Flash

habit." Olivia lifted the lid off one of the boxes and peered inside. "We'll have to go through these one by one to find the same damaging information that Melwood found."
    "Not necessarily." Jasper studied the box on the floor beside the stool. "When I went through Gill's desk yesterday, I noticed that he had a habit of keeping the papers he was working on at any given moment in a convenient hot file."
    Olivia watched him crouch in front of the box and raise the lid. "You think he may have had one for his special blackmail stuff?"
    Jasper aimed the flashlight at the neatly arranged folders inside the box.
Chantry, Dane, Lancaster, Sloan
.
    "He had a hot file, all right. This box is it."
    He plucked the Sloan file out of the box and opened it. The single page inside bore the name of a very exclusive, very high-priced agency that specialized in discreet corporate investigations.
    "Damn," he muttered. "Rollie, old buddy, you've taught me a good lesson. Maybe it is possible to be a little too obsessive about files and information. As God is my witness, when this is all over, I'm going to destroy everything in my records that could possibly come back to haunt anyone."
    "Good idea," Olivia murmured.
    Jasper dropped his own file back into the box. He set Gill's flashlight on the desk, picked up the hot file box, and turned toward the door. "Go grab that platform truck. I want to get this stuff out of here. I think we can fit most of them into your car."
    "What's the rush?" Olivia asked. "We know where they are now."
    He met her eyes. "If we found these files, someone else might be able to find them, too."
    Her mouth tightened. "Good point." She turned and went out the door.
    Jasper put the hot files box near the door, turned and started dragging more boxes off the top shelf. He stacked them on the floor, one on top of the other. In the distance he heard the low rumble of the heavy casters on the platform truck.
    Olivia parked the cart in the aisle and started stacking boxes on it.
    It took a surprisingly short amount of time to load half the file boxes onto the cart.
    "It's going to take two trips," Olivia observed.
    "Let's get this load downstairs."
    Jasper took hold of the metal steering bar and pushed the load toward the elevator. Olivia went ahead to press the call button.
    The elevator cab had not arrived by the time Jasper got the platform truck past the last row of lockers. He saw Olivia frown and punch the call button again.
    "Wouldn't you know it?" She glanced at him. "Another customer must have arrived. Whoever he is, he's commandeered the elevator. We'll have to wait until he's finished loading or unloading his stuff."
    A whisper of premonition raised the hair on the nape of Jasper's neck. "The parking lot was empty when we got here."
    "I know." She shrugged and punched the call button a few more times. "But the elevator has definitely been locked out."
    Jasper looked at the glowing green exit sign over the stairwell door. "I'll go downstairs and see what's going on. Stay here with the files."
    "Okay."
    Jasper pushed the loaded platform truck into a nearby aisle and went to the door beneath the exit sign. For some reason he could not explain but that he did not question, he opened it quite gently.
    Footsteps echoed hollowly on the concrete stairwell. Deliberate, steady, footsteps. Making their way up the stairs.
    Silas, perhaps, come to tell them that the elevator was out of commission.
    Or someone else. Someone who had followed them to Pri-Con Self-Storage this morning.
    Jasper closed the door even more carefully than he had opened it. He turned to look at Olivia. She was watching him with a questioning expression.
    "What's wrong?" She spoke very softly.
    "I'm not sure. Someone's coming up the stairs."
    "Probably because the elevator isn't working."
    "Probably." Jasper made a quick assessment of the terrain. "I could be overreacting here, but it strikes me that to date we have made some dumb moves in this mess. Let's try doing something smart for a change."
    "Such as?"
    He took her arm and steered her swiftly back down the central aisle. "Such as not stand here like a couple of Thanksgiving turkeys just in case it turns out that whoever is coming up those steps is also after Rollie's files."
    "Jasper."
    "Shush. Sound carries in this place."
    She lowered her voice. "Do we have a plan?"
    "Of course." He yanked her down another corridor. "What kind of CEO would I be if I didn't have a plan?"
    "Just thought I'd