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Goosebumps rose on my arms at her last words, but I tried to think everything through. “Have you tried tracking any of the shipments?” I tried to keep my tone dialed at light curiosity, but my thoughts were still spinning. “I mean, we can create a paper trail, right? Even if one doesn’t exist right now.” Perhaps Dad’s disorganization had more to answer for than I’d originally thought.
“I haven’t been able to get my hands on any of them. By the time I’d track anything down — like where they were going, or where they might be, and I’d get a request out there to the warehouse, whatever I was looking for would be gone or was never really there. The emails come back that the warehouses are empty. They’re always empty,” she said.
“Maybe we’ll find some more information in here.” I needed to stay positive. “There’s a lot in the office we haven’t sorted yet. Maybe Dad had it and just didn’t know. He could have overlooked it?” I didn’t mean that last part to sound like a question, but one look at Charmaine’s face told me that she didn’t share my false hopes.
“Your dad looks like a scatterbrain from all of this.” She gestured around us. “But his business brain was on top form. If he’d had those documents here, he would have known it.”
“You think we’ll have a better chance at my parents’ house?”
She nodded. “I really do. There’s a reason he moved those files out of this building. He didn’t want anyone else to touch them before he’d had a good look through.”
“Then we’ll go look,” I said. “We’ll find whatever’s gone wrong, and we’ll fix it.” I sounded way more certain than I felt, but Charmaine nodded.
“I think we’ll get everything we need. The only question is when we’ll have the time to.” She stood and filed her last folder away before walking to the bookcase and beginning to organize the books there. “I’m glad this place is looking tidier, though. Soon you’ll even be able to think and breathe in here.” She laughed. “Your dad was a truly great man, but I’d always itched to get my hands on his office, see if I could make it a better work environment for him.”
“You planning on bringing that kind of enthusiasm to the house as well? There’s a lot of paperwork to sort through there, too.” And it wasn’t a job I was looking forward to.
“You betcha.” Her smile was like a beam of sunshine.
“I’m in, too,” Wes said.
“In that case, it’s a party.” I grinned as an idea formed in my mind. Charmaine had wondered how we’d find the time to go through the boxes. But really, the only way to find time like that was to make it.
“How about this? Wes and I were talking about our schedule earlier, and Mom has to leave to go on her trip tomorrow morning, so I think I can clear it with her for us to crash at the house while we go through the paperwork. We can order in and talk about Mom’s choice in urns, and try to make a good time out of what I can only see as a chore right now.” The thought of drowning in yet more paperwork wasn’t exactly filling me with joy.
But Dad had been doing the job, so it was obviously an important one. He never did anything that wasn’t worth his time.
Charmaine nodded slowly. “Paperwork?” she questioned.
I grimaced as I nodded too. “’Fraid so.”
“Take-out food?”
I nodded again. “Definitely.”
She grinned. “Okay. It’s a plan. We’ll go and hole up at the house and put this thing to bed once and for all.”
It was quite a relief when she put it like that. The sooner this was all done, the sooner I’d be able to prevent more threats and end Patrick’s offers of protection, too…although they were probably the most welcome thing about any of this.
Not that I could ever tell anyone that.
“Absolutely, yes boss.” Wes tipped an imaginary hat. “I’ll do anything for free food.” He grinned.
It was strange. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had friends I wanted to spend time with outside work. I hadn’t made any at Rosary. I’d been too busy working and keeping my head down.
Ingrid had taken away my desire to make friends. She’d stolen my trust in people, really. And she’d made me doubt myself and my instincts…and made me want to hide. Even from my parents.
But maybe not everyone was like Ingrid. And Charmaine and Wes were shifters, anyway, so I didn’t have to worry about being rejected by them in the same way.
It was nice that I didn’t have to consider that here. And nice that I could be more relaxed around the people I was working with.
I hadn’t known how much I needed those like me. This must be what Wes had been talking about with his pack. Maybe I could create my own little pack now. Sort of. Not an official one, but people just for me.
“So we’re agreed?” I looked at both of them.
“For sure. I haven’t had a sleepover since high school.” Charmaine grinned. “Oh, not that this will be all braiding hair and watching films. I know we’re going there to work.”
“But there will be food!” Wes grinned, too. “Not sure I’d turn up otherwise.” He shot me some side-eye, and I nudged him.
