“If you’re telling the truth,” I said, “then answer a few questions.”

“Go ahead.”

“What were you doing here?”

She hesitated a moment before speaking.

“I was meeting Alan. We were going to the Poconos for the weekend.”

“Here? Why meet here?”

“This coffee shop is sort of our ‘special’ place,” she said. “First trip away together and all that. It’s right on the way to the Poconos.”

“Go on.”

“Not much to tell. I went by Alan’s house this morning to get him, and he said he had some things to take care of first. He wanted me to go on up to the condo, and he would come later, but I hated the thought of that long drive by myself. So he agreed to meet me here, outside of our coffee shop. We were going to leave his car in this parking lot and pick it up on our way home Sunday.”

“Tell me every place your car has been today,” I said, wondering where in the chain of events Carlos could’ve gotten out of the car.

“That’s it. From home, to Alan’s apartment, to here.”

“No other stops, no getting gas, nothing like that?”

“No.”

“Did you open the trunk today at all?”

“I don’t think so,” she said. “I loaded everything late last night after everybody else was asleep.”

“Why all the secrecy?”

“Why do you think?” she replied sharply, inhaling on her cigarette. “I’m Alan’s boss, for goodness’ sake.”

I had to sigh. The best I could figure, Alan had tricked Judith, sending her off to the Poconos so he could raid her company’s funds while she wasn’t around. It must’ve thrown him a little when she showed up at his house early this morning, ready to drive off together. But then he had offered to meet her here, telling her he had errands to run first.

A little more fell into place for me then as all that had gone on before began to make sense. Alan had merely used Judith, preying on her competitive urges against her brother to convince her to steal money from Derek’s company and put it into her own. Alan’s ultimate goal wasn’t to drain Feed the Need or to deepen the coffers of Smythe Incorporated. It was to watch the procedure and obtain the codes so that he could eventually move some money himself, this time from Smythe Incorporated into his own hot little hands.

“How long have you been sitting in the coffee shop, waiting?” I asked finally, my arms folded across my chest.

Judith’s face colored.

“A few hours,” she said.

“Long enough to realize he isn’t coming?”

She took the last puff of her cigarette and tossed it onto the ground.

“So he stood me up,” she said, grinding out the cigarette with her toe. “I knew the relationship would burn itself out eventually.”