Carson laughed at her friend’s reaction. “Maybe, but it’s hopeless. She’s elegant and sophisticated and wouldn’t be interested in a geek like me. Anyway, if she isn’t straight, she’s so far back in the closet she might as well be.”
“But that’s not going to keep you from trying, is it?”
“When did you learn to read me so well?”
“It’s in your voice,” Joyce said as if it should be apparent. “Well, if it doesn’t work out I guess you’ll just have to worship her from afar.”
Carson frowned briefly and changed the subject. “We need to start moving the equipment today. The electrician is meeting us at one on the tenth floor to start running wires for the server extensions.”
“You do realize that I know you’re trying to distract me?”
She sighed. Carson should have known Joyce wouldn’t let her get away with anything. “Joyce, it’s not that I don’t trust you. You know I tell you everything. I’m just not sure she’ll ever look at me that way. A couple of times this weekend I thought that she might be interested, but there was never anything clear.”
“You mean you spent the weekend with her? You have so got to tell me everything!”
“Joyce,” Carson said in frustration. “Can you just understand that I don’t want to jinx anything by talking about it right now?”
“Now you’re just being superstitious, but fine. Whatever. I’ll let it go for now and you can tell me all about her when I meet you at the Holcomb Building.”
Carson shook her head at Joyce’s insistence, but her friend was still talking. Once again, Carson had that impression of a steamroller bearing down on her. Joyce and Erin would get along famously.
“You get the keys made and I’ll meet you in front of the service entrance at eleven. That will give me and the boys time to load some of the equipment into the van. They can make another trip while we set up what we have.”
One of the things Carson appreciated in Joyce was her no-nonsense approach to problems that at first looked insurmountable. Joyce came in and started barking orders and miraculously problems disappeared and some semblance of order came to the chaos that had previously reigned.
“Okay, but Joyce don’t forget you need to go by security to get your identification tag made. And wear something besides a hippy t-shirt? They’ll need a picture.”
“Fine, I’ll try to dress the part, but just for today. You know us programmers don’t have to wear skirt suits like you yuppie desk jockeys do.”
Joyce wasn’t that old, but preferred to dress like a throwback to the sixties when peace, love and free-flowing drugs were the norm. To Carson’s knowledge, Joyce had never used illegal substances, but she still ascribed to the peace and love philosophy.
“I was never a desk jockey.” Carson smiled. “And I don’t wear skirts!”
“But you do still have the public image to uphold,” Joyce pointed out.
“I can’t argue with that.”
“Now you’re being smart. I’ll meet you at eleven.”
Carson agreed and hung up the phone. Joyce always managed to bring things back into perspective, and Carson was more relaxed than she’d been for the past week.
A quick shower, a change of clothes and another cup of coffee and Carson was back out the door. It seemed as though she was never home these days, and she wished she had more time to enjoy her house. Maybe she would get the chance once they finished the move.
Carson drove to the Holcomb Building and pulled around back to the service entrance. The van with the Delphi Technologies logo sat adjacent to the loading dock and Carson parked the Lexus in the small bay next to it.
The rear doors stood open and Carson saw three people moving equipment onto dollies. Joyce turned around, spotted her and waved. True to her word, she wasn’t wearing a peace t-shirt. Instead, she had on a blue turtleneck that complimented her gray eyes, and a black leather jacket. Her curly brown hair bobbed in the breeze as she walked toward Carson with a huge grin on her face. Carson noticed that she still wore blue jeans, but since they were moving equipment, it didn’t matter. Joyce rarely wore anything but jeans to work, and since the photo for the id tag was only from the shoulders up, they wouldn’t even be visible.
“Hey, about time you showed up. I thought we were going to have to do everything ourselves.”
“You mean you’re not finished,” Carson asked in mock disappointment. “I really thought I had waited long enough.”
“Funny,” Joyce teased her back. “Seriously though, that’s the last load.”
She nodded toward the two men. Jeremy and Mike waved at Carson and then pushed the cart through the service entrance.
Carson reached into her pocket. She fumbled past her cell phone and pulled out a set of keys. “We’ll need to stop by security to have copies made, but I’d like you to have the office next to me. The guys can decide which one they want. While we’re there I need to trade my loaner tag for my permanent.” Carson indicated the generic ID that clipped to her lapel.
“Did you get your photo taken when you arrived?”
“You don’t think I dressed up like this for no reason do you,” Joyce asked.
Carson tried to ignore the cell phone that rested like a weight in her pocket. She didn’t normally carry it around, but she had today in hopes that Erin would call her. There was no reason to think that she would, but Carson kept it with her just in case.
“Where are you putting the equipment? All the doors are locked.”
“We’re just piling it up in the hall for now since we got here a little
early to smile pretty for our mug shots. Figured you’d have to show up eventually with the keys.”
“It’s not my fault you’re early,” Carson bantered back trying not to think how she and Erin had gone through files chock full of hundreds of photos looking for a killer. “And you know I’m never late.”
The two women walked through the service entrance and into the main lobby. Carson had become familiar with the elevator banks last Friday and led the way without thinking. When they moved inside, she halted with a visible start.
