Chapter Thirty-Eight
(Friday Morning—Johnny)
Johnny’s neck twinged whenever he moved his head. He had to hold it carefully, bent slightly to the left, to be able to work. It was distracting—but not as distracting as his worries about the CFO and Danny getting together this morning.
He’d gone to see a movie after he left the office last night. It was something or other starring Sean Connery, but he had no idea if it had been any good. When he got home, he’d lain awake and stared at the ceiling until well after two in the morning.
He eventually gave up on the idea of sleep and climbed out of bed. To keep himself from pacing the floor, he grabbed a Stephen King paperback. It was engrossing, but at some point after four o’clock he fell asleep sitting up and had stayed that way until his alarm shrilled.
It was eleven o’clock, and Danny hadn’t shown up yet. Serno had nodded to Johnny once, looking preoccupied, and spent the rest of the morning holed up in his office as far as Johnny could see.
Johnny swallowed two more Ibuprofen tablets. How many was that, anyway? Eight? Or ten? More? Whatever, they weren’t helping. Probably the coffee he was drinking in similar doses counteracted the painkiller, but he needed caffeine to function today.
He should have known better than to go to sleep like that. He’d had occasional neck problems ever since his last trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Somehow he’d ended up competing in a drag queen mud-wrestling event as “Elmira, Mistress of the Muck.” He’d placed third, at least according to the trophy he’d quickly hidden beneath the bathroom sink upon his return to Corpus.
What he could remember of the contest had been fun, but it had disturbed him to see what a good-looking woman he made—with the necessary props, anyway. Not that he had anything against “transgendered” folk, of course. But sometimes he had nightmares. Worse yet, sometimes he thought he might like to do it again.
And occasionally, when nobody was around, he liked to take the trophy out—just to look at it.
He was working on making some sense out of Danny’s latest set of demands, trying to come up with a workable project plan for the next month or so, when in one of his periodic glances out the window he saw Viktor Bentley walking across the parking lot toward the building. Trailing him was the guy Danny had left with the day before. Looked like he was wearing the same brown suit.
Bentley stopped to talk to a thin white-haired guy standing next to a black Explorer. The white-haired guy nodded and banged on the back door of the Ford. He wore a suit too, only his was gray. Bentley wore black. What was this, an undertakers’ convention?
Oh. Bad taste there.
He stood and stretched, careful of his neck, trying to get a better view of the parking lot without making his interest obvious to everybody in the office. Was that someone else moving around in the Explorer? Holy shit, two uniformed cops were getting out of the back seat. Was this about last night? How much trouble was he in?
“Johnny?” Keith Lyle’s voice came from behind him.
Johnny turned slowly.
Lyle looked apologetic. “I’m gonna need a little more time than I thought.”
“Yeah?” Lyle had been the one whose bugs had held everybody else up yesterday. But right now Johnny didn’t care. “How much?”
“Um…it’s complicated. Basically the component I wrote was for an earlier version of the design specs. You remember, I got it done pretty quickly?”
Johnny sketched a nod.
Lyle ran a hand through his hair. “Well, now it’s supposed to be doing a whole lot more than it was when I built it last month. Nobody told me anything had changed, so now I’m the guy holding everybody up.”
Johnny bobbed his head another eighth of a inch. It was a familiar story, and it was his fault, not Lyle’s. “Sorry, man. Now that you mention it I remember thinking about that a couple of weeks ago during a meeting, but I never got around to writing it down or telling you. My goof. Don’t worry, I’ll tell everyone what happened.”
“Thanks, Johnny. But you can’t expect to catch everything either, you know. If we could just finish doing something before we got started on something else—”
“Yeah, same old story. But we’re working on it.” He watched Bentley and the white-haired guy come into the office through the security door. The uniformed cops must have stayed outside. The pair walked in his direction, and his neck spasmed. But they went right past him and headed for Serno’s office. Was that good?
“Johnny?” Lyle was still there. “You okay, man?”
“Yeah, just screwed up my neck somehow.” Bentley and the white-haired guy went into the CFO’s office without knocking. Johnny forced his attention back to Lyle. “How much more time do you need?”
Lyle shrugged. “Couple of days, probably. Might finish it tonight, if everything goes well, but give me tomorrow just in case. I’ll have it by the morning of the day after for sure.”
“Okay, Keith.” But Lyle’s eyes kept darting around, looking for a solution. “Relax. I’ve got some other things for the guys to work on between now and then.” He grinned. “Documentation, you know. We’re behind.”
Lyle grinned back, suddenly realizing he wouldn’t have to do any of it. “Deal, boss. Thanks!” He left.
Johnny turned toward Serno’s office again. Danny had left with that brown-suited guy yesterday. Had they met Bentley at the Staples Mall? Bentley didn’t seem like the kind of guy you’d find in a mall, certainly not for a business meeting. And why were the cops waiting outside?
He shoved his right hand into his pocket, momentarily contemptuous of his neck’s complaints. He pulled out his keys and played with them as he pondered the situation. There was something else, something he’d forgotten. Something about last night.
Jesus, he knew what it was. He really was an idiot. He’d put Danny’s jump drive into his pocket last night, then promptly forgotten about it until now.
If Danny came back and noticed it was missing, and Serno mentioned he’d seen Johnny in the office last night, Johnny was screwed. Whatever else was going on, he had to get that thing back into Danny’s office somehow.
He wanted to stick around and try to intercept Danny. But the jump drive was back in his apartment, still in the pocket of the pants he’d worn last night.
***
Shiver on the Sky Page 59
