I need your help

Chapter 41 - I need your help

It had been a full week since Torin learned the secret about Kelly and Tina, and he had not kept it to himself for long. That same evening, after most of the people had slept at the Blazing Tower office, he asked Lenna to stay behind. They sat in a quiet corner away from the ringing phones and passing footsteps while Torin told her everything he had discovered. Lenna listened without interrupting, and when he finished, she leaned back in her chair.

“Give me a few days,” she said. “I’ll see what I can find.”

“You think you can find something?”

“I didn't say that. I said I'd look.”

She did more than look. Over the next few days, Lenna contacted old connections, called in favors, and followed money trails hidden behind layers of companies and private accounts. She spent hours going through records and making calls, slowly piecing together a picture that became worse with every answer.

On the sixth day, she placed a thick folder on Torin's desk.

“You should look at this.”

Torin opened it and went through the documents. There were bank statements, company registrations, property records, and lists of transactions. Money had been moving between businesses that barely seemed to conduct any real work. Then he noticed a familiar name.

“The Mayor?”

Lenna nodded. “Some of the transfers lead directly to people connected to him. Others go through companies that seem to exist only to hide where the money comes from.”

Torin turned another page. “How much?”

“Enough that I wouldn't want my name anywhere near it.”

He continued reading until he reached the end of the folder. Lenna watched him before speaking again.

“The money is bad news, but that's not what concerns me most.”

Torin looked up. “Then what does?”

“You.” She rested her hands on the desk. “They know you have a clean reputation and enough connections that people would believe you were involved if someone wanted to make it look that way.”

“You think they're using me?”

“I think you should assume they are until we know otherwise.”

Torin closed the folder and put the papers back inside. “Keep looking.”

“I will.”

“And get some sleep.”

Lenna gave him a tired look. “You should take your own advice.”

The next morning, Torin went for his usual jog to clear his head. The cool air and steady rhythm of his footsteps helped for a while, but his thoughts soon returned to Kelly, Tina, the Mayor, and the money. Most of all, he kept wondering why they had chosen him. If they wanted to hide the money, there were easier ways. If they needed someone to blame, there were plenty of people with fewer connections than him.

By the time he reached Blazing Tower, he had worked himself into a faster pace without noticing. As he approached the glass entrance, he saw Tina standing outside with her phone pressed against her ear.

“Fuck all that money—”

She stopped when she saw him.

For a moment, her expression froze before she forced a small smile onto her face. “Yeah, we'll talk later,” she said into the phone, ending the call.

She lowered the phone as Torin approached.

“Morning.”

“Morning.”

They passed each other without another word. Tina walked away quickly, and Torin watched her disappear down the sidewalk before entering the building.

Later that afternoon, Torin and Lenna drove to his ancestral home on the other side of the city. The neighborhood was still one of the wealthier parts of town, with tall gates, clean streets, and a small park where children played while their parents watched from benches. The house itself had kept its traditional shape despite the renovation. Most of the upper floors were already restored, leaving only parts of the ground floor unfinished.

The head supervisor met them at the gate and led them inside while explaining the progress. The old walls had been restored to their original colors, the damaged furniture had been repaired or replaced, and the rooms were slowly beginning to look the way Torin remembered them.

As they walked through the house, Torin noticed small things from his childhood. A scratch on an old wooden table. A cabinet he remembered opening when he was young. The familiar shape of the dining room.

Eventually, they reached the last closed door.

“This is the only room left,” the supervisor said. “Your sister's room.”

Torin opened the door.

Unlike the rest of the house, the room still looked as though the fire had happened yesterday. Several floorboards were missing, bare soil showed beneath them, and black soot covered parts of the walls. Broken furniture had been pushed into one corner, and the faint smell of smoke still lingered in the air.

Then Torin saw the windowsill.

A single photo frame sat there.

He walked over, picked it up, and wiped the dust from the glass. His sister smiled back at him from the photograph.

Torin stared at it for several seconds before placing it back where he had found it.

“Don't touch this room yet.”

The supervisor looked at him. “But the flooring—”

“I know. Finish the rest of the house first and come back to this one last.”

The man nodded and wrote something on his clipboard.

Torin gave the room one final look before leaving.

Lenna was waiting by the car. She did not ask what had happened, and Torin did not explain. They returned to Blazing Tower without much conversation.

Back in the office, Torin sat at his desk and opened the apartment applications. He went through them one by one, checking backgrounds, references, employment history, and previous addresses. After nearly an hour, only a handful remained.

Across the room, Lenna worked through a stack of paperwork, entering bills and contracts into the system. Torin watched her for a moment before turning his chair toward her.

“Lenna.”

She looked up. “What?”

“I need your help.”

Read up to Chapter 55 and weekly updates of 10 chapters along with different stories as well on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/KDaddy935?vanity=user