DISCREETOFFICESERVICES.COM… Chapter 10

DISCREETOFFICESERVICES.COM… Chapter 10    It wasn’t until Monday on the train back into the city that the full consequence of what I’d set in motion hit me. I couldn’t believe what I’d done! I’d turned a perfectly good neighbor/fellow tenant into a boyfriend. A new boyfriend who lived, literally, ten feet below me. A boyfriend who heard every step I took if I wore shoes on the hardwood floor. A boyfriend who could knock on my door five seconds after stepping out of his door. How the hell was I going to continue explaining my nightly absences? I’m sure the other passengers were amused watching me whack my forehead with the palm of my hand several times while wondering aloud how I could have been so stupid.Juggling Mom, Dad and Danny seemed impossible. Either Dad and Mom needed to know I had an apartment or, somehow, I’d have to explain to Danny why I had an apartment I never spent the night in. I was so screwed… An example of how screwed I was came in the form of a knock on the door less than a minute after I stepped in.”Hey, Danny. Come on in.”This was Danny’s first time in my apartment and he looked around with interest at how I’d furnished it. I’d bought each piece of furniture one by one as I’d found what would mesh together.”This is really nice, Viv.””Thanks. I think it’s pretty homey. So, what’s up? I thought you’d be headed out to work by now.””In a couple of minutes. I just wanted to drop by and… Look, Viv. I’m sorry to be this needy but, are we Ok? Damn, I hate to be this, this…” Danny shrugged, unable to come out with the right words. “But, a girl as beautiful as you are… I mean, you could date any guy you wanted to and every once in a-while I can’t help wondering why you’d want to see me? Jeez, do I sound as pathetic to you as I do to me? It’s just, I’ve been burned pretty badly and I hope we’ll both be honest with each other.”I placed my hands on Danny’s shoulders and gave him a little shake. “We’re Ok. You need to gain a little more self-confidence, but we can work on that. I think you’re a pretty good guy and I’d like to continue seeing you. You’re not in high school any longer. You’re studying shit I can’t even pronounce and in case you haven’t noticed, you’ve turned into a pretty decent looking guy. At least when you remember to comb your hair,” I joked. I gave him another shake, “I hope you’ll stop comparing me to the bitch that burned you so badly, but we can work on that, too.”I’m going home again tonight. Mom’s a little under the weather with a cold or the flu so I’ll be there to help out. Clean the house and stuff. If I know Mom though, she’ll get up and cook a big dinner. How about I bring back some leftovers with me tomorrow morning and you can drop by after work for pot roast, mashed potatoes, gravy and whatever else I can bring? That should convince you that this is real for me. I don’t pry Mom’s pot roast out of Dad’s hands for just anyone. So, you tell me. Are we Ok?””I think you’re incredible. And the food sounds great! I haven’t had a real home cooked meal since I was home at Christmas.” Going up on tip-toes, Danny gave me a short, but nice kiss. He left in a much better mood.Looking out my window I waited until Danny walked out of sight on the way to the subway before calling home. “Hi, Mom. I’ve kind’a promised Danny a home cooked meal tomorrow night. Think you can put on a big pot roast with mashed potates and…””That’s no problem,” Mom interrupted to say. “No problem at all. Why not bring Danny home with you? He can eat right from the oven instead of leftovers.”Yeah, I’m sure Danny’s, Viv’s apartment looks so good… would go over great as dinner conversation. “Mom, we’ve had one date. It’s a little early to subject Danny to Dad’s interrogation.”Mom laughed but agreed to cook enough to have plenty of leftovers. Hanging up I checked my texts to bornova escort make sure the time hadn’t been changed for my first client of the day and began changing into ‘work’ clothes.I didn’t see Danny again until he knocked on the door the next evening. My last client of the day had run overtime because I hadn’t the heart to ask him to pull out when he’d started fucking me, trying to come for a third time. “Hang on, Danny,” I called out. “I got home from work later than I’d planned and just got out of the shower.””Oh, Ok, I can come back…””No, you don’t have to. I’m going to unlock the door. Give it a slow five count and then come in.”When Danny came in I was back in the bathroom with the door closed. My apartment isn’t that big and we could hear each other easily through the door. We talked about this-that-and-the-other while I finished drying off and began my makeup. After a few minutes Danny went quiet but intent on my makeup I didn’t pay it any mind thinking he was just tired from work. Only after putting on my robe for the walk to my bedroom to finish dressing did I see Danny sitting on the couch with… “Oh, shit,” I muttered. I’d placed the papers on the coffee table so I could look at them from time to time in an effort to figure them out. I’d forgotten they were there. Danny was holding them now.Holding