“What?” She looked at him suspiciously, joking.
“Can you round up Sookie? Noel’s office is on thirty-one. His door’s probably open. Just keep turning left every chance you get when you get off the elevator. Here, take my swipe card. You’ll need it to get up to thirty-one and then through those big glass doors. You’ll see.”
“Sure. But only because I feel sorry for you having to have drinks with her this late at night. I don’t think she likes me after our ‘visit’ out at her place. That house is a monster!” Hailey reached across Tony’s desk and took the card.
Tony nodded, sat down, and took the call off mute. Hailey waved goodbye and headed down the hall to the elevators.
An open elevator was waiting and she stepped on in search of Sookie Downs. The elevator shot up the center of the building as its flat-screens played images of Cassie Lake and sound bites from The Harry Todd Show.
Just before the doors swooshed open… it hit.
Like a brick.
Intense Red Copper Shimmer… Dark Chocolate. Dark Chocolate… daisies… Sookie hovering in Fallon Malone’s kitchen beside the service door entrance…
“All I saw was he had black hair. I think he was white…” You don’t plant daisies in the winter. They’ll die. Dark hair dye… hair in a ponytail instead of perfectly blown out… AWOL after the taping… dark lines under her nails. At first Hailey had thought it was dirt.
Sookie must have thrown away the box on the plane and, accidentally with it, the plastic gloves to avoid the dark hair dye seeping into her skin and nails.
Hailey stepped out into the plushest offices she’d ever seen. They looked like a Hollywood movie. Thick carpet, groupings of gorgeous furniture, with artwork and mirrors on every wall, created a lavish atmosphere that reflected the network was winning the ratings war.
Without processing what she knew, Hailey started to sprint down the halls. The next left came when Hailey dead-ended into a long, shiny teak receptionist’s station sitting out in the middle of a wide expanse of thick carpet. There were no walls around the desk, its “space” only delineated by a thick Oriental rug beneath it that had to be the size of Hailey’s kitchen.
That turn sent Hailey down a wide, darkened corridor. The walls were covered with gorgeous oil paintings. She slowed slightly to veer away from one in particular. It was specially lit and was positioned in an alcove of sorts apparently built especially for it. It was pop art à la Warhol and apparently an original. And expensive.
This place was over the top. Hailey instinctively darted, afraid she’d likely set off some sort of alarm. The hall ended with yet another piece of art, this time an abstract clay sculpture that stood about five feet tall. Another inlaid spotlight shined down on it and helped light the hall as she again turned left. It was all lost on Hailey, her heart now pounding in her throat.
Looking ahead of her down the dark hallway, Hailey knew she’d found Fryer’s office. There were no other doors anywhere on the hall. His office must be massive, and if it was anything like the rest of the thirty-first floor, it would be entirely overdone… too much art mixed in theme and period, carpet too plush, heavy furniture, and an overall message of ornate opulence. Now stepping lightly, Hailey crept as quickly and quietly as she could, steadily down the hall toward the light seeping out from under Noel Fryer’s office door.
Just as she raised her hand to knock, Hailey heard a groan and then a loud thud. It sounded like a piece of furniture had toppled over inside. Listening at the door, she could hear a woman’s voice, strident, yet the words were muffled. Then another thud followed by a groan that sounded painful.
Hailey put her right ear close to the door and listened. Nothing. And then, a sort of groan. She tried the doorknob; it was locked.
Without a sound, Hailey turned and hurriedly retraced her steps down the hall’s thick carpet. Rounding the two corners back to the receptionist’s desk, she slid open the middle drawer and looked for anything that would help. Pencils, stapler, gem clips… no good.
Hailey felt it before she saw it… a grooved metal nail file. As a second thought, she lifted the receptionist’s phone, dialed 9, then Kolker’s cell. It went straight to voice mail.
“Kolker, it’s Hailey. Hurry, GNE, thirty-first floor. Repeat… Hurry.”
Chapter 44
HAILEY TOOK THE NAIL FILE FROM THE DRAWER AND DARTED BACK DOWN the hall. The light still poured out onto the carpet from under Noel Fryer’s office door. Hailey, summoning up everything she’d ever learned from both cops and burglars, slipped the nail file between the door’s knob and frame and jiggered.
Pushing the file to the right and then back to the left, she could feel the lock’s workings against the metal. There was movement, but not enough to open the door.
A sound like drawers being opened filtered through the door, and a woman’s voice rose again. Hailey couldn’t make out the words. Then again silence.
Hailey jiggered the lock as quickly and quietly as she could, and feeling the metal grind against the lock, finally got enough traction with the file to move the catch enough to the right to gently push the door open. The office was dark except for a single reading lamp in the far corner. The room was huge and ornate, as Hailey expected it to be, the carpeted floor covered with thick rugs from all over the world, the walls boasting artwork and the shelves covered in memorabilia and framed photos of Noel Fryer with Hollywood and sports stars, politicos, and celebrities of every ilk. Hailey took it all in in an instant.
She immediately spotted the drawers of Noel’s mahogany desk gaping open. A long, matching conference table against the far window was covered in notebooks and papers in disarray, and not only were the cabinet doors to a matching credenza underneath the same window hanging wide open and askew, but the cabinets had obviously been ransacked.
On the carpet in front of Noel Fryer’s desk sat a pair of purple stilettos with distinctive scarlet red soles. Hailey would have recognized them a mile away. They belonged to Sookie Downs.
Instinctively, Hailey backed against a darkened wall and eyed the only other door in the room. It was across the length of the office, obviously leading to Noel’s adjoining personal quarters, where he could shower, rest, even stay overnight if he wanted. Judging by the lack of doors or windows in the hallway outside his office, Fryer’s personal quarters were expansive and took up the entire length of the long hall.
“You piece of shit. You tell me where the log is right now or I’ll blow your greasy head off.”
The woman’s voice was low, almost like a hiss.
“Thank God I can finally tell you how much I loathe you, how much I’ve hated you all these years. You make me sick. You and your pathetic scooter and your sports cars and your women… your women… every single woman you’ve used in this network hates you. You’re disgusting. I don’t know what I ever saw in you. But I was young then… and stupid. But I’m not stupid anymore. Even after we were through, you paraded all your ‘girlfriends’ in front of me on purpose. I hate you, Noel… I hate you! Now for the last time… Where’s the damn log?”
There was another dull thud. But this time, there was no response, no groan, just silence.
Hailey gently turned the knob to the heavy door and eased it forward just a fraction of an inch. She couldn’t see much, so she pushed a tiny bit more.
There, across the room, her back to Hailey, stood Sookie Downs, still wearing the purple mini and lavender silk blouse, but now barefoot. Her hair was tumbling down her back and she was holding something in her hands, but Hailey could see nothing but her back, heaving as she breathed.