Chapter 26
“Nothing in the file cabinet. Nothing in the desk drawers. Nothing on top of the desk. Someone needs to fucking clean because this place is disgusting.” Brooke huffed as she brushed the dust off her jeans and stood up.
“I’d say maybe I should be looking for a thumb drive, but Kilgore was a paranoid son of a bitch.
I’m positive nothing was stored electronically.
We’re talking about manually typed or written pages that will have some heft and bulk to them, though.
It’s not going to be a small packet of information, which narrows down the possible options for concealment.
Where would you store something like that ‘in plain sight’ in a place like this if you didn’t want it to be found? ”
She glanced around the office once again. “It has to be in here somewhere. Has to. But I’m running out of ideas on where to search.”
“Brooke.” Indi was staring at the file cabinet. “Hand me your penlight, then pull out the file drawers again, one at a time, but look on the underside of each drawer when you do. My Spidey-sense just went off. Start at the bottom and work your way up.”
Kneeling in front of the file cabinet, Brooke opened the bottom drawer with Indi training the beam of light on it.
“I’ll have to slide my hand underneath and feel because I can’t see the bottom.
The drawer is too close to the floor.” Hooking her hand around the side of the drawer, Brooke wiggled her hand and fingers down the side, then maneuvered her hand under the drawer until she could touch the bottom.
Her eyes widened. “Fuck my life, Indi, something’s there.
” Pulling her hand out and shutting the drawer, she then opened the drawer that was second to the bottom and did the same thing.
“Holy shit. Jackpot. It feels like a folder or something has been taped to the bottom.”
“No time to fuck around, girl. Take everything off the top, then tip the file cabinet onto its side. We can switch places if you want, and I’ll do it, but I want someone’s eyes on the front door at all times.”
“I got it.” Brooke cleaned off the top of the file cabinet, then grasped the sides. “I guess yelling ‘Timber!’ wouldn’t be advisable, huh?”
“You’re a nut. Be careful.”
Brooke gripped the cabinet sides while she guided it over as far as she could before letting go, the cabinet hitting the floor with a resounding crash.
“Shit, that was loud.” Squatting down and opening one of the drawers, the cabinet lying on its side, Brooke could see a manila folder taped to the underside in the weak illumination.
“I’ll be damned.” There were four file folders in total, each of which had been secured to the bottom of a drawer with duct tape, which Brooke quickly ripped off.
“Let’s see what that skanky son of a bitch has been up to,” she said after standing up with the folders and moving to the desk.
Clearing off a space by pushing the clutter to the side, Brooke plopped the file folders down on the desktop, then took the penlight back from India before opening the first one.
Picking up the top piece of paper, she held it under the penlight beam so she could scan it, then frowned.
“This is a list with a bunch of doctors and their contact information. Facility name, address, phone number, fax number, email.” She looked at the second sheet of paper, running the light over it.
“Pharmaceutical company reps with their contact information.” Flipping through the rest of the papers, scanning each one, she said, “It looks like it’s all contact information.
Biotech company reps, funeral directors, medical school contacts, research facilities. What the—”
She opened the second file folder, which was much thicker, and riffled through the papers in there, setting the penlight down and angling it so a weak wash of light played over the folder.
Her face paled. “I think I’m going to be sick,” she whispered, looking at what they had found.
“Indi, there are a ton of names recorded in this folder, all of them deceased individuals according to the notes. There is a notation next to each deceased’s name that includes the date their remains were delivered, where they were delivered, how they were ‘processed’—harvested for parts or sold as a whole cadaver—and how much the remains sold for. Oh, my God.”
“Are the records in alphabetical order?”
“They are, as far as I can tell.”
“Do me a favor and tell me if you can locate an Erma Oppenheimer.”
There was silence for a couple of minutes while Brooke searched.
“Found her. Erma Oppenheimer, age eighty-seven, sold as a whole cadaver to a medical research facility earlier this year. Apparently, Ms. Erma had been suffering from middle-stage Alzheimer’s disease and chronic arthritis when she died.
” She bit her lip, her gray eyes filling with compassion.
“This is Marion’s mom, isn’t it? Fuck, Indi. I am so sorry.”
Although still her usual quiet self, a scary energy had started radiating from the Infinity operative.
“Not your fault, honey, but I appreciate you. I suspect, however, it’s probably a good thing Mr. Kilgore is no longer with us because that may have changed in short order if he were still breathing.
” Brooke snorted, her compassionate expression shifting rapidly to antipathy.
“Let’s bundle everything up so we can get out of here and head back to APS.
” Indi had shifted her focus back to the front door.
“That way, we can take our time looking through all the information we found. I’m still hoping to find the place where Kilgore stashed Marion’s money and assets, but the answer to that may lie back in Tallahassee, not here in the Tampa area.
One thing at a time, though. I truly doubt you’re going to find anything else in this office, but looking around once more after you’ve packed up will give you peace of mind. Just make it fast.”
As Indi continued to monitor the front entrance, Brooke closed and stacked the thick file folders, then grabbed a discarded canvas messenger bag to slide them into.
When she was done, she handed the bag to Indi before quickly but thoroughly going through the papers and piles of clutter in the entire office a final time.
“Looks like nothing else,” she said, setting the penlight aside and taking the messenger bag back from the Infinity operative. “I think that’s everything.”
Pulling the bag over her head before sliding her left arm through the straps and settling it on her left hip, Brooke clicked off the penlight, leaving them in the gloom of the dim nighttime illumination.
The graphic artist pushed the mini penlight into the back pocket of her jeans next to her phone.
“I’m ready. Let’s get out of here.” Indi nodded as Brooke began to move toward the office door.
