Vince reached back to grab my hand. ‘Look, this place isn’t alarmed,’ he paused in what he was about to say to add, ‘If you are about to ask me how I know, the answer is there are no contacts on the door. If you are going to ask me how I know that then we are going to waste a lot of time. Just trust me on the alarm thing, okay? The police or a security firm will not rush here to find out what is going on so now that we are inside, we can take at least a few minutes to check out the computers and see what we find. You said he is guilty of attempted murder, right?’
‘Yes,’ I replied slowly because I knew he was going to use it to fuel his next line of reasoning.
‘So let’s find out why. Maybe this will save your friend’s business and when he wakes up, assuming he does because ol’ Vince likes to think positive, you can be the one who solved the case, caught the killer, and saved the day.’
He ought to have been a politician with the way he was able to spin things. However, he couldn’t hide that we had just performed a very illegal breaking and entering.
‘What if someone comes? What if John Ramsey realises he’s forgotten something and comes back for it?’ I asked, planning to use his answer to make him leave with me.
‘Good point,’ he replied, pursing his lips, and scratching the back of his head. ‘Yes, I hadn’t thought of that.’ I was about to go back out the door when he added. ‘Tell you what; you stay here. If someone comes, you fight them. I’ll look for evidence.’
As my eyes flared, he planted a kiss on my lips and vanished into the darkness of the building’s interior. I swear his cheeky grin lingered in my vision like the Cheshire Cat’s.
‘Vince!’ I hissed into the darkness. ‘Vince!’
I got no answer back, the horrible rogue no doubt thinking himself clever to leave me hanging in the doorway.
Trying to convince myself I should get back in my car and go home, I soon changed my mind when his voice drifted out of the dark. ‘I found something.’
Chocolate Biscuits
Cursing myself, I pushed on into the building, carefully closing the door behind me. From the back door of the business, a central hallway linked storerooms and rooms filled with printers to the display area at the front of the business. That area had been set aside for the firm to show off what they could do for potential clients. A pool of light coming from a door led me to Vince. He was in a side office.
‘What did you find?’ I asked, my pulse racing that he might have already unearthed a big clue.
Mumbling because his mouth was full, he held something up toward me. ‘Chocolate biscuits. They’re the good ones too.’
‘That’s what you found?’ I gasped, my jaw dropping open again. ‘You tricked me in here because you found chocolate biscuits!’
Sounding hurt, his features illuminated only by the light from the computer screen, Vince said, ‘I think tricked is a bit harsh. I said I found something, and I did. Just because it’s not the identity of the third gunman on the grassy knoll …’
I wanted to slap the offered biscuits away, but my stomach groaned loudly in the dark, making Vince chuckle.
‘They have chewy caramel bits in,’ he teased.
I snatched the packet and bit into one. He was right; they were good.
‘What are you looking for?’ I asked him. He was sitting behind a desk and playing with a computer. ‘How did you even get into that? Isn’t it password protected?’
His eyes never left the screen, but he lifted his left hand, holding up a Post-It note on which an alpha-numeric code was written.
‘This was stuck to the bottom of the monitor. To answer your first question, I am looking for what is on this computer. There’s way too much to analyse sitting here, so I’m going to copy it to look through later. I have a kid on my payroll who loves this stuff.’
A thumb drive appeared in his hand. I guess when you are a snoopy private eye type person who carries magic tools for breaking into places even when out on a date, a data drive is the kind of thing you have in your pocket just in case there are computer files to steal.
‘Isn’t all this illegal?’ I wanted to know.
‘Oh, goodness, yes. Very. We should get out of here and go for dinner.’ They were the first words he’d said that made any sense and I was ready to second the vote when my blood froze.
Someone had just put a key in the front door.
I opened my mouth to draw in a horrified gasp and then let out a little squeak as a hand clamped over my face and shut off the supply of air going in.
‘Shhh,’ whispered Vince, his mouth next to my right ear and so quiet it would not be heard by anyone but me. We had not turned on the light in the office and reaching back to the computer, Vince flicked off the monitor too.
There was light coming in from the street through the floor to ceiling glass windows that fronted the property. Enough to see by and what we were seeing was a shadow.
‘We need to move!’ hissed Vince, grabbing my hand and dragging me to the office door. The sense of urgency in his voice made my feet move without me telling them to.
At the edge of the frame, he flattened himself, peered around it, and ducked back inside. He swore under his breath and leaned in close to me.
‘We’re trapped. We need to hide.’
My heart felt
