Unexpected Outcome

“You know something?”

“What?”

“For a fake OD consultant you’re pretty good. The administrative lines here are more blurry than they should be.”

“I was wondering about that.”

“Yeah, well, until we hired Noah, Larry and I basically ran things by the seat of our pants. I don’t remember if I mentioned this before, but the financial side of the business was always a mess—because neither of us is good with balance sheets and whatever.

“When it came to other things, whoever heard about a problem first would take care of it.

“And as they say, old habits die hard. So you have that, plus the fact the staff—especially the oldtimers—have always come to Larry or me, and…

“Well, they sometimes still do, and then we tend to jump on things we should leave to Noah.”

She nodded. She didn’t need to be a real expert to know people didn’t change their behavior patterns easily.

“But getting back to what I said about how consistent the fellows’ stories have been,” Robert continued, “is it common for people to slip up and contradict themselves? If one of them did have something to do with either incident…”

“It happens. More often in the movies than in real life, though.”

“Stu’s worked here for thirty years,” Robert said quietly.

“I know.”

“And he’s a good manager. I can’t recall the last time we had a serious problem in the warehouse—before all this stuff started happening.”

Fleetingly, she recalled her father saying he was surprised the warehouse people hadn’t been fired. They probably would have been in most companies.

But thirty years and no problems obviously counted for something with Robert—which made her like him even more than she already did.

Glancing at her notes, she checked to see what else she should mention, then said, “Stu made sure I knew all three of them had taken lie detector tests. And that I’d been told they’d asked to take them.”

There were a few seconds of silence then, before Robert said, “Do you figure there’s any chance Stu was in on what happened? That he knew ahead of time the delivery was going to be short? That he and the captain…”

“I don’t think there’s much chance. Although one thing bothered me.”

“Oh?”

“The plans he had. The reason he didn’t wait for the ship to arrive.”

“He’d promised to meet his wife. She wanted to look at some furniture.”

Dana nodded. “I already knew that’s what he told Detective Tanaka. But when he told me I had a feeling he was lying.”

“Oh?” Robert said again, more slowly this time. “Did Tanaka get that impression, too?”

“If he did, he didn’t mention it. But I’m good at knowing when people aren’t telling the truth. My father’s a cop. He taught me what to look for when I was just a kid, so I’ve had years of practice. And I don’t think Stu was meeting his wife.”

“Then what do you think?”

“That if anyone asked her she’d back him up. The names of the stores they went to would probably be on the tip of her tongue. But it wouldn’t prove anything.”

Robert gazed at her, looking decidedly unhappy. Finally, he said, “So, assuming you’re right, he just doesn’t want anyone to know what he was really doing that evening.”

“Exactly. Which is why I’m not entirely ready to write him off as innocent.

“On the other hand, I give a lot of weight to the results of those lie detector tests. It isn’t easy to beat them.”

“Only Larry seems to figure it is,” Robert said.

NOAH WAS NOT A MAN WHO lurked. Yet he knew that was the only word to describe what he was doing at the moment.

Virtually everyone else had left for home by now, but here he was, standing partway between his office and the front door, lurking.

Glancing at his watch, he wondered how much longer that woman would be spending with his uncle.

It didn’t matter, though. However long it was he’d still be here. He wanted the answers to some questions and he intended to get them.

He paced to his office door, then back down the hall again, almost banging into Chris Vidal, their director of logistics, who was coming out of the main office area.

“On your way home?” Chris asked.

“Shortly. I’m just waiting to catch Robert,” he added when the other man obviously expected more.

“Oh, well, if you’ve got a minute, tell me what you think of these new rates Intercoastal Vans has in mind.”

Chris dug a couple of sheets from the folder he was carrying. “They’ve changed the formula for their weight, volume and distance calculations, and I don’t think it’ll be to our benefit. But the explanation’s so damned convoluted…”

Noah skimmed the pages, hoping Dana didn’t make good her escape while Chris had him captured.

“Yeah,” he said when he was done. “I’d say you’re right. We’d really get nailed on some of those overweight charges.”

“I’ll give them a call in the morning, then,” Chris said, sticking the papers back into his folder. “Talk to them about a guaranteed max.”

“Good idea.”

Noah watched Chris disappear into his office, then went back to thinking about Dana—and assuring himself he wasn’t paranoid. There was no way he’d merely imagined that she’d been covertly watching him this afternoon.

Oh, she’d been very subtle about it. If he hadn’t found himself gazing at her so frequently, he’d never have realized what she was doing.

But he’d introduce her to someone, and a few minutes later he’d see that she was less interested in the conversation than in keeping track of him.

And it sure wasn’t because she found him wildly attractive. She hadn’t been looking at him with stars in her eyes. What he’d seen in them was suspicion.

Man, oh, man, she was not what she was pretending to be. He had no lingering doubts on that score, was entirely back to being convinced she was either a cop or a P.I.

And he had a horrible feeling his worst fear about why she’d actually been hired was bang on.

Larry had convinced Robert that his own nephew could be behind the sabotage. So they had Ms. Whoever-she-really-was in here to check him out.

Looking at his watch again, he reminded himself that all he had to do was learn where she lived. Once he knew that, getting her real identity should be easy.

