And all the stupid decisions I’d made before led me to this small gray freezer of an office, the lone Black lawyer working with other lawyers half my age, the majority of whom I didn’t like. Their pompous, know-it-all attitudes made it hard for me to settle in and feel like a real part of the “Houghton family,” as executive management liked to refer to the company. Michael always paid me so well, I learned to ignore it.
The inklings of a headache nibbled at my left temple. I tossed my coat and bags in one of the guest chairs, scooted around to the business side of my desk and pulled a small portable heater from behind a stack of folders. I set the knob on “High” and listened to the scratchy hum of the fan blades for a few seconds before collapsing into my chair. Having portable heaters in your office was a violation of company policy. But I’d be damned if I gave up my heater before Building Services installed a better HVAC system on this floor.
Now, there was a dead man two floors above me and if anyone knew I had been sleeping with him, it would be another disaster. I closed my eyes. A jagged bloody hole in his head. A gun on the floor beside him. My eyes popped open. Suicide? It didn’t make sense, although Michael had complained about his wife recently. Maybe something more happened between them. Maybe she found out about us. What would I do now? I would keep my ass in this chair, keep a low profile, and let someone else bring me the awful news about Michael. The farther away from this, the better.
God forgive me. All I had to do was call for help. Surely calling for help wouldn’t be enough for anyone to dig through my background. Or would it? Yes. I’d made the right decision to leave his office. He was dead. My sticking around to answer a flurry of questions from the police wouldn’t bring him back. And then, in an instant, sadness engulfed me. Michael deserved better.
I stared out at the pink-orange blush of dawn crawling across the city. Long fingers of white clouds slowly inched across the sky. With its constant construction, Atlanta’s skyline had shorn its squat brick buildings for the gleaming high-rise look of New York City or Chicago. A southern mecca for business and industry. The New South. I was still staring out the window when the lights popped on across the floor. My pulse quickened. Someone else was here. I knew there were no security cameras in the executive suite. Michael had told me. Still, I couldn’t help but think: Had anyone seen me leaving the twentieth floor?
I watched the door and perked up to listen for more sounds. The walls in the Legal Department had the soundproof capacity of toilet paper. But things went silent. I needed to look busy in case someone passed by my office, so I flipped on my computer and stared into the screen. After a few seconds, the company logo of a fast-moving gray truck and tag line popped on the screen. Houghton Transportation—where you’re family and family comes first!
“Hey! Morning, sunshine!”
I jumped. Rudy Clifton, one of the senior lawyers in the Legal Department, was leaning in my doorway with a Starbucks coffee cup in his hand and a wide pearly smile. Even though Rudy reported to me, he never had any qualms about walking into my office uninvited and most times without knocking. I tolerated it only because he brought in good work product and good gossip. Rudy and I had worked on several legal panels together over the years and became good friends. When he got laid off from his law firm, I immediately hired him to work at Houghton six months after Michael hired me. He repaid that favor with unwavering loyalty, one of the few people I trusted at Houghton.
“Why are you here so early?” I heard my fragile nerves popping through the cracks in my voice.
“Good morning to you, too.” He grimaced. Rudy was handsome and hunky in a college-frat-boy sort of way with his two-day stubble and a mop of dark wavy hair. “Those little people that live in my house—they woke up at four o’clock this morning crying for bottles. Couldn’t get back to sleep. What dragged you in this early?”
I hesitated for a few seconds, skirting through my brain for some deflection. I feigned a smile. “Haven’t you heard? I sleep here now since the settlement fell apart in the Robbins litigation.”
“Good luck.” Rudy laughed. “Oh snap, you wanna hear the latest?” Rudy, still wearing his overcoat, glanced over his shoulder before slipping inside my office.
“Please, Rudy. No gossip this early, okay?” I rubbed a thumb into my left temple. Morning traffic and sirens echoed up from the ground below.
“I heard Jonathan’s having an affair. Guess who the lucky lady is?”