The Aspen Account Read Online Free PDF

from Kurt’s computer. He tried to rein his thoughts in. This was a big audit engagement, and he needed to focus if he was going to get it completed with no delays. But even as he began opening the various files on his screen, his thoughts kept wandering back to the Seaton twins. What had them arguing so violently? But more important, why was the legendary Don Seaton off heli-skiing in the mountains instead of attending the emergency board meeting to discuss the threatened takeover of X-Tronic, the company he had built over the past thirty years?

 
     
    6
     
     
     
     
    WALKING INTO THE Red Room Tavern, Sarah Matthews stood against the wall and searched for a few seconds until her eyes found a familiar face at a table in the back. The bar, only a block from the State Capitol Building, was a favorite watering hole for seasoned and aspiring politicians alike. She moved through the tightly packed tables in her long, leather coat and bouncing red tresses. Her emerald eyes seemed to smile, but her mouth had a serious set. She reached the back booth and slid in across from the man seated there.
    “I thought we were never going to do this again,” he said to her. He leaned forward, raising his shoulders as if trying to hide.
    “What made you think that?”
    “You told me we wouldn’t.”
    “And you believed me?” She gave him a disarming smile.
    He sighed. “No, I guess not. But I didn’t think we’d be doing it again so soon.”
    “You’re just too good, Andy—a girl can’t live without you.”
    He laughed. “Apparently not.” He glanced over his left shoulder at a group of senate pages gossipping over their beers a few tables away. “Well, all right, I’m here. What do you need this time?”
    “You have any friends at Cooley and White?”
    “Cooley? Sure, I know some people. But you don’t need me for that. Hell, you have as good a contact in there as anyone. If you need something about Cooley, just ask Kurt—he can’t say no to you . . . unless you’re afraid it could hurt his career.”
    Her eyes fell to the table. “Then you haven’t heard,” she said with a fading whisper that was almost lost to the chatter from the four pages drinking behind them.
    “Heard what? Sarah, you okay?”
    “Kurt died,” she said. She slouched back in the booth and stared at her feet under the table. Every time she said those two words, she got a little more used to the idea that seemed so alien to her. And she hated herself for that. She hated herself for accepting the facts that everyone had given her, for giving up on Kurt without screaming out that everyone was lying. She wanted to pretend that he was just pulling another prank and was probably drinking a beer in a Breckenridge hot tub, surrounded by girls. But she did believe them—believed every damn thing they had told her. Kurt was dead.
    “ What! ” Andy asked. “How?”
    “Skiing.”
    “Oh, my God, Sarah. Are you serious? Kurt . . . ? I’m so sorry.”
    She sat up and wiped away a welling tear before it could escape and betray her vulnerability. “Thanks, Andy. I appreciate it, I really do, but I didn’t come here for that. Now, can you help me out at Cooley and White?”
    “Sure, of course, I’ll do what I can. Just tell me what you need.”
    “Here,” she said, pulling a folded piece of lined yellow notepaper from her purse. “I wrote it all down on this. That’s what I’ll need to start with.”
    Andy reached out for the paper without taking his piercing blue eyes off her face. His fingers drummed on the table, as if he sensed that she wasn’t telling him everything.
    “To start what? What kind of story could you possibly be doing on this?” he asked, unfolding the sheet of paper. “This isn’t some corrupt project manager stealing from Public Works. I had access to those files directly—a fringe benefit of working for the attorney general. But now you’re talking about outside the government. I’ll talk with the people I know at