Shaking her head out of the fog left in her brain from her brother, she spread the plans to the Santa Barbara project on her desk. José had left for the last half of the day, and her to-do list had dwindled to nearly nothing on a Friday.
“Miss Gardner?”
Deep in thought, she was startled by the sound of her name. Mitch, a courier who frequented the office, stood in the doorway to her cubicle chewing gum. “Hey, Mitch.”
“I have a delivery for Mr. Archer.”
Judy stood and reached for the package in his hand. “He’s gone today. I’ll take it for him.”
Mitch handed her the package. A bandage on his left hand caught her eyes. “What happened?”
He glanced at his hand like it didn’t belong to him, and hid it behind his back. “Accident.”
Mitch was probably her age . . . maybe a little younger, and shyer than the average guy. He was taller than she was and could stand to lose a few pounds.
Walking around him, she offered a smile. “Need me to sign?”
“I have another quick delivery.” He waved a package in his hand. “I’ll come by on my way out.”
Judy watched him walk away, and walked into Steve’s office to set the package down.
She hesitated inside for less than a minute. A loud noise accompanied by the building shaking made her grasp the desk.
The door behind her slammed shut right as the fire alarms started to scream and the lights in the room started to flash.
Earthquake?
Only the room wasn’t shaking. It was screaming, and flashing, and outside the door to Mr. Archer’s office, she heard people running.
The deafening sound of the alarm made it nearly impossible to think.
Judy rushed to the door, fumbled with the handle, and found it unmoving.
She hit her fist against the door, heard people rushing by. “Hey!”
Someone beyond the barrier yelled the word fire and panic made her pull on the door harder.
Rick really enjoyed Michael’s company. After being with Judy for even a short time, he started to see the man and not the Hollywood movie star he’d grown to know since working with Neil. Judy’s conversations about her brother before he happened upon the Hollywood scene simply made the man more human.
“Thanks for taking her the flowers,” Rick said when Michael walked into the den where he was going over the short list of players from Judy’s game that hadn’t yet been cleared. Dean had returned to his office and was in the process of soliciting his superiors to investigate the possibility that a murderer lurked beyond the graphics of an online game.
The chances of the detective getting anywhere with his colleagues were slim, but then again, he was on damn near family terms with the governor of the state and his wife. If anyone could get Detectives Raskin and Perozo to start looking somewhere other than in Rick’s direction, it would be Dean and the Billings.
“No problem,” Michael told him. “She looks good.”
Rick knew he was complimenting more than her looks. Not something many brothers would notice anyway. “She’s resilient.”
Michael leaned against the counter in the kitchen, lifted his chin. “She’s tough. Helps that you’re here to be her rock.”
Rick offered a nod. “I’ve assigned Russell to accompany you around if needed while you’re home.” It wasn’t like Rick could play bodyguard while watching over Judy.
Michael shrugged. “I don’t have anything big planned.”
Rick knew that Zach had asked Michael to find a way to get home for a while. Safety in numbers along with a high-profile actor on the other end of a camera was a great way to keep a constant alibi for all involved.
“You sure this isn’t cramping your latest film?”
“Family comes first,” Michael told him.
Translated . . . that meant Michael had told his producers to work without him for a while. The fix was temporary.
Rick felt an answer was close. Now that they’d narrowed their search to players on the game, he could practically taste a break in the case.
The cell phone in his pocket buzzed at the same time the phone in the house rang.
Michael moved to answer the home line and Rick looked at the video feed from Judy’s office. At last glance, he saw her sitting at her desk working, only now she wasn’t there and the cubicle was empty. So why was the monitor sensing movement?
He stood to move to the room housing his monitors when he heard distress in Michael’s voice.
“He’s right here.”
Michael handed the cordless to Rick. “It’s Neil. He says something’s happening in Judy’s office.”
Rick knocked down the immediate feeling of panic and grabbed the phone. “Talk to me.”
“Have you looked at the monitors?”
Rick nearly ran to the monitors and clicked them all on. Judy’s office sat center stage. Her space was empty, but employees ran by the opening of her cubicle. “What’s going on?” He turned up the volume, noticed the strobe light flashing behind where the cameras were hidden.
“What’s happening?” Michael asked behind him.
“I don’t know.”
“The fire alarm is blaring,” Neil told him. Sure enough, the only sound on the monitor was that of the fire alarm and of panicked employees running by.
“False alarms go off all the time. Why the chaos?” Rick asked.
“Hold on.”
While he waited for Neil to get back to him, Rick took the cell in his hand and speed-dialed Judy’s number. As it rang, he heard the ring through the monitors. Had Judy left her cell phone behind as she exited the building?
His gut started to twist.
“There was an explosion,” Neil told him when he got back on the phone. “Fire is responding.”
A diversion . . . chaos . . . Judy would easily get lost in the shuffle. “I don’t like this,” Rick said.
“Neither do I.”
One glance at Michael, and the two of them ran for the door.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Help!” Judy yelled over the blaring alarm, pounding her fists on the door.
The hall outside the office sounded painfully silent, like the building had been evacuated and she was left behind. “Hello!” She pounded again.
She turned toward the desk and moved to the phone right as the door to the office opened.
White smoke billowed in from the hall. “Miss Gardner?”
“Mitch?” Thank God he had heard her.
“There’s a fire. C’mon.” He practically pulled her from the office, running away from the elevator and toward the back of the office where the smoke didn’t seem as thick.