Deadly Magic (8 page)

She wagg
ed her finger at him. “I remember you hitting on me.”

He shook his head.

“Don’t deny it. You’re just like all of the rest. I can’t go anywhere without someone trying to take me home. I am a married woman. I’m not a cheater. Not like some people.” She shook her head sadly. “I’m not even safe at the office.”

Grace watch
ed transfixed as the other woman’s eyes closed and her head began to bob forward. She slowly leaned to the side of the booth, eventually resting her head on Ethan’s shoulder.

Ethan
looked at Grace helplessly, before shrugging and tapping Louisa on the shoulder.

Louisa’s head snapp
ed up. She looked from Ethan to Grace and back. “How dare you touch me!”

Grace shook her head.
“Louisa, we’re just—”

She
angrily turned to Grace. “Don’t defend him.” She leaned back in her seat, breathing heavily. “Unbelievable.” Louisa slid out of the booth and walked to the other side. Sliding in next to Grace, she wrapped one long bony arm around Grace’s shoulders. She turned to a surprised Ethan. “And right in front of your poor girlfriend. You ought to be ashamed. Come on, Grace. I’m going to take you home.” Louisa grabbed Grace’s hand and dragged her out of the booth. “Poor thing.”

Monday, December 5th

CHAPTER
SEVEN

Valerie pounc
ed the
moment Grace settled into her office the next morning. “So,” she said excitedly, pulling up a chair next to Grace’s desk, “how did the date go?”

“
Oh . . .” Grace said, throwing her pencil on the desk and looking up from her newest design, “definitely better than the last one.”

Valerie smil
ed. “Oh, good.”

“
Yeah, no one died this time.”

Valerie’s smile fell.
“That bad, huh?”

Grace nodd
ed. “I went home with Louisa.”

“
What? Louisa? Louisa Straker?” At Grace’s nod, Valerie asked, “How did that happen?”

Grace quickly recount
ed the night. “She couldn’t remember her address. I was finally able to wrestle the phone away from her sometime before midnight and call Daniel.”

“
Oh, I’m so sorry, Grace.”

“
I’m starting to think it’s just not meant to be.”

Valerie roll
ed her eyes. “You give up too easily. This is only your second date. And like you said, no one died this time.”

“
True.” Grace smiled. “He is very nice. We have a lot in common, too. I’ve never met anyone who knows as much about the twelfth century puppetry as I do.”

Valerie grimac
ed. “I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t bring that up on your dates again.”

“
I know, but he really is interested in it, too.”

Valerie look
ed at her doubtfully before shrugging. “Sounds like a match made in Heaven. When are you seeing him next?”

“We didn’t really have time to make plans, but he mentioned something about going to a Renaissance Fair in a couple of weeks.”

They both looked at the door as Belle Dragovich pushed the door open and stuck her head in, shyly. Grace motioned for her to come in.

“
I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said quickly.

Grace shook her head.
“It’s okay. Are you ready?”

“
Yep,” Belle said, twirling one long blonde strand around her finger.

Valerie look
ed back at Grace. “Where are you two going?”

Grace stood up and shrugg
ed into her suit jacket. “Downstairs. We’re going to try to find our new assistant.”

“
From the toy shop?” Valerie smiled. “Does Henry Bourget know?”

“
Who’s Henry Bourget?” Belle asked.

“
He’s the manager of the toy shop,” Grace answered. Turning to Valerie, she said warily, “I figured I would let him know, when I went down there? Why?”

Valerie cross
ed her arms and leaned back in her chair, a smile playing around her lips. “I would take some ear plugs. He makes our dear leader look like a pussycat. He’s been complaining for the last three months about how he’s short-staffed. He’s not going to be happy about this.”

Grace shrugg
ed. “None of us are happy, why should he be any different? Besides, I’ll just tell him that this order is coming from Straker himself. I’m sure he’s dealt with Straker before. He’ll understand that there’s no use arguing.”

