"Of course!" Nathan answered for all of them.
"Now, fill me in on what I've missed," Savannah said as she composed herself. "We've got to get Wesley out of that jail so that we have time to chase down wayward husbands." Inhaling deeply near the vicinity of Jake's ceramic mug, she said, "Just one more indulgence, friends. Can someone lead me to the counter? I can't go on another second without a jolt of caffeine."
8
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak.
Ecclesiastes 3:6--7 (NIV)
"They're a little short," Nathan said as he jumped out of the Make It Work! van. He pulled at the black uniform pants Cooper had borrowed from a part-time coworker's locker. Cooper had also brought one of Earl's extra toolboxes from home so that Nathan would resemble a copier repairman. At this point, however, he had only succeeded in looking awkward in pants that displayed two inches of white tube sock and a shirt that kept popping out from beneath his black belt.
Despite her nervousness, Cooper smiled. "I think the shirt's a bit short too. Sorry, but that uniform's actually got a few more inches than my other coworker's, so it was our only choice."
Nathan grabbed the toolbox and as he did so, he took a second glance at his long, smooth fingers, which spent most of the day flitting over a keyboard. "Guess when it comes down to it, I don't really look the part, do I?"
"Just keep your head down and remember to answer to Stuart," Cooper pointed at the name tag on his uniform shirt. "If you don't make eye contact, no one will pay any attention to you. Trust me. I've been servicing these machines for years and no one knows my name."
Nathan puffed up his chest. "Well, I'm disappointed. I figured a bunch of gorgeous office workers would be sitting around, waiting to drool over the UPS man, but as soon as they saw me in my studly uniform, they'd forget about all the men in brown."
Cooper laughed. "The UPS
man
is a
woman
called Esmeralda, and she's built like a brick house, so you can forget about stealing her thunder, her spotlight, or anything else." She chuckled. "Besides, I don't think our uniforms can compete with those sexy UPS shorts. Come on, Studly." Cooper began walking toward Building F, gazing around the Capital City parking lot for signs of anything out of the ordinary that would cause her to abort their risky mission. Cooper cast a sideways glance at Nathan, thinking that he did look appealing as he gripped his toolbox with a determined expression.
"Speaking of attractive secretaries and the like," Cooper said softly as they entered the building, "How's that online dating service going?"
Nathan shrugged. "I don't seem to be finding any matches on there." He nodded to the receptionist in the lobby, but she smiled without actually looking at him and immediately went back to typing on her computer.
"Do you have to post a picture of yourself?" Cooper inquired, inwardly shuddering at the thought.
Nathan followed her into the elevator. "Yeah, but I think some of the photos I've looked at are about ten years old. I did read one profile that I thought was a terrific fit for me, but when I met the woman for coffee last week, she looked nothing like her photo. I think it must have been taken when she was still in high school."
"Did her looks matter
that
much to you?" Cooper teased. As the elevator doors opened, she walked briskly down the hall toward Brooke's office.
"No." Nathan bristled behind her. "I was just surprised by the difference, but I was still willing to see what she was like as a person." He suddenly stumbled on a snag in the carpet and nearly dropped his toolbox. "Sorry, I never quite grew into these feet. Anyway, in this woman's prof le, she claimed to be into the outdoors and enjoyed helping people et cetera, but in person, she said that her great loves in life were shopping for shoes, sitting in the sauna with a copy of the
Enquirer
, and sleeping late." He stopped abruptly as Cooper gestured at the copier near Cindi's desk.
"This is it," she quickly whispered. "And that mess over there is the assistant's desk. It doesn't look like she's moved so much as a paper clip since I was here last, though at least the garbage has been emptied."
"Let's try to find the scraps from the Hazel document first," Nathan suggested, shoving his untucked shirt back into his pants.
Together, they pulled the copier away from the wall. Cooper unscrewed the back panel and then asked Nathan to position himself on the opposite side of the machine and hold the flashlight steady while she searched around on the ground for a shred large enough to reveal Hazel's last name.
