Page 36 of Emergency Exit
Then his phone let out an ear-splitting screech, and Harper jerked back in surprise.
“Fuck!” Ash fumbled at his phone, dropped it, and then snatched it off the floor. She could see a woman with cute spikey hair on the screen. “Uh... Fuck.” Instead of declining, he instantly answered.
“Mel, what the—” He cut off to listen to her. “Wait... what? What? Shit. Uh... yeah, I’ll be right there.” He hung up and stared at Harper. Harper stared back. “Uh... wait here. I’ll be right back. There’s an emergency... At the office.”
11
Ash
What About Bob
Ash stared around the trashed front lobby and felt the warm glow of his Friday night with Harper evaporating faster than the snowpack in summer. His space was large, airy, and modern, but at the end of the day, it was a lobby attached to three offices, a conference room, a breakroom, and a bathroom. When he rented the suite, he’d hired Rowan’s crew to add additional security. They had been gleeful about their unlimited budget and promptly installed biometric locks and steel-reinforced office doors. The lobby was the only portion that used the standard building security. It was also the only part that was a disaster. The office doors all showed signs of being kicked, and the front desk computer monitor was flickering sadly from the floor among the debris and dirt from the smashed office plant.
“Yeah,” said Mel, agreeing with Ash’s expression since he hadn’t said anything. Mel was his IT guy. Mel had short, spiky hair and a master’s in computer science. They spent their weekends catfishing the scammers who emailed their grandmother’s retirement home friends. Ash had Mel them during one of his professional development chats at the UW. Post college, Mel had made it one year in corporate America before showing up on Ash’s doorstep and asking to be part of Team Ash’s adventure party. The twenty-four-year-old was happily out of the rat race, and Ash was happy not to be outsourcing his computer work anymore.
“What does the front desk computer have access to?” asked Ash.
“I’ll confirm in a minute, but it’s not connected to the network. It only has the shared office account. So, the calendar and maybe a contact list.”
“I don’t understand,” said Ash, looking around. “Was someone looking for cash? Did they break into any of the other businesses?”
“Nope,” said Mel. “I checked after I called you. It’s just us. I called the building security number, but they said they hadn’t received any alerts for our office. I told them to pull the video feed but to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure they could find their ass with both hands and a map, let alone the correct security feed.”
Ash looked at the front door to the office suite. It was the only thing that didn’t look broken. Whoever had broken in had even smashed the office bamboo plant.
“So they had a key to the door? But the thumbprint locks kept them out of our actual offices.”
“That’s how I’m reading it,” said Mel. “And then someone threw a little temper tantrum and smashed up the computer and everything else. Do we call the cops?”
“I guess,” said Ash, reluctantly taking out his phone.
He dialed the non-emergency number and waded through the punch-this-number menu.
“I want to clean up so bad,” muttered Mel. “This is kind of hitting me in my OCD.”
“I don’t even have OCD, and it’s bugging the crap out of me,” said Ash, still punching numbers to get to home invasion reporting. On the final selection to speak to a real person, Ash hurriedly hung up.
“We’re not reporting it?” asked Mel, looking startled.
“The front door isn’t busted. The cops will say it’s an employee.”
And Ash only had two employees.
“And then they’ll harass Romeo.” Mel looked sour at the very idea.
“And you know his paperwork is still in limbo,” said Ash.
Romeo was his executive assistant, who, as far as Ash could tell, was a genius of organization and had lived in the States since he was two. He was making his way through the immigration process, but Ash knew that even though Seattle was a sanctuary city, Romeo lived in fear of being deported to a country he didn’t even remember. Legal policies and police opinions didn’t always match up.
“So what do we do?” asked Mel.
What Ash wanted to do was go home to Harper, but that probably wasn’t an option.
“Make sure nothing’s missing and nothing’s been hacked, and then I will call Rowan in the morning. Maybe he’ll know how to push the security company to get the video footage.”
“That’s a good idea,” said Mel.
Ash checked his watch. It was nearly two. And despite it only being the front lobby, he suspected it would take longer to clean than it looked.
