Page 99 of Haunted

“And you are who, again?”

“Jonny Bishop. We’ve met.”

“Have we?”

“Yes. You know what? I know where his office is. I’ll just knock on his door.”

“He’s at lunch,” he says.

“Fine. I’ll wait.”

I sit down in one of the two chairs against the wall.

Joe looks at me. I look straight ahead. Somewhere behind him a printer starts up and finishes and the office goes quiet again, and I can feel him not typing.

It takes about four minutes.

“You can’t sit there,” he says.

“Is it reserved?”

“It’s a reception area.” He takes his glasses off. “And you’re doing a thing in it.”

“What thing?”

“Breathing.”

“Does it inconvenience you, my queen?”

“He’s been in here three days looking like something the cat brought in and thought better of. That your doing?”

“Yes.” There’s no point lying. This man would smell it. He folds his arms and waits.

“I did something stupid,” I say. “All right—we both did. But I’d like to tell him I’m sorry, and I’d rather not do it in a stairwell in three days when he’s had a chance to decide what he thinks of me. There. Is that enough tea spilled for you?”

He folds his arms over his chest. “It’ll do.” He goes to the printer and pulls out a sheaf of papers, taps them square, and holds them out across the counter.

“Tell King Rex these need signing by both parties before the courier comes at two,” he says. “That will get you past the gate and into the dining room at the country club.”

I take them.

“Wait. Were you just going to let these slide if your boss hadn’t come into the office before two?”

“He takes long lunches.” Joe shrugs one shoulder. “That’s not on me.”

The phone goes. He picks it up without hurrying.

“Comptroller’s Office, please hold.” He presses a button, sets the receiver down, and takes a sip of his coffee. Then he looks at me. “Off you go.”

“Thank you,” I say, already moving. “And—you’re terrifying.”

A flicker of something at the corner of his mouth. He picks the phone back up. “I try. And Mr. Bishop?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t like people very much.”

“Noted.”