Page 41 of No Good Deed

Piper’s eyes widened at the words, and she looked around the table and then back to Troy. He grinned. “Everyone in town knows about the attempted break-in at your car. I didn’t spill anything private.”

She nodded, and he assumed she believed him. Then her gaze roamed the table again. “Okay. We actually found what the guy was looking for by accident this morning. At my old office, I had given out USBs to anyone who wanted one. They’d misprinted the Cloud Gate as Cloud Goat, so I got them for free.”

Josie laughed. “That’s an awesome misprint.”

Piper smiled. “This morning, we put one in Marcus’s laptop to show him some of my ideas for the town, but it wasn’t the right USB. This one had several files. All spreadsheets, with what looks like coded data on them. Potentially encrypted financials or blackmail codes from my vast experience watching TV.”

Tessa and Tansy exchanged a happy look, and Flynn laughed. “Well, Piper, if you wanted to find a way into the hearts of those two, you couldn’t have found a better way. Spreadsheets with secret codes? Better than ice cream.”

Tessa patted Flynn’s arm. “You’re right. Far better.” Then she smiled at Piper. “Did you bring a copy?”

She nodded. “But I don’t want to bother anyone. The police can figure it out.”

Tessa smiled. “Probably. But we might be able to do it more quickly. And if this guy has tried to break into your car, it seems time is important.”

Piper swallowed visibly. “If Marcus and Troy are right, he’s also broken into my apartment and office.”

Troy chimed in. “As well as mugged her, and crashed into her car.”

Everyone at the table straightened, their attention entirely focused on Piper. When she leaned his way, he tucked his arm around her. “We think he’s still in the neighborhood, waiting for Piper to be alone.”

Graham spoke up. “Not going to happen. Why don’t we all head over to the Midnight Security cabin and put up Tansy’s magic shield? That way we can devise a plan, and the ladies can work their other magic.”

Everyone nodded and rose except for Piper. “Magic shield?”

Tansy turned back with a laugh. “I keep telling them it’s not magic and it’s technically not a shield. If you’re curious I can explain?—“

When the entire group cut her off with shouts of No!, Tansy laughed with a shrug. “And this is why I’ve given up trying to convince them it’s not a magic shield. Basically we can talk freely over there. Let me just activate Benson and Alice for cleanup duty.”

Tansy clicked on her phone and two mechanical devices rolled into the room. As the people moved away from the table, the robots moved in and picked up the dishes.

Troy grinned at Piper’s expression of awe. “You don’t ever get used to it. Come and have a peek in the kitchen.” Pennyworth, another of Tansy’s CleanySaur collection moved from his charging station to the sink and began to sort the plates.

“I think I’ve landed in another dimension.”

Troy laughed and spun his arm over her shoulder. “Welcome to Midnight Lake, Piper.”

The entire group walked over to the Midnight Security cabin. Jetson trotted alongside Piper as if encouraging her to relax. Once they were there, they settled around the long conference table.

Sam sat at one end. “It’s probably best if you tell us the story from the beginning, Piper. Then we can figure out how best to help.”

When Piper’s eyes widened again and she didn’t answer immediately, Tessa spoke up. “You might as well give in, and give them the entire story. I went through this a while back, and they insisted on helping even though I was pretty sure it was putting them all in danger.”

Josie nodded. “Me too.”

Tansy smiled. “Me too. One day, we’ll share all our stories, but for now, believe me when I say that not only is this group full of smart people, but these people spend their lives trying to make the world better. We all want to help. Please let us.”

* * *

Piper was overwhelmed. Flummoxed times two, maybe three. She’d gone through her story quickly, but after she was done, the group asked her a ton of questions. Very similar to the way Marcus had questioned her to get more details than she imagined she knew.

While they’d been talking, Tansy and Tessa huddled over a laptop on a couch on the other side of the room. When she was done, they waved her over to them.

“You said Marcus had you write out names of the men you’d worked with. Can you help us fill in this spreadsheet with their info?”

Piper smiled. They’d already set up a template for her. The columns included timelines of when she’d worked with the men, their position, and the vibe Piper got from them. Tessa smiled. “Give me an adjective or two to give us the type of man he is.”

When they’d finished, Tessa sorted the spreadsheet to put the list in order by the adjectives. Then she smiled. “I want to take the ones with the negative attributes and put them in a new list to work with.”

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