“Something like that, yeah.”
“And he wants you to work for him? Doing what?”
“Writing a column. Actually, taking over Sapphire’s column.”
Maggie was almost beside herself with excitement. “And you accepted his offer, right?”
“After thinking it over for a while, yes, I did.”
“You had to think it over?” Maggie looked stunned.
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it.”
“Are you daft, girl?”
“It’s a big commitment. A column a week.”
“So what’s the problem? You’re smart. You can do that standing on your head with one hand tied behind your back. Is he paying you?”
“We agreed to seventy-five dollars a week.”
“Honey, you’ll be loaded!” Maggie beamed for a moment, but the smile slipped from her face, and she suddenly looked depressed. “How did I miss all this? I guess I really am out of the loop, aren’t I?”
“You’re definitely missing out on the good stuff.”
“I’ve got to get out more. See more people.”
“Tell you what,” Candy said with mock sympathy. “I’m headed over to Ben’s office after lunch. He wants me to pick up some files and fill out a few forms. Why don’t you come with me? You can see Sapphire’s office-you know, check out the place where she worked.”
Maggie’s jaw dropped. She looked as if she had just won the lottery. “Honey, just try to keep me away!”
TWENTY
Maggie walked over to the Cape Crier ’s office on Ocean Avenue, since it was just a block away, but Candy drove the Jeep, thinking she might need it. She found a parking spot down toward the end of the block, across from the town park. Upstairs, Ben was pleased to see her. “Hi, Candy.”
“Hi, Ben. I’ve brought a friend of mine along. You know Maggie Tremont, right?”
“Sure. Maggie and I practically work next door to each other. Hi, Maggie.”
“Hi, Ben. This is really exciting-for Candy, I mean.”
He smiled, though he looked a bit frazzled. The sleeves of his blue oxford shirt were rolled up, his tie discarded, and his long brown hair was charmingly askew. He looked like a preppy school kid studying for exams.
“I’m really glad you decided to take this job, Candy,” he said honestly. “I’ve got everything ready for you.”
He handed her a manila folder. “Here are some forms for you to sign-a W-2, workman’s comp, that sort of thing,” he said, talking fast. “If you could get them back to me in a day or so, that’d be great. I’ll need your Social Security number so I can get you set up with payroll. You’ll also find a list of publishing dates for the rest of this year, and the deadlines for your column. Generally, it’s due every Monday at noon. Keep in mind that we suspend publication for two weeks at the end of August, which should work out pretty well for you-you’ll have only two columns due before the break, so you’ll have a little extra time to get your sea legs before we hit the fall issues, which can get hectic. Let’s see, what else? Don’t worry too much about a headline and deck-I’ll write those or the copy editor will. She’s a volunteer-great person-you’ll really like her. Anyway, about seven hundred words should do it each week-three pages typewritten. Nothing fancy with formatting. We use Microsoft Word. You can just e- mail the column to me-send it as an attachment.” He snapped his finger, as if he had just remembered something. “That’s right-I’ve got to set you up with a new e-mail address. You’ve got a computer at home, right?”
Candy nodded. It had been awhile since she worked a regular job, and she had gotten out of the habit of the daily grind, but she was keeping up with him okay. She wished again that she had brought a pen along to take notes. That’s something she would have to remember in the future, now that she was a columnist.
“Of course, you can use Sapphire’s office if you want to,” Ben continued. “There’s an old computer in there if you need it. It’s loaded with all the software we use. We can probably find some of her past columns on it so you can follow her formatting.”
Candy gulped, her enthusiasm suddenly zapped. “Sapphire’s office?”
Something in her tone made him pause. “Is that a problem?”
“Well…”
“The police have everything they need out of there, so don’t worry about that.”
“It’s just that…”
Ben’s brow fell, and he looked confused for a few moments, until Maggie piped in to help translate. “She’s worried about working in a dead woman’s office,” Maggie said matter-of-factly.
“Oh, I see.” But it was clear from the tone of his voice that he still didn’t totally understand.
“Maybe if we changed things around in there a little,” Maggie said helpfully to Candy. “You know, make the place your own.”
Candy shook her head doubtfully. She was wondering again if this was such a good idea after all. “I… I don’t know.”
“Tell you what,” Ben said. “Why don’t you two have a look around in there? You remember how to find it, right? See what you think. If it doesn’t work out, I can try to move you somewhere else, or maybe you can just work out of your home until we get it figured out, okay?”
Candy nodded, feeling slightly better. “That sounds acceptable.”
“Just give me a holler if you need anything. I’ll be around. Oh, and I’m having new business cards made up for you. They should be ready in a few days. In the meantime, you can use some of the generic cards we have floating around here. There might be some in Sapphire’s desk. If not, let me know and I’ll scrounge some up for you.”
Even with directions from Ben, it took Candy and Maggie more than five minutes to find Sapphire’s office in the rabbit warren of hallways and offices, which the Crier shared with a web-hosting company and a local quarterly real-estate publication. They made two wrong turns, winding up in a broom closet the first time and at a brick wall the next. But finally they opened a door and entered what had, until recently, been Sapphire Vine’s exclusive domain.
Maggie was thrilled with what she saw. “It’s just as I always dreamed it would be,” she said breathlessly. “This proves that she was a really, really twisted person.”
“Remember, you’re speaking of the dead,” Candy cautioned as she stood uneasily by the doorway.
Maggie ignored her. “Look, she has kitties on the walls! And look at all these cute little notes she wrote to herself! It’s all so wonderful!”
But while Maggie was thrilled with the unexpected treasures she found, Candy felt just the opposite. She swore she could feel Sapphire’s ghost inhabiting the place-and it wasn’t a happy ghost.
“I can’t work in here,” she said suddenly.
“Well, I agree, it is a bit dreary,” Maggie said, looking around. “It could use some sprucing up, maybe better artwork, and it needs a fresh coat of paint. That would help a lot. A nice eggshell, maybe? Or a soft mauve?”
“That won’t work.”
“Some new furniture?”
“Nope.”
“Flowers? Doilies? I could stencil a nice design around the walls for you.”
Candy shook her head.
“Well, what do you want to do then?”
Candy motioned to the computer. “Ben said there were some past columns on there. I’ll pull them off and put them on a disk. And I’ll dig around and grab some files, haul everything back home, and work from there. Maybe Ben can find another office for me in the next week or so.”
Maggie sighed. “Okay, if that’s
They set to work, but Maggie couldn’t stay long-she had to head back to work at one thirty. Forty-five minutes
