Purple Knot

by Raquel Byrnes

He let go and leaned down and kissed my forehead. “I think that you might do better if you sent Salem in to talk with the H.R. ladies.”

  I turned and looked at Salem through the large café front window. He was leaning against the counter laughing and chatting with the barista. I could tell even from a distance that she was flirting with him. She kept touching his arm and laughing.

  “He is really handsome.”

  “Hey now,” Jimmy said with mock concern.

  Salem’s blonde hair, chiseled jaw, and preppy clothes made him look like he belonged at a beach party in the Hamptons. He looked moneyed and spoiled. He’d fit right in as a junior executive at Parker’s firm.

  “You know, you’re right.”

  Jimmy smiled and leaned in to kiss me. “That’s what I like to hear you say,” he teased.

  “Ugh!” I feigned anger and pushed out of his arms.

  A serious look crossed Jimmy’s face. “You think he’s ready?”

  I eyed Salem and chewed on the inside of my cheek. Salem just turned twenty-one a few months ago. He was a baby. I sighed and turned to Jimmy. “We’ll see.”

  ****

  Salem made his way back out to us, but I was tracking down the equipment I needed. I used the application Salem had downloaded on my phone. It brought up a map of Seattle and I scrolled through the electronic equipment stores until I found the one I was looking for. “I found it.”

  Salem and Jimmy stopped chatting and turned to face me.

  “Did you bring a suit?” I asked Salem.

  Salem changed into his suit in the café bathroom. I explained my plan on the way to the store. Salem looked at me like I had just told him he was going to meet with an axe murderer.

  “So I just go in and flirt with the Human Resources lady and dig up something on Parker?”

  I nodded and checked my phone map. I tapped Jimmy on the shoulder and pointed left. “You really need to be more subtle than that. Uhm, talk about the merger. Gauge her reaction. If it seems likes she’s for it, then talk it up. If she seems like she’s not happy about it, then complain about all the changes.”

  “And that’ll get her talking about Parker?”

  “No, probably not. If she does bring him up, look uninterested.”

  Jimmy gave me a strange look. I made a “what?” gesture with my hands but he shook his head and looked back out the windshield.

  I continued with Salem. “Dance around what she said but don’t ask her direct questions. I’m more interested in anything going on with his department. See if she’s heard any rumors about someone with a substance problem.”

  Jimmy’s head snapped back towards me but I pretended not to notice.

  “Rumors, got it.” Salem seemed unconvinced. I sighed. Maybe he was too new at this to try under so much pressure.

  We pulled up to the store. A wood-carved sign read, N. Hale’s Shoppe. I chuckled. Nathan Hale was thought to be America’s first spy during the Revolutionary War. He was caught by the British and muttered the famous, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”

  “Nice.” Jimmy looked at the sign and smiled.

  Salem didn’t comment.

  The spy shop was set up well. Nothing too fancy, just good quality equipment at decent prices. I walked up to the register, and a plump woman sidled up to the glass counter. She looked like she should be baking cookies, not hawking surveillance equipment. “Can I help you, honey?”

  “I’m looking for a button camera and audio transmitter, preferably in an earpiece, if you have one.”

  She nodded and came around the counter. I followed to a section in the back of the store. A small flat screen hung on the wall and she flipped it on.

  “I can show you the two button cameras we carry, and you decide which one meets your needs, OK?”

  I nodded. She smelled like peach pie.

  Jimmy wandered over with Salem behind him.

  “All my equipment is back home.”

  The sales lady nodded like that happened all the time. She unlocked the front of a glass display case and pulled out a small camera the size of a nine-volt battery. A black, four-holed button obscured the lens. “This is your standard black and white, no audio model.” She hooked it up to the cable attached to the monitor and the camera’s view popped onto the flat screen. It wasn’t great, but it was clear. She panned it around the room and I saw that past a few feet the image was blurry.

  “I need something with better resolution. I don’t need audio on the camera, but I won’t complain if you have it.”

