Paul laughed as he invited him to follow him, and when Warren was ready, Paul took him back into the private room.“I don’t like to have any information out of this room.”
“I totally understand.When I read this, what will you be doing?”
“Some more research, there are a few more avenues I can look at.”
They both got to work on their own project and as Paul dug deeper into his own research, he started taking notes.It was almost an hour later that he looked up from his computer and gave a small start when he saw Petra standing there.
“Damn, woman,” he laughed as he tossed his pen on his notes.“You scared me.How long have you been standing there?”
She shrugged, and entered further into the room.“A couple of minutes, I didn’t want to intrude.Hey, Warren.”
“Hey, Petra.How are you this morning?”
“Good, you?”
“Pissed,” he said as he lifted a stack of papers and waved them.
“Yeah, sorry about that.”She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.“I’m probably about to piss both of you off even more.”
“Why?”Paul asked as he settled back in his chair.He nodded when she walked even further into the room and sat on the edge of his desk to look at both men.Paul made a mental note to get more chairs in here, especially if he was going to have several more men working in here in the near future.
“First, you know when you ride, your head clears of all the white noise, and you can get to the issue at hand.That is, if you have an issue to work out.”
“Yes.”Both men answered.
“Well, after what we witnessed yesterday at the Bastards event, I got to thinking.It started on the ride home, then I couldn’t let it go.”She turned to Paul with a grin.“Homemade lasagna for dinner, the house is spotless, and I even shampooed the carpets.”
“Fuck,” Paul said with a shake of his head and turned toward Warren.“When Petra has something to work out, she either cooks or cleans.This must be huge if you did both.”
“It is, or it could be, or it could be nothing at all.”
“Talk to me.”
She dug into her jeans pocket and brought out a piece of paper and held it up.“You brought this to the house to show me.”
“What is it?”
“A line or two from Eddie’s notebook.Before I can tell you what I’ve been thinking and doing, I need to see the original writing.”
Without saying a word, Paul rose to his feet and walked over to the bench, indicating she should follow him.Warren joined them.Petra immediately grabbed two gloves from the box provided, opened the evidence bag, and removed the notebook.She looked at Paul before she opened it.
“Where in this book did you get this passage from?”She showed him the paper again.
Paul donned his own pair of gloves and flipped through the pages, laid it down, and pointed.“Here.”
“Thanks,” she said as she leaned over and began reading.It took about three minutes of silence on her part before she heaved a gigantic sigh.She looked at the two men with concern in her eyes.“Promise me you won’t think I’ve gone off my rocker.”
“I promise,” Paul said and looked at Warren with a raised brow.
“I promise.”
Petra nodded and took the book, and piece of paper to the other side of the room where a blank white board was mounted on the wall.She picked up the marker, and started writing from what she saw in the book.Then she went back for the laptop she’d brought with her and laid that close at hand.She turned to the men and nodded.“Now, hear me out.I’m not crazy, I promise.”
“We believe you, Pet,” Paul said quietly and settled against the closest desk to watch her.
“After what we witnessed at yesterday’s event.The drugs being passed around, and snorted, along with the disrespect toward the women present, I got to thinking.Paul, when you brought this to me, I was totally clueless.But on the ride home yesterday, my head cleared, and I think I know what these mean.Now that I’ve seen the original writings, I’m even more sure.Even without the writing from the notebook, I was able to do some research of my own, and it’s not pretty.”
“Talk to us,” Paul said.
