Now and Always (12 page)

Chapter 14

“This is your new office.”

The personnel director held the door open and Connie entered and looked around. “Very nice,” she responded, impressed by the tastefully decorated office. The desk was cherry and matching bookcases lined one wall of the office while the other held a row of file cabinets. In front of the desk were two leather chairs in a dark burgundy.

She strolled over to the windows and glanced at the view of downtown Miami. “I wasn’t expecting anything this upscale,” she admitted to the woman, one of the few who knew her real reason for being there. She leaned against the glass and motioned for the woman to sit in one of the chairs by the desk.

The woman, a fortyish career type in a dark, double-breasted suit, made herself comfortable and smiled. “It’s probably not what you’re used to in your normal line of work, but for someone of your level, this is the standard at EUSA. Especially on the legal staff. It’s a very important part of our organization.”

Connie nodded and seated herself at the desk, sparing only a quick glance at the state-of-the-art computer on the desk return. “I understand and I’ll try not to let you down while we try to finish our business. I have limited experience in this area of law, but I’ll be consulting with the law firm where Ms. Wheeler had been working.”

The woman glanced at Connie uneasily. “It was a shame about Ms. Wheeler. She had a promising career ahead of her.”

It was what everyone had said about Wheeler and the remaining two victims. They all had had promising careers ahead of them. But not one person had mentioned that they also had fulfilling lives beyond their jobs. Connie didn’t need to find out what had made them tick. She was just as driven, but she had a recent taste of what existed beyond the realm of suits and promotions. She experienced new sadness for the three women who maybe had never had a taste of that.

“It was a loss,” she commiserated and then switched to another topic. “We’ll do our best to keep things moving smoothly here until we can pinpoint our suspect.”

“I still think you’re barking up the wrong tree. We screen everyone here very carefully,” the other woman replied. She straightened a little higher in the chair and grasped her hands before her tightly.

Connie nodded and tried to smooth the woman’s ruffled feathers. “I was very impressed with the personnel files you allowed us to review. They were quite thorough and well beyond what we expected,” she said. She needed her as an ally on this project.

The woman relaxed as Connie intended. “Why, thank you. We do our best to eliminate anyone who won’t fit in.”

But that wouldn’t necessarily eliminate the kind of psychopath they were looking for on this case. He, for in this type of criminal behavior it was generally a man between the ages of twenty-five and forty, would try to fit in and seem just like anyone else. That gave him the benefit of surprise. “You wouldn’t have been able to wean out our suspect despite the excellent efforts you’ve made. Even we’re just guessing at his motivation.”

Again the woman seemed placated by Connie’s response, although she stood, and smoothed her skirt. “It’s time I introduced you and got back to my own work.”

Connie rose and followed the woman around the legal department as she met her co-workers. The last person to whom she introduced was her new secretary, who she greeted warmly. “It’s going to be a pleasure working with you, Brenda. I just hope you’ll have some time to show me the ropes.”

The younger woman smiled and shook Connie’s hand. “I have a pile of memos already waiting for you, if you have the time.”

“Well. I guess I’ll be going. If you need anything else, please let me know,” the personnel director indicated as she walked away.

Connie faced Brenda. “I guess that means that you and I should get to work, but I would like to get a cup of coffee first.”

“I can get it for you if you’d like.”

“No, thanks. Just show me the way and I’ll make my own. It takes me quite a few coffees to get going.”

Brenda, a young blonde with a quick smile and intelligent brown eyes, led her to a small pantry a few doors away from her office. It was equipped with a coffee machine and refrigerator for the staff. Brenda explained that the main lunchroom was on another floor, and the executive dining room was on the top floor. “As one of the lawyers, you’re entitled to go up there whenever you want.”

“Who else has such privileges?” Connie needed to meet as many of her possible suspects as she could.

“Officers, directors, and managers of all types. We have a lot of them here,” Brenda replied, rolling her eyes. “There are new product planning and development managers, product managers, directors of clinical research, etc.” She laughed then. “There are so many manager-types that it makes me wonder how there’s anybody left to eat with the regular folk.”

