Comfort Me

by Debbie Viguié

  At last it was almost time to go. She readied her desk and grabbed her purse. She purposefully left her sweater draped on the back of the chair. She stood up and then hesitated for just a moment. It was the moment of truth. Once she put her plan into motion there was no stopping. Leo was busy turning off his computer, getting ready to bolt. She envied him.

  “Goodnight,” she told him, wishing she could also say goodbye. That would raise suspicion, though.

  “Night,” he said as he headed to the elevator.

  Cindy walked to Mr. Cartwright’s office and knocked on the door.

  “Come in!”

  She entered and left the door open but approached his desk. “Did you think of anything else you need me to handle next week?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “Okay. Oh, I’m still cleaning out Rose’s desk. She had a lot of personal items mixed in with her work papers and I’m still finding some. Since you’ll be gone, once I’m done packing the box up I’ll get the forwarding address from HR,” she said.

  He looked up and before he could protest she leaned forward and lowered her voice, “Between you and me it looks like she was carrying on an office romance. There’s some interesting things I’ve found and a letter that’s sealed with a kiss.”

  He looked stricken.

  Cindy straightened up. “Congratulations again on your wedding. I’ll see you when you get back.”

  She turned and walked out the door before he could say anything, closing it behind her. She went straight to the elevator and called it. The doors opened and she got in. Just as they began to close she heard Mr. Cartwright’s door open.

  Cindy went down one floor. There she exited and waited for a moment before making her way into the stairwell. The door on her floor was positioned in such a way that she could look out and get the lay of the land before making her way out and giving herself away.

  She was able to poke her head out very slightly. Mr. Cartwright’s door was open. She closed the stairwell door and stood, perched on the landing, waiting. He was the last person on the floor. Unless she missed her guess he’d go straight for the box trying to find the letter.

  She waited another five minutes and then slowly opened the door and poked her head out again. Mr. Cartwright’s door was closed. She stepped out and closed the door gently behind her. She took a few quick steps so that she could see the rest of the floor. There was no sign of movement by her desk.

  She made her way swiftly there and then opened the box. She could tell instantly that items had been moved and the letter was gone. She closed her eyes, a thrill of excitement surging through her followed quickly by a burst of nerves. She straightened and grabbed her sweater.

  It’s show time.

  She walked over to Mr. Cartwright’s door and knocked loudly. She heard a muffled exclamation from inside and she pushed the door open. He was stuffing the envelope into his desk drawer, his face beet red.

  “I forgot my sweater,” she said, hoisting it up. “Then I realized that I forgot to ask you who I have sign off on my invoices for the temp agency while you’re gone,” she said.

  “Give me your hours for this week and I’ll sign off on it.”

  “But it’s only Thursday,” she protested.

  “That’s right. You’re fired. I’d like you to stay late and ready your desk and your notes for the girl who will replace you,” he said.

  Cindy raised an eyebrow. “Actually, I can’t stay.”

  “Well, then I want-”

  “And you can’t stay late either,” she said, cutting him off.

  He looked up at her, irritation written all over his face. “What on earth do you mean?”

  She put her hands on his desk and leaned forward. “What I mean is that you’re going to jail. You’re going straight to jail, as in do not pass “go” and do not collect two hundred dollars.”

  “What?” he asked, startled now.

  “I know you killed Rose,” she said.

  He stared at her for a long moment. She thought he was about to deny it when all of a sudden he lunged up from his chair and grabbed her shirt.

  22

  Cindy screamed and jumped backward. Cartwright held onto her shirt and came across the desk. He backhanded her across the face and pain exploded behind her eyes.

  “How dare you!” he shouted. “You think you can take me down? You think others haven’t tried before you?”

  “Help!” Cindy screamed at the top of her lungs.

  “There’s no one here. Everyone who works here hates their jobs. They all run away as fast as they can when it hits five. You are alone, my dear. Now tell me, how did you figure it out!”

  He grabbed her and shook her hard. Cindy kneed him and he let go of her. She turned and ran from the office, heading for the stairs. She had almost reached them when the door to the stairwell flew open and Beau stepped out in front of her.

  “Help me!” she screamed.

  “Stop her, she just robbed me!” Cartwright shouted.

  “He killed Rose.”

  Beau looked past her. “Is this true?” he asked.

  A shot rang out and Beau fell, blood spreading across his chest.

  “Lovesick idiot, always poking your nose into other people’s business,” Mr. Cartwright growled.

  She heard the sound of the gun cocking and she turned, hands raised to her shoulders.

  He leveled the gun at her. “Tell me how you knew,” he said, face contorting in hatred.

  She moved slowly, forcing him to turn to keep the gun trained on her. “Her stuff.”

  “What do you mean? The letter?”

  “The letter. All of it. A woman with so little in life doesn’t easily abandon what she does have. There was no reason she didn’t take those things with her. The necklace, the picture frame, the trinkets, the clothes, the personal documents. She didn’t leave those willingly and if you had fired her security would have watched her clean out her desk.”

  He snarled. “But how did you connect her to me?”

