CHAPTER NINETEEN
Even with all my obstacles out of my way, my search turned up nothing. I went through every office. There were no computers to check, because everyone had their laptop with them.
I didn’t even find a single stray thumb drive, never mind one taped to the underside of a desk or drawer.
The only thing I uncovered was that one of the counselors really liked chocolate-covered almonds and had three containers of them hidden in her office. I considered stealing a few from the unsealed container, but decided that would be unethical. Not to mention straying too far from my approved eating plan.
I knew what I had to do, I just didn’t know how to do it.
I had to get past Kecia and do a more thorough search of Dr. Stubbs’ office.
What possible excuse could I use?
Kecia sat behind her desk, working diligently, as usual.
“I came to collect Anna,” I said, wondering how long I could legitimately stay in the office with Anna without making Kecia suspicious. Surely she would hear me if I opened any drawers.
“She’s asleep,” Kecia said softly. “Poor thing. She really didn’t want to miss waterpaint lessons today.”
“I know. I hope she didn’t keep you from your work.”
“Not at all. I had some filing to do in Dr. Stubbs’ office, and by the time I was finished, she was asleep. So cute.”
“I don’t know how you do it. Going to school, working, raising your daughter.” I sighed. “How do you keep all the plates in the air? Mine keep crashing to the floor, and I already have my degree.”
She turned away from her computer and gave me a serious look. “I just think about my end goal. A good education, a roof over my head, a strong and smart daughter.”
“You’re almost finished getting the good education,” I said. “Then what will you do?”
She smiled, a far-away look in her eye. “After all of this, the rest of my life raising Phoebe will seem easy.”
I laughed, glancing toward the office where Anna slept. “Take it from me, raising kids never seems easy, even if you aren’t working full-time and you have a husband to help carry the load.”
She glanced at me curiously, “Do you really want this job, Molly?”
“Of course,” I said, thinking that any answer I gave might get back to Dr. Stubbs.
“Are you sure? You seem a little — ambivalent.” She hesitated, as if she worried that she might have offended me with her candor.
“I’m always ambivalent,” I joked. Then I confessed, “This—” I gestured toward the office where Anna slept — “was why I wasn’t sure about going back to work full-time,” I didn’t want to sound whiny in front of a woman who was already juggling the plates I kept dropping, so I added, “I don’t want to give the job short shrift. And I don’t want to give my children too little attention. I just need to figure out how to make it all work.”
“I’ve been thinking about that a lot since Phoebe was born,” Kecia admitted. She smiled. “I know I’m young, but I’m already planning for early retirement.”
“Good for you,” I commended her. “I hope by the time your daughter is grown, you can take your early retirement and have some fun traveling the world with her.”
“I intend to,” she said, with the conviction of youth. And then a little timer rang on her desk. She looked at it and sighed. “Time to take Sofia for another walk.”
Anna had fallen asleep next to the dog, who was also sleeping. Looking at the pair made me want to take a nap.
I admired how Kecia managed to extract the dog without waking Anna. She was a true master at motherhood. Her daughter was a lucky girl.
As soon as they left the office, I got to work, searching quietly so that I wouldn’t wake Anna.
Nothing.
There was not a scrap of evidence that could be used to prove Dr. Quartermaine was a criminal mastermind, or a murderer. I wanted to be relieved, but I wasn’t.
I looked at my sleeping daughter, Kecia’s words ringing in my mind. “Do you really want this job?”
I did. And I didn’t. I wanted easy, but like Norma said, life was not easy, only interesting. I bent over Anna to kiss her head, and saw it, tucked into a pocket in the dog bed meant for a dog toy. A square black box. A back-up drive.
The evidence had been hidden in the dog bed. Duh. Dr. Stubbs was the bad guy. My undercover job was done. Just like that, I had solved the case. I’m not sure why I was so sure, but I was. There was no other reason why anyone would store a hard drive in a dog bed, unless it was to hide it from a police search.
I grabbed the drive and hurried to dig my phone out of my purse to call Deb and report in.
“I found a hard drive. Looks like Dr. Stubbs is the culprit. Want to tell James Connery for me?”
“Hold on.” She put me on hold.
Kecia came in from her walk with Sofia and looked at me oddly.
“I’m on hold,” I explained, feeling lighthearted and giddy about finally being done with the spy portion of my work.
She smiled, more the smile of someone humoring a crazy person. She put the dog back in Dr. Stubbs office and then came back out to her desk.
Deb said in my ear, “He’s sending me to pick up the drive, and Dr. Stubbs. Can you keep her there?”
Uh oh. I had forgotten to tell her one important detail. “She’s at a retreat. She isn’t expected back until tomorrow.”
“Can you call her back to the office for something?”
I frowned into the phone. “I guess. What should I say?”
Deb was silent a moment and then said quickly, “Say the FBI has found something, and they need to talk to her. That should do it, don’t you think.”
“Okay, I’ll ask her admin to call her.”
“See you soon.”
I went up to Kecia’s desk and said, “You know my best friend, the cop?”
Kecia nodded warily.
“She has been working with the FBI. And she just called me to say the FBI wants to talk to Dr. Stubbs.”
