Page 38 of Collin: Episodes 4-6
He said goodbye to Ash on the sidewalk and texted Mr. Reevesworth that he was walking home. For a moment, his finger hovered over the send button. It was ironic, somehow, that he was checking in with someone now, in his mid-twenties, when he’d been keeping his own schedule and getting himself around since he was thirteen.
He waited for resentment, chafing, anything. But there was nothing but amusement. He hit send. A moment later, Mr. Reevesworth texted back.
Damian’s coming to meet you. Change and join me in the gym when you get here.
They had a quiet night in. Damian and Mr. Reevesworth had put together the new bed, much to Damian’s amusement. Collin stretched out to test it out and fell asleep. He woke to Mr. Moreau laying a blanket over him. He reached out and grabbed the man’s hand, kissing the backs of his fingers, before passing out again.
Wednesday morning in the office of Reevesworth Industries was bustling. Hartwick was busy prepping reports for Mr. Reevesworth’s trip to London in two weeks. Janice had a cold and was curled up around a massive mug of tea while translating business intelligence out of Malaysia. Bruiski was fielding calls and sorting mail and faxes. Collin had never seen so many faxes. But at least they looked like they were in English. Mr. Reevesworth had kicked him out of the office to take calls, so he was on his own for the moment. He dropped down next to Bruiski.
“I don’t think I’m earning my paycheck.”
Bruiski laughed. “Considering what you’re used to doing, I can imagine downtime feels odd. Don’t worry, you will be earning every dime you’re paid. Here, put these in order by date and page number.”
Collin collected the pile and started to spread it out. “So, did you know about me, too, before I knew about you all?”
Bruiski made a face, staring at some numbers. He set the paper aside. “Um…don’t know what that is. But, yes, I helped run some of the background checks.”
Janice blew her nose. “I voted for you.”
“What, you all had a vote?”
“No.” Bruiski shot Janice a look. “Janice just votes for the cute boys in general, whether or not we’re voting.”
Janice put her sore nose in the air. “You need to have more fun, Bruiski. Make friends.”
“Who needs friends when I work with you? This office is all the drama I can take.”
Janice giggled. “So, are you going to go on vacation with Tim or not?”
Bruiski scowled. “He wants to go bouldering in Yosemite. We’re all going to die. My wife is going to kill me if I say yes.”
“Then take her with you.”
“Just because she’s a nurse doesn’t mean she wants to rescue me on vacation.”
Collin picked up the paper Bruiski had discarded. “These are schematics. These are my schematics.”
Bruiski leaned over. “Did you fax them in?”
“No. I haven’t touched these in over a year. These are the plans I drew up for aquaponic farming for the abandoned building on the south side.”
Janice shuffled over with her mug. “Maybe that’s left over from the background check.”
Bruiski shook his head. “I just took all this out of the fax machine this morning. These are all external.”
Collin’s skin ran cold. “Where’s the fax cover for this? Who sent it?”
Bruiski shuffled around. “It’s an unknown number. I don’t recognize this.”
Janice put down her mug. “I’ll get Ash up here.”
Twenty minutes later Janice, Hartwick, Bruiski, and Collin were gathered around Ash at the large table at the end of the room. The overnight and morning faxes were laid out in order of receipt and labeled with sender.
Ash had his laptop out and was checking the fax number. “I can’t run a trace now. The connection is gone. The number comes from Indianapolis. But that doesn’t tell us much. It could be from anywhere. You can get online fax numbers now for whatever area code you want.”
“Online fax numbers?” Janice tapped her head through her hijab with the end of a pen. “Why not just email?”
Ash scowled. “Sometimes the other end won’t use email. And some countries still use it a lot, like Japan.”