Abruptly, India’s hand whipped in a “Stop!” motion.
Brooke halted immediately, squinting in the dimness, as she caught the shadows of Indi’s suddenly ominous face.
The operative’s lavender eyes narrowed as she cocked her head and listened intently, crouching down swiftly as she gestured at Brooke to do the same.
“Don’t panic. But we’ve got company.”
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Blake checked her phone for the thousandth time.
“Nothing. Why aren’t they back yet? I expected them back thirty minutes ago.
Neither Shae nor Dani has heard from India either.
” A curl of annoyance laced her voice. “If those two have been fucking around and lost track of time, my woman is about to find out what punishment spankings are for. I realize she would have never worried us deliberately, but apparently she needs a little refresher course on the rules.”
“India doesn’t strike me as the type of woman who loses track of time,” said Drew, arching a brow at Blake.
“Instead, cuz, I’d wonder what the fuck they’re up to.
Dani already warned us that Indi just might end Rob Kilgore for what he’d done to her client.
Even though that bastard might be six feet under now, if she and Brooke found something that implicated the rest of Reflex—in any way—in the Cask & Canvas office while they were searching it, they might go scorched earth.
You know how your woman can get, and the Forrester sisters have already told us not to be misled by Indi’s angelic appearance. ”
“Fuck. I know.”
“Scorched earth or not, Indi isn’t about to allow Brooke to put herself in danger, though,” Riley pointed out.
“You know that as well as I do. They found something and took extra time to investigate it. Indi isn’t familiar with APS expectations when it comes to the women in our lives, while Brooke undoubtedly didn’t think about checking in.
Your woman knows we’re aware she’s safe with Indi, Blake, so I bet it never even occurred to her. ”
Blake’s eyebrows raised as she stared at Riley. “You’re telling me Kelly would have gotten a pass if she would have done the same thing?”
“You’re fucking kidding me, right? That ass would be as red as her hair. All I’m saying is that India Lunastar is a damn good security agent. She’ll make sure Brooke is safe, broki, and won’t let her out of her sight.”
The minutes ticked by as they continued to wait.
Finally, at long last, Blake’s phone signaled she had a text message.
“About goddamn time. Thank Christ,” Blake bitched, clicking on the message.
“It’s from Brooke.” After reading the message, however, she cursed violently and jumped to her feet, sending the rest of the APS management team on high alert as they rose with her.
“I will kill that motherfucker with my bare hands if he so much as touches one hair on her head. Get the fuck out of my way, Armstrong, because I have a soon-to-be dead piece of shit to take care of.”
“Broki. Talk to us,” urged Bryn, blocking the door to the Bunker as a coldly livid Blake Seibert stormed toward her.
Drew and Casey swiftly flanked the Armstrong twin, forming a solid barrier across the doorway that Blake would have a hard time breaching.
“What the fuck is going on? Where’s Brooke? ”
“Brooke and Indi are still at Cask & Canvas. However, Clay Langston showed up and accessed the microbrewery. No fucking clue how he got his hands on the key or the alarm codes because Gene had everything secured. The motherfucker has a gun, Bryn!” None of them had ever seen Blake so angry or ready to destroy.
“The two of them have secreted themselves in the back somewhere in the brewing operations section, but he knows they’re in there because he keeps calling out to them while tearing through shit.
“He’s aware they found something he wasn’t able to locate himself, something he is desperate to get his hands on—whatever it is—so he’s searching for it since Brooke and Indi must have hidden it again.
I’m assuming anyway, since Brooke had no time to send a lengthy message, she didn’t want to give her position away, she said, so she sent me an abbreviated text to let me know why they haven’t come back yet.
No telling where the other two fuckers are, Berger and Norris, but frankly?
I would make book on the fact that they’re dead, cuz, if they didn’t come to the microbrewery with him.
Langston’s sole priority now is finding Kilgore’s information.
Nothing is going to stand in his way, as far as he’s concerned.
“And after he finds and steals what Brooke and Indi have hidden? He’ll kill them both. Because Clay Langston plans to seize every single thing for himself alone, without leaving any witnesses behind. No matter who he has to eliminate to accomplish that.”
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“There is nowhere you can run, you know. Nowhere you can hide.” Clay Langston’s voice echoed into the main brewery operations area from where he was standing to the side in the doorway connecting the office and brewery operations, his gun in his hand.
“I know you’re here, Brooke. Your car is parked outside.
Of course, one of those Infinity Security bitches is probably here holding your hand and wiping your ass, too.
You may think you’re important because one of the infamous APS Seven fucks you, but I hear pussy is an easy grab for those dykes.
No skin off their nose if a second-string player loses you and they need to start fresh.
Hardly a wonder they didn’t bother to expend the energy to guard you themselves. ”
He cocked his head, listening for any sound emanating from the quiet, barely-lit space.
“Since your security bitch is likely armed, and I assume she can at least do more than hit the broad side of a barn, I’ll leave you be for the moment while I dig out what Rob had stashed.
It has to be in this office. There were too many paper files to carry—because Rob was a paranoid son of a bitch and wouldn’t have stored it electronically—and you wouldn’t have had time to lug all those files to another area before I showed up. ”
Clay turned to go back into the office, then looked back.
“You can’t get past me. The brewery loading dock is locked up, and I can see the two entrances into the brewery from where I’ll be standing: through the office and through the taproom.
No scurrying out like little rats behind my back.
Sit tight, ladies, and I promise everything will be all over soon.
When you two are no longer a problem, I can have those morons I’ve hired to lift the microbrewery assets take care of APS and Infinite Security permanently.
Lights out, as they say. And everything will be mine, just as it should have always been. ”