“How come you don’t move on to pester another Kaitlin, huh? Why me?” I asked Grant.
He grinned. “Yousit next to me.”
If we ever found Margaret Flame, I was begging for a desk transfer.
We foundparking across from Maggie’s building. I struggled to take off the seatbelt. The door opened next to me, and I looked up to find Grant waiting for me.
“It’s stuck,” I said, tugging on it for emphasis. “Your car’s holding me hostage.”
Without warning, Grant reached over and magically released the seatbelt. I barely had enough time to protest the amount of cologne I was forced to inhale from his person when he freed me from the grip of his car.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“I could have left you there.” He started for the building, and I followed with a groan.
The doorman avoided eye contact with us and didn’t even try to be helpful when we raised our concerns with him.
“Ms. Flame does not have you on her visitor list and is not answering our calls. I cannot allow you upstairs,” he repeated for the third time.
Grant countered, “What if she’s in trouble or hurt?”
“Since you are neither a police officer nor a paramedic, I doubt you can do anything either,” he said, eyes fixed straight ahead at the door.
I exhaled and grabbed Grant by the arm. “Let’s go.”
“That’s it?” he asked when we were outside. He rested his hands at his waist, tipped his head back, and studied the tall building.
“What? Are you planning to scale the side of the building?”
He looked up, jaw tight. “There’s something going on. She’s not answering anyone. Not even the doorman.”
I hesitated. Then I thought of something. I wanted to shout “Eureka!” but instead I said, “The garage! Her car would be in the garage if she were home!”
He nodded with a knowing smile and led us to the garage, which was thankfully unmanned. Soon enough we found her apartment number and an empty space.
“Well, that’s a relief, I guess,” I said. “If she were at home and not answering any calls, it might be grim.”
He walked into the space and looked around at the ground, along the wall. I think he really believed himself a detective at a crime scene. “But she could be anywhere. And not answering calls…missing work. I didn’t tell you this, but she has no emergency contact listed in her file.”
I raised an eyebrow and said, “Maybe she’s a spy and someone was about to disclose her identity, so she bailed.”
He rolled his eyes and walked out of the garage. I was about to follow him when I noticed something shiny under the car next to Maggie’s space. I lost sight of it as I got closer. I turned on my phone’s flashlight and stooped down close to the ground.
A set of keys.
I gasped as I stood up straight and realized that attached to several keys was a separate key ring with a smaller key. It wasn’t a key to a door, but I quickly shouted for Grant. He stepped back into the frame of the garage opening.
I jiggled the keys and frantically waved them in the air.
“Are they hers?” he asked as I raced over to him. I showed him the company logo on the separate key ring.
“How many people could possibly work at our company and lose their keys next to Maggie’s parking space?”
He was thoughtful for a few seconds as he splayed them on the palm of my hand and said, “No car keys.”
I shook my head. “Well, she went off with her car,” I said.
“Or she was taken in her car,” he suggested.
