License to Shop (22 page)

Because I’d had luck in
Robert Quartermaine’s office with the underside of drawers, I
checked those first. Dr. Stubbs’ filing cabinets were unlocked,
fortunately, and I quickly checked through them, thinking that I
could be overlooking the obscure, but I’d try not to miss the
obvious.

Feeling the time ticking
away, I kept looking, until I heard the sound of a blanket being
dragged down the hall, and a plaintive, “Mom. I’m
hungry.”

I came out of Dr. Stubbs’
office, looking back to make sure I’d left everything as I’d found
it, and carefully closed the door.

Anna’s face was pale and
wan, leading me to believe that feeding her much of anything would
be a mistake.

“
How about some Jello?” I
offered, having thought to pack two of the pre-made containers I
kept around for just this occasion.

“
Do you have red?” She
asked hopefully.

“
I do.” She and Ryan both
favored red, so I always kept an extra pack of red
jello.

“
Okay.” She smiled at me,
wanly.

Before we could head back
out of sight, the delivery guy came in with the boxes of t-shirts.
He looked at Anna curiously as he handed me the machine for my
electronic signature.

“
It’s take your sick
daughter to work day,” I said cheerfully.

He laughed. “I’ll have to
tell my wife you said that. She’ll probably petition Congress to
create that day for real.”

“
Mothers everywhere would
anoint her a saint.”

He laughed as he wheeled
his empty cart out.

Kecia hadn’t said where to
put the boxes, so I hoped they were okay where he had put
them.

She came in, carrying
Sofia, as I had the thought. “Great. I knew the boxes would
come.”

Anna said, “Is that
Jasmine’s mom?”

“
Yes,” I said.

Kecia brought Sofia into
Dr. Stubbs’ office and deposited her into her bed.

Anna followed behind her,
and I followed behind Anna.

The butterfly on Kecia’s
wrist flashed as she put the dog down.

“
Is that butterfly a real
tattoo or a fake one?” Anna asks, curiously.

“
Real.” Kecia held out her
wrist for Anna to examine. She was a natural with
children.

“
Why did you get that
butterfly?” Anna asked.

“
I had it done when my
daughter was born,” Kecia explained. “The butterfly represents
freedom and beauty for the moth who escapes her cocoon.”

“
I’m going to get one just
like it when I grow up.” Anna vowed. Kecia and I exchange smiles
that only two mothers can share.

Anna, done with the
tattoo, for now, looked at the dog. “Can I pet her?” Anna
asked.

“
Be gentle,” Kecia said.
“She’s still a little sad about my giving her puppies
away.”

Anna dropped next to the
dog and said softly, “Don’t worry Sofia, we’re going to take very
good care of Jasmine. She’s the best puppy ever. Except that she
likes to eat our shoes.”

Kecia smiled and bent down
next to them. “I’m sure she’s glad to meet you, Anna, and know that
you’re taking such good care of Jasmine.”

“
My mom says mothers
always worry. I bet dog mothers are the same.”

“
I bet you’re right.”
Kecia tucked the blanket around Anna. “Do you want to sit here with
her for a little while?”

“
Could I?”

“
Let’s ask your
mom.”

They both turned to look
at me and I wondered what in the world was up with a universe that
was this good to me. “Are you sure Dr. Stubbs won’t
object?”

“
She won’t even know. And
Sofia will enjoy the company.”

I still wasn’t sure, and
my hesitation must have shown on my face, because Kecia said, “I
have some filing to do in here, so I’ll keep them company. You
don’t need to worry.”

Anna nodded. “See mom,
I’ll take care of Jasmine’s mom, and Kecia will take care of me.
You don’t have to worry.”

“
Okay, then. For a little
while.” At least until I could search the rest of the offices for
anything that might be useful to the FBI — and finish my work pile,
so I could be done before Penny.

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

The Storm of the Universe

Even with all my obstacles out of my way, my search turned up
nothing. I went through every office. There were no computers to
check, because everyone had their laptop with them.

I didn’t even find a
single stray thumb drive, never mind one taped to the underside of
a desk or drawer.

The only thing I uncovered
was that one of the counselors really liked chocolate-covered
almonds and had three containers of them hidden in her office. I
considered stealing a few from the unsealed container, but decided
that would be unethical. Not to mention straying too far from my
approved eating plan.

I knew what I had to do, I
just didn’t know how to do it.

I had to get past Kecia
and do a more thorough search of Dr. Stubbs’ office.

What possible excuse could
I use?

Kecia sat behind her desk,
working diligently, as usual.

“
I came to collect Anna,”
I said, wondering how long I could legitimately stay in the office
with Anna without making Kecia suspicious. Surely she would hear me
if I opened any drawers.

“
She’s asleep,” Kecia said
softly. “Poor thing. She really didn’t want to miss waterpaint
lessons today.”

“
I know. I hope she didn’t
keep you from your work.”

“
Not at all. I had some
filing to do in Dr. Stubbs’ office, and by the time I was finished,
she was asleep. So cute.”

“
I don’t know how you do
it. Going to school, working, raising your daughter.” I sighed.
“How do you keep all the plates in the air? Mine keep crashing to
the floor, and I already have my degree.”

She turned away from her
computer and gave me a serious look. “I just think about my end
goal. A good education, a roof over my head, a strong and smart
daughter.”

“
You’re almost finished
getting the good education,” I said. “Then what will you
do?”

She smiled, a far-away
look in her eye. “After all of this, the rest of my life raising
Phoebe will seem easy.”

I laughed, glancing toward
the office where Anna slept. “Take it from me, raising kids never
seems easy, even if you aren’t working full-time and you have a
husband to help carry the load.”

