“There’s nothing to figure out.”
“We’ll see.” Molly backed out of the doorway to return to her own office.
Corbin called after her: “You know there are laws against stalking, right?”
Beckett played with his salad, though no one but Corbin noticed. Fiddeja’s was just like every other national chain: busy, noisy, and cluttered. You could do most anything at a table and no one would notice.
“What do you think she knows?” Beckett asked, setting down his fork.
“Nothing or she would have hit me with specific questions. I think she’s just fishing for a reaction, so be ready if she comes after you next.”
“I don’t like this. What do you think tipped her off?”
“Gee, I don’t know. Probably the door being closed so much, maybe the whispered conversations, maybe the shouting.”
“Should we do something to mislead her?”
“Hell no! Don’t overreact, that would convince her she’s right. Just go about our days normally. She’ll lose interest, she always does.”
Corbin stood on his cement balcony looking down at the driveway twenty-two floors below. His old college sweatshirtprotected him from the cool evening air. He was on the phone with Alvarez. As he listened to Alvarez rail against Beckett for picking a resignation date without consulting them, Corbin watched a tow truck turn onto the long circular driveway, causing several illegally-stopped cars to scatter. One remained though, and the tow truck soon would have it. The tow truck then would disappear with its prey firmly in its grasp, as it had on so many other nights. This always reminded Corbin of a wolf stalking sheep.
“What do you want me to do about it, Vez?”
“Can’t we drop him?”
“I don’t see how. We need a third.”
“Can’t we find somebody else?”
“Do you know anyone?” Corbin leaned against the heavy, metal railing which enclosed his balcony and watched the tow truck latch onto its victim. “Besides, now that he knows, it’s dangerous to cut him out. How do we know he won’t turn us in just because he’s pissed? How do we know he doesn’t try something himself and poison our well. . so to speak? I think it’s too risky to cut him out now.”
“You’re probably right,” Alvarez reluctantly conceded.
“Plus, his role really is limited. He’s just carrying the duffel bag, and only on the first day. He’s irrelevant after that. It’s not like we’re relying on him to open the accounts or collect the money.”
The tow truck pulled away from the curb, dragging the car behind.
“How big of a problem is this gonna be for you?” Alvarez asked.
“Not super huge, but it makes things a little more difficult. I’ll probably have to deal with more people coming by the office to wish him goodbye or good riddance, but that’s nothing I can’t handle. I’m more concerned he just did this without consulting us.”
“That bothers me too. We don’t need him doing something stupid and bringing heat down on us.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
The tow truck vanished around the corner with its prey.
Chapter 5
Standing with one foot in the office and the other in the hallway, Corbin did his best “Carol Anne” impression from Poltergeist: “They’re here.”
“About time! I thought I’d never get to use this.” Beckett pulled a paper from between the sheets of an unused notepad and placed it into his inbox.
Corbin returned to his desk and tried to look busy.
A few seconds later, Kak knocked on their door. “Hi guys, th. . this won’t take a minute.”
Behind Kak stood a woman with stringy, gray hair tied in a long braid that ran to the middle of her back. She wore pointed glasses and a badge announcing her as an employee of the General Services Administration. She carried a clipboard and a tape measure. Corbin and Beckett watched as she walked around the room, looking behind cabinets and examining electrical plugs. When she peered behind Beckett’s desk, she gasped. A moment later, she was crawling beneath the desk to examine the exposed wires. Beckett pushed his chair out of her away and swiveled to face Kak.
“This is incredibly dangerous. Did y’all list this?” she asked in a thick Virginia accent.
Beckett smiled and deferentially flipped his hand toward Kak, as if to say “you first.” Kak remained silent, but sweat appeared on his forehead.
The woman pulled herself out from under the desk and scanned through the pages attached to her clipboard. “I don’t see any electrical problems what was listed on the inventory. Are these new problems?” The woman tugged the box away from the electrical wires and shined a flashlight directly on the outlet. “How long has this been like this?”
Neither Kak nor Beckett responded, though Kak’s eye twitched, and he struggled to remain silent. Beckett, by contrast, remained cool, but couldn’t stop smiling. Corbin watched the face off as one watches a train wreck in progress, with a strange sense of helpless fascination at the unfolding disaster.
Kak broke first. “This is the first. . the. . the first I heard of it!”
“Actually, it’s been like that since I got here,” Beckett countered immediately.
Kak’s nose flared. He glared at Beckett. “I, I asked everyone to. . uh, to report any problems. Why didn’t you report this?”
“But I did,” Beckett replied innocently. His smile widened.
Kak whipped out a piece of paper from a folder he held. “Here’s the uh, form. I don’t see any mention of electrical wires!”
The woman took the form.
Beckett peered over her shoulder. “That’s not the form I gave you. That’s the second one you made me sign. The one I sent you originally listed the wires and the mold.”
“Mold?! What mold?” It took the woman only a split second to locate the brand new, clean ceiling tile near the air conditioning vent. “Are you saying all y’all were told to hide hazards from me?” she asked crossly.
“Wha. . what are you talking about!” Kak erupted at Beckett. “There was no second form! This is the form you gave me!”
“No, that’s the form you brought me and told me to sign. I’m talking about the form I gave you originally. I think I may even still have a copy of it.” Beckett pretended to rifle through his inbox, before pulling out the original inspection form. “Oh, here it is.”
The inspector took the form and compared it to the original. “Mr. Kak, we need to talk about your obligations to GSA.” Almost before she finished her sentence, Kak retreated from the office. The woman chased him down the hallway, battering him with questions.
With the inspector and Kak out of earshot, Corbin finally spoke: “Holy shit, dude!”
Beckett let out a relieved laugh. “I don’t know what came over me. I only planned to leave the form on my desk, where she could see it, but then this euphoria set in and. . well, you saw.”
Corbin ran his fingers through his hair. “This one takes the cake. I mean. . shit! He’s gonna get you now, if it takes the rest of his life. You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t fire you this afternoon.”
“He can’t, I’ve got my time in grade.”
“He’s dumb enough to try it.”
“No, that’s not his style. He’ll probably give me a horrible evaluation.”
“That or knife you while you sleep. I’d stop napping in the office for a while.”
Beckett looked at his hands; they were shaking. “Do you think she’ll do anything to him?”
“Does anyone ever? If there was any justice in this world, he’d have been fired years ago.” Corbin pulled his book from his desk. “Of course, so would the rest of us.”
“I guess we should be thankful the government keeps people like him.”
Corbin looked confused. “Why?”
“If they didn’t, he’d be out in the real world labor force. Then you’d never get your order right at McDonalds.”
“Good point.” Corbin stared at Beckett for a moment before rising to close the door. He sat down in the extra chair by Beckett’s desk. “Listen, don’t take this the wrong way, but until this thing is done, you need to stop drawing attention to yourself.”