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My rules. Meagan's rules. And now, the book's rules. The main character never fully had a happy ending. But then again, whoever did?
Chapter Three
Guy
The six of us had known each other since college. As was to be expected with such a varied group of personalities, meetings were sometimes entertaining but often became cluster fucks. But on this day, the gang was uncharacteristically quiet. After Clint’s transfer, we had rebranded our business and changed the name to Rosedale Tech, and the name had taken off. We were busier than ever. Since our friend Daniel's wife had found a man dead in the building some months before, we'd experienced an outpouring of care and love from the community. At first, companies were shying away from us. Still, ironically enough, due to the media attention from all the strange occurrences that kept happening around us, business actually picked up significantly. Not that any of us wanted to continue to find dead bodies.
Between the onslaught of new business and the constant shadow of the killer following us all around, things were getting tenser with each meeting. Yet, they were all there on time for that conference, which alone was a miracle. I looked around the table as everyone settled into their seats.
Daniel, now married, worked with clients, mostly because he had the patience and personality to do so. I worked in accounting, budgets, and human resources. Chase was the head of innovation, or the mad lab as we liked to call it, bringing on new products. Brad and Mitch worked in marketing and advertising, which they had the perfect personalities for, and Ryder led the research and development sector. We all played our parts, some more hands-on than others, but when it came to business, somehow, we all just clicked into place.
Daniel leaned back in his chair and let out a long deep breath. "Alright, let's get this rolling. I know Mitch has an advertising meeting after this. I'll start since I have the smallest updates from last time."
Everyone nodded.
"I am still personally handling the Jacobs, Peterson, & Crenshaw Law Firm account. With it being a national law conglomerate, it's a big-ticket firm. Last time we had sixteen active intakes for clients and nine in the pipeline. As of yesterday, we finished the last of the list and sent them off to wherever they needed to go. So, starting next week, we see what they have for us and start all over."
I nodded. "Great job, Daniel. That's definitely impressive. Your team is kicking ass."
Mitch looked at his Rolex and cleared his throat. "Marketing continues on the same track. We've got advertisements in fifty-three major publications worldwide. We are starting to implement some commercials here and there to test it out and see how it does. We are focusing the advertisements on the community, any sponsorships we have coming up, and education. I have a full marketing report coming out next week, and you'll be able to see what advertisements specifically we're using. Our testing department is still working out some kinks in the key demographic a/b testing, but it's not going too bad."
Brad gave the thumbs up of approval. "I’ve really got nothing to add. We're pretty much just moving through the processes and trying to keep the influx of new clients going."
Chase had already passed out his report on upcoming tech they were working on. "I have the innovation presentation tomorrow for you guys, so I'll wait until then. If you want, you can glance through the catalog I handed out ahead of time."
I nodded. "Nice short update meeting. Ryder is taking some personal days, but I know from the team that they've been insanely busy working with Chase on innovation. He's getting things ready for the presentation tomorrow. Regarding the budgetary statements, we are heading into our fourth quarter reports. Still, the company was on a roller coaster this last year. Up and down, up and down. This quarter we're seeing record-breaking numbers outlined in this week's accounting report. With the way things are going, the expansion will no longer be a goal but a requirement. But we don't want to count our chickens before they hatch. So, let's keep moving forward, and we'll know when it's time to move on things."
Everyone closed their laptops and tablets, nodding. Mitch went to stand up but stopped himself. "Any news on the killer? I know we've all seen the video footage. And none of us recognized the guy at all, but I was hoping something had come of it."
"Carter is still working on it," Daniel said. "Guy has round-the-clock security. You guys have whatever you need. As far as the killer, they are moving on to people that live in the area and anyone who might have seen this guy that night. Unfortunately, it was a back alley, so there weren't any cameras out there. The number of people around that side street that leads into it was minimal."
Chase rubbed his face. "This shit is unbelievable. Have they looked to see if he's doing this to anyone else? You know, maybe when we are going months without a word from him, he's busy fucking with someone else."
Daniel nodded. "They are cross-referencing calls, murders, and kidnappings. But nothing is conclusive yet. It's moving forward, just really slow.”
Brad stood up and shook his head. "Well, if something doesn't break soon, I'm going to start losing it. I'm gonna start hunting this bastard down myself."
I put up my hand. "I feel you, but don't put yourself in unnecessary danger. We don't want more mayhem than this has already caused."
With a sigh, Brad nodded. "I know, man. It just keeps getting more and more serious. I don't want to see anyone else get hurt."
You knew when Brad got serious shit was terrible.
We all headed off to our meetings. Since it was close to five o'clock, I went to my office and finished a few things before calling it a day. The thought of going home and cooking anything sounded miserable, so I headed down through the city toward my favorite sushi place to get some carry-out to take home. The evening walk was good for me anyway. It was getting chilly in the city, at least chilly for San Diego, and the days were steadily growing shorter.
As I headed toward the Sushi bar, I glanced across the street at one of the local coffee shops/bookstores. I had been there a few times, grabbing a book for a long weekend when I planned on just chilling at the house. It was nice and definitely cozy on a cool night like that night. As I passed by, I paused, seeing a banner sign at the base of one of the windows. Exclusive signed copies of Draper's Diaries, by local author, Ariel Hodges. Get Yours Today!
"Ariel," I whispered, suddenly realizing it was the same Ariel who was my sister's best friend.
I took another step but stopped and hurried across the street into the shop. Curiosity had gotten a hold of me. To the right was a small stand with Ariel's picture and a stack of her books, these unsigned. I figured I could get my own signature, and maybe have a chance to chat with her again.
Not that I should, but hell, I had become terrible at curbing my ability to stop myself from doing things my head was screaming at me not to do.
I took the book to the counter, paid, and turned to walk out. That's when I noticed Ariel sitting in an overstuffed chair in the corner of the shop, sipping a coffee as she read whatever was on her laptop. Part of me knew I should keep going, leave, and not say hello. But the other part of me seemed to be controlling my feet.
I walked up and took the book out of the bag, Ariel still not noticing. "So, I picked up this book, and everybody says the author is pretty into these types of mysteries."
Ariel looked up curiously and then pulled her glasses off, smiling big. "Hey, you. Oh yeah, I heard she's a real bitch. Totally a prima donna."
