by Margaret Kay
“He strikes me as the type of person who has a very strong moral compass.”
“He does, of course, that describes every member of the team.”
Madison chuckled. “Yeah, I noticed that. They’re a tight team. They’re speech patterns and mannerisms are alike. Different faces, different names, but the same type of men, which makes them a strong team. If they were all women, their periods would probably be in sync.”
Lassiter laughed aloud. “We are about out of time, but just so you are aware, I have a handful of civilian patients I see here.”
Madison smiled and nodded. “Okay, that explains why your office is accessible from the public hallway.”
Lassiter came to his feet. Madison followed suit. “Email, text, or call me anytime. Unless either of us deem it necessary, make an appointment with me a few days before you go out on your first Op. I’m in the company Outlook directory and my calendar is open with free or busy details. Just send me a calendar invite for a time that works for you.”
“Thank you, I will,” she promised.
They shook hands, and he walked her to the door. She went up the flight of stairs to the fifth floor and entered the Shepherd Security suite through the public door. Angel sat at her desk. She smiled in recognition. Immediately, the buzzer on the interior door sounded so Madison could enter.
“Hey, how’s it going?” Angel greeted.
“Good.”
“You just met with Lassiter, didn’t you?” Angel asked.
Madison was surprised. “Yes.” Was everything private, public knowledge around this place?
Angel giggled. “I see all calendars, Executive Administrative Assistant access. And it’s not like seeing Lassiter is a big deal, everyone does. This was your first time though. How did it go?”
Madison was still a bit taken aback. “I guess okay. He does seem like a nice guy.”
“He is,” Angel assured her. “How is everything else going? Damn, they’ve been keeping you busy.”
“Yeah, very busy.” She realized this was the first time since her first day at the agency that she had seen and talked with Angel. “I took lunch to my office yesterday, needed to get through some training material. I meant to get back down this way and at least say hi before now.”
Angel waived that off. “No worries. I know how it is around here.”
Madison thought for a second about the day before that. “You weren’t around Tuesday for lunch. I ate in the kitchen with everyone else.”
“No, I had a doctor’s appointment over lunch. Are you available today? Lunch will be here in about twenty minutes, Mediterranean salads, kabobs, shawarma, and grilled vegetables. I even ordered some baklava. I could make sure Michaela is available and we could plan on lunch together. Us girls have to stick together,” Angel said.
Madison smiled. “I need to check in with Cooper first, but if he doesn’t have plans for me, I’d like that.”
“Okay, good. Check with him and let me know. Just shoot me a text or an email. We could take our lunches up to Michaela’s office. She and I do that often. I love the team and everyone on it, but sometimes a private lunch and girl-time is nice.”
Madison nodded. “That does sound nice.”
She briskly walked towards Cooper’s office. She found him at his conference room table with a mound of diagrams spread out in front of him. He glanced up when she rapped on the frame of his open door.
“Hi, come on in,” he greeted. “How did it go with Lassiter?” He knew he’d get a brief write up from Lassiter within the hour, so he would get it from Lassiter’s perspective as well, but he did want to hear her thoughts.
“Good. I like him. He seems like a good guy.”
“He is,” Cooper said. “Just always remember, he is here for you. Seeing him is expected and if you’re ever dealing with any emotional shit, his office is where you need to be. The guys that get that are successful in this job, those who don’t, aren’t.”
She nodded. She wouldn’t point out that she wasn’t a guy. “Do you need me through lunch today? If not, I’d like to have lunch with Angel and Michaela.” She wanted to get that out there right away.
Cooper’s jaw clenched. No, he hadn’t planned on working through lunch, but he had planned to eat with her in the kitchen. She had remained in her office the previous day, reading through protocols. “No, we’ll hit this now and then get back to it after lunch.”
“Great,” she said with a smile.
She typed out a quick text to Angel telling her lunch was on. Then she came in close to look at the blueprints on the table. What he had were all the schematics of the Inverness Academy. The grounds, dormitory, and the science building were on top of the pile.
“I thought we’d spend the afternoon doing a first prep for the Inverness Academy Op. We’ll hit it multiple times over the next week, so you know it forward and back. We’ll also work in some more of your street smarts training too.”
“Sounds good.”
“So, these are the schematics of the science building. It’s a three-level structure, basement, first floor, and second floor. Molly Corbin was found in a small refrigerator in this lab on the first floor.” He pointed to the room on the diagram.
She leaned in close, so close he could smell the light floral scent of her shampoo lofting from her, reminding him that unlike Molly Corbin, he was very much alive. He watched as she gathered her long locks and draped them around the back of her neck, so they cascaded over her shoulder. When her beautiful blue eyes fixed on his, he felt his jeans get tighter. Holy hell. Control yourself!
