His face darkened. “We help the sheriff’s department do its work. But this place is a big change from your last job. I didn’t know waste management was your career path. Do you take your work home with you?”
“I’m sure no one here’s ever heard that one before. Thanks for checking in, really. You’ve done your duty and made your inspection and our country is safe. We appreciate your service, truly. Time for you to go.”
He leaned in to examine one of the workspace monitors. Carmen’s phone lit up. Peter snatched it from the table and showed her the screen. Jenna was calling.
“It’s my ex,” he said. “Perfect timing. Also looks like you need to check your messages.”
She took the phone away from him. The call went to voicemail. “None of this is any of your business.”
“Then maybe this is.” Peter reached between the monitors and picked up the flask. “Can’t imagine plant management allows drinking on the job.”
Still seated on the opposite side of the bank of monitors, Nora began to stammer.
But Carmen stood up and cut her off before she could say a word. “That’s mine.”
Peter sniffed the flask and made a face. “Grounds for termination, I’m sure. Still, nothing we can’t clear up. Because we’re friends, right? Spiritual brothers and sisters? In fact, maybe we can talk about it in the morning when you get off shift.”
She held out a hand.
He gave her the flask. “What do you say? Go to Black Bear for some coffee and a Danish?”
“When I get off shift I’ll be tired.”
“Later, then. Lunch. I’m sure you need to eat. I can pick you up. You still at the Civic Center Arms apartments on Merrydale? Or are you back at your dad’s?”
She fought to keep a neutral expression. They hadn’t interacted enough for him to know where she lived. Had he looked her up? The thought unnerved her.
“The answer’s no.”
He made a show of nodding. “Well, it was good to run into you. Maybe I’ll call you later. I’ll also catch you at the next fellowship, right? Be sure to say hi to Jenna when you next see her. And Carmen? I’ll be sending some prayer missiles your way tonight.”
“Thanks. I’ll be ready to catch them.”
Deputy Jerry followed Peter out the exit.
Nora remained visibly shaken. “You think they’re going to report us drinking?”
“Report me, you mean. Yeah, he will. But relax. I’ll tell the manager it’s my flask. But it doesn’t matter. Seems like this place isn’t what I’m looking for in a career after all.”
She unplugged her laptop and slid it into her bag. Checked the phone and saw a voicemail from Jenna waiting. At the very least, her sister had also been harassed by whoever was pretending to be their mom. The last thing either of them needed was for Peter to start barging into their lives.
She pulled on her hoodie.
It was time to see her in person and get answers. While neither of Jenna’s two boys were old enough to engage in such shenanigans, maybe Jenna had let some of Mom’s property go, including any of her devices or computers. Because someone had gotten into their mom’s identity and wasn’t being shy about letting the daughters of Sylvia Vincent know about the crime.
Chapter Three
Carmen had to park in the striped red zone in front of the garbage dumpster. Her sister Jenna’s townhouse lay just beyond the covered carports and the lights were still on.
She had texted her sister that she was coming over, but even as she had gotten onto the highway for the fifteen-minute drive she realized she should have finished her shift, dialed back her knee-jerk responses to Peter, and done what her dad had always told her.
“Play it cool.”
The life philosophy which had taken Dad places, she thought sourly. She dismissed the memories before she could get even angrier.
Jenna answered the door wearing purple sweats and gave Carmen a hug as she let her in. “I thought you were at work, Car.”
“I was. But this shouldn’t wait. You have Mom’s stuff in the spare room?”
“Yeah. But it’ll take time to go through everything. It’s just a prank, isn’t it? Something that we could do tomorrow?”
“The boys asleep?”
“Sent them to bed. But no, they’ll come out if we start banging around.”
“All I want is to get Mom’s phone and tablet. Change her passwords and that’ll put a stop to this. But I have to ask…did Zach or Landon play with either of the devices?”
“They’re eight and five. And the boxes are all sealed. I’ve checked.”
“Show me.”
The cluttered spare bedroom had a dozen boxes from the Johnson Space Center that contained their mother’s personal effects from her apartment. The phone and tablet were both inside one of the boxes. Neither had power. Once plugged in, both devices wanted to check for updates that didn’t exist.
Carmen began searching for networks on the tablet. “Is the public net up?”
“Pretty slow. We couldn’t watch anything tonight not on DVD.”
“That’s what happens when more than five people log on at the same time. Give me a sec.”
With her own phone she searched for a local meshnet. Found one. Only three bars of signal, but it was open and let her on without a password. Not secure by any means. Once she turned her phone into a hotspot, she got the tablet connected.
The email app chugged and didn’t appear to be doing anything.
Jenna chewed on a thumbnail. “It’s not working. Why isn’t it working?”
“Might take more than a few minutes to download two years’ worth of messages. The boys have school?”
“Yeah. They’re both so smart. Like it more than I ever did. Landon got his first homework and he was so happy.”
“My little nerd. I
