Loverboy (The Company #2) - Sarina Bowen Page 0,84
something,” he keeps saying, and I can’t disagree.
And now I have a new voice message from him. I put my earpiece in and listen. “This message is for Gunnar Scott,” Max’s voice says. “You’re at the top of our waiting list at the salon. I can get you in for a cut, color, and blowout at two p.m., if you can leave work early today. Hope to see you then. Kisses!”
That’s Max’s latest code for get your ass to the office. He never tires of inventing new ways to summon me. But the message is clear. I’m needed this afternoon.
So I go inside and beg Teagan to stay until closing today. And I leave right after the lunch rush.
“This … wow.” It’s not my most articulate statement. But we’re locked in Max’s office and nobody can hear me anyway. I’m looking at a print-out of The Plumber’s latest web posts. And shit is getting personal. I feel nauseated as I read what looks like a desperate plea.
To us.
You want answers, but you’re not looking in the right place. A dozen security guys who think they’re smarter than everyone else. Cops across the street, too. None of it is working.
They’re hungry. They will try to show you. I think it’s personal. This ends badly unless you find them before they hit you first.
“He’s talking about us,” Max says flatly.
“Cops across the street?”
“NYPD intelligence set up in a second-floor commercial space across the street. Pieter spotted them last night on his stakeout shift.”
I grunt and read the threat again. “We are smarter than everyone else. But not smart enough, I guess.”
Max rubs his neck. “And we’re not immortal.”
“The use of them is really strange,” I remark. “Who talks like that?”
“Someone who’s afraid,” Max says. “The Plumber is a dissatisfied foot soldier. I think he wants to throw his boss under the bus.”
“Yeah,” I say slowly. “I’m coming around to seeing it that way. The bragging has evolved, hasn’t it? This sounds like a plea more than a boast.”
We’re both silent for another long moment, until Max suddenly says: “I’m taking you off the pie shop.”
“What?” My chin snaps up. “What are you talking about?”
“The Plumber is right—we’re looking in the wrong place. And you’ve outlasted your usefulness there. Unless it’s an inside job, you’d have found him already. We have so much other work to do on this investigation. Tomorrow you and I will go over every loose end. Why does he call himself The Plumber, for example? How many plumbers are there in SoHo? There’s a lot we could be doing.”
“But what about Posy?” I blurt out.
“She’ll be well protected.” Max puts his elbows on the desk, and his chin in his hands. “I’ll keep staff at the shop.”
“But she’ll be shorthanded.”
Max smiles slowly. “Aw. Look who’s developed some professional pride behind the coffee bar.”
I groan. “Give me forty-eight hours. I have to hire a replacement. What’s that site people use to post jobs?” I grab my laptop and flip open the lid.
“No clue,” Max says. “But you’d better find it fast. I can’t give you two days. Besides.” He picks up the print-out and shows it to me again. “If The Plumber actually knows who I am, the best thing you could do for your girl is stay away.”
An icy chill climbs up my spine. “We have to find this guy.”
“No kidding.”
“I’ve been distracted,” I say slowly. “He’s right under my nose somewhere.”
“Agreed.”
“Maybe he’s in an upstairs apartment—in Posy’s building, or the ones next door. Let’s go in there as the gas company, maybe? Or pretend there’s a gas main break? Why didn’t we do that already?”
“Because it’s illegal?” Max gives me a dark look. “You were supposed to find the guy by looking over his shoulder. But I guess it’s time to pull the Con-Ed truck and the jumpsuits out of the cellar and knock on some doors. I’ll get Pieter on it. You hire a barista, or beg Posy’s forgiveness, or both.”
“Okay,” I say dully. “On it.” I pick up my computer and leave Max’s office, heading for my own little-used office at the end of the row. Someone keeps it clean and dust free, even though I only visit it a few times a year.
Ginny was right, I realize as I settle in to look at job posting sites. She said I’d flake off and leave Posy hanging. And that’s exactly what I’m about to do.