“Yeah,” Joyce said quietly, “Seeing it in person really gets your attention.”
Yellow crime scene tape still roped off one of the elevators until maintenance could get all of the blood cleaned up. More yellow tape barricaded the hallway that led to the security office and a guard stood next to it to keep the more adventurous from investigating on their own.
Guards stood everywhere in the lobby and Carson realized that Holcomb had gone a little overboard with security since Friday. A thin woman in a guard uniform also stood next to the information desk where Carson had called the police. The woman looked tiny in the uniform, and Carson shook her head. If this woman had encountered the murderer last week, she would not have survived.
“Carson.”
She turned at the sound of her name and found herself looking into Erin’s chestnut gaze.
Erin wore a blue skirt suit with a slit up one side of the skirt and three-inch pumps. Carson thought the garment was what people called a power suit, and it did indeed make Erin Donovan look powerful. Carson felt the world recede slightly as Erin walked closer, her glance flitting to take in Joyce before they returned to Carson.
“Here,” Erin said and handed her a cup of coffee. “You look like you need this more than me.”
She must have just come from the Starbucks kiosk in the corner of the lobby, Carson thought as she took the hot cup. She mumbled thanks and took a sip of the strong drink while Erin introduced herself to Joyce and shook hands.
“Are you all right,” Carson asked. “I didn’t realize how it would feel to walk in here today.”
Erin nodded. “Yes, I’m fine. It was a little disconcerting, but security insisted on escorting me to my office until the rest of the staff got here. And at least they kept the other elevator closed until they could get it cleaned up.”
The tightness around Erin’s eyes w
as a testament to how hard it had been for her to come back in and be confronted with such a vivid reminder of what they’d gone through.
The closeness from the weekend seemed to have diminished since their short time apart to the point that Erin was almost a stranger again. Carson felt the distance keenly and wondered if the weekend was really all Erin had needed from her, just some company until she could deal with her inner demons and find some sort of peace.
“I kept my cell phone on just in case you needed me,” Carson admitted.
There was no good reason to tell Erin that, Carson just wanted to reconnect with her somehow, to know that she hadn’t imagined the friendship and perhaps more that had begun to develop between them.
Erin looked as though she might say something, then hesitated and simply said, “Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, I’d better get back.” She turned to Joyce. “It was nice meeting you.”
Then she was gone. Erin’s long, confident stride carried her across the lobby and into a waiting elevator. She turned around and her eyes connected with Carson’s until the doors finally closed.
“Wow,” Joyce said softly.
“Tell me about it.”
Chapter Nine
ERIN STOOD AT the window to her office and looked down on the city of Chicago. Her palms were set against the windowsill, her shoulders hunched as though awaiting a blow from some unknown assailant.
It was almost three o’clock and time for her to keep her word to Carson and leave work before dark. In the winter, sunset usually came by four-thirty, and for some reason it was important to keep the promise she had made. Maybe because it had been so long since she had allowed someone into her personal circle, Erin considered.
Carson, she thought. What is it about her that gets to me so effectively?
Only this morning she was puttering around in her kitchen dressed in nothing but a long t-shirt. A shiver of residual heat trailed up Erin’s spine, just as her eyes had traced up those long, lean legs. She had wondered at the hidden treasures concealed beneath.
She had wanted Carson then with an intensity that frightened her and threatened to upset the balance of her carefully constructed world. Later, when Erin came out of the shower, she was disappointed to find Carson already gone and the borrowed shirt folded neatly on the guest bed.
What had Erin expected, for Carson to wait around with a kiss before she sent Erin to work with wishes for a good day?
No, Erin thought, but not this aching loneliness either.
On the heels of that perceived loss, Erin had remembered the scene she would probably walk in on at work, and was overwhelmed by a sudden trapped feeling. She opted to drive her car instead of call a cab. At least if she absolutely had to get out of the building, she would have an escape.
If Erin thought driving the car would help, she had been wrong. All of the crime scene tape she found when she walked into the main lobby, as well as what she knew lay behind it, almost made her phone Carson for support. And that was exactly the reason she didn’t do it. She couldn’t allow herself to need someone...anyone...this much.
At least it was quiet now. The complete opposite of what it was when she first walked into the office. It seemed everyone in the building had heard what happened on Friday and bombarded her with questions on sight.
After Erin had answered their questions, just enough to get them to leave her alone, things settled down a little until the nine-thirty meeting with her partners. They bombarded her with the same questions again until she finally pleaded a headache, very much real, and left Bob and Ray sitting with their mouths open as she retreated into her office.
People finally left her alone about the horrific events and after a half hour Erin went downstairs for a cup of decent coffee. Only two elevators worked so she had to wait a few minutes, but the delay was well worth it when she saw Carson in the lobby. Just the sight of her astounded Erin. She should have left unseen then, gone back to her office as if nothing ever happened. Instead, Erin broke her cardinal rule for mixing business with pleasure.
She still managed to keep things brief and only offered Carson her coffee with the lame excuse that she looked as though she needed it more.