♣ ♦ ♥ ♠

“Absolutely not! You just march back up there and tell Straker I said no.” Bourget’s face turned a deeper shade of red, which only served to highlight the nasty purple bruise at his temple.

“
Look—” Grace began, trying not to stare at the golf ball sized injury.

“
No,” Henry Bourget walked out of his office and pointed to the inside of the store, “you look.”

Grace stood up and walk
ed over to the door. The store was stacked high with every toy imaginable. Stuffed toys, mechanical toys, electronic toys, walking toys, talking toys, toys, toys and more toys. Pretty much what you would expect in a toy store. “What am I supposed to be looking for?”

“
How many employees do you see out there?”

Except f
or the clerk at the front opening the doors for the public, the only other employee she could see was a young man decorating the large Christmas tree near the entrance.

“
It’s right before Christmas and he expects me to run the store with basically a skeleton staff. I’m not superman. There’s only me, the assistant manager, and four others.” He looked toward the store. “Actually it’s more like three others.” He shook his head. “Has Straker lost his mind?”

“
Can’t you hire more?” Belle asked softly, twisting her hair into a knot.

“
No. I can’t. Straker says that we are out of money. I don’t know what’s going on up there,” he said, pointing to the ceiling, “but we are pulling in money hand over fist down here. October was our best month in over a year. November was just as good and I’m expecting December to be even bigger, but he says we’re broke. What’s happening up there?”

Grace look
ed towards the store. A few customers were already walking through the door. The young man decorating the Christmas tree was busy propping a ladder against the tree. He swiftly climbed the ladder, one-handed, while the other arm clutched five or six teddy bears to his body. “We’re downsizing,” Grace said slowly, distracted by the sight of the big tree slightly swaying back and forth.

“
Yeah, I know. I heard.” He shut the door. “None of this makes any sense. Last year, I had over thirty workers for Christmas and we weren’t making nearly as much as we are now. Those little space dolls have been flying off the shelves, but the way Straker’s been acting in the last couple of months it’s as if we’re going bankrupt. I don’t understand it.”

Grace sat back down next to Belle.
“I don’t know what’s going on, I just know that I was told to hire from within.”

He held up his hands.
“Frankly, I don’t care. I can’t spare one more employ—”

Crash.

All heads turned to the door. Bourget, who was closest to the door, opened it and peeked outside. He quickly closed it and dropped his chin to his chest. Taking a deep breath he muttered, “Excuse me,” opened the door and walked out, slamming it behind him.

Belle
caught Grace’s arm before she could stand up, and walk to the door. “What are we going to do? Maybe we should call Franklin?”

Grace quickly nix
ed that idea. Getting Franklin Straker involved in any situation usually just made things worse, not better.

“
I know, why don’t we hire Michael?” Belle asked excitedly.

“
He’s Harcourt’s assistant.”

“
So? Michael’s not happy working for him. He absolutely despises him.”

Before Grace could ask who despises
whom, the door opened and Bourget walked in.

“
Listen, Henry, I’m sorry that you're understaffed. I’m sure Straker wouldn’t mind if you hired a new employee. If not maybe we can work out a part time arrangement—”

Bourget walk
ed around the desk and sat down. “Nonsense. You know, I was thinking about your request and Straker’s absolutely right. We should hire within. It’s Christmas. I tend to get rather tense around this time of year. I’ve had a few minutes to think about it and I’ve decided he’s absolutely right.”

Grace was taken aback by the man’s sudden turnaround.
Suspicious, she narrowed her eyes. “Really? That’s great,” she said slowly. “You said you have four employees? Can I see their employment files?”

He shook his head, quickly.
“You know, I’m so ashamed of my behavior that I’m going to give you my best employee.”

“
Really?” Grace asked even more suspicious than before.

“
Absolutely. I mean this is a promotion up. I think my best employee should be the one to get it.” He stood up and walked to the door.

“
Still, I would like to see their files.”

Bourget open
ed the door. “I’ve already told him the good news.”

