“I called to give them what for, for sending someone like you to me. You know what they said? They said, and I paraphrase here. ‘We have his name in our records, but no one remembers screening him. We apologize for this oversight.’ I thought that was pretty interesting. How does someone slip through? That has never happened with this agency before.”
“The girl who interviewed me really wasn’t feeling well that day.”
“It seems there’s a lot of that going on.”
“She was really tired like she had a hard night. She probably just forgot.”
Seconds passed and Jimmy wasn’t sure if Luke was going to accept his explanation. As a cop, Jimmy would have busted Luke for such an obvious tale.
Luke took the clipboard in his hands again. “Guess I’ll drive. Actually, I’ve got to run some signed packing slips up to accounting first.”
“Hey, let me do it. You know, to make up for the license thing.”
“Sure.”
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Chapter 43
A MAN’S GOTTA DO…
SEAN WAITED OUTSIDE HUMAN RESOURCES. The receptionist sent him back with a security escort. It was the same guy from two days ago.
“I’ve got it from here. Thanks.” Sean waved at him, hoping he’d leave, but no such luck. He took a seat a few chairs down. Sean was definitely getting fired.
“Stephan,” the woman bellowed from behind her closed door.
The lady at the front desk must have called and told her he was there.
Sean cracked the door, hoping that he’d be fired while at the same time, wishing for the opposite. If he was still employed, maybe he could work his way up to accounting and meet Melissa Oliver in person, or snoop around in her office.
“Sit.” After he had followed her direction, she continued. “As it turns out, you were somewhere I specifically told you not to go. Is that correct?”
“It is, but it’s a good thing I—”
“I don’t want to hear about it.” The woman sat back and clasped her hands on her expansive stomach. “At the end of the day what matters most is that you disobeyed a direct order. What I want to know is how you got into that room in the first place.”
Silence, except for the ticking of a battery-operated clock that more or less tunked rather than ticked.
He glanced up at it and watched the second hand go around halfway.
“Mr. Levine, answer me.”
“You’re right. I shouldn’t have been in that room.”
“That’s not what I asked. I asked how. I took your key.”
If he came clean about picking the lock, he’d certainly be fired. He only saw one way to play this and that was honesty. He stood up and made sure the door to the office was locked.
“What are you do—”
He took off the wig.
“Who? What?”
“My real name is Sean McKinley.”
“I don’t care who you—” Her eyes absorbed his tacky wardrobe, which was another pair of tight-fitted pants, jeans this time, but with no bell-bottoms. As her gaze traveled upward and met his, she said, “You’re that man in the news, the one who inherited all that money a while back.”
“That’s me.”
“Where’s Sara? Oh, is that Gwen?”
“Yes, it is. Listen, we’re investigating something going on within Tasty Beans.” He wanted to bring up that they were licensed PIs but being issued from New York State would mean nothing here.
“Let me guess, it has to do with the poisoning?”
Her directness had Sean’s hand going to the doorknob.
“Don’t be nervous.” She must have noticed his reaction. “Sit. I can’t tell you how excited I am to meet you.” She fluttered her hand next to her chest and then extended it to him.
He shook it, despite getting the distinct feeling the woman would have preferred he kissed the back of it. That. Was. Not. Happening.
“So, this case?” She shifted in the chair and it creaked beneath her. “Ratty ol’ thing. I don’t even think I introduced myself. It’s Wanda.”
“Nice to meet you, Wanda.” He liked to repeat people’s names after an introduction. It was believed that it aided memory.
“You flatter me. Wow, my girlfriends are not going to believe this.”
“I need your help. I need to keep my job and my cover intact. We’re very close to apprehending the killer.”
“I was going to fire you.”
“I had a feeling.” He held eye contact with her. “Please help me.”
“Who do you think it is?”
“I’d rather not say until I know for sure, but I need full reign today, which means I’ll require keys for all the departments.”
She pointed in the direction of the hall. “Larry was going to escort you from the building.” She pressed a few buttons on her phone. “Larry, head back to the front. We’ve worked things out in here.”
“Thank you. You won’t regret this.” Sean jumped up, put his wig back in place, and gave Wanda one more glance before leaving. He hoped he wouldn’t regret disclosing his true identity.
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Chapter 44
SCHEMING
ON HER THIRD SHIFT, SARA was less concerned about getting caught up in a blender and more concerned about how to stop Melissa Oliver. Two people were already dead and who knew how many more were sick. She’d heard what people were saying. The word poison was being thrown around a lot, although she never heard cyanide, specifically, come up.
Sara wondered if her time might be better used in some other way, seeing as the top suspect was Melissa Oliver. As she watched the spray cover the beans, she realized again that she could be an accomplice of sorts. They had to stop the shipments she’d had a hand in blending no later than tomorrow.