She glanced at me
curiously, “Do you really want this job, Molly?”

“
Of course,” I said,
thinking that any answer I gave might get back to Dr.
Stubbs.

“
Are you sure? You seem a
little — ambivalent.” She hesitated, as if she worried that she
might have offended me with her candor.

“
I’m always ambivalent,” I
joked. Then I confessed, “This—” I gestured toward the office where
Anna slept — “was why I wasn’t sure about going back to work
full-time,” I didn’t want to sound whiny in front of a woman who
was already juggling the plates I kept dropping, so I added, “I
don’t want to give the job short shrift. And I don’t want to give
my children too little attention. I just need to figure out how to
make it all work.”

“
I’ve been thinking about
that a lot since Phoebe was born,” Kecia admitted. She smiled. “I
know I’m young, but I’m already planning for early
retirement.”

“
Good for you,” I
commended her. “I hope by the time your daughter is grown, you can
take your early retirement and have some fun traveling the world
with her.”

“
I intend to,” she said,
with the conviction of youth. And then a little timer rang on her
desk. She looked at it and sighed. “Time to take Sofia for another
walk.”

Anna had fallen asleep next to the dog, who was also
sleeping. Looking at the pair made me want to take a
nap.

I admired how Kecia
managed to extract the dog without waking Anna. She was a true
master at motherhood. Her daughter was a lucky girl.

As soon as they left the
office, I got to work, searching quietly so that I wouldn’t wake
Anna.

Nothing.

There was not a scrap of
evidence that could be used to prove Dr. Quartermaine was a
criminal mastermind, or a murderer. I wanted to be relieved, but I
wasn’t.

I looked at my sleeping
daughter, Kecia’s words ringing in my mind. “Do you really want
this job?”

I did. And I didn’t. I
wanted easy, but like Norma said, life was not easy, only
interesting. I bent over Anna to kiss her head, and saw it, tucked
into a pocket in the dog bed meant for a dog toy. A square black
box. A back-up drive.

The evidence had been
hidden in the dog bed. Duh. Dr. Stubbs was the bad guy. My
undercover job was done. Just like that, I had solved the case. I’m
not sure why I was so sure, but I was. There was no other reason
why anyone would store a hard drive in a dog bed, unless it was to
hide it from a police search.

I grabbed the drive and
hurried to dig my phone out of my purse to call Deb and report
in.

“
I found a hard drive.
Looks like Dr. Stubbs is the culprit. Want to tell James Connery
for me?”

“
Hold on.” She put me on
hold.

Kecia came in from her
walk with Sofia and looked at me oddly.

“
I’m on hold,” I
explained, feeling lighthearted and giddy about finally being done
with the spy portion of my work.

She smiled, more the smile
of someone humoring a crazy person. She put the dog back in Dr.
Stubbs office and then came back out to her desk.

Deb said in my ear, “He’s
sending me to pick up the drive, and Dr. Stubbs. Can you keep her
there?”

Uh oh. I had forgotten to
tell her one important detail. “She’s at a retreat. She isn’t
expected back until tomorrow.”

“
Can you call her back to
the office for something?”

I frowned into the phone.
“I guess. What should I say?”

Deb was silent a moment
and then said quickly, “Say the FBI has found something, and they
need to talk to her. That should do it, don’t you
think.”

“
Okay, I’ll ask her admin
to call her.”

“
See you soon.”

I went up to Kecia’s desk
and said, “You know my best friend, the cop?”

Kecia nodded
warily.

“
She has been working with
the FBI. And she just called me to say the FBI wants to talk to Dr.
Stubbs.”

Kecia said warily, “She’s
out of the office.”

I nodded. “I told her
that. Do you think you could call her and let her know the FBI
would like her to come back here so they can talk to
her?”

“
Of course.” I watched,
anticipating my release from spy duty as Kecia lifted the phone,
called, got voicemail, and left a message.

“
No one answered?” I
asked, disappointed.

She shook her head. “Let
me send her an email and a text, too. Just so she gets the message.
You know how it is when you’re in a meeting. Sometimes it is easier
to pay attention to a text.”

“
Good thinking.” I
wondered how many future meetings I’d spend reading my texts. I
didn’t really look forward to it. “Thanks.”

After Kecia had sent the
email and the text she turned back to me. “How long until they get
here? Did they say?”

“
Probably ten minutes or
so. We aren’t that far from the police station.”

“
True,” she said. “I don’t
think Dr. Stubbs will be back that quickly. The retreat is being
held about thirty minutes away.”

I said, “I think they may
be bringing a warrant with them, so they’ll have plenty to
do.”

Kecia’s eyes widened.
“Oh.” And then she had a swift intake of breath. “They don’t think
she killed Rob, do they?”

“
It’s hard to imagine,
isn’t it?”

“
Impossible.” She said.
“She loved him. Well, not loved him. But like a son. Really.
They’re just wrong.”

For some reason, I found
it heartening that Kecia was so sure Dr. Stubbs hadn’t killed
Robert Quartermaine. She was only a temp, but she seemed to really
care about what happened in the office. “The evidence will tell us,
I guess. But I hope you’re right.”

“
I know I am,” she said
firmly.

I was surprised to see
that she had such strong feelings about Dr. Stubbs. It gave me a
little hope that maybe my boss wasn’t a bad guy. Maybe she was
being set up by the person who had killed Robert
Quartermaine.

Deb came into the office with two uniformed police officers,
and a search warrant.

Kecia took the warrant,
read it, and looked at her curiously. “You’re the police officer
who is best friends with Molly, right?”