“Nope. I thought he was still at the office with you.”
“He was.” Helga craned her neck and swept the bar. “Then he was gone. I thought he’d snuck out to be with you. I could tell he wasn’t interested in the party once we were sure the app hadn’t crashed in the first five minutes.”
“It went well?”
“As far as we can tell. There’s a bigger event going on at the launch venue downtown, and we’ve got people there, but for us grunts, it’s over.”
“You’re not grunts.”
“We are. We’ve rebuilt that app from scratch, and best case scenario, it succeeds well enough for Blutecc to sell it on to a bigger company. No one will remember what any of us did to save it. But that’s life, I suppose. Sacha doesn’t seem bothered, so I guess I’m not either.”
“What will you do now? Is Sacha staying with the company?”
“Shouldn’t you ask him that?”
She was right, obviously, but Sacha wasn’t there. Jonah shrugged. “I’m just curious about Blutecc. I’ve never taken much notice in what you do, but this…project has fascinated me. It’s made me wonder what will come next.”
“More of the same, I’d imagine,” Helga said. “Though I don’t think they’ll buy such a broken app again and try to develop it with no principles. Sacha ripped the board a new one this morning.”
“He did, eh?”
“Of course. He’s good at that. I think it’s why they hired him, but it’s days like today they sometimes wish they hadn’t, especially when he waved your invoice in their faces and made them cough up to it.”
Jonah laughed, picturing the scene. “Well, I suppose it’s better than him paying it from his own pocket.”
“He totally would’ve done that, you know.”
“I know.” It was probably the most in-depth conversation Jonah had ever shared with Helga. He absorbed it all, but his heart still called out for Sacha. “Where do you think he is? Did he go home?”
Helga shrugged. “Maybe. He’s been under the weather all day, but I thought he was holding out to see you.”
“Under the weather? In what way?”
“Headache. He gets them a lot—shoot, hang on.” Helga dug her phone from her bag. It was flashing with an incoming call. “Sorry, I have to take this.”
Jonah took the hint and left her to it. He went back to the table where Lily was talking animatedly to Nico. They were engaged enough for Jonah to subtly claim his coat from his chair and abandon them too.
He shouldered his way out of the pub and into the street. Smokers lined the pavements, but none were Sacha.You don’t even know he smokes, remember? That was a late night assumption you made based on your obsession with listening to him breathe.
Jonah shook his head slightly, and walked away from the drinkers who’d spilled out of the pubs and bars, drifting across the road to the office on autopilot, his phone to his ear.
Sacha’s voicemail kicked in. Again. As if he’d dropped off the earth for the second time in the space of a week.Maybe he did go home. And he turned his phone off to get some peace.
But as logical as the theory sounded, Jonah knew it wasn’t true. There was nothing logical about Sacha Ivanov. Never had been.
Jonah swiped himself into the office building and strode to the elevator. Samson was at his post, for once wide awake. “Did you see Mr. Ivanov from Blutecc leave yet?” Jonah asked.
Samson shook his head. “Not that I remember. But everyone seemed to leave in a hurry today. Excited for Christmas, no doubt.”
“No doubt.” Jonah nodded and continued on his way to the elevator and up to the thirteenth floor.
He found it deserted, not even Curtis had reached there yet. Lights off, computers shut down. But instinct drew Jonah to the alcove that couldn’t be seen unless you were in it, and he rounded the corner to the soft blue light of a laptop.
Sacha’s laptop.
And Sacha was beside it, slumped on the floor, eyes closed, face pale.
He looked dead.