  Cindy kept moving, kept forcing him to turn until his back was to the stairs. “Her password for her computer. It was your initials and the date of the Christmas party.”

  He just stared at her. “So?”

  “Then there was the picture from the Christmas party. Her sitting on your lap while you were dressed as Santa. She was clearly a woman in love.”

  “Stupid girl. All I had to do was say three nice words to her and she practically threw herself at me.”

  “She was hurt, grieving the death of her grandmother, you took advantage of her.”

  “And she was stupid enough to get pregnant, to think I’d leave my fiancée for her.”

  “You should have done it. Then you’d have a wife and a child and wouldn’t be about to go to jail for murder with neither.”

  He sneered. “I’m not going to jail. I got rid of one body, I can do it again.”

  “And how are you going to explain Beau’s disappearance and mine?”

  “Everyone knows Beau was pining after Rose. I’ll just spread the rumor that they ran off together. Everyone will believe that.”

  “And me?”

  “You’re just the temp. No one will even know that you were here.”

  “Boy, are you an idiot,” a familiar voice called out.

  Cartwright turned, a shot rang out, and he fell to the ground clutching his hand. Cindy looked behind him to Mark who was standing there, his gun still trained on him.

  “You okay, Cindy?” Mark asked.

  “You’re late,” she said, heaving a sigh of relief.

  “Yeah, well that security guard at the front was a real piece of work. I finally told him if he didn’t let me through I was going to arrest him as an accessory to murder.”

  “At least you made it.”

  On her lunch break she’d called Mark again and arranged for him to arrive immediately after she accused Cartwrigh
t. She had panicked when he wasn’t showing. Thankfully he had made it in time.

  “Who’s the guy by the stairs?”

  “Beau. He works here. Is he...?”

  “Still breathing from what I saw. Ambulance is on the way.” Mark addressed Cartwright. “Hey, scumbag, you have the right to remain silent.”

  As Mark read him his rights Cindy collapsed into a chair and thanked God that her plan had worked.

  A couple of minutes later paramedics and more officers were on scene. As two officers started to lead Cartwright away Cindy called out to him, “Oh, don’t worry. I’ll have your replacement box up your things and send them...somewhere.”

  ~

  The next morning Cindy visited everyone in the hospital. The night before she hadn’t had a chance. Jeremiah was furious that Cindy hadn’t let him in on her work stunt. Mark was coming in for a bit of that rage as well. After a late dinner and promises from both of them not to do something that stupid again he finally calmed down.

  Beau had been shot in the shoulder, but was going to be okay. The far greater blow he had been dealt was hearing the truth about what had become of Rose. Mark was working overtime trying to get Cartwright to reveal where exactly he’d buried her body. Beau was broken up about that as well. Cindy felt for him. Closure was sometimes not as easy to get as one would hope for.

  After seeing him she visited Rebecca who was awake and sorrowful for everything that had happened. Cindy tried to tell her that she needed to stop blaming herself for what had happened. She wasn’t sure the other woman was listening.

  “Look, you’re going to be okay, the doctors are saying that Liam is going to be okay, we’re all okay,” she said, struggling to bring comfort but not feeling like she was being very successful at it.

  “It’s my fault. I should never have dated Mason, then none of this would have happened,” Rebecca lamented.

  “I don’t understand that actually,” Cindy said, tired of giving her platitudes.

  “What?” Rebecca asked.

  “How did you ever end up with a guy like that?”

  “I’ve asked myself that a thousand times.”

  “And?”

  “I could say that in the beginning he was different. He was charming, attentive, and it was nice. I could say that I was naïve, that I missed the warning signs or only saw what I wanted to see.”

  “But?” Cindy prompted.

  Rebecca sighed. “While I’m sure all those things played a role, there is one inescapable truth. Sometimes we pick the wrong person to provide us comfort.”

  Cindy blinked. That was what had happened to Rose. Cartwright had said that he said kind things to her and she fell into his arms. While she was sure he’d been a little bit more purposeful in his pursuit than that, it was still true. She had looked for comfort in the wrong place. If only Beau had spoken up about how he felt maybe things would have ended differently. Then again, maybe they wouldn’t have.

  “You never know for sure how changing the past would affect the present,” she said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “If you had never gone out with Mason, maybe the whole chain of events that ended with you living here, opening the tea shop, and meeting Liam would have been disrupted.”

  Rebecca blinked. “I hadn’t thought about that. It was because of him that I quit instead of signing up for another tour.”

  “See, if it weren’t for Mason, you and Liam might never have met.”

  “A silver lining?” Rebecca asked, a faint smile finally touching her lips.

  “I’d say a big one,” Cindy grinned.

  Rebecca’s smile broadened.

  “Okay, I’m going to go say hello to Liam,” Cindy said.

  “Tell him I love him.”

  “Okay,” Cindy said.

  She walked into Liam’s hospital room and she found him scribbling furiously in a notebook. On the tray that normally would hold food he had spread out the papers from Mark.

  “Rebecca says to tell you she loves you,” Cindy said.

  “She does?” he asked, looking up with a smile.

  “Yup, she really does. Any luck on those?”

