Hitting the disconnect button at the end of the call wasn’t nearly as satisfying as slamming a classic phone back into the cradle would have been. It was more professional, though.
“No dice?” Hal asked.
I shook my head. I’d taken the June appointment anyway, just in case. “I’d still like to go to Papyrus Medical today and talk to some of Jordan’s co-workers. I don’t know how confidential my appointment and reason for coming will stay. If anyone there was involved, they’ll want to cover it up.”
Hal slid his tablet back into a black carrying case. “The risk of that seems low, doesn’t it?”
On the surface, yes. I’d only told one person. But if living in Fair Haven had taught me anything, it was the speed of gossip. “If she told the CEO or mentions to a friend at lunch that someone called asking questions about Jordan, it can spread.”
Hal slung his bag over his shoulder. “If you go asking questions, it’ll spread faster.”
Hal’s body language was relaxed. He didn’t give me the impression that he was questioning my abilities or intelligence. His follow-up felt more like he was brainstorming with an equal.
A year ago, I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.
“I’m not going to come at it directly. I can ask about changes in mood and imply Jordan’s death is still being investigated as a suicide. Her co-workers might have noticed changes in her behavior, and if we’re really lucky, I’ll get an idea for who Jordan’s friends were. There’s a chance she confided in someone about what was going on.”
The tick of the clock hands filled the room. There was something in Hal’s expression that I couldn’t quite read. Had he been trying to convince me not to go at all? There could only be two reasons for him to do that. Either he was too busy to work this case with me and he hadn’t wanted to say so out of fear of losing all the work our firm gave his company. Or he was trying to earn favor with Anderson by keeping me out of potentially dangerous situations in the first place.
If it was the latter, we were in trouble. Going to a pharmaceutical company during the day when it was crowded with employees was the least dangerous thing I’d done on a case in a long time.
I’d give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it was the former. “I know you said you’d tag along with me on this case, but it’s really not necessary. I’m sure you have other cases you need to work as well. I’ll be fine going on my own.”
Hal smiled. It made me think of a clown wiping off his makeup at the end of the performance. The character vanished, and for a second, the real man stood in front of me.
“I usually only get to see a part of any case I help with,” Hal said. “It’ll be a nice change to see it from this side. Variety prevents burnout, after all.”
Making me feel like I was doing him a favor was a classic switch technique. His demeanor had enough honesty in it that I couldn’t call him on anything specific, but I still couldn’t help the feeling that I was also somehow being played. That seemed to be happening a lot of late.
But if it let me pursue this case, I’d play along. For now.
* * *
The guard at the door of Papyrus Medical flipped over the top page on his clipboard and his gaze ran down the second page.
Hal shot me a what-are-you-hoping-to-accomplish look. Our names weren’t going to be on the list because we didn’t have an appointment.
That might or might not matter. I’d been raised by parents who believed that a roadblock was an opportunity to either find a creative way around it or call in a favor and have it moved.
The guard looked up from his list. “I’m sorry, ma’am. You’re not on the list, and I can’t let you in without approval. Who was your appointment with?”
And there was the flaw in my hasty plan. I only knew the name of one person at Papyrus Medical. “Martin Raymes. And if we miss this appointment, we’ll have to wait until June when he’s back from his trip.”
The guard glanced at his paperwork and then back behind him where people going in and out passed through security checkpoints.
I’d thrown enough truth into my lie to make him uncertain.
He slowly shook his head, almost like his mind and his body still weren’t in agreement on the right thing to do. “I can’t let you in unless you’re on the list. Do you want me to call Mr. Raymes’ office?”
No. I definitely didn’t want him doing that. We’d end up escorted to our car. “That’s okay.” I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and inclined my head toward the front door. “We’ll step out, and I’ll make the call myself. I’m sure we can sort this out.”
Hal held the door open for me. He showed professionalism by not saying I told you so. I might have said something if I hadn’t been the one who foolishly thought I could talk my way past the guards.
We stopped out of sight of the guards inside. I’d claimed I planned to call Mr. Raymes’ office. The guards didn’t need to see that I wasn’t doing that. If they got suspicious enough, they could call the police and have us removed from the property.
Hal stood with his hands clasped behind his back and his feet slightly apart. He said nothing.
He was taking this observer status to the extreme. Normally when someone else tagged along on my cases, they contributed. Memories of Mark joining me flittered across my mind, and a little pang hit my chest.
But I couldn’t expect Mark to always be my sidekick. He had his own job to do.
At least this time I could discuss the case with him. He hadn’t worked this case, and Zach signed a waiver allowing me to consult with whatever experts I needed to.
Hal’s continued silence made me want to break out into the chicken dance just to see if he’d react. I felt the same way around those street artists who pretended to be statues and the guards I’d seen at Buckingham Palace when Uncle Stan took me with him to London for a medical conference.
Hal didn’t even ask what I planned to do next.
So this was all in my court. If we were going to get into Papyrus Medical before my appointment with Martin Raymes next month, I’d have to come up with the idea for how to do it.
I looked up at the building.
The metal and glass glinted in the sun.
I blinked and shaded my eyes. The building had to be twenty stories high. According to the signs out front, the pharmaceutical company was the only business in the building. That meant a high number of employees and an HR department. If I could get in touch with someone there, we might have another way in. Someone needed to clean the personal items out of Jordan’s desk, after all. When I’d asked Zach more questions about Jordan’s job, he’d mentioned he’d never been to Jordan’s place of work, which meant he hadn’t collected them himself.
