Heller's Regret (19 page)

“You read a lot,” I commented.

Her mouth pursed in a pout of modesty. “We
drones must be of assistance where we can. Agreed?”

I glanced over at Farrell, noticing his
impatient face. “Ah yep, agreed. Sorry, but I have to run. It looks
as if I’m in trouble already and we’ve only been here ten minutes.
Gotta go. Nice to meet you, Francine.”

“You too, Tilly. I’m sure I’ll see you
around.”

“You know where I’ll be – hovering around the
jewels,” I joked over my shoulder as I hurried back to Farrell.

His voice was markedly cool. “Thanks for
joining me, Chalmers. Hope I didn’t interrupt anything
important?”

“You did, actually,” I said breezily, even
though I knew I should apologise to him. “I was learning vital
information about the necklace.”

“Forget about it, you can’t afford it. In
fact nobody at
Heller’s
can afford it, not even Heller. Not
even all of us put together could afford it.”

“I know that. It’s packed with rare
gemstones, and so valuable it’s priceless.” I glanced at the
jewellery sparkling in the lights. “It’s a big responsibility
guarding it, Hugh.”

“It is. But, nothing’s going to happen to it.
See that display glass in those cabinets? It’s top-of-the-line –
shatterproof, bulletproof, fireproof and completely unable to be
tampered with. The keyhole to unlock it is so well hidden it’s
impossible to find unless you know where it is. It has a triple
locking mechanism and three separate people have custody the three
different keys needed to unlock it.” When talking about the
cabinets, his voice held all the admiration I’d given the jewels
they contained. “It’s pure genius.”

“Aw, Hugh, you’re in love,” I teased. His
withering glance could have stripped a forest of its foliage in
seconds. “But what if the three staff with the keys collaborated to
steal it, splitting the proceeds?”

“Firstly, that necklace is too rare and well
known to sell. Secondly, the store security manager has one of the
keys, the store manager the second, and Mrs Burwood has the third.
The keys are kept in a strong box in the store manager’s office
overnight. No junior staff are ever entrusted with one of the
keys.”

“How do you know all this?”

He sighed. “Weren’t you listening to Mrs
Burwood at all?”

“No, she was boring and I couldn’t resist the
siren call of the beautiful necklace.”

“Chalmers, you’re never going to be a good
security officer until you start paying attention to the clients.
You’d be surprised how much important information they’re trying to
share with you.” But though his words were unmistakably reproving
in nature, they were said in a mild, non-cutting tone.

“Sorry, Hugh.”

“Our brief is to keep our eyes on the
cabinets at all times while also doing crowd control. If it becomes
too unruly in here, I’ll send you out to the door to organise an
orderly queue. Only a certain amount of people are allowed in at a
time.”

“We’re expecting crowds?”

He sighed patiently and rolled his eyes
upwards in supplication. “Didn’t you listen to Mrs Burwood even in
the slightest? We’re expecting very large crowds for the next few
days. This is a famous collection. There’ll be a lot of interest in
it.”

It surprised me when he said that – I’d never
heard of it before. “Okay, gotcha. Crowd control.”

“The exhibit will open for a while
exclusively to local media reps. They’ll presumably write up
glowing recommendations for it.”

“How could they do otherwise? The collection
is spectacular.”

“The collection will then open to the public
at ten. Visitors must enter the room, travel up the left side of
the display and down the right side before departing. No cameras
are allowed at all. There’s a sign posted at the front clearly
stating that, so anyone disregarding the direction will be escorted
out immediately.” He pointed over to the side of the room where
bollards and rope had been discreetly piled in anticipation of the
event, well out of the way. “They’re for the queue. This room is a
small space with the potential to quickly overcrowd. We have to
stop that from happening.”

“Wow! You learned a lot in a short period of
time.”

“It’s called listening, Chalmers. You should
learn how to do it soon.”

“All right, all right! I get it. I’m a bad
security officer.”

“I never said that.” His eyes narrowed. “The
media’s here.”

