Friday, April 29, 2011

Chapter fourteen, page three

Once Jane realized her blunder of confessing to seeing Quinn’s contract with Dean, her face coloured brightly.  She covered her mouth with her hand.  “Sorry.  I know that its confidential information and I could lose my job for talking about it.”  She rambled on about proper business etiquette and oaths of confidentiality until Quinn and I pounced on her.

“Jane!”

“What did you do with my file?”  Quinn urged her as he held her by the shoulder.

She began back pedalling with a ferocious spirit.  “I didn’t do anything to your file.  I only did what I was told to do.  I didn’t even read it Quinn.  I swear.”

Stepping in with a gentler manner than Quinn, I probed for more information.  “Please Jane, Quinn is in some trouble and Dean is involved.  We had no idea you were working for him.  That is not why we came tonight.  Can you give us a hint of what you were doing with the file?”

“Who are you again?”  Jane’s eyes yielded to distrust and suspicion. 


Quinn snapped at Jane.  “I won’t tell anyone what you tell me.  Please Jane.  I need you to be my friend tonight.  Forget your oath of confidentiality!” 

That was the straw-breaker.  Either that was, or the glaringly gorgeous flutter of his eyelashes as he begged for her help.

She finally conceded and pulled Quinn in close for a whisper.  It was in French and I could not hear it all.

Quinn stepped back when she finished and looked to me.  “She was organizing and updating files by replacing up-to-date contracts with older versions.”  Then he turned to Jane. 

“What did you do with the older versions?”

“Shredded them.  It is company policy.”

Quinn stood there deep in thought.  I gently touched Jane on the arm hoping to garner her trust.  “Did you notice if the new contracts looked any different than the old ones?”

“Non.  I told you, I didn’t read them.  All I was told to do was take out the old one, verify it with the signature on the new one and then replace them.”  

“So the new ones were signed?”  I asked.

“Yes, it looked that way.”

Then the light switch appeared to go on in Quinn’s head.  “He changed the contracts.” 

Both Jane and I said “what” in harmony.

“I never signed a new one.  And, I have one copy of my contract in my home and one in an envelope in my safe deposit box at the bakery.  If he can destroy them, then the only proof of our business arrangement is his new and revised copy.”

“A blue envelope.”  I remembering the vision I had at the bakery after the shoot out. 

“You know about that?”  Quinn asked.

“I saw one but I didn’t know where it was or what it was.”

Jane butted in.  “Dean’s office always mails out the contracts in blue envelopes.”  Her face went white.  “You still have your copy right?”  She asked with hopeful expectancy.

Quinn’s head hung low as he exhaled a painful breathe.

“Oh dear.  What have I done wrong?”  Jane asked.

Quinn seemed speechless; once again in a flurry of loss.

“I’m not sure you did anything wrong Jane.”  I said.  “It appears like Dean may have attempted to destroy Quinn’s copies of the contract.  If he did, then Dean’s copy in the file is the only record.”

Quinn bolted from the apartment with me in tow.  “Au revoir Jane.  We need to go.  I will call you later.  Please enjoy your evening.”

She stepped out of her doorway after us.  “What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing right now.  I will call you when I know more.  Please do not tell Dean we spoke.”

“D’accord.”

“Have fun tonight.”  Quinn offered as he ducked into the awaiting elevator.

As the door closed us in, I muttered under my breath.  “I’m not sure how she will be able to have fun after we crashed her party.”

“She will be fine.”  Quinn spoke without any emotion.


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