Like Sheep Gone Astray (12 page)

“Terri.” He managed a feeble smile. “When are you going to tell me your surprise?”

Terri grinned as she reached for the leaflet detailing the cruise she'd just booked. She stopped just short of pulling it from her purse. “I tell you what, Mr. Murdock.” She had another idea. “I'm not going to tell you right now. I'm going to give you clues every day until Saturday and then you can guess.” She bubbled with pleasure at her latest plan. Wealth must bring creativity, she reasoned to herself.

“Can I just guess now?”

“No! That will spoil everything. Let me give you your first clue.” Terri tapped her lip for a second and smiled again. “Think relaxation,” she blew out a long sigh and closed her eyes.

Anthony shook his head, trying to look confused. Inside he was smiling.
That's easy. Lamaze class
. Anthony shook his head again. The next few days were going to be interesting.

Chapter 5

C
herisse braced herself and yanked as hard as she could.

“Ouch!” She hated plucking her eyebrows. “I don't see how that lady missed this.” Cherisse moved closer to the lavatory mirror to ensure there were no other stray hairs. “As much as Terri paid for us to have that facial yesterday, my brow bones should be bald.”

It was Wednesday morning and the day was plugging along at its usual workday pace. Slow. Cherisse was still muttering to herself as she reached for the large brass door handle leading out of the ladies' room. One foot was out the doorway when she suddenly stepped back into the small pink-and-teal powder room.

“I assure you, everything will be in place for you exactly how you want it on Friday.”

Mr. Fabian's voice echoed down the corridor. Cherisse held her breath as she leaned against the inside of the door, hoping that her employer had not seen her. He had sounded a little annoyed the day before when she'd called in sick for the afternoon. “You didn't sound sick before you left for lunch,” he had grumbled on the phone. She had successfully avoided direct contact with him all morning.

“We've had to prepare for bigger occasions in even shorter amounts of time,” Mr. Fabian was continuing from the hallway. “As I told you when we met yesterday, expect nothing less than the best from Fabian's Catering Service.”

Cherisse relaxed a little as she realized he had not yet turned the corner. There was no way he could have seen her. She kept her ear to the door, waiting for him to leave the area so she could return to her cubicle undetected.

“Mr. Fabian, we have no doubts about your ability to pull this thing off at such short notice. Indeed, you have a reputation for providing perfection in the most demanding of circumstances. I made that observation myself as an attendee of the infamous Evans wedding.”

Rolls of laughter filled the hallway as Cherisse's ears perked up. That voice was familiar.

“As a token of our good faith in your services, Mr. Fabian, I want to personally offer you an additional five thousand dollars to assist you with any last-minute preparations.”

Cherisse was certain she had heard that voice recently. She remembered the conversation she had eavesdropped on the day before, about Anthony. Was this one of the same men?

“Five thousand dollars? Oh, that is hardly necessary.” Mr. Fabian sounded flabbergasted.

“I assure you, it is necessary. There will be other events in the future we will need you to cater, and I want you to always know and respect the quality of payment we can offer you, Mr. Fabian.”

“Oh, please call me Alexander. And I will always be available and at your service.”

“Very well, Mr. Fabian. I mean, Alexander.”

The voices were fading away. Cherisse pressed her ear harder against the door to make out the end of the conversation, but the door suddenly gave way and she fell flat.

“Cherisse! Are you okay? I'm sorry! I didn't know you were there!”

Cherisse looked up from the floor into the face of a fellow co-worker. “I'm fine, Julie. Thanks for asking.” She moaned as she picked herself up off the tile floor and exited quickly into the empty corridor.

As soon as Julie disappeared behind the rest-room door, Cherisse stood on her tiptoes to peer out of the basement hallway window. A shiny black Jaguar was pulling out of the lot. She strained to make out a figure through the tinted glass.

“There you are, Cherisse! I've been looking for you all morning.”

Cherisse fell on her bottom again, her thick, golden braids tangled around her face.

“Mr. Fabian!”

“Are you feeling better today, Ms. Landrick? I have a lot of work for you to do. Are you up to it, or are you going to need the afternoon off again?” Cherisse did not miss the disdain in his voice.

