“Send me a picture. You do realize if we’re doing the floors, we’ll have to take everything out of the space, and no one will be able to go in for several days?”
“Yes.”
“But does Bronwyn?”
Bronwyn turned then and walked to where Mo stood with his phone. “I know, Cal. But now that Meredith’s caught the scent, she’s gotten me excited about the possibilities. I’ll have to work from home more. Or from the conference room. It will be worthit. Besides, we’ve already removed a lot of things while pulling up the carpet. There isn’ttoomuch left.”
Cal’s sigh was loud and long. “Send me a picture of the floor and a close-up of the stain. I’ll have to see it in person, but a picture will give me a clue about what we’re dealing with. And send the picture to Gray. He might be able to tell you if it’s blood or not. He’s seen some ...stuff.”
Meredith’s eyes were wide, and she nodded in agreement. “True enough.”
“And, Beep?”
“Yeah, Cal?”
“This also means you’ll have to pick out a wood stain. I have samples at my office. Come by anytime. I’m in the office this week.”
“I can do that.”
“Okay. Later.”
The call disconnected, and Mo slid the phone into his pocket. “I guess the best thing for me to do is hightail it out of here before you put me to work on the rest of this ‘not too much’ that needs to go.” He gazed around the office, lingering on the small sofa, the table, the chairs, the desk, and a few other cabinets that they’d moved around but hadn’t taken out of the room.
Bronwyn couldn’t help but laugh. But instead of talking to Mo, she focused on Meredith. “I’ll talk to Emory. He’s still busy with the electrical stuff, but we can probably have a crew here tomorrow to haul everything out. We’ll store some of it in the conference room. Whatever won’t fit we can put in a storage building.”
“I’m proud of you.” Meredith slid her arm through Bronwyn’s. “It’s not like you to be so spontaneous. I promise we’ll make it awesome.”
Bronwyn met Mo’s eyes. He reached into his opposite pocket and handed her something black and heavy for its size. The cloned hard drive. She took it and slid it into her purse.
While her back was turned, Mo spoke. “I’m out. Be careful. Be good. I’ll be back later. Don’t spend all of Bronwyn’s money on a new office chair.”
Meredith swatted her brother’s arm as he walked out the door laughing. “You love that chair!” she called after him. “You said it was worth every penny.”
Mo’s laughter was his only response.
“He does love it.” Meredith flopped into Bronwyn’s chair as she spoke, then jumped to her feet. “And you are totally getting one just like it. How do you sit in this? It’s awful.”
Bronwyn looked around the office. The place was trashed. There was still one active bug. Meredith’s drama had gotten rid of the one on the bookshelf. Or moved it anyway. And the one under her desk would be gone by tomorrow.
The next time she used this office, it would be clean of whatever filth had infiltrated her space.
And that stain. Which she really, really hoped wasn’t blood.
But for now she caught Meredith’s eye and nodded for her to follow. She grabbed her purse and they walked out together. When they were in the parking lot, she said, “I can’t have Mo stay with me tonight.”
She’d been thinking about it since Meredith called her in between patients this morning. And while there was a lot to be said for having Mo all to herself and being able to talk things out, she wasn’t ready.
“I’m a chicken, I admit it. But—”
“It’s okay. I talked to Cal. We have a plan that will work.”
“Then let’s hear it.”
“For tonight and tomorrow, I’ll spend the night. We’ll say we need to discuss the renovation. Gray’s working—he has people out of town doing some training, so he’s pulling doubles.”
“Mer—”
“No arguing. All of us, including Mo, will be going to bed early tonight. He can’t work on no sleep, despite what he thinks. Tomorrow, you and I are going out with Landry. Cal says she needs a girls’ night. We’ll leave Mo at your house to work. That gets us through two nights. After that? We’ll see how it’s going.”