On cue, a troop of over-made-up, carefully
dressed journalists arrived. All of them were thin, young women
which I thought rather sexist – surely it wasn’t only women who
appreciated fine jewellery? Though the thin young things didn’t
take up much space, their camera operators did and it soon became
crowded in the room.

I raised my eyebrows at Hugh in query.

“Store management has allowed the cameras in.
It’s not our business to argue.”

“Guess not.”

We watched for the next thirty minutes as the
journalists and camera operators competitively jostled each other
out of the way to gain the best vantage point to film the precious
gemstones.

Mrs Burwood came in when their allocated time
was up, virtually bullying them all out of the room. They began to
pack up with barely a protest, confident that they’d shot their
thirty seconds of fluff for the news, and already thinking about
their next stories.

After they’d gone, Mrs Burwood chose to chat
to Farrell rather than me as they supervised the exodus of the
media. I smiled to myself. It seemed as though she’d taken a real
shine to him. Maybe he was the exact type of rugged, muscled, tough
guy that she secretly dreamed about ravishing her in the privacy of
her own home.

By the time the last camera operator hauled
their equipment out of the room, it was time to open the display to
the public. Farrell and I girded ourselves, ready to earn our
pay.

Chapter 14

To say we were rushed off our feet was the
understatement of the year. Farrell had warned me of the potential
crowds, but I’d found it hard to believe that many people would be
interested in such a specialised display as this one. But I was
wrong about that judging from the number of people who showed
up.

“It will be worse tomorrow after the media
talk it up tonight,” Farrell said in one of the few moments we had
to speak together.

“Worse? How could it possibly get any worse?
There are so many people here already.”

“Trust me on this, Chalmers. There will be
more of them tomorrow.” I trusted him on this and on everything
else. As he’d said earlier, he was a reliable guy.

The crowd grew so large we struggled to
maintain order. People became pushy in the queue, impatient to get
inside and view the jewels for themselves. The staff member at the
door, a guy in his twenties, seemed a little harassed and stressed
trying to keep the queue calm.

“Chalmers, I want you to go out there to take
over from that man. He’s not up to the job.”

Frankly, I didn’t think I would be either.
The man was in his mid-twenties and very attractive, his good looks
only slightly marred by his flustered expression. His face lit up
with gratitude when I offered to relieve him, gladly handing over
the difficult task to me. But before he escaped, I asked him to
help me carry the bollards and rope out to the increasingly edgy
crowd. He assisted me in setting up a snaking queue that repeatedly
doubled back on itself, maximizing the number of people who could
wait in line. I decided then to leave the queue props up overnight.
Even if the crowd was only a trickle at first tomorrow, we’d be
prepared for anything larger.

Everybody grumbled when I forced them to form
a queue, but it had an instantaneous effect on the chaos. Standing
at the doorway, I was able to see how many visitors left the room
at a time, enabling me to allow that precise number of waiting
people inside. It was an efficient system regulating the number of
people in the room, keeping them moving around the display and
shifting the queue at a faster pace. Farrell dealt with anyone
lingering, spending more than their fair share of time viewing the
jewellery.

By the close of the display for the night, I
was a wreck from standing all day. Farrell also appeared a little
ragged around the edges. We hadn’t had time to stop for lunch or
even had a chance to duck off for a quick pee.

“Heller’s going to rip my nuts off when he
finds out you didn’t have any lunch or a break during the day.”

“You didn’t get to either. It wasn’t your
fault we were so busy.”

I waited for him to finish and when he did,
we drove back to the Warehouse. We agreed to meet at eight the next
morning, giving us loads of time to set up before the exhibit
opened at ten.

“Bye, Hugh. See you tomorrow,” I said
indistinctly through a jaw-cracking yawn.

“Tomorrow, Chalmers.”

I went straight to my place, had a shower,
crammed three slices of unadorned bread into my mouth, and gulped
down a couple of glasses of water before hitting the sack. I’d gone
far beyond exhausted into new realms of tiredness, sleeping solidly
all night.

The next morning, after I dressed for work, I
popped down to Heller’s office to say hello, stunned when he told
me I’d been sleeping so heavily, I didn’t even stir when he joined
me later in the night.

