Caroselli's Baby Chase (15 page)

“I’ll call Terri tomorrow and make sure it’s okay.”

“I’ll look online for a furniture rental place.”

* * *

Carrie called Terri from work the next afternoon.

“Of course you can turn the office into a bedroom,” Terri said. “Just stick what’s in there down in the basement.”

“Perfect! Thanks, Terri.”

“And by the way, I was going to call you. We’re having a get-together next weekend. We would love it if you would come.”

And she would love to be there, which was exactly why she shouldn’t go. She was letting herself get too close. This was just supposed to be a business trip. “My friend Alice is visiting and I would feel bad leaving her alone.”

“Bring her with you.”

Terri was making it very hard to say no gracefully. “The thing is, she just got out of a relationship and I’m not sure if she’s ready to put herself back out there just yet. But I will ask.”

“I hope we see you.”

Carrie wished she could.

A few minutes after she hung up with Terri, Alice called. “Did you talk to Terri?”

“She said it’s fine, and we can move the furniture that’s in there down to the basement.”

“I already picked out the furniture. I thought I would have them deliver it Monday. We can move the office furniture tomorrow. Unless you’re planning to work again this weekend.”

“I think I’ve earned a Saturday off,” she said. It was hard to believe that today would mark the end of her fourth week in Chicago, and her third at Caroselli Chocolate. And they still had so much work to do.

After they hung up Carrie immersed herself in work until Rob appeared in her doorway later. With his sleeves rolled to his elbows and his tie loosened, he looked too yummy for words. She longed to undress him, and run her tongue over every conceivable inch of his delicious body.

“Tony and I are packing it in and going out for a burger,” he said. “Care to join us?”

She looked at the clock, surprised that it was already after seven. “I can’t.”

He folded his arms. “You’re not still worried that people will think we’re a couple, are you?”

“No, not anymore.” Everyone seemed fairly clear on that concept now. Though it wouldn’t take much to get the rumor mill spinning again. If there was one thing the Carosellis loved more than chocolate, it was gossip. “I’m taking the weekend off, so I want to finish this report before I go. It’s going to be at least another hour or two.”

“You sure? Dinner is on me.”

“Maybe next time.”

He shrugged. “Okay, see you tomorrow.”

“See ya.”

He was already long gone when it occurred to her that she wouldn’t be there tomorrow, so she in fact would not see him. Which was probably a really good thing. She was very careful to stay safely behind the border she had set for herself. Yet every now and then she caught her toes inching past the line. That was when she knew she had to back off, recapture her perspective.

She worked until nine, and was gathering her things when she swore she heard the sound of footsteps out in the hall. It was rare that anyone worked past six on Friday, and for a split second she wondered if Rob had come back.

She got up from her desk and peeked out of her office, just in time to see someone turn the corner at the end of the hall, where it dead-ended at Demitrio’s office. Someone too small to be Rob or any other man.

Had his secretary come back for something maybe?

She walked quietly down the hall and peeked around the corner. Whoever it was, she was messing with the door to the outer office.

What have we here?
she wondered. A little interoffice espionage?

“Excuse me,” she said and the woman in question squealed with surprise, dropping whatever was in her hand. As it clinked against the granite floor, Carrie realized that it was a large silver paper clip that had been straightened out.

Was she
picking
the lock?

The woman spun around and Carrie recognized her immediately. “Rose?”

“Carrie,” she said, slapping a hand over her heart. “You scared me. I thought everyone had left.”

Carrie only knew Rose from the break room, and though she found her to be a bit odd, she’d never had a problem with her. But something was definitely going on. “What are you doing?”

Her cheeks blushed bright red as she bent down to grab the paper clip. “I realize how this looks,” she said nervously, “but it’s not what you think.”

“You’re picking the lock on the CEO’s office door.”

“Demitrio’s secretary has a binder full of old reports for me that need to be digitized. She left early, but said it would be on the corner of her desk. I lost track of time, and by the time I came down to get it, Demitrio had left and locked up. I tried to reach her, and when I couldn’t, I panicked. I thought maybe I could pick the lock.”

She looked sincere, so why did Carrie get the feeling she was lying through her teeth. “Would you like me to call Rob? Maybe he has a key to his father’s office.”

