Tea or Consequences

by KC Burn

  Floriana sniffed. “How would you know?”

  Riley sat down in the chair opposite her desk, unwilling to loom. “Both my parents died when I was twelve. I bet it’s hard at any age.”

  That only made her start sobbing. “That’s awful.”

  Riley wanted to hug her, but maybe some doubt about how she’d take it held him back. “It was. And it still hurts, but it was also a long time ago. It’s more of a dull ache than a gaping wound.”

  Sniffling, she worked hard to get herself under control, demonstrating an iron will that was every bit as admirable as her mother’s.

  While she did that, Riley gazed around the office. It was haphazard and filled with books and papers and folders and various samples of Gautier products. There was no sign of a prescription bottle filled with penicillin, but that meant little. Just thinking about his “investigation” sent a stab of guilt through him. He could empathize so well with Floriana, especially right now, but just because she missed her mother didn’t mean she hadn’t killed her.

  “I’m sorry.” Floriana’s voice sounded strong and almost conciliatory. Aside from red-rimmed eyes and tiny smears of mascara, she looked every inch her mother’s daughter. Impressive to be sure. Crying for Riley meant looking like a heroin addict turned zombie—all the hair color in the world couldn’t change his fair complexion, and the ravages lasted for hours.

  “I understand.”

  Floriana nodded. “I also hadn’t quite thought of the funeral… the situation… from that perspective. The coroner still—” Her voice broke slightly, but she quickly recovered. “We don’t know when they’re going to release Mother. And Cody was right. He agreed to let us honor the wishes she’d outlined in her invalid will. When the coroner allows, we’re going to return to Montreal and have a funeral there. Bury her there, with her family.”

  Shit. Riley had never even considered that possibility, but it made sense. Gabrielle had built up a formidable life here in Toronto, but her roots were in Quebec. It even made sense that they’d chosen to continue working—bereavement leave could be taken when they took Gabrielle to her final rest.

  “Many people, including your employees, won’t be able to travel that far, even if they’d like to. What about a memorial service of some kind? Something where people can pay their respects, but it wouldn’t rely on whatever schedule the coroner’s office has.”

  “Yes, that’s a lovely idea. Thank you.”

  Riley didn’t know how long reasonable and mild-mannered Floriana was going to last, but he’d be sad when she went back to hating him.

  She blinked and dabbed at her eyes a little. “Right before… um… my mother passed, we’d agreed to move forward aggressively with another new product to capitalize on the momentum from Invigorate. Renee and I both have our hands full with that—do you think you could organize the service? Maybe for this week, because our lawyers think we’ll be able to head out to Montreal early next week.”

  Would Tad have anything to say about that? Could he even legally insist murder suspects not leave the province? That was a concern for another time. Because Floriana had just asked him to do an important job, and he hadn’t been prepared—not at all—to be trusted with it.

  “Of course. Are there any special requests? Did you want a church service? What about a reception afterward?”

  Floriana sighed, and Riley wanted to get out of there and give her some alone time, but pulling together a memorial service this quickly would be a challenge. He needed a few answers, and he needed them now.

  “She attended St. Stephen’s in Forest Hill. If we can get a service there, that would make her happy. I’ll host a reception or whatever is necessary at my house afterward. Mother did not approve of church basements, and that’s where the reception rooms are at St. Stephen’s.”

  “Perfect, thank you.”

  “You weren’t issued a corporate credit card, were you?”

  “No, no, I wasn’t.” They’d hardly do that for a temp, although it seemed likely that the other admins at his level might have their own.

  “Get my card information from Renee. If there’s anything you can’t set up with our regular vendors, you can use my card to charge things.”

  “Thank you, Floriana. I’ll get right on it.” He wasn’t aware company funds could be spent in such a way, but they certainly had discretionary funds for launch parties and holiday parties; from a taxation perspective, maybe a funeral wasn’t much different.

