Page 51 of Live a Little!

As ludicrous as she knew it was, she couldn’t rest until she’d checked the area. At last, she made an excuse to go back there, timing her visit for when the men usually took their lunch break. She breezed in, trying not to blush. If those guys only knew what she’d been up to in here lastnight!

As she’d suspected, they were all sitting at the scarred table chomping sandwiches or slurping soda, and from the laughter she heard as she entered, she guessed someone had been telling a smuttyjoke.

“Hey, Cyn. Hot sweater.” It wasn’t hot at all. It was freezing, and she had an uncomfortable suspicion her nipples were sticking out from thecold.

“Thanks. Hot baseball cap. I love the John Deerelogo.”

They all laughed good-naturedly, and she flapped an invoice in the air. “I’m just checkingsomething.”

Nobody seemed to care, especially while they were on their break, which was just as she’d hoped. She made her way among the crates, boxes and machinery, making a great show of scanning the odd label and comparing it with the invoice in her hand, until she reached the crate she and Jake had searched lastnight.

Luckily, it looked completely undisturbed. She took one step farther and slid a glance to where they’d made love—not moving any closer in case the rat was backthere.

She let her shoulders relax. There were no stray lipsticks or undergarments. There was nothing on the ground but a sheet of packaging with a corner snippedoff.

She felt her eyes widen, and she would have sworn her eyeballs bugged right out of her head. She gasped softly. It was the wrapping Jake had cut to transport the broken chopsticks. If anybody saw it, they’d wonder how it had gotten out of a crate that supposedly had never beenopened.

Heat crept up herneck.

There was a garbage can in the corner. Maybe she could bundle the wrapper over to the trash. They were all busy laughing and chatting. No one would notice. She bent down and picked up the wrap. It crinkled and crunched in herhands.

“Why, Cynthia! I’d know those luscious hips anywhere,” Neville Percivald’s voice boomed from behind her. Seriously? How did this lech still have ajob?

Panic made her do the only thing she could think of. She swayed her hips provocatively in an impromptu bump and grind while she frantically stuffed the packaging under a woodenpallet.

She rose and turned, giving Neville the most dazzling smile she could manage. He gave her his usual bland anchorman smile. “Whatever were you doing down there, my dear—your exercises?” He said it with a kind of gentlemanlyleer.

“No,” she giggled, and batted her eyes. She was actually getting pretty good at this, judging from his reaction. “I dropped my pen.” She did her best imitation of a pretty pout. “I’m soclumsy..”

She walked toward him, putting as much distance as possible between her and the crate she and Jake hadopened.

Neville watched her legs the entire way. “What brings you back here thismorning?”

It was an opportunity for her to finesse details out of him, interrogate him without him even knowing she’d done it. With only one week left before Jake was pulled off the case, she couldn’t let any opportunitypass.

She shot Neville a demure little smile. “I just wanted to check that I had the correct number of crates for this packing slip, that’sall.”

A slight crease formed between Neville’s brows. “The boys do that, my dear. You don’t have to countcrates.”

She giggled again. God, she was starting to get on her own nerves. How could men stand women like this? It seemed to be working for Neville, though. His bland smile wasback.

“I know I don’thaveto, it just seemed like something was wrong on the computer, but probably it was just me.” Would one more giggle be pushing it? She pushedit.

He relaxed against a crate. “It’s wonderful to have someone so thorough. Anddedicated.”

“Well, I try. I’m just so interested.” Here was her chance. She’d keep her ears open for any nuance of guilt, any accidentally spilled clue. “I mean, how do you decide to bring in…” she fluttered her hands vaguely “…chopsticks from SouthAmerica?”

He smiled at her and settled his arms across his chest. “Business strategy. The South Americans grow trees rapidly because of their climate, as you know, and with currency exchange, we get very good prices. We then sell those same chopsticks to our clients all over the U.S. and make a niceprofit.”

“Oh.” She wassodisappointed. She’d expected him to fidget, at least, but his explanation made perfectsense.

After last night, she wanted to bring Hank’s killers to justice almost as much as Jake did. But it was looking more and more like Jake and she were searching in the wrong place. Oceanic just wasn’t all that sinister. It had some problems, sure, but nothingcriminal.

The company’s pension plan, for instance, sucked. They had so many retired employees that the plan was overburdened, and management had to keep topping it up just to stay afloat. She doubted there’d be enough left in the plan to support people like Agnes when their time came. If Cynthia stayed for any length of time, she’d have to do something about helping management improve the longevity of theplan.

It wasn’t as exciting as catching criminals, she thought with an inner sigh, but she was awfully good at accounting. She knew she could help them fix the problem. At least then she’d leave Oceanic knowing she hadn’t been a completefraud.

She tried a different tack. “Your ships must go round the world. I find that so thrilling. I’ve always wanted to travel.” That at least wastrue.

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