Chapter 8

June 20, 2011

I spent most of the weekend up north visiting my parents, seeing as it was Father’s Day and all. I was sort of close with my parents. They were good parents. I was a moron and ran away when I was sixteen to be with some guy I met online. I was too embarrassed to go home immediately, so I got my GED and enrolled in college on a full scholarship. They didn’t think I died or anything—I still talked to them when I ran away—but after causing them so much worry, it put a damper on our relationship. Superficially it’s fine, but I think they don’t trust me and worry that I might be a bad influence on my kid sister. My sister and I are close. She’s fourteen, so she still thinks I’m the shit, even though I’m really not.

It was nice going home for a weekend. The four of us went to the beach on Saturday and I drove back on Sunday. The car ride was an awful going back. I was nervous to see what would happen at work on Monday and the traffic was bad. It took hours for me to drive back home.

I had really bad heartburn on Monday morning. Someone was going to kill Maxwell and Harriet and neither one of them believed me. Plus there’s that odd situation with Leon, who is trying to sleep with me and who is somehow involved in this mysterious attack.

I showed up at five in the morning on Monday. Sleep was futile. Getting up every hour on the hour taught me that. At least I would be able to do something productive.

I started working on a new case; it was a contract case for getting some research supplies. I was looking at the contract to see if there was anything sketchy. The contract was one hundred pages long. I figured that this whole case would take me a day or two—tops. I was quite productive in the morning, but I kept on getting this nagging feeling that something was wrong. I decided that I would go clean out my closet and create a hiding space for Harriet just in case if I had to hide her from whoever Leon hired to kill her.

Eventually, nine came, and Harriet slouched into the office with her head looking down at the ground.

“Are you feeling better?” I asked.

Harriet nodded my head. “Embarrassed, but better.”

“You drank too much at a party. I’m just glad that you called someone instead of drinking and driving and staying at that sketchy house all night.”

“Thanks. It won’t happen again. I promise.”

“I know. I could tell that this was a one-shot deal.” I sat down at my desk and sifted through some papers. The real reason why I was doing this is so I could seem nonchalant about the whole situation even though I really wasn’t.

“Did your brother notice?” I asked.

“Undoubtedly.” Harriet sighed. “The next morning I got a whole lecture on drinking responsibly and that if I ever am in a bad situation, I should call him instead of getting a ride from strange frat girls that may or may not be murderers.”

“Strange frat girls?” I exclaimed, mortally wounded.

Why would Maxwell think I’m a strange frat girl? What? I have impeccable taste. What frat-girl wears a suit on a Friday night? Moron.

I tried my best not to show my pout because it would be weird for me to be visibly upset about being thought of as a frat girl. Gotta be professional.

“Yeah, I guess he saw you bringing me in and thought you were some random creepy college girl. Then he thought that you were out to kill me or something. I don’t know. I didn’t pay much attention.” Harriet took a deep swig of her iced coffee and gulped it. She seemed so unbothered by the whole incident, which seemed unfathomable to me since I literally lost sleep over the whole incident.

I put the papers I was holding down on my ashen desk and audibly signed. “Harriet, there’s something I need to tell you. You see, someone is out to kill you.”

Harriet sat down on the chair opposite my desk. “What do you mean?” She scoffed.

I inhaled and then exhaled. “Friday night I had dinner with Leon Bradley.”

“You went on a date with Leon Bradley!? Good for you, he’s a friend of my brother’s and quite a catch. He’s handsome.”

I laughed out-loud. Quite a catch? Yeah right.

“Yeah…” I chuckled again. “Well, he’s not really a catch. I’m getting to that. Anyways, Leon had to step out to take a phone call, and I overheard it. He said something about three o’clock today and then having to take you out too because you’re in your brother’s will.”

Harriet laughed and took another sip of iced coffee. I could tell that she didn’t believe me or take me seriously. “Oh, that could mean anything,” Harriet said, waving her hand dismissively. “I’m not that worried about it. Leon would never try to kill my brother. Speaking of Maxwell, did you tell him about me drinking?”

“No, I didn’t. I tried to avoid him, but he saw me and asked what I was doing at his house late at night.” I looked down at my desk to hide my blush from embarrassment. “I tried to tell him about the threat that Leon posed I got nervous and it was awkward, and I think he thought that I was trying to kill him.” I ran my hands through my hair.