  “Just make sure you give my cleaning service a heads-up.”

  With that, there was no doubt in his mind that he’d been dismissed. He presumed he could also get the cleaning service contact information from Renee.

  Stunned, he got up and left Floriana’s office, making sure he stopped at Renee’s desk first. His afternoon had just become incredibly busy, and he hoped Alisha wouldn’t mind grabbing him some lunch when she went out. He rather thought he wouldn’t be eating out again for the rest of the week.

  As he made his way back to the sixteenth floor, he groaned. He was going to have to postpone IT again, or he might not be able to get everything done.

  Chapter NINE

  BEFORE HE did anything, he needed to talk to HR about a memorial service, and Mattie had already gone to lunch by the time he left the lab. He asked Heather, leaning heavily on their friendship with Alisha, about finding time to chat with Mattie as soon as possible. She squeezed him in for the first fifteen minutes after Mattie was due back in the office. Alisha agreed to get him lunch. While he waited, he fired off an email to IT postponing his computer move and then began compiling lists of potential caterers.

  It would certainly be interesting to compare this experience with the information he was compiling on the launch parties. Perhaps he ought to expand his search to include holiday parties as well, since it might be the unfamiliar nuances of launch parties that were causing his misgivings.

  When his meeting notification dinged, he leaped up and strode toward HR. Mattie was just getting in as he arrived, and Heather let her know Riley was there to see her.

  She didn’t look enthused. She took off her rain-speckled jacket and stood her damp umbrella in the corner before sitting down. “Riley. You’ve got an urgent issue? Are things not going well with Cody?”

  He almost cracked a smile. Poor Mattie. She must be dealing with all sorts of complaints, with the management in such volatile emotional positions and Cody an unknown entity.

  “We’re getting along fine. Don’t worry about that.”

  Mattie smiled in relief, the tense set to her shoulders relaxing. “Then what’s so urgent?”

  “Floriana put me in charge of setting up a memorial service and reception afterward.”

  “Oh, that’s good. I was hoping to hear about one soon. What’s the problem?”

  “I have no idea how many employees would be likely to attend, and I wouldn’t want to schedule it at a time when people who wanted to pay their respects couldn’t attend, but I’m not sure an evening memorial service is customary.”

  “No, no. Schedule it during the day. Whether it’s morning or afternoon, I’ll authorize minimal staffing for that half day. Once the notice goes out, I’ll let team leaders know that if their entire team intends to be away, they’ll need to run that by me, but I’d be surprised if every single person would attend. My guess is you’ll get more upper management and lab technicians, since they were the people who had the most contact with Gabrielle.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

  Mattie smiled. “I appreciate you getting the ball rolling on this.”

  “What?” Riley frowned. He could swear he hadn’t mentioned his part about taking Floriana to task—he sure didn’t want to admit to HR that he’d made a VP cry, however unintentionally.

  “Oh, I know Floriana. She wouldn’t have come up with this on her own, nor would she have thought to hand this over to you. I’d have done it myself, but I’m definitely in her bad books after my part in bringin
g Cody on board. But I wasn’t going to let the issue fester much longer. So thank you. Make sure you get me the details—I’ll draft up an appropriate notice to be emailed to all employees.”

  Riley nodded his assent and returned to his desk.

  “WHERE THE fuck is my computer?” He clapped a hand over his mouth. This might be an unusual situation, but he was normally very good at filtering swear words out of his vocabulary at work.

  His notes and files had been shuffled around, but not badly. He opened his desk drawers, but a glance didn’t reveal anything amiss except for the glaring absence of his computer and monitor. His heart started racing. Had someone seriously come in and stolen it?

  Cody needed to be informed; then they’d have to contact the police. Not Tad, unfortunately. Floriana and François might never forgive him for bringing the cops into their business for the second time in as many weeks.

  Walking as quickly as he could without drawing attention—not that there were many people nearby—he arrived at Cody’s office almost breathless with upset.

