Page 22 of Protecting Silver
“I agree. Did you leave your card at the hospital for them to contact you when Anita wakes up?”
“I did. Because of the surgery she’s undergoing, they said it’d be hours, then there’s ICU and recovery. It might even be a couple of days before we can get in to see her.” Tamara stared out the window, then looked over at her friend and work partner. “Oh, and the doctor I spoke with said she’d put the word out that no one is to tell anyone about Anita. I didn’t tell her I found her name and address.”
“Good for you. Now what?”
“Go back to the office and download the photos, then start a file. I have a feeling this is going to be big, maybe bigger than the two of us can handle. But...” She held up her hand to ward off what she knew Jackie would say, “...I want all our ducks in a row before we go up the chain of command. The first thing is to understand the importance of those newspapers. Did you happen to notice that they were from different states?”
“I did, and did you also happen to notice there was an article on the tablet on the kitchen table? I moved it and it came on. While you were looking in the pantry and laundry room, I wrote down the name of the paper. It’s from a small one out in Montana. The date on that one was only three days ago.”
“Let’s start there.”
“Why don’t you start there and work back. I’ll start with the date furthest out, and we’ll meet in the middle.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Tamara nodded, and rubbed her stomach. Something about this case was screaming at her, but she knew that until she talked to Anita Green, there was nothing she could do but research. Later, when she had something, she’d go to her boss and confess her sins as to how she’d obtained the information. Until then, she sent up a silent prayer that Miss Green survived the surgery, and Tamara could get in to speak with her.
Chapter 12
“Welcome back!”Lorna said to Silver as she entered their work area, and when Silver started to put her purse in the bottom of her drawer, Lorna shook her head at her. “No, that’s not your spot any longer... this is.” Then, Lorna went over to the office held previously by Simon, a former employee whom Eric Larson had fired years ago, and made a grand gesture with her arms and invited Silver inside.
“Wow,” Silver said as she turned in a circle to look around. “It’s the same size as yours.”
“It is, and you can decorate it any way you’d like. I want to show you this,” she said as she dragged Silver over to the windows that faced the other workers, and pointed to a little white button that looked like it was on a slide. She moved it up and down, and Silver laughed when the blinds inside the window closed and opened. “I feel so stupid, but I didn’t know I had this same feature until Finn pointed it out to me. The ones on the windows facing outside are still the old-fashioned way where you turn the rod.”
“Good to know. I’m raring to go, and before we begin, I need to apologize for taking an extra two weeks off after being out of the hospital.”
“Don’t you dare apologize for taking care of yourself. Technically, you don’t have to return for another three weeks, so do not apologize for taking those extra two.”
“Okay, but I wanted you to know that I wanted the swelling to finish going down, and the colorfulness of my face to be only one hue. Instead of black, blue, green, purple, red, and yellow, I wanted to return with flesh-colored skin.”
Lorna laughed, then covered her mouth. “I’m sorry for laughing.”
“Don’t be. It’s understandable. Anyway, what’s on the agenda?”
“First, it took some time for Deb to put out an ad, then get applications to come in. So, you really wouldn’t have had anything to do these last two weeks anyway. Finn took longer than I thought he would about approving the next batch of fundraisers. Here’s where it’s going to get wonky.”
“Wonky how?”
“Because, based on what Marc told me, I thought there would be four fundraisers coming down the pike. However, Finn approved all the fundraisers for the rest of the year. Now we have to organize and prioritize them.”
“How many?”
“Twelve.”
“Holy crap!” Silver looked at her in shocked surprise. “Twelve in the next six months?”
“Yes, that’s two a month, I thought we’d go through them, and you do six, and I’ll do six. However, they should be done at the same month.”
“I think I do, but I don’t know if I understand what you’re saying.”
“Okay, we have six months to do twelve fundraisers. Instead of us each breaking our necks trying to do all six at once, why not do two fundraisers a month. You organize one, I’ll organize the other. So, technically we each do six.”
“Ah, I get you. Now, when do the interviews start?”
“On Wednesday. I thought we could get organized with the fundraisers, then in between planning, we could interview.”
“And what are the chances of maybe hiring two assistants?”
“Ninety-eight percent.” Lorna grinned. “I asked Finn the same question when he dumped the folders on my desk Friday night about five minutes before closing time.”
