Serendipity By Rocky
CHAPTER 7
The ancient Dodge Coronet crept slowly down the street; the decals that said 'Hansen Security' on the doors were yellowed and peeling with age. The car had been brand new when George first started working for Hansen, now he felt as old and tired as the patrol car. He guided the car around the corner, into the alley and rolled to a stop behind the York house. He shone the spot beyond the birches and up onto the back steps, revealing the fleeting figure of a man running the opposite direction of the light. "Shit!" He cursed into the air and took off at a run.
The chase led out through the front yard and several houses down the boulevard before the two men crashed together into a hedge. George grabbed his quarry by an arm and the back of his belt to pull him out of the shrubbery. Spinning the man around to get a look at his face, the shock of recognition almost caused George to let go. "Murray? Is that you?"
"George?"
Saturday morning, Robert let himself into the lobby doors with his key and waved at the closed circuit camera. He stifled a yawn and trudged over to the elevators. The whole night had been spent trying to trace the hacker who had tried to get into the personnel files, he was embarrassed enough that they (whoever 'they' were) had managed to get that far. Now after a quick trip home for a shower and a change of clothes, he was ready to do battle again.
The elevator doors opened with a 'Clunk' startling Robert out of the slight doze that he had fallen into. Passing through the reception area and turning down the hall, he heard a noise that sounded suspiciously like a giggle from the executive suites across from his office. At first he thought he was hearing things and shook his head to clear it. No… There it was again. Heading in the direction of the sound, he found the lights on in Rory's outer office.
Tiptoeing up to the large oak double doors that had "Rochelle Winters" on a shining brass plaque, he peeked in where they were slightly ajar and almost dropped his large Styrofoam cup of coffee. There, seated at her desk, was Rory… necking with a blonde woman perched languidly in her lap.
Nervously Robert backpedaled to the outer hallway; he coughed loudly and called out "Hello, is someone there?" Counting three slow heartbeats, he walked up to the double doors and pushed them open. He breathed an internal sigh of relief when he saw Rory was seated alone at her desk and the blonde was on the couch apparently trying to read a magazine upside down.
The Marketing manager would have looked calm, cool and collected, except for the fact that the top three buttons on her blouse were in the wrong holes. "Hello Robert, what are you doing here?" Rory asked, genuinely surprised that the young man was in the office on a Saturday. "I was just going to try calling you at home."
"Hello Rory… You're looking well." It was all Robert could do to keep from breaking into a huge 'Shit eating' grin. He had known Rory for almost four years now, complete with a ringside seat for the 'Winters vs. Winters' heavy weight title. He remembered how badly she had been shafted through out the whole thing; it was almost as if she didn't even care that Harland got the lion's share. …And now she sat here, visibly glowing with a youthful vitality that could only be explained by the presence of the younger woman on the couch. "I've been practically living here since we discovered the hack in the personnel files, trying to trace the S.O.B., or at least figure out how they got in, in the first place." He swiveled his gaze about the room and pretended to suddenly discover the girl seated on the couch. He smiled warmly and looked back over to Rory in expectation.
Rory followed his gaze over to her companion and tried to hide her delight when her eyes found Amy. "Robert, this is my… friend Amy Stafford."
Walking over to the petite blonde woman, Robert extended his hand. "Pleasure to meet you Amy." Her small hand disappeared in his larger one. "I take it you two were vacationing together. I apologize in advance for interrupting your holiday."
Robert's friendly demeanor immediately put Amy at ease, in the back of her mind she took back all the nasty things she had been thinking about him since the phone call. He was blatantly average, dark blonde hair, brown eyes, and not quite as tall as Rory. The young man was a twenty-something Joe normal, in every way.
"So, do you know any more about this now than when I talked to you yesterday?" Rory asked, diverting Robert back to the reason she was there.
It was obvious that Amy was to be trusted, so Robert simply dropped into the nearest chair and began ticking facts off on his fingers. "Well for starters, they were only interested in you. The guy who came in here claimed to be an insurance agent and only asked personal questions, nothing about Intercorp. The only stuff they got from our records was the executive profile and that was in the quarterly newsletter anyway. When they tried to go deeper, they triggered the auto lock. I had to come in at two in the morning and reset the system."
Rory frowned and played with her lower lip, lost in thought for several moments. "Who all knows about this?"
"You, me, Heidi and Linda, and of course Harland, which means that Carla knows too I guess."
Rory half expected the usual wave of bitterness at the mention of the 'new' Mrs. Winters, and was pleasantly surprised that she felt absolutely nothing, a total indifference towards her. "Good, let's keep it that way."
