Gina helped him. “Hello, how may I help you?”
“Looking to see Lenny and Ray.” He scanned the area. He was an attractive man. Tall, like six feet three, and dressed nicely. He wore designer dress pants, a black belt with silver clip, and a dark green button-down shirt. Then his eyes locked onto hers.
She immediately looked away from him. There was something in his eyes that unnerved her. She swallowed hard.
“They’re in a meeting right now. Is there anything I can assist you with? Are you a client?” Gina asked.
The man ignored her and started walking farther into the office.
“They’ll see me.”
Brighid could see that the man was getting angry. Her bosses were in a meeting with some clients and had asked not to be disturbed. Now Gina was appearing frazzled, and considering Brighid was the main office admin, she decided the help out.
She stood up from her desk and smoothed her hands down her Ann Taylor navy blue dress.
“Perhaps there is something I could assist you with today? I’m Mr. McCoy and Mr. Syrias’s personal assistant.” She walked closer.
The man was abrupt, and add in his facial expression filled with annoyance and his dark hair and dark eyes, she found herself looking down to catch her breath and regain some confidence. When she looked back up, his eyes roamed over her body then returned to her eyes. He gave a small smirk.
“Very nice.” He licked his lips, giving Brighid the creeps.
“But that won’t be necessary. I’ll meet up with them later.” He stared at her for a few uncomfortable moments, and then Brighid gave him the once-over before walking away. She just wondered why she felt such an uneasy feeling for the stranger, as though she shouldn’t turn her back on him at all.
Two hours later, Brighid leaned back in her chair and rubbed her temples. She could feel a small stress headache brewing. One look at the clock and she was shocked to see she was well past her normal hours. The last file she was working on had been red-flagged by other sources. Sometimes in fire investigation incidents, if numbers didn’t add up or the investigation left questions, money could be withheld from the client until those red-flagged items were resolved. She’d spent the last few hours working on such a case, but all seemed to be fixed now.
She logged off of her computer and became aware of her bosses’ voices in the office. It was so quiet. The other staff members had left, but she was so absorbed in resolving the case to close it and move on that she’d barely noticed every had left.
The voices grew louder, and she knew they were arguing. Lenny and Ray hardly ever fought, but lately she could sense their uneasiness. She figured it had to do with the transfer to New Jersey from Connecticut and the additional clientele they’d picked up. Perhaps they were growing too quickly?
The door suddenly opened just as she bent down to grab her bag.
“Don’t walk away. Not after we get a letter like this and the phone calls,” Lenny yelled at Ray from inside the room.
Ray locked gazes with Brighid just as Lenny came out after him.
“Brighid, so sorry, we didn’t know you were still here,” Ray said to her.
“I lost track of the time. That Parker case had me boggled down all day, but it’s resolved now. I’ll close it out tomorrow morning.” She placed the strap of her bag onto her shoulder.
“What case did you say?” Lenny asked her.
“The Parker case from Connecticut where that fire took out most of the storefront mall. There were some red flags brought up along the investigation and unanswered questions by investigators, things like that. I called them up, straightened it all out.”
“Oh, okay, great. See you tomorrow morning then?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, I know the rest of the staff doesn’t get in here until nine tomorrow, so why don’t you do the same? You’ve been coming in extra early every morning and leaving extra late. That can’t be good for your social life,” Lenny said to her.
“What social life?” she said and chuckled.
“A beautiful woman like you should be out having fun, going on dates. I hear there are a lot of fun places in town.” Lenny looked her over.
She didn’t know why, but it made her feel kind of creeped out. Especially when Ray looked at her that way, too. In the past few years working for them, they’d never hit on her, so why would they now? It was odd, but since sleeping with those two firefighters, she felt almost guilty if another man flirted with her. That was pretty crazy, and she needed to get over those types of feelings fast.
“My friends and I will be going out this weekend. Thank God tomorrow is Friday. Have a good night,” she said, wanting to get out of there.
