Page 103 of The Attraction File

FORTY-ONE

Edgar

Evaleen had disappeared.

When I woke this morning, she wasn’t in her room. She had been staying in the guest bedroom next to my room for the last couple of days due to being sick. But when I went to check on her this morning, she wasn’t there.

Luckily her mother woke early and saw her leave, and informed me she had a lot to do at work. So she went to work early.

But now that I stand in her office she was nowhere to be found.

“Have you seen Evaleen, Chip?” I walked over to the intern’s desk and he stood so quickly, he nearly fell over.

“Oh, hello, Mr. Mimir. No, I mean yes, I have seen Ms. Bechmann. She left the department and mentioned something about going to talk to Mr. Mimir.”

There was only one Mr. Mimir for Evaleen and that was my brother. Maybe she was finally going to tell him about us.

I had been asking Evaleen for weeks to tell Jacob about our relationship, but every time I brought it up she changed the subject.

I felt relief that we didn’t have to hide anymore.

“Great. Thanks.” I waved at Chip and he went back to his phone.

Once I was out of the HR department, I turned left and made my way toward my brother’s office. As I moved closer to the far end of the building, I saw his door open. Out stepped two people I recognized.

The Chicago detectives from a few months ago.

They were laughing and just behind them, moving into the hallway was my brother. I wondered if Jacob was trying out one of his latest dad jokes on them. By the way they were enjoying themselves, I doubted it.

As I stepped closer, I overheard the detective named Hardy say, “We’ll have the warrant soon. But we wanted to give you a heads up. And thank you, Mr. Mimir, for being so helpful this year.”

Then she did something that had me stop cold. Hardy winked at my brother. My eyes shot to Jacob and he winked back.

My body grew cold. Words from days ago swirled around my head. Warning from a man in an alleyway about bad people, even at Mimir.

I shook my head, but quickly stepped into the kitchen so as the detectives strolled away I wouldn’t be seen. Turning, I almost knocked over Grace who spilled some of the tea from her cup.

“Oh, Grace, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you were in here.” I grabbed a few napkins from the counter and gave her one using the others to clean up the floor.

“Hi, Mr. Mimir. Yeah, I’m just finishing up my break. I’m actually glad I ran into you, I was wondering if you could give this to Ms. Bechmann for me as I have to leave for an appointment. I know you two are friends.” Her delicate hand took the manila folder from the round table and pushed it toward me.

I went to grab it but it slipped from her hands. Papers went everywhere. I bent down again to help her with the scattered things. There was a large eight by ten, black and white photograph of someone. I lifted it and noticed it was Ashton, who appeared to be in distress. I couldn’t tell for certain from the image but it appeared he might be tied up.

Grace smiled at me holding out the items she picked up when her eyes drifted to the picture in my hand. Her face paled and she covered her gaping mouth, dropping the papers back on the floor.

“Is that? Oh no, is that Mr. Graham?” Her voice wobbled.

I stood and helped her up, placing the photo on the table face down. She was shaking, so I wrapped my arms around her until she calmed down.

“He was so nice. I hated what happened to him. I had no idea he wanted to take his own life. I could have done something—”

I cut her off. “Don’t blame yourself, Grace. I don’t think there was anything we could have done.” I lifted my head and saw both the detectives strolling past the doorway.

Crooked cops. I’ve read about them and seen fictional depictions of them in movies, but I never thought I would meet any. I heard their laughter fade as they moved farther down the hallway.

“Grace, who gave you this folder?” I let go of her and bent to pick up the papers, planning to review everything in it.

“No one.” She seemed confused and looked around the room.

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