PAYBACK by Morgan St. James

Author:Morgan St. James [James, Morgan St.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cozy mystery series, women sleuths, crime caper, Women's Fiction, Revenge is Fun series, crime, amateur sleuths
Goodreads: 42632349
Publisher: Marina Publishing Group
Published: 2017-09-26T00:00:00+00:00

26

I SWEAR I WAS GOING to try to get some sleep when I went upstairs, but the next thing I knew I pulled on some jeans and a tee-shirt and drove to Century City alone like I was on automatic pilot. I did consider asking Kate and Kim to come with me, but decided not to. A half hour later I parked in our underground parking lot. Our building is secure and there is always a guard on duty in the lobby twenty-four hours a day. That night it was a middle-aged fellow named Gary.

He greeted me with a smile. “Hey, Miss Harsen. How ya doin’ tonight? Kinda late for you to be working, isn’t it?”

I smiled back as I signed in—even if we are tenants, people entering after-hours are required to sign in. However, if we work late we don’t have to sign out, because of course, we weren’t signed in to begin with.

“Wouldn’t you know it. I forgot something important when I left today. Won’t be too long. See ya in a bit.”

Some of the elevators are closed off at that hour, so I had to wait a little longer than normal. Then the Up arrow on one turned green and I entered the car. On one hand I hoped no one would be there for me to confront, but I couldn’t shake the bad vibes I felt. On the other hand, a hundred thoughts ran through my mind. If I did catch someone, what would I do? What if it was just some innocent cleaning staff? In that case, I’d probably make a lame excuse for being there, possibly shuffle a few papers to make it look like I really did forget something, and then, as the saying goes, “Get the Hell out of Dodge.”

I didn’t even want to consider the danger if someone actually was in there and up to no good. Logically, the possibility definitely existed that it would come to nothing and no one. But the premonition I had said the opposite. It was a strange heaviness that left me feeling something bad was about to happen.

As the elevator ascended to my floor I wished I had asked Kate and Kim to come, but the decision was such a spur of the minute impulse I didn’t want to worry them. I don’t know what it is with these spurts of intuition, but sure enough when I got to my office I decided to try the door before taking out my key. After all, they always do that in the movies. It was unlocked.

I pushed the door open and slowly stepped into the reception area. I was so scared, I hadn’t even realized I was holding my breath until I heard the hum of a vacuum cleaner in one of the back offices.

I can’t tell you how relieved I was to see our regular cleaner Ramon Garcia and his helper Marisol hard at work.

We had seen each other several times when I was working late, so I knew he was okay.

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