August Installment

Prologue

T The office was already buzzing at 9:00 a.m. Lois looked around for Daphne, but she couldn’t see her at her desk. Maybe she was in the kitchen getting some coffee and the usual morning pastry. If there was one plus, and there were more plusses than one, to the office it was that H.R. always provided morning pastry. The fact that the office also supported a health and fitness before hours session was the irony that made all of the office workers laugh. However Daphne was slender. Somehow those pastry calories seemed to melt off her. Lois, on the other hand, had to count her calories and did. She religiously noted every piece of food that she put in her mouth. It was tedious, but it worked for her. The two ladies could take advantage of sample size sales and were always dressed in the latest fashion. 

The magazine they all produced, Home Working, had moved with the times. When the magazine had begun it was a paeon to women working in the house doing household chores with a smile on their face. It featured articles that talked about the best cake recipes to make your husband smile, spring cleaning tips, what chores could be done while the washing machine ran a regular cycle, and how to plant the flower bulbs stored in the cellar or garage. Now it featured how to care for your toddler while entering your billable hours from your home office. In truth, the chores were pretty similar, but cake was no longer a concern. Instead mutual exhaustion and finding time to talk had been feature articles last month. This month the magazine was featuring tips on finding caretakers for elderly relatives who live in the home and adding a ramp for an entrance to the house within the landscape design. 

Lois and Daphne had desks near one another. A three quarter partition separated them and gave the illusion of private space. The space was not private. Daphne could hear Lois and vice versa. They knew each other’s personal stories and bought birthday presents for each other at the after Christmas sales each year. So, how long did it take Daphne to get and begin chewing a pastry from the kitchen? What on earth is taking Daphne so long?

Just as Lois considered hunting down her friend Daphne walked into Lois’s office space. “Did you hear the news? It just went out on Slack. Joyce is missing. Her husband called the office to see if she had checked in. He’s calling the police.” 

September Installment

#2. Joyce worked in the advertising department. The department’s offices were adjacent to the area that Lois and Daphne were in; so, it wasn’t hard for both Lois and Daphne to hear what was going on in advertising and each of the five, most especially Joyce, had a habit of dropping into either Daphne’s or Lois’s small space. Joyce would sit on a corner of either Lois’s or Daphne’s desk and regale the two with advertising tales and complaints. Advertising had a lot of both.

The advertising department was a busy one, and each of the five men and women who were in the department had their own special accounts. Joyce used to kid around and say that it was the same as having another group of children that she had to care for all day every day. 

Some of the accounts had heads of their corporations who were particularly interesting. Joyce had one who insisted on her entertaining him for lunch at a micro brewery that specialized in some kind of smokey beer. Joyce said that she had to smile while she swallowed it but would immediately rinse out her mouth when she was finished with her client. Nonetheless, she was very successful with her corporate heads, some of whom called her Joycie. 

“Do you think that Joyce had to take one of those heads out for dinner or something? But she usually tells her husband if she has to do that and where could she be by breakfast time?” Lois asked Daphne.

“Well it wasn’t on her calendar. She’s almost religious about putting in all of her appointments in that planner of hers. Nah, I doubt that she did that,” Daphne answered.

“So, what could be going on? Was she still at work when you left last night? You were later than me because you had to finish off that article of yours and get it to the copy editors,” Lois reminded Daphne.

“I truthfully didn’t even glance over. I was so annoyed with Copy giving me a shorter timeline than originally planned that I was kind of stomping around and just trying not to take any longer than I had to. The photos weren’t even ready for goodness sakes. I have no idea what the rush for my article was. Well, anyway. I didn’t look over. She might have been on the phone. I did hear someone with a similar voice to Joyce’s.”

Lois raised her eyebrows. “Well, there you are. No one has a voice like Joyce. She’s from Georgia for goodness sake. I wonder if you heard her talking on the office phone or on her cell? If it’s the office phone, they should have a way of finding out what the number was that someone was talking from. Don’t you think?”

Daphne started to move as if she were going to turn around, but in doing so, she knocked her coffee cup over with the contents spilling on the floor and pooling out towards the walkway.

“Crap. I better get the mop. I can’t believe that I did that.”

Lois patted Daphne’s back saying, “I’ll go with you. You carry the mop and I’ll get that spray the housekeeping crew use. It’s no biggie.”

As the women walked towards the cleaning supply closet down the hallway and in the back of the advertising department’s office space they could hear snitches of conversation.

“No, darling. I’ll tell Copy that they have to change that word. It’s not a big problem…of course, I understand your point.”

“Why would you want a quarter when I’m practically giving you a half page in front of that article?

“Helen, who’s supposed to answer Joycie’s calls? That beer guy is on the phone again, and they put him through to me.”

Lois and Daphne were giggling to each other. “At least we don’t have to deal with ‘darling’ or smoky beer. I hear Joyce used to call him Smokey the Bear,” Daphne whispered. That made Lois giggle and snort so that she had to put her hand in front of her mouth.

Daphne shh’d her and turned the door handle to the housekeeping closet as Lois stepped aside so that Daphne could open the door.