“Yeah, they are huge. One is from Edward and the other is from Tanner, wishing Gertie good luck for the show this week.”
“Wow. Looks like Gertie has quite the fan club,” TJ said.
“Those two definitely seem to like her, especially Tanner. Speaking of which, can I ask you something? About Tanner, I mean. I heard a rumor he tried to sabotage Gertie’s last event, do you know anything about what happened?” Logan asked TJ casually, brushing some baby’s breath out of his face.
The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. TJ stepped out into the hallway, then used his shoulder to hold the elevator door from sliding shut so Logan could get out.
“Let’s drop these monstrosities off at Gertie’s then I can fill you in in my office,” TJ said, the two of them walking down the hall.
Gertie’s office door was open so they both walked in and looked around. She wasn’t there.
“Should we just leave them on the conference table?” Logan asked, already setting his down on the large crystal clear glass table, the vase making a clinking sound as he did. TJ did the same.
They walked down to TJ’s office, both taking a seat at the small round meeting table inside.
Just as Logan was about to speak TJ’s office phone rang, and he excused himself to answer it.
Logan watched him briefly as he spoke and could tell he must be speaking to Veronica, simply based on his sappy smile and the way he relaxed his shoulders as he spoke quietly into the phone. After a few minutes TJ came back to the table.
“Sorry, that was Veronica.”
Logan nodded his head in acknowledgement and didn’t say anything. His last girlfriend hadn’t worked out well for him. They'd also worked together like TJ and Veronica. They'd been partners. She'd been a risk taker and had always kept him on his toes at work. Then one day things had gone bad, real bad. She'd been shot during a robbery and that had changed everything for him. He hadn’t been able to protect her, and the guilt had ended up killing their relationship. Heck, it had killed his career, too. He ended up quitting the force over it eventually.
“So, you wanted to know something about Tanner?” TJ’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind. I heard some rumors about him messing around with the wedding reception and I wanted to hear the story from someone who might really know what went on. You were working here when it happened, right?” Logan asked, hoping TJ would spill the beans.
“Yes, I was working here. There were a few things Tanner messed around with that I heard about. First, he had the wedding gown made way too small, then he had the cake topper which was custom-made ruined, and then he tried screwing around with the tent poles.”
“Tent poles?” Logan asked, not sure what TJ was talking about.
“Yeah. We used one of those huge tents set up outside, you know one of those big white ones. And Tanner tried to swap out the good poles for bad ones, which would have caused the tent to collapse. You know Gertie, she’s kept everything that came with this place as well as any inventory lots she bought. So, there’s some junk included, and she never wants to throw anything away, it’s always donate, donate, donate. So, the old poles were supposed to be donated or something eventually.”
Logan laughed. Gertie was known for making sure every little thing was used and never wasted.
“But, how did he get away with these things if he wasn’t working here, then?” Logan asked, trying to put the pieces of this sabotage puzzle together.
“I’m not sure about that. He wasn’t working here, you’re right, but I guess he could have snuck in or something?”
“Was Harper working here then? Do you think she was maybe doing it for Tanner?”
“Yeah, she was working here, and there actually was a rumor she was involved, but at the end of it all Tanner confessed, and he said Harper didn’t know anything about any of it. He actually made things good, he fixed the tent poles, and the reception was a huge success. Everyone was happy.”
Logan mulled over what TJ was telling him.
“Harper doesn’t exactly fit the bill when it comes to someone who would sabotage things, does she? She’s always pretty helpful as well as being kind of on the quiet side,” TJ said.
Logan thought the same about Harper but knew better than to eliminate someone as a suspect just because they seemed nice. Or looked good, like she did. He still couldn’t cross Harper off his list, even though he basically felt the same way TJ did.
“No, I was just curious. I don’t even know what someone could do to try to ruin a fashion show anyway,” Logan replied, shrugging.
“I guess the worst thing someone could do would be during the actual show so that the press and everyone would see and ruin Gertie’s reputation. Now that I think about it, whoever tried to ruin the wedding could still be here. They could have been doing things all along, exclusive of what Tanner was trying to do. Someone moved luminaries around at the wedding reception, and they could have set the tent on fire. But I know that wasn’t Tanner.”
“Hmm.” Logan pieced some of the puzzle together as he spoke. “So, basically Tanner caused some issues, but none of them were anything that could have hurt or killed anyone. Well, the tent pole thing, yes, but that’s when he stopped and ‘fessed up and fixed it from what you’ve said. So, in theory this person has been working here since Gertie opened the place.”
“When you put it like that, yeah, I guess so,” TJ replied.
“And you’re positive Tanner didn’t move those luminaries at the reception?” Logan asked.
“If Tanner moved the luminaries, then he would have wanted to die in the fire they would have caused. So, yes, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Tanner. Unless he wanted to die in the fire himself.”
8
Harper walked slowly along the busy sidewalk, stifling a yawn as she haphazardly dodged the rush of oncoming hurried workers. She’d tossed and turned all night long, trying to figure out who could possibly be trying to ruin things for the fashion show. It was already Wednesday; the show was in two days and she was desperate to figure out who the culprit was before they sabotaged anything else.
