Chapter 5
Marty hit the print button and blew out a breath. Emma’s precious group C report was finally done.
What a gigantic pain in the ass.
While he waited for the machine to spit the pages out, he scrolled through one of the dating apps he’d signed up for, hoping someone new would show up. No such luck.
He grabbed the report the moment the printer finished and slapped a staple on the upper left corner before he remembered that Emma preferred her staples at a forty-five-degree angle. She claimed that doing so provided a more efficient way of flipping through the pages.
Whatever.
He almost left the report as it was, but he didn’t want to listen to her complain. He yanked the staple out, redid it her way, then headed for her office.
As he neared the break room, he heard the voice of Vonda from accounting. She was a knockout, and he’d been trying to get to know her better for months now.
“A group of us are going out for drinks after work, if you’d like to join us,” she was saying.
Marty perked up. He hadn’t made any headway with her at the office, but if he could join their outing, he had no doubt he could seal the deal.
That thought vanished the moment he heard Emma say, “Sorry, can’t. Going out to dinner with a friend.”
Whatever Vonda said in response, Marty didn’t hear.
Emma was going to be away from home, after hours. It was just the opportunity he’d been waiting for.
Ari rushed out of the break room, making Marty jump back in surprise. The dog stopped and stared at him, emitting another low growl.
“Ari, what’s wrong?” Emma called, before stepping out only to see Marty. “Oh.”
“Why does he only growl at me?” Marty asked, keeping his distance.
“Probably because you act scared around him.”
“I’m not scared.”
“If you say so.” She did not seem convinced. “Is that for me?”
“What?” he asked, confused.
She jutted her chin at his hand. He glanced down at the report. “Yeah. I was bringing it to your office.”
He started to hand it over, but when the dog growled again, he jerked back.
Emma placed a gentle hand on Ari’s head and said, “It’s okay, boy,” then stared at Marty, eyebrow raised.
“Oh, right,” he said, quickly giving her the report.
She rubbed her thumb over the holes left behind by the first staple and frowned. He was sure she was going to call him out on it, but instead she turned and headed to her office without another word.
“You’re welcome,” he muttered just as Vonda exited the break room. “Oh, hey. How are you doing, Vonda?”
With barely a glance at him, she said, “Sorry, busy,” and walked off.
He glared after her for a moment, then pulled himself together and returned to his desk.
—
Marty left the office a few minutes before quitting time, hopped in his BMW M5 sedan, and drove half a block away, from where he could watch the parking-lot exit.
His plan was to follow Emma to her destination to ensure she hadn’t just been evading plans with Vonda, then he’d head to her place.
Just as he was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to leave, Emma’s car pulled out of the lot.
He gave her a couple of seconds, then swung back onto the street to follow.
He couldn’t help but sneer at her sedan.
Like more than half the company, she drove an electric vehicle. Hers was a silver sedan that gave Marty an I’m-better-than-you vibe. Then again, most electrics did that to him. Despite working in renewable energy, he preferred the roar of a gas engine.
He followed her north, out of town, which was not the direction he’d expected her to go. When she took the on-ramp to the eastbound I-10, he began to think that she’d been lying about her plans. In that direction was Thousand Palms, the town where Emma lived.
He knew this thanks to tricking one of the receptionists into giving him Emma’s address, by claiming he needed to messenger something to her place. He had even driven by it once since then.
Sure enough, Emma exited at Thousand Palms and was soon on the road that led to her house.
“Dammit,” he muttered.
She had been lying about her plans.
He almost pulled a U-turn and headed home, but he worried that would draw more attention than if he just drove casually by her driveway entrance.
She lived on the edge of town. On one side of her road was a long cement block wall that enclosed a housing tract under construction. On the other was open desert, save for the boxy building Emma called home.
It had been some kind of business once, but what kind Marty had no idea.
Emma had done absolutely no landscaping. In fact, about the only thing she appeared to have added was a carport next to the main structure.
Marty couldn’t understand how anyone could live there. It was so unlike his beautiful four-bedroom house just north of the airport.
He glanced over at Emma as he drove by. She was standing next to her car, holding the door open. Her stupid dog hopped out and ran toward the building.
When Marty reached the next intersection, he swung his BMW around and pulled onto the shoulder, lights off. He didn’t really expect to see her leave again, but he thought he should give it a few minutes, just to be sure.
Good thing he did, as her sedan soon exited the property and headed back the way they’d come. He started to follow her again.
His first thought was that she’d gone home to pick up something she needed, but then he realized that unlike the trip to her house, he hadn’t caught a glimpse of the dog.
“Well, crap,” he muttered.
She’d gone home to drop off the damn mutt.
Emma and her dog were so inseparable, Marty had assumed she would have insisted on eating someplace he was welcome.
Apparently not.
Instead of getting back on the freeway, she took surface streets heading west. It was the fastest way back to all but the most northern parts of Palm Springs, where RRE’s headquarters was located.
As he followed her, he tried to think of ways he could deal with the dog so he could still search her house. But everything he came up with involved prep time. And any time he took to prep would eat into the time he’d have to root through her things.
As much as it pained him, he had to call off tonight’s search.
“Son of a—” He stopped himself and narrowed his eyes.
Ahead, Emma had just pulled into an open parking spot at the curb and was getting out of her car. Marty turned at the next block and slipped into a parallel spot as another car left.
The search might have been postponed, but perhaps he could still salvage something from the night.
He sprayed a shot of breath freshener into his mouth, checked himself in his mirror, and grinned. It was time to execute operation charm.