She then thought of Sean and how he was probably getting fired at this exact point in time. It was unfortunate because he was their best shot at gaining entrance to all the departments. Then she realized that every section would report to accounting. Surely there was something that needed to be delivered up there before break. If so, she’d be able to talk to Melissa Oliver and get a feel for her. While the circumstantial evidence seemed damning, it had for Casey too, and that had led to a dead end.
SEAN DUCKED OUT OF WANDA’S office, his steps lighter. There was something burdensome about being undercover and hiding one’s identity. By stripping away one’s name and appearance, everything felt like a lie.
He watched the suds fill the bucket, and when the water reached halfway, he turned off the hose. Accounting was located on the third floor, in the north corner of the building, but he couldn’t head up there right away. It was about three thirty. He’d wait it out until after the dinner break. Then he’d let himself into Melissa’s office and snoop around. Hopefully, he’d get lucky.
JIMMY RAPPED ON THE DOORFRAME to get the younger woman’s attention. She was rummaging in the hutch over her desk. She closed it when she heard him.
“Who are you?”
“A new guy in shipping.”
“Right. Luke mentioned you. He’s my husband. Not sure if he mentioned it to you.” She winked at Jimmy.
Just as Sara had described the woman, she was beautiful in a striking Snow White sort of way. She was also young. Remorse for her decisions stabbed Jimmy. She had ruined her entire future for—what?—a job. Craziness.
“Please take a seat.”
The chair she pointed to was positioned against the wall, not opposite her desk. It was stacked with papers.
“Let me get that.” She scooped them into her arms and dropped into her chair again. “Not enough hours in the day, I tell you. Have they got you busy?”
“Yeah, so far.” Jimmy noticed that Melissa Oliver was the nicest person he’d met here. She really must be insane. She poisoned without thought to conseq
uence—or maybe she gave it deep consideration—and put on a sincere front. She was the type of killer no one wanted to cross.
She deposited the stack of papers on the floor beside her.
Jimmy had almost forgotten about the paperwork in his own hands. He stretched to reach her without getting up and handed it over to her. “Here you go. I’m guessing it’s the day’s packing slips for billing.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. You must work a lot of overtime with all that.” Jimmy bobbed his head toward her desk. He made a quick assessment of her office that would help the three of them later on when they came up to confront Melissa. Her desk was L-shaped, with a hutch, and located in the back left corner of the room. Behind it was a large window. In front was a credenza, and probably the reason the chair for guests needed to be situated just inside the door.
“I’m here pretty much every night until eight o’clock. Sometimes it feels like I’m the only hard worker left. Tonight, I’m out of here at five o’clock. Going to meet up with my dad for a dinner out.”
Jimmy pushed the fact that her father was her drug dealer out of his mind. “That’s awful about that woman in quality control. What was her name again?” Jimmy played stupid.
“Susan Gallacher. She was a nice lady.”
“You knew her well?”
“Not really well. We had lunch a couple times.”
Jimmy thought maybe Melissa would offer some sentiments about how sad it all was, but she didn’t even bother.
“You better get back to Luke before he blows his top. He’s got a temper.”
“That’s probably a good idea.”
Jimmy left, pondering where he’d hide the cyanide in the office if it were him. He didn’t see any safes in the room, which he found odd, with her being in the accounting department, but maybe someone else handled the money. It was also possible there was one in that hutch or credenza. In a couple more hours, they’d find out.
-
Chapter 45
THE BEST APPROACH
THE ALARM SOUNDED FOR THE dinner break. What Casey didn’t know was that Sara had no intention of returning to her shift afterward. She let him go his way while she went hers, which was straight out the front door. She met up with Sean and Jimmy on the northeast side of the building.
“Luke’s suspicious. He knows I’m not from the agency anyway.”
“How did he find that out?” Sean asked.
“Adam missed the fact that a commercial driver’s license might come in useful.”
“But you shouldn’t need one for the size of trucks they use.”
“That might be the case, but they still want you to. I did find out the layout of Melissa’s office though.”
Sara listened to him share his findings and realized something. “We can’t all go up to her office. Someone needs to stay with Luke and keep an eye on him. If he gets suspicious, he could make a run for it.”
She and Sean looked at Jimmy.
“Let me guess, I’m the lucky winner.”
“That you are.”
“I think there may be a safe in her hutch or credenza, but I don’t know for sure.”
“We need to call in the police, Sean.”
“Let’s get our evidence first.”
She consented with a nod, even though she sometimes wondered where she conjured the patience to wait things out. When they confronted Melissa, they could speed things along with the persuasive power of a raised gun, but she preferred not to have to go that far. The fact that they were both armed—and technically licensed—wasn’t the point.
The buzzer sounded the end of the break.
“Guess it’s back to the grind,” Jimmy said.
“Be safe,” Sean said.
“Yep. No one dies today.”
