Detective Lauren Morrison

Stepping off the elevator on the fourteenth floor Lauren saw the partition wall with a class sign with frosted words reading Mega Corp Acquisitions. She felt nervous and furious and tried to hide both emotions with years of experience of smiling and flirting a little for tips as a waitress. Walking around the wall was a mostly open room with one corridor going left and another going right. Beyond that it had offices around the perimeter of this area and a desk out front, each with a well dressed woman sitting in front of it. She saw a few empty desks, but also saw a few girls running around carrying files or going into what looked like it could be a break room. Picking her first target, a blonde girl that was painting her nails right there at her desk and figured she would be a good place to start. “Excuse me, I’m Lauren. ``I'm from IT and I need to look at your computer.” The blue eyed girl looked up at Lauren with a tight lipped, but happy smile, it was the type of smile some people got from being ashamed of braces growing up. “Well look at you, oh course you can and I love that blazer! Where did you get it?!” She was full of excitement to see and talk to Lauren as if she was happy someone was talking to her, but as she asked the question she did stop painting her nails, but did not move.

“Oh, I just got it the other day from Macys, it was on the clearance rack. I need to check your computer for umm an update, but I’m new here and wondered if you could tell me a little about the place.” She hoped to steer the conversation more and more toward her goal and not look suspicious. “Clearance, Oh, lucky. If I went out on my lunch do you think they might have still left? Wait your new? Tell your boss you need to get a new outfit for the office and we can go together!” Nodding a little at the friendly girl that still hadn’t moved. “Oh I doubt Steven would let me do that, but can you tell me about some of the managers around here, like I heard a little about a Mr. Wesker.” Lauren looked down at the name tag on the desk Daisy Amore, the girl was literally named love and didn’t believe for a second that was the name she was born with. “Steven, oh he is a dear. Just tell him you promise it will look cute on you and give him a little hand. Oh most of them are so nice, my boss just adore me. I get him his black coffee, he used to have cream and sugar in it, but said I never got it right so he would just take it black and he lets me go shopping on my lunch breaks all the time, and I’m sure Steven would too, he is so sweet.”

“Sounds like he isn’t such a bad boss, but what can you tell me about Wesker?” She finally moved so Lauren sat at the computer and pulled open a dos command Windows to do a continuous ping out to a website. The black screen would show some writing and numbers on it that most people wouldn’t know what to make of, she had only learned it when trying to brush up on things to know for the job. As ping after ping went off she turned her focus back to the girl who now standing she could tell stood over six foot tall in her four inch heels. “So Mr. Wesker, hmm I have like a friend in the temp pool and she worked with him while Jodie was recovering and she said he was a hard man. He would hardly thank her for anything and got so mad when she spilled his coffee on some papers and such, but I hear his like soo good at his job, but like I don’t see that. Did you know Mr. Rogers, oh that is my boss!” She giggled before continuing. “He closed like double what Mr. Wesker did last year, I don’t know why Mr. Wesker didn’t get the promotion he wanted, but I think my Sammy should have gotten it.” Lauren noticed the girl pouting a little and really wanted to get into her using the word my when referring to her boss, but didn’t have time for that today. “What about him and Jodie? Does he treat her like he did your friend?” The girl looked over to a dark office that had no one sitting out in front of it. “Oh Jodie!? No, that girl is so lucky. I wish my Sammy would make it official, but I will get him in the end you will see Lauren, but like it was such a shock to us.” Daisy leaned in and spoke softer. “Girl hardly looked like Mega Corp material when she first came in, not put together like you, but she like blossomed and I was so happy for her.” Daily looked over to another secretary with brown/auburn hair, her voice going back to a normal volume when she looked back. “Sara didn’t give Jodie a week, but that like wouldn’t be Jodie’s fault. Mr. Wesker did go through four girls last year.” She gave a little shrug. “Not everyone can handle it.”

