She shook her head in exasperation. “Today was one of the weirdest days I’ve had since I started working here.”
“What happened?” I asked.
She held up one finger. “First, we got a food delivery that no one ordered. I spent fifteen minutes explaining to the guy that no one in the office had ordered food. I even went to ask Michael just to make sure, since sometimes he forgets to tell me to expect a delivery. And then it turned out the guy had misread the order slip, and it was for the next floor up.”
“That is strange. Those guys are usually pretty good about that. Their whole goal is to make as many deliveries as possible.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe he was new.”
“Was there something else?”
“Yes.” Her brows drew together in a frown. “I spent half an hour on the phone with some guy who wanted to know how the personnel extraction team worked.”
“What? That doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t they just talk to me?”
She threw up her hands. “I asked him the same thing. But you had back-to-back interviews today. He said he didn’t want to wait for you to call back.”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t make sense. If he wanted to hire us, he’d have to talk to me anyway. Did he leave a name?”
“No, he did not,” she replied, her frown deepening. “After all the information I gave him, he just said thank you and hung up.”
A frisson of unease ran up my spine. My gut was telling me something was off about that phone call. “What kind of information did he ask for? Did he ask for names?”
She shook her head. “I’d have hung up on him if he had. He asked about how it worked, how many people were on the team, how long the missions usually took, and whether we used a computer expert to help on missions.”
“Did it sound like he was fishing for a job?” I asked.
She shrugged, her expression uncertain. “Maybe? He was very interested in what the computer expert did during the mission. I kept telling him I didn’t have the answers to his questions and that he’d be better off talking to you. I finally had to cut him off because I had work to do. Now I’m wondering if it was some elaborate prank. I don’t get it.”
“That really is bizarre. I’m sorry he wasted all that time.” I’d have to remember to bring her flowers in the morning. “Are you leaving now?”
She shook her head. “I just have a couple of things to do that will only take me ten minutes tops.”
“Okay. Don’t stay too late.” I gestured toward Michael’s office. “And poke Michael before you leave. Tell him I said to go home.”
She laughed, knowing it was not likely to have any effect. “Goodnight, Tony.”
“Goodnight, Liz.”
As I rode the elevator down to the ground floor, my mind kept returning to Liz’s bizarre phone call. It didn’t make sense, and my gut was telling me something was off. I just couldn’t figure out what.
My phone vibrated with a text, interrupting my musings. I checked the screen and smiled. It was from Greg.
Looking forward to spending time together tonight.
Me too. I made bolognese yesterday, and it’s heating up in the crockpot.
Yum. Can’t wait. I got another bottle of that Tuscan wine you liked.
That’s great. I can’t wait to see you. Love you.
I love you too.
I knew I was probably smiling like a goofball, but I didn’t care. Life was good.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
GREG
