A Bite to Remember (16 page)

“Smart,” Jackie commented with approval, then forgot all about it as the elevator gave a ding and the doors began to open.

This was obviously the executive floor, she saw as they stepped out into a world of plush carpet and muted music.

Another reception desk awaited them here, this one also sporting two receptionists and an armed male guard. As in the entry, the receptionists were both a male and a female and both were human.

And, as with the ones below, these three people looked shocked to see Vincent Argeneau entering, but none of them did more than nod in greeting as he passed.

Jackie waited until they were started down a long hallway before moving closer to Vincent to ask, “Are your night security here human as well?”

“No. Immortal,” Vincent assured her.

“I’m surprised immortals would take the position,” Jackie commented. Among humans, security guards were among the least respected and lowest paying jobs. She didn’t understand why, herself. After all, security were basically on the front line should anything happen. They were also responsible for the safety and security of everyone in the building, but still the job was considered the lowest of the low. And, in her experience, immortals were far too arrogant to take on what was considered to be no better than a grunt job by most people.

“We pay well,” Vincent explained. “Still, the position is usually filled with the young borns and the newly turned.”

Jackie nodded absently, but asked, “So you have three shifts for security, seven
P.M.
to three
A.M.
, three
A.M.
to eleven
A.M.
, and eleven
A.M.
to seven
P.M.
, right?”

“Yes.”

“And the guards are human from eleven
A.M.
to seven
P.M.
, but immortal from seven
P.M.
to three
A.M.
What about the three
A.M.
to eleven
A.M.
shift?”

“Human.”

Jackie nodded. She’d expected as much. “We’ll need to talk to your security chief. They need to change things.”

“Why?” Vincent asked with surprise.

“Because while it’s smart to stagger the shifts so that security isn’t changing while the other workers are, the shifts need to be rearranged,” Jackie murmured, working it through quickly in her head. “The security shifts need to change an hour before the others rather than an hour after. The three shifts should be five
P.M.
to one
A.M.
, one
A.M.
to nine
A.M.
and nine
A.M.
to five
P.M.
And you need to put immortals on both the five
P.M.
to one
A.M.
shift and the one
A.M.
to nine
A.M.
shift, or split up the groups so that each has an immortal and a human on it. The way it stands, an immortal would have no trouble slipping in before the seven
P.M.
to three
A.M.
immortal shift starts and any time after it ends.”

“You’re right,” Vincent said with a sigh. “We’ve never really been concerned about immortals breaking in here. The security is to keep mortal thieves out, or to handle upset mortals who didn’t get roles or jobs and keep them from causing trouble, not to defend against immortals. There’s
never been a reason to fear immortals causing trouble.”

“There is now,” Jackie pointed out.

“Yes,” he acknowledged with a small sigh that spoke of his unhappiness with the knowledge that his saboteur was one of his own. Jackie cast him a sympathetic glance, but didn’t say anything as he suddenly took both her arm and Marguerite’s to turn them into the last door at the end of the hall.

“Vincent!” Sharon nearly leapt out of her seat as they entered what was obviously her office. You would have thought the woman had been shocked with a cattle prod, she got up so swiftly.

“Hi Sharon. You remember Jackie. And this is my aunt, Marguerite Argeneau,” Vincent greeted as he paused before the woman’s desk.

“Oh, Mrs. Argeneau, hello,” Sharon gushed, hurrying around the desk to offer her hand. Jackie couldn’t help noticing that her presence was completely ignored.

Vincent seemed to notice too, however. At least, she thought the tightening around his mouth might be because of the rude exclusion of her presence. He didn’t comment, but he did immediately begin to herd her and Marguerite toward the inner door and away from the woman’s fawning over his aunt.

“Is there any coffee around here?” he asked as he walked and then added pointedly. “Jackie might like a coffee. So would I. What about you, Aunt Marguerite?”

“No, thank you,” Marguerite murmured as he ushered them into his office.

Sharon wasn’t given time to respond to his comments as by the time he’d finished making them, Vincent was closing the door to the office.

