| |
When Kat stepped off the elevator and onto the DataRightly floor the next morning, Maura, Suzanne, and Will Blaedel from IT were huddled in the lobby. She didn’t need to hear what they were saying to know their conversation centered around Zack Lawson. There was a sort of energetic buzz about them that couldn’t be justified by mere business talk.
“I still can’t believe it,” Kat heard Maura say as she drew closer.
Suzanne clucked her tongue. “He seemed so perfect, too. He only wanted a short-term position, he had HR experience, he was eager to relocate here . . .”
Will, a stout thirty-something with a ruddy complexion, wavy brown hair long enough to brush the collar of his solid blue button-down, and close-set eyes the color of slate, shrugged his shoulders. “Just goes to show you can put anything on a résumé.”
“It wasn’t just his résumé,” Suzanne said. “It was the email he sent me, our telephone interview, everything. He sounded so competent and enthusiastic.”
“You can be competent and enthusiastic and still be a criminal,” Maura pointed out. “Did you only do a telephone interview?”
“That’s all I could do. He told me he didn’t live here but could relocate ASAP if he got the job.” Suzanne heaved a sigh. “I had a feeling things wouldn’t go well when he showed up late yesterday. I just never considered how very wrong it could go. Watching him getting carted off like that, and him claiming he didn’t do it . . .”
Will swayed backward. “You don’t believe him, do you?”
“I don’t know what to believe. It’s all just so jarring.” Suzanne blinked at Kat, seeming to notice her presence for the first time. “Oh, good morning, Katherine.”
“Kat.” Will swiveled toward her. “You’ve got police connections. Any updates on our resident felon Zack Lawson?”
“Nope.” She didn’t figure she had to fill them in on why he was arrested. She was quite sure the online search engines had gotten a vigorous workout from her coworkers yesterday.
Will’s face fell. Obviously he thought she had the inside scoop because of her relationship with Andrew.
Thoughts of Andrew brought to mind what he had said about the call leading to Zack’s arrest. Could Maura, Suzanne, or Will have been the one to tip off the police? If so, her money was on Will. Maura hadn’t met Zack until yesterday morning, and Suzanne had never left Kat’s sight during the short time Zack had been in the office. When would she have had the time to phone the police?
Unless that was why Suzanne had been so frantic about him showing up late, Kat considered. Had she already made that call before Kat found her fretting in the lobby? Maybe she feared the police would arrive before Zack did and their presence would scare him into hiding for another three years.
Something else occurred to Kat. “Suzanne, did you do a background check on Zack before you hired him?”
Suzanne pursed her lips. “Of course. I emailed the form over to Pert Personnel right after our phone interview.”
“And no red flags showed up?”
“Katherine, do you really think I would have brought him on board if they had?” Suzanne spun on her heel and took a defiant step toward the door leading to the inner offices. “But since you’re so skeptical, I’ll go get the report and you can see for yourself.”
Suzanne looked so miffed at having her hiring competence questioned that the urge to apologize welled inside of Kat. But she squelched it, only because she really did want to see what Zack’s background check had turned up.
The elevator dinged just as Suzanne disappeared through the door. Wendy Dumont started to step into the lobby, but her white-pump-clad foot halted in midair when she saw the crowd.
Will smiled at her. “Morning, Wendy.”
“Morning,” Wendy mumbled.
Lurching into motion, she hurried past them as though to compensate for her earlier hesitation. Kat found her reluctance to stop and chat curious in light of yesterday’s unusual turn of events. Typically Wendy enjoyed small talk as much as anyone else in the office, and yet today she seemed to almost shrink inside of her tan overcoat, her shoulders rising up to hide the bottom half of her face behind the garment’s high collar.
“Rough night, Wendy?” Will called out.
Wendy glanced at him. “Huh?”
“I asked if you had a rough night. You look peaked.”
Wendy turned her back on him as she took off her coat and hung it on a peg sticking out of the wall behind the reception counter. “I had classes all evening.”
“You’re in school?” Kat said. That was news to her.
“Right now I am.” A worry wrinkle creased Wendy’s forehead. “We’ll see if I can afford another semester after this one is over.”
Before Kat could ask what she was studying, Suzanne returned. She stomped over and shoved a sheet of paper into Kat’s hand.
“Here,” she said. “Zachary’s background check.”
Kat managed to skim over Zack’s name and the words ‘Education: Boise State University 2002-2006’ before Suzanne interrupted her with a jab of her finger.
