Johan's Joy

by Dale Mayer

  “Does anybody ever get over that?” Kai countered. “It has to be dealt with, as much as he can, of course. Is he happier and much more content to move on? Yes. Does he love me now? Yes.”

  “I guess that’s what I was asking, clumsily though,” Joy said with a laugh. “I don’t want him to be pining for a woman who can’t come back, then cheating you out of a relationship.”

  “No,” she said. “I can grieve with him because she was my first best friend. There was just nothing anybody could do.”

  They looped arms as they headed out toward the park about a block away. “Outside of the mess at work,” Kai said, “how are you settling into Houston?”

  “It’s okay,” she said. “It’s definitely warmer than where I was, and I’m happy with that, but I really liked the work I used to do. This is just a stop-gap job. It’s just a paycheck,” she said with a shrug.

  “And a lot of people only ever get that paycheck job,” Kai said. “They’re happy to have it. But you want something more.”

  “I do, yes,” she said. “I want to have something like what I had—or another purpose. It’s okay to go to work and help somebody else’s company run smoothly, but it would be better, in my case, if I had something that I was achieving. I didn’t realize how success-oriented I was, and being here has shown me that I don’t really want to let go of something once I dig it up. Whether it was an issue in processes or details of a case or a possible crime, part of me just wants to get in as deep as I can and figure it out.”

  “That’s the puzzle solver in you,” Kai said, laughing. “It would have been nice if you’d found something like a really crappy process you could fix instead of a theft. Particularly a theft of drugs.”

  “It has always bothered me that theft was considered almost on a gradient scale. Like, maybe a stolen pen was nothing. If you stole a pad of paper from the office, it was nothing. If you stole a partial pack of printer paper, it was nothing because the pack was opened anyway. You know? Things like that? But it amazes me, as I’ve gone through a few companies now, just how much all that adds up to. Although the company itself doesn’t like it, the employees often don’t even worry about it and take it almost as if it’s their due. I’ve seen people steal coffee filters, tea bags, saying, ‘The corporation can afford it. I can’t.’ Everything from office supplies to toilet paper,” she said with a bewildered look. “And you know the office toilet tissue is never very nice and soft.”

  “I can’t imagine, as an employee, doing that to the person who signs my paycheck,” Kai said. “And from the employer side, I have my own company, plus I see Levi’s company. I can’t imagine employee theft at either place. Not with the people we hire. They are all a cut above the rest.”

  “And yet it probably happens.”

  Kai shook her head. “At Levi’s place it doesn’t happen, because their mind-set is, if you need it, take it,” she said. “And I’ve tried to emulate that level of trust in my own company.”

  “Is that working out?”

  “It is. Granted, we hire the best. They work odd hours at odd locations. So taking a pad and a pen to the local park to sketch out the cityscape to invent ways for our military to get inside buildings and to stop others from gaining entry is all part of their job. If it’s office supplies, I consider it already used. So, if they take a pad home, I don’t care. I don’t expect them to be doodling on napkins from restaurants or their paper towels at home,” she said. “To me, it all comes out in the wash. Granted, I bet we have such a low percentage of such internal ‘thefts,’ that it would hardly be measurable. Still, I know a lot of companies don’t look at employee theft that way. Probably because they’re not hiring the right people, who are then stealing from them. So sad.”

  “And it’s never a good thing when it comes to drugs.”

  “No. That is not allowed anywhere. Especially something like ketamine,” she said thoughtfully. “I mean, they use that stuff to knock out a horse. So vets would have it. Any medical supply house would have it. Pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies would have it. It’s also a common drug used by serial killers and rapists,” she said, “because it pretty well knocks out the victim.”

  “But it’s different from roofies though, right?”

  “Yes, much stronger,” Kai said. “Though, once it’s on the street, there is no way anyone can really know what they’ve got.”

  They wandered around the small pond, stopping to admire the ducks, the sunshine, and the bright flowers. “It’s a nice area,” Kai said.

  “It is, but it’s still busy out here,” she said. “I should have moved to the outskirts area, so it would be more country instead of this suburbia feel.”

  “The thing about suburbia is that everybody gets to live there but must work somewhere else,” she said. “At least you’re working and living close to the same area, so you don’t have so far to commute.”

  “I could technically walk to work if I wanted to,” Joy said. “And, maybe come bad weather, I would, if the driving was treacherous.”

  “Well, it would save you on car costs.”

  “And I did consider that,” she said. “But there are just enough mornings that I’m late, making me think I’d end up running half the way there.”

  Kai chuckled. “And here I’ve been looking at increasing my morning runs,” she said.

  “But you were always into fitness and weapons and self-defense and martial arts,” Joy said. “How come we’re friends, since we’re complete opposites?”

  “Maybe that’s why? Opposites attract and all that. I think you are the prettier version of me,” Kai said.

  “I think you’re damn beautiful,” Joy said quietly.

  “Yeah, see? And you’re blind too.” The two women laughed and hugged each other.

  They had been friends for a long time, having come together at an odd moment in a hotel at a conference that Kai was attending. Joy was attending a conference as well but different events within the same venue. Yet they had clicked immediately and had stuck ever since.

