Chapter 2- Kirsty

Chapter 2

Kirsty

Dom called me 2 days later with a job. I was so excited, I had prioritized my bills in order of urgency, yeah, I’m a bit of a dork. Dom explained that he would send everything over via email. He sent it over later that afternoon and I quickly got to work. I had instructions not to call him once I had finished, he would see it himself.

I only had one rule to follow, do not call him. He would be in touch with me. However, if there was an emergency, I could email him and ask him to call me. I did find that a bit odd, but I just assumed it was because he was constantly busy. I still wasn’t sure what he did and what his company did either, all I knew was that my job was ridiculously easy. I was sent a name and was told to dig up as much information as I could. First name sent to me was an Owen Reed, age 38 from New Jersey.

I typed the name into one of the databases I used whilst in college and a heap of names came up. I had to decide which one by finding more information. I then used the information given to find the person I was looking for. 3 results. The first, born in February 1982 in Saint Peters hospital to David and Susan Reed. Next was born in April 1982, also In Saint Peters hospital to Steven and Melanie Reed. Last was born in September 1982 at home to Harry and Cheryl Reed. I cross examined each one to find the one Dom could be talking about.

The first one was a window cleaner who now lived in New York City with his wife and two sons. I couldn’t see him being of any interest.

The second one had died around 9 months before. I looked into his death; he was hit by a car. No foul play involved. He was unmarried and had no children. There were no signs that he would even run in the same circles as Dom or have anything to do with anything shady.

The last one, however, bought something to my attention. He lived in Ohio now, was made redundant from Telfords a few months back. I decided to look into him further. By the time I had finished, I knew everything about Owen Reed, from his previous job role, to his best friend from middle school. I even found out about an ex-colleague of Owen’s called Dominic Travers. I wondered if this was the Dom who I had spoken to. I sent everything I had to Dom.

I couldn’t do anymore work so I closed my laptop for the night and headed to get some food from the kitchen. I grabbed the frozen pizza from the freezer and threw it in the oven. My cell phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Ah, Miss Brooks. How are you this evening?”

“I’m very good thank you, sir. And yourself?” I asked politely.

“Very good. Thank you for asking. Well done on your findings about Owen Reed. He assures me they are all correct and you even found out things that he wasn’t aware of. You are very good at finding people, so I would like to offer you the job.”

I stared at the phone confused, what? I thought I already had the job.

“You had a different job.” He explained, as if he sensed my confusion.

“I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand.”

He chuckled. “I need someone who can find everything out about people. I needed to test you before you were given the name of someone I actually needed finding- I had to make sure you were as good as I had thought. Turns out, you were even better.”

I blushed at the praise. “Thank you, Mr. Travers.” I added sneakily. He laughed out loud this time. “And you have found me too! Even better!” he cried in delight. He struck me as someone slightly eccentric.

He told me he would be in touch with my next task and to look out for his emails. I would also be paid $300 for my work tonight. The same sort of emails came through every week. I would then have $300 or sometimes $400 transferred into my bank account within minutes of me sending over my findings. It was the easiest job.

It was around 6 weeks after I met Dom when I received the name Tom Jackson. He was the old CEO of a company, Telfords. The same Telfords that Owen and Dom had worked at. I didn’t know if this was another test, but it was very coincidental. I ran though the financial and property searches for everything in is name. I found a hell of a lot on this man, he sounded like a piece of work.

I sent the email off to Dom.

“MR THOMAS OLIVER JACKSON, AGE 36, FROM KENTUCKY. FORMER CEO OF TELFORD’S. MARRIED TWICE, CURRENT WIFE IS MRS HOLLY JACKSON, AGE 23 FROM RHODE ISLAND. SHE IS 13 YEARS HIS JUNIOR. HE HAS 3 CHILDREN, TWO FROM HIS PREVIOUS MARRIAGE TO SARAH JACKSON, ALSO AGED 36, FROM CALIFORNIA. SHE WAS A FORMER BEAUTY QUEEN. HIS FIRST CHILD IS ONLY 4 YEARS YOUNGER THAN HIS CURRENT WIFE. HE HAD A GIRLFRIEND BACK IN COLLEGE, A CALLIE HOLDSWORTH, HE KNOCKED HER UP WHEN THEY WERE 17 AND THEN DUMPED HER. SHE HAS FILED NUMEROUS COURT ORDERS FOR HIM TO PAY MAINTAINANCE, BUT HE HASN’T PAID SINCE HIS DAUGHTER WAS 4 YEARS OLD. HE DEFINITELY HAS THE MEANS TO PAY, HE HAS JUST UNDER $12.7 MILLION DOLLARS IN HIS BANK ACCOUNTS, 3 PLATINUM CREDIT CARDS, A YACHT, A BEL AIR MANSION, 6 LUXURY CARS, 3 HOLIDAY HOMES AND HIS EX-WIFE CURRENTLY RECIEVES $250,000 A YEAR IN SPOUSAL MAINTAINANCE. HIS CURRENT RESIDENCE IS IN THE BEL AIR MANSION WHERE HE LIVES WITH HIS WIFE. THE OTHER TWO CHILDREN, AGES 11 AND 7, LIVE WITH THEIR MOTHER, SARAH, IN A 6 BEDROOM CONDO IN LOS ANGELES. SHE TOO, HAS A BOYFRIEND WHO IS A LOT YOUNGER, AGE 26.

