A Christmas Proposal: A Hidden Threat Short Story (11 page)

The elevator opened. He stepped inside, and rode up to his floor. The office was deserted of course; none of the staff were in at this ungodly hour. His office door stood like a sentry, guarding the space that would shield him from whatever the day would bring. His sentry hadn’t been able to protect him last night. He knew it wouldn’t protect him from the woman that was haunting him, and she was haunting him. Every time he closed his eyes, she was there. Every cell in his body wanted to kiss her. At the same time, every logical part of him told him to stay away. 

Shaking his head, he walked through the door and into his office. 

Cali sat at her desk drinking her morning coffee. It was beautiful out today. The sky was clear blue, and the sun brought with it promises of warmth. There was one problem. She was in no mood to enjoy it. 

She’d spent her night combing through the folders she’d brought home. Somewhere during the long night, her eyes had shut, and she’d fallen asleep. The sound of Jessie’s arrival this morning had awakened her, and she’d been rather embarrassed to be found on the couch still in her work clothes. 

Jessie, of course, was great about it. She’d helped her pick up the papers that scattered across the floor as a result of her restless sleep and then prodded her up the stairs to shower and dress for the day. Cali had no idea what time she’d actually fallen asleep, but the couch had been less than comfortable. 

The one good thing that came from her exhaust-ridden sleep was she hadn’t dreamed. And although that was great, her mind seemed to think because of that, it needed to catch up. As she stepped into the shower, the steam warmed her skin, reminding her of last night and the feeling of Matthew’s breath on her face. Try as she might, the memory wouldn’t leave her. She finished her shower and dressed only to be met with the sun—the warm sun. It seemed everything warm turned her thoughts back to the memory. This was not good. And now? Now she was sitting there, starring into her coffee mug, relishing its warmth. 

With a frustrated sigh, she pushed the mug away from her and ran a hand through her loose curls. This was not going to work. She needed to get Matthew Andersen out of her head if she was going to get any work done today.

By lunch, Matthew had managed to get quite a bit of work done. He’d reviewed the surveillance tapes from last night and found nothing of interest. Jason was already down in the warehouse by the time he went back upstairs, and his brother still wasn’t back yet. Their talk would have to wait. Pulling yesterday’s tape out of his drawer, he got up and slipped his jacket on. It was time to find out who was on the tape. 

He arrived at the police station just after noon. The front desk clerk gave him a familiar smile as he walked back to find Detective Martinez. The man was easy to spot sitting hunched over his desk, his bald head sticking out like a sore thumb. “Need some help?”

Martinez’s head snapped up at the sound of Matthew’s voice. “Nah. I think I can handle it. Besides, you need to leave the real work for the
real
detectives.” He smiled. After another moment’s pause, he stood and stretched out his hand. “How you doing man?”

Matthew took the offered hand and pumped it with a warm greeting. “Good.” He held up the envelope. 

Martinez nodded. “Follow me.”

The two men ducked into a tiny conference room containing a small TV and VCR. Matthew handed him the tape. Martinez popped it in the VCR and hit play. The image was grainy, dark, and far from the camera. 

Martinez looked up at his friend from his perch on the table. “Well, man. Whoever your mystery man or woman is, I’d say they knew where those cameras were. It’s just too much of a coincidence they picked that exact spot.”

“That’s what I’m thinking.” They watched a few more minutes of the tape. “You think your guy can do anything to clean it up?”

“Don’t know, but my
guy
can give it a try,” Martinez said, hopping off the table, giving Matthew a wink, and removing the tape. He slipped it back inside the envelope. “We’ll drop this off to Nikki on our way out.” With a firm pat to Matthew’s shoulder he added, “Come on. I’m starving. Let’s go get some grub.”

It was almost two o’clock before Cali remember Matthew Andersen’s e-mail from yesterday. Well that’s not entirely true. She’d remember this morning, but since she’d been trying to banish him from her thoughts, she’d ignored it. Sighing, she figured she’d put it off long enough. Following the instructions given to her by Lisa and Matthew, she opened the mystery e-mail. 