When Lauren left the floor she had a lot of information with finding out it was completely normal here for bosses to be sleeping with their admins, how girls that weren’t willing to give a hand job or two and a blow job from time to time just didn’t last long. The idea was outrageous and if that was the case she wondered why there were no horrible reviews like that on glassdoor when she was looking up the place. One girl told her about one man named Wellerman ruined a girls life when she didn’t want to have sex with him anymore and the more she heard, the more it sounded like **** and how HR wouldn’t do anything about it. When asking about Wesker compared to him she found out the two don’t get along at all, but none of them thought Wesker was much better than the man. Least not until they heard he settled for Jodie, and each girl took that a little differently. Some suspicious, some upset that she was so lucky and some sad. Laruen also left with a few girls phone numbers, a promise to go shopping and the a address for a wonderful place in the city to get her hair done. The information confirmed Jordan Applegate was a whore for cheating on her brother, but enough of the information about her boss tempered the blaze in her. She thought about how her brother and her had said they had been fighting about money and Jodie had a job working for a man that from all accounts was a **** even if no one used the word. If the stories were true Mega Corp fucking condoned the behavior with how they let one man ruin a poor girls life.

Gossip was difficult with separating fact from fiction, but enough was said to make her wonder if she should be sorry for her friend instead of furious and give her great pause to if she shouldn’t just leave now. Maybe Steven wasn’t a good guy and it was just a front, and he would ask her to get on her knees when others weren’t around. That would not be fucking happening, she loved how doing that made who ever she was with act, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to let anyone make her do it. She needed more answers and had two more stops to try and get them.

Lauren moved through the cubical farm that was the accounting department, the receptionist let her go right on by when she said she was from IT, but then completely ignored her when she asked where Janet Harrows was. That girl was not someone she would be getting friendly with it seemed, she would rather just point off behind her and read her magazine than lend a hand. When she found Janet it was in an actual office and she could have easily walked around the maze to get to it. Knocking on the door Lauren went in when she didn’t hear a reply. “You know typically it is considered rude to enter a room you weren’t invited into.” Janet looked tired to her, she looked wonderful in dress and appearance, but just the way she carried herself and she wondered if the girl had dark circles under hear eyes that were concealed. “Hello to you too, friend.” Janet glowered at the girl and moved her jaw like she was chewing on word instead of leaping out to bite her head off. “Right. Welcome to your first day at your job, I’m sure you will do wonderfully here, oh and how are you today, I’m good, just busy. This was a nice chat, we should do this again sometime, have a wonderful Mega Corp day Lauren.” The first word was monotone while the rest sounded like the woman was doing her best Tiffany impression. Closing the door behind her, Lauren sat down in one of the chairs. Noticing right away they were cheaper than the ones on the fourteenth floor. She had only noticed her own chair really from the short time in the IT office and it was the same as the one on Jodie’s floor, if not a lot more worn down or ripped a little. “Yes, please sit down, that is what I mean to say, definitely not busy with quarterly reports.” The level of sass coming off of her made Lauren giggle a little and she put her elbow on the desk and her head in her palm, just looking at Janet with a smile, not saying a word. Janet stared at her for close to ten seconds before letting out a giant sigh. “Look Lauren, I really don’t know what happened with Adam and Jodie last night, but she stayed at my place and I got her to the airport. If you want to know more about that you will have to talk with her or your brother.” Lauren was happy to have won the battle of wills, but it would have been fun to hear her have another one sided conversation. “Jodie… Jodie isn’t returning either of our calls or texts and I was worried about her, but not as much now.” Janet nodded a little and hit a few keys on her keyboard to lock the screen. “Is it maybe because she is a grown ass woman like you and can do what she wants?”

