stopped midstream, and a secondary password has been requested.” Ben pulled at the tie that already hung loosely at his throat. “I…ah…can’t remember the secondary password we selected.”
That didn’t sound like Ben at all. He never forgot anything, much less a password. And even when there was a glitch, he generally took care of it and then told her about it. Evidently settling into the new building had disrupted his usually unshakable sangfroid. “Is that going to be a major problem?” she inquired cautiously, not wanting to make him more uncomfortable but needing clarification.
He shook his head enthusiastically. “I just need your authorization to override the password.”
Now she got the picture. “Of course.” Victoria settled into her chair and opened the laptop on her desk. “Walk me through the steps, Ben.”
Ten seconds later Ben had his authorization.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Victoria gifted him with a smile she hoped relieved his obvious embarrassment. “Thank you, Ben, for taking such good care of our files.”
He nodded as he backed out of her office, then he wheeled around and promptly bumped into Elaine Younger. Victoria smothered a laugh as Ben went overboard to offer his apologies. She sincerely hoped that one of these days he found someone who would truly appreciate him for all his many endearing assets. He could certainly do with a little grounding.
When Ben stepped aside, Elaine and Darla White, the agency’s new receptionist, entered Victoria’s office. Victoria didn’t miss the way Ben stared, quite dreamily, after Darla before heading off to attend to the files. A secret smile tugged at the corners of Victoria’s mouth. So maybe this was the reason Ben was so out of sorts lately. She would definitely have to look into the idea of a match between Ben and Darla.
“Do you have a moment, Victoria?”
“Certainly.” Victoria indicated the chairs in front of her desk. “What can I do for you?”
Elaine gestured to the younger woman beside her and said, “I believe Darla is ready to take over on Monday, if that’s agreeable.”
Today was Friday the tenth, and Darla had worked a full two months under Elaine’s tutelage to learn the ropes of being the receptionist for the Colby Agency, a job that entailed far more than merely answering the telephone and greeting visitors.
“You’re absolutely right,” Victoria concurred. “I’ve been very impressed with your progress, Darla.”
The agency’s newest employee blushed. Only twenty-two, this was Darla’s first job since graduating college. Her father was a longtime friend, who owned one of Victoria’s favorite restaurants. Victoria was more than glad to bring his lovely daughter on board. Darla, who wanted no part of the family business, made a fine addition to the agency’s staff. In the past seven months, since getting business back up to full steam, they had gone through three trainees. Two had realized, within a week of starting, that the job was more then they could handle. The third, very promising candidate had been forced to leave after her fiancé had been reassigned to his company’s Tokyo office.
Darla, however, had proven unshakable. She rolled with the punches and didn’t let anything undermine her confidence. Now that Victoria thought about it, the nice young lady would be the perfect match for Ben.
“I’ll be moving on to research…” Elaine went on, prodding Victoria back to the business at hand, “as soon as I’m back from my honeymoon.”
More romance in bloom. A definite cause for celebration. Elaine and Brad Gibson were getting married next week. She would be working alongside her new husband in the agency’s research group. This wasn’t the first married couple to be employed by the Colby Agency. Nicole Reed and Ian Michaels had been successfully working together for years. In actuality the entire agency was like one big family. A feat that was a matter of pride to Victoria.
“Excellent.” Victoria thought of her own husband, Lucas Camp, who was out of town yet again on business. She missed him when he was gone. Thankfully, he would be home this evening.
Mildred Ballard, Victoria’s personal assistant and dear friend, stuck her head through the open doorway. “Detective Brandon Bailen is here to see you, Victoria.”
“Thank you, Mildred. Tell Detective Bailen I’ll be right with him.” Victoria shifted her attention back to Elaine and Darla. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off, Elaine? Darla can manage without you, and I’m certain you have a million and one things to do.”
Elaine’s face lit up. “Thank you, Victoria.”
The two hurried away and Victoria couldn’t help feeling a bit nostalgic. Where had the years gone? She was a grandmother. Her son was happy with his lovely wife and beautiful baby girl. Another grandchild was on the way. Victoria sighed. Everything was changing, maybe a little too fast, but all for the good.
She rose as her visitor from the Chicago Police Department reached her door.
“Detective Bailen, this is an unexpected pleasure.”
Bailen strode straight to Victoria’s desk and took the hand she offered. “It’s very good to see you, Victoria. The new place—” he glanced around her office “—is very elegant. It suits you.”
“Thank you. We’re still settling in.” But she sensed this was not a social call, so she got straight down to business. “How may I help you this afternoon?”
“I have some rather belated and unsettling details from the lab regarding your former business address.”
“Please—” Victoria gestured to a chair “—make yourself comfortable, Detective.”
When Victoria had taken her seat, Bailen settled into his. From his weary expression she surmised that whatever he had come to report was not something he looked forward to passing along.
“We’ve just learned that the human remains discovered in the rubble of the Colby Agency building belonged to two different people.”
His revelation sent a shock wave through Victoria. “Two? Was there another perpetrator involved that we didn’t know about?” Elaine and Brad had barely survived that final night in the Colby Agency’s former home. One of the perps who had tried to kill them had been murdered by his own people and left in the building. Additionally, the three musicians the agency had hired had been murdered in their van in the parking lot. But, so far as they knew, no one else had died inside the building except the one man. This revelation didn’t quite add up.
Bailen’s expression showed his own frustration. “According to the three convicted perps sitting in prison, there was only the four of them. The remains of their dead partner, as you know, were recovered a few weeks after the explosion.”
Victoria didn’t understand. “So, if there was no one else in the building, how could there be remains from two people?”
“I wish I knew. All I can tell you is that there were two distinct sets of remains. Unfortunately, the second set of remains was separated from the first due to a simple human error, which caused the lab initially to report on only the one. Apparently, a recent inventory uncovered the glitch, and additional testing was done to confirm the error.”
“You’re
