Page 78 of First Date: Divorce
“Why are you grinning?”
“Because I noticed what Harvey typed in as his password.Do you have any idea how many people use 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8?”
“Their business manager is that stupid?”
“Oh, no.Harvey uses 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.So tonight’s escape should be more fruitful than last night’s.”
She shook her head.“I used my free time for further conversation with our friend Albert.In addition to having to work the whole weekend, he’s feeling quite ill-used after being unjustly accused of misplacing or outright stealing counseling records that went astray last week.He let it slip the records were for the Murchisons.”
She saw Eric’s instant recognition of the name.“The dramatic exit couple Izzy and Orion talked about.”
“Exactly.Melody counseled them.She had notes on them in a break area Thursday evening — apparently strictly against the rules, but they’re down a counselor and they’re all fitting in paperwork as they can.She said she left no more than ten minutes and when she came back, the papers were gone.She immediately raised the alarm.
“Suspicion focused on Albert and things got rather heated, drawing in another counselor and your friend Harvey.Ms.Smiley — Lily — came on the scene and calmed it down, sticking up for Albert heroically, according to him.She got them all back into the break room to search.And there were the papers, slid down between the fridge and a cabinet.Melody swore up and down they were never near there, but backed off Albert and that’s all he cared about.”
“Someone could have taken them, maybe copied them,” he said.
“Yup, including Albert.Or Melody could have made the whole thing up to throw off anyone suspicious of her.”
“That’s good, K.D.Cully can follow up on Melody and the Murchisons, see if one of them ends up as a Gail Bledsoe client.”
“There’s more from Albert.A little sympathy, and he told me about the cameras — not specifically if there were any in the bedrooms, but generally.”
One side of his mouth lifted.“He just told you?”
“Not exactly.He rattled off the specs, clearly expecting it to be gibberish to me.”
“But it wasn’t.”
“Nope.The audio is crap, so that’s good news.And no night vision.But they are movement- and light-activated.”
“Damn.”
“Exactly.And the tapes are reviewed each morning by staff, with a report to the counselors.So our poking around needs to be when other people are roaming, too.”
He held back a branch as they left the neat path of the one-time railroad bed for a winding trail, and grinned wickedly.“That does leave more time in bed.”
Knowing he was teasing, she repeated dryly, “Motion-activated.Reviewed by staff.”
“That’s only if there are cameras in the rooms.”
“Want to take that chance?”
“Double damn.”
*
The path opened to the end of an alley.In a few hundred feet they walked in the back of Jessa’s store.She shifted cartons in a loft space.
“Cully and Ellyn are in the office,” she said from the ladder.
“How did they know we were coming?”K.D.asked.
“They didn’t.Ellyn brought leftovers from a reunion last night and Cully showed up like a homing pigeon.”
Cully’s muffled voice invited them to come in when Eric knocked on the office door.They found him sitting behind the desk, digging into a plate of food.
“There’s plenty for you two if you want.”Ellyn pointed to two covered plates.
