lights strung around the patio glowed to life. Dinner was ordered, then dessert and a little later some late-night snacks. Finally, the restaurant staff began closing things down. Raul leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He flagged down one of the waiters and handed over a credit card. “Thanks for putting up with us.” “Always a pleasure,” The waiter said, then smiled and nodded before he disappeared into the restaurant. He was back a few minutes later with their bill. Raul made sure to leave him a generous tip. “Everything here leads back to one company. It’s probably the only actual business and not a shell company,” Sally explained as she packed the papers in her bag. “In the morning I’ll start looking into what all these companies do, or supposedly do.” “As far as I can tell they don’t do anything, other than launder money.” Tad clapped Raul’s shoulder and stood up at the same time. “What’s your next step?” “A number of his e-mails are from someone—or a group of someones—not far from here.” Raul closed the laptop and sighed. “Spill. What else is there?” Tad prompted. Raul held up one hand when he saw the waiter returning with his receipt. He signed it, adding, “Please let the owners and rest of the staff know how much we appreciate this.” After the waiter had left them again, Raul said softly, “There were e-mails in the draft folders to me, asking for help, and a few other… personal comments. He—” Raul’s voice cracked and he took a deep breath, then wiped his hand over his face. “I should’ve tried… I didn’t do anything about the fact he broke off contact with me.” “Hey, you couldn’t possibly know anything was wrong. I’d have thought the guy ghosted me too. It happens, probably more than people like to admit and is sorta embarrassing,” Tad said. “Thank you for that.” Raul stood up. “I need to find him.” Raul wasn’t going to stop looking until he found Brandon. Scintilla is available in eBook paperback, Kindle Unlimited and through your local library digital catalog.    
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