Jackie glanced around the large, luxurious office as she and Marguerite followed him to the desk. Pausing in front of the two chairs before his desk, she then turned slowly, her gaze drifting over everything in the room. All she could think as she took in the huge marble desk and opulent décor of the room was that the man had expensive taste. Or perhaps it was his decorator who did, Jackie decided as she took in the stark black and white interior. The office was nothing like his home, where the neutral base colors were all offset by colorful accessories such as throw rugs, pillows, candles, and paintings in rich, vibrant colors.

“I take it you really don’t come in here often?” Jackie asked with amusement as Vincent walked around the desk to drop into the chair behind it.

“What makes you think that?” he asked, expression wary.

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said with amusement. “Perhaps it’s everyone’s apparent shock at your being here now…and the dust on your desktop,” Jackie added to prevent his coming out with the “I’ve never been here this early,” comment again.

“She’s right, dear,” Marguerite commented. “It is rather dusty. I think you need a new cleaning service.”

Vincent just grimaced and said, “I fear I prefer acting to the business end of things…or I used to.” He acknowledged his growing boredom with what used to be his passion for acting with an unhappy expression. “I tend to travel a lot with the acting too, so I have a vice president who takes care of the boring business stuff.”

“Human or immortal?” Jackie asked curiously.

“Both,” Vincent answered. “I actually have two vice presidents. One human for daytime matters, and one immortal
who manages everything at night. Neil and Stephano Notte pretty much take care of everything between the two of them and just check in with me on occasion to be sure we’re all in agreement on things.”

“Ah yes, the Notte brothers,” Marguerite murmured, settling in the chair beside the one Jackie stood in front of. “Bastien has mentioned them. He says you made a wise choice employing them.”

Jackie raised her eyebrows at this comment, then said, “Let me guess: Stephano is the immortal and Neil the mortal.”

“Why would you say that?” Vincent asked.

“Because Neil is a nice, normal, mortal-type name, and all you immortals seem to have exotic -
ien,
-
ius,
or -
o
-type names,” she answered dryly.

“Exotic -
ien
names?” Vincent asked with bewilderment.

“Yes, you know, like Bastien. Exotic names rather than normal pedestrian names like everyone else has today,” she explained.

“Actually, Bastien was a common name when I gave it to him,” Marguerite murmured with amusement.

“Yes, and so was mine,” Vincent added.

Jackie grimaced. “Yes, well, that’s my point. Older vampires have older names that are no longer in common usage. Like Stephano.”

“Actually, I believe Neil is the immortal and Stephano the human,” Marguerite announced with amusement, then raised an eyebrow at Vincent. “Am I not right?”

Vincent nodded and Jackie’s eyes widened with surprise. “You’re kidding?”

“No.”

She considered that briefly, then sighed and dropped into her chair. Just when she thought she had these guys figured out, they pulled a fast one on her. Immortals usually had strange or exotic names and metallic eyes. It looked as if the metallic eyes part was the only thing she could count on.

“So…” Vincent raised an eyebrow. “What do we do first? Meet everyone here to give them the once over? Or get the list of employees from
Dracula, the Musical
?”

“Both,” Jackie decided. “Sharon can round up the list while you introduce me around, then we’ll take the list home with us so Tiny can help go over it.”

Vincent nodded at the suggestion and had started to push his chair back when the office door suddenly swung open, making them all glance toward it. Sharon entered carrying a tray with two coffees, cream, and sugar on it.

“Oh, Sharon, thank you,” Vincent said, getting to his feet.

The secretary set the tray on the desk and explained, “I don’t know how to make coffee. Fortunately, there was some left over from the day shift.”

“That’s fine,” Vincent assured her, then glanced to Jackie before adding, “I brought Jackie in today to meet everyone and familiarize her with the business. Aunt Marguerite wished to come along since she’d never been here.”

Jackie bit her lip to keep back her amusement as he repeated almost word for word what she’d suggested. It did the trick. Sharon relaxed and smiled as she said, “Of course. Is there anything I can help with?”