Reluctantly, Grace stood up and walk
ed to the door. Standing outside the door was the young man she had noticed decorating the tree. He was holding a piece of tissue to a small cut over his left eye with one hand and with the other, he was pulling tinsel out of his thick, wavy blond hair.

Grace
glanced to the front entrance and the tree now lying on its side.

“
He’s going to be a perfect fit for upstairs,” Bourget said, ushering Belle out of his door and closing it quickly behind her.

♣ ♦ ♥ ♠

Grace stood in her office doorway and watched as her new assistant opened each drawer of his desk. “How long have you worked at the toy shop?”

“
Oh, only for a few weeks.” Kyle swiveled around in his desk chair. “I know they said that there was a chance of advancement, but I never thought it would happen this quickly. My dad’s going to be psyched. He keeps telling me that I need to find a real job. I thought it would take years,” he said, waving his arm around, accidentally sweeping the phone to the floor. He bent down and retrieved the phone. “I want to thank you, Ms. Holliday for giving me a chance.” He laid the receiver into the cradle backwards. “I promise, you won’t regret it. So . . .” he said hesitantly, “what exactly am I supposed to do?”

“
Basically, help me and Belle out. Run errands. Answer the phone. Make sure our office supplies are stocked.”

“Oh, okay. That sounds easy,” he said
, sounding relieved. He swiveled around in his chair again. “Can I decorate my desk for Christmas?”

“Sure, it’s about that time anyway.
I have this two foot ceramic Christmas tree that I put out on my desk each year.”

“Hmm. I could buy
—.”

“
Oh, you don’t have to buy anything. Go down to the supply closet on the second or third floor. You’ll probably find something there.”

“Won’t they mind?”

“Have you been on the second or third floor lately?” She didn’t bother waiting for a response. “It’s like a ghost town. I think Straker’s closed the second floor off completely. After you get settled in, try there first.”

“Okay.
” Kyle opened a desk drawer and began rummaging through it. “So, what kind of toys do you design?”

“R
ight now, we’re designing board games. So you’ll help with that, too.”

“
Oh,” he said, smiling brightly, “I can do that. What sort of board games are you designing?”

“
Well, we’re still in the development stage.” Which was another way of saying she still wasn’t sure.

The phone, next to his elbow, let out a shrill ring.
“I love board games. My family used to play them all the time when I was a kid.”

Grace glanc
ed at the ringing phone.

“
My favorite was
The Adventurous Mr. Walrus
. You start on an island.”

Grace stepp
ed forward and picked up the phone.

“
Oh, wait, I think that was a video game, not a board game.”

“
Straker Toy Company,” she said into the receiver before realizing she had it upside down.

“
No, the board game I liked was the one with all the murder suspects.”

Righting the phone, she quickly said the company’s name again, while fantasizing
about gagging the man sitting at the desk.

She smil
ed, pleased to hear Ethan’s voice on the other end of the line, asking if she would like to meet him for lunch at his gym.

She happily agre
ed. Reaching around Kyle, she opened a drawer, took out a pen and a piece of paper, and wrote down the directions. Saying good-bye, she hung up the phone, a silly grin spreading across her face.

Kyle look
ed at her curiously, his handsome face set in a disappointed frown. “Business meeting?”

Grace shook her head, as she dash
ed to her office and picked up her coat and purse. “I’ll be back in an hour,” she called as she walked down the hallway towards the stairs.

Distract
edly digging through her purse, she bumped into Allen.

Allen
looked down the hallway towards Kyle’s desk. “So, I see you went down to the toy store and hired your very own boy toy.” Allen shook his head reproachfully. “Shame on you.”

“
I did not—” Grace stopped herself. “He’s not a boy toy. He comes very highly recommended.”

Catching their eye, Kyle wav
ed from his desk.

“
Admit it, you or blondie hired him based on his looks alone.”

“
No, we did not. Not that it’s any of your business, Bourget recommended him.”