“No problem Lawson, this will just stay between whomever you choose.”
I nodded my head at him.
“This appears to have come from someone that is known to one or maybe even both of you. Do you have any suggestions?”
“I do.” I spoke quickly. “Ellerslie has recently finalised her divorce. I think her ex husband is the most likely to be behind this.”
“I don’t agree.” El butted in. “He doesn’t have the balls Detective. It’s not him.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. I didn’t like how quick she was to dismiss him from this.
“Who do you think it is Ellerslie?”
“I’m not sure what you know of Lawson’s past, but he’s had some trouble with a con artist.”
“Piper.” Mark prompted her.
El smiled. “Yes. Her. I wonder if maybe it’s her doing.”
Mark nodded his head in contemplation. “I was just wondering the same thing actually.”
El gave me a smug look that said ‘I told you so.’
“I checked in on her whereabouts before I got here, that’s why I was running late. She’s still in jail. So unless she’s hired someone to do her dirty work, it’s not her.”
Ellerslie’s face fell but she didn’t give up. “She could have hired someone Lawson.”
I sighed. “Yea I guess so, she could have. I just don’t know why she would. She’s never made contact before. So why start now?”
El looked up at me with wide eyes. “You said you’ve never shown a genuine interest in a woman until me? Maybe that’s what it is.” She said in a quiet voice.
Mark cleared his throat. “I doubt Piper is behind it, but I’ll call up her visitor and phone logs from the prison and check for anything out of the ordinary just to be sure. But I do think she has a point here Lawson, it seems you’ve taken a noticeable interest in Ellerslie, and somebody that knows you would be aware of that.”
I was getting more furious by the minute. If somebody I worked with was messing with El then they had better look out. I would find out who was responsible and deal with them.
“Have you had sexual relations with anyone from around the office?” He asked me.
Ellerslie squirmed uncomfortably in her seat.
“No. I don’t mix my personal and professional lives. There are a few women who have made their interest known, but I’ve always ignored it.”
Mark nodded his head in approval. “Good. That makes it easier.”
“What about anyone that I work with?” El asked in a small voice. “A lot of my employees see you coming in here for lunch every day.”
I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “No honey. You’re the only woman I’ve so much as looked at since we met.”
“Okay.” Mark clapped his hands. “well I think that for now, we’ll review the tapes, check for prints and just keep our eyes open. You haven’t actually been threatened, so I wouldn’t worry too much. Just don’t go doing anything stupid. And you call me straight away if you get anything more.” He pointed a finger at me as he spoke. He knew I was a hot head and had a tendency to fly off the handle.
“Thank you for your time Mark.” El smiled warmly at him.
He returned her smile. “It’s no problem. Please call me if you need me.” He handed her a card with his number and shook my hand.
I followed him through the door. “I’ll walk you down.”
El smiled at me. “I’ll talk to you later ok, please try to relax.” She whispered to me as she gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.
I nodded and followed after Mark. She wouldn’t just talk to me later, she’d be seeing me. I wasn’t letting her out of this building without knowing it was safe.
We took the elevator down to the front reception. “Who else will you inform about this?” Mark asked.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “I guess El’s brother, Reeve, definitely my sister Quinn. I think El will tell her assistant. I’m not sure about her parents.” Mark scribbled the names down in his notebook.
“I’d try and keep it as small as possible. You never know who this person knows. At this point I’d like to lay low and wait to see what their next move is.”
“I agree.”
“How’s your security in this place?”
“I think it’s pretty good. Someone either has to have a pass key card, or has to get one from the front reception desk. For a visitor, that gets them up to either Ellerslie’s reception or mine, where they have to be buzzed through to the back, or to the correct level via elevator. Obviously staff have access to all areas. The whole place is covered by security cameras and we have at least one security guard on the premises during business hours.”
“Okay. The only suggestion I would make is to maybe hire an around the clock security guard. I’m sure there have been times that Ellerslie has worked over a weekend, and her being in here alone is certainly not ideal.” My skin prickled at the thought. He was right. Quinn had told me that El was working in the office the day of our first dinner together.
“I’ll sort it out today. And I think I’ll start having the front reception taking copies of I.D’s before letting anyone up into the building.”
“What type of security does she have in her home?”
I hated the thought of El and Quinn being at their place alone – I knew Reeve was only a couple of levels away. But still. I was taking this as a real threat. I had a bad feeling about it.
“She has an underground parking garage that requires pin code access, that’s shared with everybody else that lives in the building, although there isn’t many apartments. And her key card lets her up to her level, nobody else can access her level without a card.”
