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her. They have Harper Riordan,” Stanley said. His heart was beating hard enough that he could feel it as he talked. He stood up and walked over to the elevators, hoping not to be heard. It was dumb to have dialed the phone in the first place, he could be easily overheard. He just hoped that everyone was too busy in Marsh’s office to notice.
    “Slow down. What do you mean? She works there. What do you mean they have her?”
    “She screwed up a job last night. And Marsh was upset after a call with her sister. I think they’re going to kill Harper,” Stanley said. “Oh, they’re going to kill her.” Stanley hated how dramatic he sounded, but he couldn’t help himself. He needed the federal agents to do something quickly.
    “Kill her? When?”
    “Now,” Stanley said. If he pressed his ear against the door, maybe he could hear what was happening in Marsh’s office. That simply wouldn’t look good if someone caught him. Still, he stared at the door. “They might be going to kill her now. I don’t know. I don’t know.”
    There was silence on the other end of the phone. “Agent Rivers? What should I do?”
    The silence lasted a few more seconds. “Just stay put. If you feel like your life is in danger, leave as soon as you can. I’ll see what I can do on this end.” He hung up.
    “What? What should I do?” Stanley said as loud as he could without getting too loud. He knew there was no one there anymore, but he couldn’t believe he’d been hung up on. After another moment with the phone to his ear, he quietly slipped it back in his pocket. He’d never felt like his life was in danger at the office. Not in all the years he’d worked for Marsh directly. He took a breath and analyzed the situation. It wouldn’t make sense to kill Harper in the office. Too much of a chance to be caught, to leave evidence to connect Marsh with her death. He was far smarter than that.
    The elevator bell rang and the man from tech support stepped out when the doors opened. Stanley hated having to call the tech people in. They always sent James, the weird guy that smelled strongly of body spray and took far too long to get around to fixing problems. The tech liked to make small talk and chat about things that Stanley had no interest in. Sports. Video games. Beyonce and Kanye West.
    “Hey. What’s the problem today?” James set an extremely large drink with a straw sticking out of it on Stanley’s desk. Stanley watched beads of sweat immediately begin dripping down the side of cup.
    “I can’t connect to the server,” Stanley said.
    “Can you get to the internet?” James sounded bored already.
    “Yes. I can get everywhere but the server.”
    James took a long drink of his soda and looked over Stanley’s shoulder at the monitor. It didn’t seem like he was in a hurry to get started.
    “Have you played the new Grand Theft game?”
    “No. I really don’t have time for games,” Stanley said. He went into his shell and began ignoring James and waiting for the problem to be solved. He took an antiseptic wipe from his desk and wiped down his office phone, his stapler and each of his pens. He finished by scrubbing the arms of his chair and then throwing the wipe in the trash bin. The whole while, he ignored James.
    He thought about Harper and convinced himself she was safe for the moment. Just the moment, though. But how long would that last?

7
    Deena felt sick. Really sick. Her hands were trembling and she was sweating just a little. Her stomach was doing noisy flip-flops and she had a hard time standing still. The water in the sink felt cool on her face, but it did nothing to calm her nerves.
    The doorknob rattled and she yelled louder than she meant to; “Occupied!”
    Deena cursed the lady on the other side of the door under her breath. She flipped open her backpack and found enough cash there to buy one more tall frozen mocha mint coffee before they had to go and catch the train. She’d had four coffees in the