She’d spent her night trying to think like a detective and had narrowed down her list of suspects through a process of elimination. When she was done, Ben and Logan had ended up at the top of her list. Logan was there because she’d seen him acting suspicious on the GoPro. Ben was there because he always seemed overly uninterested in whatever job he was doing, and it made him stick out to Harper. Plus, there had been that incident with the butterflies at the wedding reception. She bet he assumed she’d forgotten about that.
As she came to the front of the office she walked around towards the back of the building down by the loading dock, reaching into her bag for the small carton of cream and Tupperware bowl she’d brought with her for the stray cat. She leaned over and set the bowl down on the concrete ramp of the loading dock and started to pour it out when the door suddenly swung open. She jumped up and hid the carton. She didn’t want anyone seeing her feeding the cat for fear of them possibly causing an issue, like scaring the cat away or calling the animal control officer. She scrambled to try to stand in front of the bowl as someone stepped out the door. Logan. Of all people.
She stiffened up a bit as she forced herself to smile at one of her suspects. Was he following her again? Maybe she should move him to number one.
“Oh … er … hi,” Logan said, stumbling through his words as he juggled something in his hands which he was clearly trying to hide from her.
“Hi.” She glanced nervously at the fence hoping the little cat wouldn’t choose this moment to appear.
Logan’s brows furrowed as he followed her glance. “What are you doing here?”
What did he think she was doing? Sabotage? Veronica had certainly implied she messed around with the invitations and Gertie had sent Logan off to investigate who had altered the file. What if whoever had done it had somehow rigged the file to make it loo
k like she was the one who made the changes and Logan was here to confront her … but if so, what the heck did he have behind his back? A pink slip?
She shifted on her feet. “Getting some fresh air. What are you doing?”
“Same.”
She craned her neck to try to see what he had behind his back and he jerked his arm away from her view. His grip must have loosed though because he fumbled, and something clattered to the ground. A can of cat food.
“Wait a minute. Are you feeding the cat too?” Harper stepped aside so he could see the bowl of cream she’d set out.
His worried look turned to a sheepish smile when he saw the bowl she’d been hiding.
“Yeah, I’ve been doing it for a while now. No wonder he’s getting a big belly. I didn’t realize two of us were feeding him.” Logan picked up the can and opened it, then placed it next to the bowl of cream.
Mew!
The cat ran over to him, purring as it rubbed itself on his leg before turning its attention to the food.
“And to think, I was worried this cat might starve to death.” Harper crouched to pet it behind the ears. “Instead it’s becoming the best fed cat around.”
“Yeah, go figure.”
She glanced up and their eyes met. His eyes softened, and she saw a flicker of interest before he looked away.
“So, did you get everything all straightened out?” Logan asked her as they both watched the cat eat.
What did he mean, get everything straightened out? “Did you ever figure out who changed the file for the invitations?” Harper ignored his question and continued to pet the cat who was now indulging in the bowl of cream.
“No. It could have been anyone, really.”
“What do you mean it could have been anyone? Can’t you tell who logged in? You can tell exactly which computer and login was used, right?” Harper’s suspicion grew. He was the IT guy; shouldn’t he know how to do that? Why did each employee have a different login if they couldn’t be tracked?
“Well, yeah. Whoever did it used a system admin to log in. The file showed after you entered all the information the first time, you went back and opened it, then it was accessed once more after your session.”
“So, that proves I didn’t do it.” Harper couldn’t keep the relieved tone out of her voice.
“How so?” Logan asked.
“Because, obviously, someone accessed the file after me. Why would I go into it twice? If I wanted to screw it up, I would have done it the first time.”
Logan nodded his head slowly in agreement.
Meow.
The cat glanced pointedly from them to the empty dishes, the gold flecks in its eyes sparkling in the sunlight.
“Nice try,” Logan said. “I think you had enough for breakfast.”
Meow. Judging by the cat’s tone, he did not agree.
“Sorry,” Harper said to the cat.
The cat glanced from Harper, to Logan, to the building. Then, apparently realizing no more food was coming from either of them, he darted towards the door.
“Oh no!” Harper noticed the door had been left ajar.
Logan made a comical grab for the cat, but it was too quick. In a flash, it had slipped through and disappeared into the building.
Logan rushed inside the building right behind Harper. The basement was a maze of rooms and passages. The cat could easily get lost in there. Or hurt. He’d gotten rather attached to the little animal and didn’t want something bad to happen to it.
“Over there!” Harper pointed towards the room where they were staging the catwalk and he saw the tabby jump onto the runway, pausing before it ran down one of the long ramps.
Harper ran after it, jumping up on one of the long wooden ramps on the runway. The cat sprung off the side of the ramp and Harper stopped abruptly, turning towards Logan.
Logan watched as her body started to sway, then noticed in horror the ramp was starting to buckle underneath her. Without hesitation, he rushed over, holding his arms out and catching her before she fell off the shoulder-high structure onto the floor.
