by Dale Mayer
He shook his head. “Peaceful and calm. Sunshine and rainbows all the way.” And he grinned at her.
She laughed. Dane shook his head.
The peaceful camaraderie set the tone for the rest of the afternoon.
Chapter 19
SHE CLOSED HER books and yawned. “I hardly did anything but I’m tired already.” She stacked up her books and set them at the back of the table. “I think I should go to the company and get the rest of my stuff.”
He lifted his head from his laptop and said, “I thought you said it was all on the servers.”
“It is there too but my own stuff is on my keys.”
“Who would know this?”
“No idea. It’s not like I’ve been hiding my work all these years. They’d have seen me use keys over time. Stuff I was bringing back and forth to work on at home. Backups. Copies for presentations.”
“But all the work is on the servers at the company as well?”
She nodded. “We have a login to the server and like any company they have security safeguards in place.”
“But…” He waited.
“I work on my laptop a lot. And work from home even more so I needed a way to carry the information back and forth.” She shrugged. “That’s not new or different.”
“Not if this research is important and people are trying to get it. Then it’s a case of needing to know how many copies of the material there are.”
“Two. The servers and my key.”
“And your laptop?”
“Not really. Bits and pieces I suppose but I work off the key.”
“And yet you don’t have your key with you.”
She flushed. “Right. I switched to cloud storage a little while ago.”
He just stared at her. “So you don’t need the key anymore?”
She threw up her hands. “Hey, it’s got some stuff on it I need, so I usually have all of it available just in case. I’ve been transferring some to cloud storage, but I’m only using the free space and it’s not very big so the key, cloud, laptop and work.”
“That doesn’t sound like a very good system.”
“It’s not, but I was a student and viewing my work more along the lines of schoolwork not chemical warfare,” she snapped. “I’d be happy to change this and put it all on the cloud and the server but that means going to the lab.” She brightened. “That’s actually a really good idea.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Yes it is. I’ll be able to grab my other books I need too,” she waved a hand at the stack on the table. “I didn’t bring home everything I wanted last time so could use a couple more of my textbooks.”
“I’m not sure you showing up at the company is a good idea at all,” he admitted. “It might trigger another attack.”
“That would mean people are watching Tenesco, so if that’s the case, what about the fate of the other people who work there? Are they in danger too?” She shook her head, sending her hair flying. “I can’t have that on my conscious too.”
She stood up. “That’s enough. Let’s go to my company, I can grab the stuff I need and you’ll be able to see what the layout and system is like. It’s not chemical warfare there.”
“If not there,” he said standing up, “then how about at a sister site? Where different work is carried out but still sits under the same umbrella corporation.”
“I hate the sound of any of it. I don’t want to believe the company I’ve been working for is involved in anything so horrible.”
“You work in chemistry. What did you think they worked on?”
“They develop industrial chemicals,” she said in a harsh tone. “Not weapons.”
Hawk’s head continued to flip from one side to the other as he listened to the conversation and the two glaring adversaries. Marielle wanted to comment but figured it would make things worse. She slumped back down. “Whatever.”
Dane sat down opposite her.
Hawk smirked. Marielle caught the look and frowned at him. “What are you smiling about?”
“You two.” He got up from the table and walked to the sink where he washed his dishes. “Lots of energy between you two.”
“So? He’s irritating as hell.” When Hawk laughed she frowned. “Whatever.”
“Let’s go to Tenesco,” Dane said.
She brightened. “Really?”
Dane nodded. “You’re not going to rest until you can grab your stuff.”
“Well, it is my work,” she said apologetically. She bounced toward the doorway. “Let me grab my jacket.”
*
“IS THAT WISE?” Hawk asked. “The reason we’re safe here is no one knows where she is.”
“I know but Tenesco is where it’s at.”
“But not locally. It’s going to be in Germany or China most likely.”
“I hear you. Need to know where first.” Dane looked at the doorway to make sure she wasn’t listening in. “Also, she seems to think no one there is looking at her research, not her coworkers, friends, etc. We know better. There are always people looking to climb that ladder.”
“True.” Hawk stared out the window. “Even when we’re not on duty we’re on duty. The rest of the world, however…”
“Exactly.”
“I’m not sure we’re heading in the right direction on this.”
“No, quite possibly we aren’t. But we have to figure it out soon. She’s getting antsy and won’t stay like this for long.”
“I wouldn’t either. But I’d be going after the enemies not waiting for them to come after me.”
“But I can’t do that,” Marielle said from the doorway. “I wish I could. But with Michaels gone, and the head of my chemistry department at work gone, I’m not a fool. I can’t go after a nameless killer.”
Dane walked over to her. “You can’t, but that doesn’t mean we can’t.”
She nodded but didn’t look convinced. “What I can do is my work.”
“Let’s go. We’ll go to your lab and grab your stuff.” As she turned and walked to the front door, Dane nodded to Hawk. “At least this way, the work might not fall into anyone else’s hands.”
