Mapmaker (10 page)

Staring at the pile of work on my desk, I regretted that
I’d ever applied for this job in the first place. I wished I was with everyone else at Camp Norwich lifeguarding on the lake. I wished I’d never seen Connor again, never seen his dad, never second-guessed Beth or my own father.

Yes I want to come! I frantically typed back. Give Blaney my # and tell her I’ll pitch in for gas and beer!

I smiled as I waited for Rebs to reply. I felt as if a weight had been flung from my shoulders. Here I was, just a normal girl, joking around with a friend, on her way up to party for the weekend. I could almost pretend it was true. I could make it true. I
would
. I stole a quick glance around the office. The front desk was empty. Alison wasn’t there. A pen lay at an angle over a white pad of paper with the MapOut logo printed across the top. The ever-present can of Diet Coke sat beside the keyboard.

I was about to leave when the doors of Harrison’s office opened. I hesitated. Was it guilt? But why would I feel guilty? He was the one who’d lied about his whereabouts last night. No … I froze because I hoped I’d see Connor.

Alison stepped out. The doors swung shut behind her.

“Can I help you?” She adjusted her rectangular blacked-rimmed eyeglasses and smoothed her skirt as she sat down in her swivel chair.

I suddenly realized I’d been staring at her. I was about to explain that there was no way I could finish the pile she had left for me, when the doors opened again. Harrison walked out of his office.

“Tanya.” He smiled, opening his arms to me. This was the way he’d always greeted me, with a hug. “Do you have a minute?”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

He looked surprisingly fresh-faced, clean shaven—in a pale blue button-down and jeans. I could still see the crisp lines from where the shirt had been pressed. I could smell the familiar mint-spice scent of his aftershave that lingered around him. It reminded me of my dad; he used the same brand. It always had the effect of making me want to take one step closer to him.

I followed him into his office: a bright corner room lined with ceiling-to-floor windows. A modern brown leather sofa sat against the wall, across from his stainless-steel desk, with two chairs facing from the other side. In the other corner was an old video arcade game from the ’80s. PAC-MAN.

“Does that actually work?” I asked, dazzled by the whole setup. In comparison, my dad’s office was like the supply cupboard. I instantly regretted having opened my mouth. Harrison had no idea I’d been in my dad’s office.

“Have a seat, Tanya.” He gestured to one of the chairs in front of his desk.

He gripped the arms of his chair as he sat down. His smile was gone. He leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, his expression was even graver. “You know your father made me your legal guardian.”

I blinked at him. Those were the last words I was expecting to hear. I’d always assumed Beth was my legal guardian. She was the one who dealt with feeding me, housing me, providing me with spending money. We may not have communicated, but she was
there
. I shrugged again, not sure how to answer.

“It’s a responsibility I take very seriously. You also know I love and care about you deeply. In fact, I think of you as my
own daughter. My second child. So I need you to be honest with me. Understood?”

In the bright light from his office, I could see the large dark circles beneath his eyes. I could also see he had tried to disguise them with powder or cover-up. It looked normal from a distance but in this light, up close, the streaks were visible. This all felt very wrong, all of a sudden, his putting me on the spot. He’d lied to his own son about where he was. What the hell was he trying to hide, anyway?

“I have a few questions to ask you,” he continued. “All I want from you is the truth.” He leaned forward. “Can you promise me that, Tanya?”

“Okay.” My throat felt thick, heavy.

“What time did you leave work yesterday?”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. No need to panic. Okay. So someone had ratted on us. (And I already had a prime suspect: Alison.) I was being busted for sneaking out early. That was fine. I could handle this.

“Sorry. Yeah. I left early. It was a really nice day and—”

He held his hand up to stop me. “What time did you return to MapOut?”

“Um … this morning. I’m not exactly sure … like around ten.”

His eyes met mine, holding them. “The truth, please.” His voice was calm but I could tell he was upset. He clenched the arms of his stainless-steel chair as he waited for an answer.

I repeated my first answer. “Around ten
A.M.
”

Harrison shook his head. “You and Connor came back to MapOut at 10:42 last night and you left at 11:56.”

