trying to fix me up.
Harriet knew enough to let it go. “I’m heading over to Jasper Elementary for the morning. I have that career day thing with the high-school-bound grade eights, but I’ll have my radio on if all hell breaks loose. Just call.”
We both chuckled. In all the years we’d been working together, we could count on one hand the amount of times things went haywire in Jasper.
“Have fun.”
Once Harriet was gone, I frowned at my computer screen where the wheel of death was still spinning. Every day, it took longer and longer for the system to boot up. I sipped my coffee and wondered for the hundredth time about Tomi and if he’d dismissed my email or answered it. I’d been far more confident about what I thought I knew about him before sending the email than I was now. Throughout the night, I’d convinced myself I’d made a huge mistake and would find some shocking reply that would be the tipping stone for the whole town learning the truth about their police chief.
I’d worked myself into a state. If my computer didn’t load, I was destined to never find out at this rate.
Leaving my desk, I poked my head into the hallway, calling down the corridor to the front desk. “Matt? Do you have a minute?”
He popped around the corner like an eager bunny. “Of course. What’s up?”
“You’re computer savvy, right?”
He tilted his head side to side and shrugged. “Sort of. Mostly. I mean, I took computer programming during my last year of high school. I learned enough. I wasn’t top of my class, but I certainly know a little something about something.”
“Well, you’re more computer savvy than this old man since we didn’t use computers at all when I was in school, so maybe you can tell me what’s happening.”
He joined me in my office where the loading screen was still loading, the wheel stuck in an endless, dizzying circle. Taking the invitation, Matthew sat in my chair and tapped away at the keyboard, fingers flying, frown deeply etched on his face.
Matthew was impeccably dressed in pressed trousers, a pin-striped button-up, and a tie, knotted so tightly around his neck I didn’t know how he could stand it. His baby face had a smattering of freckles across his nose, and he kept his dark hair in a severe part, sleeked to the side with plenty of gel. His baby blue eyes were youthful, and it was hard to believe he was twenty-one and not seventeen.
“Can I ask you something, sir?” His concentration was still on my unresponsive machine.
“Sure.”
“How come you don’t have an updated system like everyone else? No offense, this thing’s a clunker. The problem is, the operating system is so old, it doesn’t accommodate the new programs we’re running. It’s causing glitches, and that’s half the reason it isn’t booting up right now. Everyone else has a new computer in their office, but this one has to be from the Stone Age. I’m not even sure I can update you to a new operating system. There wouldn’t be enough space.”
“It’s not that old.”
Matthew blinked up at me, amusement radiating. “This thing was built when I was ten years old, sir. In the land of electronics, that’s ancient.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling every one of my forty-five years when confronted by such a fresh-faced new employee who hadn’t grown up in a world where cell phones and laptops didn’t exist. “So, you’re saying you can’t fix it?”
Worry replaced his brief humor, and his cheeks reddened. “I’m sorry, sir. I can try, but the thing is, our new program did a software update yesterday, and this computer isn’t handling the changes.”
I sighed. When we’d rearranged the budget a few years back to replace our old computers, I’d purchased one for my office as well. Stubborn as I was, mine was still sitting in its original box, buried in the storage room. I didn’t do well with changes in technology. It took me longer than most to learn how to use them, and I was better off keeping things simple. Hence the reason I’d had the same cell phone forever. The rest of the world seemed to replace them every year.
I huffed and scratched fingers through the scruff on my jaw. “Fine. How good are you at setting up new computers?”
“Better than I am at recalibrating and trying to make old ones work.” His smile was smug but teasing.
“There’s a new computer in the