Goliath Page 13

  “No problem,” Henry said, giving her a sympathetic look.

  Laura emerged from her room about 10PM. She noticed Henry already had the bowls sitting on the table along with the box of Rice Krispies. There were also some fresh daisies in a vase on the table. Laura hadn’t noticed that Henry had brought them with him when he had arrived after work, but the smile on her face let Henry know they were much appreciated.

  They were just beginning their romantic dinner of Rice Krispies when Laura’s phone rang. It was Samantha calling to see how Laura was doing so Laura didn’t want to just blow her off. Laura indicated with her fingers that she would only be about two minutes, but Henry didn’t believe her. He knew how women could talk, especially if they’re best friends. After he finished his bowl of cereal, he headed off to his bedroom so they could talk in private.

  Henry was sitting in bed under the covers reading a book when Laura knocked on his bedroom door over half an hour later. “Come in,” Henry said.

  Laura pushed the door open but continued to stand in the doorway. She pulled her bulky blue housecoat around her, feeling a little embarrassed to be there. “Sorry about that,” Laura said. “I was really looking forward to our conversation over a bowl of cereal again tonight, but she just kept asking questions about the treatments and how I was doing. She’s been my best friend forever.”

  “We can still talk,” Henry said, tapping the pillow beside him.

  “I can see what you’re up to, you know,” Laura said. “Come into my parlour said the spider to the fly,” she said mockingly.

  “You’re safe,” Henry said, “especially since you’re wearing that blue armour you call a housecoat. Tell me about Samantha.”

  “Samantha and I have been friends since grade three,” Laura said, slowly moving into the room and sitting on the end of the bed. “When my mom died, I practically lived at her place because my dad didn’t seem to want to have anything to do with anyone, including me. We went to the same high school and when she got accepted at Arizona State, I decided I’d go there too. I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up and sort of stumbled in journalism while I was there. When I was offered the job with the Tribune after I graduated, I really debated whether to take it or not because Sam got a job in Toledo. Less than two months later, she showed up at my office to tell me she’d taken a job with the Lifestyles department at the Tribune. We’re like two peas in a pod, never too far apart.”

  Samantha continued to tell Henry about her life. She glowed when she told him about her mother. She had a look of disappointment when she told him about her father. When she started to tell him about the day she discovered that she might have cancer, she crawled towards Henry because she desperately needed to be held.

  “I was so afraid,” she said. “Not so much that they’d found something. I was afraid that it would spread and they’d just keep removing more and more parts of me until there was nothing left.”

  Laura took off her blue housecoat and crawled under the covers with Henry, wearing just her nightgown. She squeezed him so tightly that it felt like she was inside his rib cage.

  They made love, but this was different than the times in the hotel room at the Chicago airport. It was slower, almost like every part of their bodies was involved in the act. Not a word was spoken but they watched each other intensely as if their minds were communicating through a secret force field.

  When they were both spent, they continued to hold each other. That’s when Henry noticed that Laura had tears streaming down her face. He kissed her cheeks and wiped the tears away, but didn’t really understand why she was crying.

  “This is a first for me,” Henry said. “I’ve never had a woman cry after I made love to her. Was I that good or that bad?”

  Laura chuckled. “You were great,” she said. “It’s stupid really. I was thinking about when I was just about to go into surgery. I thought that this part of my life would be over once I had the surgery. I’m glad I was wrong.”

  “You know, I think women think much more about how they look than men do,” Henry said. “Sure, we all gawk at the Playboy Playmate type of girls but we’re attracted to all kinds of women, different shapes and sizes, different personalities.”

  “I just thought that guys would somehow see me as being….flawed,” Laura said.

  “Would you find me any less attractive if I only had one testicle?” Henry asked.

  “Of course not,” Laura replied.

  “Right answer,” Henry said.

  “No way!” Laura said, rising up so she could look Henry in the eye.

  “Check it out for yourself if you don’t believe me,” Henry said. “How did you think I knew so much about radiation treatments? I had to have fifteen treatments after my surgery as well, but I’ve been free and clear of cancer for over ten years now. But not to worry, you can still drive the car using only one cylinder.”

  “Your engine seems to work just fine,” Laura said, reaching down to check out Henry’s claim. “Yep, only one cylinder, but the engine seems to be all revved up and ready for action again.”

  They woke the next morning much later than planned and Henry knew he would be late for work yet again. To make matters worse, he would be leaving early today to catch a plane back to Toronto. He skipped breakfast altogether and raced to get his clothes stuffed into his carry-on bag. Laura was leaning up against the front door of her condo. She didn’t want him to leave, but knew he had to. She was once again wearing her thick blue housecoat, but it wasn’t tied closed like it had always been previously. Perhaps there was a chink in the armour.

  “Are you sure you’re going to be OK?” Henry asked as he scanned the room to make sure he’d packed all of his belongings. “I probably won’t be back for a few weeks.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Laura said. “Samantha gets back today and said she’ll be over tonight.”