“Oh, wait! My phone is ringing. Excuse me.”

Carrie didn’t hear a phone ring, but supposed Rose could have had it set on silent.

She scurried several feet away before answering it. “Hello,” she said. “Oh, thank goodness you got my messages…are you sure it can wait?” She paused, then said, “Okay, see you Monday.” She turned to Carrie, shoving the phone back in her pocket. “It’s okay. She said I can do it Monday.”

Carrie found it awfully convenient that she called at that exact moment. A little
too
convenient. Not only that, but Mary, Demitrio’s secretary, was a talker. They’d never had a conversation that lasted less than ten minutes.

“Would you mind if we keep this between us?” Rose said, her cheeks crimson. “I would be mortified if anyone knew what I did.”

“Sure,” Carrie said, fully intending to tell Rob the entire story the next time she saw him.

* * *

At noon the next day, when she and Alice were supposed to be moving furniture to the basement, Carrie found her draped on the couch half-asleep instead.

“Are you ready?” Carrie asked her.

“Ready for what?”

“To move the office furniture.”

Alice blinked. “With my healing ankle? I couldn’t possibly.”

“Then why did you tell me you would?”

“I never said
I
would do it personally.”

Did she think Carrie would be able to do it alone? “I need help.”

“Don’t worry.” She sat up, stretching like a cat. “I called for reinforcements.”

“Reinforcements?” Who did she even know in Chicago? Or had she hired professional movers?

As if on cue, the doorbell rang. Alice put her foot down, wincing as she tried to push herself up from the couch. “Be a dear and get that for me, would you?”

Be a dear?

She walked to the door wondering why Alice was acting so odd. She pulled it open, surprised to find Rob standing there. Tony was behind him.

“We’re here,” Rob said.

Thanks, Captain Obvious.
“I see that.
Why
are you here?”

Confused, the two men looked at each other, then Rob turned back to her. “Alice called. She said you needed help moving furniture.”

“Oh, did she?” Carrie turned to give her friend the evil eye, but the sofa was empty. She’d set Carrie up, now she was going to bail on her? How many times had Carrie specifically said that she didn’t want to see Rob outside the office?

“Come on in,” she said, letting the men inside. She couldn’t leave them out in the cold while she murdered Alice. Besides, she really did need their help. They might even lend a hand disposing of Alice’s body.

Under his wool coat Rob looked like something out of a handyman fantasy in faded, threadbare blue jeans, a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up and well-worn work boots. The kind of ensemble that would be fun to tear off him with her bare hands. Which was exactly what she wanted to do.

Yep, Alice was dead meat.

Wearing black jeans, a black long-sleeved T-shirt and sneakers, Tony wasn’t looking too shabby either.

“If you two will excuse me a minute, I need to have a word with my roommate.”

“You want us to get started?” Rob asked.

“Nope,” she called over her shoulder as she headed down the hall. “I’ll be right back.”

Her bedroom door was closed, and when she tried to turn the knob, it was locked. She had locked Carrie out of her own bedroom?

“Alice!” she hissed. “Open the door.”

“I have a terrible migraine,” Alice said weakly. “You’ll have to manage without me.”

“Migraine, my ass,” she mumbled as she walked back to the living room, where Rob and Tony were still waiting.

“Everything all right?” Rob asked.

“Fine. Alice is…resting in my room.”

Rob’s brow rose.
“Resting?”

The last thing she wanted was for Rob to realize that this was a setup. He might actually believe that Carrie had something to do with it.

Carrie lowered her voice and said, “Actually, she’s hiding. She’s taking the breakup pretty hard. And the career stuff.”

“Tony is a recent dumpee, too,” Rob told Carrie.

“Dude, really?” Tony said, looking irritated. “Tell the whole world, why don’t you.”

Rob grinned, and Carrie wondered if that had been payback for past fat jokes.

“Alice said you’re clearing out the office,” Rob said.

“We’re making it a bedroom.” They followed her down the hall. “So this is it,” she said as they stepped into the spare room. “It all has to go. Terri said to put everything in the basement.”

“The haunted basement?” Tony said.