Harriet turned bright red. “So you were the creepy girl that he told me to watch out for. I’m so embarrassed. My brother thinks that my mentor is going to kill him. Ugh. I was hoping that you two would be friends or something. Why did you tell him? There’s no way he’d take something like that well.”

“Well, I’m a little concerned about you and your brother’s safety.”

Harriet’s blush subdued slightly. “I’m not concerned. Leon’s not going to kill anyone. So not him. Besides, my brother has state of the art security. It’ll be fine. I’m just embarrassed that you two had such an awkward encounter. Now he’s going to think of you as the creepy college girl instead of my boss.”

I bit my lip. I knew that there’s no way that she would believe me and talking to Maxwell at this point? Wasn’t going to happen. I had visions of him calling security and being physically dragged out of a building. Then, of course, fired from my job.

“Just please be careful today.”

Harriet laughed. “You sound like my brother. I’ll be careful.”

An awkward silence filled the room. I ran my fingers through my hair again and inhaled sharply. I was trying to think of something for Harriet to do; I wanted to keep her in the office with me just in case something happened.

“Want to help me with reviewing a contract?”

“Yeah!” Harriet smiled.

“Alright, pull over your chair. I’ll teach you about reviewing a contract.”

The two of us sat down, and I gave her a crash course in contracts. It turned into me regurgitating a lot of lectures that I heard from the first year of law school. When lunch time came, I decided to order in, so we don’t have to go out and buy food. I settled on the place that delivers pizza, salads, and subs down the street. It’s usually not my type of thing but, desperate times call for desperate measures. I ordered two Cobb salads with Dijon dressing. The office was a lot more secure than my car or a random restaurant, and I still didn’t want to let Harriet on her own just in case she was kidnapped or something. Or at least that’s what I told myself as I ate this terrible salad.

The afternoon crept by. From two to three, the clock seemed to tick backward. I was feeling more and more nauseous and time went on. I was beginning to think that the eggs in my cobb salad were bad because I was getting hit with sudden waves of nausea.

At three o’clock, I held my breath.

“Are you nervous because of that conversation that you overheard on Friday?” Harriet laughed.

“Yeah, I am,” I said somberly.

“It’s three, and I haven’t heard anything.” Harriet sat down in her swivel chair by my desk. “Besides, we’re almost done with this contract.”

“Alright, we’ll get back to work.” I sat down at my desk and stared at the paper in front of me. I read the same sentence over and over again and tried to comprehend it but I just couldn’t. In the back of my mind, I just knew that someone was going to try to kill Maxwell and Harriet. I knew, and no one believed me.

I heard a furious knock at the door. A knock is too gentle of a word to describe the assault that was happening on my door. I jumped out of my seat and ran over to the door.

“Harriet, get back,” I warned.

“What?” Harriet wined.

“Harriet!”

“Ok.” She threw her hands up in the air and sat down in the chair behind my desk. She let out a loud sigh and began spinning around in a circle.

I opened the door quickly. An out-of-breath Maxwell Goodard stood before me. His cheeks were flushed, and his hands were trembling.

“Where’s my sister?” He demanded.

“In here,” I said. I pointed behind me to Harriet who still looked slightly irritated with me.

“Oh, thank God.” Maxwell exhaled. He stepped into my office and shut the door and locked it behind him. He ran his fingers through his messy brown hair and paced back and forth. I noticed that he had a cut on his right fist. Maxwell turned over and looked at me. His bright blue eyes narrowed. “You’re the girl from the other night.” He said accusingly.

I opened my mouth and then shut it.

Oh shit.

“This is Ms. Jones.” Harriet walked over to her brother and gestured towards me like she was a TV show host showing a prize or something. “Mel Jones. She’s my mentor that I keep on talking about.”

I sheepishly waved my hand.

“I’ve made a terrible mistake. I’m sorry, Ms. Jones. I really do owe you a proper apology, but right now, we have some urgent matters to deal with.” He turned away from me and looked at his sister. “Harriet, we need to go now. Someone just tried to kill me, and I’m worried you’re next.”

I heard a faint knock at the door. The room fell silent, and I could hear the blood rush to my ears, and I froze. I looked at Maxwell and Harriet.

Crap. This can’t be good.

I ushered the two of them over to my spacious closet and closed the closet door. I couldn’t imagine that my file closet could be too comfortable for them, considering that it’s dark and dusty and they had to compete with several giant boxes of files. And dust.