A doorman might be persuaded to talk, if there was one. Failing that, he’d go back to his NYC database.

She might have avoided any link between her Dana Mayfield, OD consultant, phone number and other information, but he’d be able to get a list of the occupants in her building. Then, by process of elimination…

Of course, if it was a large place, that could present quite a challenge. But he’d do whatever he had to, and after he knew for sure…

He put the brakes on his thoughts. He was going to take this one step at a time and he didn’t have much hard information yet.

At this point, the only thing he was certain of was that she lived somewhere in Manhattan. And that it couldn’t be too far from here, because she’d mentioned that she’d walked to the office this morning.

So, first, he’d offer her a ride home. That had to be worth a try, even though he expected she’d turn him down.

If she wasn’t who she claimed to be, she wouldn’t want him knowing a thing about the real her. And that, of course, included where she lived.

But if she didn’t say no… Would that mean he was totally wrong about this?

Uh-uh. He simply couldn’t believe he was.

He heard the faint noise of footsteps on the stairs and waited, not breathing, until the sounds reached the bottom. Then he strode to the end of the hall and did his best to look surprised when he saw her.

“Working late your first day?” he said.

She smiled. “Trying to impress people.”

Opening the door, he ushered her ahead of him, saying, “Which way do you go?”

“North.”

“Ah, me, too.”

“Oh?”

“I’m not on my way home,” he quickly added, remembering he’d told her where he lived. And Murray Hill was more east than north.

“But why don’t I give you a ride. My car’s parked just behind the building.”

“Well, thanks, but I’d rather walk.” She pointed to the sneakers she’d changed into. “I’m all set.”

He nodded. “You’re sure I can’t tempt you, though? It’s still awfully hot.”

“Even so, walking’s the only exercise I get.”

“Ah. Then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I guess.” She gave him another smile before heading down the street, leaving him muttering.

Now what did he do? Follow her?

He wasn’t a man who did that, either. And when the idea had occurred to him, earlier, he’d rejected it. But how else was he going to find out what he wanted to know?

He took a few steps toward the narrow passage that led back to the alley—then stopped.

It was rush hour. She’d be walking faster than the traffic was moving.

On the other hand, his car had air, he was wearing a suit and the temperature had to be in the nineties.

But the bottom line was that he didn’t want to lose her. So he removed his jacket, slung it over his shoulder and started off after her on foot.

CHAPTER FIVE

THE FRIEND DANA HAD SUBLET her apartment from always used to describe the building as old but well maintained.

It was a phrase she recalled every time she was standing on the front steps, unable to get the door unlocked on the first try. Or the second.

Not that this was a bad building. Its Chelsea location allowed her to walk just about everywhere. And with only three stories, it was small enough that her neighbors weren’t just anonymous faces. Most of them were even pleasant.

But no matter how many times the super “worked his magic,” as he liked to put it, this lock began acting up again after only a week or two.

If a mugger ever came along while she was struggling with it…

The thought prompted her to carefully scan the street.

The cars that were parked nose-to-bumper along the curb all seemed empty. There were a couple of men carrying briefcases, on their way home from work, a woman walking an oversize dog, and the resident dealer slouched against the building two down from hers, talking on a cell phone while he waited for his next customer.

Nothing at all out of the ordinary, which meant her intuition must be playing tricks.

Twice, on the way home, it had warned her to look back the way she’d come. But when she had, she hadn’t spotted anyone following her.

So what had given her the creepy feeling that someone was?

She’d probably never know, and there wasn’t much use in worrying about it when she had a more pressing concern.

She eased the key into its slot once more, thinking how ironic it was that she now had both a door at Four Corners she couldn’t lock and one at home she couldn’t unlock.

She gave the key a little jiggle before turning it this time, and voilà! Her effort was rewarded with a solid click.

Once in the foyer, she carefully closed the door behind her. Then she passed by the elevator, which was too unreliable to be trusted, and climbed the stairs to her third-floor apartment.

Inside, Dr. Watson greeted her with his customary enthusiasm, meowing loudly while trying to wrap his body entirely around her ankles.

“Hi, Doc,” she said, sliding the dead bolts before setting down her briefcase and picking him up for a cuddle.

The cat, and his name, had come courtesy of her father. One winter night, he and his partner had been checking out a possible break-in on Delancey. They’d returned to the squad car to find Dr. Watson huddled near it, a half-starved kitten that would have lost his ears to frostbite if they hadn’t taken him straight to a twenty-four-hour veterinary clinic.

That had been only a few weeks after she’d gotten her P.I. license, and her father had brought Doc straight from the clinic to her, saying that since she’d decided she wanted to be Sherlock Holmes she’d better have a Dr. Watson.

“We’ll do dinner in a while,” she assured him, putting him back down. “It’s early yet.

“Fish Delight. Worth waiting for,” she promised as he impatiently twitched his tail.

When she headed into the bedroom, both answering machine lights were blinking. She looked at the caller ID display on the Dana Mayfield, OD consultant, line first.

One call, and it had come from Four Corners. Someone there had been checking up on her.

Feeling a little unsettled, she pressed the play button. There was no message, just a hang up. But somebody was clearly suspicious—at the very least. And the obvious suspect was her note writer.