Page 62 of Finding Love

“Ryder,” he corrected. “Everyone calls me Ryder.”

He heard her take another deep breath. “John is in a dark place. I won’t lie to you. He always has been. My dad, his stepdad, when he was alive was a real SOB. And John always got the back of his hand for mouthing off. Not that sometimes he didn’t deserve it, but…”

“Why call me now?” he asked.

“It was in the news, about the break-in at your home in Seattle. It’s just… That’s sort of John’s style. My mother never wished for either of us to contact you. She claimed it was for the best. For years, I’ve wondered about her past. Then, a few days ago, when we were sitting down having coffee, the news report about your home break-in flashed on the television, I could tell something was wrong. It took me a full hour to get the truth out of her. I’m not sure why—”

“She signed a gag order during the divorce,” Ryder broke in. Everything suddenly made sense. After talking with Brook about his mother, he’d asked his lawyer to look into the divorce settlement. Most of the court documents were sealed, but after finding his father’s original lawyer, the man had confessed to that much.

“Still, she’s my mother,” Faith said, sounding annoyed. “All I could get from her was that you and John had the same father. I had to do the digging myself. I even had to talk to my mother’s older sister, Lindy. The woman is bat-shit crazy.”

He didn’t know why, but he smiled at that thought. Maybe because he had never known that he had an aunt on his mother’s side.

“Why do you believe it was your brother… my brother, who broke into my place?” he asked.

“John is a huge computer nerd. He dealt with Bitcoin and had some shady trading and stock practices. After he left, we found out that he’d stolen a bunch of money from everyone in the family. Every time he’d visit someone, he’d plant a software or app on their computers or other devices, whatever he could get his hands on. Each and every one of us, my mother, my aunt, my cousin, and even my boyfriend at the time, was hit. John got more than ten grand from us.”

Ryder sat up and thought about the accounting department’s discovery of missing money from Mark’s department.

“Do you have more information on what software he used?” he asked.

“I don’t. I’m not very computer savvy, but my ex-boyfriend knows all about it. He’s the one who discovered it and cleaned up everyone’s devices. I can give you his name and number if it would help.”

“Thanks,” he said, jotting down the information.

“Like I said, I wasn’t going to contact you, but it’s been a week since I found out… well, everything. I don’t know if you have any other family, but… I just wanted you to know I existed. I didn’t have the best role model in my family, and I’d like to say that John was a good brother, but that wouldn’t be true. For as long as I can remember, he’s had a mean streak. I mentioned my dad, how he was to John, but that’s no excuse for my brother. He’s been in and out of jail from as far back as I can remember. My mother is…” She took a deep breath. “She’s extremely selfish and secretive and was an absentee parent for most of our lives. I hope it wasn’t him breaking into your place. I hope that he hasn’t tried to suck you dry, but I fear… Which is why I’ve called. If it is him, you may or may not have noticed money missing already. He’d start small. A few dollars, maybe hundred at first. Then, if you didn’t notice it, thousands.” She paused. “God, if he has had an entire year…” She dropped off.

“Thank you,” he said, breaking the silence.

“I’m just outside of Portland, by the way. If—when—you find out if it was John,” Faith added.

“Faith?” he said, suddenly feeling a kinship with the woman. “Thanks for calling me.”

“Sure. I only wish I’d known about you sooner. I wish…” There was another pause. “I’m sorry if it was my brother. I hope they catch him. I hope he hasn’t hurt or bothered you too much. If you need anything, here’s my number.”

She rattled it off, but since it had registered when she’d called, he already had it.

“Thanks,” he said. “I appreciate the warning.”

“It was nice talking to you. You sound like him, but… nicer,” she added with a chuckle. “If you need me…”

“I’ll call,” he said, before hanging up.

He sat there, looking at the phone and thinking. After a while, he picked up the phone and called Faith’s ex-boyfriend, who answered on the second ring.

Ten minutes later, Bryan had walked him through scanning his laptop for the software he had called Basement.

Ryder remembered the folder Nick had sent to Josh and held in a groan.

Apparently, what the software did was connect your financial accounts to a bogus trade or stock company account. Then it would add a small purchase to each transaction you made. Each day’s pennies or even dollars would be moved from the holder’s accounts. Because of the way the software was written, each transaction would show up as either an accounting error or a fee of sorts.

“Most of us didn’t even realize we were missing money. I’m very meticulous when it comes to my finances, being basically broke, but still, John got almost two grand from me over the six months that I was seeing Faith,” Bryan said while they waited for the search on Ryder’s laptop to finish.

Ryder already knew that the file was there, even before the search completed. His stomach rolled as his anger grew.

“It’s there, isn’t it?” Bryan asked.

“Yeah, how do I delete it?”