Connie chuckled, enjoying Brenda’s ebullience. “Well, Brenda. If you don’t mind this management-type joining you regular-folk at lunch, I’d appreciate it if I could go with you.”

“No, problem, Ms. Gonzalez,” Brenda replied.

Connie made herself an espresso, drowning it with milk and sugar to create a pale imitation of a Cuban
cafe con leche
and returned to her desk with Brenda following behind, armed with a bulging folder of memos for Connie to work on.

The position Connie had been given was that of in-house Intellectual Property counsel. Wheeler, the victim she had discussed earlier with the personnel director, had been a trademark law attorney with outside counsel. Connie had interned at a similar firm during law school and had even taken a few courses, so she had some idea of what was involved. She could appear credible although she would rely on the outside counsel for the actual work.

Most of the memos dealt with fairly routine requests. Connie delegated the tasks to the paralegals who had handled them in-house and when appropriate, to the outside counsel. She wanted to keep things working as close as possible to the old procedure to avoid any issues when she left.

By the time they finished going through some of the older memos needing attention, it was lunch hour. Brenda took her to the main lunchroom and introduced Connie to a portion of the “regular folk” and some of the managers who preferred to eat there instead of upstairs. All seemed nice enough and Connie sensed that with a company of this size, finding her suspect might be like finding a needle in a haystack. But she had her profile and she had to have faith in her analysis of the potential killer. She had no doubt after reviewing all the evidence they had gathered that the killer was here at EUSA. All of the victims had connections to this company.

By the afternoon, she had been promised a list from the law firm of all contacts with whom Ms. Wheeler had done business at EUSA. The staffs at the other two victims’ companies, an advertising agency and a large Spanish television network, had promised similar lists sometime during the week.

For now it was up to her to draw her own conclusions regarding the possible suspects at EUSA and to make herself visible at the clubs frequented by the victims.

Connie made her list of the names and positions of the men who had sent the various memos to Wheeler to review. She would try to match them against the other lists she was awaiting. Luckily, an envelope arrived from the law firm just as she finished. She opened it, took a quick glance to confirm the contents, and placed it and her own list in her briefcase. She would review them later at home and report to Jeff.

Thinking about Jeff just then reminded her that she had to call and check in. Afterward, she would phone Carmen and Victor to see how they were doing.

She rose, closed the door of her office for some privacy, sat back down, and dialed Jeff. He picked up within a few rings and she gave him her report.

“Another list just came in. The ad agency had a party a few weeks ago and they e-mailed the names of all the attendees. It confirmed there were a bunch of people there from EUSA,” Jeff replied.

Connie smiled. “Great. Please send it to my e-mail and I’ll review it later against the names I’ve been compiling.”

“Done. Meet anyone yet?” Jeff asked, and she could hear him shuffling papers in the background.

“A couple of guys during lunch, but I don’t think they’re in any of the departments with which Wheeler and the others would have had contact.” Connie pulled out her tablet, checked her schedule, and reviewed some of her notes on the victims’ activities. “I’ll head to the dance club on Thursday and Friday night. Who’ll be backing me up?” Although she asked, she knew what the answer would be.

“Stone. He would fit in better than two old geezers like Sanchez and myself.” There was a quick slurp and Connie figured Jeff was on his tenth cup of coffee by now.

“Come on, Jeff. Dave Sanchez is not that old,” she kidded her partner who was close to retirement age.

Jeff chuckled. “Anyhow, Dave and I will be in the van starting on Wednesday. We also have some camera views of the condo parking lot, so I think we’ve covered most of the bases.” It sounded that way to Connie, although anything was possible. Still, the victims had been attacked either in their apartments or parking lots and it was unusual for a serial killer to change their MO so quickly. In light of that, the odds were in her favor with the precautions they had already taken.

She hung up with Jeff and dialed Victor’s office. Carmen answered and after talking for a few minutes with her sister, Carmen playfully probed for more information about her recent date.

“Did you and Victor have a nice time this weekend? I guess you spent a lot of time together? As in all day and night?” Carmen teased.

“I know where you’re going, sis. Yes, we spent a lot of time together. We’re involved now.”

