Murder in Death's Door County Read Online Free

nails at me.
    I realized Karen had told Tessa about her
punishment for me. How humiliating! If Karen hadn’t been so much more
humiliated by her own actions, I would be really mad. However, I did find it
hard to believe that Karen told Tessa this morning. Karen must have told Tessa yesterday
afternoon. How could Karen share confidences with Tessa, a subordinate?! Well,
for that matter, how could Karen have an affair with her married boss? At work?
Giving notice tasted so much sweeter now. Oh, how I wished I knew more about
office politics! I knew nothing of alliances and how to fit in correctly. I had
always bought into the idea that a good job spoke for itself. Well, not this
job. But this job represented the end of the line for my burnt-out nine-to-five
existence.
    Humpf. The rest of the morning, I stayed
in my cubicle and read those ridiculous books Karen gave me. I decided to work
through lunch, in an effort to make a little headway.
    Throughout the day, like nails on a
chalkboard, I could hear Tessa’s voice asking for “Congratulations” from
everyone she spoke to. Her cackling laugh echoed off the walls, filling every
corner of the office floor.
     
    — –
     
    At the designated time, I headed over to
the All-Hands meeting. Just as I suspected, they didn’t share the root cause of
why Stan was out. They only shared that he was out indefinitely.
    Before we left the All-Hands meeting, the
higher-ups wrapped up the meeting by communicating the subliminal message, “Don’t
talk about what really happened. Any questions will be met with a stone wall of
silence.”
    Karen’s team, including me, went
straight to the regularly scheduled staff meeting. I sat in my usual spot, next
to Michael. Eleven people made up the Informatic Systems department, with Karen
being the twelfth person. Everyone looked at each other and realized Tessa was
missing. Awkward silence ensued. No one wanted to talk about the elephant in
the room, a.k.a. “Karen’s Misadventure,” on company property.
    Tick tock. Tick tock. The overhead clock
marked time. Fifteen minutes went by as we all stared rather stupidly at each
other. I wondered how long Tessa would inconvenience all of us. We all began to
fidget.
    Finally, Susan King spoke up, “So, has
anyone seen Tessa?”
    “I saw her talking to Harvey after that
meeting,” said George Jurowski. “Wow, how about that meeting?” Better suited as
a salesman than an analyst, George tried to play to the audience. No one would
even look at him.
    “She said she might be a few minutes
late,” said Tessa’s one buddy at the company, Mandy Schuler.
    Peeved at being ignored, George said, “If
she doesn’t get here in five minutes, I’m leaving. I don’t care whe-…”
    “Gimme a T.” Tessa’s voice boomed from the
doorway. Every head snapped to the direction of the sound and mouths dropped in
synchronicity. She wore a red-and-white cheerleader’s outfit and
had pom-poms. Real pom-poms, not the kind they give to little kids
at football games. She had on a real, adult cheerleader’s outfit with real
pom-poms. What the what?
    She continued to strut on in, doing high
kicks, completely oblivious to the pain and confusion on our faces. Even Mandy looked
down at her hands. I didn’t know where to look. I focused on a tiny dent in the
conference room table, willing it would open up and swallow up me and everyone
else. Being spared the pain of watching this debacle would be lovely. Was that
asking too much?
    Tessa shouted, “Gimme an E.” I glanced
up, no such luck. We were all still here. Tessa was making the letter shapes as
she shimmied and continued to high kick her way into the conference room.
    “Gimme an A. Gimme an M. What are we?
TEAM. I can’t hear you.” She continued to shout. Through the glass walls of the
conference rooms, I saw people’s heads popping up from their cubicles to see
what the ruckus was about. I sank down in my seat a little.
    “Team,” we all mumbled