Page 5 of The Attercop

“Good,” Sam said, then took a deep breath. “Well, I guess I should be off. Gotta get back to work.” He drained the rest of his coffee, gave Gwen a peck on the cheek, picked up his bag of baked goods, and left, shutting the door with enough force to rattle the bell above the transom.

Gwen turned to Declan. “I know you and your father haven’t always been close, and it might be a bit uncomfortable, but even though he won’t say it, I think it would mean a lot to him if you were there—both of you. Will you do it? For me?”

Declan’s cell phone buzzed. He looked at it. “I should take this.”

He answered the call. “Michael. What’s up?… Sure… Okay… I’ll get there as soon as I can. Are you all right?”

Gwen could hear the concern in his voice. Declan glanced toward Charlie and continued talking into his phone. “Look, do you mind if I bring Charlie along? It might be good to have a second pair of eyes and you can finally meet him… Good. We’ll see you soon.” He hung up.

Gwen poured the coffees she had just finished making into two paper cups and put lids on them. “I’m guessing you’ll be needing these to go. Everything okay?”

Declan shook his head. “I’m not sure.”

“And what we talked about earlier?” Gwen asked.

“I’ll think about it. Come on, Charlie. We need to get over to Michael’s as soon as we can.”

Chapter Four

When they arrived at Michael’s, Declan took the stairs two at a time. Charlie was right behind him. Declan tried the doorknob to Michael’s waiting room, but it was locked. He knocked on the door and it was quickly opened.

“Come on in. I haven’t touched anything,” Michael said.

“Anything?” Declan asked.

“Well, maybe a few things. That was before I realised there’d been a break-in.”

“Break-in?” Charlie asked.

“This is Charlie,” Declan said. “Charlie—Michael.”

The two shook hands.

“I wish we could have met under better circumstances,” Michael said.

Declan scanned the waiting room. “Michael, tell me exactly what you noticed and what you did.”

Michael positioned herself at the door and looked into the waiting room. “I arrived about nine-thirty this morning. When I came in, everything looked normal—at least nothing jumped out at me. I turned off the security system at the control panel over there by the door.”

“So, it was active?” Declan clarified.

“Yeah. I always turn it on before I leave. Sometimes, if I’m working late at night, I turn it on when I’m here. It just makes me feel safer.”

Declan examined it. The casing was plastic and aged to a dirty light brown. It looked like it was covered in grime from yearsof being exposed to cigarette smoking, a habit which he knew Michael had never partaken in. “I assume it was here when you moved in?”

“Yeah. I figured I’d eventually upgrade it to something from this century,” she said with a forced smile.

Declan furrowed his eyebrows. “Now, this is going to sound insulting, but youdidchange the alarm code and door keys when you moved in, didn’t you?”

“I did, and yes, it would have come across as insulting if it had come from anyone but you.”

“After turning off the alarm this morning, what did you do?” Declan asked.

Michael closed her eyes.

“I walked from the front door to my office door. That’s when I noticed a piece of paper on the floor. And that’s why I called you. Declan, it was a page from your client file.”

Charlie finally spoke. “Can you remember exactly how the paper was positioned when you found it?”