“That poor little girl,” she said softly.
He reached a hand to her shoulder. “Madison, are you going to be okay with this Op? This is an emotional one. We all feel it.”
She shook her head, her eyes never leaving his. “That’s exactly why we have to do this. I’ll be fine, Cooper. Please don’t worry about me.” A part of her appreciated his concern. Another part of her wondered if he was only concerned because she was a woman. That thought pissed her off.
He saw strength and determination in her stare. He smiled and nodded, withdrawing his hand. “Not worried for a second, just checking.”
She quickly glanced back down at the blueprints. His fingers on her shoulder had given her tingles everywhere. “So, how’d the kids supposedly get into the science building? Aren’t the buildings locked up at night?”
“The night-time janitor said he leaves the door closest to the parking area open for him to come and go while cleaning.”
“And he’s already been let go, right? He’d be my first suspect.”
“I’m suspicious of the four dormitory monitors, the faculty who live in the wing Molly Corbin’s room was in. Whatever happened to her started when she left her dorm that night,” Cooper said. “Two of the women who live there cited bad colds and night time cold formula taken before they went to bed as to why they heard nothing that evening.”
“And the other two?”
“Both said they were up late because they knew the other two were going to bed early. One, Patricia Bodean, said she was binge-watching Orange is the New Black, the other, Kimberly Wang, was on the phone with her mother for several hours. Both women’s stories check out with digital records. I have Garcia and Yvette doing a deeper dive into all four women as well as the janitor. So far, nothing is suspicious.”
“Except a dead little girl.”
Cooper’s serious stare met hers. “Yeah, except that.”
They spent the remainder of the time until lunch, going over the building layouts. Lunch was a welcome distraction for Madison. She met up with Angel in the kitchen. Angel was spooning portions into two containers.
“I’m getting one for me and Michaela. Serve yours up quick and we’ll go up to her office.”
Madison followed behind Angel helping herself to the incredibly good smelling food. She normally didn’t eat sweets, but she couldn’t pass up a small piece of baklava. She and Angel took t
he elevator up to eight.
Cooper had followed a few minutes behind Madison, arriving near the kitchen just in time to see her and Angel walked down the hall towards the interior staircase and elevator. They chatted and laughed, which for some reason annoyed him even more. He watched until she was out of sight, his eyes focused on her shapely ass.
His mood was foul. He knew he had to get his mind off her and stop himself from reacting the way he was to her, which was like a horny sixteen-year-old. He contemplated calling Elidia, the massage therapist with magic hands he visited when he needed a release, but the thought of an intimate massage followed by a good fuck didn’t do anything for him, which caused his mood to drop further.
“Who pissed in your cornflakes?” Doc asked as he came up to Cooper who stood like a damned idiot gazing down the empty hallway with a scowl etched across his face.
“No one,” Cooper grumbled. “I just hate being in a holding pattern until Miller comes up to speed. You know I hate being in the office.”
“I thought the training was going well. It’s only her fourth day on board, what’s the issue?”
Cooper blew out a frustrated breath. “It is going well. I’m just being impatient.”
Doc barked out a hearty laugh. “And you thought taking on the role of her SO was a good idea, why?”
Cooper didn’t answer. He turned and went into the kitchen to get lunch. He knew he had to watch it. He didn’t want to portray her as inadequate in any way to the team. She was doing well and picking up on things fast. It was his impatience and his attraction to her that was causing him a problem. It was his problem. He knew that.
The ladies sat at the table in Michaela’s office within the lab. She had a window that overlooked the parking garage and parking lot.
“So, how is it going with Cooper as your SO?” Michaela asked.
“It’s fine,” Madison replied, still not sure why everyone acted the way they were about it. “There is so much to learn. And Anthony hasn’t even pushed out the protocols for the Ops Center yet. That’s familiar territory for me. Prepping for the field, not so much.”
Michaela and Angel exchanged looks. “Cooper’s really fine?” Michaela asked skeptically.
Madison laughed a nervous release. “Why does everyone ask that? Yeah, he’s fine.”
“I thought Shepherd would assign Garcia or Jackson as your SO,” Angel said. “But operationally, Garcia may not be available long enough.”
Madison wasn’t sure what that meant. “I honestly don’t know if I’m going to be ready for this first mission by the end of next week.”
“You will, I’m sure,” Angel said. “If not, they push it off another week until you are ready.”
“Yeah, don’t let the timetable stress you out,” Michaela added.