"What are y'all doin'?" a raspy female voice behind Nathan's left shoulder demanded.
Nathan nearly dropped the flashlight. "Routine maintenance, ma'am. Has this machine been acting up on you lately?"
"Piece of junk. It gets jammed all the time, but I wouldn't spend too much time on it if I were you. It's probably getting moved somewhere else soon." The woman's tone indicated her disinterest.
From her vantage point on the floor, Cooper couldn't see the woman, but she had a clear view of the dazzling smile Nathan had turned on for her benefit. He shoved the flashlight into Cooper's hand and moved away from the copier.
"Aren't you ready to go home, ma'am?" he asked the woman. "It's five o'clock on a Friday afternoon, after all. You
must
have a date to get ready for."
"Pfffah!" the woman snorted playfully. "I've got two kids. I'm not exactly anyone's idea of a dream date."
The woman must be Cindi
, Cooper thought. She gave Nathan a thumbs-up gesture, encouraging him to continue flirting.
"I love kids," Nathan replied genuinely. "Got any pictures of yours? I bet they're supercute."
"On my desk over here," she answered, leading Nathan away from the copier. "I'm getting transferred to the IT division next week and I'm supposed to pack up my desk. I know it's kind of a jumble, but I just can't focus on work ever since ..." She began to sniffle.
"Are you okay?" Cooper heard Nathan ask sympathetically as he moved around Cindi's workspace. "Here, let me get you a tissue."
After several sniffs, Cindi said, "You're sweet. I don't think I've ever seen you here before." Her voice held a trace of suspicion.
"No, ma'am. I'm new. I used to fix computers, but that field's getting overcrowded, so I decided to branch out a bit."
"Well, then you wouldn't have met my former boss, so you don't know what I've been dealing with, but you probably saw her name in the papers." She paused for effect. "Brooke Hughes?"
"The woman who was shot by her husband?" Nathan pretended to be mortified. "She was your boss?"
"Yeah, that's her." Cindi blew her nose with a shrill toot. "That
was
her. She was real good to me. I can't believe Wesley ... well, I shouldn't dwell on it. It won't bring her back and now I need to move on." She paused. "I just got so used to my little corner of the world here." She rustled some papers. "Now I've got to work for some guy and can only hope he's half as nice as Mrs. Hughes was." She honked into the tissue again. "She was so understanding about my challenges ... bein' a single mom and all."
During this exchange, Cooper had collected several scraps that turned out to be of no use, but as she leveled the flashlight beam on the metal shelf closest to the floor, she noticed two small scraps bearing black letters. Tucking them into a tiny Ziploc bag, she completed her search and then began to slowly replace the back panel, as she wanted to give Nathan plenty of time to chat up Cindi.
"Poor you," Nathan was saying. "I can't imagine how stressed you must be. Have the police been crawling all over here too?"
"Not really. I mean, they came by, but none of us could help them. We were as shocked and upset as everybody else who knew her. The whole environment around here is creepy and sad. None of us talk about her or what happened. We're all trying to move on." Cindi sounded as though she was reluctant to discuss the subject any further.
"I bet you two were close." Nathan continued gently. "I can just tell you're the kind of person people can rely on and trust.
You'd
have known if she was upset or scared before ... the awful event, even if no one else did."
As Cooper tightened the last screw of the back panel, she longed to give Nathan an indication that said he was laying it on too thick, but as she stood erect, she noticed that his back was to her and that he was replacing a framed photograph on the only square foot of uncluttered space on Cindi's desk.
Preening as a result of Nathan's praise, Cindi declared, "I
do
get gut feelings about people close to me. I don't mind telling you that Brooke seemed kind of rattled the last few days before she died, but I don't know
exactly
why." She lowered her voice conspiratorially. "I didn't tell the cops this, 'cause it's none of their beeswax, but Brooke and her husband had a fight over the phone a few days before he killed her. I mean, they already had him locked up, so what was the point? And anyways, I didn't listen to her private conversations, so I don't even know what their tiff was about."
