The (Al)Lure of the Gales

“Evie! You’re a goddamned genius!”

I twisted around, eyeing Malcolm as he stepped into my office with a wide grin painted on his face. He was holding today’s paper in his palms, waving it around like a flag briefly before dropping it on my desk. Confused, I reached out and grabbed it, bringing it closer to read the headline.

“Billionaire Armie Winecroft arrested in connection with AirMax, Inc. ponzi scheme.” With furrowed brows, I glanced up at Malcolm, flabbergasted. “What the fuck is this?”

He shrugged, “your handiwork and might I say, it was mighty nice!”

Sputtering nonsense, my body collapsed into my office chair. The words from the article began to melt as I read them. Winecroft and three other unnamed people had been arrested so far, but the investigation was ongoing. Air wheezed painfully between my lips — this was a fucking nightmare!

Malcolm’s smile dropped worriedly, “are you alright, Evie?”

“No. I am certainly not alright.” Numb, I clench the paper in shaky hands. Ponzi scheme? Airmax, Inc. was a ponzi scheme? “How did this happen?”

“Well, Winecroft got a bit daring with his personal goals. Apparently, the man decided he would keep the money rather than invest it as promised. That idiot motherfucker spent over 500 million dollars of other people’s money.”

“What did he promise all those people?”

“I think somewhere around 34.7% return on investments in less than 180 days. There’s a shorter article further in where a few of the victims were interviewed.” Malcolm frowned, sighing heavily as he sat in a chair. “Some of them leveraged their entire lifesavings and now — poof!” He mimed an explosion with his hands, letting them drop unceremoniously onto his lap. “It’s all gone.”

“W-well,” I stuttered and stopped, swallowing my mounting fear, “did they say they can get the money back?”

He snorted, “you know how this goes, Evie. Even if they do, it’ll be pennies on the dollar at best. When Winston went down eight years ago, I think that was the highest they had ever recovered, and it still was only about 45 cents to the dollar.”

“45 cents on the dollar?” My stomach bunched uncomfortably, I was almost ready to faint. “That’s nowhere near enough money! They need to do something!”

“Calm down, Evie,” Malcolm cajoled, confusion narrowing his dark brown eyes into slits, “I don’t understand why you’re so worried. You never get this worked up about a ponzi scheme, we can’t help these things if they happen.”

A tight smile made its way across my face and I nodded, woodenly. “You’re right, Malcolm. There’s nothing I can do to change it now. What about his seat on the board?”

He grinned suddenly, clapping his hands together. “I may or may not have some happy news to share with you later today.”

“Happy news?” I laughed. “What sort? Hopefully, nothing like this again.”

“I can’t tell you yet, Eves. It’s not for sure yet.”

I pouted, jutting out my lower lip with my hands clasped together on my desk. He stared back, smug, and shook his head for a second time. “That’s not going to work, love.” He tapped my nose as he stood. “I’ve got to get back to my office. I know that that bitch Mix Hamlin is waiting for me.”

“Why is Hamlin here?”

Rolling his eyes, Malcolm straightened and ran a hand through his thick brunette hair. He righted his suit jacket and buttoned it, lifting his hands to check his diamond cufflinks. Quickly, Malcolm reached out and grabbed the bottle of water off my desk and chugged it down. I scowled at him, annoyed that I would have to have one of my assistants get me another.

“Why the hell do you have to take my water every time you come to my office?”

He chuckled. “Yours always tastes better.”

“Fuck off, Marks.”

“No problem, Evie.” He held his hands up in surrender and backed towards the door. “Hamlin comes here every time there’s some sort of investigation. He claims that he has crimes to report, but the only thing he ever has is the same info already printed in the papers, plus those useless rags reporting alien sighting bullshit.”

“Sounds like he wants to help, Marks.” We shrugged at the same time. “The least we can do is humor him. He has about 250 million invested with us. Arvel would have a fit if that old man went somewhere else.”

Malcolm nodded his head, “you’re right, Evie, I know you’re right. However, I’m thinking it would be worth it to have Arvel mad if Hamlin just fucked off or died to save myself of the next three hours.”

“That’s someone’s grandfather you’re bad-mouthing, Marks!”

“Do I look like I give a fuck?” He disappeared after that line, leaving me and his newspaper alone.

My stomach rolled again as I picked the newspaper back up. Armie Winecroft’s photo was just underneath the headline. His sparkling blue eyes looked vacant and haunted as it stared back at the camera, and the normally neatly coiffed blonde hair he wore was frizzled and sticking in all directions. FBI agents were escorting him to a line of dark tinted black SUVs.

“Calm down, Evie.” I muttered, mustering all the courage I had into my frame. “They don’t know it involved you.”

I repeated that mantra to myself for the next five minutes before happily tossing the paper into my empty trash bin. The paper crumbled into it, sinking until it disappeared from view, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The longer I thought, the more anxiety ricocheted inside of me.

AirMax, Inc. was brought into the company by my associate, Lynder Allen. He was younger than me, but intelligent and had a unique eye for detail. The company sported a stellar reputation and though the name sounded like it was a mattress company, AirMax was a small investment firm that started five years ago in a small town out in Kansas.

It quickly rose in fame. The company promised ridiculous returns on investments, and for a while, it delivered. In fact, the company delivered so well that my firm, Lawson, Long, and Marks, brought them into the fold. And now, the raging company had become a shitshow, pariah, and carried a barrage of bad press.

Biting my nail, I tapped the mouse of my Mac and patiently waited for it to wake back up. After my password was entered and the blank desktop came up, I quickly clicked on the Safari link and typed AirMax, Inc into Google.

Bad review after bad review was entered onto their site. The BBB had a banner across their page, advising of the arrests and the dangers this company presented. Cringing, I scrolled down further, seeing that our company website now had a disclaimer as well.

Damn.

Just the legal battles alone were going to cost millions. Then, our firm would have to work to rebuild the stellar reputation we used to have. Grousing, I slapped my hands across the glass surface of my desk so hard that it knocked off the single picture frame that rested there. It shattered as it hit the cool marble floors. Cursing, I reached down and grabbed the frame in my hands.

“Damn!”

“Miss Rhoades?” I sat up quickly at the sound of Miriam’s voice. “Are you alright? I heard a noise.” The young woman had been my assistant for a little over three years. An ex-registered nurse, she was calm, cool, and collected under pressure. She left the hospitality business because of the hours, and when her resume slid across my desk, I jumped at the chance to have her on staff. The woman was phenomenal!

Grimacing, I held up my bleeding hand and the broken frame. “Had an accident, I’m afraid. I’ll need the first air kit.” Miriam’s calm exterior didn’t break. She simply turned and hurried out of my office.

While I awaited her return, my eyes stayed steady on the photograph. Wrinkled edges, smudges and watermarks dotted the ends of it, but you could still see the smiling faces of the subjects. Hand-in-hand, they all stood out in front of an amusement park with painted faces, crappy plastic necklaces, and dirt covered jeans under the sun.

My heart squeezed. We had been so happy then. Where had that happiness gone?

Pain made my eyes flip shut as I forced the memories away. She was gone, and she was never coming back. Blowing an exasperated sigh out of my nose, I chucked the photo into the trash with the newspaper, determined to forget it all again.