37. Put In His Place

37

PUT IN HIS PLACE

“ C an I help you?” Zander heard Betsy ask someone days later after the doorbell went off.

“I’m looking to see if you can help me find a woman.”

“Oh,” Betsy said. “That would be Zander. I can take your information and he’ll get in contact with you.”

“He’s not in right now?” the man said.

“He is,” Betsy said. “But he’s busy.”

“Maybe if I show you this picture it will help,” the man said. Zander was trying to make out the accent and couldn’t. Might be Asian, but he’d have to get up and go look to find out. Betsy never said he was busy when he was in unless she wasn’t getting a good vibe from the person. “I was curious if you’ve ever seen this woman?”

“So someone isn’t missing?” Betsy asked. “But you want to know if she’s been in this office?”

“Or in this building,” the man said.

Zander stood up and came out at the same time his father did. They both had radar for this shit.

“Can I help you?” he asked. “I’m Zander Conway. I heard you say you’re looking for someone.”

Asian, just as he thought. Dressed in a nice suit too. Too fancy to be coming in here.

“I’m looking for this woman.” The man pulled out his phone and showed the photo of a young blonde with glasses on.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’ve never seen her before.”

“She’s not a client here?” the man asked.

“You know as well as I do, that if she was I couldn’t tell you that. But I have never seen her before either.”

Betsy pulled her phone out and snapped a picture of the photo on the guy’s phone. “I can ask around if you want.” It was a game the two of them played. Their own good cop bad cop and she’d make it look as if they were cooperating.

“Thanks,” the guy said. “If you hear of anything, can you let me know?”

There was a card thrown on the counter and Betsy picked it up. “You’re the head of security at this company?”

“Yes,” the man said. “We are looking for her.”

“Is she missing?” Zander asked. That hadn’t been answered yet either.

“Have a great day,” the man said and left.

He saw the guy leave and turn his head as if he was going to Regan’s office, but then he changed his mind and left.

“Do you know what that is about?” his father asked.

He reached for the card and recognized the name on it. “Shit.”

“What?” Betsy asked.

“Shoot me that picture you took right now.”

“Who is it?” his father asked.

“I’m not positive, but I’m going to find out. That’s the name of the company that Regan had me look into for one of her clients.”

He’d stopped looking and didn’t feel like he’d been tracked doing anything. He’d gone through enough channels to get banking information that it wouldn’t look as if it was him. At least nothing that could come back to him, which meant nothing to get back to Regan. He hadn’t been lying—he didn’t know who that woman was. He’d never seen her before.

But if she was being followed, they could have seen her come into the building and maybe they looked at the businesses here and were trying to figure it out on their own.

Once he got the picture, Zander went out into the hall and saw the guy coming out of Trent’s office but then went into the bathroom. He didn’t want it to look as if he was seeking anyone out.

When he was done doing his business he went into the hall and didn’t see any sign of the guy but popped his head back into his office. “Did that guy return this way and go to Regan’s office?”

“No,” Betsy said. “Why?”

“I saw him coming out of Trent’s office when I opened my door. I went into the bathroom first so he didn’t see where I was going.”

“I’m hooked up to the cameras in the building now,” his father said. “Go talk to Trent and I’ll see if he left.”

“Thanks,” he said and walked into Trent’s office across the hallway.

“Hi, Zander,” Janine said. “What can I help you with?”

“That guy that just came in here. Was he asking if you’ve seen a blonde with glasses?”

“Yes,” Janine said. “I don’t know who it was but told him even if I did I couldn’t tell him. Trent’s not here, which is good or bad. Not sure how you look at it. I’m assuming he was in your office too?”

“He was,” he said. “I said the same thing. I don’t like it though. If he comes back, let me know right away. Make sure you tell Trent too.”

“Is that a client of yours?” Janine asked.

“No, but let Trent know and have him come see me or Regan.”

“Oh,” Janine said.

He didn’t say anything and went right into Regan’s office.

“Is she in with someone?” he asked Miles.

“On a video call for another five minutes,” Miles said. “Anything I can help you with? I hope.”

It was the wiggle of Miles’s eyebrows that had him laughing. He could see how Betsy and Miles got along so well.

“No,” he said. “Can you send her over to see me right away? Actually. He pulled his phone out. Is this Sophia?”

Miles looked at the picture and then up to him. “You know I can’t tell you those things.”

“You said enough,” he said. “Send Regan over right away.”