"I hate to bring this up…" Robert shifted nervously in his chair and glanced over at the blonde woman on the couch. "Do you think this has anything to do with that unpleasant business from January?"
Pushing away from her desk, Rory walked over to the couch and sat down beside Amy. "It's okay Robert," She said smiling warmly at the young woman beside her. "Amy knows about my big scandal, and to answer your question… I honestly don't know."
"…You're kidding right." George said, passing back the brown paper bag that held the bottle.
"I shit you not, I swear it damn near rattled the windows of my car. Hell, I almost called nine-one-one until I figured out what it was." Murray grinned and tipped back a long swallow.
"Damn!" George peered out the car window to the house down the street. "I'm sorry I missed it." He sighed wistfully. "Young love."
Murray winked at George. "Yeah and they're at that cute 'can't keep their hands off each other' stage. I thought for sure they were gonna go at it in the car the other night."
George dug through the box on the seat. "Any of those pork rinds left? …Oh here they are." He popped open a cellophane baggie and munched thoughtfully. "I remember when… What ever happened Murray?"
The Investigator studied his hands on the steering wheel. "I don't know, we were young and stupid I guess."
The bottle was passed back again and George finished off the final dregs, the warm liquor burning a path down his throat. "You know I tried to call you a couple of times after college."
Murray closed his eyes and drew in a slow breath. "God I'm sorry George, I didn't know." When he opened his eyes he focused them on the house he was supposed to be watching. "George… You're up. That looks like my client's wife and her daughter trying to break into the house."
George muttered an expletive as he rolled out of the car and hit the street at a run. Trotting up the back lane, he moved around the side of the house coming up behind the two women, the younger of which had a screwdriver and was trying to force open a window.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The security guard said in a quiet voice.
The ninja warrior crept quietly down the hallway. Moving with the utmost stealth, the trained killer zeroed in on the target. The woman was standing in her kitchen stirring a bowl of pancake batter; she had no idea that she was about to be the assassin's next victim. Closer, closer… The ninja drew in a deep breath, took careful aim and pulled the trigger on the super-soaker. The resulting shriek was met with a peel of giggles as the miniature ninja retreated to the relative safety behind the Kitchen Island.
Heidi Kellerman grabbed a towel from the handle on the oven and dabbed at her face and chest. "That's it! If you use that damn water gun in the house again, it's going out to the trash… IN PIECES!
A small face peeked back around the island. "Sorry mom."
Unable to keep the mad look on her face, Heidi gave in to a smile and a chuckle. "Go wake up your dad, breakfast will be ready in a few minutes."
The pancakes were poured onto the griddle, sending a delicious smell into the air when the phone started to ring. Heidi grabbed the hand set on the second ring and tucked it into the crook of her neck. "Hello? Oh hi Linda… What's up?" She flipped the pancakes with an expert turn of the wrist. "…But today is Saturday… What is she doing back in town? She wasn't due back for two more weeks… Oh yeah, I remember that creep, we sent him packing. …Well okay, you want me to pick you up? …See ya, …bye."
Harland guided the Cadillac into the parking space marked H. Winters - Pers. Mgr. He turned off the engine and hustled around the large car to open the passenger side door. "Come on Sunshine, hustle that pretty little ass of yours." He grinned at Carla as she slinked out of the car and into his arms.
As the Winters' walked up to the garage entrance, they were met by Rory's secretaries coming from the other direction. "Oh… Hello Mr. Winters," Linda said with a polite smile. "This is great, I was just going to call up upstairs to get someone to come let us in."
Harland flashed a mouthful of caps. "No prob. Ladies… After you." He unlocked the door and held it wide for the women to enter. Guiding Carla through the door after them with his hand at the small of her back, he slid it down to give her bottom a hard squeeze. She looked over her shoulder at her husband and giggled.
The group arrived at the boardroom. Linda and Heidi exchanged looks of surprise, neither one of them had ever seen Rory so relaxed looking, she had her hair down and was smiling and talking with a the young blonde woman at her elbow. "Who is that woman, and what has she done with our boss?" Linda whispered to the other secretary.
Rory looked up and smiled as the two women entered the room. "Hi girls, please come in and have a seat." Her smile seemed to fade somewhat when Harland and his new bride entered the room. "Harland… Carla." she said, nodding in acknowledgement.
"Rory, I'd forgotten how nice you look with your hair down like that." Harland said pulling a chair out at the opposite end of the table. "You remember my 'wife' Carla?"
Rory chose to ignore the obvious dig and smiled graciously at the young woman. " Hello Carla, did you have a nice honeymoon?"
Carla blushed and spoke quietly. "Fine thank you."
