We last read Chapter 30, in which Beth meets Conner at his office, and the two have another awkward moment, with a mutual attraction obvious to anyone but the two of them. After Beth fills him in on her meeting with Xavier Wheldon, Conner starts to bring her up to speed on his efforts, but Nick Hunt enters the room and, out of the blue, tells Beth he has tickets for an upcoming concert, and will call her to discuss it. Conner, flustered or annoyed, can’t remember what else he wanted to discuss, and leaves.
Meanwhile, Raven Tristan meets with Xavier Wheldon, telling him the details of her investigation into Beth Harper, including learning of the trouble Beth had following the death of her last boyfriend. After Wheldon expresses disappoint in the mundane nature of Tristan’s report, Tristan insists she can learn more, as she believes Beth is hiding a big secret.
This is the second story, so if you want to start from the very beginning, you can jump over to book 1, and begin with the Prologue of Sapphire Angel, Superheroine. Or to start at the beginning of book 2 (this story), click over to the Prologue of Power Play.
Thanks for reading!
As she sat on her sofa reviewing her notes, Beth's mind drifted to her meeting with Conner. She cursed herself, but mostly cursed Nick for his sudden appearance and unwanted invitation to a concert. Conner had left the room in a hurry after that.
She sighed. It didn't matter, even if Conner was interested in her. He might be charming and handsome, but was also overconfident and brash. Not her type. Or was he? She shook her head, reached for her phone, and dialed Ethan's number.
"Hey stranger," he answered. "Been busy, I guess?"
"Sorry. Things have been crazy."
"StarPrime?"
"Yes. I'm hopefully on the verge of finding out some good stuff. We have some leads, thanks to Sapphire Angel. She paid Conner a visit and gave him information. I've still got more to look into."
"Damn," Ethan murmured and let out a soft whistle. "Lucky guy. How did he score that meeting? What exactly happened?"
"She just showed up and said she was looking into StarPrime, too, and gave him info."
"So now you have two friends who have met her. Me and Conner. Jealous?"
"I'll survive," Beth replied with a laugh. "How are you doing? I miss you."
"I miss you, too. I'm doing great. I'd be doing better if we had a movie night tonight."
Movie night. Beth loved movie night with Ethan. It was just the two of them, kicked back on a sofa, watching a movie without a care in the world. It made all the weighty issues of the world seem far away. If they didn't pick something too long, she'd still have time to visit Wheldon's tower as Sapphire Angel late tonight.
"Move night sounds great," she replied. "Let me finish up here and then let's do it."
"Great, I'll pick something to watch!" Ethan exclaimed. He paused for a moment, before saying, "Hey, I never asked you how's it going with you and Conner."
"Fine," she answered. "He's a good investigator."
"You know that's not what I meant."
Beth gave an exaggerated sigh. "He's just someone I'm working with. Nothing more."
"Of course it's not," Ethan said with a chuckle. "Keep an open mind. You two might hit it off at the conference."
"Conference? What conference?"
"Oh," Ethan murmured. "I thought he would have talked to you about it. At the gym the other day, he mentioned an energy conference in Florida, where someone important to your investigation was speaking. I assumed it was Xavier Wheldon. Conner thought the two of you should go to it and check him out. It's tomorrow, actually."
"He didn't say a word," Beth murmured. She wrinkled her brow. "And wait a second! You go to the same gym? I hope you guys aren't talking about me."
"Nothing other than that you and I are friends."
"Promise?"
"I promise. We don't talk much. His sister is an acquaintance, and I see Conner at the gym once in a while. But I think he might be into you."
Beth stopped herself from blurting out, "Really?" Instead she said, "Well, he's a bit of an arrogant jerk."
"Maybe, maybe not," he said. "We can talk about that later. Get your stuff done and I'll see you when you get here."
"OK, see you soon," Beth said, and hung up the phone. She frowned, shook her head, and decided not to think about Conner.
Beth turned her attention back to her notes and tried to refocus on the case. When she failed, she sighed, stood, and walked to the kitchen. She filled a glass of water before returning to the living room, just in time to hear the last ring from a missed call from her iPhone.
