18. Set Them Up

18

SET THEM UP

A t the end of the day, Zander was left alone in his office finishing up paperwork. Betsy had left at four to go mail a few things.

He’d noticed that Miles was sitting at his desk when he walked by to get to his office, but since it was early afternoon, he didn’t expect any differently.

His father and he met and went over a few things and then his father left for the day. It was such a relief to know things were getting done faster with his father pitching in and he didn’t have to worry about turning down work.

Betsy had told him earlier one of the biggest companies in the building needed background checks done on all their employees and wanted to contract the service going forward. That they weren’t happy with the company they’d been using.

Since that was work Betsy or his father could do, he didn’t see any reason to turn it down and would have a contract sent over once he met with them in a few days.

He looked at his watch and noticed it was a little after five. He hadn’t heard from Regan since his text this morning.

There was part of him that felt bad he hadn’t reached out on Sunday, but he wasn’t one to hover much either. He’d gotten busy catching up on work and then watching football. He went to bed early since he knew he had to get up and start working at four today.

Now Zander leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms over his head, the chair tilting back until he touched the wall behind him.

It was then that he remembered that wall was in Regan’s office. He wondered how close she might be to him or if she was still at work.

He got up and walked out of his office and popped his head out the front door to see her light on.

Rather than go talk to her if she was on the phone or on a video call, he returned to his office and tapped on the wall.

He waited a minute and then did it again, adding a rhythm to it.

When there was no response, he popped his chair back upright and got to work.

Five minutes later he heard tapping back—the same rhythm he’d done—and grinned.

He wondered if she knew Morse code or not.

He tapped the word “hi” and waited.

She did it back. It didn’t let him know if she knew what he was doing, but it still made him grin.

A second later his phone rang on his desk and it was her.

“You think you’re being so cute,” she said.

“Do you know what I said?” he asked.

“No,” she said. “Should I have? Oh, let me guess. You were using Morse Code?”

“I didn’t the first two times,” he said. “The last time I tapped hi to you.”

“I was just repeating it back to you.”

“I figured as much,” he said. “I was stretching and touched the wall over my head and thought of you.”

“Did your shirt lift up so that I could get a glimpse of your abs when you did it? Or at least picture that in my head.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I wasn’t paying much attention to it. You can come over here and watch me do it again and let me know.”

He doubted it would happen as his shirts weren’t that short, but he’d bunch it up for her if he had to.

“I could,” she said. “I’m finishing a few things up. How long are you going to be there? I need to meet with you in regards to Sophia too.”

“Your client?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “I spoke to Trent and figured I could fill you in since I talked with Sophia a few hours ago.”

“Come over when you’re done. I’ll be here for a while. Do you want food? I’m hungry.”

“I’ve got half a sandwich and half of a big salad if you want to share,” she said. “We ordered lunch and I couldn’t decide and got two things thinking I could eat the other tomorrow or tonight.”

“I’m not much of a salad guy,” he said.

“Then you can have my sandwich. It’s not full of veggies either. It’s a steak sandwich loaded with cheese. There is actually more than half left since it was huge and I cut a quarter of it off. You’ve got a microwave there and can heat it up.”

“A steak sandwich sounds great,” he said.

They hung up after that and he went back to work. It wasn’t even thirty minutes later that he heard the ding that his door was opened. Normally he would have locked it but no reason to now that Regan was stopping over.

But it wasn’t Regan; it was someone he didn’t know.

“Can I help you?”

“Hi,” he said. “My name is James Rice. I work on the sixth floor and knew you were in the building. I was hoping you were still here.”

“I am,” he said. “Come have a seat. What can I help you with?”

“It’s my sister. She’s missing.”

This was the stuff he’d rather be doing. “Since when?”

“The last anyone heard from her was after work yesterday. So twenty-four hours. I’m so mad that I just got a call from a coworker now about it,” James said.

“Does she live in Durham?”

“Yes,” James said. “She works for a bank downtown. She didn’t show up for work this morning and they called her house a few times and didn’t get a reply. Then they said they got busy and forgot.”

He wanted to grind his teeth over that but knew that shit happened. “And they called you when they realized no one had heard from her?”

