Chapter Five

The parking lot was nearly empty, the security guard gone. The two men hurried up the walkway with the wind tugging at their coats and the smell of impending rain in the air. Brent fumbled with his keys, stepped inside and shut off the alarm. Joe followed, letting the door slam behind him.

Wordlessly, they climbed the stairs to the third floor and made their way to the end of the dimly lit hall. It was almost nine o'clock and the empty building with its strange shadows and hissing heating valves had such a feeling of ominous abandonment that neither man could resist the impulse to glance over a shoulder as if someone might be lurking around a corner. They found the door to Elise's office locked and Brent pretended not to notice Joe's scowl as he located her personal office key on his key chain. They stepped inside and turned on the lights.

Both men looked around as if seeing the room for the first time. The furniture was sleek and ergonomic, but the sterile effect of its modern design and synthetic materials had been dampened by framed images of colorful computer-generated graphics on the walls, each print with Elise's digitized signature and the date of generation in the corner. Joe's attention was caught by the framed photograph by the computer. In it, he was wearing his favorite denim shirt and standing in the garden working on a life-size wooden angel. The angle of the sunlight caught a gentle expression on his face as he sanded the angel's cheek, smiling into her blank wooden eyes. "I don't remember this picture."

Brent looked over his shoulder. "That's one of her favorites. It's a pretty good one, too. Of course, Elise has always been good with a camera. I remember her taking lots of pictures of me back when--" Brent clamped his jaw shut to make sure no other betraying words escaped. He darted a look at Joe, but the other man pretended not to have heard and only the tight set of his jaw gave him away. Brent sat at the computer and booted it up, making a show of moving post-it notes and paper clips out of the way while he waited for the login screen.

While he searched the computer files for hints of Elise's plans, Joe moved around the room, opening file cabinets and desk drawers. A few business cards caught his attention and he put them in his wallet. He opened folders, flipped through papers at random and searched even in the backs of drawers, turning up pencil stubs and a bit of change, but nothing suspicious. He found a hastily scratched to-do list, scanned it, then put it back in a drawer. Inside the drawer, he noticed a blue post-it note, blank except for a telephone number. He turned it over and found a street name and number, scribbled in a trembling hand. "Check this out."

Brent stuck the note to the monitor, then opened a browser window and started typing. "That's the St. Argent area code," he observed. "I'll do a reverse telephone lookup." He waited a moment, tapping his fingers nervously on the mouse. When the results came back he grinned. "Nothing."

Joe peered over his shoulder. "Does that mean it’s unlisted?"

Brent nodded. "Either that or Elise writes non-existent phone numbers in her spare time. Let's look up this address on the map search."

While Brent looked up 5656 Lotus Street, Joe continued to rummage through the drawer that has brought such promising results. The only thing he found of interest, though, was a toffee, which he popped in his mouth. He jerked his head around at the sound of the laser printer. "Find something?"

"I got directions," Brent said. "It's a legitimate address in St. Argent. Whether it's Sylvia Lobo's or someone else's, I don't know, but it's better than anything else we've got. We could try calling this phone number and then we'd know for sure, but it might be risky."

Joe nodded. "She might leave if she knew we were coming." He pulled the map off the printer and examined it. "Not too far from where I grew up. We can get there tonight no problem, if we leave right now."

"Can you think of anything else we might need from here?" Brent asked, shutting down the computer.

"This ought to do it. Anything else need, we can get in the city."

On their way out Brent shut off the lights and locked the door. As they made their way down the hall though, he motioned Joe to stop at his office. He ducked inside, then emerged a moment later, a laptop in a black leather carrying case slung over his shoulder. "I can keep looking things up on the smart phone, but a computer will be easier when we're near a wi-fi signal."

Joe nodded. "Good idea."

They hurried down the stairs and paused at the door while Brent set the alarm. Then they went out into the cold and rising wind, looking around to see if they had been observed. As they made their way across the parking lot, heavy drops of rain began to fall, and when they jumped into the truck and slammed the doors, a peal of thunder rocked the sky and the rain became a downpour.