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They both stand and come into my office. “What’s up?” Jes asks.
“What’s with the notes on Meredith?” I ask. “What happened?”
They both fall into the seats at my desk. “She seemed calm, reckons she didn’t see a thing. Said she wasn’t home the night that Peachy Sue died,” Ben replies.
I frown. “Are you sure? Do we have confirmation on that?”
“No proof that she was home,” Jes says. “But, she was as cool as a cucumber.” He raises his eyebrows. “Weird as fuck, but nothing seemed astray.”
“Hmm.” I think for a moment. “Okay, I’m going to go around and see her myself, see what I can dig up.” I flick through the files on my desk. “What about Chancellor?” I ask.
“Nothing new on Chancellor. We’re searching through his company files at the moment. There’s a large file that has been deleted, but we’re trying to get someone to go back and find it.” Ben shrugs. “We really need to find ourselves an I.T. person. We can’t keep outsourcing this stuff.”
I roll my lips as I think for a moment. “Actually, I might know someone,” I say. “Let me follow that up.”
“Oh, and the job vacancy went up this week for our new person. What are we looking for again?” he asks.
I exhale and swing on my chair for a moment. “We need a woman with past armed forces or police experience. We’re cutting our undercover work in half because we don’t have a female.” I sigh as I think. “We may have a job coming up. One where she will need to go undercover and develop a relationship with a drug lord. We need information that can only come from the inside, so she needs to be made aware of that before she starts. She needs to be mentally tough and physically strong. A detective or from special forces… something of that calibre.”
Jes nods as he jots down the information. “Got it, boss.”
“Do you want me to come and see Meredith with you?” Ben asks.
“No, I’m good.” I turn back to my computer and Jes leaves the office. Ben stays behind, and I keep typing.
“What?” I eventually snap.
“Want to talk about it?” he asks.
“Nope.” I keep my eyes on my computer screen.
“You okay?”
“Yep.”
His eyes linger on me for a while and I shake my head. “Fuck off, man. Just leave me alone, hey?”
He nods, sensing how close I am to losing my shit, so he wisely chooses to leave me alone and exits the office.
I pick up a folder of photos and exhale heavily.
Okay, Meredith, let’s see what you’ve got.
I knock and wait. “Who is it?” Meredith calls from behind the safety of her locked apartment door.
“Meredith, it’s me, Brock.”
“Is Tully there?” she asks hopefully.
“No, but she’s coming back soon.”
She opens the door but leaves the keychain on to peer through the crack.
I force a smile. “Hi.”
“What do you want?” she asks.
“I was hoping you could come and have a coffee with me at the café. Tully is away, and I thought you might like some company.”
She frowns as she considers my proposal. “I don’t drink coffee.”
“An ice-cream?” I ask.
“I do like ice-cream,” she murmurs to herself.
“We’ll be quick.”
Meredith frowns harder. “Tully said I’m not allowed to go out with people’s boyfriends.”
Tully’s not fucking here. ”That’s okay, we’re just friends. It’s different for friends,” I say.
“Oh.” She thinks for a moment. “Okay. Is Callie coming?”
“No, she’s at work.”
She bites her bottom lip. “Yes, because she wants to sleep with her boss.”
I try to hide my smile. “Yeah, I know,” I say. I didn’t know that, but I do now.
She closes the door, and then I hear her keychain unlock before she opens the door. I smile and glance down at her. She’s wearing pink pyjamas.
“Are you ready?” I frown.
“Erm.” She thinks really hard and then looks down at herself. “No pyjamas outside of home,” she mutters to herself in singsong.
“That’s right.” I smile.
“Just a minute.” She looks to her bedroom and then back to me, pointing to a stool at her bench. “Sit there.”
“Okay.” I take a seat where I’m told to.
She goes into the bedroom and closes the door. I look around her apartment. It’s immaculate. Everything has a place. Small rugs lead a trail to the bedroom and bathroom. Why? Ah, so she doesn’t get the carpet dirty.
I smirk as I look around. It’s not at all what I expected. This apartment is actually very nice.
She reappears and smiles nervously. “I’m wearing Tully’s top.”
I frown. “Oh.” I’m not sure what to say.
“Tully gave me her clothes because she didn’t think mine suited me.”
“I see.”
My stomach rolls at the thought of Tully. What’s she doing right now?
I stand. “Let’s go.”
We sit at the ice-cream bar and I watch Meredith intently.
How do I handle this?
Meredith is licking her ice-cream like her life depends on it.
