Chapter 4
Chapter Four
SYLVIE
Iwas chewing the last bite of the breakfast sandwich as a quick double knock hit the wood and the door opened. Alice. No Eli this time. Was he still talking to the others? Was this where they booted me out?
“How was the sandwich?” she asked with a bright smile.
“Fantastic,” I said honestly, finally sparing a moment to really take her in.
She was shorter than me, with a small frame and dark hair in a sharp-edged bob.
Her lips were painted bright red, and her cat-eye glasses sparkled at the corners.
They went perfectly with the cherries on her dress and her red cardigan in the exact same shade.
With her black chunky-heeled Mary Janes, she was rockabilly from head to toe.
No way I could have pulled it off, but on Alice, somehow it didn’t look like an affectation or a costume. This was just her.
Still smiling, she sat in the chair opposite me in the small meeting room, setting a pen and two pieces of paper on the table in front of me.
“Here’s the deal,” she said. “We don’t normally do this. Ever. But we’re making an exception. You’re a civilian, but you’re not the average civilian.”
“True,” I agreed, wondering where she was going with this.
She pushed the papers toward me. “This is an NDA, our standard. For reasons no one is going to explain, we were already looking into Emily Shaw’s murder.”
“Really?” I asked. “So, she was coming here for a meeting?”
Alice gave a short shake of her head, and I saw that despite the friendly smile and the delicious breakfast, this Alice was all business, and she wasn’t messing around.
She wasn’t going to tell me a thing until that NDA was signed, and I had no doubt that violating it would cost me more than I could afford to pay.
I eyed the paper in front of me. “I sign this, and then what?”
“You sign, and then you and Eli investigate together,” she said. “Both of you would be doing it anyway.”
True. Plus, I didn’t see how I could walk away.
Not now. I couldn’t stop seeing my van explode, couldn’t stop feeling the heat on my face as I watched my home burn.
If I were smart, I’d probably run as far from Emily Shaw’s murder as I could.
But getting answers was what I did. I couldn’t walk away now that I was a victim too.
“Okay, give me a sec,” I said, pulling the NDA close enough to read. I picked up my cup of coffee, setting it back down when I realized it was empty.
“You read that,” Alice said. “I’ll get you a refill.”
I smiled up at her when she stood, my cup in hand. Normally, I’d get my own coffee, but today I wasn’t above accepting a little help, and I needed that caffeine.
Alice disappeared, and despite the fatigue pulling at me, I forced myself to read every word of the NDA.
I knew better than to sign anything before I understood what it said.
But this was fairly standard. I had to keep secret anything I learned in the course of investigations connected to Sinclair Security—not just, I noted, the investigation into Emily Shaw’s death, but anything connected to Sinclair.
Made sense. If I were in their shoes, it was what I would have asked for.
And at the moment, I didn’t have another choice.
I was unusually low on resources now that everything I owned fit in my backpack.
Still, I sat there, the tip of the pen tapping the signature line, thinking through my options.
Alice swung the door open and slid the steaming mug of coffee in front of me. “Questions?” she asked as she sat.
“Not really,” I admitted. “Just thinking.”
“If it helps, we’re prepared to offer you temporary lodgings in one of our on-site safe houses as compensation for your help in the investigation.”
I sat back, setting the pen down on the unsigned NDA and picking up my coffee, drawing in a long breath. “This coffee smells like heaven,” I said.
“One of my many talents.” Alice smiled again.
I took a sip, knowing I was going to sign that NDA.
I’d been on the fence without the offer of the safe house, but somewhere to stay that was safe, where I could really sleep, unlike a hotel, where I’d be easy pickings.
That was worth a lot. Because whoever had blown up my van probably wouldn’t struggle to find me in a hotel once they learned I was still alive.
I set the cup down and picked up the pen, then paused again.
“Here’s the thing,” I said, meeting Alice’s sharp gaze. “I want to sign this. I wanted to sign it before you offered the safe house. And that definitely seals the deal, considering at the moment I don’t have anywhere to stay, and anything else I find wouldn’t be secure.”
