Or if not missing, was he in hiding?
Colin had the sense that Margolis considered it a possibility. The timing was too coincidental for it not to be a possibility. But Maria’s point was also valid. Why would he target her? According to her, she’d never even met the man.
Closing the computer, Colin continued to ponder the questions before coming to the conclusion that he needed to clear his mind, and he knew only one way to do that.
He ran the six miles to the gym and spent an hour lifting weights, finishing with half an hour of striking on the heavy bag. Without classes in session, the gym was relatively quiet. Daly spotted him when necessary and held the bag for a few minutes, but otherwise spent most of his time in the office.
He ran home, showered, and changed into his work clothes and drove to work. Behind the wheel, he pondered the same questions he had earlier. Perhaps his defensive instincts were on high alert, but for some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.
CHAPTER 22
Maria
After the meeting with Margolis, Maria headed back to the office, her head swimming with all she had learned. She stopped to visit with Jill and update her on the latest, but Jill wasn’t back from lunch. It reminded Maria that she hadn’t eaten, but then again, she couldn’t even fathom the thought of eating.
Stress. If it continued, she was going to have to buy a new wardrobe in a smaller size or have everything altered; her clothes were already getting loose.
Barney was finally back in the office, though he spent the next three hours behind closed doors, meeting with one paralegal after another. She assumed he was interviewing for Lynn’s replacement – who couldn’t come soon enough, in Maria’s opinion – and though she had a few questions for him about the hospital case, she knew better than to disturb him. Instead, she started organizing her questions, making notes in the margin of the complaint, until eventually she heard a knock at her door. Glancing up, she saw Barney standing in her doorway.
“Hi, Maria. Would you mind coming to my office?” he asked.
“Oh, hey, Barney,” she said, gathering her pages and placing them back in the file, feeling a surge of relief. “Thank goodness. I was hoping to talk to you about the complaint. I’ve been thinking that there are a few different angles we can take, and I wanted to make sure I was clear on what you were planning to do before I really started to dig in.”
“You can leave that for now,” he said. “We’ll go over the case later. Will you join me? There’s something we need to discuss in my office.”
Despite Barney’s outwardly pleasant demeanor, there was something in his tone that made her cautious as she rose from her desk. Whatever he wanted to talk about, she suddenly thought, it wasn’t going to be good.
Barney trailed half a step behind her, avoiding even small talk, and it wasn’t until they got to his door that he reached her side. Always the gentleman – even when about to lower the boom, no doubt – he opened the door and motioned toward the high-backed chair farthest from the window that faced his desk. It wasn’t until she’d moved closer to the chairs that she saw who was already seated in one of them. She came to a sudden halt.
Ken.
By then, Barney was already moving around his desk. She continued to stand in place even as Barney began pouring three glasses of water from a pitcher on his desk.
“Please,” he said, urging her to take a seat. “There’s nothing to worry about. We’re just here for a friendly discussion.”
I should simply tell him, no, thank you, and walk out the door, she suddenly thought. What were they going to do? Fire her? And yet, the old habits began kicking in – the ones about respecting her elders and obeying the boss – and she found herself almost on autopilot as she took her seat.
“Would you like a glass?” Barney asked. From the corner of her eye, she could see him studying her.
“No, thank you,” she said. She could still walk out, she told herself, but…
“I appreciate you joining us, Maria,” Barney said, his drawl just a bit heavier than usual, his cadence a beat slower. It was the same way he spoke when in the courtroom. “And I’m sure you might be wondering why we asked you to join us. Now…”
“You said there was something we needed to discuss,” she interrupted. “As in the two of us.”
Barney flinched ever so slightly, his surprise at being cut off evident but only for an instant. He smiled. “Excuse me?”
“You said ‘we,’ as in you and I. You didn’t say that anyone else would be here.”
“Of course,” he said, his voice smoothing once more. “You’re correct. I originally asked you to join me. My apologies for misspeaking.”
He offered an opening for her to respond – no doubt expecting her to dismiss the error – but Colin probably wouldn’t have said anything, so she didn’t, either. I’m learning, she thought.
Barney opened his hands. “I suppose we should just get to it, then, so as not to waste your time with preliminaries. The last thing I would want is for this meeting to extend your workday.”
“Okay.” Inwardly, she smiled to herself.
Again, it wasn’t what he expected her to say, but Barney was a master of recovery. He cleared his throat. “I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors in the office concerning potential allegations by various employees against Ken Martenson. Allegations, by the way, that have no factual basis.”
He waited, but this time she said nothing at all.