Mr. Big Deal (Mr. Big 4)

“Surely she can compromise,” Elena said, sitting up straighter like she was somehow indignant at the thought I’d consider Alexa’s interest in the matter. “This is a multi-billion-dollar deal. That must count a lot in your decision making.”

“We’ll wait and see the offer,” I said, unwilling to budge. In other words, I had to approve the money and the man before I’d approve the deal. Sure, there was a considerable aerospace industry in Houston because of the NASA launches in the past, but so was there in Florida, and California was also an option. Plus, there was the European Space Agency located in Paris…

“It’s exciting,” John said, and I could see he was really happy with the potential joint venture with Jack’s mystery investor. He might have been excited, but I was having misgivings. Sure, I wanted the money — it would make a huge difference to the business.

But who was the investor? Why Texas?

That was the issue for me.

For the rest of the lunch, I was pretty quiet, listening to John and Jack and Elena discussing the potential move to Houston and the future of Astra. I felt like they were viewing it as a done deal before we even knew who our new partner was.

“You’re pretty quiet,” John said after we said goodbye when our lunch was finished. He walked me out to the parking lot.

“I don’t understand the secrecy. Why not express a public interest in the venture? As they say, no publicity is bad publicity.”

“I don’t know, but with that kind of investment, I think we need to humor the guy, whoever he is. Whatever the case, we’ll know more after the dinner meeting with him and the rest of the board on Saturday.”

“Of course,” I said.

We got into the limo, and I gave the driver instructions to take us back to the offices. John wanted to be dropped off and I wanted to go home.

On the way, I checked my cell to see if there were any messages from Alexa.

LUKE: How is Leif? Is he feeling better?

I waited and, in a moment, she texted back.

ALEXA: He’s still stuffed up but is fine otherwise. Fever is down. He’s feeding well.

LUKE: Good. I’ll be home soon. Want me to pick something up on the way?

ALEXA: No, I have things in hand. Chicken and salad, okay?

LUKE: More than okay. By the way, we have a new mystery business partner attending the dinner meeting in Manhattan.

ALEXA: Exciting. Any hints about who?

LUKE: Nope. Everyone’s lips are zipped.

ALEXA: Must be a really big shot if so.

LUKE: Hope so. See you soon. XO

ALEXA: OX

After I dropped John off at the office, I sat back and tried to relax on my way back to the beach house, glad that we would get to meet our mystery investor that weekend. Hopefully, if we spent some time with him, we’d get a better sense of what his ideas and vision was for the joint venture.

It was when we were about halfway there that I got a strange email from a name I didn’t recognize. It didn’t go to my spam folder, so it must have come from a legitimate email sender.

I opened it and read the contents.

Dear Mr. Marshall:

You might want to talk to your local police and ask them to investigate the garage in Westhampton that serviced your father’s company car, in particular the vehicle maintenance records from the month before the crash.

If you have any questions, you can contact me at the number below my signature.

Sincerely,

Brian George, PI

What the…

What was he suggesting? That there was something nefarious about the crash that the vehicle maintenance records would reveal?

I called the number, and it went directly to voice mail.

Hello, you have reached the voice mail of Brian George, Private Investigator with George Investigations, LLC. Please leave a detailed message at the tone and I’ll get back to you ASAP.

I wasn’t sure what to do, or whether the guy was legit, so I decided to leave a message.

Hello, this is Luke Marshall, returning your call. Please call me with some details. Thanks.

I ended the call and sat in silence, wondering what the hell was going on…

He was obviously suggesting that there was a maintenance issue — sabotage? — that led to the car accident that killed my parents.

Then, I sat back in the vehicle and watched the roads as we made our way back to the beach house.

What the hell was going on?