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much.”
    “We open tomorrow at nine if you need to come back.”
    “Thanks. I’ll probably be here.”
    The light was still on in the motel office when she walked back. Maybe they had a fax. “Hello?” Cassie called out when she entered the office. No one appeared, but she thought she heard grumbling in the back office, so she called a little louder.
    “Hang on. I’m back here with this damn computer. I’ll be out in a minute,” the woman yelled. She sounded frustrated. “Damn computers. They make me so mad.” The woman stomped to the front.
    “They have a way of doing that,” Cassie agreed. Fortunately, she’d had her brother to help her out of many a computer snafu. “What’s going on? Maybe I can help.”
    “If you could, I’d be thrilled. Personally, I’d like to take a sledgehammer to it and go home.”
    “Show me the way.”
    Cassie followed the older woman to the back room. The offending piece of equipment was old and probably needed to be replaced, but she didn’t want to be bearer of bad news. Besides, it was more than she had at the moment. After listening to a long detailed description of what happened, Cassie asked, “Do you have any security software installed on it?”
    The woman showed her various software programs, still in their boxes, unopened. She looked so forlorn. “I’m tired and it’s been a long day. I just want to close up and go home. My favorite television show is starting and it’s the season opener.”
    Cassie smiled and nodded. She understood. “I think it’s just a matter of cleaning up the computer with these security programs.” She had an idea. “You know, I wouldn’t mind doing that for you, if you wouldn’t mind me using the computer afterwards?” Please say yes.
    “You mean, you would do all that, and I could…just leave?”
    “Yes.”
    The woman studied her and then nodded her head. “Deal.” She locked her desk, the filing cabinet and practically ran out the door. “I’ll turn off the lights in the outer office and lock up there too. Close the office door behind me so no one can see you working. People can be relentless when they want something. When you leave, everything will lock in place.” She smiled. “And thank you.”
    Spotting a fax machine in the corner, Cassie’s spirits zoomed. “No, thank you.”
    Perhaps Cassie hadn’t listened to Eduardo when he droned on about banking, but she had listened to her brother about computers. In a relatively short period of time, she had the motel’s computer up and running with security software installed and doing its job. While it processed, she took the time to get her thoughts in order. If she faxed the documentation to the bank in the Caymans now, everything would be waiting when the people arrived at work. If she could locate all the accounts Sergei had hidden, then tomorrow morning she was only a few keystrokes away from getting everything done. That seemed to be a lot of ifs. Using her phone card, Cassie faxed the information to the first if—the bank in the Caymans. Now, the wait was on.
    Looking around the office, she spotted an old-style adding machine, the kind that required the numbers to be punched in before pulling the handle, which recorded the calculations on roll of paper. The time had come to assess her dead acting career and lost wages. She started with the latest incident and worked her way through, remembering more and more. An acute sense of sadness overwhelmed her when she saw the total amount—thousands of dollars. She had allowed someone else to take power of her dream, but more importantly, her livelihood. With determination and clarity, Cassie labeled each entry, made two copies, and stored it safely with her new account information.
    It was eleven before Cassie logged on. The computer chugged along slowly, but it worked. From the way things were working, it would be a long night. No wonder the woman had a lumpy old couch pushed up against the wall.
    At the bank, Sandy