  They hugged and kissed each other. Neither one wanted it to end, but Laura finally broke the embrace and opened the door. “Have a safe flight,” she said as she watched Henry walk down the hallway towards the elevators and closed the door.

  “Love you,” Henry said as he walked away.

  Henry’s heart skipped a beat when he realized what he’d said. He hadn’t planned on saying the “L” word yet, it had just come out unexpectedly. But as he thought about it, he realized he did love her, even though they hadn’t been together very long at all. He knew it in his bones. He wondered if he should go back to talk to Laura again. “You shouldn’t just blurt out that you love somebody as you’re walking away,” he thought to himself. “It should be said much more romantically.”

  “Maybe she hadn’t even heard him,” he tried to rationalize to himself as he pressed the elevator button. Besides, he wouldn’t know what to say now if he went back anyway.

  Back inside the condo, Laura continued to lean up against the door. She had heard him and it had caught her completely by surprise. She pulled the drawstring of her thick blue housecoat tightly around her again.

  “Love,” she thought to herself. She wasn’t sure she was ready for that.

  *** Chapter 18 ***

  When Henry got home later that night, he found David and Ashley sitting in the living room watching a movie. They were all cuddled up under a blanket, but lost the blanket and moved a little further apart when Henry walked in the room.

  “Hello Ashley,” Henry said.

  “Hello Mr. Shaw,” Ashley said. “How was your trip to Chicago?”

  “Great,” Henry replied. “How’s Grandma doing?” Henry asked David.

  “Not so good,” David said. “She’s been pretty depressed and she snaps at us for everything. Aunt Jenny has been trying to keep her busy but I’m not sure it’s working.”

  “Try to cut her some slack. She’s worried about Alan,” Henry said. “Did anything else new happen around here?”

  “Not much,” David said. “Alex and I have been working with the trainer to put on some weight and build up our
muscle strength. She’s got us on a special diet and she works us really hard during our sessions. The coaches will be back a week from Saturday for our next tryout.”

  “Make sure you don’t over-do it,” Henry said. “The last thing you need right now is a pulled muscle.”

  “We hardly use much weight at all,” David said, “but we do a lot of reps.”

  The credits were now rolling on the movie they had been watching. “Mind if I change this to the news?” Henry asked. It had been a few days since he’d seen any Canadian news and wondered if they would have any updates on the missing plane, but they didn’t even mention it in their newscast. The news was dominated with stories about the President trying to push through new gun control legislation. There was story after story about the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and the Democrat-controlled Senate fighting with each other. The analysts didn’t think there was much chance of getting anything done due to all of the political tap-dancing involved.

  “These people are all so stupid,” David said with disgust. “I can’t watch any more of this. Ashley and I are going to go study in my room.”

  “You didn’t tell me your trainer was a girl,” Henry heard Ashley whisper to David as they walked away. Henry sensed that David was about to do some tap-dancing himself.

  * * *

  Henry was in the middle of breakfast the next morning when the phone rang. He was hoping it would be Detective Benedetti with some news about the missing plane, but it wasn’t.

  “Mr. Shaw?” asked the caller when Henry answered the phone.

  Henry didn’t recognize the voice. “Yes, this is Henry Shaw.”

  “This is Manuel,” said the caller, but Henry still didn’t recognize who it was. “I’m the superintendent at your brother’s apartment building. Do you remember we met a few weeks ago?”

  “Yes,” Henry said, finally connecting the dots. “What can I do for you?”

  “I’m sorry to trouble you at this time. Your brother’s rent is paid up until the end of the month but I’ve been told to start showing the apartment to new renters and I figured you might want to come and get your brother’s possessions before we do. Or I can arrange to have them put into storage if you want, but there will be an extra cost for that. I’m so sorry. Have you heard anything more about your brother?”

  “No, I haven’t,” Henry answered. “I’ll make arrangements to come get Alan’s stuff, but I’ll have to get back to you later with the details.”

  Henry was still thinking about the logistics when David came into the kitchen for breakfast. “Do you think you and your brother could help me this Saturday load the stuff from Alan’s apartment and take it to a storage facility?” Henry asked.

  “Sure, but I don’t know what Robert’s up to this weekend.”

  “I’ll check with him when he gets up,” Henry said. “Don’t say anything to Grandma about this. It might upset her.” David nodded his agreement. He had already been walking around on eggshells trying to avoid anything that would upset her.

  The next Saturday Henry rented a small cube-truck for the day to move Alan’s possessions to a storage building located fairly close to Henry’s neighbourhood. Robert had agreed to help them move the stuff as expected, as he always seemed to come through when needed. It helped that Robert was probably stronger than both Henry and David combined.

  When they got to his apartment, it didn’t take them long to load the furniture into the truck. They threw out all of the food as most of it had gone bad anyway. The biggest surprise was the number of clothes that Alan had. There must have been thirty suits, some of which looked like they’d never been worn at all, and numerous coats and jackets.

