The Text (New Version)

"Art kind of laid it all out for me. I could get the cops involved and yes, Bill and Pete, and even Tonya would have some legal problems but with his lawyers, it would all end up as a bump in the road. We made a deal. You might think I'm selling out and maybe you 're right in a way. But they stole the only thing I had that was irreplaceable. If I can't make them pay legally, well at least I can make them pay. It won't bring Tonya back but, I think I may find she's less irreplaceable than I thought. I have a trip planned. Tell Troy thanks for everything. I won't be going back to work. What about you?" Tom asked finally.

"Well, Troy always spoke highly of Baxter Inc., now that you're gone, they may just need another engineer."

"I think you'll find they do business a bit differently at Baxter. Maybe more to your liking. Challenging but the fringe benefits won't compare to what Tonya's team was offering." Tom smiled.

"I think I can live with that." The stranger rose. Tom did likewise. They simply nodded to each other and left without a further word.

On Monday Tom had just checked in for his flight to Costa Rica. "Tamarindo will be a nice place to decompress for a while." He thought. He was making his way toward security and saw a mailbox just up ahead. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope addressed to the DOJ, Washington DC. Inside was a thumb drive of the recording. They might be interested. "Who knows." He thought. "Maybe Art's lawyers aren't as good as he thinks." He dropped the envelope in the box and walked into the security line.

Epilogue -- Nine months later

Tom sat at his usual table in the café. Anna, lovely as always, brought him his Cerveza. "Thank you dear." He said and he raised the bottle to his lips. He had received mail. He was still holding the envelope. No return address. He wondered who had found him. He wasn't going thru elaborate steps to stay hidden but finding him in a little town on the Pacific coast of northern Costa Rica would have taken some resources not available to the ordinary guy. His first thought was Art's people had found him. He had let it sit at his house for two days. He was fairly certain it wasn't a bomb yet; you can't be too careful. "Carlos," Tom called out to the owner of the café. "Tienes tus cuchillo?"

"Si, Senor Tom." Tom handed over the envelope and faded back a few steps. "Can never be too careful." He thought as Carlos cut open the envelope. He handed it to Tom who thanked him. He took another pull from his beer bottle and turned the envelope over. Several sheets of paper fell onto the table. He picked up a note. "Thought you would find this interesting." That was all the note said and instead of a signature, there was a phone number, THE number. "Troy would have the resources to find him." He thought. "I can live with that."

He flipped the other piece of paper over. It was a copy of news paper article with a picture. The photo showed Pete, Bill, Tonya, and Betty being led out of the Kramerica building in hand cuffs. The headline for the article read "Four indicted in multi-Million dollar procurement fraud."

He smiled. "Maybe Art's lawyers aren't everything he thought they were." He said to himself, a habit he picked up since his Spanish was weak and English wasn't widely spoken. He liked to hear English conversation even if it was just him talking to himself.

"Anna, Otra Cerveza por favor." As he held up his empty bottle. "Si Mr. Tom."

"Gracias Anna." He said as he accepted his beer, took a swallow and he looked out at the deep blue Pacific. "Tonya Who?!"