I walked over to the door and opened it nonchalantly. It was Leon Bradley. Just what I needed right now.

“Mel!” Leon smiled down at me. I could tell that the smile was forced. His whole stance was tense, and his red hair was tussled about in odd directions. He looked like an anime hero or something.

“Leon, it’s good to see you.” I smiled up at him.

Not.

“It’s good to see you too. Um…” Leon shuffled his feet. “Have you seen Harriet anywhere?”

“Now that you mention it, she ran out the door inexplicably ten minutes ago. She seemed very panicked. I’m sure she’ll be back soon, though.” I lied. I think I was pretty convincing in my lie too.

“Huh.” Leon bit her lip. “Ok. That’s odd. Well, I gotta go. Urgent business.”

“Ok,” I said, feigning confusion.

“By the way, things are pretty busy right now, but in a few days things will calm down, and I would love to pick up where we left off.”

Really? Even trying to kill someone you’re still trying to get into my pants?

“Great, me too.”

Nope. Nope. Nope.

“Excellent.” Leon smiled at me and promptly exited my office. I closed the door behind him quickly but not too quickly. I resisted the urge to exhale loudly.

Thank God that’s over….

I walked over to the closet and opened the door.

Both Maxwell and Harriet emerged from the closet. Harriet looked terrified, and Maxwell looked more like he was minorly inconvenienced than anything else. The duo stood around in my office awkwardly until Harriet plopped down in her chair and started spinning back and forth as usual. Maxwell perched himself on the edge of my desk and gestured over to sit in the chair, which I took considering that he put me through hell the other night with his rudeness.

“I think I…um…I think I bought us some time; I don’t think that they’ll look for you two here.” I said as I sat down in my office chair. I felt heat rise to my face one again.

“Thank you,” Maxwell said.

Come on, Mel. Pull yourself together.

I leaned forward in search of my water bottle to have a sip of water to stop myself from blushing. I couldn’t quite find it. I opened my desk drawer and started searching underneath stacks of paper.

“What are you looking for?” Harriet asked.

“My water bottle. This whole situation has me a bit nervous. You know, having a killer down the hall…” I admitted, chuckling lightly at my own joke, which fell flat, by the way. No one else laughed. Their loss. Maxwell reached over and grabbed my water bottle and handed it to me.

“Thank you,” I said. I knew that I was blushing, but at this point, I didn’t care anymore. After taking a sip from the bottle, I pulled the bottle close to my chest and wrung it, as if it was a shield from the world at large and namely, to shield myself from the muscular man who was perched on my desk only a few feet away from me.

“What happened, Mr. Goodard?” I asked.

Maxwell let out a sigh. “At around a little before three, two men from my security team barged in. They pulled a gun on me. I managed to fight off the two of them, and I took their weapons. I paid off both the guards to report back to whoever hired them that I was dead. From there, I came here to collect my sister and leave.”

“Did anyone see you come here?” I asked.

“No. I took the back way. I don’t think anyone saw me.”

“Who could have seen you?”

“I don’t think anyone. I have a private elevator and hallway.”

I took another sip of water. “I don’t know if this information helps you, but I usually leave the office around eight, and it’s completely dead. The lights are off and everything. If you want to sneak out, that’s probably the best time, and I can drive you home.”

Maxwell bit his lip and narrowed his eyes.

“It sounds like the best option to me.” Harriet chimed in.

“I can’t think of a better solution,” Maxwell admitted.

Alright, so I bring them back to their house and then what? Are they just going to hide there forever? I guess I could sneak into Leon’s office tonight to see if I can get some evidence? I doubt that he would leave something like that in his office. It’s not like you write contracts for hit men or something. Maybe I can get a taped confession? He does like me. I bet I can get him to say something.

“I think I have an idea…”

“Oh?” Maxwell leaned forward.

“I think I can get Leon to talk.”

“What does Leon have to do about this?” Maxwell asked.

I forgot that Maxwell hadn't been caught up to speed here. So much has happened.

“Leon is the one who plans on killing you and Harriet, as you might recall me warning you about on Friday night.”

I was glad to get my subtle insult in there.

“And how do you know this?” Maxwell asked pointedly, leaning forward even more. I felt like I was a witness who was on the stand at a cross-examination.

“I overheard it.”

