Hillsborough County Chapter 19
James was back the next day. Gabriella arrived at work to see his office door open, so she walked over and rapped on the door frame. He was sitting at his desk, Bradley and Amelia in the chairs in front of him. They were talking about something in low voices, but all looked up when she came in.
“Gabs!” James exclaimed. “Hey, come on in.”
He looked pale, but way better than he had the other day when he’d left. He grinned, then motioned for her to take the remaining ugly old kitchen chair he’d gotten from their aunt.
“Bradley and Amelia filled me in on everything. I’m never getting sick again,” said James. He nodded toward Bradley. “This motherfucker is in more trouble than he’s ever been in his life, but I’m glad it worked out.”
Bradley scoffed, and James rolled his eyes. “It did,” Gabriella said. “I left the notes on your desk, did you-”
He pulled out the small bunch of papers she’d left beside his other enormous stacks. “Got them, thanks,” he said. “Um, about Patrick…”
She looked at him as he clearly tried to find the best way to tell her the bad news. Meanwhile, Amelia looked silently livid in her seat. “The Foundation is putting him on paid leave for a week for what happened,” James said. “They say they understand it was unacceptable and that he will need to do extra training. But they’re so short on staff that they can’t afford to get rid of him.”
She hadn’t expected them to fire him outright, but a week off and no other obvious repercussions seemed… weak. At the most generous. And his team was stuck with him now too, and he’d probably be even worse after this. And her mother lived in town, so what if he hassled her?
Her concerns must have been obvious on her face because James grimaced. “I know,” he said. “It’s bullshit. I’ve been fighting with them all morning, but they aren’t likely to budge. And since the case is closed, they’re putting the appeal aside while they deal with ‘more pressing issues’.”
He made air quotes with his fingers as he said it and from the look on Amelia’s face, Gabriella knew this wasn’t the first time there had been a situation with results like this. “I didn’t expect much,” Gabriella said when she found her voice again. “He didn’t actually hit me.”
“No, because he fell halfway into a well when he tried,” said Bradley.
“Thanks for holding a knife to him,” Gabriella said. “That makes me feel better at least.”
James looked over at Bradley with a smile. Bradley turned back to him. “What?”
“You took a knife to the guy? You didn’t tell me that.”
“Nobody can prove it.”
James looked at him a second longer, that smile still on his face. Then he turned back to Gabriella. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I guess. Like I said, I wasn’t expecting much.”
“No,” Amelia said. “But there’s a difference between not expecting much and a few bonus vacation days to think about what he’s done.”
“What about his team?” Gabriella asked. “Saskia, she was there for it. What are they going to do for her?”
James shrugged, but he looked a little grim. “It’ll probably be up to her,” he said. “I mean, she could leave the job. Or request a transfer. But they’re not going to actually do anything for her. His team’s going to have to decide what they want to do about working for him.”
Gabriella thought back to Colin Gundrill at the hotel. “I had a guy tell me on a case earlier this week that his work unionized for less than we deal with.”
James, Amelia, and Bradley all exchanged a look that she couldn’t quite interpret. No one said anything, but she made a mental note to look into the history of unionizing at the Foundation because there was clearly something there she didn’t know about.
“Hey, stick around for a couple minutes if you’re free,” James said to her. “These two are going to wrap things up with the Gundrills in a minute, but I want to talk to you.”
“Sure,” Gabriella said. “Want me to…”
She gestured toward the door, but he shook his head. “Nah,” he said. “Stay there. Or you can have the couch. We’ll be here for like two minutes.”
The couch had another stack of cardboard boxes on it, one of which she was amused to pick up and realize was full of more cardboard boxes. The other had a few books in it, along with a nicely packaged silver knife. She set the books on the floor and took out the knife, admiring the box it came in as James and Bradley bickered over a cost somewhere in the budget. Finally, Amelia and Bradley left the room and Gabriella came back over to the desk.
“That couch is a flashback,” she said with a laugh, nodding toward the hideous flowered sofa. “Did you furnish your whole office out of our aunts’ basements?”
