Office Heretics (A Coffee & Crime Mystery Book 2)

by Nan Sampson

  "So your mom said. Here. Here's your glue. What are you making here?"

  "It's some dumb project for school."

  She looked at the mess of Popsicle sticks on the table and the square piece of plywood. "So what's it going to be?"

  "Mom wants me to make the Water Tower. Dad wants me to make the Sears Tower, 'cause he works there. Bor-ing."

  "Okay, so I'm not hearing a lot of excitement there. What's the assignment?"

  "We're supposed to build something that represents the history of Chicago."

  "Huh. So what's your idea?"

  Kyle shrugged. "I don't know. Guess I haven't really thought about it much."

  "When's it due?"

  "Monday."

  Ellie puffed out a breath. "O-kay. Not much time, then. Well, how about we look up some stuff on the internet tomorrow, see if we can find something more fun?”

  “Cool! Thanks, Aunt Ellie!" He shoved the sticks and the plywood over to one side and grabbed his can of soda. "I'm going upstairs to watch TV. Wanna come?"

  "Shouldn't you be going to bed?"

  "Nah. Dad is out at a Bears game, so he won't be home until really late, and mom is dealing with some crisis Aunt Denise is having and tomorrow is Friday and we don't have school cause it's Teacher's Institute, so it's not a school night. They’re re-running the Barrels of Blood marathon tonight." He waggled his eyebrows at her and tried on his best Count Dracula accent. "Sure you don't vant to join me?"

  "No. I'll see you in the morning."

  "Your loss!" He raced off.

  She realized she was dozing when she felt someone sit down on the couch beside her and found she had to open her eyes to see who it was.

  Kate gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Ellie. Why don't you go up to bed?"

  "No, no. I'm good for at least another ten minutes. What's going on around here?"

  Kate glanced around. "What do you mean?"

  "Place looks like grand central station. All the lights are on, kids are still up, I thought you might be having a party or something."

  Kate shrugged. "Just the normal stuff." Kaela's got a girlfriend over, spending the night, Kyle is being his usual manic self. Dan is out at a Bear's game and won't be home until late."

  Ellie reached for the bowl of Chex Mix on the coffee table and grabbed a handful. "And the phone call?"

  "Denise. She's getting rid of another one."

  "Another? How many does that make?"

  "Four. No, five."

  "Five? I thought she was still on three."

  "Goodness no. Four was some Brazilian named Carlos. That one lasted about three months. I keep forgetting about him. This last one was some record producer in California. I actually kind of liked him."

  "I can't believe the two of you are actually sisters. You couldn't be more different."

  "I'm convinced Mom had an affair. Or maybe they found Denise on the doorstep."

  "Or maybe she was left by aliens."

  They both giggled and Kate laid a hand on Ellie's leg. "I've missed you."

  "Me too.”

  “So what’s the plan for tomorrow?”

  “I thought I’d head into the city early in the morning, see Lacey, get this over with.”

  Kate looked disappointed. “Oh. I told her we’d have dinner with her tomorrow night, when I called her back the other evening.”

  “Ah.” Of course she had. Ellie shook her head, feeling only a little guilty. “Sure, we absolutely will do that -- but I still want to talk to her first.” She met Kate’s gaze. “If that’s okay with you.”

  Kate reached over and squeezed her hand. “Of course. Try to talk sense into her. She needs to go to the police. Then maybe go do some sightseeing or something. I have to get Kaela to flute lessons at 9:00, but I’ll be home after.”

  “Gotcha. Thanks, Kate. I appreciate you coordinating all this, as well as letting me stay here. I really do.”

  “I know, sweetie.” She smiled. “Coordinating is my life - and you know you’re always welcome to hang your hat at Chez McCallum.”

  Ellie smiled her thanks then glanced back at the TV. “Now, however, I’m fading fast, so..."

  "Of course you are. Go on up. You're in the usual place. But I warn you, if you wake up at some ridiculous hour of the morning, don't go waking up the rest of the house."

  "I'll be quiet as a mouse."

