The Writers' Circle

The main office of Delaney Crafts Inc. was one of the two thousand headquarters located in Las Colinas which was set inside Irving, Texas. A carefully planned and well thought out community that had advantages over other areas; one advantage was two airports on either side of the community with over twenty-five hundred flights daily. Its humble beginnings as a cattle ranch changed with Ben H. Carpenter, the owner and visionary of what one business man could do with what he had.  The vision became a community that balanced the job and family, work and play, travel and home.  It was this vision of community and balance that had corporations moving and staying.

Alex pulled her car into one of the parking spots that were located at the technologies building of Delaney Crafts.  The main corporate headquarters had two separate buildings, the tax department was located in the second building.  Since 1824, the Delaney family has been in the arts and crafts business, and has expanded from selling its products out of a small mercantile back in the day to selling its products in close to a thousand stores.  What was once a small family owned and operated company has turned into one of the largest retail chains of craft stores in America.  

She turned the car off and sat looking at the red brick building.  The face of the man loomed in the back of her mind.  She looked about trying to spot the maroon car, she only recognized cars she had seen before in the lot.  Alex gathered her tote bag and the small umbrella and opened the door.  The umbrella opened and gave her a small shield to hide behind the ever onslaught of water that fell.  She wasted no time as she half skipped over to the door and what little protection the awning offered from the rain.  She pulled open her tote bag and found the badge just inside and placed it up to the magnetic card reader to the door.  A small buzz, the green light on the reader, and the click of the door told her she now had access to the secured building.  Alex went inside and felt a measure of safety return to her world.

'First thing, drop this crap off at my cube, log into the computer, clock in with the program on the USB zip drive program, then coffee.'  Alex thought as she headed down the small hallway to the stairs.  Her eyes noticed the sheetrock of the stairwell wall that still hadn't been painted.  The employee back door entrance to the building afforded a different view of the company.  There were only two halls she found like this, this one and another that was inside the satellite office.

Upstairs she opened the door, it was totally different than what the stairwell had to offer.  The dark grey office carpet, the pristine white walls, the cubed areas, everything looked put together and not in any state of repair.  She made her way to the first section of cubes which housed the tax department.  The lights were on indicating that one or two employees had already arrived.

"Alex, is that you?" Nancy asked.

"What do you need?"  Alex asked in the way of a reply.

"The copy room door is locked and the key is gone."  Nancy came out of her cube as Alex neared it.

"Let me get this stuff put down and I'll see if I can find it."  Alex said, then thought, 'God forbid the IRS doesn't get there copies this morning, not after what I already had to put up with this morning.  Hail and the mysterious stalker, now all I need is something to go wrong with the copy machines.'

Alex smiled at Nancy as went past her and turned left into the cube that was in front of Mr. Daniels office.  She sat her stuff down and opened her tote bag again and pulled out the USB zip drive that belonged to SCA Staffing.  All associates were supplied with these zip drives so the time could be accurately logged from the company they were assigned too.  She moved the mouse on the pad beside the computer and watched as the black screen went away on the monitor and the log in box appeared.  Alex logged into the computer with her screen name and password that the corporation had furnished on her first day at the job.

"Did you move the key?" Nancy asked as she stepped into the cube.

"No.  It was hanging on the hook where it always is."  Alex pushed the zip drive into one of the two slots available on the front portion of the computer.

"I wonder if someone in accounting is messing with us again."

Alex turned and looked at Nancy.  Two weeks ago, a small group in the accounting department thought it would be fun to pull some harmless pranks, they had attacked each department upstairs and moved things around the building.  It had become a scavenger hunt to locate things, it didn't make the powers that be very happy when most of the departments upstairs spent a good hour returning things and collecting others.

"I don't think they would do that again.  Not after all the yelling that took place."  Alex opened the small time clock program on the zip drive and clicked on the in button with the mouse pointer.  The little hourglass appeared on the bottom tool bar, it was an effective little program, and temporary employees couldn't lie about their hours.  She then looked back toward Nancy.  "Let's go find the key before Mr. Daniels gets here and murders someone because the files haven't been copied for the IRS."

"He is in that meeting half the morning, right?"

"Yup, the board meeting," Alex lied smoothly.

'It never ceases to amaze me how many people actually believe what is written on his calendar.  Should be buried real deep this morning with CFO at that little bed and breakfast.'  Alex thought.

Nancy followed Alex down the row of cubes to the copy room door.  The hook was there to the right side without the Tasmanian Devil keychain that held the key.  Perplexed, Alex spun around and looked on top of the filing cabinets near the door.  "Have you looked in the drawers?"  She asked Nancy.

"No, I didn't think of doing that."

"You take the ones to the right.  I'll get these on the left." 

Alex looked through the filing cabinets on the left, each drawer yielded nothing for the small metal key they were trying to find.  Alex stood up after squatting down from searching the last drawer on her side.  She put her hands on her hips, "This is stupid.  There has to be a spare key to this room."

"The admin you replaced had a set of keys."  Nancy said.

"None of them are marked for this door though.unless."  Alex walked back to her cube and found the key ring that had multiple sets of keys on them.  She walked back to the copy room as she examined the keys.  Several of the keys opened multiple locks.  She had noticed this before and found it rather strange.  The company had spent money for locks on doors, but a key could open multiple locks.  She started trying the keys one by one.

"What are you doing?"  Nancy asked.

"Looking to see if a spare key is on this ring."  Alex replied.

"Ha!"  Alex exclaimed as the lock of the door tumbled and gave way.  She turned the knob and opened the door.  She froze, her mind willed her to move, yet the shock of seeing Mr. Daniels bent over on all fours in a black leather teddy was to hard to process.  Even with 'I'm a bad boy.' written in black permanent ink across his backside, he had yet to move or make a sound.

The scream from Nancy and the irrational sputtering she uttered jarred Alex out of the transfixed state she experienced.

Alex spun around, "Shut up!"

Nancy continued in the hysteria of panic mode.  Alex turned and looked back at Mr. Daniels.  'He has to be dead, or comatose because Nancy is making enough racket to wake the dead.'  Alex shuttered at the thought.

She turned back around to Nancy who now waved her arms, jumped up and down, sputtering, "He.he.he."

"I don't get paid enough for this."  Alex said and reached over and slapped Nancy hard in the face. "Calm down."

Nancy closed her mouth.  It some slight improvement.  Alex moved over in front of her trying to effectively block the dead kinky body inside the copy room.  "Good. Stop jumping."

Nancy stopped jumping, her arms and hands still fluttered on their own as if they were still detached from Nancy's body. "He.He's dead, isn't he?"

"Lets not jump to any conclusions here."  Alex told her.  'If I tell her he's dead, she is probably going to go off again like some headless chicken running around and causing a scene.'  Alex thought.

"But Alex," Nancy's arms quickened to hysteria pace again.

"No." Alex interrupted her. "I am going to shut the door. You are going to go get some coffee."

"I already have coffee."

"Then go make me some."  Alex kept nodding her head to her. Nancy left for the break room.  Alex turned and shut the door.  "Well, I know one thing, I'm not telling his wife.  The cops can handle this one."