  “The other camera we carry is a bit pricey,” she warned.

  “Is it worth it?”

  “Well, I think you’ll find that it is, Missy.”

  Jimmy stifled a smile, and I nodded to her.

  “Lets see it, then.”

  She hooked the second camera up, and I was hit with the extreme difference in the caliber of picture. Where the first camera was a bit wall-eyed in its image, the second camera was like looking through the lens of a fine telephoto camera.

  “Oh dear,” I said seriously. “I think I’m in love.”

  Grandma saleslady chuckled. “They all say that.”

  I bought the camera and the two-way earpiece. She threw in a car charger for the camera for free. Salem was fiddling with a laser pointer so I got that too. We went back out to the SUV, and I hooked it up in the charger. I turned to Salem.

  “So, you ready?”

  He literally gulped, like in the movies. “I guess so.”

  “Just pretend she’s a coffee house waitress,” Jimmy offered with a smirk.

  Salem feigned insult. “She’s a barista. They’re highly trained, you know. I heard they have to know how to make over twenty different kinds of drinks.”

  I nodded solemnly. “They’re true artists, then.”

  Salem’s suit jacket was navy blue, but the black button on the camera didn’t look too off. We decided to go with it. We emptied Jimmy’s leather satchel and put some empty manila folders in it to make it look businesslike. Then I gave Salem some last minute encouragement, and we dropped him off in front of the Veno Pharmaceutical building. We found a parking spot across the street and a block down.

  Jimmy parked, turned off the engine, and looked at me with expectation. “I feel like I’m on a stake-out.”

  “We’re actually doing tactical recon.”

  He chuckled.

  I fiddled with the audio receiver. Salem’s earpiece had squawk suppression but the walkie-talkie like other half of the equation did not. I finally got it right and pressed the talk button.

  “How are you doing, Salem?”

  I let the talk button go and heard garbled voices and an overhead announcement. Salem whispered back, and it was clear as if he were in the car with me and Jimmy.

  “Fine. I’m checking out the building map in the lobby.”

  “I hear you great, Salem. Make your way to the Human Resources department. Look lost.”

  “OK.”

  I sat back against the door and smiled at Jimmy.

  “This was a good idea, I think.”

  “He’s a good kid.”

  I nodded and looked at the receiver in my hand.

  “He’s probably the only person I trust out there in California.”

  Jimmy looked at me and his face changed. He held my eyes. “I know how successful you’ve been out there.”

  That caught me off guard. “Uh, thanks?”

  Jimmy reached over and took my hand in his. “Summer kept me updated. She was so proud of all that you built out there. We both were.”

  “I don’t…”

  “I know that you built a life, a good life.”

  I didn’t know where this conversation was going and it made me nervous. My hands even got sweaty. What was Jimmy talking about?

  Salem’s voice squawked on the receiver. “I’m in the elevator to the third floor. Human Resources is the whole floor, can you believe that?”

&nbs
p; I pressed the talk button. “Veno is a multinational company. Odds are most of Human Resources is computerized and run by just a couple of people.”

  “Huh…OK, I’m here.”

  I didn’t have real time feed of the button camera on Salem so I had to listen to his conversation without any video. He introduced himself as a junior executive in for a meeting and commented on her bangle earrings.

  “Bangle earrings? I don’t even know what that means.” Jimmy raised an eyebrow.

  I shushed him and listened to Salem flirt outrageously with someone named Cary. He brought up the merger while pretending to have a hard time finding a recent company stock report. I heard her moan and make a negative remark. She offered to help him. Salem was wonderful. He got all recent complaints for the merger. Then he made a comment about Parker’s department and Cary gave up the goods.

  “Oh, are you guys still going through that audit?”

  “Yeah, it’s a real pain.”

  “I know,” Cary agreed. “Parker is always asking for me or Sheila to go up and help with all the filing.”

  I tensed. Was she starting to wonder why she hadn’t seen him before?