“You, too, sweetheart,” Ray said, and when she looked over her shoulder as she left, she caught both men checking her out. Weird. So very weird.
* * * *
“What are we going to do? He’s fucking threatening us. He wants more money,” Ray said to Lenny the second Brighid was out the door.
“I told you we’re not paying him. He can fucking hold off until we need him for another job,” Lenny replied.
“You know what, Lenny? You may not want to take his threats too lightly. He did do some major fucking jobs for us. He could bring us down, report us, and we could lose everything and wind up in jail. Just return his calls and pay him something to keep his mouth shut and keep him hungry for more work.”
“Not unless I have to. This guy doesn’t scare me. What’s he going to do to us? I’ll take my chances. Guaranteed, he’s bluffing. He can wait a little longer. I need to seal these deals with the clients, or there won’t be any money to make.”
* * * *
He could feel his heart racing. He couldn’t believe it. It was immediate, the moment he’d locked onto her gorgeous red hair and then those green eyes. An angel of fire. She was special, sweet, yet had a toughness about her, which alerted him to new possibilities and their connection. She felt it, too, but ignored it. She insisted upon trying to help him when the other annoying secretary didn’t know shit about helping people. He knew he’d taken a huge risk coming to the office, and he had gone back and forth contemplating the move to put the pressure on Ray and Lenny, but obviously there was a higher power at work here. The redhead was made for him. He felt it in every fiber of his body. He was on alert. He wanted her with him, and she was nothing like the others. He wanted her. The excitement filled his body.
He gripped the steering wheel and watched her. He needed to find out more about her. A chance encounter, a playful meeting somewhere. Something before she got away.
It was late. She would probably head home, which wouldn’t be a bad thing, but he would have no reason to follow her to her house. She would call the cops. No, he needed to think rationally. He held his head but stared at the building. It was getting later and later. Could she be involved with Lenny and Ray? Could they be screwing her right there in the office after hours? He became enraged. No. They can’t be. She’s too special. I felt it. She’s mine.
He banged the steering wheel and knew he needed to act fast.
He looked around the parking lot. No one was there. He made his way across the street. There were only three cars, and he knew which belonged to Ray and Lenny. The small, beat-up convertible had to be hers.
He looked around again and then pressed the knife into the tire. Not too much, just enough to slowly lose air and allow her to get farther away from the building where he could make physical contact with her again.
He smiled, closing the knife and heading back to his car. He would be sure to be the Good Samaritan that changed her flat tire and got to know her better while he made some plans. This move, this situation, was looking brighter than ever. Things appeared to working in his favor after all.
* * * *
Investigator Jeffrey Stone and Investigator Gregory Voight of the Connecticut State Police were formulating some possible leads into what they believed to be a series of connected homicides. Along with the local authorities, arson investigation team, and bureau of criminal investigative unit, they finally seemed to have some concrete evidence that linked the murders and a recent fire.
“So let me get this straight. You’ve analyzed the accelerant in the four homicides, as well as the two fires at the retail store and the car explosion in the garage, and they match?” Investigator Stone asked the lab coordinator at the state police forensics lab. His partner, Gregory, as well as an investigator in the arson unit, was with him.
“Yes, sir. It’s a perfect match from what the testing has shown, indicating precisely the same chemicals used, which are not found in any common, over-the-counter products. It’s a homemade formula, so dangerous to combine that the person would need to have knowledge of each of these chemicals and risk causing an explosion while combining them. The thing about the chemical this individual created is that it leaves a light coating of a white substance. That’s what the arson investigators were able to find and get samples of.”
“So this white substance, the remnants from the chemical used, was also collected and found at the other sites?” Gregory asked.
“Yes, sir. The forensics arson technician should be commended because this is like finding a needle in a haystack. It could appear just like ash, a white powdery substance with black soot around the edges.” She reached for the file next to the one she had open and opened that one.