His for Now (His #2) (5 page)

The dean cleared his throat before continuing.  “I’ll have more information about this soon but I wanted to let everyone know immediately what the situation is.  As usual, seniority will take priority
when it comes to deciding who stays and who will be let go.  Those of you with contract positions may wish to start looking elsewhere as most contracts will not be renewed due to a lack of funds.  I’m sorry I don’t have better news.”

So, that meant my job was probably done for. 
I felt sick.

Later t
hat night, I got a phone call from an old college friend.  Mina Sinclair had sat in the desk beside mine back in first year Sociology.  We’d become study partners over the years and she’d even gone to graduate school with Mark and me. 

When Mina had gotten pregnant, she’d
dropped out of the program to do the single mom thing.  Mark had scoffed about it disdainfully and whispered to me that she should have married the father or had an abortion, but I disagreed.  I’d always thought it was brave of Mina to make the choice she had.

“Hey you!” she chirped.  “
I thought of you today and decided it’s been way too long since we’ve had a catch-up session.  I’d ask you to go for coffee but lately I can’t even get out the front door without the kiddo having a screaming fit or spitting up on me, ugh.  So phone call it is!”

“Mina!  It’s so good to hear your voice!  How are things?  How’s the baby?” I asked. 

“Fantastic!” she replied a little too cheerfully.  “Crawling already…will probably be walking before long.  It’s exhausting!”

“Wow, crawling?  Has it really been that long
since we’ve talked?”

“I guess so
…crazy, huh?  Time goes by so fast…and yet other times it just seems to drag!  How are you?  How’s your love life?  How’s work?  Please, let me live vicariously through you!” she laughed as she bombarded me with questions.

I guessed spending all day changing diapers, reciting nursery rhymes and following an active baby around the house wasn’t all that glamorous.  In an effort to make Mina feel better, I replied, “Workplace hierarchies suck and don’t even ask about my love life – it’s a mess!”

“Ooh, so there
is
someone special in your life?”

“No.  I dated Mark briefly,” I informed her somewhat sheepishly.

“Oh.  Like,
Mark
-Mark? Don’t take this the wrong way, but…why?”

I snickered.  “I’ve been wondering the same thing. 
Let’s just write it off as bad judgment on my part, okay?  Speaking of bad judgment, after Mark there was…someone else.”  I hadn’t talked to anyone about Hayden and I found myself wanting to confide in Mina.  Maybe it would be good to talk through all the drama with someone.

“Details, I need details!” Mina insisted.  Lowering her voice to a cons
piratorial level, she asked, “Was he tall, dark, rich and handsome?” 

Hesitatingly, I admitted, “Actually, yes.  But he’s also a complete jackass,” I added quickly.  “He might also be mentally unbalanced, I don’t know.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s over between us.”  I already knew that, of course, but saying the words aloud made it seem so terribly final. 
Inexplicably, it pained me.

“Boo, guys suck,” Mina grumbled.  “Or at least they did back when I was actually dating.  Ugh.  I love my kid to death but sometimes I miss those days of being a student hanging out on campus all day
and partying all night, you know?”

I didn’t know, but I murmured something that indicated agreement.  As I thought back to our days in grad school, I remembered something.  “Hey Mina, this is a random question but didn’t you work part-time in the administration office one semester?” I asked.  “You helped with payroll or something, right?”

“Yeah, I did.  It was completely boring but it paid pretty decently for part-time work.  Why?”

Pausing, I considered how much I wanted to tell her.  I wasn’t keen on admitting I’d been snooping through Mark’s emails, but
at this point I figured I’d just lay it all out there.  It wasn’t as though it really mattered anyway – as it turned out, Mark and I would likely both be out of a job by the end of the semester.  Now I was mostly just curious.

“Can you think of any reason why Mark would have confidential information from the accounting department in his
email inbox?” I asked.  “It was like…charts with expense claims and the annual budget and some other stuff.  I don’t know exactly.  Is there any reason a sessional instructor would be sent that type of stuff?”

“What?  No, absolutely not,” Mina replied immediately.  “The college has super strict policies about that
sort of thing.  Even though I worked on payroll there were some things that even I wasn’t allowed to access…although that didn’t always stop me because my boss was lazy and had me do her work for her.  But technically, no one except a handful of people in the accounting department is supposed to see that stuff.”

Well that was strange. 

“It was in his inbox?” she asked, barely able to mask her disbelief.

“Yeah, it was.”

“Mark’s always been kind of underhanded if you ask me,” Mina offered.  “One time I’m pretty sure I caught him cheating off me during an exam.  And there was a rumor floating around that he hacked into the college’s server and changed his grade after he bombed an exam,” she added.  “It was just a rumor but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was true.”

“Huh.”  I’d always assumed Mark was spending all that time online playing video games, but maybe he was up to more than that.  Maybe the video games were just a cover for more devious activities.
  “I wonder why he’d have that information.”

“I dunno
.  Is it this year’s budget?” she asked curiously.  “Is it a draft or the final one?”

“
I’m not sure.  To me it’s just a bunch of numbers and columns with a few labels.  But then I don’t even do my own taxes,” I laughed.  “Hey Mina, I have a favor to ask but it’s totally okay if you say no.  I’m sure you’re really busy…”

“I’m not!” she interjected.  “My days consist of scraping spaghetti off the walls and listening to the kiddo screech.  Please, ask me to do something grownup!  You have no idea how nice it is to just
talk
to an adult!  Whatever it is, yes, I’ll do it!”

I chuckled.  I hadn’t realized how much I missed Mina until she was no longer a part of my day-to-day life.  She’d been a good friend to me during our college years, and not just because she proofread my papers for me.  It was a little sad to think our lives had taken such completely different directions, but I was glad to have an excuse to maintain contact with her.

