The Accidental Mermaid (Accidentally Paranormal Series Book 16) Page 15

  His face went hard under the morning sun and his fist clenched. “I could kill whoever the leak is.”

  Esther pointed to the big revolving glass door. “Well, we’re not going to get any answers killing anyone or standing out here. So, let’s get ’er done. Are you ready?”

  Tucker put a hand to her waist and nodded. “As I’ll ever be, I suppose.”

  With yet another excuse to touch him, she patted him on the arm. “This is the easy part. My uncle was a respected member of this company. There’s no reason why his co-workers shouldn’t want to talk to me.”

  “And if they don’t?”

  Esther made a face at him as though the answer were obvious. “Duh. I’ll cry, of course. Big, ugly, snotty tears. Obviously, you’ve borne witness to my acting skills when we tried to get into my uncle’s apartment. How can you doubt I’ll get us in there?”

  Tucker’s shoulders shook as he chuckled. “Ah, yes. Your thespian efforts surpass even that of an Academy Award winner. How could I have doubted?”

  She held her fist up to him, knuckles facing forward, and smiled. “Wonder Twin powers, activate.”

  He withheld his fist and frowned. “Who twins?”

  “Forget it. How’s teamwork makes the dream work?”

  He bumped her knuckles with his, lifting his glasses to wink a sexy eye. “That I get. Now, scoot. We need to find Armand first, and maybe he can help us to find other people Gomez connected with.”

  Without another word, she strode through the shiny revolving glass doors of Tecton and crossed the equally shiny marble floor to approach the blonde behind the sleek white and black desk.

  She sat prettily in front of the Tecton logo, a computer before her, Bluetooth in her ear, her red dress formfitting, accentuating her teeny-tiny waist.

  Esther immediately smiled at her with as much warmth as she could muster, despite the fact that Tecton gave her a cold, sterile vibe, and tucked her scarf tighter around her nape. “Hello, I’m Esther Sanchez,” she said, emphasizing her last name. “I’d like to see Armand Mendes. He was my uncle Gomez Sanchez’s lab assistant.”

  The pretty blonde with the high ponytail and even higher cheekbones pursed her raspberry-colored lips and frowned. “You can’t see him.”

  She had to remind herself to stay calm and not start demanding things. All good mediation began with compromise. “Any particular reason why?”

  The receptionist tapped a nail on the marble counter in front of her, pressing her other hand to the Bluetooth earpiece. “You can’t see him because he no longer works here.”

  Chapter 14

  “Say again?” Tucker responded, leaning his arms on the shiny marble counter, taking off his glasses to stare into the receptionist’s eyes.

  Her green, thickly fringed eyes went sultry as she smiled coyly at Tucker. “I said, Armand Mendes no longer works here. He quit last week. Oh, and I looove your accent. Very sexy.”

  Esther and Tucker looked at each other for a moment, their silence awkward and confused. Why would her uncle’s assistant quit a perfectly good job? “Are you sure he quit?”

  “I watched him leave right through that door with a box of his things from his office, and the word around here was he quit. Said he couldn’t work for anyone but Gomez,” she assured them while she kept a close eye on Tucker.

  Esther was flabbergasted, but she rebounded quickly, tucking her purse under her arm. “Did he leave a forwarding address? Some way to get in touch with him?”

  She held up a finger as she took a call, stretching her sleek arms, indicating they should wait.

  Tucker looked at Esther in confusion. “I think a man leaving his livelihood because his boss died is a little much, don’t you?”

  “Well, judging from what I’ve learned about my uncle and his social skills, I’d say it was an extreme reaction. I mean, there’s loyal and then there’s loyal, and my uncle didn’t seem like the kind of man who inspired attachment or sentiment. But what do I know? Maybe he was different with his colleagues.”

  But Tucker didn’t say anything, instead, she watched the wheels in his head turn as he processed Armand’s departure.

  Then she leaned into him, and whispered, “Hey, do you think they’d let us see my uncle’s office?”

  “I’m afraid that’s not possible, Miss Sanchez,” someone from behind them said.