  Only to find an IT tech hooking up his computer on the desk outside Cody’s office.

  “What are you doing here? I emailed this morning that I’d have to postpone this move.”

  The tech, a guy who looked fresh out of high school, with a complexion that probably never saw the sun, looked at him balefully. “Guess you didn’t send it in time. I’m almost done with the computer; then I’ll start reprogramming your phone. If you need it moved back, you’ll need to submit another requisition.”

  Riley gritted his teeth against an annoyed reply. IT techs were the same all over, and he’d seen a number of situations that might or might not be IT fucking around behind the scenes, making things difficult for people who were rude or unreasonable.

  Seriously, though, the last thing he needed right now was to move his desk. “How long do you think you’ll be?”

  “Dunno.”

  So fucking helpful. “Okay, thanks. I guess I’ll go pack up the rest of my stuff.”

  “I already swapped the file cabinets.”

  He had? Riley moved around Mr. IT Man and pulled open the top drawer. It was filled with the burgundy files he’d borrowed from Finance, stuffed in front of his other files. The little swipe of pink, which Riley assumed was nail polish, still graced the top of the file cabinet. It was usually easier to just move the cabinets than move the contents from one cabinet to the other, but he didn’t have many files to worry about, and he certainly hadn’t expected that to be part of IT’s service.

  “Oh. Thank you. I appreciate that.”

  Maybe he didn’t hate the tech quite as much now. But this was a delay he didn’t really need.

  On the way back to his desk, he scrounged up a few file boxes, then made some tea before settling in to shift the contents of his desk. As long as he got a call into St. Stephen’s in the next hour or so, he could still pull this off. Maybe. Getting a date and time for the memorial service was paramount, because he couldn’t even start to get catering estimates until he knew that and could at least rule out the caterers who were already booked.

  HE OPENED his top drawer, pulled out the teas and honeys he’d collected from Gabrielle’s tea caddy, and put them into a box. Behind those was the gift set he’d forgotten to ask Aaron about, but since Aaron had served him tea and hadn’t sounded as though he hated Gabrielle, Riley might just take it over to him soon anyway. Be a nice keepsake, although it wouldn’t make up for the radical changes in the workplace that Aaron would be returning to.

  The gift set went in the box with pens, pencils, pushpins, paper clips, and various other accouterments. On top of that, he piled everything that had graced the top of his desk, which was primarily the notes and files related to his “project.” Aaron’s personal things were tucked away in a box in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet. Maybe if Riley had a boyfriend or husband or kids he might consider bringing in a photo. His own personalization included a few geeky toys and action figures—nothing expensive, though, because they’d occasionally disappear, even when he was openly mocked for having them.

  He grabbed the second box and started loading files in from the bottom drawer. Right at the back in the corner was a glint of something short and squat, but the drawer didn’t open all the way, and he couldn’t tell what it was. It wasn’t his, but it might be something he’d need. Lips pursed, he considered his next course of action. He’d already gotten grease on his hands from an innocent brush with the side of the drawer. Reaching into the back of the drawer would undoubtedly get grease all over his brand-new powder blue shirt, the one that complemented his eyes, especially with his blue contacts in.

  Shit. He already had a tiny smear of yellow grease on his cuff. That was going to be a bitch to get out.

  Instead of getting on his knees and scrabbling for the mystery object, Riley grabbed his mobile and flicked on the flashlight app.

  What was one of Gabrielle’s teas doing back there? He was almost certain he’d already packed all the ones he’d allocated for himself. Twisting just a little more, he was able to see the label. Lapsang souchong.

  Adrenaline spiked hard and fast in his blood, and he fell back, sucking in air. Glancing guiltily about, he slammed the drawer shut, then got to his feet. No one was around, but that didn’t calm the racing of his heart. A clammy sweat sprang up under his arms as he paced.

  This was bad. Bad, bad, bad.