“I’ll be watching your back.”
“Good. Let’s hope it’s a quick trip. We should be back here in just over an hour.”
Chapter 20
THE DRIVE TO the lab where she’d spent so much of her last few years took longer than she expected. It took ten minutes of driving time alone for her to understand where she was in the city. She knew she’d never make it back on her own. That gave her a weird feeling of isolation.
Outside in the parking lot, she stared around the massive grounds. So much had happened since she’d been here that she couldn’t imagine how untouched it looked. There’d been several break-ins and a death, yet the immaculate grounds were the same. The building looked the same. If any physical damage had been done, it wasn’t obvious anymore. She walked up the long sidewalk to the front door. The doors were closed. She used her key card to pull it open and walked into the front reception.
It was empty.
No one in the expansive seating area and no one behind the desk. She took a left turn, opened the steel door with her key card and headed down the long stairwell to where the labs were. And her locker. As they walked the long hallway, she couldn’t help noticing that the place appeared empty of staff. She hadn’t seen anyone at the front desk. And so far the other offices were closed and lights off. Then she realized what the problem was. “What day of the week is it?”
“Saturday.”
She smiled. “Right. There wouldn’t be anyone here normally on a Saturday.”
“No one?”
“Not usually.”
“But you were allowed to be here on weekends?” his voice sounded odd.
“I think I’ve only been here once on a weekend,” she admitted. “And that was to pick up work.”
“So you don’t know if people are here or not?” he said it in such a matt
er of fact voice she didn’t take offense. Besides, she didn’t really know. She hadn’t been in on a weekend lately so didn’t know and the one time she had come in she’d been asked about it on Monday.
“I guess.” She shrugged. “They are watching us now on camera so I’ll get questioned on Monday.”
“That would be normal of any company. I’m surprised you didn’t have to sign in first as you entered.”
“The cards replaced the sign-in requirement as they are coded individually for each person and are needed at each level and door. So much safer.”
“Unless you’re dead and the cards can be used by someone else.”
“Great, thanks for the reminder. Besides, they might get in with my card, but they still would be on camera.”
She finally made it to her level and walked out onto the floor. On the left side were small labs with large glass observation walls. On the right were small offices.
At the third office she pulled out her key and opened the door.
“Damn it,” she cried. “I was hoping no one had been in here.” She stared at her simple bare room with papers strewn on the floor, drawers pulled out and dumped, and her cup tossed to the ground. She placed her laptop down on the desk and turned it on. “I don’t keep anything here on purpose.”
“And that could be why it was dumped like this – temper.”
“Makes no sense. Everything is stored on the server.”
“So show me.”
They had to wait for her laptop to turn on for her to get to the files. Then she opened up the one file she’d been working on at home and then hit Save As so she could show him where it synced to. “See, it’s here on the server where the rest of my work is.”
She glanced up to see Dane staring around the small room.
“Anyone would know that though, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then this is just temper and show dressing. They want you to know they are looking at you.”
“And that means what? I didn’t do anything.”
Footsteps in the hallway had Dane sliding behind the doorway before he could be seen. Marielle stood in the middle of her small room hating the suspicion coursing through the space. She bent down and tried to collect the papers on her floor. The footsteps stopped. She froze. And peered around the corner of the desk. Candice stood there, her hands on her hips.
“There you are.”
Marielle straightened up. “Yes. I’m back. What happened to my room while I was gone?”
Candice looked around the small room and shrugged. “It doesn’t look like anything happened. Maybe the cleaning people knocked the papers over.”
Marielle replaced the stack she’d picked up on the floor onto the desk. “Maybe, but not likely.”
“Where have you been?” Candice asked, her voice sharper than usual, her gaze pointed. “You should have been here yesterday.”
Marielle stared at her. “Why is that?”
“We had a companywide meeting.”
“Really?” Marielle lifted her eyebrow in surprise. “I hadn’t heard about it.”
“Then you didn’t read your email,” she snapped. “And more than one was sent.”
Marielle pulled out her chair. “I don’t think I saw anything about it.” She waited a half a beat. “What was it about?”
“Dr. Hudson was killed during a very unfortunate incident here earlier this week. It was the follow up and change in procedures we were going over at the meeting.”
“Ah, I heard about his death on the news.” Marielle managed to sound sincere and sad at the same time. It was hard with Dane behind the door and that added to the tension. She ran a hand over her head and pulled her chair back to sit down.
“There are going to be a lot more changes as well,” Candice said. “And you will be one of them.”
Uh oh. That didn’t sound good. “In what way?” And why was she talking to her about it. Candice had nothing to do with her work.
“There will be no coming in on weekends to avoid us during the week,” she started, already shocking Marielle with her nastiness. Then Candice just spewed as if a pustule of hatred had been festering for years. In truth Marielle had barely had anything to do with her.