  Both she and Tucker looked at one another as they were approached by a smart-looking forty-something-year-old man in a Brooks Brothers suit and horn-rimmed glasses.

  Aha. She knew what was going on here. “Receptionist Barbie snitched!” Esther whispered to Tucker, hitching her thumb over her shoulder at the pretty woman. “You lay low behind a palm tree over there by the window, and I’ll handle this.” Sticking out her hand, she directed it at the man as Tucker escaped behind a potted plant to avoid being recognized. “And you are?”

  He took her hand and smiled tightly, his penetrating eyes never leaving her face. “Campbell Richter, Director of Human Resources.”

  “And why can’t I see my uncle’s office?”

  He continued to smile, the light coming from the long glass windows highlighting his hair, graying at the temples. “Because it’s been cleaned out and is currently in use by another. I’m sorry, Miss Sanchez, we had no idea you existed. After contact from Gomez’s attorney, and instructions to donate his tools and remaining monies with the company to a worthy cause, we did just that.”

  Esther nodded, as though she thought his statement was perfectly reasonable. “Wow. Talk about out with the old, in with the new, huh?” She tried to lighten his clearly sour mood, but he just looked at her as though she’d grown another head. She decided it was best to forget any attempt at charm. “Can I ask you something, Mr. Richter?”

  His smile remained fixed as he brushed imaginary lint from his suit. “Of course. Gomez was a valued member of our team.”

  “You mean, until he killed someone and made a bunch of people sick?” she asked, purposely being facetious.

  Sucking in his cheeks, Campbell gave a sharp nod of his head, probably hoping to brush that statement under the carpet along with her uncle. “That was indeed unfortunate. All of this has been quite unfortunate.”

  She blew out a breath, pulled off her glasses and gave him her sad eyes. “It sure was. Anyway, is there anyone here who might be able to tell me a little about my uncle? Some friends? Co-workers?”

  By which, he was not moved. “You didn’t know him?” Campbell asked, cocking his head as though the notion was preposterous.

  Keeping her eyes locked with his, she didn’t blink. “Not well, no.”

  “I’m afraid I still can’t help you, Miss Sanchez.”

  “Okay, then how about Armand, his assistant? He quit, I’m told. Did he leave a forwarding address? A reason why he quit?”

  Campbell’s lips thinned. “I’m still unable to help. Armand’s information is confidential and can’t be released to anyone.”

  She leaned into him as though they were conspiring. “But he did leave a forwarding address. Of course he did. I mean, you have to send him his last paycheck, right?”

  But Campbell took a step backward, his stiff shoes creaking. “I’m afraid it’s as I said, I can’t offer you any help. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do. I’m terribly sorry for your loss.” He didn’t mince any more words. Rather, he pivoted on his heel and left, leaving Esther boring holes into his back.

  She turned to find Tucker striding back across the floor, his thick thighs bulging against his jeans. “No go?”

  Her shoulders slumped as she hoisted her purse to the crook of her arm and put her glasses back on. “No go. It was like pulling teeth to get anything out of him. C’mon, let’s get out of here and figure out a plan B.”

  As they turned to leave, Esther slapped the marble countertop where the receptionist sat. “Snitch!” she called out, before she turned to stomp toward the doors and pushed her way out into the cool fall day.

>   Clouds had begun to form, making the day darker, much like her mood. What now? Lifting her eyes skyward, she asked just that. “What now? Where do we go from here?”

  “Miss Sanchez!” a male voice cried out, making both her and Tucker turn to find a man in a lab coat running toward them, waving a piece of paper.

  When he stood in front of them huffing for breath, his round cheeks red, the lone swirl of hair atop his head waving at them from the force of the wind, he held up his hand. “Wait. Please. Wait,” he gasped with a thin wheeze, bending forward at the waist.

  Tucker looked down at the man with concern, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  He tugged out the pocket of his lab coat and pointed to an orange nebulizer. “Asthma,” he managed to rasp.