Cooper placed her screwdriver in the toolbox and began to make minor adjustments to the copier. As she did, she checked out Cindi from the corner of her eye. Brooke's assistant was a trim vision of jet-black hair, tanned skin, and a form-fitting pink leopard skin skirt. Cooper noticed her muscular legs, which were encased in knee-high riding boots, and her unusually high bosom, which threatened to spill out of the low V of her black blouse. She flicked a pair of silver-blue eyes to Cooper and then instantly returned her attention to Nathan.
"I'd better get going. Fridays are pizza night for us and if I don't get Bottoms Up Pizza by six, I'll have a mutiny on my hands." She put a hand with bubble-gum painted nails on Nathan's sleeve and let it linger there for a moment. "It was nice talking to you. I'm Cindi Rolfing, by the way."
"And I'm, ah, Stuart. It was a plea sure to meet you, Ms. Rolfing." Nathan gave a gallant bow, which looked slightly awkward coming from someone of his height. His shirt immediately popped out from his pants and he frantically pushed it back into place. "Um, I know this is a bit forward, but would you like ... um, could I have your number?"
Cindi giggled. "I'm sorry, sugar. I'm kind of in an exclusive thing with someone right now, but if that doesn't work out"--she touched the place on Nathan's uniform shirt where the company logo was embroidered--"I know where to find you."
As she pulled on a cropped black leather jacket, Cooper noticed Cindi's gold bracelet. It was a chain bracelet with a heart charm hanging from the middle and had been engraved with a message too small for Cooper to read from such a distance. Cindi blew Nathan a kiss and strutted off to the elevators, while Nathan waved at her until she disappeared inside and then quickly canvassed the rest of the floor.
"There's only one guy left at his workstation and he's listening to his iPod and playing Tetris on his computer on the opposite end of the room." Nathan's eyes were bright with excitement. "Keep a lookout while I hack into Brooke's computer, okay, partner?"
"Were you serious when you asked her out?" Cooper whispered in surprise as Nathan booted up Brooke's computer and Cooper began to examine the surface of Cindi's disheveled desk.
"Lord, no!" Nathan hissed from inside Brooke's dark office. "But I believe that woman listened to every phone conversation Brooke had and that she knows every word exchanged in Brooke's argument with Wesley. I wanted to find out what that fight was about. It could be important."
"Nathan. What if the police are right?" Cooper's throat turned dry as she offered up this theory. "They were fighting a few days before she was killed."
Nathan swiveled around on his chair. "People argue. Even people who love each other deeply. Remember that
you
said Brooke was really happy talking about her marriage, so they had already worked out their problems."
Feeling like a louse, Cooper fell silent as she carefully shifted through interoffice memos, old faxes, and other work-related documents that didn't raise any red flags. She then flipped through the pages of Cindi's phone message pad, which was the same pink pad Angela used to deliver notes to the employees of Make It Work! Several messages had been written down, but not delivered to Brooke. Cooper assumed this was normal protocol. One of Cindi's jobs was likely to screen calls and handle some of the less complex requests so that Brooke could concentrate on more important tasks.
Cindi was a prolific doodler and had drawn hearts, martini glasses with olives, dollar signs, and striped beach umbrellas propped on a sand dune on dozens of pages. Sometimes she was an efficient assistant, writing the date and time of each call. Other times, she simply wrote down a name and then surrounded the letters with stars or smiley faces or childish flowers, probably while she listened to the caller speak. These memos made it clear that Cindi didn't always find her job too exciting. Turning over the pages, Cooper was surprised at the number of messages from repeat callers that Cindi never delivered to her boss and could only assume that she told Brooke about the calls in person.
The pad dated back to mid-March. It was on the last few pages that Cooper spied a familiar name: Hazel. There were three calls from Hazel in March, but no last name or return number was listed. On the second to last page, it looked as if Cindi had begun to write Hazel's number down, but had scratched over the first two digits as though Hazel wasn't significant enough to tell Brooke about. The last page had been torn from the book. Two inches of pink paper remained attached to the spine of the pad, but there was nothing written upon it.