I glanced at Hal’s bag. He still carried it over his shoulder despite my suggestion that he leave it in the car. “Do you have the number for human resources here?”
He raised his eyebrows as if to say Do I look like an amateur? He pulled out his tablet and read the number for me while I dialed.
A woman answered, introducing herself as Lisa.
“Hi, umm, I’m hoping I got the right department.”
I made sure to make my voice sound small and uncertain, with a bit of a shake.
Hal stopped with his tablet halfway back into his case. He slid it in more slowly, as if he didn’t want to miss my performance. I must have surprised him.
Yup, that fumble with the guards at the door wasn’t my best work. Mark could have vouched for that if he’d been here. When we’d first met, I’d been so convincing when working a source that he’d thought I was flirting.
“If you haven’t,” the woman on the other end of the line said, “I’d be happy to redirect you.”
There wasn’t even a hint of annoyance or rush in her tone. Probably patience was a quality required from anyone working in HR. Either that, or she was a genuinely nice person. Unfortunately for her, the nice people were often the easiest to play.
“I came to collect the belongings of a family member who passed away, but the guards at the door said I couldn’t come in without an appointment. How do I go about getting one of those?”
“Jordan.” The woman’s voice took on that soft sound that people got when they didn’t know someone who’d died personally, but they still wanted to be respectful of what had happened. “I’ve called her brother a couple of times. Jordan’s replacement starts on Monday, so we can’t leave her desk untouched anymore.” A pause. “And you are?”
As if she’d just realized I hadn’t said how I was related to Jordan. They couldn’t give her stuff away to just anyone. It had to be the next of kin.
“That’s why we’re here.” I snuck a peek at Hal. To pull this off, he was going to have to play along rather than just follow me around like some sort of mute guard dog. As a private investigator, he should be able to play a part. It was one of the reasons I’d agreed to having him join me. He’d likely just been waiting for instructions from me. “Zach didn’t feel up to collecting Jordan’s things alone, so he waited for a time when we could both get a day off work. I don’t know when we’ll be able to manage that again. Is there any way we can get an appointment with someone today who’ll be able to see us?”
The sound of a desk chair rolling across the floor filled the pause. “I have a half hour free now. You said you’re here?”
I confirmed that we were out in the parking lot, and she said she’d meet us at the front door.
Hal cast a sidelong glance in my direction. “That was both impressive and frightening.”
I grinned at him. “So people tell me.” I motioned to his bag. “You might want to put that in the car now. I doubt Zach would bring a tablet and case notes to clear out his sister’s desk. We don’t need to draw any more attention to ourselves on the way in or out.”
We dropped his bag in the car—tucking it under the seat in the back so he felt a bit more secure about leaving it behind—and went back to the front door. A woman in a charcoal-gray pantsuit with a coral-colored blouse waited outside the front doors. She had her phone out.
She must have caught sight of us approaching because she tucked her phone back into her pocket. She headed straight for Hal with her hand out. “You must be Zach. I wanted to say how sorry all of us are for your loss. Jordan was a valuable member of the team here. She’ll be missed.”
Hal accepted her handshake. “Thank you. It’s been a hard time.”
Lisa was nodding. She turned in my direction as if waiting for an introduction. I’d hoped she’d forgotten that I hadn’t actually given my name on the phone, but apparently, being in HR, she was good at remembering names—and when someone had conveniently skipped giving one.
Hal held a hand out sideways in my direction, and I moved in closer. “This is my wife, Nikki. She’s the one who called you.”
I cringed inside. Mark would definitely not like me pretending to be someone else’s wife, but Hal had made the right call. Lisa would have noticed my wedding ring at some point, and we couldn’t pretend I was Zach and Jordan’s sister. They didn’t have one. Lisa or someone else we might run into could know that.
I wrapped a hand around my barely-there baby bump—hopefully adding some credence to Hal’s story—and shook Lisa’s hand as well.
“I can’t get you around the security,” she said, “but I’ll try to get us through the process as quickly as possible.”
She led us through the doors. There was only one line in and one line out. That meant we were going to have to pass by the guard we’d spoken to before. Our story had changed since then. If he brought up our supposed meeting with Martin Raymes, Lisa would know we’d lied to her.
Lisa flashed the guard her badge. “They’re not on the list, but it’s okay.”
I had to head off any questions from him about why we were now with someone from HR.
When the truth would hurt you, my dad always said, direct the attention somewhere else.
It was basically the lawyer version of a magician’s trick. The best way to keep from having to admit to a damaging truth was to make sure no one ever asked about it.
I plunked my purse down on the silver table. “This seems like a lot of security for a company that produces medications. Are you worried about people stealing them and selling them on the streets?”
Lisa put her cell phone into the little basket provided and stepped through the metal detector or whatever the machine was. “It’s more about protecting our trade secrets and patents.” She picked her cell phone back up on the other side. She tilted her head toward the security line people were waiting in to exit. “We don’t want people walking in off the street and seeing what we’re developing, and our employees aren’t allowed to take anything home with them. Even our email programs are all internal.”
All the security protocols would have made it difficult for Jordan to get any evidence of wrongdoing out. She must have taken some major risks to make sure the company didn’t get away with whatever they were doing.
I stepped forward, toward the metal detector. A hand landed on my shoulder, stopping me.