Chad and Suzan took the escalator up to the first class lounge.

They were just inside the sliding glass doors checking in as Charlene approached the entry. Charlene happened to look down, saw Joe by himself, and chose to go back down the escalator to sit down with him. Chad and Suzan hadn’t seen her and she hadn’t seen them.

Suzan loved the idea of what her life would be like now married to Chad. She was done with scrimping and saving to make ends meet.

The thought of a future filled with money and possibilities was one reason she had started looking for another man while engaged to Joe. She didn’t see Joe moving up the work or social ladder to where she wanted and needed him to be. He was just Joe. Safe but not having enough drive or ambition to hold her interest forever.

She had matured over the last year and started making plans of a life without Joe. He never suspected anything.

He was an honest fool at the end of the day. His lust for wealth didn’t match Suzan’s. His lust for her was obvious, but many a man lusted after Suzan. That was a given. She had simply made a mistake in picking Joe and accepting his proposal after a year and a half of being with him.

She quickly knew that she had a mistake accepting Joe’s marriage proposal but the excitement of it all had made her forget her ultimate goal, temporarily. She settled in to the new aspect of the relationship but kept her eye on the prize off in the distance. Joe was a good place to feel wanted while she looked for the perfect partner.

Suzan had no concept of what the end of this relationship might do to Joe. She wasn’t really worried about that at the moment. They were both busy with work and getting by in a very expensive city. Having Joe to help with her expenses now and then made her life just a little bit easier.

Chapter Twenty-four

Three men in dark suits had followed Chad and Suzan into the airport. Their job was to keep them under observation and to see who might contact them or “vise-versa,” and to make sure they got on the plane to Rwanda.

The trip to Africa was to last over three weeks. The FBI, New York’s City’s finest, the police department and the FTC were working together to land Chad’s father and as many underlings in this scheme as possible.

The authorities were all hoping the younger brother would roll over on the rest of the conspirators when pressed. They would wait to contact him in person until the plane was in the air.

It seemed that these cases needed to be brought in to court every decade or so to remind big business that the government was always watching, though for the most part, they weren’t. It was an impossible task with understaffed agencies and very clever perpetrators seemingly coming out of the woodwork everywhere. Examples had to be made now and then as a reminder to large and small corporations to behave ethically and legally.

Two underciver airport police officers joined the three new arrivals. They spread out and followed Chad and Suzan as they entered the airport passenger terminal. No one noticed Charlene. She wasn’t a traget.

Tom Gordon left the group of officers behind him and walked quickly across the main lobby and rode up the escalator to the first class lounge, well ahead of Chad and Charlene. He walked over to the first class lounge next to where Chad and Charlene would enter and waited in line with the other civilians waiting to get in and relax from their taxing trip to the airport. Tom was not relaxed.

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Have you seen how much they charge for the food in there?

What the hell.