JACKSON HASN’T WORKED SINCE TELFORD’S FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY. HE IS CURRENTLY TRYING TO FIND FINANCING DIRECTORS FOR ANOTHER COMPANY HE IS TRYING TO SET UP, USING HIS OWN NAME AS THE COMPANY BRAND. IT WILL BE THE SAME AS TELFORD’S BUT HE WANTS TO SET THIS UP CLOSE TO HIS HOME IN LOS ANGELES. HE HAD OVER 400 STAFF AT TELFORDS, MOST OF THEM WERE NOT GIVEN THE CORRECT AMOUNT OF MONEY WHEN MADE REDUNDANT, SOME, NEVER RECEIVED ANYTHING, DUE TO REASONS THAT DON’T SEEM TO EXIST. ONE NAME THAT CAME UP THAT DIDN’T RECEIVE A PAYMENT WAS DOMINIC TRAVERS, FORMER EMPLOYEE WHO WORKED AT TELFORD’S FOR FIFTEEN YEARS. WAS FIRED FOR REASONS NOT STATED, BUT HE WAS FIRED ONLY ONE WEEK BEFORE THE COMPANY FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY.”

I sent files along with the email, documenting everything I had found. My cell rang a little while later.

“I would like to meet up tomorrow at 11am. In the same place as last time. I have a proposition for you.”

“I can do 11. See you tomorrow sir.”

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The next morning, I woke up early. I decided to wear something professional, I wore a pair of skinny black pants and a sleeveless shirt, same heels as I wore last time. I called a cab from my apartment and waited for it to arrive. The yellow cab pulled up outside my apartment 15 minutes later, I hopped in, giving the address of the café I was due to meet Dom in around 45 minutes time. I planned on arriving early so I brought my laptop with me. If I needed to find some extra information, I had it then.

Dom arrived at exactly 11am. He glanced round, looking for me. I held my hand up, grabbing his attention. He smiled, nodded once, and headed to the counter. He came to join me after placing is order. “I hope you don’t mind; I am hungry so have ordered a bagel. I have ordered one for you too as I would rather not eat alone. I also ordered some coffees for us both.” “Thank you, sir.” I smiled gratefully. I was too busy trying to get prepared for the meeting that I had forgotten to eat any breakfast.

“Let’s get to it shall we?”

I nodded.

“As you have found, my name is Dominic Travers. I was an employee of Tom Jackson for fifteen years until he dismissed me unfairly. I would have fought the dismissal, but the company filed for bankruptcy only a week later. 4 others were also dismissed unfairly, Owen Reed, Tony Elliot and Matthew Bentley. We were all head of our departments and he fired us all within weeks of the bankruptcy. We are owed around $105,000 between the 4 of us.” My jaw fell open with this information. He continued. “I want Jackson to pay and we need your help. The $100 an hour will not be your wage from now on. Every time you work for us, we will pay you $10,000.” My jaw fell open again for the second time in as many minutes. Just then, the waitress bought our drinks and bagels over. “Cream cheese and smoked salmon. I hope it’s to your taste.” Dom offered. 

We ate in silence while I tried to digest everything Dom had told me. He continued, “I must warn you though, what we will be doing is illegal. We will try to keep your name out of it as much as we can. We have another computer hacker, I can’t disclose his name, but he will be on one end, you on the other. I need you to hack into his accounts and transfer money across. It won’t be the whole lot, it will be a strange amount that will be transferred into an offshore account, you will have to do the work to make it untraceable. What do you think?”

I sat perfectly still in shock. He wanted to pay me $10k? I know it was breaking the law, but Tom Jackson thoroughly deserved it. “Can I think about it?” I asked.

“Of course, I will contact you in 24 hours to see if you want the job. I will give you my card which has my cell number on it. Call me if you have any questions.”

He finished off his coffee and stood. I stood also, I shook his hand and he quickly left out of the doors. I sank back on to my chair. I had a lot to think about.