A Colby Christmas

Oh well. She knew nothing about the equipment required to put on a musical performance. For the first time she wondered how long it would take for these guys to set up. She’d be lucky to be out of here by ten.

Elaine rolled her eyes and picked through the keys on the ring to locate the right one. Well, it wasn’t as if she had any real plans anyway. She pushed the designated key into the lock and turned it to the right. The door opened, revealing the keypad.

She got as far as the second digit of the code when the lights went out.

Total darkness swallowed her up for the space of two heartbeats before the emergency lights kicked on.

Elaine let out the breath she’d unconsciously held.

“Well, okay, then.” No electricity. No elevators.

She did an about-face and strode back in the direction of her office.

Blackouts in the dead of winter weren’t unheard of but they were generally precipitated by a serious snow or ice storm or plummeting temperatures. It was still snowing outside, she noted as she walked briskly down that long semi-dark hall, but it wasn’t that bad. She hesitated a moment or two to stare out that long wall of glass. Just a thick dusting on the ground so far. No big deal.

But there were lots of other things that could cause this kind of power outage. A major traffic incident involving a relay station would do the trick. The system could be overloaded. It was damned cold outside. She chafed her arms. Getting chillier in here as well. She should have grabbed her sweater.

When she reached Victoria’s suite of offices and the wider corridor beyond, she had the almost overwhelming urge to break into a run.

Ridiculous. She’d been here alone at night dozens of times. This wasn’t the first time the power had failed. Falling asleep at her desk had her feeling off balance. Not to mention she was running on overload herself where the holidays were concerned.

“Sheesh,” she muttered, “that’s it.”

The holidays. The whole city was decorated to the max, especially with lights. Lots and lots of extra lights. No wonder the power had failed.

At her desk she snatched up the receiver and entered the number for security. She waited through ring after ring. No one answered. Joseph was probably at the freight elevator with the musicians and their equipment.

“Damn.”

Usually there were two guards. Why didn’t the other guy answer?

“Don’t panic.” Both guards were likely busy doing whatever had to be done during a power outage. She should just calm down.

She had two choices. She could either wait for the power to resume or she could hustle down to the main lobby and see what was going on. It would be just her luck that halfway down to the first floor the lights would kick back on and she’d have to run back up to authorize the freight elevator doors to open.

Waiting was the best course of action. If she were wrong, Joseph or the other security guard would call and let her know what she should do.

Not a problem.

While she waited she tidied her desk. Separated the few messages she’d taken the last couple hours of the workday. Each investigator had his or her own slot in a carousel on her desk. Victoria’s messages were passed on to her assistant, Mildred. The week’s supply requests lay in a neat stack in Elaine’s inbox. She inventoried and ordered general office supplies each week. Any requests beyond the usual were dropped off in writing for her to have authorized. Mildred did the routine authorizing. Most of the time she helped Elaine check in the supplies when they arrived. It was a relatively big job, definitely made for two.

All in all Elaine liked her position here at the Colby Agency. She stepped back and considered her work area in the meager light.

Most of the time she liked it. Things got stressful at Christmas. Investigators were working hard to wrap up their assignments. Holiday work schedules were a pain in the rear. Everyone wanted extra time off between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Elaine was glad she didn’t get that same fever.

The holidays were, for the most part, just another day to her.

Last year she’d taken up Mildred’s slack so she could be off for her niece’s wedding preparations.

That was another big deal here at the Colby Agency. Weddings. Oh, yes, and births. The entire staff operated more like a large family than a group of unrelated employees. At times she found the pressure to be involved tedious.

Regardless, the Colby Agency was the best. She had to admit that. No matter how high-profile and complex, or how small and seemingly insignificant the assignment, the job always got done. That was the major reason she stayed. She could put up with most anything to be on the winning team.

Ten minutes passed.

Still no call. Still no power.

The memory of opening that control panel door and starting to enter the code for the elevator pushed to the forefront of her thoughts. She’d turned around and walked back to her office. She’d noticed the snow still falling outside. The dusting on the ground below.

And the lights.

She whirled toward the wall of windows behind her desk.

The whole city was lit up like a giant Christmas tree.

If there was a blackout, why wasn’t anyone else affected?

Her full attention glued to the lights outside, she moved to the window and stared down at the street. There were still a few pedestrians on the sidewalks. Not a single building anywhere in sight was dark.

What the hell was going on?

She called security again.

This time she got a strange busy signal, the kind that more often meant something was wrong with the phone line.

Fine. She’d just have to go down to the main lobby and find out what the problem was. It might be silly of her, but she couldn’t just wait around here. She reached under her desk to fish her cell phone from her purse. Her concern might be for nothing but she wasn’t about to head down a dimly lit stairwell in a deserted building without her cell phone. Maybe she’d seen one too many horror flicks.

