Chapter 80: Adley & Mr. Mike

Mina had voluntarily reached out to shake Zane's hand, and she felt that her hand was being held by him a little too long, so she tried to politely withdraw her hand from his, but he held firm and she had to use a bit of force. Subconsciously afraid she might have just offended another rich man; Mina politely bowed her head and thanked Mr. Zane for reviewing her resume. She spoke carefully and professionally. She let him know that there was no chance of anything other than casual conversation, she had learned a long time ago that men often misinterpreted her smile as an invitation, and she had become accustomed to setting firm lines between herself and those she was uninterested in. What Mina did not know was that Zane was extremely pleased by her actions. The girl was not swayed by his flirting. He approved of her for his friend.

Unfortunately, Zane was not working with a full set of facts. Ian had failed to mention what Mina had lost during their encounter, and he had failed to mention that not only did he starve her for three days, but he forced her to drink from the shower, and then fed her poisonous mush. Ian failed to tell Zane that he allowed the girl to think he killed Ellie and that he had also killed two of his guards. Zane, however, did not know this. All he knew is that the girl his friend was taken with, was now standing in front of him. He vowed to put his match making skills to good use.

----

Ian did not like the way Zane was looking at Mina. His gaze held an intention that was indistinguishable, and he could tell it made Mina uncomfortable.

"Zane, let's go. I want to talk to you about something," Ian said, but Zane ignored him. Reaching out to take Mina's hand again he bid her farewell.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you." Mina hesitated in shaking Zane's hand again, but she relented. He did not seem like a bad person; he was probably just naturally flirtatious. Still, she kept the handshake brief and snatched her hand away after barely shaking his. Zane smiled again and walked out of the room. Mina's eyes unintentionally caught a glimpse of President Lee's face and it looked like he was suppressing his anger.

'Does it really bother him to see someone treating me nicely? Is he going to kill this man too?' She thought.

----

Zane and Ian entered the study only to find Luna looking at her phone with a stressed expression. She was not an impatient person, so it could not have been caused by waiting for them to return. Zane wanted to ask about it, but there were more important matters to attend to.

"Why did you call me here?" Zane finally asked.

"We want your opinion on what we should do with her," Luna said. Zane knew what this question meant, but he did not have enough information to decide.

As if he could already tell what Zane was thinking, Ian handed him a few pages of the transcript of Mina's polygraph. It was automatically generated by a voice recording machine placed in the room, but neither he nor Zane knew that his sister had removed questions she deemed irrelevant. Zane read through the carefully selected pages before he spoke again.

"It's too soon to get rid of her," he said as he placed the papers in his hand on Ian's desk. Based on the numbering on the pages, Zane could tell that Ian had purposefully removed some information. He did not understand why, but when he was about to ask about it, Luna questioned Zane about his reason in wanting to keep Mina alive and it distracted him.

Zane began by telling the siblings that it was clear someone set Mina up as a scapegoat, however it was still unclear as to why.

"What if that person was waiting for Mina to be killed by Ian? Then wouldn't we be playing into the enemy's hands?" he asked. Zane also reminded them that they had yet to find the people who Mina claimed hired her.

At this, Ian pulled out two files. One was labeled Adley Young and the other was labeled Michael Young. The pair had been married for the last year and were on the brink of financial ruin. Shortly before Mina was captured, the two miraculously cleared all their debts. However, they did not get to enjoy their debt free existence. Just two days later, a house fire claimed the lives of every one of Adley's family members. Because they were not well off, there were as many as twelve people living together in the three-bedroom house. The fire was believed to have been started by a faulty space heater.

Ian told them that he was able to decipher that, when Adley and her husband received the news of her family's death, they immediately rushed over to make the arrangements for the funeral. Unfortunately, on the way there, the husband and wife were involved in a fiery crash involving a delivery truck. There was a brief investigation into the wreck, but the bridge where the accident occurred was well known for being a treacherous place to drive. It would often become icy and cars would slide over the railing. The locals knew that one should never cross the bridge in cold weather at high speeds. However, according to witnesses, the truck driver, who was not a local, sped across the bridge and lost control of his vehicle. The truck driver was also killed in the accident. Ian had already investigated it. As for Michael Young, he only had a mother, who died shortly after he was married.

Ian and Zane did not believe in coincidences this great though. The method used was not unlike something they would have done if either of them needed to tie up loose ends. It appeared that Adley and Mr. Mike had been professionally eliminated. The question they were left with now, was by whom?

Luna was caught off guard by the information produced by her brother. He did not tell her that he was going to investigate any part of Mina's story beforehand.

"Why didn't I know about this?" Luna asked, but Ian just told his sister that he no longer wanted her involved in matters involving Mina. He told her that the situation had become more complicated, and as a result he asked her to move into his place until he could be certain that the situation was at least under control.