JIMMY HEADED BACK TO THE shipping area, but he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to focus on the job when he was working next to the killer’s husband. Surely the man had to know what his wife had done. She had mentioned he had a temper. Maybe he put her up to this or threatened her welfare. One sad thing about society was, there were some men who were not opposed to striking a woman. And in each of those cases, the inability to control their tempers was at the top of the list.
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Chapter 46
SNOOPING FOR PROOF
SEAN AND SARA WENT BACK INSIDE the building, but he didn’t pick up his mop and Sara never put on a cap. They weren’t worried about protecting their cover stories anymore.
They loaded onto the elevator and Sean pushed the button for the third floor.
“My heart is pounding, Sean. We’re so close to stopping her. You know, if we didn’t get things wrapped up by tomorrow I’d be stopping the shipments of those poisoned beans one way or another.”
“We don’t know for sure your batches were poisoned.”
“I wouldn’t want to risk it.”
“I know, darling, and I would have been right by your side stopping the deliveries myself. You do have your gun?”
“I do, but I don’t want to use it.”
“I don’t think we’ll have to, but we need to be prepared.”
Sara nodded and something inside of him fractured. He pulled her in for a hug.
“It’s going to be all right.” He felt foolish offering such a reassurance, for two reasons. One, he didn’t know the future, and, two, a couple people had already paid with their lives.
The elevator dinged its arrival and the doors opened.
“This way.” Sean led her down the hall to where Jimmy had told them to go.
The good news was the level seemed vacant—no talking and no clicking on keyboards. It would make their snooping a lot easier. They just needed to find cyanide in Melissa’s possession.
“This is the one, Sean. Jimmy said it was the last office on the right.”
“The door is open.”
“I’m sure you’d just pick the lock, like you did for the quality control department.”
He had told her all about it last night.
“Yes, I probably would have.” He went behind the desk. “I’ll check in her hutch. You check the credenza.”
The hutch had four doors. He found a safe behind the last one he opened.
“Nothing down here, Sean.”
“That’s all right. I just found it.”
“You’ve got a safe?”
“I do.”
Sean wheeled Melissa’s chair out from behind her desk. Sara put it near the door and stood beside him.
The safe was a small number and he was careful taking it out of the cabinet and placing it on the desk. What he had to do next could be risky but he trusted that if Melissa were hiding liquid cyanide she’d make sure it was sealed tightly. They didn’t need poisonous vapors filling the air.
“This is even better than I thought it would be.”
“It’s an electronic safe, Sean. We need a passcode.”
“Actually…” Sean banged the top of it with the flat of his hand and then turned the handle. He did this a couple times and then the safe opened.
“I’m not even going to ask.”
“Are you impressed?” He hoped to see pride in her expression, but it was missing, so he explained the process to her. “In cheaper models, the hit releases the tumblers for a brief second. If it had been a combination lock safe, I would have benefited from a stethoscope. One of which I don’t have.”
Sara angled her head. “You are full of surprises.”
He must have read her facial expression incorrectly. “You are impressed.” He let his smirk spread.
“I’m just glad we’re using it for this side of the law. Although, sometimes the line between right and wrong gets a little fuzzy.”
“Sometimes it does.” He pulled on the safe door. “Moment of trut
h.”
“What do you think you’re doing in here?”
Melissa Oliver was standing in the doorway of her office.
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Chapter 47
NEVER SAW THAT COMING
SARA DREW HER weapon on impulse. Her fast reaction took her back to her days as a cop.
“Whoa.” Melissa held up her hands. “Who are you people? What are you doing in my safe?”
“You’ve been poisoning the coffee beans with cyanide,” Sara said.
“I haven’t been doing—”
“Sean, show her we know.” Sara didn’t care for the glaze over his eyes. Her stomach dropped.
He pulled out a wad of bills and some checks.
“I find it hard to see how I could have poisoned anyone with money. Although it does have the ability to corrupt people.”
Why was she so calm, given the circumstances?
Melissa stepped into the office.
Sara continued. “Your husband was going to lose his job. You’re holed up in here every night working overtime. Speaking of which, I heard you were leaving at five today to have dinner with your father. Were you going to get some more cyanide from him?” Sara wasn’t worried about giving up Jimmy’s cover at this point.
“You’ve lost your mind.” Melissa dropped onto the chair that had been wheeled near the door. “Why would I poison the coffee?”
Sara had to keep going. The guilty often proclaimed their innocence. Melissa was no different. “As I said, your husband’s job, your overtime. They probably didn’t appreciate all your hard work, all your sacrifice.”
“But you’re failing to see that it wouldn’t be in my best interests to sabotage this company.”
Sean’s phone rang and he answered it.
Sara kept her eyes on Melissa but listened to Sean’s side of the conversation.
He tucked his phone into a pocket. “She’s not who we’re after.”
Melissa turned on Sara. “I told you.”
Sean put his hand on Sara’s shoulder. “Melissa has significant stock investments with the company. It diminishes her motive.”
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