“Everything but the desk,” James admitted. “Sit down.”
She sat back in the seat she’d been in before. James’s smile faded just a little. “Are you alright?” he asked. “For real?”
Gabriella nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “For real. He barely got a grip on me before he fell. I’m fine.”
“Still,” James said. “I just wanted to be sure that everything was… I guess as good as it can be? I knew the guy was a jackass, but I never expected…”
He paused again, reaching for the bag of cough drops he had open on his desk. As he popped one in his mouth, Gabriella nodded again.
“I’m fine,” she repeated. “I’m mad more than anything.”
“Of course,” he said. “I promise I’ll make sure you never work with him again. And if Auntie Carrie even glimpses him, he’s done.”
She wasn’t sure how he could promise that, but the serious look on his face told her he wasn’t just trying to comfort her. And after her mother’s reaction yesterday, Gabriella had a feeling she could take care of herself if she had to. So she thanked him, then got up. As she was walking out of the office, her phone buzzed with a text.
ELLIOT
I really am sorry.
The headache she’d been fighting off all morning slid into place, throbbing behind her eyes. But she had plenty of work to do, so she was going to just get to it.
Maybe she’d reply to him later on. If she ever found the words to do so.
The second she opened her eyes the next morning, Gabriella knew she hadn’t dodged the flu after all. The headache, which hadn’t gone away and had led her to go to bed early last night, was still going strong, blood rushing painfully and loudly in her ears whenever she moved. But now she felt both overheated and chilled under her thick quilted blanket. And her stomach was churning, despite having only eaten toast last night. She got out of bed and ran for the bathroom, grateful for the tiny size of her studio apartment as she got there just in time to throw up in the toilet.
Once she was sure she was done, she staggered out to the kitchen for a glass of water, then collapsed back into bed.
Gabriella had to be at work for eight. Glancing blearily at the clock, she could see it was six-thirty now. Her alarm was going to go off in about ten minutes. Closing her eyes again, she reached over to her bedside table for her phone, which was now and forever going to be plugged in right there whenever she was sleeping. Just like she planned, she found it an inch away from the edge of her bedside table and wrapped her fingers over it, dragging it to her chest.
She opened her eyes just long enough to call the headquarters main line, then closed them again as the room lurched around her. After a couple rings, Amelia picked up.
“North County branch, this is Amelia.”
“It’s Gabriella,” she croaked out.
There was a second-long pause, then Amelia said, “I think I can guess why you’re calling?”
Despite her misery, Gabriella laughed. “I got it,” she said. “I won’t be in.”
“God, no,” Amelia said. “No problem. Get some rest, okay?”
“I will.”
They hung up and Gabriella lay still under her thick comforter. She hadn’t texted Elliot back beyond a simple “Thank you” the night before. It felt like she should do more, but on the other hand, they’d already talked. She didn’t owe him anything else. And as much as this hurt, maybe it was just never meant to work out.
Gabriella didn’t want to be alone. She’d been single for a long time before Elliot and the idea of being single again for a long time now made her a little uneasy. She wasn’t afraid, but she’d gotten a taste of having someone there. Someone who had no connection to her work. And it had been nice to have that in her life.
And yet, the second the connection had been made, he’d broken it. Worse, he’d broken it and made her confidence in herself and her skills waiver. She knew she was good at this, but that small crack had made her waste time and energy.
But they’d solved the case. She thought about Virginia, who was on her way to a proper headstone and burial. They might never know about her life and the circumstances leading to her death. But they’d done right by her in the end.
Satisfied as she could be for the moment, Gabriella reached for the remote control on her bedside table and turned on the small TV, quickly navigating to a quiet cooking show despite her nausea. She propped up her pillows and angled herself so that she could see the TV. She wasn’t going to think about work for a little while. Instead, she’d relax. She’d drink tea, watch movies, and sleep. Nothing else.
And, if moments later, she flipped to a special on the top ten haunted places in the United States, that was her business.
END
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CONTINUE TO PARK STREET STATION (NORTH COUNTY PARANORMAL UNIT #6)
