working so hard.” He gave a wry smile.
“So you’ve turned over a new leaf. Gotten interested in Daddy’s business.”
“And you?”
“I’m new in town. You’re just being friendly.”
“Yeah. They’re sure to buy that.” He sighed. “All right. Come on, then.”
The front door was locked, which was a good sign. “The line workers go in the back,” Eric said. “So they don’t need this door. The only ones coming in here are administrators and visitors.”
He unlocked the door and went in, punching the numbers on the alarm key pad.
“I’m surprised you remember the code.”
“The first thing Karl taught me. He hates getting called away from bed—or a golf game—for a false alarm.”
The office was silent. No clicking keyboards, no phones. No receptionist.
Eric unlocked the door to the back and they went in. Neither Yvonne nor Kathy was there. Eric walked quietly to Willems’ door and knocked. No response. He tried the door, but it didn’t open. “Not here.”
Casey let out the breath she’d been holding. “So let’s get to work.”
In Eric’s office, she pulled a second chair around to the back of his desk so she could see the computer screen. He typed in a search for dryer parts, which brought up about a hundred listings.
“Try dryer door latches,” Casey said.
He typed it in, and about a dozen lined up on the monitor. “Well, we can rule out several of those.”
Seven of those displayed had entirely metal parts, where theirs was all plastic, except for the small piece on what the computer called the “catch.”
Casey scooted her chair up closer. “What about the others? Are there dates for when they were manufactured?”
He clicked on the first one. “The ones with the completely metal ‘strike’ are marked as only special order. The dryers themselves went off the line ten to twenty years ago. It’s amazing anyone would still have one.”
“How about the pieces like ours?”
He clicked around. “Looks like the only ones that match and are currently in production are the last three.”
“Can we get close-ups?”
He enlarged one of the photos, and Casey reached into the box and pulled out the parts, setting them on the desk separately, beside the computer.
“Is my door locked?” Eric asked.
Casey made sure it was, and sat back down.
“Okay,” Eric said. “Let’s go through these one by one.”
“Ours isn’t the same as this photo.” Casey pointed at a piece on the computer. “That one, on the catch, it has another metal piece there I didn’t see before. On the rear part.”
“Right. Next.”
They studied the second photo. “Almost the same as ours,” Casey said. “But our strike looks…”
“Skinnier.”
“Yes, and longer.”
Eric held the piece up against the screen. “Nope. Definitely not the same. Here’s the third.”
It didn’t take long to see it wasn’t a match either, this one being entirely made of white plastic.
Eric sat back. “You think Aaron was wrong?”
“No. I mean, look at them. It’s definitely the same type of part. It’s just not exactly the same.”
“So is it from a different manufacturer? But why would Ellen keep that?”
“Let’s see if we can find it.”
They looked them all up. Whirlpool. Kenmore. Sears. Lots of parts that looked almost like theirs, but weren’t an exact match.
Eric put his elbows on the desk and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “I can’t look much longer. My head’s bursting.”
Casey got up and paced. “Okay. There’s no record of this part in your computer. No sign of it anywhere else on the web. But…” She stopped and poked at the part. “It exists. It’s sitting right here. Could it be a prototype?”
Eric exhaled, letting his head drop back. “Sure. It could be.”
“And where would we find the schematics?”
He waved at the computer. “Should be in here. Unless the part’s so new it hasn’t made it in yet.”
“Who would know?”
He jerked a thumb behind him, toward the plant. “Someone over there. I mean, somebody made this.”
Casey nodded. “Jack.”
“What?”
“He’s still working here. We can ask him.”
“At rehearsal tonight?”
“No, we don’t want to take this there. Too many people.”
“He could be working now. We could find him.”
“Huh-uh. We can’t go take this into the factory.”
Eric sighed. “Of course. You’re right.”
“You know what shift he works?”
“No clue. But I guess it could be on here somewhere.” The computer.
“Doesn’t matter. We can just call him. If he’s home, we can go see him.”
A knock sounded on the door.
With a sweep of his hand, Eric cleared the parts from the desk, dumping them into the box. Casey shoved the box under the desk while Eric clicked out of the screen displaying the parts.
“Yes?” Eric said.
“Eric?” A woman’s voice.
Eric got up, scooted around Casey, and opened the door. “Yvonne?”
“I wasn’t expecting to see you here again.” She looked past him to Casey, who still sat behind the desk.
“Oh, um, I was just showing her around.”
Yvonne’s eyes flicked to the door, which had been locked, and to the sofa in his office. “Of course.”
Eric’s face reddened. “I thought you left at noon.”
“I did. But I left my book in my desk.” She indicated the novel in her hand. “I wanted to read it this weekend.”
Eric nodded. “Sure.”
They stood awkwardly for a moment before Yvonne stepped back. “Well, I’ll be seeing you, then.”
“Have a good weekend.”
Yvonne hesitated, glancing once more at Casey, before walking out of the office.
Eric put one hand on the doorjamb and circled the other around. “Now there will be all sorts of rumors. I’m sorry.”
Casey shrugged. “I’ve been through worse.”
He looked over at her, a question in his eyes.
Casey stood. “So do you want to call Jack from here?”
He watched her for a few seconds before straightening. “Why don’t we just go over? It’s not far, and I’m ready to get out of here.”
She couldn’t argue with that.
It took only a few minutes to reach Jack and Aaron’s home. On the way, Eric pointed out a gray two-story house. Several beautiful large trees graced the yard, but the shrubs needed trimming, and the yard hadn’t seen a mower for just a little too long. Other than that, the place looked well taken care of. Not exactly inviting, but in basically good shape.
“My place,” Eric said.
Casey studied it as they drove by. “Nice.”