“What did he say?”

“Um…uh…he said something along the lines that he needed to take Harriet out because she inherits the company if anything happens to you and something about things being taken care of at three on Monday. I think. Something along those lines.” I continued to wring my water bottle. It felt very hot in the office, even though I was sure that it was just me.

“How did you hear this information?”

Oh, crap. I don’t want to admit that I was on a date…

“That’s private,” I responded as I crossed my arms.

“We don’t have the luxury of privacy right now,” Maxwell responded.

“Fine. I was on a date.” I muttered.

“What?”

I inhaled sharply. “I. Was. On. A. Date. With Leon. Leon Bradley. At a restaurant. A very overpriced restaurant with mediocre food.”

“Oh.” Maxwell leaned back.

“Well, that’s embarrassing…” I mumbled under my breath.

“You have nothing to be embarrassed about. You are at liberty to date whoever you chose to; there’s nothing wrong with you having a personal life, and I don’t take you any less seriously as a competent professional.” Maxwell said.

I took a swig of water and pursed my lips.

“My brother fashions himself to be a bit of a feminist,” Harriet interjected.

“That’s not the reason why I’m embarrassed. I went on a date with a crazy man who is trying to kill my intern. And the CEO of the company that I work for.” I snapped. “I don’t want to be associated with that mess.”

“Ok,” Maxwell said flatly. The conversation died after that. I knew that I should be a bit more friendly since he’s my boss and all but I wasn’t feeling it. I really wasn’t feeling this job at all at the moment. I had enough contacts that I could burn this bridge, and I would be fine.

“So Mel, what’s your plan?” Harriet finally stopped spinning in her chair. Seeing all the spinning from the corner of my eye was making me a little nauseous. Or it could have been the cobb salad. Or the whole situation in general.

“I was going to talk to Leon. He clearly likes me. I can get the information.”

“Is that safe?” Maxwell pointedly asked.

“Yeah, I mean, we know he’s a killer,” Harriet added.

“That doesn’t mean that he’s going to kill me. Think about it: he hired someone to do the actual killing. That means that he probably doesn’t want to do the dirty work himself.”

“That’s a terrible risk to take, though. Taking Harriet and me to our home is more than enough and I’m grateful for that.” Maxwell said those words so diplomatically; it was like he was negotiating a business deal. He stood up from being perched on my desk. “I can handle the rest myself.” He said darkly.

After Maxwell had stood up, I stood up to match him. This conversation was starting to make me feel slightly more comfortable with him. Well, that’s the wrong way to put it. I was starting to feel really pissed about his ‘I’ll-handle-this situation-because-I’m-the-CEO’ attitude, and I was ready to speak my fucking mind.

I looked Maxwell in his icy blue eyes and started him down. “I know I can handle this.”

“You probably can,” Maxwell answered diplomatically. “But, at the same time, if this situation sours, then it could end terribly, and I’m not about to let someone get hurt on my behalf. I’m handing this.”

“Mr. Goodard—”

“I’m handling this.” Maxwell said forcefully as he held his hand up in a ‘stop’ sign.

Well then.

I plopped down on my seat and folded my arms over. I was mad. I told myself that I would just agree now but later get the information I need from Leon. Screw whatever Maxwell wanted. I saw Harriet out of the corner of my eye. She looked pretty mortified.

“Maxwell!” Harriet shrieked.

“Shh.” I raised my hand over to her. “Not so loud.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Harriet lowered her voice. “You’re embarrassing me.”

Maxwell sighed and perched on the edge of my desk once more. “I don’t mean to offend. I just don’t want to see someone get hurt on my behalf.”

That’s it.

“Quite frankly, I have proven myself to be much more competent than you in this situation, seeing as I’m the one who uncovered this conspiracy to kill you and your sister. And, oh, if memory serves me correctly, I just helped to throw your potential killer off track just a few minutes ago. But if you want to act all macho, then that’s your business and, quite frankly, I don’t care enough about your well-being to offer to stick my neck out twice. Fire me if you’d like. I don’t care. Get killed by Leon. See if I care.”

Maxwell’s eyes narrowed, and he walked to the far corner of my room. His hands were folded behind his back, and he looked surprisingly calm and unfazed by everything I just said. “After everything that has happened, I’m not going to fire you. Feel free to speak your mind freely to me at any time. My ego isn’t so fragile as to be cut by your sharp tongue. But I’m glad that we’re on the same page that you will not be risking your life to get a recording of Leon Bradly.”