Sitting up Lauren shook her bread a little. “No, also I might need to worry about her more, I don’t know. Janet, you have known Jodie the longest. Has she ever cheated on anyone before?” Right away Lauren could see recognition in Janet’s face. “Yeah, Lauren our friend has always been a bit of a slut.” Some of the worry was pushed back by the fire inside of Lauren and she thought how she was going to slap that girl for what she was doing to brother. She had heard of people starting to try and look their best for someone new while in a relationship and wondered if that is why Jodie started to dress more like her old self. “Hey, hey calm down Lauren. I will also say I know Jodie is trying to be better and the culture here…” Janet let the word hand for a moment as she tried to find the right word or phrase. “This is not a good place for a pretty woman that wants a career without fighting tooth and nail for it.” Leaning back fully in her chair Lauren pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes for a moment before looking back to Janet. “Do you think Jodie slept with her boss because he made her, or because she wanted to?” Janet considered that question and thought back to how Jodie had the smell of cum on her breath that day or how she was acting hysterical because of some meeting where she went down on her boss. “That is not a simple one or the other answer, or it could be I don’t know. What if she wanted to blow Adam, but knew it was wrong and then felt she had to. The answer to your question then would be both, wouldn’t it?” Again there was a pause between their talking, Janet saw how easily she could use this to crush Jordan, how this could literally be her chance at Eric, but she couldn’t do it. She also wasn’t going to outright lie about her ex either, other than the big secret at least. “Dammit!” Lauren didn’t hold much back when she yelled in frustration.

“So my friend could be a two timing bitch, a unwilling fuck toy for a rich asshole who could destroy her life or just something in between. You are not giving me the answers I wanted.” Lauren looked at Janet as if accusing her of using the truth and it wasn’t fair. “Would you like to step out, ignore the fact I didn’t invite you in again so we can start over. Maybe you will get different answers next time you try.” With half open eye lids Lauren glared at the Janet, bobbing her head from side to side. “Memememe.” That got the women to crack a smile and laugh a little. “Very mature Lauren. I wish I had the answers to your questions, but honestly I don’t and if I was a better friend I would. Jodie is the type of person who puts blame on others and doesn’t accept them for hi.. herself. When someone cries wolf a lot it is hard to know when there really is a wolf. What I can say is Jodie really does care for your brother, and you should talk with her about this and not me.” Lauren pulled out her phone and checked to see if Jodie had called or texted yet this morning, but she wasn’t even sure she would have arrived yet in Florida, she wasn’t terribly sure what time her flight really took off. “Maybe I should tell my brother…” Lauren wasn’t sure that was a good idea at all and her words reflected the feeling. “Oh no, no, no. Do not tell your brother. I can’t see one scenario where that plays out well. What if he decides to confront Adam about it, that could come to blows and I will tell you the court system tends to side with people with the most money and if Adam handles it well he will have the company backing him and then Jodie will suffer. If he instead goes to Jodie it could end everything, not sure if you know this, but your brother had a bad breakup once with a girl who cheated on him.”

Lauren felt deflated, no place to vent her rage and not sure if her friend was in trouble. “What do I do then?” Janet looked at the girl who was apparently the latest addition to her friends, but honestly she couldn’t say why and stood up. “How about we get some coffee and we can talk more about this and you. You look like you need someone to talk to.” Lauren looked at her and then to Janet’s computer. “You have work to do, I will try and go bother Tiffany.” Janet didn’t need this going any further than it had and as nice as Tiffany was there was a good chance she would let some off this slip as she made her rounds gossiping. “This is a sensitive matter, how about we just keep it between us for now and I can take time for a friend” Lauren nodded and followed Janet out of her office.

When Janet went back to work Lauren was feeling a lot better, she had been honest about what Mega Corp is and how it treats the cogs in it’s wheels. It acted like it cared about everyone with their words and incentives, but worked them till they broke and only seemed to protect those that helped the bottom line. It was a great place to take off a career if you could hold on, but for some people like women it was a hell of a ride. She knew Mega Corp really would pay for her college when she went back or any certifications in IT since that was her position so this was not going to be a job she was going to have to walk away from, all she had to do is be prepared to make sure she handled advances on her with grace. Something she was very familiar with from working in a skimpy outfit as a waitress. Far as Jodie went both her and Janet were going to be paying attention and if Adam Wesker was a piece of shit they were going to find something to bury him, Janet was sure the man had some skeletons in his closet. But if it was just Jodie playing the field than she didn’t know if she could keep herself from clawing her face for hurting her brother. She wanted to believe the girl she had gotten to know wouldn’t do the very thing Eric’s last girlfriend Becky did to him, but from what she knew and what Janet told her Jodie had a past that could be repeating itself. She would get to the bottom of this, Jodie wasn’t smart enough to hide something from her and with her new position she was sure she could come up with reasons to drop by to talk with Mr. Wesker and even look at his computer.