  Manuel helped out a lot, even though he didn’t have to. He even provided some large boxes that had hanging rods built into them that he said he’d kept after another tenant had moved in. As Henry was hanging the suits in the specially designed boxes, he came across one that had a tag with David’s name on it. “For David’s Graduation,” the tag read. Henry could see from the label that it was a very expensive suit.

  “David, I think this was meant to be given to you,” Henry said, holding up the suit so that David could see it. David felt a lump in his throat.

  As Henry put the clothes into the boxes, he kept watch for any others with special tags on them. Sure enough, he came across another tagged as “Robert’s Christmas Present.” This one looked like a very expensive leather jacket. There were several other shirts and jackets that had special tags on them that Henry set to the side. These were obviously presents that Alan had never gotten around to giving, and now probably never would. Henry tried to block that last thought out of his head, but failed.

  They continued to load the truck with stuff to be taken to the storage facility. Henry put the clothes that he had set aside into his car, along with a few boxes of personal papers and a laptop computer, because he wanted to take them back to his house. It didn’t take them long to unload the cube-van at the storage location and they were back home in what seemed like no time at all. Henry was glad to see that his mother wasn’t home when they arrived.

  “David, if it’s OK with you, I’d like to put Alan’s stuff from the car in the closet in your bedroom,” Henry said. “Grandma won’t be poking around in your room.”

  “That’s fine,” David said.

  Later that night after his mother went to bed, Henry went to David’s room and pulled the laptop out of the closet and set it up on the kitchen table. As soon as he turned it on, it prompted for a password. “Invalid password**********” displayed on the screen as Henry took his first guess at Alan’s password. He tried the most common passwords like his birthdate, the name of their dog when they were kids, and even the name of Alan’s first girlfriend from high school, but none of them worked. Henry showed it to Robert when he walked into the kitchen. Robert knew a lot about computers and always seemed to know how to fix computers when they did something strange.

  “I can’t seem to guess Alan’s password,” Henry said. “Do you think you can figure out a way to get around it?”

  “Probably,” Robert said. “Did you try entering “password” as his password? It’s amazing how many people use that as their password.”

  Henry tried it. “Invalid password******” displayed on the screen.

  Robert tried all of the key sequences he knew to try to get around the password prompt, like hitting the F2 or F8 keys, or holding the CTRL key while hitting other keys at the same time, but nothing worked. Robert noticed a small ID that appeared in the corner of the screen. It started off “US” but was followed by a series of letters and numbers that didn’t make any sense.

  “Leave it with me,” Robert said. “I’ll google some of the security sites to see if there’s any information about how to get around it.”

  “Thanks,” Henry said. “It looks like a pretty new computer so it may be useful to one of us.”

  It was several days later when Robert brought the laptop back to Henry. “Sorry Dad, but I couldn’t get around the boot security on the laptop. When I searched the internet for any info on how to get around it, most of the hits seemed to indicate this is a military grade piece of software. Why would Uncle Alan be using security like this?”

  “I have no idea,” Henry answered. “It doesn’t make any sense. Are you sure it’s the same security software?”

  “Pretty sure,” Robert said. “I even put a question on one of the black hat blogging sites to see if anyone could give me any tips on how to get around it.”

  Henry looked concerned because he knew that those types of sites were frequented by hackers looking to share information about how to break into sites. “I’m not sure you should be going to those types of sites,” Henry said.

  “Don’t worry. I don’t use my real name on those sites. No one does. But if anyone shows up at the door asking for “Cow-pie”, you never heard of him, OK?” Robert flashed a sly grin. “But one thing I learned,” Robert contin
ued, “was that you get a limited number of attempts to get the password correct before it thrashes the hard drive, making it useless. You know those stars that appeared at the end of the “Invalid password” message?”

  “Yes,” Henry answered trying to recall the exact message. “But I can’t remember how many stars there were.”

  Robert showed Henry the laptop. “It looks like you’ve only got two attempts left,” Robert said. “I’m sorry, but I probably used a few attempts myself trying to hack in, but I stopped when I found out how few attempts we have left.”

  “It’s probably best if we just leave it alone for now,” Henry said. “I’d hate to fry the hard drive and wipe everything out. Thanks for trying.”

  Robert agreed, but was still disappointed. He prided himself on being able to solve the problems that no one else could. He planned to keep digging, but didn’t want to tell his dad.

  *** Chapter 19 ***

  On Saturday morning, Henry and David were up early as this was the day of the second tryout session for the Under-19 National Team. They were in the kitchen having breakfast when there was a knock on the door. As Henry approached the door he could see through the window that two men in suits were standing on his front steps. He assumed it would be Detective Benedetti and his partner so was caught by surprise when it wasn’t.

  “Are you Henry Shaw?” asked the first man.

  “Who’s asking?” Henry replied, seeming a little suspicious.

  “I’m Officer McKee and this is Officer Wilson,” said the first man. “We’re with the RCMP. We’re here to talk to you about your brother Alan.” They flashed their badges but it was too quick for Henry to really see them.