A Dangerous Affair Chapter 30

The plot thickens but Tom's finding it difficult to concentrate in the office

When Stephanie and Tom arrived at work, Tom insisted that Stephanie sit at her desk while he went to explain their lateness to Brick. He was in Brick’s office for only ten minutes before both of them came out, and Brick made an announcement to everybody, telling them to gather in the common area for a meeting. As the staff began to gather, Tom took a few minutes to pour himself and Stephanie some coffee, and he handed her a mug, taking a seat next to her.
 
Brick stood in front of the group and addressed them. “Right, if everyone is here I’ll begin. Some of you may now be aware that Stephanie and Tom have been working together to unravel the Carlton scandal. They have made some progress, but now I fear that safety had become an issue, and if we don’t find out more about Hugh Carlton soon, the whole thing could blow up in our face. With this in mind, I have decided that we should all pull together on this story, and I want everybody to take time to figure out a pattern in these recent crimes that have occurred around the city. If we can get enough information on the Carltons, then we can turn it over to the police, ensuring our safety and getting the story that every other newspaper in the city wants.” He looked pleased with the idea. “Tom, I’m leaving you in charge of dividing up the cases and allocating them. If any of you need any more background information, I suggest that you ask Stephanie. She’s put a lot of work into this, and knows all there is to know on the subject at the moment.” He paused and then dismissed them with his hand.
 
"Well...get to it!"
 
Stephanie collected a handful of files and returned to her desk while Tom spoke to a number of the reporters. She began to study the files containing mostly information on a variety of different burglaries which had taken place over what seemed to be a wide area. She sifted through the pages, organizing them on her desk in a way that enabled her to glance at multiple crimes in one go. A frown crossed her face as she sat staring at the pages, lost in concentration.
 
“Found anything interesting yet?”
 
She looked up with a start to see Tom staring down at her desktop.
 
“You know this is really odd, there doesn’t seem to be any connection here at all. Quite the contrary, these burglaries are completely random.”
 
He picked up a few pages and scanned them. “Come on then,” he said, gesturing for her to pass him some files. “Brick seems intent on having us all do paperwork today, so I guess I had better do my share.” She passed him a wedge of files and he moved to the PC across the room.
 
Over the next few hours Stephanie studied the files in more detail, concentrating on the type of burglary and the items that were reported taken. None of the offenders seemed to have shown any sign of aggression, even those who were caught in the act. She was also perplexed to see that there was virtually no information on the items that were taken. She sat motionless, contemplating the pages. Hmm, courteous thieves…all around the city. It made no sense, and why on earth was Carlton involved in all of this? Eventually she threw her pen down on the desk in frustration. Glancing up, she noticed that Tom was watching her from across the room. She paused for a while and then mouthed.
 
“Any luck?”
 
He smiled and mouthed back, “Nothing so far.”
 
She glared at him.
 
“So… keep looking.”
 
His smile widened and he saluted her with two fingers, turning back to the computer.
 
She reorganized the papers on her desk, slipping them back into the corresponding files, and stood up to get some coffee. Tom’s eyes followed her, watching the way she moved, but swung back to the computer when she glanced over her shoulder in his direction. Pouring a strong black coffee for herself and Tom, she joined him at the computer.
 
“Here, I thought you could do with this,” she said, handing him the mug.
 
“You’re an angel,” he sighed, taking the coffee.
 
“Still nothing then?” she asked.
 
“No real connections, but there is something that doesn’t fit.”
 
She looked at the screen with curiosity and pulled up a chair to sit next to him.
 
“I’m not finding any past offences. None of them seem to have criminal records at all,” he informed her.
 
She frowned, baffled by the whole situation.
 
“This gets more and more odd. None of the offenders acted with aggression, and there seems to be no information on the stolen items too,” she pointed out.
 
He looked at a loss. She crossed her legs and leant forward to examine the screen more closely. He watched the movement of her legs as she crossed them, and she glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes.
 
“Are you concentrating?”
 
He looked at her guiltily. “I’m trying to.”
 
His eyes turned back to the screen and he groaned. “How are we supposed to get any answers anyway if we’re stuck in here? We need to be out there finding stuff out.”
 
“I suppose that Brick will want us here for what’s left of the day, considering that we turned up so late,” she commented.
 
He looked distraught. Tom found the confines of the office suffocating after more than a few hours, and he was itching to get out, particularly because he was tired and in danger of falling asleep with boredom.
 
“I’ll tell you what, let’s put a list together of where we will go when we can get out tomorrow,” Stephanie suggested, reading Tom’s frustration.
 