  “Any thoughts about you and Tyson having a family?”

  “We’ve talked about it,” Kai admitted. “I’m not sure he’s ready, and I’m not sure I’m ready.”

  “No need to rush it anyway,” Joy said. “At least you’re on that pathway, and, when you’re ready, that time will come.”

  “What about you?” Kai said. “Any boyfriend on the horizon?”

  “Nope. Nobody here yet. I thought maybe there would be someone at the company, though I don’t really like office romances, and, so far, I haven’t seen anybody interesting anyway. Of course I’m stuck in my dungeon,” she said in a joking manner.

  “I did hear about the lovely working conditions.”

  “And it’s relatively new apparently,” she said, “if what Phyllis said is true.”

  “Meaning that Chelsea was there before you but not anybody else?”

  “Yes. Whoever was at the company before Chelsea worked upstairs.”

  “I wonder if she started something.”

  “If she did, somebody finished it for her,” Joy said starkly. “For no other reason, I’d like to get her some justice, at least.”

  “And yet it may not be related.”

  “It may not be,” Joy said, “but it would be a hell of a coincidence.” And the two exchanged glances because that topic had been a point of conversation time and time again. Neither of them believed in coincidences.

  *

  Out in the hallway the foreman turned and looked around. He frowned. “Did you turn on those lights?” He motioned at the back corner.

  “No,” Johan said, pointing to the stairway door he’d come in through. “I came from over there.”

  The foreman looked in that direction, shook his head, and said, “That door should be locked. Nobody comes up there.”

  “Well, three rooms are full of stock in there.”

  “That’s the old stuff, I told you. They are all labeled for the old
companies. Hell, I don’t even know how many of those companies are even still solvent. For all I know, they shut them all down. Nobody tells me nothing.”

  It was all Johan could do to hold his smile at that phrase because he’d heard it time and time again from more than a few disgruntled employees. He followed the older man down to the back corner where the light was on. He studied the area. “What about security? Do you have cards that let you know what room everybody’s gone into?”

  “Nah. It would be a waste of time down here,” he said. “We’re constantly all over the place.”

  “It might be a good idea though,” he suggested.

  “Company’s got no money for security down here. Stuff comes in, gets moved around, and stuff goes out. We don’t know what’s in anything, and we don’t care. And, by that token, as long as the stuff comes in, and they have access to it all, the company doesn’t care either.”

  Johan kept his thoughts to himself. It was also pretty obvious that it was a weak system and offered more than a few areas for people to take advantage of, but it wasn’t his company, so whatever. He kept his thoughts to himself as he followed the man through the darkened warehouse. Enough daylight and other lighting filtered through that he could see everything that needed to be seen, but it wasn’t under a bright light.

  He checked the lights up above and noted open rafters with walkways were above them. “Do you ever need the catwalks up there?”

  The foreman looked up and shuddered. “I hate heights,” he said. “You wouldn’t catch me on any catwalk.”

  Johan nodded but studied the catwalks. “How do you even get up there?”

  The foreman pointed to a ladder against the firewall.

  “Why were they put up?”

  “Something to do with whatever was going on in this building before this company moved in.”

  “This company didn’t build the building?”

  “Nah, they took it over. Some big warehouse was in here. I don’t remember what.”

  “I can’t imagine why they’d want a catwalk,” Johan said.

  “Only if they’ve got a hoist or something up there and may need to do maintenance on it.”

  “That makes sense,” Johan replied, and he could see the relics of something up there. If he checked it out himself later, he wanted Galen around to watch his back when he did. There was definitely a sense of something wrong in this building. Particularly on the weekend.

  As they walked up to where the light was on, the foreman snorted and flipped the switch. “This place has ghosties.”

  “Maybe. But maybe it’s just got people,” he muttered. The foreman shot him a hard look. Johan shrugged. “Most of the time lights are turned on by people.”

  “Most of the time doesn’t mean all the time.” And, with that, he led the way down the hallway to another section of the building that Johan had yet to be in.

  When he opened the first door, he said, “This is where we used to store a bunch of stuff for the one company. But it’s all empty, as you can see.”

  Johan stepped inside, took a look, and, indeed, the room was empty.

  They went down that side for another couple of doorways. All empty. Johan wondered why the foreman was showing him where everything was empty, instead of where the stuff was stashed. But that changed soon.

  But then they entered another section, and he said, “In this huge room here, that wall opens up and joins to the warehouse, so it’s easy to access when we have to move stuff in and out of here.” And, indeed, there were a lot of boxes and crates.

  “What is all this stuff?”

  “None of my business,” the foreman snapped. He spat onto the floor. “And, if you’re smart, you’ll remember that. Because it’s none of your business either.”

  Chapter 10

  By the time the two women stepped out of the nearby grocery store, they were carrying bags of groceries, laughing, and enjoying themselves. Joy couldn’t recall having so much fun in quite a long while.

  “If you moved to the outskirts of town,” Kai said impulsively, “you could be even closer to us.”

