4
Spence sat slumped over with her forearms resting on her desk while glaring at the monitor. She wanted to keep Andy and Tommy from seeing the scowl on her face as she tried to decide whether to be annoyed or relieved that Andy had sent them back to Kirkland for a second look. It bothered her that despite all she’d done since she’d joined the firm, he still did not have enough confidence in her work. Yet as bad as that was, the idea he would have Tommy, a misogynist SOB if ever there was one, look over what she had done just to be sure she’d not screwed up made things even worse.
She’d done everything at the hospital right. She had no doubt about that. If there had been a glitch in the system or an external hack, she would have found it. She’d told the hospital administrator as much. And yet, despite the care with which she had laid out her findings before him, he still persisted in believing the nurse’s story. About the only bright spot she could come up with was that Tommy would confirm her findings. Maybe then Andy would set aside the doubts about her competence he obviously harbored and have more faith in her in the future.
Lost in thought, Spence was startled when Tommy called out to her from his desk.
“Oye! Tinker Bell, stop daydreaming.”
Sitting upright, Spence gave her head a quick shake before looking over at Tommy. “Uh?”
When he saw the blank expression on her face, he grinned. “I said, get your kit together, girl.”
Wincing when she realized her response hadn’t been the cleverest of replies, she gave her head another quick shake as if to clear away the mental cobwebs. “Why bother now?” she muttered dismissively. “All the IT staff have probably gone for the day.”
Tommy’s grin broadened. “Good. That means we don’t have to put up with a bunch of nosy parkers asking all sorts of stupid questions or getting in our way.” With that, he grabbed a ratty day sack containing his laptop and tools and started for the door, not bothering to look back as he did so to see if she was following. It was only then that Spence realized what he had called her.
“Tinker Bell!” she muttered under her breath as she snatched her laptop carrier that also served as her handbag and headed off after Tommy, who was already out the door. “I’ll strangle that little runt if he calls me that one more time. I swear I will.”
Behind her, Andy kept his face hidden behind his monitor, desperately trying to suppress a broad grin even after Spence slammed the door behind her.
“The problem nowadays is people forget about people,” Tommy opined as he swung his battered old Range Rover into the early evening London traffic with an absolute disregard for anyone else on the road. “They get too focused on their own little piece of the problem, whether it be hardware, software, or procedures. They tend to ignore the fact that there is no such thing as a foolproof security system or protocol since fools are so bloody ingenious.”
Clasping her laptop’s carrier against her chest in an effort to give her hands something to do lest she reach over and throttle Tommy as he tried to wax philosophical, Spence listened in silence as he droned on.
“I’ve found more often than not some lazy bugger who couldn’t be bothered doing what he’s supposed to do always finds a way for getting ’round it,” he continued, even as he was cutting off a chauffeur-driven Mercedes while chopping across two lanes to get onto Vauxhall Bridge, blithely ignoring the horns of at least two outraged drivers whilst Spence reached stealthily for the door handle.
“I’m sure you did a thorough job. Andy’s not the type who’d hire an idiot. But what’s on the system or in the manual ain’t always what’s happening in the real world. For example, did you check the mouse mats?”
It took all her strength to set aside the outrage she felt over Tommy’s last comment in order to respond civilly. “Why should I have checked the mouse mats?” she replied through clenched teeth. “They’ve nothing to do with the system.”
“Oh yes they have, dear girl.” Tommy snickered. “Bet you a fiver that within five minutes of getting there, I will have a log-on and password to the secure system.”
Thoroughly peeved, all Spence could do was gape at his arrogance while ignoring as best she could the way Tommy was throwing his Range Rover around like he was still in a tank. “How?”
“Post-its and mouse mats, girl. The two of ’em are the most dangerous threat to security since the French declared the Ardennes impassable to tanks.” Tommy paused as he took a moment to chuckle to himself at his own joke before turning his attention back to the serious business of scaring the living daylights out of any driver foolish enough to come within fifty yards of him as he pressed on with all the careless recklessness of a hussar charging a battery of Russian guns.
By the time they arrived at the hospital, Spence’s ire had been replaced by an acute feeling of queasiness brought on by Tommy’s driving. Fumbling her way out of the car, all she could do was stand there in the car park, collecting her wits while sucking in deep breaths of the cool night air.
Coming around from his side of vehicle, Tommy didn’t pause as he made for the hospital’s main entrance. “What are you doing standing there like a bleedin’ gork? We ain’t got all night to dillydally about. Now let the dog see the rabbit!”
With a sigh, Spence drew in a deep breath as she stepped off, leading the way to reception. There she pulled out her temporary contractor’s pass and showed it to the young woman at the desk. “We’re doing a follow-up to my earlier work for Mr. Lewis. I brought someone from our specialist team to assist,” she explained while nodding in Tommy’s direction as he prowled around the waiting area. Grudgingly, the receptionist allowed them in.
They’d not gone but a few steps when Tommy dug his elbow into Spence’s ribs.
“See the door?” he muttered while canting his head toward the security door leading to the admin area.
“The security door?”
“Not very secure now, is it?”
Having been caught up in her own thoughts and busy with the receptionist, Spence hadn’t noticed there was a mop and bucket wedging the door open. The sight of it caused her heart to sink as she realized Tommy had proved his point.
Suddenly feeling very uncertain of herself, Spence followed Tommy into the back office where he nodded amiably to a startled cleaner before he took to poking around the desks. “Ha! Bloody told you so,” he exclaimed a few moments later as he waved a mouse mat under her nose. That’s five quid you owe me.”
Spence’s eyes widened in shock at the sight of a Post-it note stuck to the bottom of the mouse pad. She was still trying to come to terms with how anyone could commit such a flagrant breach of the hospital’s security procedures even as Tommy plopped the mouse pad back where he’d found it — minus the Post-it note, which he’d stuck in his pocket — and moved on, poking around behind the various monitors and under the keyboards. After he’d finished his search of the desks, finding another Post-it note in the process, he turned his attention to the big printer at which Spence had stood before on the first day she’d come here. Pulling out a Maglite torch from his pocket, he twisted it on as he pressed himself against the wall the printer was set against in order to look behind it. Within moments, the grin was wiped from his face.
“Oh shit!”
Spence slowly eased up behind him. “What is it?”
Tommy didn’t answer her at first, concentrating instead on moving the printer out a smidge before bending over to take a closer look behind it.
“Tommy, what did you find?”
He still didn’t answer, at least, not her question. Instead, he straightened up and turned toward her wearing an expression that told her the fun and games were at an end. “Call DS Marbury now!”