Page 32 of After The Storm

“That must be why the cops didn’t take it when they searched here. I can’t imagine they’d leave a laptop full of potential evidence.”

Kate pointed at the empty spot in front of her on the desk. “They took his desktop computer. I’m guessing they think they have everything they need. But they aren’t going to find anything on it other than receipts for everything he bought for the office, payroll for me, and his tax information.”

She continued tapping away on the keyboard and then opened the top desk drawer to grab a jump drive. She stuck it into the laptop as Roman watched out the door for anyone coming toward the office.

On edge, he wanted her to hurry and couldn’t understand what she was doing with the laptop all this time. “We need to get out of here, Kate.”

Looking up from whatever she was reading on the screen, she said, “I don’t want to just take the laptop.”

Roman shook his head, confused at her statement. “Why?”

“I don’t know. I thought maybe the laptop could be traced.”

He chuckled and shook his head again. “Only in the movies. Not in real life, unless he’s got it set up like that, which I doubt, so just take the damn thing and let’s go.”

Now that she knew that kind of tracing a computer probably wasn’t an issue, she slammed the laptop closed and as she rounded the corner of the desk, she turned off the light. For a moment, she looked around the office as Roman wondered what she could be doing just standing there.

Her voice filled with sadness, she said, “Jonas was a nice guy. He didn’t deserve what happened to him. I’m going to miss working together with him. He gave me a job right out of school when I had no experience. He was a good person.”

Not wanting to hurry her through the makeshift eulogy she seemed to need at that moment, nevertheless, he didn’t feel good about them staying any longer in that office. If the security guard had been the one checking the door on the fourth floor, he’d make it up to the ninth floor soon. He didn’t want to run into anyone who might sound the alarm.

He touched her on the shoulder and smiled when she looked back at him with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry, but we need to get out of here right now.”

Sadly, she nodded her understanding. “Okay. I just wanted to say my goodbyes.”

Roman ushered her out into the hallway, and they hurried toward the back stairway they came up through. As they reached the door to the stairwell, he saw someone walking in the dark toward them.

“Someone’s coming! Hurry,” he said as he opened the stairwell door and pushed her through.

Behind them, a man yelled, “Stop! Who are you? What are you doing here?”

Kate’s eyes opened wide and filled with fear. “That’s the security guard! He must have seen us!”

Grabbing her hand, Roman began rushing down the stairs, pulling her along behind him as he took them two at a time. They reached the eighth floor landing and heard the door on the floor above them open before the man ran into the stairwell.

“Stop! You’re not allowed in this building! Who are you?” he yelled as Roman’s heart began to pound wildly.

They still had seven flights of stairs to run down, and if the security guard had a partner, they might be caught anywhere between there and the back door. He could handle one guard or even two, but if one of them called the police, they’d likely be met when they hit the street behind the building and taken in for breaking and entering in addition to theft, even with Kate’s keys.

Her hand clutched his so tightly he didn’t worry about them being separated, but as he bounded down the stairs, his legs much longer than hers, he worried she’d trip and fall. Looking back as they hit the fifth floor landing, he saw her holding the laptop to her chest, clinging to it like a life preserver.

Then he looked up as he heard the sound of shoes hitting the steps and saw the guard following them down the stairs. Much slower than them, he still might catch up if she fell, and Roman didn’t want to risk it.

He stopped on the next landing and turned toward Kate. “Get on my back. I’ll carry you until we get out of this building.”

“No!” she said, shaking her head. “You can’t. Your side, Roman.”

“Don’t worry about my side,” he said as he spun around and crouched down so she could jump on his back. “Just get on and hold on tight because I’m going to take these stairs as fast as I can.”

Only two floors above them, the security guard called out, “The police are on their way! Don’t move!”

Kate didn’t wait for Roman to tell her twice and climbed onto his back. Pushing the laptop against his chest, she wrapped her arm around his neck and her legs around his waist.

“Okay, I’m set! Go!”

He took off, jumping the stairs three at a time now as the sound of the security guard’s shoes tapping against each concrete step echoed around them in the stairwell. Kate’s leg rubbed against his side over and over, sending streams of pain through his torso, but Roman didn’t stop until they reached the back door and got out into the street.

Lowering her to the ground, he handed her the laptop. “We need to keep running. Can you do that in those shoes?”

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