  “Yeah, that’s why I’m here. I guess they needed extra help so they send the guy on the bottom of the totem pole to move boxes.”

  Cary laughed. Nice save, Salem.

  “You know, that poor man,” Cary continued. “He hasn’t been in since his wife was murdered.”

  “I heard about that.”

  “Just awful,” Cary said. “Yeah, he’s supposed to be in tomorrow.” She sounded more fascinated than horrified.

  My stomach churned.

  “Must be why they need the extra help.”

  “Oh, that reminds me. I have all the supply inventories Mr. Evans asked for. Sorted by date like he specified. It took me forever! Do you want to take those up with you?”

  My heart leapt. This was a great break. I pressed the talk button and whispered to Salem.

  “Yes, say yes.”

  Salem cleared his throat. “Uh, sure.”

  I heard their voices change, like they were in a small room.

  “Here they are,” Cary’s voice closer now. She must be standing next to Salem.

  “I’ll just…take these up and get started.”

  Cary cleared her throat and when she spoke she sounded nervous. “So will you be here that long?”

  “No telling,” Salem said vaguely. “I could use some advice on restaurants out there, though. There’s so many places downtown I’d starve while trying to choose just one.”

  “Well, I could show you a few great places, if you’re free this week.”

  “How about tomorrow night?”

  Cary giggled and agreed.

  “Go, Salem!” Jimmy bobbed his eyebrows up and down quickly and smiled.

  I had to smile, too. A few hours in the city and he already had a date.

  Salem chatted with her for a few more minutes, and then he was out the door.

  “See if you can find a stairwell, or an empty room.” I depressed the talk button.

  Jimmy looked at me but didn’t comment.

  “What…why?” Salem sounded surprised.

  “Because she just handed you something that Parker is working on. Take a look at it and see if anything seems out of place.”

  “It’s a box of papers. How would I know what to look for?”

  “It doesn’t matter. Just open the box and make sure the button camera gets a nice picture of what’s in there.”

  I saw the side of Jimmy’s face shift as he ground his jaw.

  “Isn’t that illegal?” Salem asked.

  “Probably depends on what’s in the box.”

  Jimmy turned and looked out of the driver’s side window. I could literally see him repress a sigh. The lawyer in him must be screaming bloody murder.

  “Uh, OK I found an empty room. I think it’s a conference room.”

  “All right, just look at the first few pages and then get out of there.”

  “OK, that’s all I’m gonna do. I’m coming out.” Salem muttered while he worked.

  “We’ll be down the block.”

  I turned to Jimmy, remembering his comments from before. He knew I had a good life in California.

  “Everything OK?” He noticed me staring.

  “You tell me,” I countered.

  “I’m not following.” Confusion lit his gray eyes and he cocked his head to the side.

  “What do you mean, ‘You have a good life out there in California?’” Heat rose in my face when he didn’t answer right away.

  “I meant…I don’t know what I meant. I guess I’m a little…lost?” His voice trailed off and he shrugged with a helpless look on his face.

  “Well thanks, it’s all so clear now.”

  He moved to answer me but Salem ran up to the SUV and climbed into the back seat. He was panting and laughing. “That was so awesome!” He looked like he’d just gotten off a roller coaster.

  “Just calm down there, double-oh-seven.”

  “That was such a rush,” he breathed.

  I turned to Jimmy. He was staring out of the windshield. The look on his face made my heart ram in my chest. I could feel Salem’s gaze on me. I tapped Jimmy on the elbow and he forced a smile. I gave him an equally strained smile back. “I need a television.”

  “OK.”

  Salem was pulling at the camera on his suit jacket. “We can hook it up to the TV in my hotel room.”

  Jimmy and I answered him in tandem. “You have a hotel room?”

  “Well it was yours, actually. I booked it with your flight but you weren’t…there.” Salem’s voice trailed off and he looked uncomfortably from me to Jimmy.

  “Perfect.”

