Going Under_ A Bill Roberts Thriller - Silas Payton Page 0,53

made sense to me, but he said it was a standard risk in his line of work. When I questioned him, he would tell me he had insurance to protect us in such an event and I shouldn't worry."

"Your husband seems very thorough. Is there any chance he may have kept a computer backup in case something happened?" he asked.

"Andrew was paranoid about someone getting into his stuff. He kept his laptop hidden when he had it at home," she said, as she opened the double doors to the closet. "He always said that if someone broke in, they'd take a look in the closet and totally miss his computer."

From the desk, Cliff saw a hamper with a pile of laundry, stacks of bed sheets and linens, and a number of large cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other. To him, it looked like the Livingstons used the closet for storing things they didn't have room for elsewhere.

She went over to the pile of laundry and removed a few items from the pile. "This is where he would hide his laptop when he wasn't using it. I assume he brought it to work yesterday. He said he always deleted anything work related that he wasn't currently working on anyway."

She put the clothes back in place.

"There is the possibility that he kept something in the safe," she said.

She walked over to the stack of cardboard boxes and grabbed the sides of the bottom one. She pulled, and the front and sides came away from the rest. Behind the false box was a safe which the other boxes sat on top of.

"Why the elaborately hidden safe?" Cliff asked.

"I'm not sure. I told you he'd gotten a little strange a few months back."

"I haven't been in the safe since he set it up in the summer." She knelt down and punched in the code. When she opened the door, Cliff saw what appeared to be stacks of cash.

Mrs. Livingston froze. She stared into the safe, not saying a word.

Cliff rose and walked over to her. "From your reaction, I'm guessing that cash wasn't there last time you looked."

"I've never seen so much money in one spot. And, no, it sure wasn't there before. Andrew said the safe was for passports and jewellery. He didn't say anything about stashing stacks of cash." She bent over to get a closer look, but seemed hesitant to touch anything.

"Do you mind if we see what else is in there?" Cliff asked.

She sat back up and turned to Cliff, who had knelt next to her. "I've got a really uneasy feeling about this. Is there something going on here you're not telling me, Detective Jones?"

"Mrs. Livingston, there is so much that's happened in the last fifteen hours, I wouldn't know where to begin. I can tell you, we are beginning to suspect that what happened to your husband wasn't suicide. I'm afraid, he may have gotten caught up in a much larger situation. I can't give you specifics yet because we don't know. All I can ask is for you to trust me. If someone was responsible for Andrew's death, we might be able to catch them, but we need a really big break."

She looked back to the safe and nodded towards it. "You think there might be some answers in there?"

"I hope so," he said.

One at a time, she took out four inch-high stack of bills and put them on the floor. When she removed the last one, she flipped through the stack. On top was a hundred dollar bill, and after she got to the bottom, she said, "Whoa. They're all hundreds!"

She reached back into the safe and removed a box. She opened it and smiled. "This is what I expected to find in here. It's the box for my jewelry."

She kept searching and found four passports bundled with an elastic band. Behind the passports was a brown Manilla envelope. She withdrew it, and Cliff noticed it was sealed and had the name Jennifer written on it. She turned it over, puzzled.

"Are you Jennifer, Mrs. Livingston?" he asked.

"Yes. Sorry." She put her hand out toward him. "Jennifer...Jennifer Livingston."

They shook hands and Cliff said, "Pleased to meet you, Jennifer."

She gently tried to lift up the sealed flap, but it wouldn't give. Jennifer looked at Cliff, then ripped it open. She pulled out a single-page handwritten note.

Cliff watched as she read the note and her body went still. The colour started to drain out of her face.

"Jennifer,