Storm Chaser: Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Elena had barely placed her foot on the bottom step of the staircase when her cell phone rang. Elena pulled it from the front of her purse and continued climbing the stairs. It was another unknown number so she clicked off the sound and slipped it back in her bag.

“Not going to answer?” Andre asked from the landing. “My stuff can wait if you need it too.” Elena shook her head and climbed the last few steps joining Andre on the landing.

“It is an unknown number,” she told him.

“And you don’t answer those?”

“Not since a lovely woman named Sharona decided to start using my cell number as her fake number at bars,” Elena said wryly. “I never actually met the woman but considering the caliber of men she didn’t want to give her actual number to I can believe she had some taste. And considering the quantity of calls I can also assume she is probably quite attractive.”

“Or the best of the lot at last call,” Andre said with a grin. Elena nodded as they walked into the conference room.

“True, But since all of Sharona’s admirers left messages when I didn’t answer,” Elena rolled her eyes. “Often long and very detailed messages and this unknown caller leaves none I’m leaning more towards Smith and Co. as my frequent callers.”

“Detailed messages huh? Sounds hot,” Andre said.

“After about the fifteenth unreturned message hot often turned into rant and hey baby turned into you bitch.” Andre laughed.

“So is Smith still giving you a hard time about being turned over the Peter?”

“I suppose if he actually caught me he would,” Elena said with a shrug. “So far I haven’t answered any calls from him and he hasn’t bothered to leave any messages.”

“Didn’t they say anything after you got back?” Andre began placing pressboard panels out on the conference table. Advertisements for Mothers Day, Easter, Memorial Day and the Fourth of July met Elena’s gaze.

“Not really,” she said. “Once we docked they took their cameras and notes and took off so fast you’d think they had just pulled off a bank heist. I think they thought Grandfather would confiscate them if they stuck around too long. These look great,” she said.

“Thanks, in advertising you have to plan pretty far in advance for ad placement. I showed you the schedule before you left so I won’t have to give you another piece of paper today but the spring holidays are coming up quick.”

“Everyone will be in town for the opening this weekend. Can we wait to show them these Monday morning? That way they can see what’s being done and have some input.”

“Monday should be fine.” Andre paused and a wicked grin crossed his face. “So were the cameras digital?”

“Why yes I believe they were,” Elena commented her grin matching Andre’s. “I do hope they had enough sense to turn them off during the passage through the channels. Otherwise their memory chips were most certainly fried.” Andre laughed and shook his head.

“I suppose no one reminded them?”

“Not to my knowledge. But in my own defense, when they ask,” she began.

“Which of course they will,” Andre said.

“Of course. They did watch me turn off all of the equipment in the pilot house before entering the channels from either direction and I did explain to them why I was doing that. So they should have known.”

“Do you actually think they will buy that?”

“Not really,” Elena sighed, the amusement leaving her. “I expect them to be really upset actually. And it may sound all damsel in distress of me but I am really glad Peter is supposed to be taking care of it and not me.”

“If it makes you feel any better if I was in this situation I would pull out the damsel in distress card as well, even if I had to do full drag queen gear to do it.” Elena smiled and Andre began gathering the press boards up, carefully stacking them in a pile on one of the side shelves. “That should keep them out of the way of the taste testing tomorrow.”

“Yeah, they should be safe there. Um can I ask you something?”

“If you want to know if I would wear heels with my damsel in distress disguise the answer is yes. If the dress and pleading looks didn’t do it, watching my try to walk in those things would definitely get me the sympathy vote.” Elena laughed.

“Now there is a mental picture. What I was going to ask is what that smell is. Kind of glue, paint smell. Is it from your ad stuff?” Andre took a deep breath, sniffing the air and blushed.

“Sorry I didn’t realize you could smell that out here.”

“Don’t be sorry it is your work area after all.”

“Well it isn’t really work related.”

“Oh?” Elena asked. “Are you repainting the apartment?”

“Not exactly,” he began. “It’s sort of a personal hobby.”

“A personal hobby?”

“Yeah.” Andre ran a hand through his hair and looked slightly embarrassed.

“Look, it isn’t really any of my business,” Elena said, giving him a way out.

“Oh no. It okay. I just…Well maybe I ought to show you.” Andre led the way out of the conference room and through his workspace. He unlocked the door to his apartment and Elena followed with some trepidation.

“Its nothing bad,” he assured her. The closer to his apartment they got the smell intensified. “I just didn’t have time to let the place vent.” He opened the door and Elena let out a yelp as a disembodied head stared back at her.

“Oh no, see it’s a mask. I make monster masks.” His cheeks flamed read and Elena realized it was not a floating head but a half finished werewolf mask on a stand. The face still looked mostly human as Andre appeared to have only worked on half of the fur.

“Werewolf?” She asked. He seemed pleased that she could identify it.

“There wolf. Yeah I start with a human face and then adapt it. The smell is the rubber from the mold and the epoxy.”

“I see.” Elena stepped forward. The stand was made of clear plastic so the mask still appeared to float and somehow she found it eerily fascinating. “That is kind cool,” She said, circling the mask. She flashed him a grin. “In a totally dorky kind of way.” He smiled back.

“This from the queen of cool?” He seemed relieved by her reaction.

“I never said I wasn’t a dork,” she pointed out. “What do you do with them when you are done?”

“Depends,” he said. I usually keep one for Halloween and the others I end up selling on e-bay. There are a few I just can’t seem to part with though.” He indicated a row of stands placed on a shelf about eye height. Five completely realistic movie villains stared back at her. Elena walked over to them and looked at each of them in turn.

“These are really great. So detailed.” Andre grinned behind her.

“What can I say, I like scary movies.”

“I think everyone likes scary movies,” Elena said. “It’s a safe scare. But most people don’t go home and make copies of the monsters.” The zombie Elena was looking at seemed so real she half expected to smell rotting flesh.

“You know there is a really good one that came out last week,” Andre said.

“Really?” Elena asked. “Bouncing between here and the Docking Facility has totally left me out of the loop.”

“Yeah Death Angel,” Andre said. Elena blinked.

“I thought that wasn’t due out until April.”

“Nope. I was thinking of going on Thursday. You interested? It would give you a chance to clear out your brain before the last minute details of the opening.” Elena was glad she was still looking at the zombie since she wasn’t fast enough to hide the surprise.

“That might be fun,” she said turning around, wiping the surprise from her face.

“Cool. Since we live so close to each other it would be pointless to take separate cars. I can drive if you like.”

“Makes sense,” Elena said.

“Great I’ll check out the movie times and we can fix details.”

“Sounds good.” Spin appeared in the doorway and meowed loudly at Elena, turned and walked back out of the door. Another plaintive mewl sounded from Andre’s workspace. Elena smile. “I think Spin is getting hungry.”

“Understandable. See you tomorrow then.”

“Yeah, have a good night working on your werewolf.”

“Bob.” Andre said.

“Bob?”

“Yeah, Bob the werewolf.”

“Of course,” Elena shook her head and laughed. She followed Spin out of the door and back downstairs, scooping the cat up at the door and walking to her car, unsure whether she had just agreed to a date or an outing with a friend. Either way, she felt a silly grin spread across her face as she walked to her car.