Free Deadrock by Jill Sardegna Page A

be murdered, thought Max, with a stab of guilt .
Or murder someone else, which is just as bad. What's she going to do without
him?   
    Max turned to
Nickie. "C'mon, let's go back to the bookstore. I think that book deserves
to go into the vault."

 
    Back in the
office, Nickie and Max had listed and tagged most of the items from Bird's desk
by three o'clock. She packed The Runaway
Bunny , a stack of records and CDs, a turntable, a PlayStation console, a
box of Huggies, Play Dough, the fishing pole, a New York City roadmap, a pair
of Hulk inflatable Slam Hands, a gel pillow, a Swiss Army knife, a Nerf
football, a roll of Mentos, a liter of Coke, a cuckoo clock, a can of Raid, and
a snow cone maker.
    "I'm
sorry you missed lunch, Max," she said, glancing at the clock on the wall.
"I thought maybe you could join my dad and me, but it looks like he forgot
our lunch date. Again."
    "No
problem. That fudgesicle was very filling." His stomach growled loudly and
he shifted in his seat. "Actually, I'm more concerned about Mr. Bird. Did
he send you a text saying where he was going?"
    "No, but
don't worry, he's probably just taking a break," she said.
    "We've
been here two hours. That's a pretty long break."
    Nickie stopped
packing and gave him a concerned look. "Don't worry, Max. He doesn't seem
like the type who'd abandon you. You've been together a long time."
    "Yeah,
but it's still sort of a trial relationship."
    At that
moment, Ted wandered in through the glass door, took a clipboard off a hook
next to it and studied the attached list as he wove his way to his office.
    "What's
that?" asked Max.
    "Shipping
list," said Nickie. "The hard copy tells how many capsules we ship
each day. Dad's in charge of keeping the shipping records straight." She
called to her father, "Dad, where have you been? I thought we were going
to have lunch together."
    "Oh,
sorry, honey, it just slipped my mind," Ted said. His eyes never left the
clipboard as he wandered on past the doorway.
    "It just
slipped his mind," she said to Max. "How can your own daughter just
slip your mind?" Without waiting for an answer she hurried after her
father.
    Max sighed and
loaded the rest of the items into the cardboard boxes and onto a cart. He took
the elevator downstairs to the basement and lifted them into the shiny steel
vault the size of their motel room. He circled the vault half-full of boxes,
furniture, toys and electronics. He stepped around a life-size cardboard cutout
of Michelle and Barack Obama, then sat in the plaid La-Z-Boy recliner and
leaned back. A shiver went through him. Bad place to die, thought Max. It would
take some time for the oxygen to go, but all along you know it's gonna run out
sometime.
    The heavy
metal door crrrrreeeeaaked and started to close. "Hey, wait! I'm in here!"
Max jumped from the chair and rushed to the door.
    "Hey,
Max!" said Bird at the entrance.
    Max panted, "Bird!
Gnartz!"
    "I've
been looking for you. How long you been back?" asked Bird as he took the
empty cart and rolled it back into the elevator.
    "About a
half-hour," Max lied. "How long have you been gone?"
    "About
forty-five minutes, I guess," Bird said.
    "You've
been working hard here, then," said Max.
    "Oh yeah,
nose to the grindstone." They reached their floor and walked to their
cubicle. "Just routine stuff. I called some places for donations, did input
and cataloged items. Oh, Max, you should really get on the computer more
– it's so much fun, so 0s and 1s! "
    "Did Ted
go anywhere?" asked Max.
    Bird casually
stretched and looked over the top of the cubicle wall and towards Ted's office
where Ted was talking to Nickie. "Right! I forgot to tell you. He went out.
Did errands."
    "That's
it?"
    "Sure,
that's it. Oh, and then when he came back here, I took a little break. Thought
this might make a good addition to the capsule!" he said, pulling the
folded National Enquirer from his
pocket. "Read this part about the nine month-old baby who weighs a hundred
and ten