Shane

Never before had he taken such an interest in a woman. He wanted to know it all. He was curious about everything from her taste in music to her political views. From her financial status to her hopes and dreams. He'd researched everything he could, using the tools available to him, which, of course, weren't available to just anyone. The perks of his job were the definite loot of info he had access to, personal or not. It didn't matter if the person was famous. It didn't matter if they were infamous. It didn't matter if it was just an average Jane or Joe either, in a sea of millions… if the information was out there, he could find it. And any information Shane could find on the dark and lovely Markayla Seymour was a tidbit of gold to him, no matter how trivial it may be, and no matter how sneaky and somewhat deceptive it had been on his part. Eventually, she would know more about him in return. Markayla was a very ordinary citizen by all accounts. She'd led a simple life. The only real tragedy had occurred about eight years ago when she'd lost her parents in a car accident. Mom was white, Dad was black. Both were in the medical field. Mom was a nurse practitioner, Dad a dentist. Same story he'd dug up before. She married when she was his age, had no children, had no record, had no obvious financial problems, and worked steadily throughout the years as a writer and editor. She'd apparently done some transcription and translation jobs as well. Her blog contained very generic info, but he always checked it for any interesting updates she may post. He thought of hacking into her Facebook account to see what was there, but alerts of unrecognized browsers were wired into their system. He didn't have proper grounds to ensure she wouldn't be notified of his intrusion. He kept the few images of her he could find on his desktop. How nice it was to see her smiling face anytime he wanted to. He knew it was a pointless waste of time to focus his intentions on a married woman who, from all obvious standpoints, had no intention of ever leaving her husband. Yet he just couldn't seem to help himself. Little did he know, however, as he made his way into a meeting that day, that circumstances beyond their control would change things very drastically and very soon, a little obsessed with the foxy lady or not. "SSA Casseri! Nice of you to join us." Shane turned to the older man in the suit before him and flashed his most impish of grins. "Didn't think I'd make it, did you, Sammy?" "We were beginning to wonder, actually." "Sorry, guys. Got held up by an accident on Prairie Street." He and several others took a seat around a large round table. "No worries," winked the young blond across from him. "We'll forgive you." And I still won't be the least bit interested in you, Donna, he thought to himself. Willem, who sat next to Donna, smiled sympathetically at Shane. He was well aware of her unwanted attraction. The older guy opened a folder that sat before him and said, "Ok, so where do we stand at the moment with our current case?" A plain middle-aged woman spoke up. "According to Lu Chung, no one at her magazine has heard from the missing journalist, Albert Renkin. His friends and family still believe foul play is at hand here, saying that he was a very responsible person who would never simply take off without a word." "What about the missing funds from the company?" "There doesn't seem to be any connection to Renkin, but we do have some suspects." "And those are?" "We've narrowed it down to two people in the accounting division." Sam looked at his notes and named some employees, including Markayla. "Have they been ruled out at this point?" "Yes, they have," Shane piped up. "They don't fit the profile or appear to have had the means to have stolen the funds." "What about the motive and opportunity to make Renkin disappear?" "None that we can find," said Willem. "Renkin's looking more and more like an outside job, not at all connected to the company itself. Somebody probably got pissed off over something he wrote somewhere along the way. We just don't know who or what yet. It could be anybody who got pissed about anything." "Ok, then let's talk about what we do know. We know there are a few possible employees involved in the embezzlement scheme. Have you guys put together any ideas on how to flush them out?" Donna raised a hand. "Actually, we were talking about a fundraising event of some kind." "And what would that do?" asked Sammy. "How could we use that to our advantage?" "Well, Sir, we were hoping that if we placed our suspects in charge of collecting and managing the funds, some of those funds would disappear." "Clever. One problem, though." "How to know if anything's been taken," Shane said knowingly. "Exactly." "We were thinking we'd make sure everything went through us first, so there would be no doubts. Ms. Chung agreed to have one of us collect the donations in a box or something. We would appear to just casually collect them, but of course, we'd take notice of the amounts and keep track of them. Then we'd give them to our suspects to put into an account. If everything didn't show up…" "Ok," he said, nodding, "that might work. Let's hope it does anyway. All we have to do is come up with a reason to hold the fundraiser." "Already taken care of, Sam," said Shane. "It's to be a local food drive for underprivileged children." "Let's hope that's enough to generate enough people. People are getting less sensitive to those kinds of drives. They say that if your kid is underprivileged, then you probably shouldn't have brought them into the world in the first place. People just aren't as quick to sympathize with the irresponsible." "True," said Donna, "but there are still a few bleeding hearts out there who understand that anyone can fall into a jam at any time in their life, and well, it's not the children's fault, is it? Besides, the magazine is a big company, and there are other businesses in those buildings. We can include them as well." Sammy closed his notebook. "Then start setting it up, folks, and keep me posted."