“Agreed,” Alice said, nodding, watching the tip of my pen as it tapped the signature line.
“But I’m sure you understand the problem this represents,” I said.
“If you sign that NDA, you’re out of a subject for this season,” she said.
I knew she would get it. “Exactly. And if I investigate with Eli, on a case I can’t talk about on the podcast, then I’ll basically be taking an extended and very dangerous vacation for no real reason.”
Alice sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. Her head tilted to the side as her bright eyes studied my face. “That’s all true,” she said. “And from a business perspective, it doesn’t make a lot of sense on your end. But you want to know what happened to Emily Shaw.”
I didn’t bother to argue or pretend she was wrong.
If Alice was really a listener, she already knew how much I needed answers.
“I do. But here’s what I want. I want to add an option in here that, with the full agreement of Sinclair Security, I have the right to talk publicly about my experience on the investigation, via my podcast. And Sinclair Security has the right to clear the episodes before they’re published. ”
Alice picked up the NDA. “I’ll take that to Cooper,” she said. “I feel like I have to point out there’s a high likelihood that the entire case is deemed too sensitive for anything to be cleared, ever.”
She couldn’t have said anything more interesting if she’d tried. “Well, now I want to know what you know,” I said.
She grinned. “Not until you sign this. But again, being up front, I know very little. I don’t get into the meat and potatoes of the cases.
I run the office, handle scheduling, and dip a toe in logistics as needed.
I just know the general theme of our business isn’t anything open for public consumption. ”
“I got that,” I said. “I understand the risks. And you’re right, I do want to know what happened to Emily Shaw.”
“I’ll be back,” Alice said.
As she left, I thought about what would happen if they never approved the episodes about Emily.
That was a risk. People had short memories.
If I was gone for too long, I might not have a career when this was all over.
On the other hand, what I could learn about investigations from tagging along with Eli, having access to Sinclair Security, was probably, in the long run, worth a hell of a lot more than the income I got from sponsors on the podcast.
This was about more than answers for Emily, though I did want those, now more than ever.
Whoever had done this to her had tried to erase me.
They’d taken my home, my office. And if not for luck and a craving for a burger and shake, they would have taken me too.
I couldn’t walk away from that. I needed answers.
I needed them to pay.
I sipped at the coffee, thinking about the case, about everything I knew and didn’t know about Eli. I had no idea why, but he also wanted the truth about Emily Shaw. I wasn’t sure he’d be keen to have me tagging along, but that didn’t matter. I could put up with him if I had to.
Alice was back faster than I expected. She handed me two freshly printed sheets of paper—the same NDA word-for-word, except a small addendum stating that I was allowed to use my experience of the investigation for the podcast as long as Cooper Sinclair personally approved anything that was shared.
It was a better deal than I was expecting, which had been a hard no on changing the NDA at all. And especially with that safe house thrown into the deal. Though that, I’d noted, wasn’t in writing. I signed. I took a quick picture of the contract and handed it to Alice.
“Wonderful,” she said. “Give me a sec, and I’ll take you up to the safe house. You can get settled in, and as soon as Eli is done making a few calls, you two can get started.”
“On what?” I asked, since it sounded like Alice had everything planned out.
She shrugged and winked. “On whatever. That part’s your problem.”
I followed her out of the meeting room and down the hall to her desk in the small lobby. She tucked the NDA in a file drawer and grabbed a set of keys.
“The safe houses are pretty nice,” she said as I followed her to the elevator. “It’s not the Four Seasons, but it’s a two-bedroom apartment with a nice bath and a full kitchen. I’ll have some groceries sent in if you tell me what you normally eat.”
“That’s really thoughtful,” I said, surprised both at the level of care and the fact that this seemed like a normal day for Alice. How often did they have to keep people hidden? “Do you usually have people in the safe houses?”
