Brazilian Coffee

Sally looked up abruptly from her desk, suddenly aware that someone was walking toward her. She gasped as she saw Jeff making his way down the hallway toward her. She hastily shoved the papers she had been focused on into her desk drawer. She cursed under her breath when the drawer caught the edge of some of the papers, causing them to crumple slightly. She pulled out the drawer again and quickly but carefully pushed the papers down and nearly slammed the drawer shut. She looked up and, putting on her best cheery, nonchalant voice, she almost shouted, "Hi Jeff! How was your weekend?"


Jeff had been lost in thought as he walked in to the office, his feet operating in autopilot as they navigated him toward his cubicle. He snapped out of his daydream at Sally's voice. He froze mid-stride, feeling the heat of panic rising into his face. He probed his unconscious for what Sally had just said, but couldn't find anything. He mentally shook his head to clear the panic from his face, and said as brightly as he could muster, "Oh hey Sally. How are you?" Was she the one? He was sure someone had seen him last night. He had run out of plastic sheeting so he had to use the curtain to wrap the body. He could swear he had seen someone walk by just after he had taken down the curtains. Was it Sally? She was certainly acting fishy this morning.


"Oh, I'm great," Sally let out as she surreptitiously put a hand on the drawer to make sure it stayed closed. Had he seen what she was looking at? Her mind raced as she searched for something to say. She tried to push the thoughts of the stolen top-secret documents out of her mind. "Have you tried the coffee this morning? It's really good. I think Brad brought it back from his vacation in Brazil." The words fell out of her mouth in a rush and Sally felt her cheeks flush, realizing that she didn't have a cup of coffee on her desk to back up her small talk. She let out a quiet sigh when Jeff didn't seem to notice.


"Brazil, eh?" Jeff narrowed his eyes, recalling that his last victim - the one wrapped in that ugly floral curtain he always hated, the one wrapped in not-plastic and probably bleeding all over his kitchen - was from Brazil. What was she getting at? Was this her subtle way of telling him she knew something? "I've never been to Brazil," he continued cautiously. "I'm not a big fan of the heat." He stared intently into Sally's eyes, trying to read her expressions. For a moment he thought he saw what looked like suspicion, and then it was gone. She knew. She was the one that saw him last night. That was the only explanation. He made a mental note to add her to the list of loose ends to get rid of.


"Well, it's nice, I've heard," Sally said, trying not to let her apprehension show. Jeff was staring right at her, as if he knew something. He must have been the one she heard walking by while she was rummaging around in the Archive room last night. She couldn't take any chances. No one could know what she had done. She made a mental note to add him to the list of loose ends to get rid of.


"Alright, well, I gotta get to work before they fire me," Jeff chuckled.


"Yeah, me too. I'll see you at lunch time," Sally responded sweetly.


They waved genially at each other, inwardly plotting their next moves.

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