She landed in his outstretched arms, as if it were a scene from some cheesy movie. Everything around them stilled as he stood there holding her, her perfume wafting up to him, and her long red hair tickling his arms. He looked into her eyes and noticed, up close, they were an even deeper blue than before.
MEOOOW!
The loud meow from the cat interrupted his thoughts, reminding him they were at work and he had a job to do, which was to find whoever had obviously now tried to sabotage the runway. But first, they needed to wrangle the tabby.
“We better get that cat before someone else sees it.” He gently placed Harper down as the cat weaved its way around the metal staging underneath the wooden planks.
“Err, thanks for catching me. I guess the runway wasn’t checked yet for sturdiness, huh?” Harper straightened her ivory silk blouse and brushed at her tan skirt.
“I guess so, even though it looks like it’s all set up to me. Is this it or is there more that needs to be done to it, you know, like added to it?” Logan asked, grabbing one of the metal pieces on the bottom and shaking it. It wasn’t sturdy at all, and it seemed to be missing most of the screws to hold the underlying metal supports in place.
“I don’t think so. The plan is to pre-stage it here, then move it outside the day of the show. It looks like it’s all set in terms of layout,” Harper said as she twirled one of her red curls between her thumb and forefinger.
“What’s wrong?” Logan asked her, able to tell by the way she was playing with her hair she was thinking about something. His ex had done the same thing whenever she was deep in thought.
“Oh, nothing. I just feel like something is, I dunno, off, I guess. I’m not sure that was an accident. The ramp on the runway buckling, I mean. But again, maybe they aren’t through with the setup yet.”
He watched her as she continued to look around the room. Her level of concern was very telling. And it was telling him she wasn’t the one messing with things. Her concern was too genuine.
“Oh, there it is! Under there!” She pointed under the runway and ran over to where the cat had just scampered, crouching down to look for it underneath the structure.
“Lose something?” Veronica’s voice startled Logan and he spun around to see her standing in the doorway, arms crossed, and brows mashed together as she bent to look under the runway at Harper.
Harper glanced nervously behind her, looking at where the cat had disappeared to. She didn’t know if Veronica would take kindly to a homeless cat running around the building and wasn’t sure what would become of the cat if Veronica wanted it gone. Plus, chasing a cat around wasn’t exactly on the to-do list Veronica had given her.
“We were just checking on the staging,” she replied, glancing quickly over at Logan. Her heart warmed when she noticed he was maneuvering himself in front of where the cat had run, trying to hide it.
“I don’t remember telling you to check the staging,” Veronica said stalely.
“Oh, I know you didn’t, I was just trying to be proactive.” Hopefully, Veronica would believe that.
“Oh, good. Anyway, are you sure you entered the right addresses for those invites? I still don’t understand how they got messed up.”
The question didn’t exactly surprise Harper, given all the shenanigans that had gone on before with the wedding reception. She knew Veronica assumed Harper had messed the invites up on purpose, and no matter how many times Harper explained to her she didn’t, it was going to take a lot for Veronica to believe her.
“Veronica, I checked all the logs and Harper wasn’t the last person to access the file. So, she wasn’t the one who messed them up,” Logan piped up. “She could have used another login to throw people off track. But, whoever accessed the file, did it two minutes after she accessed it for her final check, and they did it from one of the shared computers located downstairs in the cube area. It would be impossible for her to make i
t from her office upstairs down to that area and log on within two minutes. I timed it.”
Harper jerked her head towards Logan. He’d timed it? Is that when she thought he was following her? She was surprised by what Logan had said regarding the timeline for the files being changed, he hadn’t mentioned that part to her earlier. But the fact Logan was sticking up for her felt nice, it was good knowing he had her back. And it also meant maybe she was wrong thinking he might be a suspect.
Veronica pursed her lips and look puzzled, as if unsure whether she should believe him, but her attention was distracted by the runway. She was frowning now, and her head was moving back and forth from side to side, as if she was confused.
“I don’t think this is set up the way it should be. On the plan I have, the long side is way over there, so they come in from behind reception area then around and back. The way its set up now, they end up on the river side. Who changed this?” Veronica asked.
Harper and Logan exchanged a quick glance.
“I have no idea. I know I have the original plans in my office, I can check,” Harper replied slowly, as she was thinking how the runway had seemed off to her when she’d first seen it.
“Let me know what you find out. This has to be set up exactly as the plans say.”
Meow!
Harper’s chest constricted as the cat loudly meowed from behind Logan.
“What was that?” Veronica asked, looking towards where the sound had come from.
“Oh, that was just me. Sorry,” Logan said, coughing. “I’ve had a weird sounding cough the last few days.”
Veronica gave him a strange look and left, turning, and looking back at them once more before disappearing through the doorway.
As soon as she was gone, Harper and Logan scrambled over to the area where the cat was. Logan picked it up, the cat purring as he held it in his arms.
“I’m going to take this escape artist back outside before he gets in trouble here,” Logan said, as he rubbed the cat’s head.
Careful What You Wish For (Corporate Chaos Series Book 4) Page 6