At the top in bright red letters were the words “Information contained in this correspondence is confidential.” She followed the instructions to click on a separate link to confirm that she was, in fact, Cali Stanton before the e-mail finally appeared on her screen. 

Friday’s transport may have been compromised. As a precaution, we are moving the departure from Friday evening to Friday morning at 6 am.

Everything is in order, and I will give a full report after the delivery is underway.

~ M. Andersen

Cali sat with her fingers hovering above the keyboard. She wanted to be there tomorrow to make sure the shipment got on its way safely. But remembering both Matthew and her father’s words made her pause. Alvin Stanton trusted Matthew and Jason, and she knew she should too. 

The thing was, it wasn’t about trust. Someone came after her father and his business. After working for the last two years in third-world countries where nothing, including one’s safety, was taken for granted, Cali was not used to sitting on the sidelines waiting for things to happen. She wanted to be useful. She needed to be useful. 

A buzzing noise from her phone brought her out of her musings. “Yes?”

“Mr. Carson is here to see you. Should I show him in?”

Cali didn’t remember having an appointment with him today. “Sure.”

Matthew finished going over the last minute details of tomorrow morning’s plans with Jason in the warehouse. With too much riding on this to take chances, Jason decided he would personally accompany the shipment to its destination. After looking over the amount of ground they had to cover and the isolated nature of the route, there were just too many points of interception, so the brothers decided to have a car follow the loaded truck. The drive would take almost ten hours, so additional arrangements had to be made for overnight accommodations. 

By the time everything was ready, it was after six. The team was exhausted, including Matthew, so he went directly to his car. As he drove out into the evening traffic, he punched in Martinez’s number. It wouldn’t hurt to see if Nikki had found anything useful. 

The phone rang several times before a very distracted Martinez answered the phone. “Yeah?”

Matthew laughed. “Martinez? You alright man?”

“Matthew.” His friend sighed. “Yeah, I’m good. Just a bit busy. You know how it is. Too much to do, too little time.”

“Yeah, I do. And not to pile more onto your plate but…”

Martinez sighed again. “Nothing yet. Although Nikki does think your mystery person is a woman.” Anticipating Matthew’s next question, he offered, “Don’t ask me
how
she knows, she just does. She’s like that, and she hasn’t been wrong yet.” 

“Hm,” Matthew murmured as he turned the corner and onto his street. “Good to know. Thanks.”

“No problem. If you want to call me tomorrow afternoon, she might have something for you.”

“I will, thanks.” A baby crying in the background told Matthew exactly what his friend was doing. With a short laugh, he said a quick goodbye. 

His friend was adapting quite easily to fatherhood, and in a way, Matthew envied him. There was no one special in Matthew’s life and hadn’t been for years. Some might say that it was quite a lonely life but he had his brother and friends, plus his job kept him busy. He didn’t need anything else. 

A sleepy Cali shuffled down the hall. When she’d looked at her alarm clock, it read eleven thirty. She cautiously walked down the stairs to the front door; she had no idea who could possibly be calling at this hour. Surely if it was an attacker, they wouldn’t ring her doorbell. 

Looking through the peephole, she could see bits of a police uniform. Disarming the security system, she opened the door. “Sorry to disturb you at this late hour, ma’am, but we received a call about a prowler in the area.”

“Oh!” Cali perked up a bit at this information. “A prowler?”

“Yes, ma’am.” The man held his hat in his hands respectfully. “Have you by chance seen anything suspicious this evening? Anyone crossing through the yard? Hiding in the bushes?”

“No, I’m sorry, I haven’t.”

“Well then. Thank you for your time.” He handed her a business card. “If you think of anything, please call.”

“I will. Thank you, officer.” He placed his hat back on his head and gave a small bow before turning back down the walk. 

Cali closed the door behind him and rearmed the system. A prowler? In this neighborhood?