Purple Knot

by Raquel Byrnes

  Salem moved to say something else, but I grabbed my purse and was out the door. I ran along the hall and down the stairs. I had just enough time to hit N. Hale’s Shoppe before I went back to Veno Pharmaceuticals. I pulled into traffic just as my cell phone started chirping.

  Veno Pharmaceuticals was like most companies that size. It had a floor full of technical gurus to guard their secrets but almost no security on the individual computers. There was no need, really. Most of the information was housed on servers in the bowels of the building. I didn’t need the servers.

  I checked out the company map and took the elevator to Parker’s floor. It was empty so I used the time to adjust my pants and pulled my hair into a bun. My slacks could pass for business casual but my blouse wasn’t right. I opted to go for the disheveled IT look. I had Jimmy’s leather messenger bag with me and I positioned the tools I’d bought at the spy shop in the pockets so they could be seen easily. I pulled out a clipboard and one of the special order sheets I’d taken from the spy shop. It looked like a work order from a distance.

  The floor indicator dinged and I jumped. Knowing that Parker wasn’t in the building should’ve made me feel better. Cary said he was coming in for the first time tomorrow. I was still nervous.

  I strolled out of the elevator. It was buzzing with activity. People bustled around with armfuls of files and printouts. I heard a group singing Happy Birthday in a nearby conference room.

  I hurried to the receptionist sitting in front of his office. She was watching the Birthday singers with envy. She had on a cheap suit and too much make up. Probably a temporary employee.

  “I’m looking for Parker Evan’s office? I’m with the IT department.”

  She looked at me and confusion flitted across her face but she recovered. She consulted an office map. Definitely a temporary employee.

  “Uh, maybe his secretary can help me?”

  The temp looked at me and smiled with embarrassment. “I’m just a temp here. I know that someone said Mr. Evans’s secretary wasn’t coming in until tomorrow. They let me use her desk for my filing.” She had a slight Tennessee accent and she tended to end her sentences like they were questions. She couldn’t be more than nineteen.

  The birthday singers started cheering and the temp looked away. I shot a glance at the offices on either side of Parker’s. Both offices and the secretary desks in front of them were empty. I knew from experience that temps were rarely invited to the office party. Someone needed to answer the phones. I got the temp’s attention.

  “Uh, I’m sorry what was your name?”

  She looked reluctant to give it, like I might get her in trouble.

  “I’m Brenda.”

  “Well, Brenda, I’m Cary, and I need to call my supervisor and see what he says since Mr. Evans ordered the update but isn’t here.” I gave her a concerned look like it was a big problem and she mirrored my expression and nodded solemnly. I stepped off to the side and dialed Salem. He picked after the first ring.

  “Jimmy’s really scary when he’s angry.”

  Jimmy, a big guy to begin with, seemed to grow when he was angry.

  “Is he there?”

  “No, he left.”

  “Where did he go?”

  “I don’t know!”

  I smiled at Brenda, and put my finger up telling her to wait. She went back to watching the party she wasn’t invited to.

  “I need to you call Veno and ask to be connected to the floor’s receptionist. Then I need you to keep her busy on the phone for at least two minutes.”

  Salem was tapping on his keyboard; I could hear him through the phone. He must be looking up the number of Veno’s main switchboard.

  “OK, two minutes.”

  “OK, so don’t freak her out with hard questions, she’s a temp. I don’t want her to get up and ask someone who works here for help.”

  “OK.”

  I hung up and walked back to Brenda at the desk.

  “My boss says I should just upload the service pack and come back tomorrow to walk Mr. Evans through the set up. I can show you how to set the parameters, but you said you wouldn’t be here.”

  Brenda’s face registered uncertainty. “Uhm…”

  Her phone rang and then my cell phone vibrated in my hand. It was a text from Salem.

  I’m on the phone with her. Go now.

  Brenda answered and then started to root around on her desk. I tried to get her attention again. She looked up at me flustered.

  “It’ll take two minutes,” I promised.

  Brenda glanced at the other secretaries enjoying cake, looked at the phone in her hand, and then back at me. “What do I care?” she said finally. “Go ahead.”

  Relieved, I hurried past her into Parker’s office. I pulled back his chair, took the keystroke logger out of my pocket, and ducked under his desk. Most people don’t ever look at the back of their computer tower. I slipped the connection wire out of the side of the logger and used the clip to splice into the computer keyboard’s wire. The computer would never know it was there. Security software scanned the computer’s hard drive and internet connection for problems. My little gadget was connected to the hardware, the actual physical keyboard. It captured every keystroke that went from the keyboard to the computer tower. Simple and elegant, the logger would record everything Parker typed. It had a wireless transmitter that sent the logged strokes via radio waves to a receiver I’d left a floor below in a fake plant. I just needed to come back and get it tomorrow night.

  I finished the set up, pushed Parker’s chair back into place just as I heard Brenda end her call with Salem. I walked out of the office and past Brenda. She waved. No one else even noticed I was there. They were still laughing and eating cake. I walked to the elevator but it was taking too long. When I turned to head for the stairs I rammed into a man standing behind me.

  “Oh, sorry.”