She couldn’t believe that a big burly guy like him could possibly be afraid of a door-opening spirit. “Whatever or whoever it is down there, it’s harmless,” Carrie assured him.

Both men took an end of the desk, carried it out of the room and down the hall.

“Where in the basement do you want it?” Rob asked her.

“Oh, anywhere there’s room,” she said.

“Nowhere specific?”

She shrugged. “Just any old place is fine.”

Rob stopped just shy of the basement door, wearing a wry smile. “You’ve never been down there, have you?”

“Why would you assume that?”

Tony looked down the stairs, then back at her. “Have you?”

“Yes,” she said indignantly, then paused and added, “Sort of.”

“Sort of, how?” Rob asked.

She’d once made it about halfway down the stairs, but the creak of the door moving behind her had propelled her back up. She’d moved so swiftly, in fact, that she could swear her feet never touched the stairs. “Even if there is something down there, it’s not as if it can hurt us.”

“Then you won’t mind going first,” Rob said, gesturing her down.

Unwilling to admit just how nervous she was at the prospect of going down there, she raised her chin a notch, met his challenging gaze and said, “Of course I’ll go first.”

“We’ll be right behind you,” Rob said.

She switched on the light and peered down. Worst-case scenario, she might see or hear something unusual. And because whatever kept opening the door seemed inclined to stay in the basement, she had nothing to worry about. Plus she had two strapping men to protect her.

Yet she was still edgy.

She started down, forcing her feet forward, growing colder as she descended, unsure if it was due to a lack of heat or the presence of something unworldly. She was hesitant to hold the rail, lest she might feel that disembodied hand settle over hers again. Her heart was pounding double time when she reached the last step and her foot hit the concrete floor.

She realized, with no small degree of relief, that the only things down there she could see were boxes and old furniture.
Extremely
old furniture and lots of it. Pieces that she was guessing were from the late nineteenth century. It must have been worth a small fortune.

“I guess we should put the stuff from the office off to the side over there,” she said, gesturing to the only relatively vacant area.

They set down the desk and Rob asked, “Are you coming back up with us?”

“I think I’ll stay down here,” she said, curiosity outweighing her fear.

“Okay, we’ll be right back.”

She wove her way through the maze of different pieces, checking them out. Some were plain and functional, others ornately embellished and fragile-looking. She knew next to nothing about antique furniture, but the variety of grains and colors said the pieces were built from several different types of wood. Whoever owned all of this must have been a collector.

There were several dining room and bedroom sets, and a fair share of living room pieces. She ran her hand across the surface of a beautifully carved sideboard, expecting to find a layer of dust but either the air in the condo was unprecedentedly clean, or Terri sneaked in while she was at work and dusted everything.

“Find your ghost?” Rob asked as he and Tony appeared with a large file cabinet.

“Not exactly. But doesn’t it seem unusually clean down here? There isn’t a spot of dust on this furniture.”

“Terri is a little fanatical about keeping things clean,” Rob reminded her.

Yes, but a basement? Besides, she hadn’t been there in a month.

“We just have to grab the bookcase and we’ll be done,” he said.

“Okay,” she answered distractedly, entertaining a third possibility, but it was a little creepy to contemplate that not only was the ghost fanatical about keeping doors open, but it was a clean freak as well. Could a ghost have OCD?

Carrie heard a soft creaking sound, and she could swear the very faint wail of a baby crying.

No way. It must have been something Alice was watching upstairs, and the sound was leaking down through the floorboards.

And what if it wasn’t?

“Do you guys hear that?” she said, turning to where Rob had been standing. But apparently they had already gone back up the stairs for the next load.

She listened hard and the sound seemed to be coming from the far end of the basement, where the bedroom pieces were stored. Coincidentally, right under the bedrooms.

Screwing up all of her courage, she made her way through the furniture, following the sound, and the closer she got, the less it sounded as if it were coming from upstairs. She finally made it to the end of the basement, in the darkest corner and found, stored behind a wide chest of drawers that was desperately in need of refinishing, a child’s cradle that looked hand-carved. As her eyes adjusted to the low light, and she got a better look at it, the hair on her arms and back of her neck shivered to standing and her heart skipped a beat.