I froze. I felt a queasy rush as the color drained from my
face. We’d been caught. Who had seen us? When did they see us? If they knew when we came and left, obviously they were spying on us the whole time. Why hadn’t they confronted us?

I blinked several times, unable to speak. He turned the large computer screen on his desk to face me. On it was a list of ten-digit numbers. Telephone numbers. All the employee telephone numbers all with times and dates next to them.

“You’re clocking your employees by their phones?” I gasped.

His features softened. “That’s right. That’s why lying won’t do you—”

“Is that actually legal?” I interrupted.

“Is the punch card legal?” Harrison asked, but he no longer sounded upset. A smile flickered across his face. “Look, Tanya, you’re not in trouble. But I want you to know that I can’t help you unless we’re honest with each other.”

I tried to smile back, to appease him somehow, but I felt as if I were suffocating. My dad would never have allowed something like this. It was creepy. Why was Harrison so paranoid about his employees’ comings and goings? But then it hit me: he really
did
have something to hide. There was no other explanation.

“Where’s Connor?” I asked.

Harrison stood and turned to the window, gazing out at the parking lot, the bright green leaves casting shadows over his face in the summer breeze. “I need to trust my employees. What you and Connor did was illegal. I know you were trying to hack into your dad’s computer. Connor already told me.”

I shook my head. This was wrong. I had already been caught in a lie. Maybe this was a trick question. Did he
already know we’d been successful? How much had Connor told him, if anything? No. No way. I couldn’t believe he’d tell his father a word, not after he’d made me swear to keep silent. It was best to tell the truth as far as I possibly could. I tried to laugh it off, but the sound died in my throat. “Well, yeah, see Beth thought my dad was having an affair with his old friend Cleo. You remember her?”

“And what did you find out?” Harrison asked, his back still turned to me. “Was he having an affair?”

I held my breath. If he could track people from their phones it was possible—unlikely but possible—he might have some way of reading texts. Had he read the texts I’d sent Connor? I should have been smarter than to be so explicit. I wracked my brain, trying to remember exactly what I’d written. There was a chance that Harrison didn’t know the whole truth.

Harrison shoved his hands in his coat pockets and turned around. “You are aware that breaking and entering is a serious crime—as is hacking. As owner of the company I would owe it to my shareholders and investors to prosecute you and Connor. I would be legally and ethically obliged to do so.”

“But I didn’t find anything out!” I practically shouted. “I couldn’t get past the third password.” So much for telling the truth. On the other hand, he’d just told me that I had nothing to be scared of, and now he was threatening to file criminal charges? That would put an end to my college applications, to any future jobs. I felt that invisible weight I’d just shed talking to Rebs clamp down on me, forcing me through the seat, through the floor, under the earth. Who would help
me? I didn’t have a mother or father. Would I need a lawyer? Would I go to jail? How serious was this? What had I done?

I wasn’t really a crier. I mean, I did cry, but I usually held it in until I was alone somewhere. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, or the magnitude of what he was saying, but I didn’t have any strength left in me. Wetness stung my eyes. I looked up at the ceiling to keep the tears from falling, but it was hopeless. This was a different kind of crying. I wasn’t sad or upset; I was afraid.

“Tanya, sweetheart.” I felt Harrison’s hand on my shoulder.

Everything had gone wrong today. And all because of a stupid bet with Connor yesterday afternoon. But no, that was unfair—to both of us. I wished I had never snuck out with him, wished I’d never trusted a word that had come out of his mouth. I forced myself to look up at Harrison.

“Like I said before, I care about you like my own child,” he said. “So I’m not going to tell the police. I’ll give you a second chance. But you need to make up for the hours you skipped out with Connor yesterday. I’d like you to be part of MapOut’s future. I know your dad would have wanted that, too.”

He reached across his desk and handed me a tissue. I couldn’t bring myself to thank him. “You have a talent,” he went on. “You always have. Remember the bird’s-eye view drawing you made of your house and yard? Of your dad’s work shed? All the measurements were exact and you were barely out of kindergarten.”