Phone in hand, she strode determinedly toward the end of the corridor, where the emergency exit provided handy access for the head of the agency.

She twisted the knob and pushed but the door didn’t budge. Wait a minute. She stepped back and surveyed the door. This wasn’t right. It was an emergency exit. Emergency exits weren’t ever supposed to be locked.

Jiggling the knob again she had to admit defeat. It was definitely locked.

A spurt of mild panic surged in her chest.

Okay. Stay calm. There had to be an explanation for this. She looked at the ring of keys she’d shoved onto her wrist. She was the keeper of the keys. There had to be a key on here for this door as well, though she didn’t actually recall having been told about one. More than two years had passed since her initial training. Maybe she’d forgotten.

Using trial and error, she tried one key after the other to see if one opened the door. Wouldn’t you know it, the final key she attempted did the trick.

Thank God.

This was totally weird.

She stepped into the stairwell, let the door close behind her with a distinct click. Like most people she preferred the elevators so she’d only been in the stairwell once or twice. Both times for a fire drill.

Even with the emergency lights the gloom gave her the shivers. Layers of beige paint on the walls, railing and stairs didn’t help. No windows. She shivered. Damned creepy at this time of night.

This whole power outage thing had spooked her unreasonably. She left the office after dark most of the winter. What was the problem here? She shook off the lingering feelings of foreboding. All she had to do was go downstairs and locate Joseph or the other guard. Service to the phone on the security desk may have been disrupted with the power outage.

Grasping the rail to steady herself, she moved down the stairs. No need to get in a hurry. Now would not be a good time to fall and break something. She might not be discovered until morning. Ian Michaels and several of the other investigators all took the stairs on a regular basis.

Third floor. She wondered vaguely as she passed if that door was locked as well. That part still puzzled her. What good was an emergency exit if it were locked?

Other than the tap of her boot heels, the stairwell was eerily quiet. But then it would be. Every single soul who worked on the premises other than she and the two security guards had likely gone home already.

She was never in that big of a hurry to leave work. It was just her and her tiny apartment. No one waited for her, not even a dog or cat. She’d thought about getting one but then she’d worry that if she had to stay late at the office the animal would be alone too much. Her evenings usually consisted of going home, heating up a frozen dinner in the microwave and then getting lost in a movie. Horror, action, comedies, she liked them all. Once in a while her neighbor invited her out to dinner, but they really didn’t have that much in common.

And dating. Well that was a joke. The closest thing she’d had to a date recently was when the guy at the video store had asked her to hang around to have coffee with him on his break. That hadn’t lasted beyond his fifteen-minute break.

Second floor. Still quiet as a tomb.

Not that she was feeling sorry for herself. She liked her life just as it was. No dramatics, no extra pressure. Just plenty of time to enjoy being who she was.

One of the new guys hired in last spring’s job fair had flirted with her at first. Todd Thompson. But he’d ended up marrying his first assignment. Most of the other investigators considered her their little sister or something. They sure didn’t look at her with an eye toward dating.

Definitely not.

It wasn’t that she was hideous to look at or anything like that. She was thin, without really trying. She actually looked younger than her twenty-six years. She wouldn’t likely be winning any beauty contests, but she had a nice face. Big brown eyes. That was the part about herself she liked best. Not that she dwelled on how she looked. She didn’t. She didn’t waste money on designer clothes, either. She shopped at the more reasonably priced discount stores, which ensured she had a healthy savings.

Maybe she’d take an exotic vacation one of these days.

Maui, Cancun, someplace warm with sandy beaches.

When she reached the door that would open into the wide corridor that led into the first-floor main lobby she found it locked as well.

This was too weird. First thing Monday morning she would call maintenance and have this situation looked into. If that didn’t take care of the problem she would call the fire marshal. What if she hadn’t had the keys and there had been a fire?

The building could go up in flames and she wouldn’t be able to get out. Definitely against the rules. Someone would be in serious trouble.

She shuddered as she twisted the key in the lock. A person never thought of things like that until they were thrust into the situation.

Beige décor gave way to marbled floors and soaring ceilings as she followed the short corridor that spilled into the main lobby. The ambience was every bit as posh as one would expect in a building with such elite tenants.

The lighting wasn’t much better down here. The higher ceilings and towering glass front entry provided some additional illumination from the city lights.

Her heels clicked on the marble as she crossed the massive space. Even down here it was graveyard silent.

Bizarre.

The security desk was unmanned.

No sign of the musicians for tomorrow’s entertainment. Or their cases of equipment.

Maybe Joseph had escorted the gentlemen to the freight elevator already. But where was the other guard? And, considering they couldn’t board the elevator, why hadn’t Joseph returned? Then again, maybe the musicians were stuck on the elevator and Joseph was trying to help.

Still, leaving the security desk unmanned was completely unprofessional. Victoria would be extremely disappointed that security turned so lax after hours.