In the absence of any interesting work to concentrate on, Tom’s mind began wandering back to his dream, not for the first time that day. His eyes fell to the opening of her blouse.
 
“I know where I’d like to take you right now,” he said suggestively.
 
“Tom! Keep your mind on the work.”
 
He laughed. “Okay… a list, very organized Stephanie, very methodical.”
 
She tutted and stood up, then smiled back over her shoulder at him. “I’m trying to be.” She winked as she went back to her desk.
 
He watched her go, surprised at her flirting. Then his thoughts went back to this ‘boyfriend’ of hers, and her earlier disclosure that she didn’t intend to bring him back to her house that evening. The only thing he could make of that was that their ‘relationship’ as she had called it, was not a passionate one. If they had been seeing each other for a long time, then he could see no reason why they wouldn’t be sharing the same bed. He and Stephanie weren’t even in a relationship, and yet they had only that morning slept together. Okay, so they hadn’t had sex, much to his regret, but there’s no way if they were in a relationship that he’d let them sleep in separate beds, especially after an evening out together.
 
Determined to find out more about these baffling crimes, Stephanie decided to look up a victim of a burglary and telephone them to see if they would give any information about the items that were stolen. She was frustrated to find however, that since their newspaper hadn’t covered many of these stories, she couldn’t find the details of one of the victims. She would have to try to get the information out of one of the other newspapers that had focused on the spate of crimes. She was about to pick up her phone when it was unceremoniously whisked out of her reach by Tom who was determined to make a phone call of his own.
 
“Hey, I was going to use the phone to ring another paper to get a contact number!” she frowned.
 
“My thoughts exactly. You must be psychic,” he said, dialling a number and ignoring her plea to reclaim her own phone.
 
She pulled a face at him and went back to flicking through the files. After a while he began to raise his voice and she looked up at him with a frown.
 
“Hey, I’m from the City Daily right and I’m going to need the info…me raising my voice? Just give me the damn information will you?”
 
Stephanie quickly swiped the receiver off Tom and proceeded to speak to the man on the other end.
 
“Hello, this is Stephanie White here from the City Daily. I’m terribly sorry for the rudeness of my colleague just now,” she gave Tom a glare, “you’ll have to excuse him, he’s not the most patient man in the world. What I would very much appreciate is a little information on a story you have printed in your newspaper recently about a burglary… Yes I understand that, but all I would need would be the information that went out into print. That would be wonderful, you’re very kind.”
 
She looked up to see Tom grimacing at her politeness.
 
“Yes, go ahead.” She wrote down the information. “Well thank you very much, you have been most helpful. Oh, one more thing, which newspaper has been covering most of these stories over the last couple of weeks?”
 
She wrote something more on her pad, and then went to put the phone down but stopped as the man on the other end added something.
 
“Oh that’s very flattering but we’re so busy on these stories lately, I just don’t know how I would find the time.” She stifled a laugh and put the phone down. “See what a little patience and manners can get you?” she said, handing him the piece of paper from her pad.
 
“Yes, I can see what it was getting you!” he replied, picking up the paper and moving away from her desk.
 
“Hey Sam, need you to look up a contact number for me,” Tom called out.
 
It wasn’t long before Sam came back to Stephanie’s desk with the number, and she picked up the telephone again.
 
“Ah good afternoon, this is Stephanie White from the City Daily. I’m phoning regarding your recent burglary. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind giving me some details on the items that were stolen. We are trying to uncover the source behind all such crimes recently so your help on this matter would be very much appreciated. Yes, hmm…okay, thank you for your help.” She put the phone down and turned to Tom. “As I had expected, nothing was stolen.”
 
“Nothing?”
 
“Absolutely nothing,” she confirmed. She thought for a moment. “But that’s not the impression the media has been giving us lately. I wonder where the newspapers have been getting their information from.”
 
Tom looked thoughtful. “Something worth looking in to. We’d have to get out of here to look in to it though.”
 
Stephanie shook her head. “You know that’s not going to happen today don’t you?”
 
“Ah hell, how we supposed to do our jobs properly today then?”
 
“Patience Tom, patience.”
 
“This is enough to try the patience of a saint!” He sighed loudly.
 
“More coffee?” she offered.
 
After several more mugs of coffee, a lot of pacing the office, and frustration at finding out that most of the crimes appeared to be fake, the day finally came to an end, and Tom was spared anymore monotonous office paperwork.
 
He slung his arm over Stephanie’s shoulder as they headed for the car park and Stephanie’s car. “Home darling? And then I think a bath and bed eh Steph,” he winked.