Read Online Indispensable Party (Sasha McCandless Legal Thriller No. 4) by Melissa F Miller - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Melissa F Miller
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while you’re scrambling to meet your schedule,”
Leo said, a gentle nudge toward getting down to business.
Ben’s smile faded, and his skin
drained white under his tan. “Well, as a matter of fact, I’m scrambling on this
Celia Gerig thing.”
Leo found himself leaning forward
at Ben’s ominous tone. Beside him, Sasha put down her cup and mirrored his
posture.
“Oh?” Leo asked.
“I know Grace told you about my
run-in with Celia and how her references were bogus. That realtor lady called
me back this morning: Celia never lived in that house. And I asked everyone on
the warehouse floor today. She never shared any personal information with any
of them. We have no idea where to start looking for her.”
“Don’t beat yourself up. This was
a human resources error, not yours. You’ve done us a favor by ferreting it out.
We’re grateful,” Leo told him.
Ben shook his head. “Don’t be. It’s
about to get ugly.”
“Ugly?” Sasha echoed.
Ben nodded and pushed himself up
from his desk.
“Come see for yourselves,” he
said as he headed for the door.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sasha and
Connelly followed Ben along a long hallway lined with metal filing cabinets.
Sasha took in the worn, thin carpet and peeling paint with one part of her
brain while another processed the information Ben had shared so far: the woman
Grace and Connelly suspected of being a ViraGene plant was in the wind, leaving
behind a fake address, fake references, and a non-working telephone number.
She considered the company’s
options. If she were Tate, she wouldn’t let this one go. She’d hire a private
investigator to track down Celia Gerig and fire a shot across ViraGene’s bow.
But, what? She didn’t have the evidence to connect the missing employee with a
competitor.
Not yet . She wondered if
whatever Ben was going to show them would help build a case against ViraGene.
Leo glanced back at her, his face
tense as he waited to see what Ben had in store.
Ben pushed open one side of a set
of large metal doors and held it while they passed through and entered a
brightly lit, cavernous room with a concrete floor and a high ceiling. The temperature
dropped a good twenty degrees as Sasha crossed the threshold, and she shivered
involuntarily.
“Sorry,” Ben said, “I should have
told you to bring your coat. The vaccines are supposed to be refrigerated. We
get them into the walk-in as quickly as we can, but have to check them in
first, so we keep it cool in here.”
The room was three-quarters
empty. The final quarter was filled with rows of wooden pallets. The pallets
were stacked high with cardboard boxes. Each pallet was wrapped in a giant
sheet of what looked to be industrial-grade cellophane.
Men and women wearing fingerless
wool gloves hurried back and forth between an open loading dock bay and the
columns of pallets, wheeling dollies piled high with more cardboard boxes.
“Another truck full of vaccines
came in this morning,” Ben explained. “So, we have to check them in, make sure nothing’s
been damaged in transit and that the shipment quantity matches the manifest. Then,
we restack them and wrap them up for pickup by the Army.”
“You open every box?” Sasha
asked.
Ben nodded. “It’s a pain in the
rear, but the contract requires a manual check of each box of vials. That’s the
government for you. And that’s the other problem we’ve got.”
He crossed the room and walked
past the tall rows of pallets and headed for the far corner where one lonely,
wooden pallet had been shoved up against the wall, its clear wrap torn open.
“What’s wrong with that one?” Leo
asked.
“Well, Jason over there got his
keys caught on the wrap as he was walking by this morning,” Ben said, pointing
to a tall, muscular man whose keys dangled from his belt.
Jason kept his head down and
moved in the self-conscious way of someone who knows he’s being watched, every
motion exaggerated.
“And, thank God he did. Because
as
Leo said, a gentle nudge toward getting down to business.
Ben’s smile faded, and his skin
drained white under his tan. “Well, as a matter of fact, I’m scrambling on this
Celia Gerig thing.”
Leo found himself leaning forward
at Ben’s ominous tone. Beside him, Sasha put down her cup and mirrored his
posture.
“Oh?” Leo asked.
“I know Grace told you about my
run-in with Celia and how her references were bogus. That realtor lady called
me back this morning: Celia never lived in that house. And I asked everyone on
the warehouse floor today. She never shared any personal information with any
of them. We have no idea where to start looking for her.”
“Don’t beat yourself up. This was
a human resources error, not yours. You’ve done us a favor by ferreting it out.
We’re grateful,” Leo told him.
Ben shook his head. “Don’t be. It’s
about to get ugly.”
“Ugly?” Sasha echoed.
Ben nodded and pushed himself up
from his desk.
“Come see for yourselves,” he
said as he headed for the door.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sasha and
Connelly followed Ben along a long hallway lined with metal filing cabinets.
Sasha took in the worn, thin carpet and peeling paint with one part of her
brain while another processed the information Ben had shared so far: the woman
Grace and Connelly suspected of being a ViraGene plant was in the wind, leaving
behind a fake address, fake references, and a non-working telephone number.
She considered the company’s
options. If she were Tate, she wouldn’t let this one go. She’d hire a private
investigator to track down Celia Gerig and fire a shot across ViraGene’s bow.
But, what? She didn’t have the evidence to connect the missing employee with a
competitor.
Not yet . She wondered if
whatever Ben was going to show them would help build a case against ViraGene.
Leo glanced back at her, his face
tense as he waited to see what Ben had in store.
Ben pushed open one side of a set
of large metal doors and held it while they passed through and entered a
brightly lit, cavernous room with a concrete floor and a high ceiling. The temperature
dropped a good twenty degrees as Sasha crossed the threshold, and she shivered
involuntarily.
“Sorry,” Ben said, “I should have
told you to bring your coat. The vaccines are supposed to be refrigerated. We
get them into the walk-in as quickly as we can, but have to check them in
first, so we keep it cool in here.”
The room was three-quarters
empty. The final quarter was filled with rows of wooden pallets. The pallets
were stacked high with cardboard boxes. Each pallet was wrapped in a giant
sheet of what looked to be industrial-grade cellophane.
Men and women wearing fingerless
wool gloves hurried back and forth between an open loading dock bay and the
columns of pallets, wheeling dollies piled high with more cardboard boxes.
“Another truck full of vaccines
came in this morning,” Ben explained. “So, we have to check them in, make sure nothing’s
been damaged in transit and that the shipment quantity matches the manifest. Then,
we restack them and wrap them up for pickup by the Army.”
“You open every box?” Sasha
asked.
Ben nodded. “It’s a pain in the
rear, but the contract requires a manual check of each box of vials. That’s the
government for you. And that’s the other problem we’ve got.”
He crossed the room and walked
past the tall rows of pallets and headed for the far corner where one lonely,
wooden pallet had been shoved up against the wall, its clear wrap torn open.
“What’s wrong with that one?” Leo
asked.
“Well, Jason over there got his
keys caught on the wrap as he was walking by this morning,” Ben said, pointing
to a tall, muscular man whose keys dangled from his belt.
Jason kept his head down and
moved in the self-conscious way of someone who knows he’s being watched, every
motion exaggerated.
“And, thank God he did. Because
as
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