What I did know was that it was happening because of me. It’d kill me to lose what I had at Grannie’s if Mary fired me over this.
“None of this is your fault.”
“But he’s here looking for me.”
“Did you run a scam or something that I don’t know about?”
“What? No.” I wouldn’t even know how.
“Then it’s not your fault.”
Mr. Jones stood near the counter, drinking his coffee like he had all the time in the world to wait.
Turns out he didn’t have to wait long.
John and Jay arrived, and they exchanged business cards. Mr. Jones looked calm as a cucumber. John and Jay looked like they wanted answers.
My hand flew to my mouth to cover my gasp as Mary asked, “What’s Austin doing here?”
A few seconds, or maybe it was a few minutes, passed as I stared at the silver fox on the monitor. It was hard to keep track of time with my frayed nerves.
As if he could sense me staring, Austin looked into the camera.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Mary pondered out loud. “What’s Austin’s connection to Smith and Jones?”
John walked away, and a few second later, a knock sounded at the door.
“It’s me,” John called out as he opened the door. “Why isn’t this locked?”
Mary stood. “I didn’t want to lock us in.”
“That’s kind of the point.”
“Unless we need to leave in a hurry,” Mary countered.
“You got your Smith & Wesson?”
“I do.” Mary patted her hip. “Who’s the guy with Austin? What’s his connection?”
“You’ll be the first to know once I find out. Can we use your office to talk to them?”
My head ping-ponged back and forth as I followed the conversation. A conversation that was about me, but didn’t include me.
“Use the breakroom; it’s bigger.”
“They won’t like that.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“The video cameras,” John answered.
Mary raised her eyebrows. “Tell them we’re the only ones who see the feed.”
Right, the camera. I shouldn’t have been surprised; Mary told us about the cameras in the breakroom, but I always forgot they existed.
Is there one in here?I started looking for it.
“The only camera in here points at the closet,” John answered.
