A Colby Christmas. Debra Webb

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      That was another big deal here at the Colby Agency. Weddings. Oh, yes, and births. The entire staff operated more like a large family than a group of unrelated employees. At times she found the pressure to be involved tedious.

      Regardless, the Colby Agency was the best. She had to admit that. No matter how high-profile and complex, or how small and seemingly insignificant the assignment, the job always got done. That was the major reason she stayed. She could put up with most anything to be on the winning team.

      Ten minutes passed.

      Still no call. Still no power.

      The memory of opening that control panel door and starting to enter the code for the elevator pushed to the forefront of her thoughts. She’d turned around and walked back to her office. She’d noticed the snow still falling outside. The dusting on the ground below.

      And the lights.

      She whirled toward the wall of windows behind her desk.

      The whole city was lit up like a giant Christmas tree.

      If there was a blackout, why wasn’t anyone else affected?

      Her full attention glued to the lights outside, she moved to the window and stared down at the street. There were still a few pedestrians on the sidewalks. Not a single building anywhere in sight was dark.

      What the hell was going on?

      She called security again.

      This time she got a strange busy signal, the kind that more often meant something was wrong with the phone line.

      Fine. She’d just have to go down to the main lobby and find out what the problem was. It might be silly of her, but she couldn’t just wait around here. She reached under her desk to fish her cell phone from her purse. Her concern might be for nothing but she wasn’t about to head down a dimly lit stairwell in a deserted building without her cell phone. Maybe she’d seen one too many horror flicks.

      Phone in hand, she strode determinedly toward the end of the corridor, where the emergency exit provided handy access for the head of the agency.

      She twisted the knob and pushed but the door didn’t budge. Wait a minute. She stepped back and surveyed the door. This wasn’t right. It was an emergency exit. Emergency exits weren’t ever supposed to be locked.

      Jiggling the knob again she had to admit defeat. It was definitely locked.

      A spurt of mild panic surged in her chest.

      Okay. Stay calm. There had to be an explanation for this. She looked at the ring of keys she’d shoved onto her wrist. She was the keeper of the keys. There had to be a key on here for this door as well, though she didn’t actually recall having been told about one. More than two years had passed since her initial training. Maybe she’d forgotten.

      Using trial and error, she tried one key after the other to see if one opened the door. Wouldn’t you know it, the final key she attempted did the trick.

      Thank God.

      This was totally weird.

      She stepped into the stairwell, let the door close behind her with a distinct click. Like most people she preferred the elevators so she’d only been in the stairwell once or twice. Both times for a fire drill.

      Even with the emergency lights the gloom gave her the shivers. Layers of beige paint on the walls, railing and stairs didn’t help. No windows. She shivered. Damned creepy at this time of night.

      This whole power outage thing had spooked her unreasonably. She left the office after dark most of the winter. What was the problem here? She shook off the lingering feelings of foreboding. All she had to do was go downstairs and locate Joseph or the other guard. Service to the phone on the security desk may have been disrupted with the power outage.

      Grasping the rail to steady herself, she moved down the stairs. No need to get in a hurry. Now would not be a good time to fall and break something. She might not be discovered until morning. Ian Michaels and several of the other investigators all took the stairs on a regular basis.

      Third floor. She wondered vaguely as she passed if that door was locked as well. That part still puzzled her. What good was an emergency exit if it were locked?

      Other than the tap of her boot heels, the stairwell was eerily quiet. But then it would be. Every single soul who worked on the premises other than she and the two security guards had likely gone home already.

      She was never in that big of a hurry to leave work. It was just her and her tiny apartment. No one waited for her, not even a dog or cat. She’d thought about getting one but then she’d worry that if she had to stay late at the office the animal would be alone too much. Her evenings usually consisted of going home, heating up a frozen dinner in the microwave and then getting lost in a movie. Horror, action, comedies, she liked them all. Once in a while her neighbor invited her out to dinner, but they really didn’t have that much in common.

      And dating. Well that was a joke. The closest thing she’d had to a date recently was when the guy at the video store had asked her to hang around to have coffee with him on his break. That hadn’t lasted beyond his fifteen-minute break.

      Second floor. Still quiet as a tomb.

      Not that she was feeling sorry for herself. She liked her life just as it was. No dramatics, no extra pressure. Just plenty of time to enjoy being who she was.

      One of the new guys hired in last spring’s job fair had flirted with her at first. Todd Thompson. But he’d ended up marrying his first assignment. Most of the other investigators considered her their little sister or something. They sure didn’t look at her with an eye toward dating.

      Definitely not.

      It wasn’t that she was hideous to look at or anything like that. She was thin, without really trying. She actually looked younger than her twenty-six years. She wouldn’t likely be winning any beauty contests, but she had a nice face. Big brown eyes. That was the part about herself she liked best. Not that she dwelled on how she looked. She didn’t. She didn’t waste money on designer clothes, either. She shopped at the more reasonably priced discount stores, which ensured she had a healthy savings.

      Maybe she’d take an exotic vacation one of these days.

      Maui, Cancun, someplace warm with sandy beaches.

      When she reached the door that would open into the wide corridor that led into the first-floor main lobby she found it locked as well.

      This was too weird. First thing Monday morning she would call maintenance and have this situation looked into. If that didn’t take care of the problem she would call the fire marshal. What if she hadn’t had the keys and there had been a fire?

      The building could go up in flames and she wouldn’t be able to get out. Definitely against the rules. Someone would be in serious trouble.

      She shuddered as she twisted the key in the lock. A person never thought of things like that until they were thrust into the situation.

      Beige décor gave way to marbled floors and soaring ceilings as СКАЧАТЬ