Hundred and Fourteen

DIMITRI

I waited impatiently for the last person to leave the meeting room. I bowed him out and then I left, shutting the door behind me. On my way to my office, I stopped at Valeria's on the off chance that she had forgiven me and that we were all over the issue we were having. I was surprised to find that she wasn't there. Her desk was very well arranged, not the usual way it used to be before she got off work. It almost seemed as though she had clocked off for the day. I shut her door, called on the man crossing the corridor at that time.

"Sir?" he said, looking expectant.

"Valeria," I said. "Do you know where she is?"

"Oh. She isn't here at the company. She left a while ago and hasn't come back since. I think she left for the day," he volunteered.

I called Vance and was surprised to hear he wasn't with Valeria.

"Why the hell not?" I exploded. "And where is she?"

"She's at home. I dropped her there on her request... that was after she visited her Grandma at the hospital. She told m