Kecia said warily, “She’s out of the office.”
I nodded. “I told her that. Do you think you could call her and let her know the FBI would like her to come back here so they can talk to her?”
“Of course.” I watched, anticipating my release from spy duty as Kecia lifted the phone, called, got voicemail, and left a message.
“No one answered?” I asked, disappointed.
She shook her head. “Let me send her an email and a text, too. Just so she gets the message. You know how it is when you’re in a meeting. Sometimes it is easier to pay attention to a text.”
“Good thinking.” I wondered how many future meetings I’d spend reading my texts. I didn’t really look forward to it. “Thanks.”
After Kecia had sent the email and the text she turned back to me. “How long until they get here? Did they say?”
“Probably ten minutes or so. We aren’t that far from the police station.”
“True,” she said. “I don’t think Dr. Stubbs will be back that quickly. The retreat is being held about thirty minutes away.”
I said, “I think they may be bringing a warrant with them, so they’ll have plenty to do.”
Kecia’s eyes widened. “Oh.” And then she had a swift intake of breath. “They don’t think she killed Rob, do they?”
“It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?”
“Impossible.” She said. “She loved him. Well, not loved him. But like a son. Really. They’re just wrong.”
For some reason, I found it heartening that Kecia was so sure Dr. Stubbs hadn’t killed Robert Quartermaine. She was only a temp, but she seemed to really care about what happened in the office. “The evidence will tell us, I guess. But I hope you’re right.”
“I know I am,” she said firmly.
I was surprised to see that she had such strong feelings about Dr. Stubbs. It gave me a little hope that maybe my boss wasn’t a bad guy. Maybe she was being set up by the person who had killed Robert Quartermaine.
Deb came into the office with two uniformed police officers, and a search warrant.
Kecia took the warrant, read it, and looked at her curiously. “You’re the police officer who is best friends with Molly, right?”
“I am,” Deb said, taken aback.
“Molly’s daughter is sleeping in Dr. Stubbs’ office. Do you think you could search the rest of the place first. She’s not feeling well.”
“Of course,” Deb agreed, giving me a questioning look.
“I couldn’t help it. The school called me and I had work to do.” I stressed the word work, so that she knew I meant the spy job had influenced my decision, not the admissions counselor job.
Deb nodded, and held out her hand.
I handed Deb the drive, and she bagged it and handed it off to the nearest officer. “Take this back to the Fed, Bristol.”
He nodded, and left.
Deb turned back to me. “Molly, do you want to show us where to start?”
I led them back to the open area, and the ring of offices. “I think Robert Quartermaine’s office has been thoroughly searched at this point,” I said. The only things you’ll find there are my daughter’s pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, a cooler of ginger-ale and a thermos of soup.”
Deb looked at the other officer, “We can skip that one.” She pointed to the office closest to the windows. “Start there, and work your way around.”
Deb and I watched him — he was easy on the eyes, I admit — toss the place, quite efficiently.
I told her, “I didn’t find anything when I searched earlier. But I didn’t do such a thorough job.”
She shrugged, indicating that they’d have to search anyway. “I’m sorry Anna is sick. I hope Connery appreciates that you’ve gone over and above on this one.”
I smiled at the thought of Connery categorizing anything I did for him as “over and above.” He seemed to think I should give my life to the Bureau.
I told her, “Funny thing is, if she hadn’t been sick, I wouldn’t have found the drive. It was hidden in the dog bed. I avoid dogs, and all things dog, if I can.”
Deb smiled. “Jasmine will cure you of that.”
“Maybe.”
As we stood there watching Officer Cutie-Pie search methodically through the offices, Deb’s phone rang. She listened, asked a quick question and then said,
“Dr. Stubbs went straight to the police department, instead of coming back here.
“Did she confess?” I tried to picture her admitting any crime, and couldn’t.
“No.” Deb shook her head. “She claims she’s innocent. She’s called in her lawyer.”
“Does she know we have the hard drive?”
“We’ll get her, don’t worry,” Deb said. “You did well, Molly. I think the chief is likely to make you detective before he does me,” she said ruefully.
“I’m going to ask James Connery to put in a good word for you.”
“I’m not sure the chief can hear good words about me,” she lamented.
I would have tried to continue to encourage her to follow her ambitions, but just then Penny came in.
She looked shocked. “What’s going on?”
“The FBI has a warrant to search the office,” I explained. “I didn’t think you were going to be back.”
She said, “I forgot my iPad, so I had to run back for it.”
Deb stepped between Penny and her desk. “Sorry. You’ll have to leave it.”
“What? My iPad? Why?”
“We have a warrant for everything we find on the premises — computers, drives, phones, iPads. Everything.”
Penny looked unhappy, but she didn’t complain. “Does anyone know where Kecia is?”
“Out front,” I said.
“No. She’s not.” Penny shook her head firmly.
“Maybe she went to walk the dog,” I said, as we, all three, headed toward the reception area. No Kecia.
I peeked into Dr. Stubbs’ office. Sofia was sleeping peacefully in her dog bed.
But Anna was gone.