The Misadventures of the Laundry Hag 00 - Swept Under the Rug

insurance plan Marty and I had settled on. Oh what a tangled web we weave.
    Garner smiled at me, a polite expression with no teeth bared. “Do you know what it is we do here?”
    “Something to do with batteries,” I shrugged, as if it didn’t matter to me. And it shouldn’t, because as Laura had pointed out on the return trip from the luncheon, I was hardly more than the hired help. Unfortunately, I was too interested in what kind of operation Valentino ran, because I had no other way to investigate him.
    Yeah, that’s right. I wanted dirt on Markus Valentino, anything that might point to Candie’s whereabouts. He’d hidden the first note about the phoenix from the FBI, I was sure of it. And after meeting Amelia, I‘d settled on an image of Valentino as a school yard bully who wanted whatever someone else had.
    I needed proof to bring to Capri and the FBI. And to find evidence, I needed access to one of Valentino’s offices, preferably after hours when he would be elsewhere.
    Richard cut his eyes to me. No doubt, he thought I was a moron, and I promised myself I’d rectify the situation as soon as possible, for Leo’s sake.
    Garner stared at me for a moment, probably wondering if I was as vapid as I seemed, but then he couldn’t see my sensible shoes. I stayed silent, letting the chips fall where fate willed them. He fidgeted with his pocket protector and removed a pen to write something on his clipboard.
    “Do you have any references?”
    I dug through my tote, pulling out a sheet of paper with my phony references. Sylvia, Leo, and Detective Capri were all listed along with contact info. Garner’s hand shook as he reached for the paper and I wondered if he might be ill. His skin was the color of wet concrete and the trembling was pronounced. Parkinson’s maybe.
    “When can you start?” He asked; his smile less glacial this time.
    I turned my head and looked at Richard. He wasn’t exactly leaping for joy. In fact, he appeared bored. “Tonight if you want,” I answered, figuring Leo would cover if Richard had other plans.
    Garner nodded, as if my reply suited him. “Be here at eight. I’ll notify the security desk of your arrival. We’ll issue badges for you and your crew by next week.”
    I stifled a wince. Crap, eight, when I was supposed to meet Neil for dinner. Sure, I could send Marty in my place, but that would leave Penny alone with the boys and me unable to snoop.
    “How about a tour?” Garner rose from behind the tiny desk in his windowless office.
    “Sounds like a plan.” I said, following suit. Richard remained seated.
    “Richard,” I prompted. “Mr. Garner is taking us on a tour now. So we’ll know our way around tonight?”
    “Tonight?” Richard asked, blinking up at me.
    “Yes, when we come back here. To clean.” Had he been asleep through the entire interview?
    “Oh, oh right. “ Richard got to his feet and I prayed he would follow as I trailed Garner, who’d been conferring with someone outside and missed the entire exchange.
    The level we were on was self explanatory, with cubicles and a break room, as well as a couple of offices like Garner’s. Here, we’d be responsible for vacuuming the indoor/ outdoor carpeting, emptying waste baskets and scrubbing down the john. Yippie.
    “Our primary function is sales and protection plans for companies who have purchased our battery back-ups. This is the customer service floor. The clean room surrounds the perimeter of the area, which is why there aren’t any windows in here. All high security.” Garner explained as he shuffled past several empty offices. “You will not have access to the lab, as several experiments may be running at any given time and our engineers are very sensitive to any, ahem…, interruptions.”
    “Understood,” I said, a little disappointed. The name, clean room just beckoned to my inner neat-freak and I wanted to see for myself if it lived up to the hype.
    We loaded onto an elevator and Garner pushed the button for the third floor. The first floor was the lobby, where I’d met up with Richard. We’d just left the second and I crossed my fingers that pay dirt would be waiting on three.
    The elevator slid open and I gaped as a huge mahogany desk was revealed. The woman behind the desk seemed completely dwarfed by the thing, which was clean of any of the normal desktop clutter. No coffee mugs holding pens, no piles of paper, no family photos or beanie babies. A sleek computer monitor, a