  Esther pulled the nebulizer from his pocket and wrapped her arm around the man’s shoulders, pulling him upright slightly. “Open your mouth. Tucker, hold his chin,” she ordered, bringing the apparatus to his mouth, preparing to give it a good pump. “Breathe deeply. Just breathe.” She patted him on the back as he wheezed upon inhaling, breathing in slow increments until he was finally able to stand fully.

  “Better?” Tucker asked, taking a step back, but keeping a grip on the gentleman’s shoulders.

  He sighed and nodded, straightening and smoothing his really ugly tie. “Yes. Thank you. Running… I shouldn’t have run. But I had to catch you!”

  “Why?” Esther asked, moving to the side of the building to avoid the people passing by them on the sidewalk.

  “Because of Gomez,” he said in his soft Piglet voice, as though she should understand his reasoning.

  “I don’t understand. You knew my uncle?”

  He nodded, smiling at her quite amicably. “Yes. Oh! Introductions. I forgot,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m Dr. Joffre. We…er, Gomez and I worked together. Well, not together, but in the same general vicinity.”

  “And?” she asked, hoping he’d offer something, anything to the conversation.

  He wrinkled his brow in a frown, driving his hands into his lab coat, clearly unsure what to say. “And?”

  “You stopped us, Dr. Joffre. You obviously had something to tell Esther?” Tucker encouraged, leaning his shoulder against the wall of the building.

  Dr. Joffre smacked him palm against the side of his head. “Of course! Yes! Here,” he said, holding up a piece of paper. “This is Armand’s address.”

  Esther’s eyes widened as she took the paper from him and smiled. “Oh, thank you, Dr. Joffre. You have no idea how much this might help us. How did you know I was looking for Armand?”

  He smiled perceptively, his sweet face beaming. “The walls of Tecton have ears, Miss Sanchez.”

  “Did you know my uncle well?”

  His open, gentle face fell, his eyes avoiding Esther’s. “We worked in the same place for thirty years, and we hardly ever spoke, I’m sad to say. My granddaughter, Persimmon, says I should have tried harder.”

  Tucker gave the doctor a sympathetic look, but she knew he didn’t understand any more than she did. “Tried harder to what?”

  Dr. Joffre sighed, the sad sound swirling in her ears. “To connect. To make friends, of course. People like me, Miss Sanchez, people in my profession, so consumed with research and finding answers to the universe, well…” He shrugged his slumped shoulders. “We tend to become quite self-absorbed, and I have no excuse at all for not at least trying to make polite conversation with Dr. Sanchez, and I regret it deeply. I wish I would have asked him why he thought living was far worse than dying.”

  Esther put a hand on the doctor’s shoulder. “You believe he killed himself, Dr. Joffre? Did you see any signs of it? Erratic behavior? Anything at all that would lead you to believe he wanted to die?”

  Now the doctor blustered, obviously uncomfortable. “I don’t know because I didn’t know him, and I didn’t stop to look. That’s what I’m saying, Miss Sanchez—that’s my whole point here. I don’t know what his state of mind was, nor did I ever think to ask. But that’s all changed now. From this moment on, in honor of Gomez, I’m going to ask everyone I work with how they are. I’m going try very hard to remember there’s more to life than my work.”

  Esther’s smile was sad. “Here’s something that might make you feel better. I didn’t know him either, Dr. Joffre. Not even a little. He was quite distant from my family, and even though I tried to reach out to him when my grandparents died, I didn’t try hard enough. And now…well, now, I wish I had forced myself on him instead of letting him ignore me.”

  Dr. Joffre thumped her on the back with an age-spotted hand. “I’m sorry, Miss Sanchez. Sorry for your loss, sorry for the science world’s loss. Gomez was brilliant. His enormous talents were wasted here. This wasn’t the place for someone like him. But it paid the bills, and that I do understand.”

  “There’s something else you’d rather be doing? Forgive my naïveté, but I don’t know a lot about science and the corporate ladder.” She thought a scientist was never happier than when buried in beakers and data.

  He barked a laugh but followed it with a smile. “We’d all rather be studying string theory. But alas, we do what we must when grants are few and far between. Like water testing.”

