The Defenders

Thad would have laughed aloud if there hadn’t been such a stricken expression on Lindy’s face. He thought about relieving her anxiety by refusing the childish invitation, then decided it would be advantageous to accept. The visit would give him a chance to look over her home and judge whether or not it was secure enough.

“I’d love to come to your house for supper, Danny,” he said. “How about if I bring some ice cream for dessert? What flavor do you like?”

“We don’t eat sweets,” Lindy blurted, her cheeks red, her eyes widening more by the second.

“Okay. Then I’ll bring dill-pickle-flavored,” Thad gibed. To his delight, Danny started to laugh so heartily he got short of breath and tears filled his eyes.

Judging by the incredulity on Lindy’s face, it had been a long time since she’d seen her son express that much unbridled amusement.

She finally recovered her composure. “All right. Please join us for supper, Mr. Pearson. And you don’t have to bring pickle ice cream. I suppose we can eat normal flavors once in a while without getting too many cavities.”

“Chocolate okay?”

She didn’t have time to comment before the office phone rang and she slipped into her formal persona to answer. “Pearson Products. How may I help you?”

Thad and Danny watched her grow pale, then reach for the edge of the desk to steady herself.

“What? That’s impossible.”

Thad didn’t know what was being said by the other party to the call but he could tell enough to cause him to reach for the receiver. Instead of balking, Lindy relinquished it to him.

“This is Thad Pearson. Is there something I can do for you?”

“Our business is with Mrs. Southerland.”

“Who has just passed your call to me. Now what’s going on? She looks like you just told her somebody died.”

“Mrs. Southerland has not kept up with her mortgage payments since before Mr. Southerland passed away and there was no insurance on the account to pay off the loan in case of the death of either party. Therefore, she’s seriously in default.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? In plain English.”

“According to the acceleration clause in her contract, we can assess late fees as well as require that the loan be paid in full to avoid foreclosure. Our records show that she is six months in arrears as well as owing substantial penalties and processing fees.”

“That’s impossible. She paid off that loan right after she got her husband’s life insurance settlement.” Thad looked to Lindy for confirmation and saw her nodding rapidly.

“Not according to our records. Since she has chosen to ignore our letters, I’m afraid we have been forced to begin foreclosure proceedings.”

“Hold on. Let me speak to your supervisor.”

“I am the supervisor,” the harsh female voice insisted. “I’m truly sorry for Mrs. Southerland’s situation but it’s out of my hands now. We’ve already filed a ‘Notice of Default’ with the county clerk’s office. This is merely a courtesy call.”

“Wait a minute. How did you get this number?” Thad’s grip on the phone tightened. “Well?”

“Mrs. Southerland left it as a secondary contact when she called our Atlanta branch earlier today. We’ve been trying to reach her at home for weeks with no success. If she had not telephoned us this morning to report a so-called theft of funds we would have had to settle for a registered letter.”

“You’re saying you’ve phoned her at home?” Once again his eyes met Lindy’s. There was no detectable deceit in her expression, only confusion. She shook her head adamantly.

Her scowl deepened as she mouthed, “No.”

“Okay, assuming you’re just mixed up about all this, give me a number where I can reach you. We’ll look into the situation and call you back.”

“Calling me won’t be necessary. If you disagree with our findings you’re welcome to write a letter to the State Banking Department and lodge a formal complaint. If your complaint is valid they may launch an investigation.”

“How long can that take?”

“I really can’t say.”

“All right. We’ll be in touch.”

He ended the call, sat down at his desk and slid his keyboard closer. There were a lot of things a savvy person could learn with the right connections and he counted himself among the best. Anything a hacker could hide, he could uncover.

He sensed Lindy leaning closer to peer over his shoulder as she said, “That must have been a crank call. I checked into everything I owed right after—well, you know when—and the only debt outstanding was for the mortgage. I took care of that months ago. There’s no way I can be in arrears.”

“Do you have receipts? Canceled checks?”

“No. I did everything electronically. That’s the way Ben always handled our bills.”

As Thad typed he noticed that Danny had reverted to his earlier shyness and was clinging to his mother. It didn’t take much to set back his healing, did it? Thad wasn’t surprised. The simplest memory or most innocent incident might be enough to trigger his own PTSD and unless he missed his guess, this seven-year-old was suffering from similar emotional damage.

Had Lindy taken the child to the right kind of doctors after his trauma? Did he dare ask?

Later, he reasoned. There would be plenty of time to quiz her about her son as they worked together. The last thing he wanted to do was make her mad enough to quit, at least not until he’d sorted out the mess she was in.

Frustrated, he leaned back and shook his head slowly, thoughtfully. “It doesn’t look good, Lindy. I can’t tell how far the hackers got yet but one thing is certain. They’ve totally corrupted your accounts to make it look as if you defaulted on the loan the way the bank says.”

“So it wasn’t just the missing cash we discovered today? It’s worse?”

“Much worse.”

Without turning around, he laid his hand lightly over hers where it rested on his shoulder and felt her trembling. Thad didn’t blame her. His own finances were in turmoil, thanks to having to keep the business afloat while he tried to pick up the pieces of his brother’s estate, but his money problems paled in comparison to what someone had done to Lindy.

He sighed. “Look, we’ll figure it out. I’ll work on it until I do. The important thing is not to panic. This can’t all have happened as a result of last night’s burglary. It has to have been in the works longer than that. This plan is sophisticated. Complicated. Somebody went to an awful lot of trouble to ruin your credit.”

“Why me? I haven’t hurt anyone or stolen anything. I’ve never even had a parking ticket.”

“Then you should have called the police the minute you had a reason to,” Thad said flatly. “Doing it now will look suspicious.”

“It doesn’t matter because I’m not calling them.”

One dark eyebrow arched and he stared up at her. “Why not? There’s no way to tell if this mortgage mix-up is connected to the thugs who threatened you to keep quiet last night.”

She met his gaze boldly. “Do you think it’s separate?”

“No,” he admitted quietly, worried about Danny’s mental stress as much as Lindy’s. “I think you’re in the crosshairs of some broad-reaching scheme you have no idea about and everything that’s been happening to you goes with it. There. Satisfied?”

Though she did nod, Thad was sorry he’d been so abrupt. The woman was in way over her head. For that matter, it was starting to look as if he was, too, by making the decision to help her, but he wasn’t about to throw in the towel. No, sir. When a marine was given an assignment, he carried it out no matter the hardships.

At its heart, this task was no different than combat. They—he and Lindy—were facing an unidentifiable enemy whose methods were hidden and whose tentacles of influence reached far beyond what was visible.

The menace was real. Very real. And he was going to protect her. No matter what it took.

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