  The man, a young guy, stammered something, but I was already reaching for the stairwell door. I checked on the receiver on the floor below Parker’s. The readout said it was receiving a strong signal. Satisfied, I left the building. Jimmy weighed heavily on my mind.

  Purple Knot

  25

  I got back to the hotel room and found Salem enjoying a huge amount of food from room service. I shot him a questioning look.

  “He’s still not here.”

  “Did you tell him where I was?” I groaned and plopped down on the desk chair.

  Salem dragged his French fry through the puddle of ketchup on his plate and shoved it into his mouth before answering. “Yup.”

  “You completely folded under pressure.”

  “Like a lawn chair.”

  I snorted a laugh.

  “He was more worried than mad.”

  “I don’t know how I’m going to do my job if he keeps trying to keep me safe.”

  “That’s not a bad thing, you know.”

  I doodled on the complimentary notepad and chewed on the inside of my cheek. Salem went back to watching the television and eating.

  I brooded at the desk. How compatible was life with Jimmy as I lived it now in California? A lump formed in my throat. I didn’t have a life in California. I had a business and one friend. Still, was I willing to pick up and move back here? Did Jimmy even want me that close so soon? Would he move out to California? I though about Salem and my stomach churned. I couldn’t leave him in a lurch. He just started his apprenticeship for his investigator’s license. He needed at least two years on-the-job experience.

  I got up, put ice and water in a glass tumbler, and wandered over to the terrace. I thought about what Jimmy said in the SUV and frustration knotted my stomach again. If he felt lost, then where did that leave us? I slapped the rail with my open palm, frustrated.

  Salem peered at me from his place in front of the TV, but I turned away. With all that was happening I needed to put my questions and feelings about Jimmy on hold and concentrate on the case.

  The rain started
up again, and I went back inside just as my cell phone chirped. It was Jimmy. My heart rammed in my throat. “Hey.”

  Jimmy’s voice was low and tired. It was the way he sounded after we’d fight.

  “Hey, Rain,” he answered. “I’m at Hill House. I have to do some things for the family estate tomorrow morning and then there’s Summer’s will in the afternoon.”

  “You’re not coming back.” I said it, rather than asked it.

  “Rain, I think I’m making it hard for you to do your thing, and I don’t want that.”

  “My thing?”

  “You didn’t need to sneak off. I’m not your daddy, Rain. I wish you would have just talked to me.”

  “I was afraid you’d try to talk me out of it.”

  “I would have, but not for the reason you think,” he said quietly. “I don’t doubt that you’re very capable of taking care of yourself. I know that you can do anything you put your mind to. I know it.”

  “Then why…”

  “Because it’s illegal, Rain. You’re going down a path that is both dangerous and reckless. You’re starting to scare me all over again.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and sighed. I’d heard this before, four years ago. “I’m trying to find Summer’s killer. If this is what is open to me, then I’m not going to pass up the opportunity.”

  Jimmy sighed into the phone and I ached for him. Why couldn’t things ever be easy? “You’re not just risking your future anymore, Rain.”

  “I’m…what?” Now we have a future? I thought he was ‘lost’? My cheeks got hot and I paced the terrace.

  “What if you get arrested for what you did to Parker’s computer? Where does that leave us?”

  “Us…there’s an “us” again?” My voice went sonic again, darn it!

  “Whoa, what do you mean?” Jimmy sounded genuinely concerned.

  “How am I supposed to take what you said this afternoon? What was that about my ‘good life’ in California? Maybe I should just go back to it and stop making you miserable.”

  “Rain…”

  Jimmy often had a hard time keeping up with the amount of words I tended to hurl at him during a “discussion”.

  “No, I get it.”

  “It doesn’t sound like it,” he said irritably.

  Salem got up quietly, grabbed his jacket, and left the hotel room. I crumpled on the bed. Why was this going so wrong? Maybe Jimmy was right to leave. Maybe I needed some space to think.

  “Jimmy, I need to go,” I said suddenly.

  “We need to talk about this, Rain.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who left.”

  “Uh, you left first,” he said mildly.

  “You left for longer.” I sounded like a Kindergartener, a dumb one.

  Jimmy was tapping something and I could hear the empty ting-ting sound while I waited for him to answer me. I tasted blood and realized I’d bitten my ring fingernail down to the quick.

  “Can we talk tomorrow, after the will reading?”

  “I don’t think I’m going to that,” I said quietly.

  “OK, Rain.” He sounded resigned, tired.

  I felt panic. I didn’t want to push him away completely. I just needed to think. Why couldn’t things slow down enough for me to think? “I mean, I’ll go if you want me there.”

  He was silent for a few moments.

  My stomach fluttered.

  “I need you there.” He said it flatly.

  “Then I’ll be there.” My heart ached. Why did I make this wonderful man so frustrated? It seemed like I couldn’t avoid it. We said goodbye and I hung up feeling sick. I was terrified that the pressure and stress of all of this would be too much for Jimmy and I to weather.

  I found Salem in the hotel’s gift and sundry shop. He was carrying candy bars in the little shopping basket. His eyebrows went up when I walked up to him.

  “All better?”

