Читать книгу Major Crimes - Janie Crouch - Страница 14

Chapter Five

The strands of printed code began to blur in front of her eyes and Hayley’s head jerked up as it started to fall forward in sleep.

“Whoa there, girl, you all right?” asked Mara, the Bluewater’s newest employee, setting a cup of coffee on the desk near the papers Hayley was going through.

The beautiful smell of it revived Hayley slightly, at least enough to pry her eyes open. “Coffee. You’re a goddess, Mara. Thank you so much.”

“Honey, I know we don’t know each other very well, but you are looking at those papers all the dang time.” Mara’s thick Southern accent coated the words. “Every time you’re on a break, before a shift, after a shift. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised to see you carrying in a ream of papers when you go on a bathroom break.”

For four days Hayley had been scouring the computer code printouts Cain had given her. The first day she’d met Cain over at his parents’ old house and, studiously forgetting that the bed in which they’d first made love was just right upstairs, they’d pored over the files together.

That afternoon he’d received a call and had to leave to go to one of the Omega Sector offices. So he’d given Hayley the printouts of the computer code, all six huge legal file boxes of them, to work on while he was gone for two or three days.

He’d expected her to be working on them every day. And she had. She’d brought them home that night and studied them deep into the night after spending time with Mason and putting him to bed.

She’d brought a box to the Bluewater with her and, like Mara pointed out, had been going over them every spare second she had. Unfortunately that hadn’t been much since she’d worked three double shifts in a row, fourteen hours a day each.

She talked to Timothy about reducing her hours, but when he’d started murmuring about hiring someone to take her place, Hayley knew she couldn’t do it. His hiring Mara had scared her enough and she was mostly just a waitress. She was not going to take Hayley’s job.

She needed to make more progress on the computer code, but she couldn’t afford to lose the livelihood she would need once Cain was gone. Of course, if she didn’t find some answers soon, Cain might fire her and try to find someone else to help.

“Honey, what is that stuff?” Mara asked as Hayley took a sip of her coffee. “I glanced at it but it didn’t seem to make a bit of sense to me.”

Hayley smiled at the older woman with big brassy blond hair. “Computer code.”

“What are you reading computer code for? Do you do that for fun?” Mara’s look placed the thought just above root canals.

“I do like computers, I have to admit. But no, this is not what I do for fun. This is actually sort of a job.”

“For Timothy? Is it something to do with the restaurant?”

Hayley stood up, stretching her back. “Speaking of, I’ve got to get back out on the floor. Tim will be looking for me I’m sure.” It was her fifteen-minute evening break, but like every break she used it to look back over the coding.

“He won’t mind if you’re late if you’re doing something for him.”

Hayley shook her head. “No, this is not for him. This is sort of a side job for me.”

“Oh.” Mara’s eyes got big. “I didn’t know you did side jobs with computer codes.”

Hayley ran a hand over her tired eyes. “Only when my past comes back to haunt me.”

She didn’t wait to hear what Mara would say about that cryptic statement, just headed to the back of the kitchen where she could begin washing dishes. She left the box of papers there in the supply closet. Hardly anyone went in and even if they did, unless they were well versed in computer coding, none of the pages would make sense.

Weariness set heavily on her shoulders, her muscles sore, her brain tired. She needed more than the four hours of sleep she was getting each night. Needed a chance to do something else besides work here or filter through the code.

She hadn’t even seen Mason in two days. She told herself it was okay as she loaded a rack of dishes into the dishwasher. She knew she had to take this opportunity while it was here to make such great money.

But she lived in constant fear that her son would forget her. That no matter how often Ariel talked to him about Hayley, he would reject her somewhere inside.

Guilt battled with exhaustion, and for the first time she was glad for all the steam that flew out of the industrial dishwasher. At least it hid her tears.

Three hours later, nearly ready to drop, Hayley had all her work finished in the kitchen. Mara and the other waitresses had left. Timothy was on his way to make the night bank deposit and had closed up the entire front of the restaurant. All Hayley needed to do was mop the floors and she could go.

The thought of dragging the mop over the entire restaurant was completely beyond her at this moment. She’d have another cup of coffee, look over a little more of the code and then mop.

And then go home for four or five hours of sleep. And then get back up and do the same thing again tomorrow.

The only light at the end of the tunnel was that for the first time today she’d seen an odd pattern in the coding. It might be nothing, but the way the data had been sent in that particular transmission had been odd, as if it possibly housed some other message.