  “Speaking of water tests,” Tucker said. “I’m sure you know the mess surrounding the tragedy at H2O-Yo, and maybe you even know who I am?”

  He bobbed his head. “I do, of course. I’m sorry for your suffering, and for the trouble it’s brought you and your family personally.”

  Tucker grimaced. “Armand was the one who sent me the results of the water tests Gomez did for us. The tests that said everything was fine. The tests I signed off on and approved. Until, I believe, someone swapped them. And now we hear he’s gone. Did Tecton find something awry they’re keeping from the public?”

  Dr. Joffre scratched his head and pondered. “I don’t know, but we all had to admit, it was awfully suspicious that Armand quit. Which was why I made sure I asked for his address before he left. In my quest to better connect, I didn’t want him to leave without knowing how much I appreciated his efficiency. Armand assisted me on occasion, too, and now to find he was actually dismissed without a word saddens me. He was an incredibly efficient assistant, and quite loyal to Dr. Sanchez. He didn’t deserve the send-off he got.”

  “So, you know for sure he didn’t quit, but was instead fired?” Esther asked. How curious. What did he know that Tecton didn’t want anyone else to know?

  He clucked his tongue and sputtered. “I don’t know anything for sure, Miss Sanchez. So please don’t quote me. I only know what I hear in the cafeteria, and that was that Tecton asked Armand to leave. They gave him a fine compensation package, from what I understand.”

  “You say you got this address from him; did you ask him why he was leaving?”

  “I did, and he said he couldn’t work without Gomez, but I’m not sure I believe that, now that I’ve overheard some conversations from a group of young secretaries in the halls. Most people don’t notice me, the chubby, old scientist who has his nose buried in a book. But I know what I heard!”

  “What did you hear?” Tucker asked, his dark brows smashing together in concern.

  Now his soft, pudgy face went cross, his cheerful, innocent eyes flashing. “I heard them say Armand and that human resources man, Mr. Richter, had an awful argument just the day before Armand was to supposed to have quit. They said Armand told Mr. Richter he was going to tell everyone. I don’t know what he meant by that, and the women were interrupted by none other than Mr. Richter himself before I could hear anything else. Thus, the conversation ended abruptly. But it surely made me rethink the notion Armand quit.”

  Esther blew out a breath, and then she held it again. What if someone was watching them talk to Dr. Joffre right now? What if simply talking to her would bring him trouble?

  She couldn’t stand the idea he’d be hurt because she was snooping around, so she took his hand and smiled at
him. “Dr. Joffre, you’ve been incredibly helpful. I can’t thank you enough. But I wouldn’t want you to risk your good favor with Tecton by talking to me. Please, I implore you, don’t tell anyone we spoke, and if someone brings it up, simply tell them you were offering your condolences.”

  Now he frowned, pulling a pair of glasses from his pocket and setting them on his nose, peering closely at her. “Do you think it could be dangerous to talk to you? But why?”

  “I can’t really explain it right now, or go into detail, but you’ll do what I ask? No one has to know you gave me Armand’s address, or that we talked about anything other than your condolences, all right?”

  “Of course. I can keep a secret with the best of them,” he said on a wink.

  She smiled warmly at him, pulling a pen from her purse and ripping the piece of paper with Armand’s address in half. “Good to know, and here, take my number. If you need anything at all, or anyone approaches you, hassles you, whatever. Please call me.”

  “Will do, Miss Sanchez. It was a pleasure to meet you, and again, I’m sorry for your loss.”

  Esther was inspired to give him a quick hug for giving them their first break, which he reciprocated in his own awkward way before taking his leave.

  She looked to Tucker, whose face went hard when he asked, “Do you suppose Armand knew something Tecton was afraid of—or are they just covering their butts, seeing as he was the one who sent me the email with the green light?”

  “I don’t know. I just find it really suspicious that Armand was asked to leave a job he’d had as long as my uncle. So, you know what we need to do next, right?”

  Tucker rubbed his nonexistent belly and grinned. “Get lunch? I’m starving.”

  She reached into her purse and pulled out a protein bar. “Eat that. It should tide you over until we’re done talking to Armand.”