  “A little. The code is very complex. I’ve only just gotten through the one letter that Paul sent to his ex-wife. I was about to call Mark. It talks about a safe deposit box.”

  “Where?”

  “I haven’t decoded that far yet. This is a doozy.”

  “So, where did you learn to break codes?”

  “My grandpa,” he said absently.

  “You know, I have a feeling there’s a story there.”

  “More than one,” Liam said before turning his eyes back to the papers.

  Well, so much for getting that story, she though wryly.

  “You know, why is it when you knew Rebecca had a stalker that you were so adamant that no one talk to the cops about it?” Cindy asked.

  That got Liam’s attention. He looked up and frowned. “I said that?”

  “Yes. ‘No cops.’ More than once, apparently.”

  “I guess it’s because...” Liam drifted off then scowled. “Medication. Must have made me out of mind.”

  That’s definitely not what he was about to say, Cindy thought. She decided not to push.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re doing better now. I’m going to go take care of a few things,” she said.

  “Back to work?”

  “No. I called the agency and let them know what happened at my last assignment. I told them I’d be taking next week off.”

  ~

  Cindy spent a couple of days mostly sleeping with occasional hospital visits. Then she spent some time with Traci and the kids which helped lift her spirits. The days flew by and Wednesday finally arrived. It was Secretary’s Day and she couldn’t help but think again about poor Rose.

  She was just about to head out to go to the store when the doorbell rang. Surprised, Cindy went to the front door to see who it was. Through the peephole she saw Geanie.

  She opened the door. “What on earth are you doing here?” she asked.

  “I’ve come to take you out to lunch.”

  “Shouldn’t someone from the church be taking you out to lunch? After all, it is Secretary’s Day.”

  “First, they call it Administrative Professionals Day now. Second, I’m the graphic designer so I don’t count. Third, I’d rather spend my lunch today with you.”

  “Okay,” Cindy said, unable to hold back a smile. “Let me grab my purse.”

  A minute later they were in Geanie’s car zipping down the road. At her insistence Cindy filled her in on everything that had happened in the last couple of days. She had just finished when they pulled into the parking lot of Kit’s, a steakhouse in town.

  “Wow, fancy,” Cindy said as she got out of the car. “I think I’ve only eaten here once before.”

  “Well, order whatever you want, because it’s my treat,” Geanie said brightly.

  They walked inside and it was more crowded than she would have expected for a Friday afternoon. Looking around, though, she realized that a lot of the diners were bosses and their secretaries. The restaurant was high-end but it had a fun, Old West theme to it. Rustic was a good word to describe how it felt. She smiled just being there.

  “Reservation for Coulter,” Geanie said when they reached the podium.

  “Right this way,” the hostess said, a stack of menus in her hand. They followed her to the back of the restaurant and into a private room where there was a single table set for fifteen.

  “I might have invited a few more people,” Geanie said with a grin as she sat down.

  “Who?” Cindy asked as she sat next to her and the waitress began putting menus down at each place.

  “Here they are now,” Geanie said.

  Cindy turned and was shocked to see members of the church staff filing in. They were followed by several of the ministry leaders. They all took the
ir seats. Cindy looked from face to face in bewilderment. They were all there except for Ben, the pastor.

  “What is going on?” Cindy asked Geanie who just smiled and shook her head.

  Cindy turned to Sylvia, the business manager. “Why are you all here?” she asked her.

  Sylvia smiled and cleared her throat. The entire group fell quiet. “That’s quite simple, actually. We’re celebrating Administrative Professional’s Day.”

  Geanie actually giggled.

  “I don’t understand,” Cindy said.

  Dave, the youth pastor, spoke up. “We’re here to right a wrong.”

  “We’re here to solve a problem,” Jesse, the head of the women’s ministry, added.

  “Turns out nobody at the church can agree on anything,” Drake, the head of the men’s ministry, said.

  “Except that things are a total and complete mess,” added Carl, the janitor.

  “And there is only one solution,” said Harold, who was a Shepherd and the head usher.

  “We’re here to ask you to come back,” Danielle, the head of the children’s ministry, said.

  “Beg you to come back,” Associate Pastor Jake corrected her.

  Cindy looked from face to face. Those who hadn’t spoken were nodding vigorously in agreement with those who had. “That’s...how is that possible?” she asked, stunned nearly to speechlessness.

  “We’ve made it clear to the pastor that if anyone’s leaving First Shepherd, it’s him,” Gus said. “After all, we’ve lost pastors before. No big deal. We can’t afford to lose a secretary, though,” he said with a wink.

  Cindy couldn’t help but smile. Gus was referencing the fact that the previous pastor, Roy, had quit because she had challenged him and Gus to stop feuding with each other.

  “And he was okay with that?” she asked, feeling a warm glow starting to spread through her.

  “Let’s just say that I let him take a look at the books, a good look at the books,” Sylvia said. “He got real clear real quick on the fact that the church couldn’t afford to piss off its biggest donor over something like this.”

  “Biggest donor?” Cindy looked at Geanie.

  Geanie grinned. “That would be Joseph. Well, now, Joseph and me,” she said blushing.