  He stared at his mobile, clenched tightly in his hand. He had an excellent fucking reason to call Tad, but it wasn’t fun, and there wouldn’t be any cutesy dates or, indeed, excellent fucking.

  Another glance verified that he was alone. He didn’t want to have this phone call out in the open, even if he couldn’t see anyone. After slipping into Gabrielle’s office, he shut the door gently behind him, walked over to the window, and stared out at the downtown core as he waited for his call to connect.

  “Detective Tad Martin.”

  “Tad, oh shit, I’ve found something.” He’d rather not sound so breathless and scared while talking to Tad, but he was freaked the fuck out.

  “Riley? It’ll be fine. I can meet you for dinner later.”

  Was Tad high? This wasn’t anything like the other things he’d discovered. “No, you have to come here. Now.”

  Wait. Riley didn’t know who’d put the tea in his drawer, but what if they came and took it away? He strode back to the office door and opened it a crack so he could keep an eye on his desk.

  “This isn’t really a good time. Are you sure it can’t wait until tonight? I’ve been wanting to try out that new Thai place on Church Street. I can be there for six thirty.”

  Another fucking date restaurant? Riley was losing his mind while Tad was focused on his stomach. “You don’t understand. I found the tea in my desk.”

  “What tea?”

  “Remember I told you one was missing? I found it in my drawer, right at the back, and I didn’t put it there.”

  He’d read about hammering hearts, but he’d never experienced anything like the ruckus going on in his chest right now.

  “Shit. Really?”

  “Tad, please, I’m freaking the fuck out.”

  “Hey, hey. Calm down. I’ll be there in under ten minutes.”

  Riley didn’t even care that thirty seconds ago, Tad wasn’t going to be able to make time for him until early evening, just so long as Tad got here and helped him figure out what was going on.

  “Okay. Okay. What should I do?”

  “Do what you can to pretend everything is normal. But don’t let anyone in your desk drawer, no matter what they say. Try not to touch anything more than you have to. And let Alisha know we’re coming. Maybe we can do this fairly low-key, slip in without any fanfare.”

  “I can do that. Thanks.”

  “Of course.” Tad’s voice dropped into his sexy register. “See you soon.”

  How did his partner even stand it? Riley wouldn’t be able to work with Tad being
so sexy all the time. Even as scared as he was, he was still so painfully aware of Tad’s appeal.

  The call disconnected, and Riley returned to his desk. He pulled out a file from the box so he could pretend to be actually working, even though he could barely concentrate on the few commands Tad had given him. With shaking fingers, he put on his headset and dialed the extension for the reception desk.

  “Alisha, you have to do something for me,” Riley said as soon as she answered, not even giving her a chance to get out her customary welcome greeting.

  “Sure, what’s up?”

  “In a couple of minutes, a detective, maybe two, will be arriving. Can you send them back to Gabrielle’s office with a minimum of fuss?”

  “Riley.” Alisha sounded worried. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, it’s fine, I just… I just found something that might be pertinent to the investigation is all. But if we can get them in and out without any disruption, that would be perfect.”

  “I’ll do what I can. As long as there aren’t any uniforms, it’ll probably be easy. The ones with the heavy commute are going to be heading out soon.”

  Shit. Was it already that late? He hadn’t even started on the memorial service planning. He was going to be here all fucking night.

  TWELVE MINUTES later—because he’d been obsessively checking the time—footsteps warned him to look up. Tad’s partner, Detective Wilson, led the way, scowling, followed closely by Tad and a woman with a ponytail carrying a case.

  Tad’s simple presence was enough to calm Riley’s racing heart. The knowledge that someone, just days after Gabrielle had been murdered, had planted something in his desk terrified him. Those other lovely teas and honey he’d liberated? The ones that were unsealed? There was no fucking way he’d be using them. The only reason they weren’t in the garbage already was that he was worried the police might need them.