The woman hesitated, but seemed to appreciate the way Marduk and I moved to the far side of the small room and pretended to be talking to each other about something. We’d perfected this over the years so we could make small talk but still hear everything going on around us.
“Don’t mind them,” Bec said, waving to the girl to take one of our vacant seats. She cast us a last look, then stepped inside and sat.
“Hi, I’m Lisa. My group hired Jim,” she explained.
Bec nodded and tapped her keyboard to wake up her computer. “Could you tell me the name of your group?”
“Justice for the Voiceless,” she said. “I don’t have an appointment or anything, but I was driving by here, so I thought I’d stop by to check in. You know, see if Jim’s found out anything.”
Bec made a humming sound and clicked around on the computer. “I’ve found your file. There are only a few images here, but no report yet. It looks like Jim has…” her voice trailed off.
Marduk and I stopped any pretense of talking and turned to face the desk. Bec’s expression had turned intense as she stared at something on the screen.
We rushed over to see a picture of a man talking to someone hidden from Jim’s camera by a bus stop. I didn’t recognize him, but it was clear Bec knew who he was.
She looked up at us; her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “That’s Leif.”
Lisa looked excited. “That sounds like you have a good lead! It would mean so much to us if you could catch these guys. They’re absolutely deplorable.”
I was about to ask what they were doing, but Lisa’s phone started ringing. She answered it and at the same time, jumped up to leave. She talked rapidly and walked out with a little wave.
“Does the file say why Jim is taking pictures of Leif?” Marduk asked.
“No, he only uploaded them last week,” she said, clicking through everything in the file. “He hasn’t filled out any reports or uploaded notes. There isn’t even a client contract in here! He’s never like this. He always makes sure the first thing in the file is a signed contract.”
After a little more clicking, she let out an aggravated breath. “He locked the images so I can’t even see the metadata on them. There’s no way for me to know when these pictures were taken unless we find someone who can collect data from locked files.”
“We might know someone who could do it,” I said, but Marduk shook his head. We didn’t want to involve Briar yet. She was brilliant, but also unpredictable.
“Let me look around a little more,” she said, getting up to open a file cabinet. She looked through it but made an aggravated sound. Closing the cabinet, she looked at the closed door of Jim’s office. “The contract could be in there, sitting on his desk. He sometimes scans them in himself.”
“We need to look,” I encouraged her. I didn't like coincidences and I had a bad feeling.
“He's taking pictures of the same guy that was turned to dust by a powerful spell,” Marduk said. “Jim could be getting himself into something much more dangerous than he understands,”
That did it. She strode to his office, but when she tried, the door was locked. “That’s weird. He never locks the door.”
I really didn’t like where this was going. I’d like to think these anomalies weren’t connected, but I was sure they were.
An alarm on Bec’s cell phone went off, making us all jump. Bec turned and grabbed it to hush the alarm.
“That’s to remind me to leave on time. Hugo is waiting for us at home.” She bit her lip and looked back at the locked door, then shook her head. “No, I’m not ready to infringe on Jim’s privacy yet. I’ll call him later to tell him I’ve left and try to get information about this case.”
“Good idea,” I said. The sooner we figured out what was going on, the better I’d feel.
“Want to ride with me?” Marduk asked as Bec shut down her computer. “Danzig can drive your car home.”
I could tell she was tempted, but then she shook her head. “Later,” she said. “I don't think I’m in the mindset to enjoy it right now.”
Marduk’s excitement was palpable, and I knew why. We'd talked about it. Once Bec got a taste for riding, there’d be no going back!
Chapter 12
Marduk
We opened the door to Bec’s condo to find an excited Hugo jumping, yipping, and turning in tight circles. His antics made me grin.
I’d never really thought about dogs, or pets of any kind before. Neither of us had ever kept a pet. Danzig had fed a wild badger for a little while, but I don't think that counted because the one time my brother tried to pet him, the badger bit him. After that, he went back to tossing the badger food and trying not to get close.