up one of the German documents he asked, “Viv, why, if you’re trying to decipher these, why is your name on them? Why did you sign them?””I…Uhh, umm, I’m…” I threw up my arms in defeat. “I got nothing.” “Viv, I really like you. I think I’m damned lucky you even considered going out with me. But, Viv, I don’t need drama and lies. I’ve had enough of that to last a lifetime. What’s really going on? Are you seeing me just for more help?””No! Danny, I promise I’m not trying to trick you for more help!” I sighed and walked to the couch and sat down. I could tell Danny was upset because he wasn’t even trying to look at my boobs through the gape in my robe. Patting the couch beside me I asked him to sit down.”Do you remember the story on the news of the guy who committed suicide a little while ago? Jumped from his office window…”Danny nodded slowly and I continued with a carefully edited story as close to the truth as I could go.”He was the guy I worked for in the office. The day he jumped, just a few minutes before he jumped, he asked me to sign those. Why? I don’t know why. But he told me they were important and to keep them safe and secret. I’ve been trying to figure them out ever since. But, they don’t make sense! They’re just a mish-mash of the German language.””And these,” Danny asked, holding up the five pages of columns.I shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. They’re marked important though.””Did he give you anything else?””Two things. One…” I reached over and retrieved the letter from the end table’s drawer and handed it to Danny. “He asked me to mail that for him. I think he didn’t trust the mailroom of the building. Maybe thinking someone would intercept it. That’s what I figure, at least.”Danny read the label. “A Federal District Attorney? Viv, why haven’t you mailed this already?””Don’t you think they’ll be curious how a dead guy is sending them mail? My fingerprints are all over that damned envelope. Twenty years from now if I get pulled over for speeding I don’t need a Federal supoena when they run my prints. I thought I’d get some gloves and transfer everything to a clean envelope but I’ve kept putting it off. I don’t want to know what’s in there.””But…””Look, Danny,” I interrupted. “Your fingerprints are on there now, too. You go mail it as it is.””Ah, no. I guess not,” Danny said handing back the letter for me to put away again.”And these make no sense,” he asked holding up the German papers gain.”None. Sentence structure escort bornova is wrong. Misused tenses of verbs. It’s like someone used a dictionary to put German words onto the paper. There are even made up words. Hell, there are even English words mixed in.””English words…” Danny mused as if to himself. “That sounds like something from early cryptology. Putting a message within the body of a larger message. Viv, can you read through these and make a list of all the English words?””Sure. I’ve almost got the damned things memorized by now.” I got a pen and paper and a few minutes later handed Danny the list. He sat in silence for a couple of minutes.”The guy who jumped. He was a lawyer if I remember correctly?””Yeah. Some kind of expert on international finance and contracts or something.””Son-of-a-bitch…””What?”Danny put the new list where both of us could read it. “Look here, these words are in order. National… Bank… Account… Password… What does that suggest to you?””Son-of-a-bitch,” I echoed Danny. “Timmy was trying to tell me something and he mixed it all in with the German so his secretary wouldn’t even know.””Timmy?””He liked when I called him that. Said no one had since high school when he still had dreams.””Did he say anything else that day?””He said he’d stolen a lot of money and that they were on to him. Meaning the other partners in the firm. Almost his last words to me were that he was a dead man already. He just wasn’t buried yet. He gave me the file, said to keep it safe and secret and that I could leave for the day. By the time I got to the street he was there already.””Damn, that’s tough. But look through the papers again and see if there’s the name of a city or country. We’ve got everything except the location of a bank.””Don’t need to look. Only place mentioned is Lesser Pontele Islands.””So maybe the National Bank of the Ponteles? Or something like that. One more thing. What comes after the English words Account and Password?”I looked and replied, “Those are two of the gibberish words.” I wrote them down on the list.”You have a laptop?””Yea, but no way are we using it for any of this. I already thought of using it to translate the documents but didn’t. My IP address would lead anyone looking right to me. That’s why I wanted to go to the library with you that day.””You have a very sneaky mind,” Danny grinned. “But I think you’re right about this. Come on, we’ll use mine.””But won’t that lead people to you?””No. You’ll see.”I felt a little silly padding around in the hallway in my slippers and bathrobe but I didn’t want to take the time to dress. Tuesday night is hair wash night so I grabbed my combs and brushes and followed Danny downstairs.I brushed crumbs off the cushion of his couch and looked at it dubiously. “When was the last time you cleaned these cushions?” I had on a white bathrobe and didn’t want to get it dirty.”I’m sure someone cleaned them at least once before dropping it off on the curb.””You got this off the curb?”Danny was busy typing on his computer and nodded distractedly. Choosing to stand, I took off the towel from around my hair and began combing out the tangles in the damp strands.”Why aren’t you concerned someone will track you down?”Danny pointed and said, “This is a second hand, maybe even a third hand computer I bought at a swap meet. It’s old and it’s crap but it was cheap and all I need to surf the internet.  