Chapter 17

They tried to keep their relationship between themselves at work that day but Roger was sure that people knew that something was going on between them although no one really did.

They began sleeping together every night and Lei moved her things into the bedroom that they shared.

One morning Lei walked into Roger's office, "FedEx is here with six small boxes for you. The driver said that only you can receive and sign for the shipment. I asked if it was COD but he said no."

Roger thought for a minute and then remembered what Ben had said in the note, "Lei, will they fit in my truck?"

She turned her head and looked at the boxes, "I think so."

Roger told her to have someone put them into his SUV but to tell whoever loaded them into the SUV to not open the boxes. Lei left to take care of the boxes and the FedEx driver handed Roger the computer for Roger to sign. The driver left with out saying a word.

A couple of hours later Roger told Lei that he had some things to do and that he would see her at home. She nodded and smiled.

Roger walked out to his SUV and saw that the boxes were stacked neatly in the rear of the car. The six boxes were not as large as he thought they might be, actually they were quite small, and he had no idea what could be in them that Ben would feel was so important. Roger got into the car and began the drive to his house.

Roger pulled into the carport at his house and unlocked the side door. He opened the back door of the SUV and took the boxes into the house one by one. Each box seemed to weigh about twenty pounds or so. He set the boxes on the kitchen floor and then went and changed into jeans and a t-shirt.

Roger poured himself a glass of ice water and then began to open one box. As soon as he folded the flaps back he saw that the box was filled with used one hundred dollar bills in stacks of one hundred bills each. Roger opened each of the boxes and found that each box was filled with one hundred dollar bills. He couldn't estimate how much the six boxes held as he had never counted out boxes of money.

He began to think about where he could hide the money until Ben called for it. Every place that Roger thought of he quickly ruled out because the FBI or Lei would find it. He walked into the bathroom and washed his face with a cool wash cloth. As he headed back into the kitchen he looked at the ceiling of the hallway. He stared at the access door to the attic space for a minute. He had never been in the attic space as there was nothing there that needed servicing like the air conditioning.

Roger went to the garage and got a ladder and set it up below the access door. When he stuck his head in the attic space he saw that no one had been in the space since the house was built. The space was insulated with that pink fiberglass insulation. He pulled on a piece of insulation and it lifted up. It was only laid in place between the joists. It hadn't been stapled. The temperature in the attic space was about twenty degrees hotter that the outside.

Roger thought for a minute. If he put the bills under the insulation so that the money was only one stack high he could make the insulation look like it had never been disturbed. Each stack of bills was only about five-eights of an inch high and the insulation would mash down that much. He spent the rest of the afternoon hiding the money under the insulation and making the insulation look like it hadn't been disturbed. When he was done he looked at his work and saw that no one would be able to know that the money was there. Roger had taken pains to walk on the joists and to not make foot prints on the insulation. He put the money as far away from the access door as possible. He felt that if the FBI or anyone else looked in the attic they would only look under the insulation close to the access door and not look any further. The heat in the attic would dissuade anyone from looking under all of the insulation. There had been two million, three hundred thousand dollars in the boxes.

Roger got a shower and he was washing the Ferrari when Lei pulled up in her car. Lei had stopped at the market and picked up some steaks. Roger cooked the steaks on the grill while Lei fixed a salad. They left the dishes in the sink and went to bed and made love until after midnight.