“It must be the first time that ever
happened. I always know when you’re there.”

He kissed me. “You must have been very
tired.”

“You have no idea. I was totally beat.” One
second too late, I realised that was the wrong thing to say to
him.

“Maybe this job is too strenuous for you, my
sweet.”

“Aw, Heller, don’t take me off it, please.
I’m enjoying myself. I love looking at the jewels,” I cajoled,
sweetening my words by sitting on his lap and wrapping my arms
around his neck. Talking to him was like tiptoeing through a
minefield. I had to be careful not to set off any Farrell bombs by
mentioning how much I appreciated working with him. Instead, I used
my mighty powers of distraction – also known as my lips – to
distract him. When I found a chance to breathe again, I teased, “I
found a lovely necklace you can buy me.”

“Oh, yes?” he asked, skeptical.

“Search for the exhibition on your computer,”
I directed, sliding off his lap. He did what I asked, curious. I
rested my arm across his shoulders and pointed at the flower
necklace. “That one.”

He read the description of it. “You’re seeing
a lovely necklace, but all I’m seeing here is the amount of rare
jewels in the pendant. Much as I’d like to buy you a present, I
don’t need to check my bank balance to know this one’s too
expensive for me.”

I laughed. “It’s very beautiful though. I
can’t wait to look at it again today. But,” I leaned down to kiss
his cheek, “as you know, there are plenty of
other
necklaces
in the world.”

He smiled and pulled me down on his lap
again. “You’re not very subtle, Matilda.”

“And you’re not very good at picking up
hints. I have to be blunt.”

We shared more delicious kisses for a long
while, until interrupted by Daniel. Again. The guy had a sixth
sense for when we were becoming romantic.

He groaned. “Why don’t you put a sign out or
something to spare innocent bystanders the trauma of catching you
unawares?”

“Daniel,” Heller said, a little sharp. “I
don’t know how you do it, but I wish you’d stop.”

“I wish you two would stop.”

“Wait,” I demanded suddenly. “What time is
it?”

Daniel checked his watch. I’d left mine on my
dressing table and was too lazy to retrieve it. Hot kisses from
Heller were worth any amount of inconvenience for not knowing the
time all day. “Five to eight.”

“Shit, I’m going to be late.”

I wriggled off Heller’s lap, kissed him one
last time, kissed Daniel on the cheek and flew into the office
bathroom in case I didn’t get a chance to pee for a long time
again. I took the stairs too fast, at one stage almost tripping
over my boots and tumbling down, managing to grab the bannister at
the last second to save myself. I burst into the security section,
startling most of the men inside.

“You can tell you’re back. You’re like a
cyclone,” said Clive. I couldn’t tell if he was being snide or
funny, but knowing him, funny wasn’t a Clive thing. But at least
he’d talked to me. I’d take that as a small step forward.

Farrell glanced down at his watch. “One
minute to eight.”

“I’m on time. What are you complaining
about?”

“Get moving,” was all he said in response,
and again I had to hurry to keep up with him, firmly holding onto
the bannister this time.

At the department store, while Farrell
received another briefing from Mrs Burwood, who giggled like a
fifteen-year-old throughout the conversation, I gazed at the
necklace again. It was even more beautiful than I remembered. When
it rotated to the other side, I impatiently waited for it to return
to mine. It was set up to rotate, stopping for a minute on each
side, enabling everyone in the room to see it properly.

I stared at it, mesmerised by the sparkle of
the different gemstones in the well-positioned, discreet lighting.
Each gem had been cut by an expert lapidary to showcase it to its
best advantage. Sighing, I tore myself away from the display to go
outside and straighten the bollards and rope in the queue.

Farrell finally extricated himself from Mrs
Burwood’s attention.

“I think she’s sweet on you,” I smiled.

“Stop it.”

“Did you hear her giggling?”

“I was there, Chalmers. Of course I did.”

“Did she flutter her eyelashes at you too?
Ask for your number?”

“Are you going to do any work today?”

“I
am
working. While you’ve been busy
flirting, I checked on the jewels to make sure they’re okay.”