  She left Kate sitting on the couch, flipping channels, and retrieved her bag from the hall, then trudged up the thickly carpeted stairs. Somehow she managed to change into her night shirt and brush her teeth, but after that, it was quite literally lights out.

  Chapter 8

  She had been prepared for early morning traffic, but it seemed it had gotten exponentially worse in the six months she’d been gone. Despite having gotten up at five, and gotten on the road by five-thirty, the expressway was jammed. She sat on I-80, wishing she'd tried some back streets, and cursed the impossible line of cars that stretched forever in front of her.

  Not finding anything decent on the radio, Ellie popped in a soothing David Arkenstone CD, hoping to mellow her mood. She glanced down at the map opened on the passenger seat. She'd been away just long enough that she needed a reminder how to get where she was going. I-80 to the Eisenhower, then the Ike into the city. After that, she had a print-out fromMapfinder.com that would get her to Lacey's office building on State Street. She probably should have taken the Kennedy, it would have put her into the city farther north, but the Kennedy was a toll road, and she knew that since they'd installed "open road tolling" and the I-Pass system, if you didn't have one of the electronic gizmos that charged your toll to a credit card, the tolls were extortionately high.

  There were days when she missed her corporate six-figure salary.

  She looked out at the line of traffic and was reminded of feeling like a hamster in a wheel. The money had been a trap. The money and the things that it bought. Kate was caught in it. So was Lacey. It would be so easy to get caught in it again.

  Turning up the volume to drown out the frantic sound of traffic, she ground and centered and tried to let go the notion that she wanted to control the cars around her so they got out of her way, and tried to just go with the flow.

  Two and a half hours later, after parking her car in a city lot to the tune of $30, and walking in the bitter wind for seven blocks to Lacey's office building, the notion of heading back to her nice, quiet life in Horizon, even without benefit of The History Channel, looked like heaven.

  The Clark Building was hustling. The line to the Starbucks that lived on the ground floor was at least twenty people deep, and the sound of ridiculously high women's heels clattered on the marble tiles as people jostled for position in front of the bank of six elevators.

  Ellie projected a small personal energy bubble around herself and allowed it to help her manage the crowds around her. She needed some breathing room. In a few moments, she found herself in a relatively empty elevator, heading smoothly up to the 22nd floor.

  When the doors opened, the first thing she noticed was a man in a rumpled suit standing by a set of glass doors that led into Garner Solutions, the marketing firm Lacey worked for. He looked out of place, and was projecting an aura himself, though she doubted he realized it. His was an aura of harsh authority.

  And then she saw the badge clipped to his jacket pocket and understood. He was a cop.

  As she approached the glass doors, he stepped into her path. "Can I help you, Miss?"

  She met his eyes coolly. "I doubt it. I'm here to meet a friend of mine."

  "And who might that be?" His attitude was cocky, sharp.

  "I don't see how that's any of your business –" she tipped his badge so she could read it better "--Detective Kowalski."

  "Everything that goes on here today is my business, Miss. Who are you here to see? Or would you like to come down to the station and answer the question?"

  Pushing his buttons further wasn't going to get her inside, although the r
ebel in her wanted to continue. She disliked him immediately, and not only because he was a cop. "I'm here to see Lacey Silberson. We're supposed to get together this weekend and I told her I'd stop by when I got into town today."

  "So you're not from Chicago? Where are you from?"

  "Wisconsin."

  He raised an eyebrow just slightly. She didn't need to be telepathic to hear "cheesehead" going through his mind. "When did you get into town?"

  "This morning. Well, I drove into the city this morning, I drove down last night." She stopped. She'd fallen into the trap of answering his questions automatically. She might not like him, but he was good. "Hang on. What does it matter? You know who I'm here to see. Now let me in, so I can see her."

  "I can't do that, Miss." He looked her up and down, taking in the worn pair of jeans she had on, the sweater with the dancing moose embroidered on it that she'd gotten at a thrift store in Madison.

  "Why not?"

  "Because Miss Silberson is dead."

