Another room adjoined, complete with futon and a closet stuffed with clothes in case Mr. Danielson decided he loved work so much he didn't want to go home. And the bathroom could accommodate enough cots to provide living quarters for an entire family.
Still, she was the only one up here, and she belted out Buble in her jazziest impersonation as she dipped her mop into the sudsy water, then pulled the handle on the yellow bucket's squeegee, and wrung the extra water from the mop's stringy head. Just as Ella was ready to swab the already sparklingly clean bathroom tile, her earbud was unceremoniously plucked from her ear.
Ella spun, losing her grip on the mop handle. The wood smacked against the mirror, and she jerked a look of panic toward the glass. That was all she needed, to break the billionaire's mirror.
The appearance of Pris, her stepsister, had all the effect of a dozen Red Bulls on her concentration.
"Clumsy, aren't we?" Pris said, tossing the loose earbud in Ella's direction. It hit her cheek.
Ella removed the other earbud in exasperation. "Did you need something?"
Pris folded her arms over her matching gray jumpsuit with her mother's company logo on the breast pocket. Malus Custodial Management. She'd swept her dark hair into a ponytail. "Mom sent me to tell you to hurry up. She wants everyone to finish early today."
"She does? Why?"
Pris rolled her eyes. "I've already delivered the message. I guess you'll find out with the rest of us--assuming you don't break anything in the meantime."
Pris skewered a glare at the mop bucket as though it had caused her some personal offense before adding, "And keep it down, would you? You're as bad as Charlotte. I heard you all the way in shipping."
Charlotte, Pris's other (real) sister, tended to crow her own rendition of whatever song had just played on the radio whenever she felt like it. Maybe that was when Ella started wearing earbuds...
Somehow, Pris managed to swagger even in her baggy jumpsuit and sneakers, as though she wore elegant heels and a businessy pencil skirt and top instead as she sashayed from the room.
"Glad we had that little chat," Ella said in her stepsister's wake.
They'd never gotten along from the time Pris's mom had married Ella's dad, but the whole mess with Derek--a friend Ella had been seeing two years before--had really put Ella on Pris's hit list. No matter what her stepsister thought, Ella hadn't done anything to encourage Derek's attention. And she'd broken it offf with him for Pris. What more did she want?
Ella finished mopping the luxurious bathroom, set the mop in the bucket, and braced the handle to roll the entire contraption from tile to carpet. She took care in double-checking areas, ensuring no rags or spare garbage bags had been left behind, before heading toward the set of light switches by the door.
A patch of dust on the shelf caught her eye. Ella moved the picture frame aside, swiped the dust with the cloth dangling from her pocket, and allowed herself a few fleeting moments to gaze at the luscious billionaire's company photo contained in the frame.
His dark suit set off his blue eyes and dreamy features. One hand was propped along the banister behind him. Ella was already warm in her jumpsuit, but the sight of the photo set a match to her blood. Hawk Danielson. Yeesh, he was good-looking. He gave a whole new meaning to the words candy man.
"Come on," she breathed, returning the photo to its place. "Better get down there before Stina sends someone else after me."
The sun rising over Westville, Vermont, was visible through wide, glass windows on the way to the elevator. It cast splashes of orange to counterbalance the sparkling white snow below. Ella wheeled the bucket to the custodial closet on the twelfth floor, emptied its contents--spilling water into her shoe and saturating her sock in the process--and hung the damp mop to dry over the floor-sink before locking the closet behind her.
She descended to the lowest level in the building where the main custodial breakroom was located. The other employees roosted on the long, wooden bench in front of a line of lockers where Ella and the others secured their belongings.
Pris and Charlotte were already settled beside a few of the others. Their mother, Stina, was the only one of their crew not decked out in the oh-so-fashionable gray jumpsuits. Instead, she wore a white blouse with black, flowy pants, heels, and her usual sneer of dissatisfaction at the sight of Ella.
"There you are." She didn't add the word, but "finally" was evident in her tone.
Stina began to pace before the crew. Arms folded, heels clacking, she paraded her position as custodial company owner with pride. Malus Custodial Management was her baby.
"I've gotten a report from Hawk Danielson. It isn't often the owner of the company contacts me directly, but there have been reports of missing office supplies. As the only ones in this building--besides security--who carry keys that can access any room, naturally, they are suspecting the thief to be one of you."
The tension in the room strung tighter than last year's jeans.
"But we don't all have access to every key," Charlotte argued. "We're assigned keys for the day, depending on which area we're cleaning."
A few others nodded their agreement.
Ella's foot began to jiggle under the accusation. "Have they checked surveillance of the areas where things are missing from?"
"They have," Stina said. "But it seems the feed has been deleted. An odd thing, definitely. They're still trying to figure out who's been accessing the cameras."
"What's missing?" Charlotte asked.
"Reams of paper," Stina said. "Along with print cartridges and a few tablets that were purchased for employee use.