Admittedly Elaine had never stayed quite this late, but she’d never known security to just disappear.

Something had to be wrong.

Calling 911 might be overreacting but she wasn’t about to pretend any longer that things were as they should be. She’d run out of excuses.

Elaine moved around to the back of the security desk. Her foot caught on the same object her gaze had landed on the instant she rounded the corner of the desk, only her brain hadn’t accepted the analysis just yet.

Joseph.

A scream rushed into her throat but fear had clamped shut the muscles in her neck.

Her body trembling, she lowered into a crouch and touched him. A dark stain had spread out from a small hole in the center of his chest. The navy color of the uniform distorted the color but she knew it was blood.

He’d been shot.

A surge of air rushed into her lungs, forcing her heart to race. Some part of her screamed at her to cry out for help, but some other part, a deeply entrenched instinct she hadn’t known existed until now, kept her silent.

Her fingers shaking, she touched his neck. No pulse. His skin was too cool. Was his heart still beating? No heartbeat.

She got into position for CPR, except she couldn’t feel any breath on her cheek. No rise and fall of his chest.

Tilting his head back, she opened his mouth, ensured the airway was unobstructed and forced air into his mouth. Something was wrong. The lungs didn’t expand…chest didn’t rise. She tried again. Nothing.

Oh, God.

She moved into position over his chest and attempted compressions. She worked until her arms were so weak she couldn’t press anymore.

He was dead.

She had to call for help. She should have done that first. But she’d panicked.

Her phone. Where was her cell?

She’d had it in her hand.

She must have dropped it when she found Joseph.

But where was it?

Pressing her cheek to the floor she peered under the security desk. There it was. She couldn’t reach it, needed something to reach under there and drag it out.

Maybe the phones down here worked.

She scrambled to her feet, almost tripping over Joseph’s body. Grabbing the phone, she pushed a button for an outside line but got no dial tone. She stabbed another one. Nothing.

Fear roared through her.

What the hell was wrong with the phone?

She poked buttons until she’d tried every line available. Still no dial tone.

Okay. Her cell. She’d just have to get her cell from under this desk. There was no way in hell she could move it. It was huge. She needed a ruler or something else long and flat to sweep the phone from under the desk.

Just then movement on the security monitors captured her attention.

Two men. She saw two men clad completely in black, including ski masks. As she watched one opened a large trunk. Another man, dressed the same way, rose up as if rising from a coffin and climbed out. A second trunk was opened to reveal another man.

Large cases.

The musicians?

Why would they have masked men hidden in their equipment cases?

And where the hell was the other security guard?

She peered at all four of the monitors stationed on the counter. Two were designed to change channels every few seconds, providing views of different floors and corridors. No movement anywhere but there. Where was that? Then she saw it…the freight elevator.

First floor.

Terror lit in her blood.

Two of the men exited the range of the camera but returned in seconds lugging…a body.

She identified the uniform. The other security guard.

Her breath trapped in her lungs.

The men dumped the body into one of the cases. Closed and locked it.

She stared at the monitor…her ability to think frozen with absolute fear.

Wait. Where were the other two men?

No sooner had the thought formed than the man still on camera, using a key ring similar to the one on her wrist, attempted to activate the freight elevator.

No power. No elevator.

She had to call the police.

Frantic now, she dug through the drawers. Couldn’t find anything longer than an ink pen.

She glanced at the monitor. Two men waited by the freight elevator. Movement on another monitor. Two men…moving down a corridor. Marble floors.

They were coming back to the lobby.

She had to hide.

Stumbling over Joseph, she landed hard on the floor.

She scrambled to her feet. Realizing the boots would make too much noise, she frantically tugged them off.

She had to run.

Now.

There was no place to go except…she frantically searched her memory banks for any sort of hiding place.

The snack shop.

Closing her fingers around the keys that dangled from the ring on her wrist to keep them quiet, she rushed past the elevators, almost falling when her feet slipped. Damn these tights. Running as fast as she could without making any sound or busting her butt, she didn’t let herself look back. Couldn’t slow down for anything.

The shop was closed but half a dozen tables and chairs were scattered around its entrance. She crouched behind the table closest to the wall, hoping the chairs would provide sufficient camouflage. There were three other tables staggered in front of the one she’d chosen. Surely they would provide additional coverage…enough so no one would see her.

Thank God she’d worn her favorite dark brown skirt and turtleneck today, as it helped her to blend in with the dark metal legs of the table and chairs. If she were brutally honest with herself she’d probably only selected the drab colors as an act of rebellion against the reds and greens of the holiday fanatics.

Whatever the reason, she was damned glad she had. Except for the tights. Running in them was dangerous. She bit her lip. She should get rid of them now to ensure she wasn’t sorry later. Careful not to make a sound she wiggled the damned things off her hips and down her legs and stuffed them into the closest chair. She shivered as the cool air replaced the warm woolly fabric against her skin. Freezing to death was preferable over being murdered.