  Ellie stared at the man. Was this some kind of prank Lacey had set up? But no, Lacey had never had much of a sense of humor. Could she really have been right? Had there really been someone trying to kill her?

  The detective was staring at her keenly. "Beg pardon?"

  Had she said something aloud? "I... I guess I'm shocked. I don't know quite what to say." She glanced around, not knowing what she was even looking for. "I'm sorry, is there some place I can sit down?"

  It was a stalling tactic, but it derailed the cop long enough to buy her a moment to get a grip. He led her to a waiting area just inside the glass doors. She looked around her, at the office busy-ness. It seemed very much business as usual, despite Lacey's death and the presence of the police. The cop was still watching her.

  "Are you sure it's Lacey? I mean, has someone who knows her identified her?"

  "Her boss has. Do you know of any next of kin who could do the formalities? She doesn't appear to have listed any with HR."

  "Lacey's parents are dead, and as far as I know there was no one else. At least, not that she ever mentioned."

  "You've known Miss Silberson long?"

  "We went to college together. Good Goddess. I can't believe it." She took a breath. There was a lack of the emotions she had expected. A little sadness, yes, but more distant, the way you'd react if you heard on the news that someone you didn't know had died. That made her feel worse, that there was so little genuine caring.

  "How? I mean, what happened?"

  "It appears to have been a mugging."

  "What? No. That's not possible. Lacey would never have let herself be mugged. She knew how to defend herself. Besides which, she was always careful." She would have been too scary to mug, she thought. She would have given the mugger that nasty, Lacey glare and he'd have run away with his tail tucked between his legs.

  "Apparently not careful enough."

  Ellie felt her hackles rise. What an ass. "I beg your pardon? Was that you I just heard blaming the victim?"

  He held up his hands, but his smirk remained. Maybe that was his only expression. "No offense meant. But she was mugged - her purse was missing - and her body was found in an alley behind the restaurant where she'd been having dinner."

  Ellie couldn't even process what she was hearing. It was just so impossible.

  She stood. She wanted out of there. Away from this idiot cop. "I've got to go. I've got to tell Kate."

  "Kate?"

  "Another friend. She and Lacey and I went to college together. We had planned to get together this weekend."

  "A sort of reunion, eh?"

  "In a way."

  "I'll need your full name and the address and phone number where you'll be staying, as well as your home address and phone number." He motioned to someone off to the side. "If you could, just give your info to Sergeant Wilson here and then you can go. We'll be in touch."

  She nodded, feeling strange, numb. "Sure."

  "Oh, and I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't leave town just yet."

  She looked up at his face, at his cold officiousness. "So I'm a suspect. Gosh, what a surprise. Yes, sir, Lt. Columbo."

  He gave her a hard stare. "You've been a suspect before? And the name is Kowalski."

  She could tell he didn't get the reference, and she wasn't going to waste the time explaining it to him. Nor was she going to tell him anything else at this point.

  "I'll give my info to Sergeant Wilson." She stood and moved towards his hapless sergeant, who looked bored and sleepy. A sideways glance showed Kowalski walk off deeper into the office, a self-important swagger in his step. She half expected him to turn around and say, "Oh, just one more thing." But of course he didn't. She couldn't believe he had really asked her not to leave town - did cops really say that or was it something he learned from watching TV?

  Sergeant Wilson perked up when she reached him. She gave him her "info" and got up, ready to head back to the relative safety and comfort of the McCallum household. Kate was not going to believe this.

  She'd no sooner taken two steps towards the door when a young man in a pair of jeans and a Grateful Dead t-shirt rushed up to her. "Oh my God! You're her!" He threw his arms around her shoulders and hugged her.

  She staggered back a step and gently tried to peel the fellow off. His aura was a jumbled mess, and his emotions were bleeding all over her - a potent combination of fear, grief and something like relief.

  He gave her one last squeeze and released her. "Sorry, sorry." He rubbed his hands down the front of his jeans. "Didn't mean to startle you."