“I have the spreadsheets you wanted at my desk.” Cherisse quickly stood, smoothed down her new silk shirt, and pushed some loose braids out of her face.

“Nice manicure,” Mr. Fabian grumbled. “It looks very—fresh.”

Anthony stared at the white block lettering on the glass door before he entered the small office building. HABER-STICK ASSOCIATES. He unbuttoned his coat and readjusted his tie as he walked through the plain beige foyer.

The game plan was simple. Anthony wanted to fish out more information from Haberstick about the check before he took it back to Councilman Banks's office.

“Hello, Marcie,” he mumbled to the receptionist. Anthony did not miss her wide-eyed stare as she abruptly stopped talking into her handset. As he walked down the hallway, he noticed quite a few of his co-workers peeking at him from their desks. As he started to greet some of them, they quickly turned away. One associate from the fiscal department even shut her door as he passed by her office.

Lord, what is going on?
Anthony changed directions and headed for the small corner office he shared with Marvin. He was surprised to see his office mate sitting at his desk instead of his own. All of Anthony's work files and the personal mementos he had carefully placed on top of the small workstation were missing. Music blared from a small radio hidden somewhere in the cramped room.

“Marvin, you need to turn that down before Haberstick comes in here. Remember what he did to your portable TV?” Anthony smiled, uncertain of what else to say.

Marvin quickly threw the crossword puzzle he was working on into an open drawer. “Whew, it's just you.” He exhaled loudly as he reached again for the puzzle. “I didn't care about that busted-up TV anyway. I
wanted
old man Haberstick to throw it out the window.” He studied Anthony before continuing. “I wasn't expecting you today.”

“I can see that.” Anthony shook his head. He looked around for an empty seat, choosing finally to remove some boxes from one of the chairs. “Why'd you think I wasn't coming in?” He tried to sound casual as he sat down in the squeaky seat.

“Haberstick announced that you got some new job offer you'd be a fool to turn down. I don't know what kind of offer you got to make you leave all your stuff here like that, but I know you're a fool to be sitting back here today in that same old dusty, black, broke chair.”

Marvin finally stood and began clearing paper out of his own desk chair. “Sorry about your desk. You know I couldn't let all that good space go to waste.” He sat down with a heavy thud, letting the chair spin him around a few times.

Anthony looked at the mass of papers Marvin had piled onto his desk.

“Don't worry. I'll get that stuff.” Marvin looked up at Anthony, a sly smile forming on his face. “I know you're probably wondering what I did with all your things. I started to throw them out. You know, you all big now. Couldn't even say good-bye to nobody. Just gonna up and leave like that.”

Anthony was growing impatient, his eyes scanning the room for his belongings. The music still blared through the radio speakers.

“Yup, I started to throw them all out. That is, until I saw that picture of your wife still sitting on your desk. That's when I knew you were coming back. I didn't know when and I didn't know why, but I knew you were coming back, if not for anything else but for
that
picture. Shoot, I would come back for that picture, and that's not even my wife.” Marvin laughed, knowing that Anthony had never minded his playful references to Terri's beauty.

Terri
. The thought excited Anthony.
Terri and the baby.

“Anyway, I just got two questions for you.” Marvin continued to laugh. “If you're sitting here in this office, who's sitting in the office you are supposed to be at right now? And if you're not going to be sitting in that office, can you hook a brother up?”

Anthony did his best to keep a smile on his face as he entwined his fingers and rested his elbows on his knees. “Trust me, it's not a job you'd want to take. Not for millions of dollars.”

“Speak for yourself, man. But back to your stuff. I didn't throw them out, but I think Haberstick did.”

Anthony looked up suddenly. “Haberstick was in here looking through my things?”

“Yeah, man. He was in here for a while, looking through your charts and folders, all that stuff. Then he started taking everything out. Even your personal belongings. I don't know what he did with them. I offered to help, so that I could at least know where he was putting them, but he refused to let me touch anything. Did you know that you left your briefcase here when you left like a madman yesterday? He took that too.”

