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She moved on to the computer and drummed her fingers on the desktop as she encountered the screen that asked for Kim’s login credentials. Every computer in the company required this kind of protection and if Kim had been more of an organized person, Eloise knew she’d have no chance of getting in. As it was, Eloise knew how impossible it had been for Kim to remember her passwords, even the ones she used daily. They weren’t supposed to write them down but …
“If I was Kim, where would I hide something like that?” Eloise sat down in Kim’s chair, poking around the desktop for a good hiding place that was easily accessible when Kim had been logging in. She found it written on an old yellow sticky note under the keyboard. “Ah, there you are.”
Logging in was easy but she was frustrated to find the computer just as disorganized as Kim’s physical space. There wasn’t time to go through everything and she had no idea what might be important. There was no choice but to go with her gut, so she started copying the files that seemed to be most accessible, sending up a quick prayer that these were the ones Kim used most often, starting with the ones that looked like they dealt with recent audits. There wouldn’t be more than a few she could get to before Kim’s boss came back, but she was counting on luck to be on her side for once.
The only other choice would be trying to take the whole computer out with her and that was guaranteed to draw more attention to her than she wanted.
“Find what you were looking for?”
To her credit, Eloise didn’t jump as she turned to face Kim’s boss with a grateful smile. She pocketed the USB stick with one hand and reached for a random stuffed animal on the desk with the other. It was pink and hideous, and she’d never seen it before in her life.
“I gave this to her for her last birthday,” she lied, giving it a little wave to draw his attention away from the disturbed paperwork. “She always loved pink, you know?”
“Did she?”
Eloise nodded even though it wasn’t true. She would have bet her house that the man had barely known Kim’s name and certainly nothing else about her, anyway. “Thanks for letting me come in and get it. I promise I’ll keep it our little secret.”
She slipped past him and down the hall before he could say anything else, grip tight on the plushie just to give her something tangible to hold onto. It was possible she’d missed anything helpful amid the mess, but it was also possible she’d gotten the answers to the mystery of Kim’s murder and was now carrying them around in her pocket.
There was only one way to find out.
* * *
“Do you know what to look for?”
Eloise frowned down at the phone and memory stick she’d dropped victoriously on the kitchen table at Ethan’s house as soon as he’d returned home. She’d waited by the window watching for his car, drumming her fingers on the windowsill, and seething with impatience because she’d been sure he would be able to tell her what to do next.
His question had knocked the wind out of her. “Umm … no? Don’t you?”
“No.”
“No,” she repeated slowly. “You sent me into the office to try and steal information and now you don’t know what we’re looking for?”
“I thought you’d know what we were looking for.” He was gaping at her like she’d just told him she couldn’t tie her own shoelaces. “This is your job. And besides, you didn’t ask what to look for when you went into the office, so I assumed you knew.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” She rolled her eyes to the ceiling and silently counted to ten. “I didn’t have time to be picky about what I grabbed. I don’t even know if there’s anything useful in there.”
He opened his mouth, a determined glint in his eye that told her he was about to start arguing with her again, but she held up a hand to silence him when her phone started ringing. “You just hold that thought and we’ll figure this out in a minute.”
“Still not gonna be my fault,” he muttered, but she was already turning away, her attention on the incoming call.
Sarah.
She’d run into her on her way out of the building after leaving Kim’s office, and the two of them had exchanged awkward small talk until Sarah had begun to tearfully confess how much she’d missed seeing Eloise.
“I’ve been such a mess,” she’d said, pointing to a dark bruise on her arm. “I can’t seem to do anything these days without hurting myself. Head in the clouds and just not paying attention at all. I ran smack into my car door this morning on the way into work.”
“I’m sorry.” Eloise had felt like she should have said more, but the strain that had been lingering between them had robbed her of her confidence.
“I know it hasn’t been easy on you,” Sarah had continued. “You were the one who found her and everything. It’s just … I guess I haven’t been handling things well and seeing you? Seeing how upset you’ve been? It just made it seem too real.”
“I guess I can understand that.”
“I miss you.”
Eloise had never been good at holding grudges and her heart softened. “I miss you, too. If you want to get a cup of coffee or something soon …” She left the sentence open, not quite a question but a hopeful vacancy.
“Yeah.” Sarah had brightened at the suggestion. “That sounds like a great idea. We can talk about what happened that day. You know, if you want to. I don’t want you to think I’m not here for you after what you went through.”