The two masked men moved around the security desk. They hefted Joseph’s body and started back in the direction they’d come. He’d be hidden in one of the cases just like the other guard.

Maybe once they were gone she could risk going back after her cell phone.

She held as still as possible. Listened as their footsteps faded. She hadn’t heard them approaching until they were far too close for comfort, but then they hadn’t been carrying a body.

Once the silence had lasted to the count of ten, she grabbed her boots and hugged them to her chest as she cautiously slipped from her hiding place.

Holding her breath, she tiptoed as fast as she dared back to the security desk. Avoiding the blood splatters, she dropped down onto her hands and knees and tried to shove her hand under the desk.

She couldn’t reach it.

She tried harder and felt the sting of blood where the wood skinned the top of her hand.

Dammit.

She worked until she’d threaded one of her boot legs under the desk, but it wouldn’t reach.

Frustrated, she rose up. Jammed her fingers through her hair. There had to be something around here she could use to reach that damned phone.

A hand slapped down hard over her mouth as she was jerked backward.

She struggled to get away…but it was no use.

Chapter Three

8:39 p.m.

“We have to get out of here. Now.”

Elaine couldn’t see the man’s face, but he didn’t sound as if his intention was to harm her. Still, the words whispered so harshly against her ear had her heart shuddering with terror. What was going on here?

“I’m going to turn you loose, Elaine, but you have to promise me you won’t scream.”

Elaine? Who was this guy? She twisted in an attempt to get a look at him. All she got was a glimpse of blond hair and maybe gray eyes before he tightened the arm he had banded around her, keeping her from any further movement.

“Promise?”

He was waiting for a guarantee from her before he let go. She nodded, prayed she’d be able to stick by her word. Who was this man?

“Okay. As soon as I’ve released you, we have to make a run for the stairwell. Understand?”

Why would he want to go back to the stairwell? She needed to get to her phone. Joseph…her stomach roiled. Poor Joseph was dead…so was the other guard. She wasn’t sure about the second guard, but she knew Joseph had a family. A wife and three kids.

“Do you understand?”

She nodded at his sharply whispered demand.

“All right.”

His arm loosened and his hand came away from her mouth. Before she could stop her automatic instincts she’d scrambled away from him. “Who are you?”

He held a finger to his lips before shifting his attention to the monitors on the counter. Her gaze darted there as well. Staying alive meant staying away from those men.

Joseph’s body had already been locked in one of the cases lined up next to the freight elevator. But none of the masked men were in view of the cameras. Just those big equipment cases that now served as coffins.

Fear shivered over her skin leaving goose bumps in its wake. They could be anywhere…right around the corner.

“There they are.”

Her attention focused on one of the monitors. Fourth floor. A new kind of tension whipped through her.

Two of the masked men were exiting the stairwell door into the Colby Agency.

“What’re they doing?”

She hadn’t realized she’d said the words aloud until the man next to her had changed his position so that he could look her in the eye.

“Looking for you.”

A quake started deep down in her belly. He was right. The guard had called her and asked permission for them to come up. These men knew she was in the building…on the fourth floor.

The Colby Agency had many enemies. She’d always known, had been thoroughly briefed on the potential, that this kind of situation could, theoretically, arise. There was always the chance that as a Colby Agency employee one might be targeted for revenge or coercion.

Elaine just hadn’t expected it to be her.

She didn’t know anything about cases, had never worked an investigation. Sure, she had access to most everything in the offices….

Maybe that was it.

These guys had come here under the pretense of setting up their equipment in order to accomplish their mission and somehow something had gone wrong. Either Joseph or the other guard had gotten suspicious and now the ugly truth was out. Now they were inside the Colby Agency. But why? Were they looking for files? Or was their agenda to lay in wait until the office reopened tomorrow morning?

She pushed the questions and thoughts aside. Right now, at this moment, she was the only representative of the Colby Agency on the premises. There was no one else. Not Simon Ruhl or Ian Michaels or any of the other brilliant investigators.

Just her.

“We have to stop them.”

Her unidentified companion made a sound deep in his throat. “How do you propose we do that?”

He was right. How the hell could they stop these guys? The men wearing the masks were armed, were professionals so far as she could determine. She and—she glanced at the man next to her—this guy couldn’t hope to do this alone.

“Do you have a cell phone?” Hers was still under the massive desk.

He gave his head a quick shake. “Lost it.”

Well that made two of them. “Mine’s under there.” She pointed to the bottom of the security desk where it hovered just an inch or so above the floor. Why the hell did she have to have such a thin phone? If it had been just a little thicker it wouldn’t have fit under there. From the corner of her eye she saw the blood on the floor. She shuddered, this time the reaction shook her visibly.