A few moments later, her phone chirped with a text message. She glanced at the screen.
It's Conner. Call me on my office phone.
Beth raised an eyebrow, surprised he was still at the office. She opened the message, used it to find his contact information, and dialed his office number.
"Olivia Lockheed," a mirthless female voice answered.
Beth grimaced. "Hi Olivia, this is Beth Harper. Is Conner there?"
There was a momentary pause on the other end of the line. "He headed down to the vending machine. Is there something I can help you with?" Olivia asked. Beth could feel the antipathy coming over the line.
"I don't know," Beth replied. "I'm returning his call. I'll try him in a few minutes."
"While I have you, Harper, I know you visited Xavier Wheldon today."
Beth paused. Olivia wasn't bringing this up to compliment her on a job well done, and may have even spoken to Wheldon directly.
"That's correct," Beth said.
"And you made some slanderous accusations, right to his face."
Beth's face flushed, and she clenched a fist. "No, not slanderous, Olivia. Probing, perhaps."
"Listen, Harper," Olivia snapped. "We've been through this. You can't make wild accusations against people, especially against a CEO like Wheldon. There's a right way and a wrong way to do things, and you're doing this the wrong way."
"I'll take that under advisement," Beth answered, shaking her head.
"No! You'll do more than take it under advisement!" Olivia screamed, as Beth pulled the phone back from her ear. "You'll stop ruffling so many feathers! Emerson may have agreed to let you stick your nose into agency business, but it won't take much for him to change his mind and get you back to writing about puppies and kittens."
Beth bit her lip. She wanted to snap back, but going head to head with the woman would only cause Olivia to watch her even more closely.
"Of course," Beth said, in as calm a voice as she could muster.
Olivia exhaled. "Okay then. Conner is back. Here he is."
Conner got on the line.
"What the hell happened, Beth? Olivia looks pissed. She just stomped out of here."
"Let's just say we disagreed over my style of doing things."
"It must have been quite a disagreement."
"You could say that. What was she doing in your office, anyway?"
Conner sighed. "She's probably hoping to find something about our investigation. Since she oversees the investigators, she thinks she can poke around when she wants."
"Lovely," Beth said. "Anyway, I'm returning your call."
"I've been staring at my computer screen and needed to talk to someone about it. These pieces just don't fit. The tower. The shootings. Your witnesses clamming up. The officer being suspended for a bogus meeting. Am I missing anything?"
"Th —" she began, but stopped herself. She had almost mentioned the building in the woods where she had tangled with Wheldon's bodyguard, but Sapphire Angel hadn't told Conner about the building. "Uh, nope, I think those are the major pieces."
Now that she had downloaded the photographs of the building from Sapphire Angel's device, it might be time to share them with Conner. He might be full of bluster, but information on the building might help him piece things together. It would also save her from a possible slip up, where she revealed information only known by Sapphire Angel. Her costumed alter ego should have time to visit him, after movie night and after she got a closer look at Wheldon's tower.
"Hey," she said, "do you know about an energy conference in Florida tomorrow?"
"Uh, yea," Conner replied. "I'm going."
"Oh." So his plans hadn't changed after all. There were a few moments of silence on the line before she continued. "I had no idea." There was another pause, as Beth couldn't think of what to say.
"Wheldon will be there," Conner answered, "From what I could find out, attending a conference like this is really out of character for him. It's probably just a coincidence, but even if it turns out to be nothing, I thought it would be a good chance for me to scope him out more. With the various social functions at the conference, it might even be a chance to talk to him. Since I wasn't included in your meeting with him, this would be my first chance to get something from him."
"So I didn't do a good job when I met with him?"
"You did great. But that was on his home turf, and he was prepared for you. This could catch him off guard. Plus, maybe I'll even see who he is socializing with down there." Beth noted how Conner referred to himself. Was this his way of getting back at her for cutting him out of the meeting with Wheldon?