Vincent’s glance slid to Jackie, then he said, “Actually, yes there is. We’re going to need another copy of the employee list you and Lily brought over yesterday.”

“Another copy?” She frowned, but said, “Of course. I’ll round up the paperwork again and photocopy it.”

“Thank you,” Vincent said as she left, then stood and leaned over the desk to peer at the coffee tray. Jackie stood as well and they both moved to fix a cup each. Vincent reached for the sugar and Jackie the cream, but both of them paused and grimaced as Jackie poured the cream into the nearest cup and the liquid turned a dark gray. This coffee was terribly old and unbearably strong. There was no doubt it was undrinkable.

“There’s a cafeteria downstairs,” Vincent announced, setting the sugar back on the tray. “We can stop in there and grab a cup on our introduction tour.”

“Good thinking.” Jackie set the creamer on the tray and straightened as he walked around the desk. It seemed they were leaving right away, which was fine with her. Jackie and Marguerite followed him to the door. When he opened it for them, they stepped into Sharon’s office, then paused at the sound of slightly raised voices coming from an open door behind Sharon’s desk.

“What do you mean they were the originals?” Sharon’s voice sounded shocked.

“I told you that when you insisted on driving me over,” Lily’s voice answered with exasperation. “I was supposed to fax over copies, but you insisted on taking them over in person and I said I’d make copies and you said no, we’d just take the ones I had. Well, those were the originals,
our
copies. We don’t have any more of them.”

“Well, I didn’t realize they were the
originals,
” Sharon said shortly.

“You had to, Sharon. You took them out of the drawer
yourself and insisted we take them.” Lily sounded completely bewildered by the other woman’s words.

Jackie’s glance slid to Vincent as he moved past her to approach the open door.

“Is there a problem, ladies?” he asked as Jackie and Marguerite followed and peered over his shoulders into a small file room.

“I’m afraid we brought the original copies of the employee list to you yesterday,” Sharon announced with a glance in the hapless Lily’s direction. “We don’t have backups. I hope it’s not too important?”

Jackie’s gaze narrowed on the woman. The secretary didn’t look terribly sorry to have to make the announcement. In fact, there was a satisfied gleam in her eye as she peered in Jackie’s direction.

Vincent glanced back toward Jackie with concern, but before he could say anything, Lily spoke up. “We still have it on computer, Sharon. We can just pull up the file and print it again.”

“Oh…Yes.” Not looking terribly pleased with the idea of the extra work, Sharon slid past them all and moved to her desk. Settling into her seat, she turned on her computer. The secretary glanced up to smile a bit stiffly at the four of them as Vincent, Jackie, Marguerite, and Lily moved around her desk to wait. She then ignored them and began to click away with her mouse as the computer finished going through its startup cycle. She clicked several times, then stopped suddenly and began to frown.

“Is there something wrong?” Vincent asked, his gaze narrowing.

“No, no,” she assured him, but the secretary was frowning as she added, “It doesn’t appear to be where I thought it was. I must have saved it in a different folder.”

Jackie felt concern tighten in her stomach. She was beginning to suspect the files had been removed. It made perfect sense that the saboteur might have made his way here after getting the papers from the house. That should have occurred to her last night. If it had, they could have headed straight here and perhaps got to the files before the saboteur had…Unless the saboteur had hit the office first. She wasn’t at all surprised when Sharon glanced up with obvious frustration and admitted that the file appeared to be missing.

Lily and Sharon turned wide questioning eyes to Vincent then, but he and Marguerite had turned to Jackie. She didn’t at first respond, but was busy considering matters. Owning her own company as she did, she knew that there would be other departments that might have the information. Costuming would have had to have a list of at least the actors along with their sizes to dress them. Security might have a list of who had been used in security. Each department would be a source for who was hired in each area, but there was one department that should have the information on everyone in the production. Anyone who had worked on that play should have earned a check for the time they worked on it, which meant that accounting should have a list of all the individuals.