Johan's Joy (Heroes for Hire #22) - Dale Mayer Page 0,45

Yet they had clicked immediately and had stuck ever since.

“Any thoughts about you and Tyson having a family?”

“We’ve talked about it,” Kai admitted. “I’m not sure he’s ready, and I’m not sure I’m ready.”

“No need to rush it anyway,” Joy said. “At least you’re on that pathway, and, when you’re ready, that time will come.”

“What about you?” Kai said. “Any boyfriend on the horizon?”

“Nope. Nobody here yet. I thought maybe there would be someone at the company, though I don’t really like office romances, and, so far, I haven’t seen anybody interesting anyway. Of course I’m stuck in my dungeon,” she said in a joking manner.

“I did hear about the lovely working conditions.”

“And it’s relatively new apparently,” she said, “if what Phyllis said is true.”

“Meaning that Chelsea was there before you but not anybody else?”

“Yes. Whoever was at the company before Chelsea worked upstairs.”

“I wonder if she started something.”

“If she did, somebody finished it for her,” Joy said starkly. “For no other reason, I’d like to get her some justice, at least.”

“And yet it may not be related.”

“It may not be,” Joy said, “but it would be a hell of a coincidence.” And the two exchanged glances because that topic had been a point of conversation time and time again. Neither of them believed in coincidences.

*

Out in the hallway the foreman turned and looked around. He frowned. “Did you turn on those lights?” He motioned at the back corner.

“No,” Johan said, pointing to the stairway door he’d come in through. “I came from over there.”

The foreman looked in that direction, shook his head, and said, “That door should be locked. Nobody comes up there.”

“Well, three rooms are full of stock in there.”

“That’s the old stuff, I told you. They are all labeled for the old companies. Hell, I don’t even know how many of those companies are even still solvent. For all I know, they shut them all down. Nobody tells me nothing.”

It was all Johan could do to hold his smile at that phrase because he’d heard it time and time again from more than a few disgruntled employees. He followed the older man down to the back corner where the light was on. He studied the area. “What about security? Do you have cards that let you know what room everybody’s gone into?”

“Nah. It would be a waste of time down here,” he said. “We’re constantly all over the place.”

“It might be a good idea though,” he suggested.

“Company’s got no money for security down here. Stuff comes in, gets moved around, and stuff goes out. We don’t know what’s in anything, and we don’t care. And, by that token, as long as the stuff comes in, and they have access to it all, the company doesn’t care either.”

Johan kept his thoughts to himself. It was also pretty obvious that it was a weak system and offered more than a few areas for people to take advantage of, but it wasn’t his company, so whatever. He kept his thoughts to himself as he followed the man through the darkened warehouse. Enough daylight and other lighting filtered through that he could see everything that needed to be seen, but it wasn’t under a bright light.

He checked the lights up above and noted open rafters with walkways were above them. “Do you ever need the catwalks up there?”

The foreman looked up and shuddered. “I hate heights,” he said. “You wouldn’t catch me on any catwalk.”

Johan nodded but studied the catwalks. “How do you even get up there?”

The foreman pointed to a ladder against the firewall.

“Why were they put up?”

“Something to do with whatever was going on in this building before this company moved in.”

“This company didn’t build the building?”

“Nah, they took it over. Some big warehouse was in here. I don’t remember what.”

“I can’t imagine why they’d want a catwalk,” Johan said.

“Only if they’ve got a hoist or something up there and may need to do maintenance on it.”

“That makes sense,” Johan replied, and he could see the relics of something up there. If he checked it out himself later, he wanted Galen around to watch his back when he did. There was definitely a sense of something wrong in this building. Particularly on the weekend.

As they walked up to where the light was on, the foreman snorted and flipped the switch. “This place has ghosties.”

“Maybe. But maybe it’s just got people,” he muttered. The foreman shot him a hard look. Johan shrugged. “Most of the time lights are turned on