Marielle cut off her nastiness. “First, I almost never come in on the weekends. I was gone on holiday last week, remember, booked off and approved as per company rules. I’m here now because I’m just home.” She threw out her arm. “And what – were you in here destroying stuff?”
Candice gasped. “I would never do that. How can you say such things to me?”
Marielle heard the unhinged note in the older woman’s voice. And the anger flaring. “I don’t know, maybe it was the rant you just went on.” She threw up her hands. “Sorry for accusing you but someone went through my stuff.”
“Maybe Dr. Hudson was looking for something. You wouldn’t mind him going through your desk, would you? After all, he was your personal friend.”
Her stomach almost heaved at the thought. “No, he was your special friend.”
The old woman’s face paled quickly. Then flushed bright red in anger. “We’ll see about your job too. You need to realize who is in charge here – and it isn’t you.”
“Why are people being laid off?” She was in a different position as a student, but she had no illusions about her future at the company. And if half of what they suspected turned out to be true, they weren’t someone she wanted to work for long term anyway.
“Of course management shuffles all the way down. I’ve been here for decades. It always changes and yet never changes.” She sniffed. “This time it might be different. They don’t seem to have appreciated Dr. Hudson. They aren’t doing something in his memory – nothing. It’s like he walked out that door and never came back on his own accord.”
“Did the police ever find out anything about his killer?”
Candice shook her head. “Not that I’ve heard.”
Marielle watched as her eyes brightened with unshed tears. And felt immediately sorry. She’d been insensitive. Hadn’t she pointed out to the guys his morning that Candice had been very close to Hudson – or appeared to want to be closer. Of course his death had been terrible, but for Candice it was horrible – as in life destroying.
“I’m so sorry about his death,” she said gently. The other woman nodded and hurried away in the same direction she’d come from. As her footsteps finally disappeared, Dane came out from his hiding place.
He had an odd look on his face.
“What’s the matter?” she asked him.
“Interesting personality.”
“I said she’s acerbic.”
“You did. But she’s also more unhinged at this point than I’d have expected.” He stared out the direction she’d gone. “I couldn’t see her clearly, but did she appear to have slept in her clothes at all?”
Surprised, Marielle cast her mind back. She’d been so scared that Candice would see Dane that she hadn’t really noticed. But…maybe.
“She’s always given the appearance of being slightly rumpled. At least lately, and she was a little more this time maybe. But why on earth would you think she’d slept in her clothes?”
“The way she spoke, her feelings for the doctor who’d been shot. Her erratic speech.” He glanced around the room. “As if she hasn’t been able to separate from him.”
“But he’s only been dead a few days. It’s not as if she’s had a chance to separate.”
“Sure, but you’re here on a Saturday for a specific reason. So is she. You know what your reason is, do you know what hers is? Or is it because she feels so close to him that she’s here and can’t leave. Because this is where her connection to him is. If she leaves the job then she separates more from him.”
Marielle couldn’t imagine. Then again she’d never loved anyone to that extent – except her mother. She slid a sideways look at Dane. He was special but he was also not for her. Too bad.
“Now what broug
ht that look on your face?”
“Thinking about loving someone so much you can’t leave the place you associated with them. That would be very odd.”
“And maybe very beautiful,” he said, surprising her. “Think of the depth of emotion that few people ever experience.”
“I suppose. But it’s also creepy. I wonder if he even liked her.” She shook her head and clicked a few buttons to sync up her work. She had the USB attached that she used as a backup copy. The files were being transferred now.
“This shouldn’t have anything to do with me, you know. All the work is here.”
“But it’s not finished, so maybe they want you to finish it for them as their guest.”
“Then why try to kill me,” she said practically. “That makes no sense.”
“Clean up loose ends? And another possibility is that they weren’t trying to kill you…”
She snorted, her gaze on the laptop as it worked away and the monitor as it transferred files. “Really? They hoped to incapacitate me with a bullet?”
“Or you weren’t the target,” he said calmly.
Slowly raising her glance, her mind shifted from work to the shooting and understood. She bolted to her feet and raced toward him. She reached out and grabbed his shirt, her eyes staring into his. “Oh my God. Were they trying to kill you this time?”
*
HE WASN’T SURE if he should have mentioned it or not but given her reaction, he was damn glad he had. He wrapped his arms around her and tugged her up tight. She shook his shirt impatiently. “Answer me, were they trying to kill you?”
“Maybe.” What was he supposed to say? It wasn’t like he knew the killer or understood what was going on in his mind.
“If they want to take you to do the research for them, then it’s not an easy thing to do while you have a guard. Take out the guard and it’s a simpler process.”
“The same as grabbing my mother?”
He nodded. “And your mother has a guard around the clock.”
“Who they might want to kill as well?”
“Right. It’s hard to second guess who is doing what or when right now.”
She glanced back at her work then out to the hallway. “I don’t know what I can do. I can’t destroy the information as it is kept on servers I can’t access. They have backup files everywhere.”