  Purple Knot

  24

  While Salem checked in I wandered around the lobby of the hotel and pretended to be intensely interested in the flower arrangements scattered around the room. Jimmy sat on the couch, put his elbows on his knees, and held his head in his hands. My stomach churned. I replayed his last answer. A shrug and a deer-in-the-headlights look weren’t exactly encouraging. What did he mean he was a little ‘lost’?

  Salem was filling out paperwork up at the counter. I bit my lip and plucked a rose petal from the flower arrangement. I wanted to talk to Jimmy but then again, I didn’t. With Salem ever present it seemed like I wouldn’t get the chance.

  My mind wouldn’t stop grinding away at what Jimmy said. Why did my life in California make him feel lost? Did it affect our relationship, somehow? “Of course it would, you dummy.” If we’re going to make this work how could we do it from two different states? Was it too much of an obstacle now that he thought about it? Was his comment about me having such a great life out in California a way to let me down gently? I wiped sweaty palms on my slacks. I had no idea what Jimmy and I were to each other right now. We weren’t engaged, but we were way past dating, right? I glanced at Jimmy on the couch. Was he having second thoughts? Is that why he was suddenly so distant? I went round and round in my head until Salem walked up to me.

  “I’m all set.”

  “OK.”

  I forced myself to sound natural, but judging from Salem’s face I wasn’t doing a good job of it.

  We went to Salem’s room and he hooked up the camera to the television. We all three sat on the bed and went over the video of Salem’s flirt-fest with Cary. He turned twelve shades of red and fast forwarded to when he was in the empty conference room.

  “OK, so what I think I was looking at was an inventory of the labs in Parker’s department.”

  I looked at the images of the papers and drummed my fingers on my knees, thinking.

  “That’s not very helpful.”

  Jimmy cleared his throat. “What were you looking for exactly?”

  “Parker’s financials show him checking into Glen-Willow rehab center. I was hoping to catch him with his hand in the cookie jar.”

  Salem and Jimmy l
ooked at me with expectation.

  “People who are addicted often run out of control with their spending. Jimmy, you told me that Parker was on an allowance. If he had an out of control gambling habit, he’d be spending way more than his allowance, no matter the amount.”

  “What makes you think it’s not drugs?” Jimmy asked.

  Salem answered him. “Because he’s too healthy looking.”

  “If Parker was doing drugs with enough frequency to end up in rehab then he’d look way worse. With the amount of money available to him he definitely wouldn’t be able to hide his problem from his coworkers, and would certainly have had some hospital stays.”

  Salem jumped in. “But gambling would be different. He’d burn through his money in a weekend of bad bets.”

  “He wouldn’t ever have enough money. He’d just make bigger bets.”

  “And you think he’d dip into the money at work?” Jimmy asked.

  “I think he’s head of the department and petty cash would be too much of a temptation. Now this audit comes down the pike and he panics. Maybe he needed to replace the money and Summer wouldn’t give it to him.”

  Jimmy stood abruptly and walked out onto the hotel’s terrace.

  “You think he wanted money to replace what he stole?” Salem leaned in and whispered.

  I nodded. “I need to get the police report on Summer’s attack.”

  “What?” Salem’s face contorted.

  “If I can prove something was stolen…”

  “We’d need proof that money was going out of the account, though.” Salem leaned back on his arms. He still looked like a big teenager. “You know, Reyna, if we could get a log of his keystrokes we’d be able to catch him.”

  I thought about it for a minute. Spying on someone’s work computer was illegal without permission from the owner of the company. Still, this was my only lead and with Parker using his lawyers to squeeze me, I didn’t have a hard time deciding. I peered around Salem and watched Jimmy for a moment. He was still leaning on the rail. His jacket was on the bed.

  I grabbed the SUV keys from the pocket. “You don’t know where I went.”

  “What…now?” Shock registered on his face and he reached for my arm.

  “It’s almost four. The place will shut down in an hour and Parker will be in tomorrow. Now is my only chance. I need to get into that department and figure out where to place the logger.”