Chapter 36
JOSHUA
I keep my mouth shut for a moment, because I’m afraid that I will say something stupid and give away that I don’t believe Sarah until I take a moment to get my head around all of this.
Sarah doesn’t give me a chance to ask another question.
For the first time since I asked her what happened to her face, she is forth coming with information without me having to press her.
“She said she had been playing the long game with you,” Sarah continues, shifting forward in her seat like she’s confiding in me.
Wow, she really is a bitch.
I don’t mind someone ruthless – sometimes you have to be ruthless in business, but there’s a difference between being ruthless and just out right lying.
I can see now why pretty much every other secretary Sarah has ever worked with has complained about her attitude at one time or another.
Various members of HR have spoken to her about it, but being unpopular isn’t a sackable, or even a punishable offense.
Funnily enough, the only recent person who has worked with Sarah who hasn’t complained about her is Molly. I bet she soon will be though when she hears about this.
“The long game huh?” I say in a way I hope makes Sarah think I’m taking all this in.
It seems to work, because she nods her head enthusiastically and carries on.
The nodding causes a tiny runner of blood to come from her right nostril.
Sarah reaches up and wipes it away like it’s nothing more than an irritant.
She doesn’t bother trying to get my sympathy this time, because she figures what she’s telling me is more likely to get me on her side.
“She said that she knew if she kept you interested in her for long enough, you’d give her whatever she wanted.
And now that she has the promotion. Well …
” She gestures vaguely, letting the implication hang in the air.
And then, just in case I didn’t catch it, she goes on.
“People talk, that’s all. I don’t think people should be questioning your judgement because Molly has a big mouth. ”
I let out a slow breath, watching her. She thinks she’s playing me.
That I’ll be angry, humiliated, that I’ll turn on Molly.
But I’m not stupid. I’m not going to do that.
Aside from Molly not wanting to have an office romance for this very reason so her not being one to talk like this is clear to me, why on earth would she have been saying shit like this before her promotion, because we had barely even spoken to each other at that point, let alone started having sex.
Sarah has fallen into two of the classic traps to catch a liar.
Firstly, she couldn’t handle the silence when I was composing myself and she kept talking when she shouldn’t have, and secondly, she gave too many details, obviously fearing that if she didn’t then her story wouldn’t be believed.
It’s actually the other way around. People telling the truth don’t feel the need to include every tiny detail, where liars do.
And one of those made-up tiny details has come back to bite her on the ass.
At this point, the main things I’m wondering about are, one, why Sarah is sitting in my office instead of Molly.
Two, why Molly’s desk is empty – where the hell is she?
She’s had ample time to use the bathroom or make a drink.
She should be back by now. Three, why Sarah looks so damn pleased with herself despite the blood on her face.
And mostly, number four. What the hell happened to Sarah’s face?
The question I have wanted answered since first seeing the blood on her.
I fold my hands together on top of my desk, and I purposely keep my expression unreadable.
“You still haven’t told me what happened to you. Now, how exactly did you end up bleeding all over yourself?” I ask.
Sarah hesitates for the briefest second. It’s subtle, but I catch it. I guess that means another answer that’s going to be a lie is coming then.
She recovers quickly from her little slip up though, pressing a hand to her ribs as if the very memory pains her.
“I confronted her,” she says. “I told her it wasn’t right to treat you like that. Maybe I shouldn’t have spoken to her about it. Maybe I should have just minded my own business. But it didn’t seem right that she was trying to destroy your reputation and make you look weak like that. “
“At the same time, I thought maybe she wasn’t thinking of it that way, that she was just getting carried away and talking as people do.
So yeah. I told her to stop talking shit about you.
I thought she might be annoyed, might yell at me, tell me to mind my own business, whatever.
But I didn’t think she would become violent.
But that’s what happened. She … she just snapped.
She completely lost it. She hit me in the nose twice.
And I know this might sound far-fetched, but you’d understand if you had seen the look in her eyes as she hit me.
I felt lucky to have only been punched. I was afraid for my life for a moment there. ”
A muscle in my jaw ticks. She really is laying this on thick. Afraid for her life? Jesus, there’s no way Molly would murder her, although I wonder if she wouldn’t deserve it at this point.
“Molly hit you,” I say, just to see how thick she will lay it on. And it won’t hurt to have her think she’s suckering me in at this point.
Sarah glances down at her bloodied blouse, then she looks back up at me with wide, seemingly innocent eyes.
“Yes. She hit me,” she said.
“And where is she now? Did you go to HR? Have her immediately fired?” I ask.
I know that wouldn’t have happened. Maybe an HR rep would have had to suspend Molly while they investigated the claims, which would also explain where she is, but they wouldn’t just fire her on the spot.
There would have to be evidence that Sarah’s story is true.
Evidence more than her bleeding. That only proves she bled – it doesn’t prove who caused the bleeding.
Again, I’m merely playing along with Sarah to see how far she will go with this. I do want to know where Molly is though so it would help if Sarah does know that much at least.
“She got aggressive, and I tried to push her away. We were talking in the stairwell when she came at me, and I didn’t realize how close she was to the stairs. She lost her balance and fell. She’s gone to the hospital to be checked over,” Sarah says.
A muscle in my jaw ticks. Sarah pushed Molly down the stairs? She’s lucky I’m not the type to hit a woman or she would have a bust lip to match her nose.
I concentrate on pulling apart Sarah’s words instead of her body.
None of this story sounds like Molly. She’s never been violent, and she never seemed to be the type to lash out.
But Sarah does have a bloody nose, and something has clearly happened.
I have no way of knowing the full story, but the evidence is unsettling.
And although I think Sarah is embellishing this part of the story too, and most likely twisting it to make herself look good and Molly look bad, I don’t think she’s lying about Molly being taken to hospital.
It explains where she is and it fits with her falling down the stairs, which again is something I don’t think Sarah is going to make up because she would just look stupid when I asked Molly about it, and she tells me she hadn’t fell.
What I really want to do at this point is drop everything and go to the hospital to make sure Molly is ok.
But first, I have to get to the bottom of this.
Something has definitely happened, and I now have one employee covered in blood and another one in the hospital.
I take a slow breath, trying to gather my thoughts.
Ok, I’ve heard enough from Sarah. It’s time to see for myself what happened.
“Do you need to go to a doctor?” I ask.
Sarah shakes her head quickly.
“No, no, I’m fine. I was just a little bit shaken up is all,” she says. She dabs at her nose again, and I resist the urge to roll my eyes at her theatrics. She gives me a small, hopeful smile. “I can fill in for Molly while she’s at the hospital if you need me to.”
I don’t hesitate.
“No,” I say simply with no explanation, and no pleasantries.
She blinks, like she wasn’t expecting that. I guess I did a good job of looking like I was being taken in by her.
“Oh. Right. Well, if you change your mind, you know where I am,” she says, still not quite ready to give up.
“I won’t change my mind,” I assure her.
She presses her lips together, then nods her head.
“Ok. I’ll get back to work then, should I?”
I give a single nod of my head, and she stands up. She hesitates for a fraction of a second as if she wants to say something else, but she seems to think better of it. She crosses the room and leaves, the mixed scent of her perfume and her blood lingering in the air for a moment after she’s gone.
I move back to my own chair, and I sit there for a moment, my fingers steepled together, and my thoughts churning. Something isn’t right here. I’m not sure exactly how much of this Sarah fabricated, or exactly what happened between her and Molly, but I intend to find out.