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We glanced in the direction of a glass cubicle in the corner of the large office space, where Michael Madison ruled his empire with an iron fist, according to Gran. We could see him seated behind his desk now, talking to Natalie. When she left his office, she looked both sad and upset, and Michael Madison looked angry.

“I think they had a fight about the baby,” said Dooley.

“Yeah, I think so, too,” I agreed.

“Poor Natalie. Pregnant and unloved.”

“She may be pregnant, but she’s not unloved,” I said, and gestured to Tom Mitchell, who sat eyeing Natalie fervently, with a sort of puppy dog look on his face. “It wouldn’t surprise me if Natalie is the colleague Tom is secretly in love with,” I announced.

Gran had noticed the same thing, and whispered,“I think you just might be right, Max! Which would make our job a whole lot easier!”

“How do you mean?” asked Dooley.

“If we can get those two together, it would solve two problems in one go!”

“Quiet, you guys,” said Scarlett. “Someone’s coming!”

And indeed there was. A young man with a floppy hairdo was heading in our direction. He was pushing a cart loaded with items that looked like mail. When he finally reached us, he gave us a curious glance, before addressing Gran.

“Vesta Muffin and Scarlett Canyon?” he asked.

“That’s us,” said Gran.

“You’ve got mail,” said the kid with a grin, and dropped an envelope on Gran’s desk. “Contracts, probably,” he explained. “Just sign them and drop them off with me. I’ll make sure they get where they’re supposed to be. I’m Danny, by the way. I work in the mailroom.”

“Yeah, I thought as much,” said Gran.

“You guys are part of this new senior intern program, aren’t you?”

“Yep, that’s us,” said Scarlett.

“You don’t look senior to me,” said Danny, as he gave Scarlett an appreciative look. “How old are you? Forty? Fifty?”

Scarlett giggled.“Hasn’t anyone ever told you? A lady never tells and a gentleman never asks.”

“Then I guess I shouldn’t have asked.”

“I won’t tell if you won’t,” said Scarlett, batting her eyelashes at the kid.

She was dressed to impress on her first day on the job. For the occasion she was wearing an actual business suit, which made her look more like a high-powered executive than an intern. In fact she looked as if she owned the place.

“Scarlett is my age,” said Gran, dropping a bucket of ice water on this budding office romance. Danny stared at her for a moment, then at Scarlett, and finally shook his head. “That’s impossible. You look at least twenty years younger.”

“Why, thank you, Danny,” said Scarlett.

Gran, who was grinding her dentures, now growled,“Don’t you have places to be, sonny boy? People to see?”

“Hold your horses, granny,” said Danny, then directed a wink at Scarlett and was off to deliver more mail.

“Twenty years younger, my ass,” Gran growled.

“Now let’s not forget why we’re here, Vesta,” said Scarlett. “And befriending the mailroom boy may work in our favor. Guys like Danny know everyone and everything about a place like this.”

“You’re right,” Gran reluctantly admitted. “Go on. Seduce him if you must.”

“I’m not going to seduce a kid like that—are you crazy!” Then she sighed. “He is yummy, though, isn’t he? How old do you think he is? Twenty? Twenty-five?”

“More like fifteen.”

“Oh, nonsense. If he’s old enough to work here, he’s old enough to…”

“Let’s not forget why we’re here, Scarlett,” Gran admonished her friend.

“Touch?,” said Scarlett with a grin. “So how do you want to work this?”

But before they could decide on a strategy of campaign, a young woman joined us. She was the office manager, and was there to teach Gran and Scarlett the ropes. Turns out they’d been hired to assist the office staff in some minor and less appealing tasks. Such as there are: updating customer lists, checking addresses, correcting listings for the accounting department… All in all, not exactly the most exciting work! But Gran and Scarlett set themselves to it with gusto.

“And what are we supposed to do?” asked Dooley, once the office manager had left.

“We’re going to do what we do best,” I said. “Which is to snoop around!”

And so we hopped down from the desk, and made our way over to Natalie’s desk, which was closest to the big boss.

As we approached, we drew a lot of attention from the office staff, who had presumably never seen a pair of cats before. But since word had spread that the two new interns had brought along their emotional support animals, at least no one tried to evict us.

We took up position next to the window, which coincidentally put us within hearing distance of Natalie Ferrara, hoping to glean some information that would make Gran and Scarlett’s task a little easier.

“She seems sad, Max,” said Dooley.

And she did. So sad, in fact, that I could detect at least fifteen Kleenexes in her wastepaper basket. She was talking into her phone when we arrived, keeping the volume low so no one else could hear.