Missing Hart--Part Two

Two more days passed with no phone call from the kidnapper and no leads from the money. Jennifer tired of sitting and waiting decided to go into Jonathan’s office.

"Mrs. Hart!" Nick said as she entered Jonathan’s office.

"Good morning Nick." Jennifer looked around the office to find papers, pizza boxes and soda cans everywhere.

Nick smiled sheepishly. "I hope you don’t mind. Mr. Hart’s office has become command center for this stock buy-out thing. We figured even though he wasn’t here, he’d still want us working on it. Stanley just ran out for some coffee. You want some?"

"No thank you. That’s fine Nick. In fact, I want you and Stanley to get me up-to-date on this stock thing. I think it may be related to Jonathan’s disappearance."

"I thought you got a ransom call?"

"I did but, after giving the money, Jonathan is still not home. I don’t know. There’s something strange about the whole thing...." Jennifer words trailed off.

"Like it was a diversion?" Nick asked.

"Yes, something like that."

"Mrs. Hart!" Stanley said entering the office. The site of her caused him to spill some of his coffee. "Oh, I’m really sorry. Here let me clean that up." He set his coffee Jonathan’s desk spilling some on the papers.

"It’s alright Stanley. We’ll ask Deann to get some one to clean up. Tell me what you and Nick have found out about the stock."

"Well we actually made some headway. We found that all the stock is being brokered through Hamilton, Weiss Brokerage located at 650 W. Calista Street…"

"Jonathan owns that building," Jennifer interrupted.

"Yes, well, they aren’t being too helpful."

"Why not?"

"Something about confidentiality."

"Can we evict them?" Jennifer blurted frustrated by the constant barriers.

"Not legally."

"Damn!" Jennifer walked around Jonathan’s desk, sitting in his chair. She looked over his desk. Even covered with papers she could see the pictures of her and Max, the momentos from travels they had taken and framed poem she had written to him just before their marriage.

Jennifer wiped a tear away as she looked up. Stanley and Nick waited quietly for her to do something. Shifting to sit up straight in her chair she said, "So which one of you will be visiting Hamilton and Weiss with me this evening?"

"This evening?" Stanley asked. "They will be closed this evening."

"Yes they will," Jennifer said raising her brow. "As a landlord I have a right to inspect my property at any time."

"Well, technically you need to give notice," Nick corrected.

"Well, too bad. So, who’s coming?" Nick and Stanley looked at each other and then at Jennifer. She sat back in the chair waiting for a response.

"I guess I can go," Stanley said reluctantly. Jennifer had hoped that Nick would step up. She thought the world of Stanley but his bumbling antics might get them in trouble. Nick, however, did not volunteer.

"Fine. I will pick you up here at 9."

"I’ll have coffee and pizza waiting for you when you get back," Nick offered.

"Nick, you can’t live on pizza. Order from La Scalia and charge to the Hart account. This is, after all a business meeting." Jennifer got up from the chair and went to the table covered with more papers. "Tell me what else is going on in Hart Industries."

Jennifer, Nick and Stanley spent the day together going over all aspects of Hart Industries that Jonathan would have been working on. Except for the stock issue, everything else was going smoothly.

"Well, here we go," Jennifer said as she used her coded card to enter the building.

"How will we get into Hamilton Weiss?" Stanley asked nervously looking around.

"I brought a special key." They walked through the building, using the stairs to get to the 6^th floor. At the door to the Hamilton and Weiss brokerage firm, Jennifer took out a nail file.

"Mrs. Hart!" Stanley exclaimed at the site of her picking the lock. "How?...Where?..."

"Mr. Hart taught me," Jennifer responded, amused by Stanley’s response.

"Mr. Hart? How?... where?..."

"I think he was a thief in his former life." Jennifer opened the door. "Do we know which broker is doing the transactions?"

"It appears to be the head of the firm, Joe Hamilton." The two headed to the office marked ‘Joe Hamilton’. Fortunately it was unlocked. They proceeded to search the office for documents or other information about the trading.

"I am not finding anything," Jennifer said after going through each drawer. "Maybe they store documents in a different room."

"Here’s something," Stanley said as he hacked into the computer.

"Stanley! How?... where?..."

"Oh," Stanley blushed. "Mr. Hart. He likes people to purposefully break into Hart Industry’s computers to find where they are vulnerable and then we try to fix it."

Jennifer nodded, impressed with Stanley’s talents.

"Here is a list of names and stock amounts."