  “Possibly,” she said. “I don’t have anything in Houston to keep me here in this apartment, but the thought of another move—ugh.”

  “We could help though.”

  Joy looked at her friend and smiled. “Are you volunteering Tyson without even asking him?”

  “Absolutely,” she said with a big grin. “Anything that makes me happy, he’s all up for. And to have you closer would definitely make me happy.”

  Joy was touched. “It is nice to see you,” she said. “I hadn’t realized how lonely I was starting to feel.”

  “And that’s just as much about your work situation as anything,” Kai said. “There’s nothing like finding out something nasty is brewing under your nose and how you’re caught in the middle of it, all making you feel isolated. Hopefully now that we’re here and involved, you don’t feel quite the same.”

  “No,” she said, “I definitely don’t. And to have Johan and Galen in the office all the time, well, that’s a help too.”

  “Have you made any friends at work?”

  She shook her head. “Not really. The two women I work with in the same room are both odd ducks, and nothing really connects us. Nothing even connects those two, and they’ve both worked there longer than I have. But, for sure, there’s no click between me and either of them, not even a natural friendship. We’re coworkers, and that’s it.”

  Kai nodded. “Sometimes it’s better that way, but, if you could meet other people in other departments, it would not impact your day-to-day life so much.”

  “I thought about working at it a little harder,” she said, “but first I was focused on making a success of the job so I could pay the rent. And since this all started, I’ve been so worried about what I’d stepped into. Now, just so much is going on that I’m not sure I want to know anybody else. Apparently I’m in danger, and that could mean anybody around me is in danger too,” she said, looking pointedly at Kai.

  “Well, it’s not like Tyson and I would step out of the way of danger,” Kai said comfortably. “This is who we are.”

  “But it’s him who does this kind of work.”

  “Yes,” Kai said, “but I’ve helped train these men too. Some of the new equipment that we have created is now out with Levi’s group, who puts it to the heavy test, and then we make modifications before it goes commercial.”

  “And does that work out for you?”

  “It works out really well. Nothing like having twenty tough men and women to try out and to break in your prototypes so you can improve them. If they can survive Levi’s group, I suspect they’ll survive World War III.”

  “Something I hope we never have to go through,” Joy whispered. Back at her apartment, as they walked up the stairs, she said, “You don’t realize how much the groceries weigh until you make it home.”

  “We bought a little more than we expected, I think,” Kai said. “And we meant it about going out for dinner or even ordering in.”

  “Doesn’t matter if you did or not,” Joy said. “We bought steaks for dinner, so we might as well stay and have them.”

  “Or you’d have plenty of meals for yourself,” Kai argued.

  Joy shot her friend a look. “Am I that bad of a cook?”

  Just as they walked in, Kai started to laugh and laugh. “Even if you were a magnificent chef, I doubt the guys would let you touch the steaks. And, if you don’t have a barbecue grill, I’m not sure they’ll be too happy about steaks cooked any other way.”

  “Steaks need to be barbecued,” Tyson said immediately, as he stood up, gathering the bags from their arms and placing them on the counter.

  “Well, I don’t have a grill,” she said.

  “Interesting,” he said. “Why did you get steaks then?” He gave her a pointed look, as if to say it was completely useless to buy steaks and not have a barbecue grill.

  She sighed. “Fine. So
maybe we are going out then.”

  “We could try it in a skillet,” he said, “but, depending on the size of the steaks, it’ll take a lot of fry pans.”

  “We could broil them,” she said hopefully.

  An ominous silence took over her kitchen before Kai chuckled. “Maybe you should look at going out and getting a charcoal barbecue set for Joy,” she said to Tyson.

  “Or a real one,” he said.

  “I can’t afford anything,” Joy said. “I still need all my paychecks just for survival at the moment, particularly if another move and/or lack of a job is about to rear its head again.”

  “Right,” he said. “We can ask the guys too.”

  “Ask the guys what?” Kai questioned.

  “Have you heard from them?” Joy asked, as she pulled out the groceries. “I didn’t even think of them,” she said, grimacing. “I’ve only got four steaks here, no wait, three,” she said, frowning.

  “Which is what I mean. Put them away, and you’ll have three meals for yourself,” Kai said gently. “We can hardly not feed Johan and Galen.”

  “And I guess half a steak won’t do much for them, will it?” she asked, staring down at the steaks doubtfully.

  “Nope, not likely,” Tyson said. “Honestly, with steaks this size, they’d need two apiece anyway.”

  She looked at him in shock. “Seriously?”

  Kai laughed. “Yeah, absolutely.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “Because this was already costing you a bunch, and you wouldn’t let me pay,” she said. “So I figured this would be meals for you over the next week or so. After that, you may not even have a job, and you’ll be happy to have something on hand.”

  Frowning, Joy pulled out stuff for sandwiches. “How about a sandwich while we wait for the guys to show up?”

  “I could eat,” Tyson said immediately.

  Kai sighed. “You ate enough brunch for two people,” she muttered.

  “Your point?”

  Kai shook her head and told Joy, “If you haven’t been feeding men lately, honest to God, it’s brutal.”