Page 70 of Exposed

Bennie got off the elevator, brushing raindrops off her suit as she made a beeline for the two cardboard boxes stacked on the floor, expecting them to contain the files that were in hard copy. She had already checked her email in the car to find that OpenSpace had emailed her Simon’s emails for the past three years. She hadn’t had the chance to read through them on the drive, but she had saved the entire file to Dropbox. It had been surprisingly large, but she remembered that Todd and Ray had called Simon the Mad Emailer.

Bennie went to the first box, checking that the mailing label read OpenSpace, then cut the masking tape with her car key, opened the top box, and looked inside. It contained a stack of purchase orders from earlier in the year, which had evidently been photocopied from the originals. She rifled through the rest of the papers in the box, and determined that they were all POs. She went to the second box, opened it, and they were full of POs too. She went to the third and the fourth, which contained call logs, then closed the box.

Bennie straightened up, reassessing the situation. She had hoped to be able to read the documents and copy them herself, but that wasn’t going to work. She eyed the full boxes, estimating that it had taken the secretaries at OpenSpace a few hours to photocopy. Nate had said that he would send a courier to her office first thing tomorrow morning, and so there was only one thing to do: Call in reinforcements.

Fifteen minutes later, Bennie was standing at the Xerox machine outside her office, copying a purchase order, when Judy Carrier bopped down the hall, looking oddly energized for so late at night. Bennie turned slightly, but kept at her task. “Thanks for coming in.”

“Not a problem.” Judy smiled, reaching her, and the light from the Xerox machine flashed on her face like a corporate strobe. “Hey, you should close the cover when you photocopy things.”

“I don’t have time.” Bennie took the PO off the glass, set it aside, and reached for the next email, pressing the button. The photocopier light went off again.

“It’s bad for your eyes. Your skin, too. You could get photo-allergic dermatitis, I read that somewhere.”

“I’ll live.”

“It also uses up the toner.” Judy slid the photocopy out of the tray and placed it facedown on the pile, and Bennie placed the next PO on the glass, hitting the button.

“I’ll buy more.”

“It’s bad for the environment.”

Bennie looked over. “Why are you so wide-awake? Please tell me it’s not cocaine.”

“I’ve been weaving. It makes me happy. It’s a natural high.” Judy’s eyes flared slightly. “I saw Mary on TV. I assume she’s still at the Roundhouse. I texted her offering to help but she didn’t text back.”

“So did I.”

“You did? That was nice of you.” Judy slid the copy from the tray and placed it on the pile.

“I’m a nice person. I just get bad press.” Bennie put anotherPO on the machine and hit the button. “I’m copying the first box of documents, and there’s four more in the reception area. If you could get started on a box, that would be great. They’re going back to Dumbarton first thing in the morning.”

“Because Nate fired you?” Judy slid the copy from the tray.

“Yes.”

“Does he know you’re copying them?”

“What do you think?” Bennie hit the button to photocopy another PO.

Judy smiled. “How did we get them in the first place?”

“Your basic corporate miscommunication.”

“Why do we want them?”

“Because Nate doesn’t want us to have them. I don’t know if they’re useful or meaningless. I’m hoping there’s something in them that can help Mary.”

Judy met Bennie’s eye with hope. “Does this mean that you guys made up?”

“We weren’t in a fight.”

“You’re getting a divorce.” Judy slid the copy from the tray.

“I wanted to save the marriage, she didn’t.” Bennie started another photocopy.

“Maybe she will now.”

“Let’s worry about Pensiera. That’s the priority. She’s going to have her hands full with the murder case, and the other case is going to take a backseat.”