Madison forced a smile and nodded. Then she took another bite of her lunch. The fact was she didn’t want to make them push the timetable out due to her lack of readiness, and it was stressing her out. How could she explain to these two that she felt a great deal of pressure being the first female Operator Shepherd Security had ever hired? She wondered if Michaela felt pressure from being a female on this male dominated team. She didn’t want to appear insecure, so she said nothing.
Conversation steered away from work to working out in the gym. Not surprisingly, the two women worked out together several times a week, usually when few of the men were there. Yvette occasionally joined them when her schedule allowed.
“Once you’re through these two cases, you will have to join me, Madison,” Michaela said. “Angel already can’t do half of what she did before and I’m sure the further along she gets, the more restrictions her doctor will put on her.”
“Hey,” Angel protested.
“Further along?” Madison asked.
“In my pregnancy,” Angel said.
“Pregnancy?” Madison asked. “You’re pregnant?”
“Yes, I’m sorry. I thought you knew,” Angel said.
“That’s great. Congratulations,” Madison said with a genuine smile. “When are you due?”
“April tenth,” Angel said, beaming. Her hand pressed against her lower abdomen.
The discussion shifted to plans to decorate the nursery, jogging strollers, car seats, and all the other baby paraphernalia that Angel and Jackson had been looking at. Madison again wondered about Angel and what her story was. She had seen the mission report file in the folder on the server but hadn’t tried to open it. Doing so would feel like violating Angel’s privacy.
After an enjoyable lunch, Madison returned to Cooper’s office. They continued studying schematics. By the time Madison arrived on-site, she would know the complete layout of the facility by heart. She’d also have studied the information on every adult that worked at that school, so she’d know everything about them.
“What will my cover be? And who all will know who I really am?” Madison asked.
“Senator Corbin has arranged with the board of directors of the Inverness Academy for you to go in as a teacher and dormitory monitor. The only other person who will know who you are is the school’s chancellor, Dr. Marge Chamberlin. Their full-time Physical Education teacher, Vanessa Michaels is not suspect. The night Molly Corbin died she was out with her FBI Agent husband and many of his coworkers. She is also six months pregnant and we can easily explain her sudden absence by a doctor-ordered bedrest.”
“So, I’m going in as the PE teacher. That’ll work. I’ll get the chance to meet and talk with all the girls.”
Cooper nodded. “Yep, the perfect cover.”
“I assume grief counselors were brought in initially?”
Cooper clicked a few keys on his laptop. “I just pushed their reports through to you. I’m afraid no insights were gleaned from it, but maybe you’ll see something the rest of us missed.”
“I’ll read through it later this afternoon or this evening,” Madison said. “How many of the kids have been removed from the school by their parents? If I had a daughter there, I think I would have brought her home after something like this.”
“Only two. Senator Corbin and the board of directors reached out to all families wanting to withdrawal their daughters to request that they remain until the investigation is concluded. The Senator was especially convincing that the removal of any child could severely hamper the search for the truth. Plus, the death has been widely reported as an accident. Surprisingly, only twenty families wanted to remove their daughters.”
At seventeen hundred hours, five pm, Doc knocked on the open doorjamb. “I wanted to catch you before you left for the night, Miller. How’s the muscle in the back? You haven’t come to see me.”
“It’s fine,” she insisted. “You said to come if it was bothering me and it’s not.”
Doc strode in and started moving her arm around while pressing on her back. “Have you iced it at all today?”
“Haven’t needed to. It’s fine, Doc,” she repeated with a firmer insistence.
His face beamed a doubting expression to her and Cooper.
“I haven’t noticed any indication that it was bothering her,” Cooper said. He had actually forgotten about it.
“Okay, good. Get in some light exercise tomorrow,” Doc said. “If it flares up, come see me.” His eyes shifted to Cooper. “How much longer are you going to be?”
“I can be available now.”
Doc nodded. Shepherd was on his way, as well.
Cooper’s eyes went to Madison. “You can call it a night if you want. Get through the grief counsellor’s report sometime before zero-nine-hundred tomorrow. That’s when we’ll pick back up.”
“And I get about four hours with you tomorrow,” Doc said. “Need to fit in some remedial combat first aid.”
“Sure thing,” Madison said. “I probably will take off and review that report from home. Have a good night, both of you.”
“Good night, Madison. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Cooper said. “And close the door on your way out, please.
”
Madison closed it and rushed down the hall. Angel was still at her desk. She chatted with Angel for a few minutes and then continued down the hall towards the stairs. Shepherd rolled out of his office as she neared.
“Miller, how goes the training?”
“Good, thank you,” she replied, fighting the Pavlovian response to come to attention.
“That’s what I hear. You met with Lassiter today. He qualified you for duty from a psychological perspective.”
Madison was glad to hear that. “That’s good to know.”
“You just left Cooper?”
She nodded yes.