  I bit my lip and shook my head.

  He frowned and pulled a candy bar out of the basket. “Chocolate?”

  I took it. “You know, I grew up in this town.”

  “I think I knew that,” he said with a smile.

  “I bet I can find you a better source of sugar.”

  “You’re on.”

  ****

  We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening visiting the tourist venues. I bought him an éclair from my favorite pastry place in Pike Place Market. He insisted on visiting the very first Starbuck’s and having his picture taken in front of it. I bought some truffle oil from a gourmet shop next door. Salem really liked the museum of music by the Space Needle. We were walking back to the SUV when I passed a boutique that had a few really beautiful skirts and silk blouses. I bought an outfit to wear for tomorrow afternoon with mixed feelings. It was going to be spectacularly awkward at that meeting.

  “Hey want to see a really great view?”

  Salem finished off his coffee and tossed it at the trash can a few yards away.

  “Better than the Space Needle?”

  “Summer’s family belongs to this club that has a restaurant on the eighteenth floor of one of buildings in the middle of downtown.”

  “I already ate.”

  “No, we can’t get into the club, its private. You need a special card to make the elevator go all the way up to that floor. But the floor below is open to the public. It’s a museum for the City of Seattle. Anyway, the bathroom stalls have floor to ceiling windows in them.”

  “Get out of here!” Salem made a face.

  “Mmm hmm, Columbia tower,” I said and pointed at the building in the distance.

  “Well, I gotta see this.”

  Twenty minutes later we rode the elevator up to the Seattle City Museum’s floor. Salem went to check out the bathroom stall windows. I stood in the hallway outside the museum and looked at the black and white photographs mounted on the wall opposite the elevator. I heard the elevator ding but didn’t hear anyone exit. I turned to look as the doors were sliding closed and caught a glimpse of a gray suited leg and arm.

  “Must have hit the wrong button,” I murmured.

  “That was superior!” Salem came back from the museum with a huge grin on his face.

  I checked my watch and sighed. I had to get up early. I needed to go and listen to the last wishes of my best friend.

  Purple Knot

  26

  When Salem and I got back to the hotel I registered under my own name and got the room two doors down from him. I took a long hot bath with the complimentary bubbles and tried not to think about tomorrow’s meeting.

  That night, I tossed and turned in the unfamiliar bed and by morning I was sufficiently tired and battered enough to face the day with a scowl. I got a call from my new defense lawyer, Sierra Hopkins. She told me she had put in for some information from Bennet but he was busy this morning.

  “Yeah, the will reading is today.”

  “Well, keep your mouth shut while you’re there,” she warned.

  I had to smile at the way she put things. I left a note for Salem, sliding it under his door, then headed out to the parking garage. I was already running late.

  I scrounged for my phone while walking toward the SUV. A dying noise signaled the low battery alert. I fiddled with the cord, dropped my keys, and had to kneel and reach under the car next to me to get them. Someone passed between the rows of cars behind me, but when I stood and looked I couldn’t see anyone.

  “Come here, you little buggers,” I chided the keys.

  I grabbed them and heard footsteps again. I turned, but the shadows in the parking garage made it impossible to see very far. Still, the footsteps didn’t continue, they’d stopped as soon as I’d turned. Sufficiently creeped out by my own imagination, I got in the SUV and headed to the lawyer’s office.

  ****

  The will reading was at the law office that I’d practiced my deposition with Bennet. I got directions from the receptionist, stepped out of the elevator, and into the crowd of people
milling around. I didn’t recognize anyone. Being all of five-foot-one, I couldn’t see over the crowd, anyway. In the back of my mind I’d hoped to see Autumn there. It was silly. Why would Parker bring the baby? Still, I felt the pang of disappointment. I wondered if I’d ever get to see Summer’s child.

  I heard Mona’s voice off to my right, so I sidled left. I could tell she was upset because her voice had a certain whiny quality to it. I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but the answering intonations made my heart beat in my throat. It was Jimmy’s voice and he was angry.

  I rose on tip toes to see if I could spot him, thought better of it, and sank back down. Their hushed conversation ended when Bennet flashed the overhead lights and everyone turned to face him at the doors of the conference room.

  “If everyone will please take a seat we’ll begin the reading in one moment.”

  I rolled my eyes. There was no actual law that required a reading of the will. That much I remembered from pre-law. The only thing that was required was that the will be filed with the county clerk’s office. The ‘reading-out’ of someone’s will in a lawyer’s office was really just pomp and circumstance on the part of the family. Although with the retainer Bennet undoubtedly commanded, the Corbeaus should at least get their money’s worth.

  I got behind the chubby aunt from the funeral and tucked myself between the crowd entering the room and the far wall. Maybe no one would notice me. I turned to see Jimmy watching me.

  “You trying to fly in under the radar?”

  I pulled at my blouse. It was slippery and wouldn’t stay in place. Jimmy, on the other hand, looked like an international model. His light brown hair fell over his gray eyes and went perfectly with the tailored charcoal suit. He was stunning.

  “Hi there,” I said quietly.

  He held out his hand and I took it. A strange look crossed his face.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked nervously.