Page 8 of Bare
She needed to get the Penrose files—which she wasn’t supposed to even have in the first place—back to the file room and get her ass in gear on the Girard project. It would probably take four or five trips to carry the veritable sea of files back downstairs. She could grab the cart from the copy room, but then she’d risk Lily seeing her and catching wind of the fact she’d taken the files out of the file room. A ranting, raging Lily was not something she was willing to deal with today. Plus, taking the files back on the cart would also mean riding in the claustrophobic elevator.
The elevator!
Rosemary’s fingers flew to the spreadsheets covering her desk, flipping through pages. The payables list was organized by payee.Not helpful. She leapt up and grabbed the file with the complete financials, her eyes absorbing line after line of data. She likely wouldn’t find what she was looking for. Construction financials didn’t break down every single payment. Only an incredibly large expense would be called out separately. Although expensive by an everyday person’s standards, an elevator wasn’t a big enough expenditure to be a line-item entry.
She jumped back up and rifled through the files. Forty-seven minutes and two paper cuts later, she found what she was looking for. One lone invoice from LG Mechanicals for the purchase and installation of a 3500-pound max capacity in-ground hydraulic elevator. She pivoted and grabbed the two-foot-long, heavy-gauge cardboard tube labeledPlans.
She pulled the chunky blue-and-white construction schematics from their casing, dropped to her knees, and rolled them out on the ground. She flipped past the initial survey and various exterior site plans that labeled setbacks, impervious surface, and drainage, until she found the sheets with the interior detail. The building was a standard, large, open-floor-plan warehouse with a bathroom and office space. There were large doors and ramps for loading, but she didn’t see anything that resembled any type of electronic lift, let alone an actual elevator.
She stared down at the invoice she’d set next to the plans, her heart racing in her chest.
$574,355.
That was a lot of money for an invisible elevator.
She stood on shaky legs, pulled a handwipe from the stash in her desk drawer, and cleaned her hands. If she got any of thatblue ink from the plans on her favorite white jacket, it would never come out. That stuff stained everything it touched.
Her scalp twitched. Nerves had made it even sweatier. She pressed her fingers into the itchy spot, moving the wig against her wig cap to scratch the itch. She did not have time for toothpicks and a bathroom trip right now.
The Girard warehouse invoices were all still in the file room. She was almost certain she’d seen an elevator invoice in there.Had it been from the same company?She couldn’t remember. She plopped down in her office chair and pulled up the Girard payables list on her computer. At least she had access to the Girard electronic files and didn’t have to rummage through paper like she’d just done for Penrose. She searched LG Mechanicals.
Nothing.
It would take her hours to go through all the Girard invoices. And for what? To find an invoice for an elevator? Maybe therewasan elevator in the Girard warehouse. Maybe they’d added one to Penrose and hadn’t added the updated plans to the files.
Right. Pannetone keeps every single piece of paper down to the invoice for the toilet paper dispenser, and he doesn’t put updated plans in the file?
Her scalp twitched again. A strong itchy twitch.
She needed to stop. How many times had her mother and sister told her she was relentless? Relentless with those murder mystery games. Relentless with crosswords and sudoku. Relentless with the 3D brainteaser puzzles her mother always bought for her. This wasn’t a game or a puzzle.
This was her job. And she had a deadline. She had to put the finishing touches on the Girard financials and get them to Armando this afternoon so he could review them. Especially since she was leaving a little early tomorrow to go to the theater with Sage.
She needed to focus on finishing the Girard work.
And she would. Right after she took a quick dash to the file room to take an even quicker look at the Girard plans to see if they showed an elevator. It would only take a few minutes, and she had to start returning the Penrose files anyway.
She pulled open the heavy fireproof door to the basement stairwell, the knob cool on her hand. She whipped around the landing, numbers dancing in her head. The Morescos had hundreds of businesses. From tiny enterprises like vending machines to multiphase high-rise construction projects. If someone had found a way to slip fake invoices into even a small portion of those businesses, it could mean millions of dollars. Maybe tens of millions. Maybe even more.
Whomp!
Flesh collided with flesh, and the three Penrose files she’d been carrying went flying. Paper scattered like glass on concrete.
Lily staggered backward.
Instinct sent Rosemary’s arm flying out to steady her. “I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
Brown pupils glittered from red, swollen eyes. Rivulets of eye makeup stained Lily’s cheeks.
“I’m fine,” Lily said, crouching to help clean up the mess. After picking up a few sheets, her eyes narrowed. “These are Penrose files. You aren’t supposed to have these! Armando’s going to be really angry when he finds out you took these from the file room.”
Shit.
Rosemary’s mouth went dry, and her armpits and scalp went clammy. Her mind raced, trying to find a way out of the disaster her obsessive nature had created. Coming up blank, she tried distraction. “Why are you crying?”
“I’m not crying,” Lily snapped.
She laid a hand on Lily’s slippery rayon sleeve. “Maybe I can help.”
