Page 73 of The Big Puck

“I’m in—but full disclosure, I’m in it to help Spence if I can. No other reason.”

“I can live with that.” She elbows me.

“Why are you willing to break into your dad’s office behind his back? Why aren’t you asking him point blank what he has going on?”

“You don’t think I’ve tried? He tells me it’s complicated business—and don’t worry my pretty little head about it. Can you believe he used that line in this day and age? No wonder Mom lives so far away from him.”

“No wonder.” I feel sorry for her and throw an arm around her, feeling like a big sister, and that melts me just a little.

* * *

Two days later, during the next home game, I sit nervously with Tina, but not because the game is a tight one. She squeezes my hand while I watch Spence’s profile and the telltale tic in his jaw muscle. She tugs my hand.

“The period is almost over. It’s now or never.”

I look at her, take a deep breath, and give her a nod. We scurry from our seats and disappear downstairs to the hallway that leads to the tunnel and the locker room. I hear the buzzer signaling the end of the period. The players will be coming off the ice in the next second.

“Let’s go. Quick.” I take off at a run as far down the hallway away from the arena as I can get, and Tina follows, taking the lead as she turns a corner. We end up at an elevator, and she’s about to press the button.

“Shouldn’t we take the stairs?”

She shakes her head. “The elevator takes us exactly where we want to go. Dad’s office is twenty feet away.” She huffs out a breath as the doors slide open. “Don’t worry. No one will be here.”

I hope to hell not. The last thing we need is for someone to catch us burglarizing the corporate offices of the Portland Whalers. Even if Tina is the owner's daughter, it would be hard to explain. No. Make that impossible to explain. I’m not even sure myself.

But if there’s even a small chance I can find some information that will help Spence deal with Gavonza and wrangle an extension on his contract, I’ll take it.

We skulk down the hall to the massive double doors of her dad’s office. She was right; it is close, but I feel exposed while I stand there waiting for her to unlock the door using her ID.

A thought hits me. “He’ll know you were here during the game. The electronic—”

“Shh.” She opens the door and drags me inside, shutting the door behind us. Why do I feel like Ethel with Lucy dragging me into a doomed escapade in an episode of schemes gone wrong from I Love Lucy?

She stands with her hands on her hips in the semi-darkness, the only light coming from the floor-to-ceiling windows and the twinkling lights from the bay outside. This isn’t one of those offices with windows looking at the interior space. It’s the kind that affords total privacy, and the hunch in my shoulders eases.

“Where do we start?” I ask her.

“I’ll check his wall safe.” She heads for a Picasso print on the wall between two doors.

“I’ll check his desk drawers.” I pull at the top drawer, and it slides open easily, but it only contains pens, sticky pads, and mints.

The drawer on the right glides open, heavy with files. “That was easy.” Too easy. I look through each folder and find nothing but contracts for cleaning services, parking, and invoices. It’s odd that he’d keep this stuff in his personal desk, but no smoking guns.

I pull out the drawer on the left, and it’s also got file folders, but it’s somehow smaller than the one on the right, and the folders are pretty much empty, except for a couple of fresh legal pads.

“This isn’t right.”

I stand and see Tina rifling through the contents of the safe, studying a document.

“Do you have something?” I ask.

“Not exactly. It’s a contract with the charity and the event management company for the gala a few weeks ago. I have no idea why it would be in his wall safe. There’s another document that refers to his partnership contract, an appendix that outlines his salary as CEO—a small fortune for one year.”

“Where do you think he would keep the franchise documents, corporate papers, or whatever document spells out the details of his partnership deal?”

She shrugs, slipping the folders back into the safe. “I don’t know.” She looks around.

“Maybe on the computer?”