Sammie

I cracked my eyes open as the notes of my favorite band played on my phone. My alarm was connected to my Daubify playlist and waking up on Mondays was a little bit easier this way. I smiled at the croon of multiple voices harmonizing and rolled out of bed.

I let the music continue as I started my morning routine, washing my face and patting on moisturizer. Then I reached into my closet for the white button up with my company’s logo, Steele Security,  on the side.

Correction, my fathers’ company. I grimaced and thought back to last night as my father and I talked during the weekly family dinner. He always lamented that my brothers never wanted to go into the security industry. Instead, my older brother had become an ER doctor, and my younger brother became a lawyer.

I don’t know why my father complained so much. They were very successful in their respective fields. My younger brother even helps with legal advice on a regular basis. And one time, when one of our guards was injured during a job, my older brother was the one who patched him up.

It stung listening to him talk about how his sons didn’t want the family business when I was the one who worked for him and got the degree for it. I had tried to broach the subject of taking over myself, but he would shut it down. Then he’d ask when I’d find a boyfriend and offer to hook me up with one of his friends’ sons. I loved my dad, but he could be a misogynistic prick sometimes. Not that I didn’t want to eventually marry and have kids, just that wanting to do that didn’t mean I couldn’t take over the company.

I grabbed a loose-fitting blazer and shrugged it on. All of my blazers seemed just a little too big for me, but that was because I got them fitted as if I would be wearing my company issued holster. Some of the guys like to wear the holster all the time, but I preferred to only wear one when necessary for a job.

I grabbed a smoothie packet out of the freezer and emptied the contents into my blender with some orange juice. As the blender pulverized my breakfast, I rinsed out the container and left it to dry on the drying rack. I poured the bright pink smoothie into my to-go cup and gave my blender a quick wash before grabbing my phone and work bag.

One of the great things about living in the city was public transportation and unless I had an emergency, I tried to take advantage of it. Once I sat down on the subway, I pulled up the latest news on my phone. Scrolling through the breaking news for the area, I paused at one of the articles.

One Dead and Another in Critical Condition After Break-in at Tempo Art Gallery

A security guard was fatally attacked, and another is in critical condition after an unidentified suspect was interrupted after vandalizing an upcoming exhibition at the Tempo Art Gallery on Monday at 2:48 am.

The victim, 54-year-old Lieutenant Jack Gray, was seriously wounded at the scene while his partner, 29-year-old Senior Security Officer Zeil Kee was also injured and taken to nearby Summerview University Hospital for treatment. Police at the scene say that the intruder snuck into the Art gallery and damaged a never-before-seen painting by renowned artist Zachary Von Soest before fleeing the scene after discovery.

Local law enforcement and paramedics were dispatched on location at about 3 am. Both victims were rushed to the hospital where Lt Gray was pronounced dead on arrival. SSO Kee is still in critical condition.

No description of the suspect was immediately available…

Overhead, a female voice automation announced that I had reached the Leif Circle exit. Standing and moving toward the door, I hopped off the subway and proceeded up the steps. It was still dark outside, and I could see a few people running in Mesial Park before the heat of the day made that bad idea.

As I walked, I could see Tempo Art Gallery. I stared at the building. Police cars were parked off the main road in the drop off. The entire front was blocked off and several officers were visible. I usually walked in front of the gallery on my way to the office, but I took the longer way around to avoid the hassle of being stopped. Even though Steele Security was only a block away, the gallery had used Touch, Cover and Shield Protection also known as TCSP for the last three decades.

Before joining Steele, I considered working for some of the other security companies in town. It is hard not to have people cry nepotism at a family-owned firm and I wanted to avoid that if I could. I ended up staying with Steele Security when my research showed me that the company my father created was one of the best in the business.

That research had also led me to a lot of recent industry rumors and TCSP was one of the companies that had some very negative ones. It wasn’t the guards that were the problem, necessarily, but I heard that leadership liked to cut corners. It was something only a few in the business were aware of, and most of them were executives. While the break-in was tragic, I wasn’t surprised that someone had been able to get in.

As part of my attempts to have my father acknowledge me, I submitted security proposals for key locations around the city. In the case of Tempo, I had even sent them a letter informing them of concerning changes to their visible system and offering them a free consultation. Whether they had ever seen it or not, with this tragedy, I hoped that they would hire a different security team or at least do an audit of their systems. I had a feeling if their insurance company ever tested their setup, they might lose their coverage.