“More often than not, but they’re rarely full.
You’ll be comfortable. The safe houses are nice, because getting stuck in one mostly sucks,” Alice said.
“It’s a last resort in a lot of cases. And we’re expensive.
So expensive that we don’t want our clients to be uncomfortable when we have to tuck them away for safekeeping.
The kind of people who can afford us are not used to being uncomfortable. ”
The elevator stopped, and I followed her out into a small hallway with a door on either side.
Alice turned to the left and unlocked the door. “I actually lived in this one for a while before Cooper and I got married.”
“Great commute,” I said.
“It is, though I’m still close. The whole fourth floor is ours. Most of the time it’s nice being an elevator ride from work, but occasionally it’s annoying.”
“I bet.” The safe house was simply designed, with a decent-sized living room, open to the dining area and kitchen.
I guessed the bedrooms were down the hall to the right, along with the bathroom.
The finishings were elegant and high-end, but the place was plain, lacking the personal touches that would make it a home.
I wasn’t complaining; this was so much more than I’d expected.
“We don’t have anyone else in-house, so it’ll be just you on this floor. We’ll let you know if that changes, so you don’t get taken by surprise. Are you going to rent a car?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I haven’t gotten that far.” It was a good question, and reminded me of everything I’d need to sort out.
“Well, if you do, let me know. I’ll get you a fob for the garage. Probably better if you don’t, though.”
“She won’t need a car,” Eli said from the door.
I bristled. “Why don’t I need a car? If you remember, the one I had just got blown up.”
“Exactly,” Eli said. “You don’t need a car for the same reason we’re putting you up in a safe house and not a hotel.”
“I’m not a client,” I said. “The nothing I’m paying should be a dead giveaway. We’re partners.”
Eli rolled his eyes. “The hell we are. You may not be paying, but someone tried to kill you last night. The last thing I need is you driving around in your own vehicle. Jesus, you’d be a sitting duck.”
He wasn’t wrong, but his attitude made me want to argue. Don’t be dumb, I told myself. I had a lot of gear to replace. I didn’t want to think about my lost microphones, wide monitor, laptop… If he wanted to drive me around and save me the cost of a rental, I’d let him, surly mood and all.
“We don’t know that they were trying to kill me,” I argued, mostly because I didn’t want to agree with Eli and his eye roll.
He just shook his head, and I didn’t bother to say anything else.
I wanted answers about Emily Shaw. I wanted whoever had blown up my van to pay for it.
But I wasn’t planning on dying to make any of that happen.
In which case, letting Eli protect me and staying in the Sinclair safe house seemed like the best move, even if I didn’t like being told what to do.
“Well then, I’ll cross a fob for the garage off the list,” Alice said.
She handed me a notepad with a pen that she pulled from one of the kitchen drawers.
“Write me up a quick grocery list. I’ll have some things delivered, so you’ve got food in here.
The shower has basic toiletries, so you can clean up.
I can probably scrounge up some clothes for you to change into,” she said, eyeing my mud-stained jeans and scraggly hair.
I lifted a hand to smooth my hair, then dropped it, not wanting to feel how gross I was. I’d been trying not to think about it since fixing the situation was temporarily out of my reach.
“Do the grocery list,” Eli said to me, then looked to Alice. “Forget the shower and change of clothes. We’re headed to the police station in Midtown. There’s a big box store over there. We’ll swing by. She can stock up.”
“Eli, at least let her shower and change before?—”
“No time. The detective assigned to the case has a short window, and it’s better if I bring her to him than if he has to track her down later.”
It felt like I was covered in layers of filth, but Eli had a point. I knew well how quickly an investigation got stale. If we had this detective’s attention now, we had to jump on it.
I finished jotting a few things on the grocery list and handed it back to Alice. “It’s fine. I can deal with being dirty a little longer. I want to find out what they know about my van. Do you think they’ll let me see it?”
Eli shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll see when we get there. Let’s go.”