“You can go into the building. You can go to your office. Then you can go to Blake’s office.”
“But…”
He reached into his pocket and brought out a rectangular object that looked something like a smartphone, only a little smaller. “This will jam the cameras.”
She made a moaning sound. “But they’ll know something’s wrong.”
“Then you have to be quick.”
“Alesandro, por favor. I can’t do this.”
“You have to. Now.”
“Now?” she echoed.
“This is the perfect time. Pretend you forgot to do something at work. Go into the building, and go up to your office.” He held up the device he’d shown her. “It’s preprogrammed. You press these buttons. It will disable the cameras in that area.”
She wanted to say no. She wanted to scream at him that she couldn’t do what he was asking.
But after handing her the device, Alesandro slumped back against the back of the couch, his face contorted with pain.
“Go now,” he said. “Please. For me.”
“What am I looking for? Something on a piece of paper?”
“No. Something with data in electronic form.”
“And what if they figure out the information is missing?” she dared to ask.
“It’s already missing. Blake took it before he died.”
While she was turning that over in her mind, he reached into his pocket again and took out a pair of rubber gloves. “You should wear these.”
She winced. She hadn’t even thought about fingerprints. But of course she needed the gloves.
“Give me a minute.”
Feeling as though she were trying to lift her feet through quicksand, Elena walked into her bedroom. After taking off the sundress and carefully hanging it up, she pulled on a dark blouse and a pair of slacks.
Then she came back to the living room, marched past her brother, and fled her own apartment. A few minutes ago, she’d been happily thinking about what the future might hold with Shane Gallagher. Now she knew a future with him was an impossible dream.
Chapter 11
As Alesandro watched his sister leave the apartment, he felt elation bubble inside his chest. The excitement came with pain, but he ignored that part and focused on his victory.
She was such a goody-goody that he hadn’t been sure she’d do it. But he knew her family ties were strong. He’d convinced her that she was his only salvation, and now she was on her way to get the information Blake had stolen. And he was on his way out of trouble.
“Thank you, Lord,” he said in Spanish, then added, “I know I’ve done bad things. I know I could have been a better man. But now I promise you that I’ll turn myself around. I’ll stop doing shit to earn extra money. And I’ll get a better education, like my sister has.”
He wasn’t sure that he believed in God. But if there was one, it couldn’t hurt to ask for an important favor and to make promises for the future. As for the past, he knew his parents had always favored him. When he was a little boy, that had made him feel good. But since he’d become an adult, he’d come to envy his sister.
He could see she was determined to make something of herself. She’d studied hard, and she’d gotten a good job. Not that their parents even noticed. To them, she would always be second best, while Alesandro knew in his heart that he was the one who truly fulfilled that role.
Was he screwing up her future? He hoped not. But he wasn’t going to call her back. He needed her to get him out of the shit pit.
He moved his shoulders, wincing at the soreness, then felt his nose. It had bled, but he didn’t think it was broken.
The thugs had worked him over, but he knew that they could have done much worse. This beating had been intended to cause him pain. But it had also been for show—to make Elena realize that her brother was going to end up dead if she didn’t do the job. He winced. That was no joke. They really would kill him if she didn’t do it. But she was on her way, and he’d be home free soon. And then he would mend his ways. No more little jobs for the mob that had a way of turning into bigger jobs. He had to get out of that trap because if he went on like he was going, he’d end up in a Dumpster in an alley somewhere.
Elena paused at the entrance to her apartment building and peered into the darkness. Were the men who had beaten up Alesandro out there, watching to make sure she did what she was supposed to?
She shuddered, remembering that she’d thought a car was following her a few days ago. Could it be those same men? Staking her out? Was that what they called it?
She made a sound low in her throat, hating the position she was in. All her life, she’d tried to do everything right. And it had felt like it was working. And now this.
Her hands clenched and unclenched as she walked to her car and got in. She had to do what Alesandro had asked—to keep him from getting killed. Or maybe her brother was wrong, and Arnold Blake’s office had been cleared out, leaving nothing to find. Then what? She’d fail and they’d kill her brother? Or would they realize they’d given her an impossible task?
She answered that question with a hollow laugh. If they thought that, she wouldn’t be driving to S&D right now.
She felt like she was moving through a nightmarish landscape as she pulled up at the S&D building.
The lot was almost empty, and she was able to park close to the entrance.
In the lobby, she was relieved to see that the security desk was empty. She knew there was supposed to be a guard on duty, but apparently he’d stepped away from his station for a few minutes. That was good, because maybe he wouldn’t come rushing upstairs in the next few minutes when the cameras went off in the IT area.
Quickly she crossed to the elevator, keeping her head down but feeling the camera on her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t do anything about that.
On the IT floor, she walked down the hall to her own office and stepped inside, knowing the security cameras were still following her progress. For a long moment, she stood without moving. Then she pulled out the device Alesandro had given her and pressed the buttons he’d indicated. Nothing seemed to happen, but she had to believe that the cameras were temporarily off. If it hadn’t worked, someone would be coming up to ask her some leading questions.
She was about to leave her own work area when she realized she needed to have a reason for coming back to work so late if anybody figured out she was here. She opened her filing cabinet and took out a folder with instructions for using the new version of the word-processing software that she’d been issued. It was something S&D had developed, and it wasn’t on the market yet.
After tucking the folder under her arm, she hurried down the hall to Arnold’s office and stepped inside. With the door shut, she turned on the light and looked toward the desk, zeroing in on the nameplate that she had half expected wouldn’t be there. “Arnold Blake” in gold letters on a polished wooden strip. It looked as though the man had only stepped out for a few minutes and was going to walk back in.
When she moved around to his side of the desk, she saw a picture of his family at one corner. Arnold with his wife and a teenage boy and a girl. They all looked happy, unaware of what was going to happen.
His technical books were on the shelves behind the desk, and the computer was on the el at right angles to the desk. She started to reach toward it, then remembered the rubber gloves and pulled them from her purse. They were a size too big for her, but she pulled them up as far as she could.
Even though everything was here, she couldn’t believe that nobody had searched for the information she’d been sent to get. Or maybe nobody at S&D knew that Arnold Blake was a thief. Yes, that could be right. They knew he’d been killed, but they had no idea why. Of course, Shane had mentioned him. And she didn’t know why. Did he suspect something?