“Yes,” James said. “I ran over about an hour ago to her apartment and her car wasn’t there and she wasn’t inside. Her bed was still made, but that doesn’t mean anything either. She could have done it this morning.”

“Have you contacted the police?” he asked.

“I did. They said that they would send someone over to see the footage at her apartment building. It’s possible she left this morning and then it’s not twenty-four hours yet. She could have had an appointment and not told anyone. There were no signs of anything in her place that looked off, but I didn’t touch anything either.”

He sighed. Zander knew how it all worked with the police. He could talk to his father about this too.

“That’s typical,” he said. “Does she have a history of not being in communication?”

James sighed. “Yes. I mean, she could go days without talking to me or even replying to my texts. But she has never not shown up for work. She takes pride in her job. It feels off. What do you charge? I just need to know she is fine and don’t want to wait too long while the police drag their feet if it’s more.”

He went over his fees with James, pulled out a contract that they both signed, and then was getting more information on Sandy Rice when Regan came in.

“Oh,” she said. “I can come back.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “We are almost done.”

James looked between them. “Did you have another appointment?”

“Dinner,” Regan said. “No rush. Please.”

She went and sat in his father’s office at the table and he finished gathering the information he could on Sandy. He’d go to the apartment himself and look for footage and probably still get there before the police did.

“Sorry,” he said when James left. “He just walked in.”

“I get it,” she said. “Don’t apologize. He looked upset.”

“He is. I’ve got to go check a few things out but have time to eat quickly and run some plates and information while we do it, if it’s okay with you?”

“Sure,” she said.

He would run a check on Sandy now and see what he could find on her. Family didn’t always know everything and maybe she was hiding something.

He leaned in and gave Regan a quick kiss that had the smile reaching her eyes, then took the sub out of her hands and walked out to the microwave to heat it up. “Why don’t you go into my office,” he shouted.

She got up and moved in there. “Damn,” she said. “How do you find anything?”

He knew that was going to happen. He wasn’t the neatest person when he worked.

“Betsy always has it in order for me when I come in. Or at least most times.”

“She cleans up after you?” she asked, lifting her eyebrow.

“Kind of. I don’t ask her to,” he said sheepishly.

Regan opened her salad container and started to eat with the fork that was on top and he sat down with the warm sub on a paper plate.

“This looks awesome.”

“Diane Fierce stopped in to say hi today. I ran into her at Trent’s. Somehow we got talking about food and lunch and she told me about her daughter-in-law’s deli. Miles went and got the menu from Roni. You know Roni downstairs, right?”

He took a bite and chewed. Interesting. But he was going to keep his thoughts to himself right now.

“I do know her,” he said. “She’s engaged to Trent.”

“So I found out a while ago from Miles. I know he and Betsy chat—more like gossip— and he told me they’d met here and were engaged now.”

If that was all she knew that was fine.

“They did,” he said. “So this is from Payton’s?”

“Oh, you know her?” she asked.

“It’s hard not to know the players in the Fierce family,” he said.

She laughed at the dry tone he used but didn’t seem to understand why he was asking.

His radar was up and now he’d have to find out what was going on with his employee and if she was in on this just like Janine had been with Trent and Roni.

No way they were pulling this over on him.

At least he and Regan had something going prior so he knew for a fact it wasn’t that someone set them up.

Maybe he’d let Regan know that too so she didn’t think she was manipulated. He was willing to bet she wouldn’t be thrilled to find that information out.

“I hear the names enough,” she said. “I’ll talk fast since you’ve got things to do.”

He listened while she filled him in on Sophia’s contract and that she’d get information by next week for him to look into. Betsy and his father could do the legwork on that first.

“Sounds good,” he said. He was rushing through his sandwich and she noticed.

“You need to leave,” she said. “I understand. You should have said something.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “I need to go see if I can look at camera footage somewhere without a warrant.”

“So you are going to charm your way into it?” she asked.

“I am,” he said. “But the good news is, I’ve been there before and got to see it, so maybe I won’t have a problem tonight either.”

She closed the top of her salad. It wasn’t done, but he wasn’t going to argue with her.

The fact she understood and wasn’t giving him a hard time was more than enough.