Harland threw his arm around his wife and grinned. "It was great, wasn't it Sunshine?" He squeezed her shoulder. "And we'd like to get back to the little bit of it we've got left as soon as possible, if you get my meaning." He winked.
Amy sat silently beside Rory, watching the exchange with interest. So this was "Hardly" Winters, Her Lover's ex-husband. The man was tall, dark, and good looking and had all the couth of a doorknob. 'What on earth had Rory ever seen in him?' she wondered. The bleached blonde beside him looked barely old enough to drink, pushing her appraisal of Rory's ex even further down the scale.
'I'll bet the redhead is Linda…' Amy mused. She had talked to both of Rory's staff several times over the past month, but since neither of the women had spoken she was trying to figure out which was which. They were bookends, except for the other woman having mousy brown hair; both were stocky and friendly looking, a little older than she was.
Robert arrived at the boardroom with a tray of mugs and a carafe. A box of doughnuts was tucked under his arm. "Good. Everyone is here." He said setting everything down on the far end of table.
"Great! Bobby's here, now we can get this show on the road." Harland reached across the table and punched the young man playfully in the arm.
The young PA grinned good-naturedly at his boss. "Hi Harland, thanks for coming up on such short notice." He walked around the table to the two secretaries and leaned in between them. "Thanks for doing this on a Saturday, hopefully this won't take too long." Stepping up to the front of the room he addressed everyone. "I want to bring you all up to speed on what I've found out. As you know, late last week some bozo weaseled his way past security and came into Rory's office asking a lot of personal questions about her. What you may not know is that same night after Heidi and Linda sent him packing; the personnel database was compromised by a hacker."
Harland's eyes grew wide and he stood and leaned into the table. "Bobby, just how the hell did that happen?!"
Robert ran one hand through his hair. "I don't know, Harland, I really don't know. If it's any consolation they didn't get anything."
Angrily the personnel Manager slammed his fist down on the table. "Goddamn it Bobby, I leave you in charge for one bloody month and the whole place falls apart!" He shouted.
"Harland -- Shut the fuck up!" Rory's voice never rose above a speaking tone, but it carried down the table like an icy wind. "It was my file they were after and Robert's new lock down system kept whoever was after me from getting it." The other occupants of the room sat there stunned as the tall executive rose and walked the length of the table and leaned across it until she was nose to nose with her ex husband. "So I suggest you take that huge ego of yours and stuff it up your ass."
The big man deflated like a used balloon. He simply sat back with a surprised look on his face. This was the 'no shit, let's get down to business' attitude that he has witnessed in this room many times before, but until this moment he had never been on the receiving end of it. He swallowed hard. "Okay Rory, your file - your show." He managed to croak out without choking.
The Marketing Exec walked back up to the front of the boardroom and stood beside Robert. "As far as we know, except for whoever is investigating me, only the people in this room know about this and I'd like to keep it that way." She said crossing her arms. "Robert has agreed to run the counter investigation, and to do that he needs your help." She acquiesced to the to the young man and returned to her chair. A small hand slid up onto her knee and gave it a gentle squeeze. It was all she could do not to break into a bright beaming smile.
"Just one question." Harland spoke up, having a great deal of difficulty looking his ex wife in the eye. "I know who everyone else is… But who is the blonde?" He asked pointing at Amy.
"Oh, I am so sorry." Rory rose to stand behind the smaller woman. "I'd like everyone to meet my favorite person in the whole world… Amy Stafford." Rory put her hands on the shoulders in front of her and gave a small squeeze. "This is Amy's vacation that is being interrupted by this mess as well as my own, so hopefully we can get to the bottom of this as soon as possible."
The redhead across the table smiled and extended her hand. "Well it certainly is a pleasure to meet you in person."
"Linda isn't it?" Amy said, taking the woman's hand as she nodded to the question. "And so this must be Heidi… Nice to finally meet you, you have both been so helpful these past few weeks." Amy grinned over her shoulder at Rory. "She must be a handful to keep track of."
"Don't we know it!" Heidi agreed cheerfully and shook the young woman's hand. She noticed the neat row of stitches on Amy's other hand. "My goodness, what happened to your hand?"
Amy kept a straight face and replied, "Kitchen accident."
With both of Rory's staff greeting Amy like an old friend, Harland decided to simply smile and nod. 'Sheesh.' He thought, '…Go away for a few weeks and everything turns upside down…' Funny though, in all the time he was married to Rory, he couldn't remember her mentioning a best friend named 'Amy'? He mulled this over for a moment and dismissed it as unimportant. "Hey Sunshine," he patted his wife's knee. "Why don't you pour everyone a coffee?"
