Johan's Joy (Heroes for Hire #22) - Dale Mayer Page 0,74
leave, now looking at Johan and Galen. “Coffee’s around the corner, if you two want some.”
“You know what? We never did find the coffee,” Galen said. “You want to show us?”
She nodded, then led the way to the little lunchroom. As usual, there was a pot, but it was empty. She thought the others prided themselves on creating that problem. She quickly put on a fresh pot, and, while they stood here, waiting for it to drip, Johan’s phone rang.
He answered it. “Hey, Tyson. What’s up?” He listened a moment. “Oh, really? That’s interesting,” he said. He shot Galen a hard look and quietly said, “Keep her here.” And, with that, he disappeared.
She turned, coffee cups in hand. Staring at Galen, she asked, “What was that all about?”
He shrugged, but his face was hard. He took the cups from her, poured coffee in them, and said, “I’m not sure we’ll get much chance to drink this.”
She frowned, looked at the coffee, looked at him, and said, “Is it my office?”
“I don’t know, but Tyson just called, and Johan took off.”
“I want to go see,” she said abruptly.
“And I’d agree with that,” he said, “but I’ll carry the coffee.”
She let him carry the three cups back to her office. Johan stopped her outside the door. She looked at him with a frown and asked, “Why can’t I go in?”
He sighed. “You can go in,” he said, “but you won’t like what you see.”
She stepped into the office, not sure what to expect. She found Tyson pulling down a camera that had been set into the ceiling tiles. She stared at him in shock. “So somebody was watching?”
He nodded grimly. “We’ve just got clearance from Edward to track it back,” he said. “It goes to Barlow’s office.”
“Wow,” she said, “that’s just bizarre.”
“Maybe not,” he said. “We’re thinking it was probably directed at Phyllis more so than you.”
She looked at where Phyllis sat and then her own desk and nodded. “That says a lot about their relationship. Whether he was keeping an eye on her or it was something they liked between them.”
“Twisted in oh-so-many ways,” he said. “We also asked Edward to contact Phyllis to see why she didn’t show up today.”
Joy looked at him and wrinkled up her face. “Please don’t tell me something happened to her.”
“We’re not at all sure,” he said. “He didn’t get an answer, so somebody has gone to take a look.”
She turned around in a wide motion. “We could go check.”
“No, the cops have been called in. They’ll do a welfare check to see if she’s okay.”
She reached up to massage her forehead when Doris walked in. “People appear to be concerned about Phyllis,” she said to Doris. “Have you heard anything from her?”
Doris looked surprised, then shrugged. “How the hell would I know?” she said. She looked at the electronic equipment and said, “What the hell is going on here?”
“Just something from the board,” Tyson said and walked out with it.
Doris didn’t sit back down again. “More weird games between those two.”
“Which two?” Johan asked.
“Phyllis and her lover.”
“Are they still lovers?”
“Yes. That is a very weird game they play. Been together since forever.”
Joy turned to look at Johan. He shrugged. “Hey, I don’t get involved with other people’s sex lives,” he muttered.
“Well, theirs is bizarre anyway,” Doris snapped.
“How bizarre?”
“No clue,” Doris said and clammed up. “I have work to do, so, if you’re not working here, get out of my office.”
At that, Joy sent Johan back out again. She sat back down at her desk and got to work. She was hoping there would be an opportunity to talk to Doris about Phyllis. “You seem like you are pretty good friends with Phyllis.”
“Hell no,” she said. “Can’t stand the woman.” But her tone was absentminded, as if she was busy with her office stuff and hadn’t really considered what the question was all about.
With that, Joy didn’t really know what else to say.
When Johan popped his head in about a half an hour later, the look on his face caused her to suck back her breath.
“So,” he said. “Phyllis has been found, and she’s dead.”
Doris looked up and blanched. “Seriously?”
“Yes.”
Doris just sat there in shock, but that was pretty well how Joy felt too. Joy asked no one in particular, “I wonder if it was the same person who killed Barlow.”
“Of course it was,” Doris said. “Like I said, those two were involved and have been for a really long time.”