Semiautomatic Marriage (12 page)

They passed through security doors and entered the production room, which was painted the same white as the laboratory. Personnel wore white uniforms, plastic caps and masks. A hum of various machines and conveyor belts created a kind of factory ambiance as containers were filled with all kinds of pharmaceuticals.

He introduced them to Nellie Ryan, the department head, whose windowed office provided a view of the busy production floor. Adam remembered her from the gathering at the mansion the night before. She was a large, freckled woman with a firm handshake. Her smile seemed genuine as she greeted them.

Jasper shifted impatiently as she bragged about the efficiency of her department and readily answered questions from both Carolyn and Adam.

“We have a sign-off for anyone who handles the containers of pills, capsules and liquids,” Irene explained. “Every lot is labeled and can be tracked with expiration date and lot number. All the controlled substances, such as morphine, are under constant monitoring, and the people working with them are kept isolated in a contained area.”

Jasper seemed to have little interest outside his own realm, and Adam could see why Arthur Stanford had decided not to leave Horizon in his hands. Carolyn asked pointed questions and nodded in understanding. Her astute and inquiring mind would have pleased her grandfather, Adam thought. He could see her taking the reins of the company and successfully acting as its CEO—if the black mar
keting of Horizon’s drugs was stopped before disaster hit the company.

Jasper hurried them into the packaging department next, obviously disgruntled with his role as tour guide. He made no attempt to use the occasion to get closer to Carolyn. If anything, he treated her presence like an unwanted intrusion. Della must have coerced him into doing the tour, Adam thought, knowing he’d have to make his own inspection later.

A brisk matronly woman, Elinor Forbes, was the packaging manager. She nodded at the introductions and shook their hands politely, but the first words out of her mouth made it clear that this was her domain and she didn’t brook any interference. She’d been with the company for almost twenty-five years, and Arthur had left her some company stock in his will.

Elinor quickly explained the packaging process, the weighing of contents, labeling and signing off of shipments as they were boxed for delivery downstairs to the shipping department.

Adam listened carefully to her explanation of how the orders were filled. In every department he’d been trying to analyze how the illegal activity in the company could be done. He finally reasoned that if he could identify fraudulent shipments and then backtrack to where the orders came from, he had a chance of identifying who was masterminding the operation.

They thanked Elinor for her time, and then Jasper suggested they finish the tour in the shipping department on the first floor.

As Jasper introduced them to Nick Calhoun, the
shipping manager, Adam thought he detected some undercurrent between the two men. Neither of them exchanged any pleasantries, but maybe that was just Jasper’s usual distant manner. He seemed to have little interaction with anyone outside his laboratory. Still, it could be a front, Adam reasoned. Jasper might have been screwing his father big time, knowing that his chance to inherit the company and property was a long shot.

“I’ll leave you to look around,” he told Carolyn and Adam as he left them in the shipping department and made a hasty retreat back to his laboratory.

Nick Calhoun was a stocky man with a round, ruddy face and a ready smile. “Ain’t you the pretty one,” he told Carolyn, giving her a frank appraisal. “Imagine that. Arthur’s long-lost granddaughter. I never would have believed it. But here you are.” His eyes twinkled at Adam. “You got yourself a gold-plated wife, that’s for sure. Sorry I didn’t get up to the house to meet you folks last night. My poker-game buddies don’t take my absence lightly.” He shook his balding head. “They took me for twenty bucks, though. I guess I should have accepted the Dragon Lady’s invite.” He didn’t hesitate to use the unflattering nickname.

“If I’d had half a chance, I would have missed the gala affair myself,” Adam confided with a friendly grin. “A poker game sounds a lot better.”

“Maybe you’d like to join me and the boys sometime?” Nick offered with a speculative glint in his eye.

“Sounds great. Okay, sweetheart?” Adam asked in husbandly fashion.

She nodded agreeably, knowing exactly what he
was up to. The deception didn’t sit easily with her. She hated to manipulate people, and Nick seemed like a nice man, friendly and sincere. Adam was playing him and she knew he was depending on her to keep the doors open for his investigation, so she swallowed the bad taste in her mouth.