"Sure Snookie!" The girl jumped up and began serving the coffee.
Catching Robert's eye, Rory mouthed "Snookie?!" with her eyebrow pushed clear up to her hairline. The PA could only grin and shrug.
They spent the next couple of hours discussing the problem and what could be done about it. Coming to the conclusion that nothing further could be done until the snoop tried again, everyone agreed that until then it would be kept in confidence. No point in disturbing the corporate heads if it could be handled at department level.
After the impromptu meeting 'Snookie and Sunshine' left to continue their honeymoon and Robert retreated back into his office to continue his hunt for the illusive hacker. The other four women walked companionably back to Rory's office.
"…God, I wish I'd had a camera when you told him to shut up." Heidi said chuckling. "Seriously Boss, it's nice to see you stand up to that walking, talking 'Ken Doll' for once."
"Yeah, and not just that," Linda piped up. "You look great! You should take time off more often. If I didn't know better I'd think you got laid."
Amy suddenly made a choking noise and lapsed into a coughing fit.
"Oh Linda, you're awful." Heidi chided the other secretary. "My goodness, are you all right?" she asked the choking woman. Rory bit her lip as she patted her lover on the back.
Amy managed to stop coughing. "I must be coming down with a cold or something." She said, catching Rory with a sideways glance and a little grin.
"Well I do feel like I've just woken up from a long bad dream." Rory quipped as she turned into the office. She walked through the inner double doors to her office and picked up a list from her desk and handed it to Heidi. "These are the things I need done Monday morning when you two come back into the office."
Heidi looked at the list for a moment and a surprised expression crossed her face. "You are canceling your last two presentations?"
"Yes and no, I'm extending my vacation …well actually I'm going to keep a low profile until I know what the hell is going on. Only you two will know where I am; that means just you and Linda. If Ajax comes looking for me tell her I'm at Betty Ford, that ought to shut her up."
"So what do we do about the presentations?"
"Get Jerry or one of the senior sales staff to do them. All the groundwork is done and my notes are all on my computer. Mostly it's just a matter of someone being there to collect the signed contracts."
The wide grin on the secretary's face spread from ear to ear. "This is just like the good old days!" She passed the list to her counterpart to read. "Anything else?"
The tall executive tapped her lips with her index finger. "Mostly just keep your ear to the ground. This morning Robert asked me if I thought this had anything to do with Laura's harassment suit, and now I'm beginning to wonder." She stepped around the desk and unlocked the bottom drawer, pulling out a file. "Here's everything I have… I know it's a lot to ask of you guys but I want you to pal up to Ajax and her staff. Act like you're pissed at me and we'll see if we can't get the other shoe to drop."
Linda's eye's sparkled. "Oh this is getting too good! I'm in."
Heidi reached over and squeezed her boss' arm. "Me too, it's good to have my old boss back."
As Heidi and Linda left, the cell phone on Rory's desk chirped quietly and she went over and picked it up. "Hello… Yes just a moment." She handed the phone to Amy frowning. "It's the Security Company you hired to watch the house."
Rory watched, concerned as the small blonde woman crossed to the far side of the room talking on the phone.
Amy nervously listened to the man on the other end of the line. "Ma'am, Sorry but I've been trying to reach you all day… I caught two women breaking into your house this morning. They said that they had lost their keys."
Amy snorted. "I bet they did!" She chuckled. "Where are they now?"
"I gave them to the Police. Breaking and entering is a crime." There was a pause on the line. "Did I do wrong?"
Amy laughed, thinking; 'Maybe Mom got to meet Marge after all.' "No. No you did exactly right. Thank-you and keep me posted." She turned off the phone and returned it to Rory.
The tall woman raised one eyebrow. "Well?"
"Oh, nothing unusual. Mom and Sherri are in jail for trying to breaking into the house." Amy said sweetly, ignoring the shocked look on Rory's face.
Rory tilted her head in an effort to figure out how her lover felt about this. "Do you want to go back?" She asked gently, running her fingers through the soft blonde curls.
A touch of venom crept into the small woman's voice. "No, absolutely not, Dad can bail them out." She pulled Rory in for a hug and a quick kiss. " Do you have any plumbing that needs adjusting at your place?" Pursing her lips in an effort not to smile, she winked.
"I don't know if I can wait that long." Rory growled, sprinkling kisses and giggles down her lover's face and throat.
Amy leaned back and looked at the large couch in the corner and then over at the large oak doors. She leaned back in and nibbled at an earlobe. "Do those lock?" she asked in a whisper.
(c) 1999 S. Day