“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth. I inhaled sharply. I took a sip of my water. Anything to calm down. “It’s quarter-past three. We still have a little under five hours to kill. I guess I’ll get back to work…” I turned my chair over a little to face my computer and give Maxwell the cold shoulder. I was a little mad. More than a little mad. I wanted to throttle the man sitting on my desk but I wouldn’t. Not my style.

“You’re really going back to work?” Harriet asked.

“I mean, I am at work…”

“Well, but there’s a killer on the loose. How can you focus?” Harriet asked.

I shrugged.

“We can always chit-chat,” Harriet said.

“About what?” I asked.

“Well…um…where are you from?” Harriet asked.

“I’m from Western Massachusetts. Near the Berkshires.”

“I had a friend who lived there for a short spell,” Maxwell said.

“Oh, who?” I asked.

“Remedios Smith. Have you met her?” He answered.

“Oh yeah, Rem…” I looked down at the ground, all the while wondering how I was going to put this. I bit my lip. “She um…passed on when I was in high school. I’m so sorry for your loss.” I said. I really hoped that I wasn’t the one who broke the bad news to him that his friend died. That would suck.

“Oh, it’s ok. I know.” Maxwell said. “I was just wondering if you knew her, that’s all.”

“Yeah. We were lab partners in science class.”

“Oh. Cool.”

“How do you know her?” I asked. “Or, erm, how did you know her.”

“That’s private.”

“Alrighty then.” I drummed my fingers along the desk.

Silence filled the room. I could tell that Harriet was a bit mortified by how terrible and awkward this situation was going. She had her head buried in my desk and was doing everything except for visibly groaning.

“So,” I said, breaking the silence for the sake of my poor, humiliated intern. “You fought off the guards.” I sipped my water. “How’d you do that?”

“I studied Judo for several years. I like to compete professionally sometimes.” Maxwell answered.

“Is that the thing where you throw people?”

“Well, there’s more to it than that but, in short, that is the martial art that you’re thinking of, yes.”

“And you have time to do that? While running a company?” I asked.

“I make the time. I try to exercise every morning. It helps me stay calm. Stay in shape.”

“Sometimes I’ll go to the gym in the mornings too. Although I usually just run three miles on the treadmill…” I responded to stay polite.

“Exactly three?” Maxwell raised an eyebrow.

“Four seems a little excessive and two is just too weak for a workout.” I smiled wryly.

Maxwell chuckled lightly. “I can’t argue with that logic.”

“So what do you do for fun?” Maxwell asked me.

“Work. Hang out with my friends. Hang out with my kid sister sometimes. Watch television. That’s it; I’m afraid to say.” I nonchalantly sipped my water.

“You have a sister?”

“Yeah, she’s fourteen. My family is up in Maine now, so I’m afraid I don’t get to see her much. It takes about six hours to get up there.”

“Oh, that’s a shame.”

“Plus I’m always busy,” I added.

“I find that I’m constantly busy as well. It’s hard to have hobbies when you’re running a company. For me, it’s just Judo and spending time with Harriet.”

“Do you have any other family besides Harriet?” I asked.

I could see Harriet cringe out of the corner of my eye. Wrong question. Woops.

“No, it’s just Harriet and I. I would prefer to change the subject, Ms. Jones.”

“Oh, ok…” My mind was racing trying to think of things to talk about. I was able to fill in the time with making small talk and idle conversation.

The rest of the afternoon crept by slowly as the three of us made idle chit-chat. Listening to Maxwell talk about his kid sister made me hate him a bit less. Not that all was forgiven because I’m not a doormat and he was rude to me earlier. Plus that ‘I-know-what’s-best-for-you’ attitude never ceases to piss me off. But it was endearing hearing him talk about his family, art, religion, politics. We were able to have a decent conversation. God. Something about him really made me feel jerked around. On the one hand, I was very leery of him because of our first encounter but, on the other hand, I found him to be quite attractive and charming. The thing that I found most attractive about him was that domineering attitude that I hated and fought against.

But at any rate, it was a pleasant afternoon, all things considering. It was pleasing, with the exception that I knew in a few hours I’d have to smuggle them in my car and take them to a mansion and leave them, not knowing if I’d ever see them again after that because someone would kill them.