BXBX NOVEL Chapter 534 - Ray Means King
On Sarah's laptop, three windows for virtual conference call were open.
Jeff greeted everyone and said that he needs to go through some documents for tomorrow's meetings, leaving JoAnna to chat with her sisters.
When Felix saw this, he also excused himself and went to the study room to catch up on his work.
Aiden observed that he is the last man standing, so he gave Sarah a peck on the cheek, "I will keep busy on my laptop." He got his laptop and went to the sofa behind Sarah.
That left three sisters to talk.
"You are not in Seattle?", Sophia frowned when she realized that Sarah is in a room which she does not recognize.
"No, we are in Reno. We will stay a day or two before coming to Seattle. Why?"
Sophia's expression didn't hide her displeasure. "We are hiring personal security. I narrowed down the choices, but I was hoping that you can help me do final selection by testing them out.", Sophia explained.
Sarah exhaled. She wants to help, but she wished that Sophia asked her in advance. "When did you think that to happen?"
"I thought you will be home today. And I got them to come tomorrow afternoon… I guess I will need to ask them to come in few days…" Sophia was looking at her schedule.
Sarah glanced at Aiden. "What do you think?"
He gave a small nod.
Sarah smiled and mouthed 'Thank you' before turning to her laptop. "Big sis, stop that. We will be at your new house tomorrow after lunch."
Sophia lit up. "Really? Oh, thank you! Thank you very much! If you come for lunch time, it's my treat."
"How are wedding preparations going?", Sarah asked.
Sophia was back to frowning. "We will talk tomorrow."
JoAnna was listening and grinning the whole time while her body made small involuntary movements.
Sarah laughed. "OK. Anna… I see that something will burst out of you if you hold it any longer. What happened?"
JoAnna didn't hesitate. She was waiting for her sisters to give her attention before she speaks. "We visited gran and gramps… and guess what? Two of us met 17 years ago! And at that time, Jeff told gramps that he will come back when he is older and marry me!"
Sarah was first to react: "You are kidding, right?"
"No, no… he left a letter and there are photos. Let me send you." JoAnna fiddled with her phone.
Sophia read the letter, "That sounds like Jeff. Domineering even from young age."
Sarah giggled, "In a way, it's romantic… considering that it's from Jeff."
Sophia burst into laugh while looking at her phone. "Anna, you were always a glutton. Two ice-creams at the same time? And look how messy you are!"
JoAnna rolled her eyes. "Now I'm sorry that I sent all three photos that gran found. Focus on the group photo. Jeff is right next to me!"
"Wah! Jeff was cute as a kid!", Sarah smiled and turned to Aiden. "Honey, you need to show me your childhood photos!"
Aiden nodded vigorously with a huge smile on his face. He liked that she called him 'honey'.
Sophia still could not believe that JoAnna and Jeff met as kids on East Coast. JoAnna was telling them how Hill and White grandparents live in the same area, and they know each other! That is how Jeff ended up on a playdate with JoAnna.
Sarah scrolled her phone and looked at the third photo. The one with five-year-old JoAnna and a man in the background. The man got Sarah's attention.
"Anna, who is the man on this photo?", Sarah showed her phone to the camera.
JoAnna shook her head. "I don't know. I asked gran and gramps about him, they also don't know. Best guess is that he is seasonal worker who helped with horses."
Sarah absentmindedly nodded and stared at that man. 'Why does he look familiar? Why would a man from 17 years ago on East Coast look familiar?'
Sarah was lost in her thoughts and didn't hear rest of the conversation between her sisters. Only at the end, Sarah snapped back to reality and confirmed to Sophia that they will be in Seattle tomorrow. Sophia promised that she will treat them to a good lunch. Aiden liked that; it was obvious that he was listening in to the conversation between sisters.
…
"What are you thinking?", Aiden was next to Sarah. He could not miss that she is lost in thoughts, both JoAnna and Sophia logged off, and Sarah was still in the virtual conference room.
"This man… from an old photo… why do I think I know him?", Sarah got an idea and placed her earpiece in.
"Eve, process this photo…" Sarah sent photo to Eve from her phone. "Man in the back. Run facial recognition with people who were on Hill properties. Start from five years ago to present. Consider deviation in matches due to this appearance from 17 years ago... show me results of everyone who matches 85% and above."
Aiden waited for Sarah to finish and looked at her questionably.
She explained. "I know him. He was on the property of my grandparents 17 years ago. If my suspicion is correct, he was on our other properties as well. Eve is not setup on all our properties, but she can access existing security cameras. Maybe he is my mom's helper and was there to ensure Anna's safety. If that is the case, I can confirm with Stella. But knowing my mom, people associated with her don't get recklessly photographed like this. And look at him… he is almost smiling, either oblivious that he is being photographed, or he is photobombing on purpose. Something does not feel right here."
Aiden kissed her temple. "Follow your intuition. So far it was not wrong."
He stood up and extended his hand to Sarah. "While waiting for Eve to finish her thing, how about you let your fiancé help you freshen up? We leave tomorrow after breakfast, so we should get ready and go to sleep."
Sarah smiled and took his hand. "My fiancé does not need excuses if he wants to shower together with his fiancée."
She laughed seeing his grin. "And I am more than happy to wash your back."
"Only back?"
"Whatever needs washing…"
Two of them took their time in the bathroom.
When they got out of the shower, Eve's results were ready.
Sarah looked at results with a complex expression, and as she proceeded her expression darkened.
"It seems you were right.", Aiden commented as he took a seat next to her.
Based on results, the man from 17-year-old photo appeared on few properties of Hill family. One of the most recent one is that 4 years ago he was in the car workshop on their New Mexico property. "Eve, pull out employee data from 4 years ago…"
The man even had 91% match of facial features with King, their neighbor from Fairfield. Sarah pointed at that result. "Brother, maybe?"
"It can be the same man wearing a disguise.", Aiden voiced his opinion no matter how much he didn't like the sound of it.
Sarah looked through employees who worked at their New Mexico car-ranch four years ago. "This one…", she pointed at an employee name Ray and opened details of his employee profile which had a photo attached. She confirmed her suspicion.
"How did you know it's him?", Aiden was amused. Out of about twenty names she just pointed at one and got it right.
"Ray means King in Spanish…", Sarah weakly responded. "I don't think that our neighbor from 12B is a brother. I think it's the same man."
Aiden frowned. "So, either your mom is watching you, or is someone else."
Sarah didn't respond. "Eve, do facial recognition for the same man in Orion Enterprise as well."
She spoke to Aiden without diverting her gaze from the screen. "If he is watching Anna and me, there is a high chance that he was around Sophia also. Regardless if he is there because my mom sent him or not, this is definitely related to mom. She got me that apartment in Fairfield."
Aiden looked at the photos of the man on the screen for some time. Different style outfits, in some he was wearing glasses and in some not, different hairstyles. "Sarah, this man looks like the one from Las Vegas. The one who came out of VVIP room with bunch of bodyguards… the one who was staring at you."
Sarah held her breath. "He was at the security conference as well…"
Aiden got his laptop. "I will go through security footage in that building to get his face so that Eve can do comparison."
He looked at Sarah who was not moving, obviously troubled. Aiden held her hand in his. "Let's gather information now, and leave coming to conclusions for later. Tomorrow we can talk to Stella about this, together. No matter what the case is, she should be able to give us an explanation."
Sarah relaxed and nodded before turning to her laptop. "I will find out more about the identities he used.. There might be something useful there."