Addison Fox – Colton K-9 Cop (страница 8)

What would they tell Andrew?

She liked her boss. They’d worked well since she’d been put on his team two years prior and she’d like to tell him in person what was going on. Share her side of the story. But he’d already departed a few weeks early for the holidays, taking his family on a long-planned trip to Hawaii.

The fleeting thought of texting him faded as she imagined what she’d even try to say.

Sorry to bother you on vacation. I just got fired because we’re tampering with the flu vaccine supply chain here at LSP.

No way.

Even if she did want to bother him, what would he do from four thousand miles away? What she needed to do was take stock and evaluate what had happened. Then she could decide the best course of action. She was a well-respected employee at LSP and a member of the community. She’d find a way through this.

Even if Sally’s comments at the end had taken a toll. Bellamy’s father’s accident and subsequent financial troubles weren’t exactly a secret. She’d even had to sell the family business—the long-standing corner store her father had opened in his twenties—to pay for his medical bills.

No matter how sympathetic or understanding people might have been, it wasn’t a far leap to think they’d believe Sally’s innuendo.

It’s sad.

Illness like that takes a toll.

It’s also an expensive thing.

Each miserable word had stamped itself in her mind and Bellamy was hard-pressed to see how she’d come out in the best light should Sally decide to spread those rumors.

On a resigned sigh, she reached for the box Gus had handed her before departing for his coffee. Thirteen years, and she was left with a brown box and the few items she could stow inside.

The photo of her parents out front of the store—one of her favorites—came off her credenza first, followed by her calendar, a silly glass elf she’d purchased a few years before and the small radio that was still playing Christmas songs. She added a personnel file she’d kept her records in, a handful of cards given from coworkers through the years and, last, a few copies of the email she’d printed for herself.

Although she suspected even the affable Gus would have to take back any files she attempted to remove from her desk, she did a quick sweep of her files to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.

And saw the framed photo of her sister, Maggie, she’d shoved in the bottom drawer. A dazzling smile reflected back at her, the remembered warmth there stabbing into Bellamy’s heart.

She missed her sister. Desperately. And far more than she probably should, even as she blamed Maggie for all that had gone wrong over the past five years.

Her sister’s abandonment had stung, but it was the cold shoulder Maggie had given her at their parents’ funerals that had hurt the most. When had her bright, beautiful, vibrant sister become such a cold witch?

The urge to toss the photo into the garbage, along with a few of the folders that held out-of-date information or pamphlets on some of their older drug introductions, was strong, but in the end familial loyalty won out and she shoved the frame facedown on top of the small pile of items in her cardboard box. If she was going to toss the picture, she could do it properly at home, not in a snit in what was soon to be someone else’s office.

Shaking off the personal reminder of her relationship with her sister, Bellamy finished placing the last few items in the box. The printouts of the email that had started it all were the last to go in and, on impulse, she took the printouts from the box and secured them in her purse. “At least I have something.”

The copy wasn’t much but it did have a time and date stamp on it, and if she were able to secure a legal representative who could subpoena the company’s electronic records, she might be able to prove the fact the email had been sent to her and was not a result of her own tampering.

With a hard tug on the closure of her purse, Bellamy stopped herself and fell into her chair.

Subpoena? Electronic records? Legal representation?

How had she gone from a fiercely loyal employee to someone ready to instigate legal action in a matter of minutes?

The vibration of her phone caught her moments before the ringer went off, her best friend Rae’s name and picture filling the screen. She toyed with not answering when the overwhelming urge to talk to someone who believed her struck hard.

“Hey there.”

“What’s wrong? You sound upset.”

Bellamy smiled despite the horrible weight that had pressed on her chest since leaving Sally Borne’s office. The quick response after a simple greeting was straight-up Rae and at that moment, Bellamy couldn’t have been more grateful.

“Well. Um.” The tears that had threatened on the walk back tightened her throat once more. “I’m packing my office.”