“Can I email you the budget stuff I came across?” I asked hopefully as I picked up the wad of paper and stuck it in my scanner.  I knew I could trust Mina to be discreet and if anyone could help me make sense of the financial information I’d come across, it was her.  “I’m mostly just curious to know what it is and why Mark would have it.” 

“Ooh, revenge of the ex,” she giggled.  “
Ugh, I still can’t believe you ever dated Mark, Daniella!  I’m not letting you live that down any time soon, ha-ha.  And yes, by all means send it to me!  I’m happy to help!”

After I hung up I couldn’t help it:  I checked to see if I had any more voicemails from Hayden.  I expected there to be multiple messages, but to my surprise there were none.  Huh.  A small part of me couldn’t help but be disappointed.  But I tried to remind myself it was for the best. 

Hayden Slate, it seemed, was nothing but bad news and the fewer toxic people I had in my life, the better.

That Friday was an eventful one. 

Mina called me bright and early as I was getting ready for work.  She sounded breathless.  “Hi!  I’m sorry to phone you so early but I wanted to catch you before you were busy teaching or something,” she said. 
Then in a singsong voice she trilled, “Peek-a-boo!  I see you, sweetie!”
 
I could hear the baby gurgling in the background and smiled to myself, amused that for a moment I’d thought Mina was talking to me.

“It’s alright, I was already awake,” I assured her.  “What’s up?”

“I finally had a chance to read your email.  Sorry it took so long but the kiddo knocked my drink onto my laptop and I had to keep it shut off until the keyboard dried out,” she explained.  “Anyway, I looked at the documents you forwarded to me and something is really off.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well I recognize those graphs,” Mina explained.  “They’re the same ones my boss had me do up so she could spend all day watching soap operas in her office.  But they don’t look anything like they should.  The numbers are inflated and, well, all over the place to be honest.”

“You’ve lost me,” I said as I dabbed on some lip gloss and ran a brush through my long dark hair.  I glanced at the clock and saw that I’d lost track of the time and was due on campus right away. 
I seemed to be absentminded a lot of the time lately.

“I finally picked up the newspaper
this morning,” Mina told me.  “I read about the budget cuts at the university and the claims of overspending.  But here’s the thing:  I worked on the preliminary figures.  I have a rough idea of what the budgets in each department should be.  And these numbers are just…bizarre.” 

“So what you’re saying…”

“What I’m saying,” Mina said, “is that someone has doctored the numbers on this chart.  I wonder if it could have something to do with the college’s budget being all messed up now.”

“If what you’re saying is true, how come no one else has noticed it?” I asked.  It wasn’t that I didn’t believe Mina – she was as credible as they come – but the explanation just didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

“I still keep in touch with one of the girls I used to work with,” Mina said.  “She quit working in the finance department shortly after I did.  I guess there was a lot of upheaval and it’s pretty much all new staff there now – and not necessarily well-trained staff.  Apparently it’s a case of the blind leading the blind…not good!  But even so, I doubt they could screw up this badly.”

“
So someone might be exploiting the department’s vulnerability,” I said slowly, trying to process what I was hearing.  “Maybe they’re hoping to pass what they’re doing off as widespread incompetence.”

“It’s a possibility, right?” she asked.  “I mean, it makes sense to me but I’m so sleep deprived right now that it’s not saying much.  Oh god, sweetie
no
, put the diaper down!  Oh!  Not on the walls!  Oh no…oh shit, literally, shit!  Daniella, I’ve got to go!”

Wincing at the nasty visual in my mind, I hung up the phone and hurried out to my car.
  It was a beautiful, clear morning but I barely had time to notice as I flung my bag into the car and jumped behind the wheel.  I was running so late!

Normally I was a law-abiding citizen but I did have one bad habit:  speeding.  It seemed I had a heavy foot and today it served me well.  I weaved in and out of traffic like a pro, secretly pleased that a silver sedan behind me stayed right on my tail.  At least someone appreciated my driving!

As I drove my mind was filled with theories, some implausible and others perhaps not so crazy.  I was no natural-born sleuth but I felt like my intuition was usually accurate as long as my love life wasn’t involved.  Every fiber of my being was telling me Mark was up to no good, but there were still too many blanks to make sense of the puzzle.

It was clear that I needed to do some more digging.  I began making mental checklists of people to talk to and dreaming up excuses to ask snoopy questions without raising suspicion. 

I got to my parking spot and grumbled a bit about it being so damn far away from the building.  I supposed I’d have to start applying to other colleges soon…hopefully I’d be hired on at one with better parking!  A twinge of sadness came over me as I surveyed the campus.  It really was a beautiful place and it had been home to me for so long…I was really going to miss it.

But I wouldn’t miss having to bring running shoes to work with me just for the long trek from my car to the building.  I bent down to
remove my high heels and slipped my feet into my sneakers.  I heard a car pull up behind me and cringed. 

At this time of morning, the only students on campus were those who had classes – and classes were about to start.  I’d hoped I could avoid being seen in my grubby sneakers but it wasn’t to be. 
Hopefully it wasn’t anyone important behind me because wearing a skirt suit with sneakers wasn’t exactly the sort of professional look I was striving for.

I didn’t look
at the car, hoping that if I ignored it I’d remain invisible to the driver.  I didn’t want to call any unnecessary attention to myself so I just hurried toward the building.  That’s when I heard footsteps behind me.

Spinning around, I came face-to-face with Hayden Slate. 

He grabbed my arms.  This time I didn’t get a chance to scream because a second man seemed to come out of nowhere and shoved something in my mouth to keep me quiet.  I recognized him instantly – Hayden’s limo driver.  But this time he wasn’t driving a limo.  The two men tied me up, forced me into the back of the nondescript silver sedan that had been tailing me and off we went.