I managed to pull myself up, wiping my chin. “Yeah, at least I heard her moan a couple times while I got her on the table.”
He looked at Alice, and back to me. “She do all that?”
A chuckle escaped me. “Most of it. I slowed her down with a gunshot to the knee. Then while we were busy with the rest of ‘em, Alice got loose and did the rest. I managed to finally stop her before she killed her.”
A rush of noise and a flood of uniforms burst from the stairway. “Police! Hands where we can see ‘em.”
By the time things were sorted out, Al came huffing up the stairs. “Damnit, how’d you guys get word Crosby and her minions had arrived?”
“One of our people got caught when they came back here,” Tony said, stepping forward.
Just then Crosby was brought out of the conference room on a stretcher, blood still leaking from her hand and corner of her mouth. The shocked look on Al’s face was mirrored by several of the police who were still in the room.
I gestured at Alice, still held protectively by Marty. “Our receptionist came over here to pick up some records she’d forgotten, and ran into Crosby’s gang. When Crosby threatened to kill her she got mad, and beat her up.”
Al had started shaking his head halfway through my story. He turned towards the agent next to him. “You reported the arrival of the two SUVs, but not her. Why?”
Alice half-raised her hand. “Not their fault. I came in the back way hoping no one’d notice me.”
Al swung back to me with a disgusted look. “I’d run all of you in on general principles, but one of your employees, a Wilbur Carlyle, sent me a message on my phone. Had a recording of Marianne calling you, saying she’d kill your secretary if y’didn’t show up in an allotted time.”
“That’s Office Manager, if you don’t mind,” growled Alice with a thunderous look.
I tried to keep from grinning at the discomfort Al suddenly seemed to be experiencing. “Sorry, Al. She’s touchy about the word secretary. Is it all right if she and Marty head on out? She’s been through a lot.”
He reluctantly nodded. “Fine. But I’ll be over tomorrow to talk more about this. And don’t mess with anything, this is a crime scene.”He turned and stalked away, closely followed by the other agent. Two others were just stringing up tape across the opening of the conference room.
I watched them go, unanswered questions of my own arising. Hm. Al didn’t seem like a low-level administrative assistant. Time to look into what he really was. I swung back to Marty and Alice. “Why don’t the two of you head on out? Tony and I can finish here.”
Tony waited until they had disappeared down the stairs, and turned to me. “Al seems a bit different today. More like a bossman, if you ask me.”
“My thoughts exactly,” I said. “Hope you don’t mind my sending the lovebirds on ahead. Thought they might appreciate some time alone.”
“Good idea. They’ll probably be kicking us out of here in a minute too, since we’re in the middle of a crime scene.”
I waved at the two busily working in the conference room. “I’ll leave an extra set of keys on the desk up front here. Make sure and lock up when you leave, will you? We’re outta here.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Nate was the last to straggle in to our get-together the next morning. “Sorry, forgot to set my alarm.”
Marty grinned at him. “From the bags under your eyes it must’ve been a long night at the watering holes, too.”
I surveyed everyone gathered at the conference table. “Thought we’d better have a meeting before the FBI show up. They’re due in an hour. Let’s check each other’s story and make sure we don’t trip ourselves up.” I pointed at Alice. “You first, if you don’t mind.”
Alice leaned tiredly on the table. “Sorry, ever’body. Didn’t mean to cause this to happen by going out yesterday without a partner.” She glanced at Wilbur, who still had a guilty look on his face. “It’s not Wilbur’s fault, I kinda bullied him into letting me go alone. I was being arrogant, thinking I didn’t need anyone to guard my back.”
I shrugged. “Water under the bridge. How about giving us a rundown as to what happened, up until you were captured.”
“Sure. After leaving here, I parked on the back street behind the old office and went through the rear entrance. Didn’t want to advertise, just in case someone was watching.”
Wilbur looked puzzled. “What rear entrance?”
“Sorry ‘bout that,” I said. “I forgot to show it to you during our walk-through of the place when you first started with us.”
Alice resumed her story. “Once I was in the file room, I heard Crosby’s bunch comin’ up the stairs. Got behind one of the file cabinets and texted Marty. When they opened the door, I managed to send another text and stuff my phone behind the closest cabinet before they drug me out.” She lifted her hands and shrugged. “That’s about it, except that bitch has the world’s worst breath.”
The doorbell rang. I sighed in resignation when Al entered. “Even though we swept this place for bugs, I swear you can hear every word we say.”
Once Al had joined us at the table and had a cup of coffee in hand, he gave us an inquiring look. “Okay, what’d I miss?”
I gave him a once-over. Today he was dressed to the nines; dark blue suit that actually fit him. “Alice was telling us how she was captured, that’s far as we’d gotten.”
He took a swallow of the overly-hot coffee without a flicker. “Mind going over it again?”
Twenty minutes passed before we