He jotted down a few notes in his notebook. “Cameras?”
I shook my head. “Not that I know of. I’ll track down the landlord.”
I watched as he scanned the lobby area. I’d seen him do it several times since we’d arrived on the ground floor.
“You’re treating this as a real threat aren’t you?”
He looked at me with a serious expression on his face. “I know at this point it doesn’t seem like a big deal – and I didn’t want to scare Ellerslie up there. But in my experience Lawson, these types of things usually escalate. And fast. I just want you to be prepared.”
I clapped him on the shoulder and led him towards the front desk. “I appreciate the heads up Mark.”
***
“Fuuuuuuck!” I yelled as I smacked my phone back down on the desk.
Getting hold of the security footage hadn’t been as easy as I’d anticipated. It seemed we only held footage for three days. I’d had my I.T guy send me through what we did have and I still wasn’t any closer to knowing where the envelopes had come from. It was possible they were delivered on Friday night, but I couldn’t look that far back. It was more than frustrating.
The first thing I’d done was get on the phone to the security company I employed and increased the guards to two. One to guard the underground car park entry, and one to man the lobby. I’d had them contracted to be there twenty-four seven and I felt much better for it. I’d also upgraded our security system so footage was able to be viewed over a fortnight after it was taken. If this asshole came back, I was going to be ready.
I picked up my phone and looked at the time. It was nearly time for El and Quinn to head home. I needed to make one more quick call before I left the office. I found Reeve’s details and hit call.
“Reeve Rush.”
“Hey man, its Lawson here.”
“Hey how’s it going?”
“Honestly, not great. I need your help.” I filled him in as quickly as possible about the photo and the note and the concerns I had.
“Fuck. Is she okay?”
“Yea she’s doing fine, but you should call in on her later. Look the reason I’m calling is I was wanting to get the details of your landlord so I can talk to him about installing some security cameras in the building. I’m happy to supp
ly them and have my company install them of course.”
“That won’t be necessary man. The girls actually don’t know this, but I own the building. I’m definitely upping the security. I’d appreciate it if you could organise the install?”
“Oh. Right. Good for you. I was thinking top of the line. There’s a new range with facial recognition software, I wanted to get it for the office, but there’s too many people coming and going for it to be a practical option.”
“How does it work?”
“So basically the software picks up on people’s faces, you set it to safe for the people you know, the tenants and staff, and then once you’ve set that, anytime a new face is recognised it sends an instant alert to you. You could set the alert to my phone too if you wanted.”
“Sounds bang on. I want the girls safe. Set it up.”
“Thanks Reeve. Look I’ve got to go, I don’t want the girls wandering around on their own. I’ll call you tomorrow for the install.”
“Sounds good. Thanks for this.” Reeve sounded happier now he knew something was being done – he wanted the girls safe as much as I did. I grabbed my bag and jacket and headed up to intercept the El and Q.
43. Ellerslie
Quinn walked into my office. “You ready girl?”
I’d done bugger all work this afternoon, I’d been expecting Lawson to come back and wrap me in cotton wool – but he hadn’t been back at all. I’d resisted the urge to call him. He needed time to calm down and to realise that we weren’t in any immediate danger.
“Yeah let’s get out of here.” I shut up my office and said goodbye to the employees I saw on our way out. I glanced at Quinn. “We need to talk Q. Have you heard from Lawson today?”
She looked at me with confusion and shook her head. “No I haven’t. What’s going on?”
I took a deep breath as I pushed the call button for the elevator. “I’ll talk to you about it when we get out of here.”
“Oh hell. What’d that dipshit do now?”
I laughed. “He’s done nothing. It’s something else.”
She nodded. “Okay whatever you say. Do you want to go get a drink and we can talk?”
I nodded. “Sounds good.”
The elevator doors slid open and I nearly gasped at the sight of Lawson leaning up against the wall. He looked stressed. I could tell he’d been running this hand through his hair non-stop, it was all dishevelled and sexy. He gave me a smile when he looked up and saw me standing in front of him.
Q and I stepped into the lift and he instantly pulled me to him and kissed my forehead. “Ells.” He breathed.
He released me and gave Quinn a hug. “Hey sis. I thought I’d walk you both to your car.”
I rolled my eyes. Here comes the cotton wool.
Quinn spoke before I had a chance. “Thanks Law, but El and I are heading out for a drink.” She narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. “We need to have a little girls talk.”
I lightly whacked her arm and laughed. “I just told you he’s not the problem. Stop looking at him like that.”
