Chapter 23
Ruth was late.Anderson was already pacing the office. She was fifteen minutes late. It was the morning after book club, so he usually didn’t worry about her tardiness, but this was later than she had ever been. He had texted her that morning before he had come in to see how she was doing, but he hadn’t gotten a text back. That in itself was unusual.
The bell over the door chimed, and Anderson turned, hoping to see Ruth, but it was only Rafferty. A smiling Rafferty.
“No, Angel today?” Rafferty looked at the empty desk in confusion.
“She’s just running late.”
“Angel?”
“Yeah, can you watch the office? I am going to run up there and see what is going on.”
“Sure.” Rafferty sat down at Ruth’s desk chair, spinning it around as he did.
But Anderson didn’t wait for him to answer before he was out the door and down to her glass door. He went to yank it open and almost dislocated his arm as the door stayed shut. Trying again, he realized it was locked. Looking closer through the glass, he saw nothing unusual in the stairway. But the door was locked, so something was up.
Back in the office, Rafferty was still sitting at Ruth’s desk. He had the computer on and was looking through the drawers. “Is there a key in there? The door is locked.”
“Angel’s door? The street door? In Landstad?” Rafferty started to look through the desk as he asked the questions. Looking around, he shook his head and closed the drawer.
“I know. I have never seen it locked before either. She won’t answer my texts.” He took out his phone and called her number and listened to it ring. It went to voice mail, and he left another message.
In front of him, Rafferty had his phone out and was calling someone as well, but his call was answered. “Mia, have you heard from Ruth today?”
Either Anderson didn’t hear an answer, or there was no answer because Rafferty lowered his phone and set it on the desk. His friend was looking around the office as if he was looking for the answer to where she was in the room.
He watched Mia run across the street from the café without even looking for traffic in the street. She also tried the glass door. Then she came over to the office and slammed her way in. Her eyes jumped from man to man as she demanded, “What have you done?”
“Me?” Anderson asked, utterly confused.
She turned to Rafferty. “You?”
“Nothing. Haven’t talked to her in a few weeks.” Rafferty had his hands in the air as if that would show his innocence.
“Then I say it was you, Anderson. She was fine last night. Happy and fine. What happened?” Mia had her hands on her hips and was staring at him.
“I haven’t talked to her since I left when book club started last night.”
“What did you do last night?” Folding her arms she glared at him not giving up on him being the issue.
“I was home all night,” Anderson said.
“You called me,” Rafferty offered as he turned on the computer in front of him. Anderson nearly stopped him from doing it. It seemed like an invasion of her privacy to have him looking at her computer, especially when he knew what Ruth did most of the day on that computer.
“I talked to my dad, and I talked to Rafferty. Nothing was said that would upset Ruth. I don’t even know how she would know what we talked about to upset her.”
Mia was not letting it go. “You did something.”
“Doesn’t Ruth have a background on her computer that is a picture of that window in the summer?” Rafferty asked as he looked at the computer.
“Yes, she changes it to the opposite season.” It was a cute quirk he had noticed years before.
“It’s not on the computer anymore.”
Anderson went over to her computer and saw that over half the icons that were usually on it were gone. Something had happened to her computer over the weekend. Going into his office, he turned on his computer to see he had the same issue. Sitting in the chair, he waited for the computer to warm up. He started tapping impatiently on his desk and noticed an unlabeled folder. As the computer did its thing, he opened the file. It contained a contract for the rent of this office. It was made out with Rafferty’s name where his used to be.
Closing his eyes, he realized the contract was accidentally sent to the office, and she had found it this morning. She knew he was leaving, and she was gone. No not gone. She was up in her office, which was why the door was locked. To keep him out.