Page 26 of Simon Says… Fight (Kate Morgan Thrillers #11)

“Just that he traveled all the time. He would come in, settle up his paperwork from the last trip, pick up his travel papers, and be on his way out again. So, as much as we expected him to be here, doing what he would be doing, we’re also not surprised when he’s not.

For all we know, his flight got changed.

Instead of going east, he’s turned around and gone west, and then there’s the whole travel-delay scenario. ”

“Who okays his flight plans?”

“Me, to a certain extent, and then my boss, the director of the company.”

“Okay, then I need to talk to him.”

He stared at her for a moment and shook his head. “That’ll be a little difficult.”

“Why is that?”

“Because he’s in Thailand,” he explained.

“He works in Thailand, or he’s there on a holiday?”

“He works remotely, from Thailand.”

“Then a phone call would do, wouldn’t it?” she asked, her tone calm.

He frowned at her and asked, “Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously,” she stated. “I need to know everybody here, where they were, and whether anybody saw Sonny get into a cab or some other vehicle or not.”

He frowned and said, “I can ask around.”

“No,” she corrected. “ I will ask around. How many people do you have in the office right now?”

He looked at her and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Aren’t you supposed to know?” she asked in frustration. “I’m not sure how this place is supposed to run, but surely you must have some idea of who comes into work on a daily basis and who doesn’t.”

“A lot of our people are traveling. A lot of our people work from home,” Tom replied, clearly frustrated now. “So, I have seen probably four or five people this morning, I’m not sure I’ve seen more than that.”

She stared at him. “Okay, I want to know how many were here on the day Sonny left.”

He walked out to the receptionist, who was trying hard to ignore them. “Analise, do you have any idea who was working in the office on the day Sonny left?”

The perky blonde turned to him. “I have no idea,” she said, tucking back her hair.

“Do you not have a sign-in system?” Kate asked. “I understand it’s not school, but do you not have some way of tracking who is here and who is not? How else do you keep track of who’s working?”

“Because they’re all online,” she said, “and they’re in meetings a lot.”

“Okay, so I still need to know,” Kate began again, taking a deep breath, “who might have been here and who might have seen Sonny get into a vehicle.”

Just then another man walked into the lobby, a big smile on his face, until he took one look at Kate and frowned. She asked Tom, “Who is that?”

The man’s eyebrows shot up. “I work here, at least I think I work here,” he noted, turning to look at Tom.

“You do,” Tom confirmed, raising a hand to calm down the man, who looked as if he was stumped, and he no longer wore the big smile.

“Sorry, this is an unusual situation, but Sonny, who was on his way to Toronto…” Tom glanced at Kate, then went on.

“Sonny is in the hospital after being badly beaten up. This detective is here looking into it.”

The man frowned as he stared at her. “Do you have your badge?” She pulled out her badge, and, his voice suddenly hoarse, he muttered, “That says homicide.”

“Yes, it does,” she stated, without further clarification.

“He’s that bad?”

She stared at him. “Who are you? And where were you two days ago when Sonny was leaving the office?”

“I’m Julian. I would give him a ride to the airport if Tom couldn’t,” he shared. “Sonny told me that he was fine and that he would just grab a cab, then muttered something like he shouldn’t have canceled it in the first place.”

She nodded. “And do you have a cab company that he would have called?”

“No,” he replied, looking at her. “You can track that from the credit card, can’t you?”

“Maybe,” she noted, “unless Sonny decided to pay cash and would have turned in some receipt later.” She turned and looked at Tom. “You have a company account, I presume.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Tom stated.

“So, Sonny would have used the company account then, wouldn’t he?”

He looked at her and jerked. “Oh, yes, absolutely. Let me go to my computer, and I’ll bring it up.” He walked back over to his computer, while she stood and studied the new arrival, Julian.

“Did you see Sonny get into a vehicle, cab or otherwise?” Kate asked Julian.

“No, I didn’t,” he said, frowning. “This is really serious, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is,” she confirmed.

“Oh my God, what about poor Anna?”

“She’s at the hospital with him right now,” Kate shared, studying Julian intently. “Do you know anything about their relationship?”

“No, I sure don’t,” he stated. “I stay away from all kinds of drama at the office.”

“And do you know if there was any drama at the office?” She eyed him shrewdly.

“I don’t know,” he said, with a smile. “Believe me, that’s not something I ever want to get into.” He turned to Analise, the receptionist. “Analise would know about Sonny’s personal life.”