“The criminal records section is here,” she said.
“‘No information found,’” Kat read aloud.
Suzanne tilted her chin up. “Exactly.”
“Obviously Pert Personnel isn’t connected to every police department’s arrest database,” Maura said. “If the Ketchum, Idaho records are even online at all.”
“Did you Google Zack before you offered him a job?” Kat asked Suzanne.
Suzanne glared at her. “Why would I do that?”
Kat lifted one shoulder. “I was just asking.”
Suzanne snatched the printout from Kat’s hand, giving her a paper cut. “All I can tell you is I did the background check and it returned nothing. So you tell me, how was I supposed to know he was wanted for murder?”
Someone here knew, Kat thought.
Her gaze strayed past Suzanne, to where Wendy was settling in behind the reception desk. Was it her imagination, or had Wendy stiffened just now?
“Could you excuse me a minute?” Kat said, inching away. “I need to mention an important call I’m expecting to Wendy. You know, to make sure she puts it through.”
“Oh?” Maura said. “Is this about the Pipin’ Paul’s Pizza account?”
“It’s about . . . one of the cats in 4F’s care.” Kat thought fast. “He’s at the vet right now, and they may need surgery authorization. I don’t want any delays in getting him the medical treatment he needs.”
“Oh no, of course not.” Maura shooed her away with both hands. “Go, go. Poor kitty.”
As she crossed the lobby, Kat ignored the twinge of guilt she felt over lying to her boss. She reminded herself it would be foolish to announce her suspicions before she had a chance to confront Wendy in private.
“Psst, Wendy,” Kat said as she stepped up to the reception desk.
The headset Wendy had been about to slip over her ears fell onto the desk with a clatter. “Kat! You startled me.”
“Sorry about that, but I’ve got a question for you.”
“And what’s that?”
“Do you have a history with Zack Lawson?”
Wendy hesitated for a split second before shaking her head.
“You’re the one who turned him in, aren’t you?” Kat pressed.
Wendy sucked in a breath. “How do you know that?”
“Lucky guess.”
Wendy slumped back in her seat. “Oh, that’s right. You’re dating a policeman. I suppose I shouldn’t have expected them to keep my call confidential.”
Suzanne shrieked so loudly then that Kat almost jumped out of her skin. She wheeled around to see Maura with one hand on Suzanne’s arm, an alarmed look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” Maura said.
“The baby,” Suzanne gasped. “I think she kicked.”
Will took a giant step backward. Watching him, anyone would think being with child was a contagious condition, one he didn’t want to have anything to do with.
A grin broke out over Maura’s face. “Really?”
Suzanne caressed her midsection. “Do you think she’s okay in there?”
“I’m sure she’s fine. She’s moving, isn’t she?”
“What if she’s trying to tell me something’s wrong? Here.” Suzanne grabbed Maura’s hand and pressed it against her abdomen. “Feel this and tell me what you think.”
Maura stood there for a silent minute, an intense look of concentration on her face, before a giddy laugh ripped from her throat. “She moved! I felt her move.”
“Did she feel like she was in pain to you?” Suzanne asked, a sense of urgency in her voice.
“No.” Maura spread her palms. “I mean, I wouldn’t know, but no.”
Maura’s lack of concern seemed to rub off on Suzanne. She relaxed, her frown flipping into a smile. “William, come feel.”
Will scooted closer to the wall. “Uh, I’ll pass.”
“No, really.” Suzanne made a lunge for him, but he easily sidestepped her. She stuck her tongue out. “Fine, have it your way, but it feels really cool.”
“Like an alien,” Maura chimed in.
Suzanne apparently didn’t appreciate that comparison, but Maura was still too worked up to notice the dirty look the mother-to-be aimed in her direction.
“Kat,” Maura said, motioning her over, “you’ve got to feel this.”
Kat cinched her coat tighter as she wracked her brain for a good excuse to decline. She wasn’t a touchy-feely person even with those she was close to. The last thing she wanted was to be pawing at a coworker’s midsection.
Luckily, Wendy saved her from having to respond. “Can I feel?” she asked, rushing around the reception desk.
“You may,” Suzanne said. “But she stopped kicking.”
“She’ll start again, won’t she?” Wendy asked.
Suzanne shrugged. “I hope so.”
“Then I can wait.”
“I want to feel again too,” Maura said, jockeying for position.
And, just like that, Zack Lawson’s arrest for a three-year-old murder was forgotten.