“Will you show us around, Mr. Calhoun?” she asked.

“Nick,” he corrected her. “Sure thing. I think I’m going to like having a new boss lady. And a pretty one at that.” His bushy eyebrows raised in approval as he grinned at her. Then he turned to Adam. “I hear you’re some kind of efficiency expert. We could probably use some of that.”

With the air of a commander-in-chief, Nick walked them through the busy loading dock area where trucks were lined up, waiting to be loaded with boxed orders waiting on racks of iron shelves for delivery. Then he took them into his small, crowded office and showed them the delivery schedules.

Adam asked some pointed questions that didn’t resonate with anything in Carolyn’s background. She knew nothing about the intricacies of transporting merchandise. As far as she was concerned, the post office was the way and means of sending anything. She realized with a sickening feeling that without Adam alerting her, the illegal traffic in black-market drugs would have gone on right under her nose.

“Do you handle all this paperwork yourself?” Adam asked, shaking his head. “I’d think you’d need a secretary or two.”

“Can’t find good help,” Nick said flatly. “Once
in a while we hire someone to catch up on the filing, or Nellie comes down after hours and gives me a hand. She’s a whiz on the computer.”

Adam picked up something in the man’s tone that indicated the pair had more than a business relationship. Nick’s next words confirmed it.

“Nellie was at the shindig last night. Nellie Ryan. You probably noticed her. She’s got freckles and a smile bigger than all-get-out.”

“We just had a nice visit with her upstairs,” Carolyn said. “She’s a nice woman, and seems to have the production department running smoothly.”

“You’d better believe it. Nothing gets by Nellie. She’s got a sixth sense that’ll drive a man crazy. I ought to know. We’ve been dating on and off for a couple of years now. She’s one smart lady.”

“And I bet she has a good disposition to put up with you, Nick,” Adam teased.

Nick grinned as he tucked in his shirt over his ample belly. “Well, we get along pretty good. Say, why don’t you two drop by the Galloping Goose after work? We could lift a few beers and get better acquainted. A lot of the workers at Horizon stop in there before going home.”

“Sounds good to me. We’d like that, wouldn’t we, honey?” Adam said before Carolyn had time to think of a polite refusal. Hanging out in a smoke-filled bar wouldn’t be her favorite way to pass the time, but he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to mingle. Tongues got looser with every bottle of beer. Nick’s congeniality and being seen in the Irishman’s company might grease the hinges on some other doors for him.

“Sounds lovely,” Carolyn lied with a forced smile. “I look forward to it.”

“Wait’ll I tell Nellie we’re going to down a few with the boss lady herself.” He winked at Adam. “This place is looking up.”

They left the shipping department and made their way back to the other building. Carolyn didn’t say anything about the impromptu beer date until they were back in her office.

“Was that date with Nick necessary?” she asked as she dropped down onto the leather couch, and leaned her head back against the cushion. “I’ve never liked going to bars. The smell of beer turns me off, and after I’ve had a couple, I just want to go somewhere and sleep.”

He laughed and sat down beside her. “I’ll remember that and make sure you end up in the right bed.”

She knew he was being facetious, but his nearness was a poignant reminder that if she couldn’t hold her booze, he would be the one to put her to bed.

As she turned and looked into his arresting face, she was startled to realize that the thought was not all that displeasing. Maybe she was just feeling off balance and needed a shoulder to lean on. She was tired of going it alone all the time. What did she care if he had someone he called Angel waiting in the wings?

“I’m game,” she said.

“I think your education has been sorely lacking if you’ve never been to a bar and done Karaoke,” he said, letting his arm slip behind her.

She chuckled. “I’d never be able to get up in front of people like that.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing. It’s great
fun. You might enjoy seeing me make a fool of myself sometime.”

“Yes, I would,” she said with an honest laugh. “That would be fun.”
Fun.
The word sounded strange on her lips. What if they had met under different circumstances? Would she have let herself relax enough to have fun with someone like him?

“It’s a date,” he said as if they had all the time in the world for such frivolity.