  On closer examination, he wasn't as young as she'd first thought. Tall and skinny, with long red curls and a face covered by a mass of freckles, he could have been Shaun White's brother, or maybe Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, but faint age lines feathered out from around his eyes, and deep worry creases marred his forehead. He stuck out his hand, also covered with freckles. "Hi. I'm Cary O'Malley. I worked for Lacey. You’re Ellie. It's so good to meet you, but... but..." He choked up, looked away then got hold of himself. "Sorry. It's just such a shock."

  Ellie shook his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Cary. And yeah, shock doesn't even really cover it. I'm sorry, how do you know me?"

  "Oh! Well, it was the picture. The one on Lacey's desk."

  Ellie's heart skipped a beat "Picture?"

  He grinned at her. "Yeah. Of the two of you, from like, when you were in college. It sits on her credenza, behind her desk. I've been staring at it for five years now, every time I'd go into her office to meet with her."

  Dear Lady and Lord. Lacey had kept a picture of her? On her desk? At work? It felt weird to know that. She didn't even know how to respond. "Ah. I see."

  "I'm sorry we had to meet like this but I kind of feel like I know you already. I mean, Lacey didn't talk much about personal stuff, but she did say you were best friends." He looked down, tearing up again. "Damn. I just can't believe it."

  Ellie reached out a tentative hand. "Is there a break room? Maybe a cup of tea would be a good idea."

  He looked up, met her eyes. "Thanks. But I really shouldn't. If Lawson catches me chattering, he'll have my ass again. I've got selects to pull and get sent out to our list processor this afternoon and the later in the day I do it the longer it's going to take." He jammed his hands in his jeans pockets. "But hey, a group of us are getting together tonight at the Bar and Grill downstairs for a few drinks. Why don't you join us?"

  Ellie started to shake her head. She didn't belong there and she had always hated that kind of thing. She wondered about the picture Lacey had kept on her desk, and she felt selfish and inconsiderate. "If you're sure I won't be crashing a private party."

  "No way, man. Lacey would have wanted you there. She was always telling us what a great friend you were. Well, not 'always'. You know how private she was. But she thought the world of you. Seems only right you should be there with us as we have a drink in her honor."

  Ellie nodded, the guilt just piling up inside her. A great
friend? She hadn't talked to Lacey in years before the other day. Now, because Ellie hadn't wanted to leave the comfort and emotional security of her new life, Lacey was dead. "What time?"

  "Some of the others will probably head down early - 4:15 or so. Not sure when I'll get down there. Depends on how long the stupid selects take. But no later than 5:15 for me. They don't pay me enough to suck that much of my night away." He grinned at her. "But you know how it is - Lacey said you were in marketing too, before you left for the great white north."

  She smiled. "Yep. Been there, done that." She glanced down the hall behind him, saw a tall man in an expensive suit striding towards them. Quietly, she said, "I think I see the boss heading this way." Then she gave Cary a smile, and pitched her voice louder. "Thanks again for your help."

  He glanced behind him just as the fellow in his late forties approached. "Problem here, O'Malley?"

  "No, sir. I was just--"

  Ellie stuck her hand out. "Hi. You must be Rob Lawson. Lacey always spoke kindly of you."

  The man raised his eyebrows and his manufactured smile barely creased his cheeks. "I'm sorry, have we met?"

  Ellie gave him her best corporate smile. "I'm Ellie Gooden, a friend of Lacey's. We were supposed to have lunch today." She didn't have to force the tears to her eyes. They came easily. "It's so shocking. Today was supposed to be such a happy day. A little reunion of sorts." As she ran fingers through her hair, she was aware of Cary slipping quietly away.

  Lawson stuck out his hand. "Ms. Gooden. A pleasure to meet you. Lacey spoke of you often as well."

  She shook his hand, noting his manicured nails and his smooth skin, his golfer’s tan. "Well, I shouldn't keep you."

  "No, please, would you care for a cup of coffee? I'm sure this is just as disturbing for you as it is for us."

  A part of her wanted to take him up on it. She wanted to hear about Lacey from the man who had been her boss, but her desire to get out of here, get back to some place safe and familiar was stronger. "It has been awful. I really appreciate the offer, but really, I think I just want to get home."