Confusion swam in Carson’s blue eyes at the distance Erin imposed between them, but it was the best she could do at work.
“Ms. Donovan?”
Erin started in surprise and knocked the coffee cup next to her off the windowsill. Cold coffee splashed onto the carpet, but fortunately, the cup was Styrofoam.
“Amy! You scared me to death!”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Donovan. I buzzed you and knocked on the door. When you didn’t answer I got worried.”
Erin ran a nervous hand through her auburn hair and swallowed the irrational fear. “It’s all right. I guess I’m still a little jumpy. What did you need?”
“Perfectly understandable,” Amy reassured her boss sympathetically. “I just wanted to let you know Mr. Jameson is on line one.”
“Thanks, Amy. I’ll take it, but after that please hold any other calls. I’m leaving early today.”
A surprised look flitted across the secretary’s face, but she wisely didn’t say anything about the change in her workaholic employer’s routine. “After you leave, I’ll have maintenance up to look at that spot.”
Erin nodded and picked up the phone as her secretary closed the door.
Twenty minutes later, she hung up from another satisfied client after she reassured him that his ex-wife didn’t seem to have much of a case for usurping half his business enterprises. Then Erin put on her suit jacket and draped her overcoat over her arm before she walked out to the receptionist area. Amy sat dutifully behind her desk trying very hard to look busy. It was difficult since the phone wasn’t ringing and the schedule was fairly light during the holiday week.
All that the young woman managed to do was look a little bored.
“You never did tell me how the Christmas party went with Scott’s family.”
Amy smiled and her thick lipstick shone wetly in the fluorescent lights. “Same as usual.” She shrugged. “Scott’s father ignored me while his mother made some vague reference to the grandchildren she still doesn’t have. Michael had a stomach bug and gave it to everyone, so I spent all weekend throwing up and sleeping. Just the normal holiday with the in-laws.”
“Ah,” Erin said sympathetically. “You’re a more patient woman than I am. Listen, there’s not much going on, and you’ve been sick all weekend. Why don’t you go home early today? I know I am.”
Amy looked relieved. “Oh, thank you. That would be wonderful. I’m still feeling a little weak.”
Erin smiled. “Go ahead and switch over to the answering service. Maintenance can look at that stain later.”
By the time Erin reached the door, Amy had already punched in the code to transfer incoming calls and had begun collecting her belongings. Erin didn’t have anything pressing at home and she was at a loss. What would she possibly do, watch movies?
Maybe Carson would like to join her for a drink somewhere. She should still be on the tenth floor moving in equipment so Erin thought she would casually swing by and invite her. The most Carson could do was say no.
Seconds later, Erin stepped off the elevator and into the mother of chaos. Equipment filled the hall, and electrical cords hung everywhere like looped serpents. She could see the lower half of a man’s legs where he stood on a tall ladder; his torso concealed above the drop-down ceiling.
Two men down at the far end of the hall were wrestling a large set of shelves into the room Carson called the computer lab. Someone bumped into her from behind and she almost fell.
“Oops, sorry about that.”
A strong hand steadied her and Erin turned around to see a familiar face. “You’re Joyce, aren’t you? I met you downstairs with Carson earlier.”
“That’s right.” Joyce beamed at her with a huge, friendly smile. “Sorry about the mess. The electrician is running wires for all of the e
quipment, and it’s a real zoo around here.”
“So I see. How long is it going to take to get it all straightened out?”
“Well, let’s see. We have to run lines for servers, extensions, monitors, towers...Oh, maybe by this time next week everything will be in place.”
Joyce’s friendly open manner appealed to Erin. She could understand why Carson thought so highly of her. She also knew that if Carson hadn’t introduced them, it was unlikely she would have gotten even that much information out of Joyce. By Carson’s account, Joyce was no slacker in the mental arena, and security for Delphi Technologies would be necessarily tight.
“Sounds like you’re all going to be here for a while tonight,” Erin observed, slightly disappointed. If they were that busy, Carson probably wouldn’t be able to get away.
“Oh no,” Joyce assured her. “Most of the equipment has already been moved in, and with the lines being run through the ceiling it’ll be easy enough to lock up.”
Joyce glanced down at her watch, “In fact I have an appointment and I’m going to have to get out of here in the next ten minutes. Well, I had better go. If you’re looking for Carson, she’s in her office.” Joyce waved and walked away.
Apparently, Erin wasn’t interrupting after all. However, just because she had promised to leave work early didn’t mean that Carson would. She was just as much of a workhorse as Erin.
She grinned thinking she would just have to charm her into it.
Determined, she walked toward Carson’s office. The door stood ajar and she leaned around the door to peek inside.
Carson’s office was in just as much chaos as the hallway. Empty cardboard boxes, cords and equipment was strewn everywhere. Heavy mahogany shelves lined the wall behind the desk and two new comfortable looking leather chairs sat in their proper spots. One of the chairs was behind the desk and the other sat in front for visiting clients.
Carson held a hammer in her left hand and was pounding a nail into the wall.
I didn’t know she was left-handed. For some reason that fact seemed to make Carson even sexier.
Now You See Me Page 12