Minnesota

Abscond

The laptop beeped, announcing the scheduled conference call. Zee’s face appeared on the screen.

            “What’s the status?” Steve asked. His intense voice in stark contrast to his casual slumping in the leather couch in Regina’s office. He put his bare feet on the matching ottoman.

            Zee growled. “Easy stuff first; we wiped every piece of tech we found in the stash house, including the cameras. The digi-stamps hadn’t been duplicated, meaning, none of it has been posted online, not even shared with other users.”

            Steve sighed with relief. “Did you review the cameras, what’s on it?”

            Zee grimaced. “I had one of my guys do it. No offense to our line of business, but it’s hard for me to watch a woman being raped, knowing it’s not staged.” She shook her head. “It seems the recording stopped two days before dumb-ass got himself killed.”

            Steve nodded. “Any chance they used another camera?”

            “Sure.” Zee answered. “But if there was another recording device, we don’t have it.”

She sighed. “Next issue. I’ve got the papers ready to dissolve Venture Inc. They’re on their way to Asher. Mark needs to sign them.”

            Regina chimed in. “Didn’t both Duane and Mark create that company?”

            Zee nodded. “Yes, now we have the issue of having a dead man sign off on the dissolution.” She hissed. “Asher might have a solution for that, though. It’ll cost us, but if we backdate the dissolution documents, we can say we forgot to file them, there’ll be a couple of thousand dollars fine for that, but in the large scheme of things …” She didn’t have to finish the sentence.

            “What’s the solution?” Steve asked.

            “We forge Duane’s signature.” Zee said with a ‘duh’ expression on her face as if the solution was so obvious, a monkey could have figured it out.

            Steve ignored it. “Have the forger stand by, in case Mark gives us an attitude, we’ll have him forge Mark’s signatures as well.”

            “What about the property, the cars? Do we have to wait until the company is dissolved or can we sell everything now?”

            Zee looked off-screen, checking her notes. “The issue is that the only sample of Duane’s signature I have is from his driver license and it’s in bad shape. If I can get more samples, I can copy and paste it on to sales agreements. These days, everything is done electronically, so forging them isn’t that difficult.”

            Steve frowned. “Then why can’t we do that with the company dissolution?”

            Zee thought for a moment. “Actually, I don’t think there’s a reason why we couldn’t.” She admitted. “Do you want me to check if I can do it for both Mark and Duane, or just Duane?”

            Regina shook her head. “I don’t think …”

            Steve interrupted her. “No, if possible, just do it, without letting Mark in on it. Let us know when it’s done or if there are any issues.” Steve leaned forward to push the end-call button on the laptop.

            Zee waved. “Wait, not done yet.” She sighed. “Mark already suspects something.” Steve cursed. “Let me finish.” Zee hissed at him. “He asked Asher to bring the BMW to Canada and when Asher told him to just use another car, Mark flipped. Asher told him that nothing can be left, the traces need to be erased.”

            “Shit.” Steve ran his hands through his hair. “The moron is going to do something stupid.”

            Regina hissed at him. He is not going to let this go. For the first time in their twenty-year relationship, Regina felt angry with Steve. We all screw up. This is not a big deal. She wanted to say something, chastise him, when his phone rang.

            Steve glanced at it, showed her the caller-ID. “I’m guessing that’s the call.” Steve answered.

            “Asher.” He pressed the speaker button. “Gina and Zee are here.”

            “Good, I’d hate to have to say this twice.” Asher’s voice betrayed any notion of emotive reaction on his part.

            “Sunshine pulled a swift stunt on us.” Asher got straight to the point. “He paid one of the guys off, giving him the excuse that he wanted some time alone with a girl. That was the last anyone saw of him.” Regina buried her head in the cushions, Steve glared at her. Zee tapped frantically on her keyboard.

            “Apparently, he took a crash course in technology because he knew shutting off the phone wouldn’t completely disable the tracking, but it would slow us down. We found it an hour ago in a dump by the river. Sunshine has a head start of at least 24 hours.”         

Regina bit into the cushion to stop herself from screaming at Asher. He’s not your damn sunshine, asshole.

            Zee stopped typing and threw her hands up.

            “What are the odds of him getting across the border?” Steve asked. His sun-tanned face lost all color.

            “That depends.” Asher sighed. “I kept his passport to make sure he can’t leave. He didn’t make a fuss at that time. Now I’m thinking he didn’t because he had a back-up.”

            Zee shook her head. “That is his back-up.”

            Asher laughed. “You’re shitting me, right? You didn’t frisk him when you had him in transit, just handed me his passport and not tell me Mark still had the original? Fuck.

            “Well, kids, I’d be looking for him in Minneapolis because he had a shitfit when he thought you’re selling his stuff, especially that BMW. Little critter whined on and on about it.” Asher hung up without further comment.

            Steve looked at Zee. “Where did we store the items from the stash house?” Zee typed quickly. Then she paled.

            “Most of it is logged in a warehouse outside St. Paul.” She bit her lip. “The car hasn’t been tagged yet. Looks like it’s still at the house.”

            Steve moaned. “Get someone over there, now.” He slammed the laptop shut. “Let’s go.” He told Regina. He can’t really think Mark will take the car. He’d check in with me, he always does. But Steve already grabbed her by the hand and was pushing her out the door. Five minutes later, she sat in the passenger seat while he drove at maximum speed to Mark’s stash house.

            “He’d check in with us, no matter how much trouble he’s in. Remember, he called us first when Seattle happened.”

            Steve scuffed while maneuvering through traffic. “That’s his last chance. If he doesn’t check in with us within 24 hours, I’m doubling down on our local police escort and squeeze him for every bit of detail. By the way, that cop who showed up the other day, is he our guy?”

            Regina shrugged. “It’s possible, but I’m not sure. He’s a doughboy alright and he just moved here from New York. While his excuse for stopping by sounded reasonable, it could be that he was checking in with us, specifically.”

            Steve glanced at her sideways. “What was his excuse?”

            “Apparently, Duane frequented Café Noir down the street. And the girl works there.”

            Steve slammed the breaks.