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The office building wasn’t exactly a busy place, but enough people were drifting in and out through the front doors in the late hours of the afternoon that I could saunter in as if I had every right to be there. Which technically I did. There weren’t any laws against walking through the hallways.
What I planned to do next was another story.
I held my phone in my hand, ducking my head as I passed the legit security camera in the front foyer so it wouldn’t get a good look at my face, pretending to be checking a text. I brushed past the door to the stairwell and performed the same trick at the sound of footsteps thudding toward me. A middle-aged man in a cheap suit hustled by without giving me a second glance. He’d see just another client or employee of one of the businesses in the building, glued to his phone.
I didn’t want anyone to remember me after I left.
After peeking through the window on the third floor landing to make sure the hall was clear, I strode out of the stairwell and down the hall as if I had urgent business. The shoe around my prosthetic foot hit the carpeting with a slightly different sound from my regular foot, but I put a conscious effort into walking perfectly, not showing any sign of the one particularly unique thing about me.
The envelope was still hanging from its piece of tape on the door of the office in question. I veered a little closer as I walked by and tugged it off without breaking my stride. As I dropped it into the canvas shoulder bag that normally held my course books, I ambled a few steps further, peered at a door farther down as if confused, and then turned on my heel and marched back to the stairs.
If anyone other than the Vigil had caught me on camera, hopefully they hadn’t seen anything especially odd.
I didn’t linger. I headed down to the first floor at a steady but swift pace, walked out of the building while staring at my phone, and kept going until I reached my car parked a couple of blocks away. Even after I got in, I simply tossed my bag onto the passenger seat and started the engine. I didn’t want to be anywhere near the office building when I let myself get distracted by my find.
I drove downtown and pulled into the parking lot next to the grocery store where we did a lot of our essential shopping. There, I called up Logan on speaker phone and fished the envelope out of my bag.
“Hey,” Logan answered. “Did you get it?”
“Yep. It was a breeze.” So far, anyway. I worked my finger under the flap and tore the envelope open. It didn’t feel like there was much inside. “Just checking out the contents now.”
I pulled out a thin sheaf of papers. A quick shuffle through them showed there were four pages, stapled on one corner. They looked photocopied, a slightly grainy logo printed at the top of the page over a list of figures.
“It’s from some company called Roadway Express Trucking,” I reported. “Did that business name come up in any of your searches?”
I could hear Logan’s frown in his voice. “No, that doesn’t sound familiar at all. But I’ll look into it as soon as I get out of the class I’m heading to. What’s it showing about them?”
“Nothing that makes a whole lot of sense to me.” I squinted at the data. “One column is dates, but the others are in some kind of code I don’t know. If it’s a trucking company, maybe it’s a list of shipments—what they contain, where they’re being picked up and dropped off?”
“That sounds like a reasonable guess. We know there were shipments going out of that warehouse. Does any of the code look like it could match that address?”
I made a face. “I don’t know, man. Seriously, it’s all random letters as far as I can tell. But Dex can probably break it, being the brainiac he is. He’s got that exam starting soon, though, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, so just bring it to the apartment and we’ll go over it later tonight.” Logan’s voice tightened. “Hopefully this will point us toward the evidence we need. I don’t like knowing these assholes are walking around scot-free.”
“I hear you. We’ll get them.” The thought of Maddie’s distraught face when she’d heard about her mom’s accident made my hands clench around the papers. But we had to play it safe specifically so something like that didn’t happen again. If these people went after my dad or anyone else in my family… My teeth set on edge.
“We will,” Logan said firmly. “I’ve got to go. I’ll see you in a few hours. Good work.”
I stuffed the papers back into the envelope and the envelope into my bag and stretched my arms. My gaze drifted down the street toward the club where we sometimes met our contacts.
The club where I’d danced so enjoyably with Maddie the other night.
The club where Beckett had been hanging around in the background, up to who knew what.
I couldn’t say I disliked the guy based on first impressions. Yes, the memory of him all over Maddie, making her gasp and shudder, sent a flare of jealousy through me. But I’d made my peace with the fact that she was an impressive enough woman that she’d caught the attention of not just me and him but my friends as well, and if I’d forced her to pick… well, I didn’t think I’d necessarily come out on top.
Anyway, it was kind of wonderful seeing her taken over by so much passion, more than I could have generated on my own. How could I try to steal that away from her?
Otherwise, Beckett had seemed cool and easy-going, the kind of guy I’d have happily shot the breeze with if Ihadrun into him someplace like the dance club. I hadn’t noticed any warning signs in his behavior toward Maddie. He’d seemed just as enamored with her as I was.
That wasn’t a guarantee that he was above board, though. The fact that he’d been skulking around the club the same night we’d been there and never mentioned it was a little concerning. And Logan had a point that we didn’t know much of anything about him. He was awfully pulled together for a regular guy our age, which meant he might not be all that regular.
I had time to kill before the other guys would be back at the apartment. It’d be nice to stretch my legs and have a little fun regardless.
I walked over from the lot to get those legs warmed up and headed right past the bouncer, since there wasn’t any kind of line this early in the evening. The music was already thumping and lights streaking over the dance floor. I cracked my knuckles and decided that if I showed I was game and busted a few moves before hitting anyone up for info, I was more likely to get a friendly response.
With only a dozen other people around me in a few casual clusters, I didn’t break out anything too fancy. I just moved with the beat with a little spin here and a flourish there, loving the way my body fell into the rhythm so easily. I’d often complained about the lessons my grandfather had insisted on when I was a kid, but now I could only send up a silent thank you to him. Dios guarde su alma.