Anthony felt the blood rush from his head.
My briefcase! Lord, you know everything I've got in there, from Stonymill and beyond. I need that! It's my only way out.

Marvin was still talking, unaware of Anthony's alarm. “I'm telling you, man, he was in here a
long
time, reading stuff, flipping through things, giving me the creeps. You know that man wears some ugly, dark suits and smells like old carnations? I felt like I was sitting in a funeral home with him walking around in here. Hold up, here comes my song.” Marvin spun away from Anthony, turned up the radio even louder, and began singing and nodding his head.

Anthony still sat rigid in his seat. Haberstick had his briefcase. First the letter and now this.
I'm going to have to keep better track of my things.
At least the letter seems to have safely vanished for the time being. But now the briefcase
…

Anthony felt a chill as he imagined every possible thing that Haberstick could do with the information inside his beloved briefcase. The receipts, the names, the notes he'd taken from the initial Stonymill deal. All of the things he needed to have on him to talk to that detective asking around about him. Anthony looked at the phone, almost expecting it to ring at that moment. He wondered why he had not yet heard back from the detective. He was certain that the number on the card Pastor Green had given him was the best way to reach him.

Marvin still crooned along with the radio. His eyes were closed as he gripped a stapler in his hand like a microphone and mopped invisible sweat from his brow with some tissue. When the song ended, he cut the volume.

“But anyway, like I was saying, Anthony,” he began, spinning around in his chair, “Anthony…Anthony?” The office door swung back and forth on its hinges. Marvin was alone. “Where did Anthony go? My singing is not
that
bad.”

“Do you mind me making extra copies of these lists, Mr. Johnson? I like to have extras of everything on hand, in case I lose something.”

Eric looked up from the box in front of him and smiled weakly. “Sure, Nikki. Whatever you need to do, go ahead and do it if you think it will help.”

Eric reached back into the box and began counting the brochures again. They had just been delivered that afternoon and this was the fifth time Nikki had made him lose count.

“Oh, Mr. Johnson, I forgot. Which list is the mailing list of old CASH members and which is the list of the pastors you want me to call?”

Eric threw all the brochures back into the box.

“I tell you what, Nikki. Why don't you let me handle those lists, and in the meantime you can read one of these brochures to get more acquainted with CASH. We have our first church presentation tonight at Second Baptist. It will be good for you to be familiar with the Bethany Village project.” Eric was already walking to where she stood at the copy machine.

“Sure, if you think that's best, Mr. Johnson.” Nikki clutched the copies in her hand and turned toward the brochures.

Oh Lord, here comes that ridiculous walk again.
Eric shook his head to himself. He was the last person to make a judgment on anyone, but he did not know about this Miss Galloway. Something about her seemed a little loose in the head. The only thing she'd perfected so far was showing up late and leaving early. Eric shook his head again and watched as she tripped over the box of brochures and landed dramatically on an old couch.

“Oops.” She giggled as one of her legs lay exposed for a prolonged second.

Everyone deserves a chance, Eric reasoned. He'd been given many chances and had learned along the way not to be too quick to make a judgment on someone. He stared at the old track marks on his arm or, as he called them, his memorials to God's deliverance.

“Thank you, Lord, for another chance,” he whispered.

“Oops,” Nikki giggled again. This time her blond hair weave had become entangled with a leafy plant hanging over her head. Nikki stopped giggling and batted her eyelids shyly at Eric.

“Lord Jesus,” Eric muttered to himself as he started his phone campaign.

“You need to tell me who's behind all of this!” Anthony demanded once again as he glared down at Mr. Haberstick's shiny bald head. The senior businessman was still hunched over, silently scribbling on a yellow notepad in front of him. He had not looked up when Anthony stormed his office, nor acknowledged Anthony's livid greeting.

“Tell me now!” Anthony stood tall, his voice growing louder with each word. Mr. Haberstick put down his pen, reached for a fork, and unwrapped a medium-sized container of potato salad. He rested the plastic bowl on top of a piece of paper with several columns of numbers and symbols. Anthony noticed his own signature at the bottom of the page and knew instinctively that the paper was a crucial document from his missing briefcase.