Concentrating on the damn legal description wasn't an easy exercise. Distraction filled Melanie as she sat at her desk. She knew she shouldn't be ignoring the inner voice telling her something was very, very wrong. But she was. It was Friday, she had only a few hours to the weekend and plans of sitting on the porch of her old house reading. Not running errands, not cleaning just blissfully doing nothing more than enjoying the warm spring. Listening to the silly voice meant that those precious plans would go to hell. Sighing she eyed the stack of recorded deeds that needed copying. She chose a couple from the top of the stack and walked over to the photocopier doing her best to ignore the room behind her. The phone rang and rather than going back to her desk to answer it she picked up the extension that sat near the copier.
"Persuch Cou…"
"Mellie, thank god," Joe's voice yelled into her ear.
"Joe? What's the matter?" Melanie asked. He sounded more frazzled than normal, almost scared.
"Listen to me, those two agents from yesterday, they said they were coming back. Are they there? Please god tell me they aren't there." Melanie gripped the receiver so hard she thought she'd break her hand. The pressure steadied her from going to her knees as the voice in her head did a full on "told you so" dance.
"Melanie!" Joe's voice yelled and she jumped. Melanie had known Joe her entire life. In 27 years she'd never heard him raise his voice and he'd never once called her Melanie. Something was beyond wrong.
"They, they've been here for about a half hour. What's going on?"
"They aren't agents. They're wanted by the damn FBI. For murder. And the one, the smart ass, he beat the hell out of a woman. You need to leave. Mellie, you need to get out of there right now? Can you?"
"I can't just, I can't leave the office with them in it," Melanie replied.
"Mellie, just hang up the phone and get out of there right now. I'm calling the Sherriff."
Melanie slammed down the phone and hurried to her desk. She went to pull open the bottom drawer of her desk to get out her purse but the drawer didn't open. She used to work in a large office where everyday she'd locked up her purse. Old habits died hard. She fumbled for the key, her hands shaking as she put it in the lock.
"Please don't come out, please don't come out," she chanted in her mind as she struggled with the stupid old lock in the stupid old desk. She'd managed to get the key in but the lock was catching. "Oh please," she begged the old thing.
"Need some help?" the voice startled her so badly she actually screamed. The smart ass was standing in front of her. She was poised to laugh it off and then make up an excuse that someone was sick, hurt, whatever and they had to close early. Please come back later.
The words froze in her mouth as she looked at him. He knew. It was written all over his face. Melanie realized they must have picked up the phone in the conference room. They'd heard Joe warn her.
"Dean," the other one's voice came from around the corner. Dean wasn't the name that he'd given yesterday. It wasn't even close. And the one, the smart ass, he beat the hell out of a woman, Joe's voice rang in her head. Melanie took a step backward as the other man appeared. "Let's just go," he said taking Dean, formerly known as Smart-Ass's arm. His action left an opening she could now get through. Her purse was now irrelevant; she had to get out of the office. Melanie took two tiny steps away from her desk and then ran for the front counter.