She winced and shook her head. “I don’t know.” Then she looked around at the nearby cubicles. “Maybe Angela knows something.”

“And who is Angela?” Kate asked.

“I can call her for you,” Analise offered.

Kate nodded, and, within a few minutes, another woman came to the front desk. She was well dressed, pretty, and very well put together.

Angela looked over at the receptionist, then at Kate. “What’s going on?” she asked.

Kate held up her badge.

“Oh, good God,” Angela muttered. “What are the cops here for now?” She shot a look at Analise, clearly unhappy to be called down into the fray.

Kate stated, “I believe you know Sonny.”

“Yes, of course. I work with him. We all do.”

“Do you know the status of his relationship with his wife?”

She stared at them blankly. “Why would you ask me that?”

“It’s a question I’m asking a lot of people,” Kate replied. “No need to worry or to speculate, just be honest. Would you know the status of his marital relationship?”

“No,” Angela replied, frowning.

Kate stared at her. “Do you want to have this conversation in private?” she suggested, and the other woman flushed bright red.

“Is there a reason why I should? What is this all about?”

“He was beaten extremely badly and is in the hospital,” Kate shared. “Frankly, it’s not looking good.”

The color drained from Angela’s face. “Good God.” She put a hand on her chest. “And what about Anna?” She turned and looked at the others.

“Anna is at the hospital with him right now,” Kate replied, searching for a clue as to Angela’s state of mind in the moment. “So, what is the status of your relationship with Sonny?”

She flushed again. “We work together. We’re colleagues. That’s it.”

But Kate and everybody else in the office could tell it was a lie.

Kate sighed. “Angela, if that’s a lie,” she began, staring at her intently, “I will find out, and I will be really pissed off when I do. I don’t need anybody wasting my time right now.

And then there’s the question of whether Anna will find out too. ”

“Why would she need to find out anything?” Angela asked in horror.

Kate stared at her. “I imagine she’ll have questions and would want to know what happened in the last few hours before Sonny caught his flight.”

“He was at work,” Angela said. “What else could you possibly think?”

Kate continued to stare at her, seeing the telltale signs. “Look. This isn’t a conversation that needs to feed the office gossips,” Kate muttered. “You can come with me to my office.”

Angela snapped, “Do I need a lawyer?”

“I don’t know,” Kate replied. “Do you?”

Angela glared at her, then shrugged and led the way to her own office.

As they stepped into Angela’s office, Kate asked, “Did you have an affair with Sonny?”

Her shoulders slumped, Angela nodded. “Yes, I did,” she muttered, “but I don’t know how relevant that is.”

“You don’t seem particularly put out that he’s in the hospital.”

“If his wife’s there, it’s not like I get any rights to see him, do I?”

“No, and that’s one of the things I’m interested in seeing, who will show up and who won’t.”

“You can’t think I had something to do with it?” Angela asked in a shocked voice.

“I don’t know whether you did or not,” Kate noted. “What I do know is that I have something to solve, and I will not stop until I’ve turned over all the rocks, and all the people who put the rocks on top of crap like this.”

Angela flushed and glared at her resentfully. “You didn’t have to make it public.”

“Really? It’s funny because, when I asked who else might have some idea about the status of Sonny’s marriage, your name came right up.”

She frowned and stared in the general direction of the front lobby. “Good God, do you think they know?”

“Oh, that’s a given,” Kate declared. “That’s an absolute given.”

Angela raised a hand to her face. “I,… I…”

“You what?” Kate asked, staring at her intently. “You didn’t know, you didn’t expect, you didn’t think anybody would ever find out?”

She glared at her. “None of that is any of your business.”

“It’s all my business, and, if he dies, I’ll tear apart all your lives,” she stated. “So, you might want to keep that in mind the next time you have an office affair with a married man.” And, with that, Kate got up and walked out.

As she headed out to the main room, she stopped at the lobby area, and Tom came out to talk to her. She saw that his face was flushed too.

“I don’t have any sign of a credit card charge,” he shared, “and nothing here says that he took a cab.”

She grimaced. “If he didn’t take a cab,… would anybody else here have driven him?”

“I would have said that…” He looked back toward Angela’s office, where she stood at her open doorway.

“I didn’t take him to the airport,” she snapped.

“When did you last see him?” Kate asked Angela.

“Before he left,” she replied stiffly. “We were discussing work.”

Kate rolled her eyes at that.

Angela glared at her. “You don’t know anything.”