“Is Regan in danger?” Miles asked. It was the panicked look in Miles’s eyes that reminded him why Regan was always so strong in the office. He’d follow her lead.

“No,” he said. “But I want to let her know what is going on.”

He went back to his office and returned to work. Twenty minutes later he was ready to bolt out of his chair when she finally walked in and shut the door.

“Miles said you needed to see me.”

“What took you so long? He said your call was ending fifteen minutes ago.”

She lifted an eyebrow at him. “It went a few minutes over and I wrote my notes,” she said. “Not that I need to explain that to you. But I’ve got ten minutes before my next appointment.”

He pulled his phone out and tossed it to her. “I know this is Sophia.”

“I can’t tell you one way or another.”

“You’ve got a good poker face, but I don’t care. I know. The head of security for the company that you hired me to look into showed up here asking if we have seen her.”

Regan’s face paled. “Is she in danger?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m more worried about you. We are done with this. Right? I told you that.”

“You did. My next appointment is actually with Sophia.”

“She’s coming to the building?” he asked. “Call and cancel. My father saw the man had left the building, but that doesn’t mean he’s not still sitting somewhere in the parking lot. We saw the vehicle he was in drive out but not leaving the grounds completely as the cameras don’t extend that far.”

“She’s not coming into the office,” Regan said. “It’s a video call.”

“Okay,” he said. “You need to let her know what is going on. Add that to the report. I just did. It’d be wise if she left that job because whatever she might have seen or is worried about, they have reason to wonder why she is in this building. They went into Trent’s office next. I told Janine to have Trent come see me and we’ll get you.”

“I’m fine,” she said. “Nothing is going to happen to me. I have no ties to her company at all.”

“That’s right,” he said. “You don’t. But you have ties to your client. They didn’t go into your office. My father said it was almost fifteen minutes before the guy left. He must have been checking out other offices in the building that maybe he thought she’d have a reason to see.”

“A PI and a lawyer,” she said. “It could have been me.”

“And he was probably smart enough to know he’d get nothing out of you.”

“He has to be an idiot to think he’d get it out of you or Trent’s office,” she said, frowning.

“I think he was trying to read the faces of Betsy and Janine. I was there and overheard it. Neither of them was lying since they don’t know who Sophia is.”

“Which just means that we did the right thing doing it the way we did,” Regan said.

“I don’t care. Accuse me of being all macho or sexist or whatever. Go take your call and inform her you’re done now. The contract is with me and I’m not doing any more work. It’s not smart and too dangerous for a client you barely know.”

“I know,” she said. “I’m going. I’ll fill you in.”

“I expect you in here the minute you get off the phone with her,” he said.

She turned to leave and then stopped at the door and said, “I’ll be back when I’m ready to be back and am able. I don’t do well with expectations.”

He laughed at her sarcasm and when she winked in return, he knew he’d been put in his place once again.

It was almost ninety minutes later when Regan returned and he was ready to lose his shit. He had work to do and was trying to keep his mind on it.

When she came in, he only lifted his eyebrow at her. No reason for her to know what he was feeling. “How did it go?”

“Well,” she said. “She understood and agreed that she didn’t want to know any more. It was better to not know and she felt good that her gut was right and she was going to start looking for another job. She felt if she just quit with no notice then they’d have suspicions, but if she had another job lined up they might not think anything of it.”

“That would be her decision,” he said.

“In terms of the work you were doing for me which was for her, she did say she felt as if someone was watching her. Not all the time, but that there was more action and activity of people around her office than normal and hanging around. Twice she felt like she was watched when she left. One day was last week when she came here. She even said she went to another floor and waited before she made her way back down the stairs. Guess her being paranoid paid off for her.”

“And you, since they didn’t know which office she went to. Hopefully nothing comes from it,” he said. “But from this point, we are done. I don’t even want you to see her as a client anymore.” He put his hand up when the fire was lit in her eyes. “I know. I can’t tell you that. I get it. I’m just voicing my concern out loud as your boyfriend. I don’t need my hand slapped.”

Her shoulders dropped. “Fine. I understand and I won’t slap your hand.”

“But you want to?” he asked.

“With a ruler.”

He laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, you might have an easier time tossing that guy over your shoulder than me.”

She winked. “It does. And I know I’d never be able to catch you unaware again.”

“I’m not so sure of that,” he said. “You’re doing a good job of keeping me on my toes.”