Its IP isn’t connected to me in any way. The other reason I’m not concerned is that.”I looked at what he pointed to this time. “What is it?””It’s a parabolic microphone that I’ve modified. Instead of sound it now collects and amplifies radio waves. It also acts as a focused, directional transmitter. Look at where it’s pointed.”I looked and it seemed pointed at the coffee shop I frequented down the street bornova escort bayan over a block away. “With that I can connect to the coffee shop’s Wi-Fi even from here. Free internet. Anyone following the internet trail will find it ends right there with potentially tens, if not hundreds, of customers sitting around sipping coffee and using the cafe’s Wi-Fi every day.”I nodded in amazement and gathered another handful of hair to comb. “Well, ain’t you just the nerdy little nerd.””Smile when you say that.” Danny replied in a fake Western drawl, waiting as if expecting a reply, then sadly shook his head. “I guess you never read The Virginian. Careful what you say to me though because this nerd may have solved the problem because… we… are… in.”I looked at the computer screen. On it was the main page for a bank with a blinking cursor in the box asking for an account number. Another box was immediately below that asking for a password. Danny handed me the sheet with the list and asked me to read off the gibberish words that followed each in the documents. He typed while I read.Here goes nothing, he muttered and hit ENTER. The screen blanked and we waited with sinking hope as time dragged on. But then the screen filled with a page asking a single question, What is the name of your favorite Aunt?”YES!” Danny crowed in triumph. “I said I got Wi-Fi. I never said it was fast. The list! Any female name?””Matilda.”Danny typed that in and hit ENTER. Again the screen blanked but this time the wait was much shorter. Another question… What was the name of your favorite pet?”That one’s easy,” I said before Danny could ask and pointed to the name on the list. “Snoopy.””Snoopy? Makes a little sense. It’s easy to remember and no one would guess it.” Danny hit ENTER and we waited. I was still close, looking over his shoulder. Danny was so intent on the screen I doubt he even realized he mumbled, Damn, you smell good, out loud. I smiled and let it pass while switching to use my hair brush on my now detangled and rapidly drying hair. I leaned closer to let Danny get a good whiff of me. Clean skin and hair makes a wonderful aphrodisiac.This time when a screen appeared it said, WELCOME TO…..Danny leaped up from his chair and did a victory dance while pointing a finger at the screen and yelling, “Yes! In your face, bitch! I owned your ass!” Turning he held up a hand for a High-Five. My hands were full so I whacked his palm with my hair brush.Danny suddenly turned away and cleared his throat. Pointing at me and stumbling over his words, “Ah, you might wanna… I mean, umm…”I looked down and saw that my robe had loosened and I was showing quite a bit of cleavage. Pulling my robe closed and tightening the sash around my waist I nodded my thanks. Danny sat down in front of the screen and I leaned in to study it, also. This time there were two lines of boxes. The upper line was titled Account Number and the bottom line was titled Account Password.Handing me the first page with a list of five double columns Danny asked me to read off the first on the top of the left hand column. It fit exactly into the boxes. As I read off the numbers, letters and symbols at the top of the right hand column, Danny typed them into the bottom line of boxes and sat back. I was looking over his shoulder. So close we were almost cheek to cheek in anticipation of what might come next. Danny held his finger over the ENTER key and asked if I was ready. I nodded and he stabbed the key.This time when the screen blanked it stayed blank until we were both fidgeting. But then it came back with a long list under, Commands Available. I leaned further forward to read the smaller print but Danny read faster than I did. I saw commands for Transfer, Deposit, Withdrawal, and others before Danny, waving my hair out of his way, pointed to one at the bottom… Check Balance.”Let’s try that one first,” Danny suggested and when I nodded he clicked it. The screen blanked and came back almost immediately. 38,000,000.00 USD…”What’s USD,” I asked.”U.S. Dollars,” Danny answered softly. “Viv, we just became millionaires…”