“Mitch, I need you to stay and cover for Eric tonight, something down in the pipe room is leaking coolant again.” Jake had been waiting for Mitch in the break room by the time clock; it was the easiest place to find someone at the end of the working day.
“Oh come on, that’ll put me near fifty hours this week and I still got a ten coming up tomorrow.” Mitch whined, it was easy to whine to Jake. He was a boss that would listen to it.
“And if I took it, I’d hit seventy and go home to an angry wife at eleven o’clock at night, Sandra thinks I’m stepping out as it is without coming home late all the time.” Jake responded, he’d been sitting on the mini-fridge for awhile thinking about that.
“O.k. you got me, but if Eric isn’t back tomorrow I’m gonna slip a dead fish in his locker. See how he likes that.” Mitch mumbled and walked around the table in the middle of the room to get to the door again.
“It’s not like it was a big cut, if that baby takes more than a long weekend for a mugging I’ll buy the fish for you. G’night Mitch.” Jake stifled a laugh, knowing that Mitch would never actually do that. Jake had watched two other janitors’ clock out while waiting there on the mini-fridge and not said a word to them. Mitch was the one he wanted because he was the one that would get the job done right.
Of course, it wasn’t just about getting the job done anymore. A little less than two months before, a disgruntled janitor had sold access to the building. That would be a problem for any functioning company, but for the police department it was a complete disaster. A janitor that lets suspected felons destroy evidence on their trial just can’t be allowed. So Jake had to pick his janitor that was least likely to become disgruntled because of a long week and late night.
“Good night Jake.” Mitch responded and opened the maintenance closet directly across the hall from the break room. He had just put the mop and bucket back there and was now bringing them back out. It felt like he was waking up a friend who had just gone to sleep or maybe he just wanted it to feel like that. The coolant from the air conditioning motor room stuck to the floor and made it slick even after mopping it twice.
The bucket’s wheels squeaked and clicked over the mass produced tiles on the way to the service elevator. The two flights of stairs down to the sub-basement wasn’t too much of a walk, but the elevator saved him from spilling half the bucket on the way. The doors opened when they recognized Mitch’s thumb print on the small pane of glass near their joint. Inside he unclipped the maintenance key rod from his belt and used it to get access to the sub-basement.