I wiped my eyes with the tissues. He had pretended he was going to prosecute me—but why? To scare me? To make me cry? To show that he had much more power than me?

“You’re a paid employee like everyone else. Make up the hours and we can put this behind us.” He sat back behind his desk and swung his screen around so it was facing him again. “You need guidance, Tanya, you have to know what you did was wrong. Not only wrong but against the law. I’ve been much easier on you than I have on Connor.”

“Where
is
Connor?” I asked again. My voice was scratchy but clear.

“En route to California. He hopped on an early flight on a whim. He missed his girlfriend. I’m still annoyed, but I respect his decisions. Besides, I’d like to open an office out there, and I’ve tasked him with finding MapOut a new office space.”

For a second, I thought I misunderstood. “When you say en route …?” I couldn’t finish my own question.

“He’s gone back to California. He missed his girlfriend.” Harrison said. He dug in his pants pocket for his cell phone and started scrolling through it.

Gone
. I wanted to get up, to run from the office, but I felt stuck to the chair. Time seemed to stand still. Connor didn’t even say goodbye. He’d told me he’d come back to be with me. That was the
last thing
he’d said. It didn’t matter how much he hated phones; he wasn’t that much of a creep. I knew it. It made absolutely no sense. Unless …

Unless things were better with his girlfriend than he’d hinted; unless he didn’t want to jeopardize his future by breaking into his dad’s office with a sort of regular-looking girl from his childhood; unless he was embarrassed by the confession he’d made and wished he could take it back.

“Do we have an understanding, Tanya?” Harrison asked.
He didn’t bother looking up from his phone. “You probably should get back to work.”

I nodded mutely and left before any more tears could come.

At my cubicle I
counted the pages. I felt numb. Maybe I could work hard, forget Connor, finish this project, and save some face here. Refocus on doing well and getting into a good college. I could be done by 8:00
P.M.
After that: escape. From everything. I needed to see my friends. To get away from all this, even just for two days. But I couldn’t stop thinking about Connor. Maybe he was on the plane now. Maybe he would call or text me when he landed. Maybe he would apologize for being a liar and a coward.

Or maybe I’d never hear from him again.

At 5:00, the construction workers started leaving. I was almost halfway through the pile of data entry. The building settled into a strange kind of quiet. I went to the kitchen, poured myself a large coffee and added cream. I didn’t even want it but my energy was sinking.

I stirred the coffee and looked out the window, at the parking lot below. I saw Harrison, his phone pinned to his ear, walking quickly to his car. I saw the three brothers from MIT riding away on their bikes. The sun was setting behind the trees, casting long shadows across the ground. Back at my desk I forced myself to work. I’d completed three-fourths of the pile but I was struggling to keep my concentration.

My phone pinged next to me. It was Blaney, Rebs’s sister.

Blaney

Hey, where are u?

Tanya

At MapOut. I have to work late (long story). I should be done by 8:30 maybe a little longer.

Blaney

K. I’ll pick you up at work. It’s the warehouse building on Essex St. right?

Tanya

Yep.

Blaney

@ 9 just to be safe.

Tanya

Thx.

I knew I had
to call Beth or she would seriously worry. I dialed Beth’s number.

She picked up on the first ring. “Tanya? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I—”

“It’s late.”

“I know. I’m … sorry. I just got swamped with work. I lost track of the time.”

There was a pause. She cleared her throat. “I didn’t see you this morning. You must have left early.”

“Yeah. Lots of work, like I said. Um … but I’m calling to let you know I’m going to spend the weekend with Rebs and her sister at Camp Norwich They’re having a big counselor-reunion party-type thing. Blaney’s picking me up here after work so I won’t be home.”

Another pause.

“Hello?” I said.

“Oh, okay, so when will you be back?”

“Sunday.”

“Sunday,” Beth echoed. She sounded disappointed. It honestly made me depressed hearing this in her voice. “Did you bring an overnight bag?”

“No. I’ll just wear Rebs’s clothes.”

“What about a toothbrush?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’ll buy one … I better go now.”