The growing intimacy was broken by a brisk knock on the door, and Della entered with some computer disks, followed by a thin, round-shouldered man in overalls carrying a computer. “Sorry, we didn’t get this back to you sooner,” Della said briskly. “I’ve been going in three directions all day. In fact, I really haven’t had much time to even check Arthur’s files. Everything is still the way he left it.”

Adam instantly wondered if she was telling the truth. The fact that she kept her eyes from contacting either his or Carolyn’s was suspicious. People lied better when they didn’t have to look at someone.

“I suppose you’ll want this on the computer stand next to the desk, Carolyn,” she said in a tone that indicated she expected Carolyn to be changing things around at the first opportunity.

“That will be fine,” Carolyn replied, and added just as pointedly, “For now.”

Adam suppressed a grin.
Good for you, Carolyn.
Once she got her feet on the ground, she’d be able to hold her own with the Dragon Lady. In fact, Carolyn ignored Della and turned around to smile at the man as he settled the computer, printer and files in their places.

“Thank you for the help,” she told him.

“Glad to meet you, ma’am. Bob Beavers.”

“It’s nice to meet you, too. This is my husband, Adam Lawrence.”

The man wiped his hand on his overalls before holding it out to Adam for a shake.

Della gave them an impatient look as if taking time for such niceties with a maintenance man wasn’t on her list of priorities. She turned to Carolyn. “I imagine you’ll want to schedule some kind of staff meeting. You’ll have to let me know in time to clear the docket. Any extra demands put an overload on everyone.”

“There isn’t any hurry, is there? I mean, none of us are going anywhere, are we?” she inquired innocently as if Della might have other plans in the works, like leaving the company.

Della was obviously taken aback, and Adam could see fear in the tightening of her facial muscles. It was almost as if she realized for the first time that she wasn’t in the driver’s seat anymore.

Adam wasn’t sure that putting her on the defensive was a good idea—people struck out when they had their backs to the wall. He couldn’t help but wonder if Arthur had put her in that position and lost his life over it.

Della moistened her lips. “What are you suggesting, Carolyn? If you’re insinuating that I don’t intend to stay at Horizon under the present circumstances, you are totally wrong.”

Her manner and voice indicated to Adam that the woman was willing to do whatever necessary to keep her present position and power.

Della gave them a forced smile. “Horizon is my life.”

“That’s a relief, Della,” Carolyn said quickly. “I can’t imagine the chaos if you were to leave us.” She shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about such a thing.”

Good girl, Carolyn.
Adam breathed a little easier. They didn’t want to stoke any dangerous fire. They needed time to ascertain where the smoke was coming from. Maybe Della was innocent. And maybe she wasn’t.

After Della returned to her office with Bob Beavers in her wake, Adam turned to the computer. “Well, let’s see if this baby has anything to say. You want to take a look?”

Carolyn shook her head. “The computer at the investment company where I worked was friendly because I knew the programs. I made use of the school computers for my studies, but I’m like someone trying to get upstream without an oar when you throw anything new at me.” She made a flourishing gesture at the computer. “It’s all yours.”

While Adam sat mesmerized in front of the monitor for the rest of the afternoon, Carolyn went through material put out by Horizon, which gave some empirical data about the company’s commitment, its history and research. Her admiration for her grandfather grew as she began to glimpse the legacy he’d left her. It saddened her to think that someone had twisted her grandfather’s ideals into something ugly, and her resolve strengthened. She would prove that she was worthy of his trust, no matter what personal sacrifice she had to make. She was filled with a desire to learn everything she could
about all the operations here and the people who were responsible for carrying them out. Writing down questions that she wanted answered gave her a sense of moving forward into her new responsibilities, and she was hopeful that her growing knowledge of the company would help Adam in his investigation.

As her gaze wandered to him, she realized that giving up his companionship was going to cost her more than she’d ever imagined. Already he’d moved into a space in her heart that had been empty, even during her ill-fated infatuation with Eric.

Restless, she wandered over to the computer. Leaning over his chair, she was aware of the scents of shampoo and aftershave. She placed her hands on his shoulders and felt the warmth of his body and the hard cords of muscle. An undefined desire spiraled through her. She remembered the times he’d had his arm around her, pretending to be the loving husband, and wished that his embraces could have been for real.