Johan's Joy (Heroes for Hire #22) - Dale Mayer Page 0,36

shake things up a bit tactic?” Kai asked with a knowing grin.

Johan gave her a lopsided grin. “Everybody lies when it suits them. Some only reveal the truth when they’re shocked.”

“So let’s really shake them up a bit then,” Tyson said. “We might have to get one of our guys assigned to the building too though.”

“That would be interesting,” Joy said. “I wonder if there’s any inspector the new guy could come in as.”

“Not likely. Maybe audits though,” Johan said. He looked at Kai. “What do you think? Some kind of special investigator?”

She frowned and said, “I don’t know one end of a bookkeeping ledger from another,” Kai said. “What about health inspectors?”

“There would be no reason for them to be there,” Joy said. “No animals are on the premises. But will your fake auditor get access to the secret dark rooms that nobody seems to know anything about?” Joy joked. “Or will the company try to keep any auditor away from everybody and especially Level B3?”

“We’ll have to look into that,” Tyson said, still texting somebody. “I think we’re better to go in as auditors or something that gives us broad access to their computer system. Ice will know what to set our covers up as.”

Joy presumed it was his boss, Levi. “So who is paying all your wages?” she asked suddenly. “I don’t want you guys getting in trouble for being here.”

“We’re here with Levi’s permission,” Kai said.

“So what’s in it for him?” she asked.

Kai looked at her, surprised. “That’s a very good question. In Levi’s case, it’s likely for justice. He hates scenarios like this. He has brought up this case with the police to maybe link to Chelsea. So, if it’s a murder investigation, it’s on everybody’s radar.”

“But then we’d have the cops in my building,” Joy said. “Not health inspectors.”

“Well, that’s a good point too,” Kai said. “Maybe some of Levi’s guys could go in as detectives.”

“You mean, pretending to be police officers?” Joy said. “That’s against the law.”

“Not if we have permission from the police,” Kai suggested.

“That you won’t get,” Tyson noted.

“Possibly not.”

There was silence as everybody considered what their options were.

“Is there a company above this one?” Kai asked.

“Just the board,” Joy said. “This is the umbrella company. I believe a couple companies are under it, one of which used to work at this location as well.”

“Used to?”

“Used to,” Joy said, “though I’m not exactly sure why I used past tense there. Maybe it is an old defunct company, and maybe the materials in those rooms were leftovers from that business. Although I thought I remembered seeing something about an office supply company, so maybe not in relation to the drugs you found there.”

“That would be good to know either way,” Kai said, writing down notes. “More conversations for Edward.” Kai paused, then asked, “What about the owner-CEO himself?”

“Edward seems to think Barlow’s an idiot,” Johan said. “I’ve never met Barlow, but I’ve seen his board member photo.”

“He is not the smartest bulb,” Joy said. “I would have said he was slimy but harmless, up until I talked to Phyllis. Now I’m not so sure.”

“And how bad does Phyllis feel about all this now?” Kai asked. “Any chance of her being after revenge?”

“It’s a long cold day for revenge,” Joy said. “But why would she have told me all that history if it was her? That wouldn’t have been very astute of her.”

“True, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It’s an odd scenario, but we’ve seen a lot of odd people doing odd things in this world,” Johan said.

Joy agreed with that. She sighed. “So, as much as it is great to see you guys, was this intended as a personal visit or as a business meeting?”

“Both,” Kai said, reaching across to grab her friend’s fingers and squeeze. “And we wanted to make sure that you were safe.”

“Well, I’m safe enough at the moment,” she said. “But, if we keep digging through the company, they may start to take steps to protect themselves.”

“They’re already doing that,” Johan said.

“Can you tell that from the accounts?”

“We can tell that from the IT. There’s been a lot less activity on the network this past week, now that we’re watching, than there was compared to the previous week’s IT activity.”

“Of course it’s expected that some things will stop. People checking in on friends and relatives, going to social media sites that they shouldn’t be going to while at work, using other people’s accounts, or using other people’s