Lawson ignored our exchange. “Uh uh. I don’t think that’s a good idea pretty girl. Why don’t you just talk at home?”
“Maybe he is the problem.” I muttered under my breath. I fixed my gaze on him. “We’ll be fine Lawson. I’m not going to live like some caged animal.” I braced myself for an argument, but when I looked up, he looked defeated. I was expecting him to go nuclear – start pacing the space and yelling about my safety. I wasn’t prepared for him to grab my hand and look at me with such pleading and sadness in his eyes.
Dammit Lawson.
“Fine.” I caved. “We’ll go straight home.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“Of course you are.” I sighed. I hated the fact that he was keeping me hidden away like this. But I couldn’t deny that spending the evening with him sounded like heaven.
“Okay. One of you better tell me what the hell is going on here.” Quinn demanded. The doors opened into the parking garage and Lawson walked us to my Jeep. She pointed at Lawson. “You’re being extra obsessive.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “And you… since when do you act like an obedient dog?”
Good old Quinn. Calling shit as it is.
Lawson gave Quinn an anxious glance. “El can explain in the car.” He turned back to me. “I’ll follow you okay?”
I nodded my head at him and rolled my eyes as soon as he turned his back.
Overprotective fool.
I climbed in the Jeep – Quinn was giving me a look that said ‘spill now bitch’. I launched straight into the story, telling her every detail and what happened during our meeting with the detective. “I was going to call you into my office, but I figured I’d let you get your days work done first. Mine was already pilling up and I got next to nothing done this afternoon.”
“Holy shit El. This sounds serious. Like, why would someone send y’all stuff like that unless they had more planned?” I hadn’t really thought to much about what might happen next. But it made sense. I didn’t like the chances of this being their only contact. “I can see why Law is having a bit of a freak out.” She chuckled. “He’s going to drive you fucking crazy. You know that right?”
“Yea I’m sort of getting that impression.” I huffed.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see new security and cameras at the office tomorrow.”
I groaned. “You don’t think he’s going to make me get a body guard do you?”
Quinn laughed. “I wouldn’t put it past him girl. But I doubt he’ll go that far yet. No one has actually threatened either of you. He’ll probably just watch you like a hawk.”
Just fucking great.
I looked over at Quinn as we pulled up to a red light. “Can you please help me out with him? I can take care of myself. I don’t want his hovering to ruin whatever the hell it is that we have going on.”
She shrugged. “I’ll do my best, but I make no promises. Lawson is a little out of his mind with you, so I doubt he’ll listen to a word I say anyway.”
We sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. I could tell Quinn was thinking it all through.
“Who do you think it is?” She finally asked.
“I really don’t know.” I answered. I knew Quinn didn’t know about Piper, and it wasn’t my story to tell. Besides, Mark didn’t seem to think it was anything to do with her.
I was going to have to find out if Lawson planned to tell Q about her or not, it wouldn’t be long before I accidently said something I wasn’t meant to.
“And Lawson?” She prompted. “Who does he think?”
I let out a giggle. “Baxter.”
Quinn laughed loudly. “Oh god! There is just no way.” She thought about it for a second and burst out laughing again. “I guess in Lawson’s defence, he’s never met Baxter, so he doesn’t know what a spineless little weasel he is.”
I nodded – she made a valid point. “I told him it wasn’t Baxter. He just doesn’t have the balls.”
“Not even close.” Quinn agreed.
We pulled up to our building and keyed in the code. Lawson drove in behind us and we parked. Quinn jumped out and pulled Lawson into a hug when he approached. “I’m really sorry Law. I don’t know why anyone would want to mess with the two of you.”
Lawson threw an arm around her shoulders and tucked me under his other arm. “Me either. Let’s go upstairs.”
We’d been inside our apartment for about 10 minutes when Reeve appeared and pulled me into a hug.
“I guess you’ve talked to Lawson?” I asked.
“He called me earlier. We’ll sort this out sweetheart.”
I backed up. “I’m fine. Really I am.”
Reeve looked at me with his eyebrows raised in disbelief.
“Yea it’s creepy, but I’m fine. I feel perfectly safe. You and Lawson both need to calm down.”
“Not going to happen pretty girl.” Lawson growled in my ear. He stood behind me a
nd slipped his arms around my waist. “You might not have said the words yet, but you’re mine. And I protect what’s mine.”
I had to admit this fierce protective warrior gig was a turn on. I knew I was going to get pissed as hell with being smothered, but it was nice knowing that I was protected – that I wouldn’t have to rely solely on myself.
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