“What? Why?” The noise of the Whisperwood General Store echoed in the background, but nothing in the noise could dim Rae’s concern. “Who would do that? You’re one of their best employees.”

“As of a half hour ago, they began treating me like Enemy Number One.”

“What? Wait—” Rae broke off, the din in the background fading even as she hollered at someone to come help her at the counter. “Okay. I’m in my office. Talk to me.”

Bellamy laid it all out—the email, the walk to HR and the weird meeting, even Gus’s kindness in letting her have a few minutes.

“Gus’ll give Sutton Taylor what for. Why don’t you let him?”

“I need to process this. Something’s going on and the faster I figure out what it is, the faster I can get my job back.” If I even want it.

The thought was so foreign—and such a departure from who she’d been for the past thirteen years—Bellamy nearly repeated the words out loud.

Was it possible the damage of an afternoon could remove the goodwill of nearly a decade and a half?

“Who do you think did it?” Rae’s question interrupted the wending of Bellamy’s thoughts.

“I wish I knew. It’s dangerous, Rae. If it’s a joke it’s a horrific slander on the company. And if it’s true—” Bellamy stopped, barely able to finish the thought. “If it’s true, it’s a problem beyond measure. We serve the public good. We can’t take that good away from them, especially in flu season.”

“I’ve already had a few people in complaining about it. I’m tempted to drag on a surgical mask each morning before I open up.”

Rae would do it, too, Bellamy thought with a smile. That and a whole lot more, she had to admit.

“Look, Rae. I need you to keep this to yourself until I understand what’s going on.”

“Bell, come on, you have to tell someone.”

“I will. But. Well. Look, just don’t say anything, okay? Please promise me.”

The quiet was nearly deafening before she heard her friend acquiesce through the phone. “Okay. I’ll hold my tongue for now.”

“Thank you. Let me get my feet under me and I can figure out what comes next.”

“So long as it entails a visit to the police at some point.”

Since her thoughts hadn’t been too far from the same, Bellamy had to admit Rae had a point. “I’ll call you later. I need to finish packing up and get out of here. Even with Gus’s willingness to give me time, the dragon in HR is going to expect me off the grounds.”

“Okay. Call me later.”

They hung up with a promise to do a good raging girls’ night, complete with margaritas and a gallon of ice cream. It couldn’t erase her day, but as promises went it was certainly something to look forward to.

Bellamy glanced down at her box, her meager possessions all she had as evidence of her time at Lone Star Pharmaceutical.

Securing the lid, she took a deep breath and pulled her purse over her arm.

She’d already lived through the loss of her family, both through death and through abandonment. She would survive this.

Resolved, Bellamy picked up the box and walked out of her office. She refused to look back.

* * *

THE MID-DECEMBER AFTERNOON light was fading as Bellamy trudged toward her car. She’d snagged a spot in the far back parking lot, beneath an old willow that she loved for its sun protection and the added benefit of more daily steps, to and from the front door. Now it just seemed like more punishment as she put one foot in front of the other, her box completing the professional walk of shame.

Thankfully, the parking lot was rather empty, the impending holiday and the general spirit of celebration and success at LSP pushing even more people than she’d expected to knock off early.

Gus had been kind when he met her in the lobby, his expression sorrowful as he took her badge and her corporate credit card. Sally Borne hadn’t shown up for the proceedings but her office lackey, Marie, had been there to take the badge and credit card before bustling off back where she’d come from.

It was unkind, but Bellamy hadn’t been able to dismiss the image of a small crab scuttling back to its sandy burrow the way the woman rushed off.

And then it had just been awkward with Gus, so she’d given him a quick kiss on the cheek and a warm hug, promising to visit with him in town at the annual tree lighting in the town square the following week. She’d already committed to Rae that she’d go and she’d be damned if she was going to hide in her home like the same crab she’d mentally accused Marie of being.