She had become purely reactive, battered by one shock after another.
She wondered if a new surprise was awaiting her at the other end of the
phone line.
“Sidney?”
“Hello, Kay.”
The voice sounded ashamed. “I feel so bad, I didn’t even ask you this
morning about Amy. How is she?”
“She’s at my parents’ right now.” She swallowed hard and then added,
“She doesn’t know, of course.”
“I’m sorry I acted the way I did at work. You know how that place is.
They get uptight if they think you’re taking personal calls on their
time.”
“I know, Kay. I didn’t know who else to talk to over there.” She didn’t
add, whom she could trust.
“I understand, Sid.”
Sidney took a deep breath. She might as well get right down to it. Had
she looked up, she might have noticed the doorknob on her door slowly
turn and then stop as the locking mechanism prohibited further movement.
“Kay, is there something you wanted to tell me? About Jason?”
There was a perceptible pause on the other end of the line before Kay
answered. “I couldn’t have asked for a better boss. He worked real
hard, was moving up fast. But he still took the time to talk to
everybody, spend time with them.” Kay stopped talking, perhaps trying to
collect her thoughts before plunging ahead, Sidney wasn’t sure. When
Kay didn’t say anything, Sidney floated a question.
“Well, did that change? Was Jason acting differently?”
“Yes.” The word was blurted out so quickly, Sidney almost didn’t catch
it.
“How so?”
“It was a bunch of little things, really. The first thing that had me
concerned was Jason ordering a lock for his door.”
“A lock on an office door isn’t so unusual, Kay. I have one on mine.”
Sidney glanced over at her own office door. The doorknob was now
motionless.
“I know that, Sid. The thing is, Jason already had a lock on his door.”
“I don’t understand, Kay. If he already had a lock, why did he order
another one?”
“The lock he had on his door was a pretty simple one, a pop-out lock on
the doorknob. Yours is probably one of those.”
Sidney again glanced at her door. “That’s right, it is. Aren’t all
office door locks pretty much the same?”
“Not these days, Sid. Jason had a computerized lock put on his system
that required a smart caM.”
“Smart card?”
“You know, a plastic card with a microchip thing in it. I’m not sure
exactly how it works, but you need it to get into the building here, and
certain restricted access areas, among other things.”
Sidney fumbled through her purse and pulled out the plastic card she had
taken from Jason’s desk at home.
“Does anyone else at Triton have those kinds of locks on their office
doors?”
“About a half dozen. Most of them are in finance, though.”
“Did Jason tell you why he had ordered the additional security for his
office?”
“I asked him, because I was concerned that maybe there had been a
break-in and nobody told us. But Jason said he had taken on some
additional responsibilities with the company and had some items in his
keeping that he wanted additional protection for.”
Tired of sitting, Sidney stood up and paced. She looked out the window
into the darkness. Across the street, the lights of Spencers, a posh
new restaurant, gleamed back at her. A stream of taxis and luxury cars
disgorged elegantly dressed parties who sauntered into the establishment
for a night of fine food, drink and the latest city gossip. Sidney
pulled the blind down. She let out her breath and sat on her credenza,
slipping out of her shoes and absently rubbing sore and tired feet.
“Why didn’t Jason want you to tell anyone that he had taken on
additional responsibilities?”
“I don’t know. He’s been promoted three times already in the company.
So ! know it wasn’t that. You wouldn’t be secretive about something
like that anyway, would you?”
Sidney pondered this information for a few seconds. Jason hadn’t
mentioned a promotion to her and it was inconceivable that he would not.
“Did he tell you who had given him the additional responsibilities?”