Page 20 of Smoke Screen
“Ah, jeez. I’m sorry. I lost my dad when I was sixteen. It sucked.”
Wasn’t that the truth? And why, why, why, was she allowing this conversation to go places that would ruin her day?
Thinking about Dad wasn’t the problem. She loved the memories of their trips to museums and galleries. He’d hated it. She sensed it even then, but he’d indulged her.Encouragedher love of art and history when Mom was too busy wrangling the elders and the littles.
And then Dad, along with all their amazing adventures, was gone.
A sharp stick plunged into her chest. Memories. So tough.
She lifted her chin. Conjured a smile. “You and your brothers must work well together. I’ve heard great things.”
“Kayla?”
Maddy nodded. “She’s in your corner, for sure.”
“We know how to get a job done.”
She picked up her pen. “Speaking of, let’s get that list started.”
Taking her not-so-subtle hint, Phin straightened in his chair and leaned forward. “Security footage. Usually the thieves do a dry run or visit a few times to get the workings of the place.”
Maddy gawked. “A dry run? You mean they could have practiced?”
“Could be. At the very least, they were probably here during the day, checking doors and windows for entry points. They needed to know the setup. Typically, they try to get in as close to the job date as they can, in case security measures change.”
“This was also a temporary exhibit,” Maddy said. “Their timeline would be even tighter.”
“Exactly. I bet they were here in the last two weeks.”
Maddy added a note to her list, her stomach shriveling at the thought of the thieves casually walking through the exhibits.
“We’ll also need a list of employees and volunteers. How many of each are there?”
“Sixty full-time and thirty part-time. Three hundred volunteers. We’re definitely not the biggest staff. President Thompson did that purposely. He wanted a tighter-knit group. When he’s here, he attempts to speak to everyone.”
“Nice. I’m assuming they do background checks on new hires.”
“Yes. There’s no hard-and-fast rule about hiring folks with a criminal record. The Thompsons see the Center as a place for refuge and growth. If someone has been involved with theft, that’s a tough one because of our acquisitions. But we have several employees who’ve had issues with drugs and are now clean. I actually don’t have access to those files. I’ll refer you to HR.” She made a note. “What else?”
“Aileen mentioned something about you doing a walk-through? What’s that?”
Maddy set her pen down and relaxed back in her chair. “I take my lunch from noon to one every day. It’s usually in the cafeteria, but sometimes I’ll go out. Before returning to my office, I do a walk-through of all the exhibits. Checking on things, making sure everything is in order. I talk with visitors about what they like versus what they don’t. Yesterday, I found a burned-out light bulb in the campaign trail exhibit. I called maintenance to let them know.”
“You know every inch of this place, don’t you?”
She sure did. “I could rebuild it in my sleep.”
“That may come in handy.” He pointed to her list, and she sat forward again. “We’ll need building blueprints and schematics of exhibits. And security team schedules for the last few weeks.”
Maddy noted all of it. They’d provided it to the FBI, but she hadn’t been the one to do it and would speak to Frank. “I’ll work on it and hopefully have it by tomorrow morning. Is there anything else?”
“Not that I can think of. Tomorrow works. We can’t take possession of anything until the contracts are signed, anyway. That probably won’t happen until tomorrow.”
Maddy slid her pen into the sleeve and gently closed her portfolio before returning her gaze to Phin and his sparkly blue eyes. Total killer, this guy. “Thank you for getting here so fast.”
“No need to thank us. It’s not every day a bunch of guys get to help a former president. It’s an honor. We’ll do whatever we can to make sure we don’t let the president down.”
Phin arrived home,parking the Audi in front of the Annex, where he knew he’d find his brothers already scouring the dark web and working their contacts to see what they might scrape up about the Thompson heist.