“As in more than just dating? Maybe sleeping together?” Carmen pressed.

Connie knew her sister was like a dog with a bone when she wanted information, so she reluctantly relented and admitted it. “Yes, we are in a committed relationship.”

“That’s great. You and he make a good pair,” Carmen told her, and Connie wondered what kind of pair they were.

A pair of workaholics maybe
? she thought.

“Is he free to talk?” she asked, but Carmen said that Victor was unfortunately at the hospital and unavailable.

“Can you please tell him he can try my cell phone tonight?”

“Will do, Con. Take care, sis,” Carmen replied, a trace of seriousness replacing the earlier playfulness in her voice.

“I will, Carmen,” Connie confirmed and hung up, intent on refreshing her recollection on the issues covered by the memo prepared by the law firm. She reviewed a few of the treatises on the bookcases outside her office and was jotting down notes when someone knocked on her door. “Come in,” she called out and Brenda walked in.

“Just wanted to let you know I was heading out. Need anything before I go?” the young woman asked.

“No, thanks. I was going to leave in about an hour myself and try to get in a jog,” Connie answered as she glanced at her watch. It was a little after five o’clock.

“Do you work out at all?” Brenda questioned and shot a look at her arm. “Is the cast a problem?”

Connie shrugged. “Every now and then I do some free weights but avoid anything that strains my wrist. I get in a jog whenever I can. Sometimes I’ll take aerobic classes.” She didn’t mention her weekly martial arts classes. “I’ve just moved into a new apartment though and my old place is too far away. I don’t know where to go in this area.”

Brenda nodded. “It’s tough to find a good place. I work out down in South Beach. In fact, I used to run into Jessica Wheeler down there fairly often. A lot of the EUSA crowd, well at least the young ones anyway, go there. They say a lot of the celebrities train there, too, but I haven’t really seen any yet.”

Connie smiled at Brenda’s star-struckness. It was what motivated some to trek to South Beach. A glimpse of a star or two. For some others, maybe being discovered as the next new face. The area had become a mecca of sorts for the star watchers and the star wanna-bes.

Still, Connie was a little annoyed with herself that she hadn’t been aware of Wheeler’s activities at the health club. It was worth checking out. “It sounds like it would be a good place for me to try. Would you mind if I went with you next time?”

“Sure. Actually, I’m going on Wednesday after work. A bunch of us meet there and afterward we head to the
News Cafe
for coffee.” Brenda waved. “See you tomorrow morning.”

Connie nodded and wished her a nice night. She dialed Jeff to give him an update, but his voice mail answered. She left him a quick message about the health club. “Looks like Stone is going to get a workout in as well. After all, you ‘old geezers’ can’t risk a heart attack at those weight machines,” she chided and hung up, returning to the notes on the issue in the memo, wanting to at least get the basics down before she left for the day.

#

Connie leaned back in the chair she had bought for the apartment and finished the analysis of the lists she had been sent. She had six likely suspects — all men and all mid-level managers with possible contacts to the victims. She hoped the information to be provided by the television station would eliminate some of the men as potential suspects. That and a visit to the health club Brenda had mentioned.

She stretched and decided to call it a night. With a few key strokes, she e-mailed her comparison to Jeff, then put the hard copy of the law firm list in her scanner and sent that as well. Finally, she called her partner and left another voice mail asking for Jeff’s impressions.

When she was done, she shut down her laptop and locked it and her notes into a file cabinet under the desk in her guest room. Connie wanted to establish routines now, especially for the future in the event that she had to have one of the suspects over to the apartment as part of their plans. Everything had to be secured since two of the victims had been killed in their homes.

Glancing at her watch, she debated whether it was too late to call Victor at home. It was nearly ten o’clock and if he had been at the hospital all day he might be asleep already. She wouldn’t admit to herself that part of her reticence was that she would have preferred he had called her by now, showing her that the time they had spent together this weekend had meant as much to him as it had to her. Liberated woman that she was, or claimed to be, she was annoyed with herself for not wanting to take the initiative and call him again. But her pride wouldn’t let her. She had already called once and Carmen had very likely let him know.