Beth sat back in her chair. "It would have been nice if you had told me you were planning to leave town in the middle of this whole thing." Now the tone in her voice was unmistakable. She was annoyed and hurt.
"I thought you were busy. Plans with that Nick guy."
"What?" she exclaimed, unable to hide her irritation "Nick is just a friend. Not even that, really."
There was a pause before Conner spoke again.
"You could get a ticket to the conference and come," he offered. "I'll email you the info once we hang up."
It was Beth's turn to hesitate.
"I'll think about it," she replied after a few moments. "Airfare will be expensive this late."
As she weighed the need to go to the conference against the desire not to jump at Conner's offer, her phone vibrated. She pulled it back from her ear to glance at the screen, and her jaw dropped. William Tanner. William Tanner was "Bud" Tanner, the fleeing witness from five days earlier who had started this whole mess.
"Conner, I have to go," she said hurriedly and pushed the button to end the call and answer the incoming call. Conner spoke just before the call ended, but his words were cut off.
"Beth Harper," she answered.
"Hello, Ms. Harper," Bud Tanner's raspy voice greeted her.
"Mr. Tanner," she responded. "It's nice to hear from you."
"How is your investigation into StarPrime's purchase of Echo coming along," he asked.
"We're making some progress," she answered, "although I fear we might hit a dead end soon." She bit her lip and twirled her hair around her index finger, as her heart raced in her chest. This was an important call, if he was finally ready to talk. She grabbed a pen and paper tablet from her side.
Tanner paused again. She could almost hear him wrestling with his thoughts. She didn't want to spook him, so she remained quiet.
"In the next five minutes," he said after a few moments, "I will send you an email message with an encrypted attachment in it. The password to decrypt and read the attachment is 32 characters long. When we hang up, I will text you the first 26 characters. The last six characters are 4RT2WT. Got that?"
Beth wrote the characters and repeated them back to him.
"Good," he said, and the line went dead.
"Damnit," she muttered. She wasn't confident his message would arrive, or even contain any helpful information if it did. While she considered this, though, her phone vibrated with a new text message. She opened the message to see a long string of numbers, letters, and symbols.
Moments later, a new email message appeared in her inbox, from a long, nonsensical address she didn't recognize. She opened the message to find an attachment. She double-clicked on the attachment, and a password prompt appeared on her screen. She copied the 26 characters from her phone to the entry box, and finished by entering the six characters he had told her. She hit enter and held her breath.
A string of numbers, which she recognized as GPS coordinates, appeared on her screen, followed by the words, "Tonight, 1 a.m. Sorry for the late hour, but it's the only way I can slip away." Beth furrowed her brow. She knew she should worry about meeting a man she hardly knew at that hour, but her instincts told her Tanner was safe. She didn't have a choice if she wanted to move this case forward. Besides, Sapphire Angel was always on standby.
A 1 a.m. meeting with Tanner might interfere with Sapphire Angel's visit to Wheldon's tower, depending on how long the meeting took. Sapphire Angel also needed to fit in time to pay Conner a visit, and let him know about the building in the woods.
Perhaps the busy night was fate's way of telling her she shouldn't make the last-minute trip to Florida in the morning. If she went to Florida, and didn't get into the tower tonight, she wouldn't get another chance to see it until she returned in four days.
Beth opened the Maps app on her iPhone, keyed in the coordinates from Tanner, and waited. The location that appeared was off a rural road, near the Edgewood nuclear plant and Wheldon's lodge. She didn't want to get her hopes up yet, but this was promising.
She glanced at the clock. She still had some time to kill until movie night with Ethan started. The time ended up being her undoing. She rocked back and forth in her chair, debating with herself about the Florida trip. After a few false starts, her resolve melted away. She leaned towards her computer, found the new email from Conner with information on the trip, and began making arrangements.
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This is like that episode of SpongeBob where he overcommits to WAY too many things. Wonder how she’s going to handle all of this.....oh, well. I’m sure everything will turn out okay. Always great to hear from Bud Tanner again; he kinda disappeared for a while during the early parts of the novel.