Jennifer went to stand behind Stanley. "Look at that. Richard Peterson, Richard Peters, Rich Petersen, Rich Peter, Dick Peterson, Dick Peters, .... And then look, on the close of market on Friday they are buying 100 shares each."

"Weird."

"Yes." Jennifer agreed. "Stanley, can you print this out?"

Stanley checked to see that there was a printer and then printed the information.

"What do you think of this?" Jennifer asked.

"Whatever it is, I don’t like it."

"Let’s get back to Nick and see what he thinks."

"Good luck trying to hunt down people with these names. There must be hundred’s of thousands of people with some variation of Richard and Peter in their names," Nick said looking over the paper.

"It’s got to be one person." Jennifer said sitting at Jonathan’s desk. "But we couldn’t find any address or social security number to go with the name."

"I don’t get why if they want to get their hands on Hart stock they just don’t buy the 1000 or whatever under their name?" Stanley said.

"You know how Mr. Hart is Stanley," Nick said. "The minute that happens, he goes on the offensive. He buys it or moves it or what ever he does. Everyone knows when it comes to trying to make a run on Hart stock, Mr. Hart is cutthroat."

Jennifer’s head snapped towards Nick. She had never heard Jonathan described like that. On the other hand, Hart Industries was created and built by Jonathan and he did protect it. He was fair in business but he would never let anyone take his company. "That’s probably it!" Jennifer exclaimed.

"What?" Nick and Stanley asked.

"Whoever is doing this knows Jonathan will eventually stop it no matter what bizarre technique they use to buy it. So they took him."

Nick and Stanley nodded. It seemed the most logical of explanations they had yet come up with. "So what do we do now?" Stanley asked.

Jennifer got up. "I’ll talk to Capt. Gray and see if he can help. By the way, if he asks, we don’t remember how we got that stock information from Hamilton and Weiss."

"Looks like I am going to be here awhile alone," he thought to himself. "At least they aren’t intent to kill me," he deduced from the stock of food. Still, he didn’t like how the room was sealed up. That it was so quiet. That no one had been there to check on him. That he seemed to be buried alive.

His eye caught an air vent near the ceiling. Climbing on a chair, he worked the cover off. It seemed to vent up between two firm metal walls. The room was a hidden room, he decided. But where is the door? Jonathan began to pull the paneling off the walls. It took most of the day before he had ¾ of the paneling down and found a door. The walls were made of metal that reminded him of a meat locker. The door had no handles or hinges in the room. Standing back, then running shoulder first, Jonathan attempted to knock the door open.

"God dammit!" he yelled on the second attempt after hearing a pop in his shoulder. "I am getting to old for this." Jonathan sat on the bed to rest his arm and his soul. He was truly trapped. The room was sealed. No one would find him unless they knew he was there.

Jennifer was exhausted. She chastised herself for her lack of energy. She wasn’t eating well and she knew it. She just didn’t have interest in eating. In fact, it seemed to leave a funny taste in her mouth. And as tired as she was, she just couldn’t sleep. The worst part was being in the house, alone. She spent as much time as possible at the office where she felt useful and close to Jonathan.

Jennifer sat in Jonathan’s chair going over reports and letters Deann had left her.

"Mrs. Hart?" Nick said poking his head in the door.

"Come in, Nick." Nick and Stanley entered the office. The grim look on their faces told Jennifer bad news was in the making.

"What’s up?" she asked gearing herself up for the worst.

"Well, the board is requesting a special session to talk about Mr. Hart’s absence." Nick started.

"His absence? You make it sound like he’s run away."

"They know, we all know that Mr. Hart’s disappearance is not of his own doing."

"So what’s the meeting about?"

"Now these guidelines are set in the by-laws and policies made by Mr. Hart...."

"Nick just tell me."

"Well, the board wants to elect someone to take Mr. Hart’s place... temporarily until he gets back."

"What?"

"They are worried the news that he is not running the company... that no one is running the company will hurt stock values and current business negotiations. It’s really routine."

Jennifer slammed her fist on the desk. "There is no way I will let the board or any one else take this company from my husband."

"That’s not it at all."

"It isn’t? Then why the stock run, why is he missing..." Jennifer stood up quickly, to assert herself more forcefully. Immediately she felt lightheaded. She put her hands on the desk to steady herself.

"Mrs. Hart? Are you okay?" Stanley asked moving towards her.

Jennifer looked up towards him. She would be okay once the room stopped spinning but it just seemed to move faster and faster and got darker and darker until there was nothing.