Lorraine and Griffin left the office while the IT guys came in and tried to fix the system. It would be at least forty-eight hours, which left the two an agonizing stretch of suspense and quandary. Sitting in the back of their limo, crawling down crowded Fifth Avenue, Lorraine folded her arms in front of her stomach from the increasing nausea she’d felt since those computers went down.

“What does this mean for us,” Lorraine asked, “for the company?”

Griffin was staring off, distant, clearly reflecting and not liking what he was seeing in that reflection. “Not sure,” he said, his uncertainty only stirring the nausea in Lorraine’s belly. “Depends on how much was backed up to that cloud thing, how much we lost.”

“You really think Ki is responsible?”

This caught Griffin’s attention, and he turned from the window. “You’re talking about Jeannie and Dennis.”

“He is in charge of the accounting department. If anybody would be involved in embezzling from the company, if anybody would be well-placed to cover up any syphoning of funds, it’d be him, right?”

Griffin nodded. “And he’s definitely involved with Jeannie.”

“You picked up on that, too?”

“Oh yeah, I’ve known it for a while now. Not that I object; to that, anyway. You think those two may have cooked up some pillow talk conspiracy?”

Lorraine didn’t have to think about it for too long. “Set up a shell company, one of many, and route the funds to an outside account. Basically, they’d be buying and selling real estate with your money — ”

“Our money,” Griffin said.

“And keeping the profits.”

Griffin scratched his chin. “I’ll put in a few calls when we get back to the penthouse, have the books audited.”

“But Grif, if Jeannie and Dennis were ripping off the company, they’ll both just disappear, wind up on some island somewhere.”

“Where Ki already is?”

Lorraine had to nod as the limo turned a corner. “That’s a good point. It does seem suspicious, him just disappearing.”

Griffin nodded, turning his gaze back to the window. “Could have planted that computer virus, malware would have set it off at a certain time, and by then he’s long gone. Who knows what he did or where he went? Could have flown out yesterday straight after work for all we know. I suppose I’ll have to hire a PI to track him down.”

The limo drove on, closer and closer to home.

“I don’t know, Grif. I mean, how would Ki have known to run at just the right time? Presumably, he’s been up to this for a while.” As Lorraine thought it out, other things occurred to her. “And why would he have given me that profile with Westmorland in it if he was the one stealing the money? He would have buried it, no?”

Griffin gave it some thought. “Makes sense. Unless he was planning on pinning it on Dennis and Jeannie. I always did sense the tension between them.”

“Yeah, Ki mentioned it to me, too. But that’d be a pretty clever plan.”

Griffin shrugged. “Ready to leave at the drop of a hat, set up that virus, maybe make it look like Jeannie and Dennis planted it, implicate them in the whole mess. I don't know, seems almost too obvious, now that I think about it.” Lorraine sighed, leaning against Griffin. He put his loving, comforting arm around Lorraine and pulled her close. “Don’t worry, baby, we’ll figure this out.”

“I guess my learning centers are on the back-burner.”

“Along with everything else P..E. is up to.”

A nervous tension passed before Lorraine had to prod, “How bad could this be for the company?”

Griffin shrugged. “We’re privately held, so stock’s not a problem. But, we’ve got a lot of partners all over the world. If they perceive us as high-risk, they could pull out of our various projects, leave us in the lurch. That happens too many times, the whole company goes belly-up.” Lorraine leaned in even closer, the limo getting even closer to home. Griffin glanced at her and said, “So what if we lose every dime? We’ll still have each other … right?”

Lorraine turned to him with a snap of her head. “Of course, Griffin, absolutely! I don’t care about the money, how can you even think that?”

“I don’t, baby, of course I don’t. I shouldn’t have teased you like that.”

“That’s right, you shouldn’t have!” Lorraine’s tone surprised even her, angrier and more frightened than she’d expected. The bubble of tension around them burst and the two looked at each other, old friends and soul mates. They could only break out in a self-conscious chuckle, Lorraine returning her head to lean on Griffin’s shoulder. He pulled her even closer.

After a brief pause, Griffin said, “Maybe we should take a little trip.”

“Grif?”

“Sure, get outta here for a few days, let the dust settle.”

“Let the — ? Gee, I don't know … ”

“We need it, Lorraine, you need it. We keep talking about Jeremy taking some time off, maybe it’s time we took our own advice.”

“Griffin, you really think this is the time to leave the company rudderless?”

“Actually, it’s precisely the time. On the one hand, the news could pick up on this, and if it does that’s, bad news for us on a lot of fronts. How bad can things be if I’m out on holiday with my family, right?”

Lorraine could see the logic, but she was less than convinced. “What about your PI, the audit?”

“Best to let the pros handle things like that, Lorraine. I think we’ve learned our lesson about amateur sleuthing.”

“You mean … the company profiles? That’s exposed a great danger to the company, Griffin. You should thank me.”

“And I do, in a million different ways. But, now let’s leave it to the big dogs, eh?”

Lorraine’s nausea got just a little bit worse. “If you say so, Griffin.” She couldn’t help wonder, Why does he suddenly want to get out of town? Is there some danger here he doesn’t want to tell me about?

No, he’s my husband, I trust him, I have to trust him.