Help Me Heal

Chapter 35

That afternoon, Hank parked his car outside of the office that was now rented by Voight Detective Services. Erin was with him, as excited as he was to make a start.

"It was a stroke of luck that we can get those desks here today," he said as they got out of the car. Erin had found four for sale online, available cheaply as part of an office clearance. Although they were used, the pictures showed them in excellent condition. Even better, when Erin had contacted the seller to say they were ready to accept delivery, he had offered to bring them over in a few hours.

Hank unlocked the front door of the single storey unit and stepped into what was going to become the reception area. "There are four desks coming today, right? Three for the bullpen and one for my office. We need to order one for Alexa."

"Yes. I'm on the lookout for an L-shape one for her," Erin said. "It'll fit nicely here and give her plenty of work surface. Chairs I thought best to order new. I've done that, and they're coming tomorrow."

"Agreed, and good work," Hank said, smiling at her. That came slightly easier to him day by day, as he gradually thought of her more as his daughter again.

"Thanks. Computers are a couple of days away. Got the I.T. company lined up to come out the day after we get the kit so they can do all the setup. There's cabling to do, the server to setup, and so on. Oh, and phones are coming the same day as the computers. I.T. can sort all that for us too. I've also got the sign on order for the front of the building."

"I'm impressed," he said sincerely. Erin seemingly had the whole setup operation well in hand, showing that she was the right person to have in charge of it. Hank was the best person to head up the actual detective work, which he had been doing by touting for future business, with some level of success.

"It would be a good idea to get Alexa over here to see the place," Erin said. "And Kim, for that matter. I'll let you call Alexa, after that half ass job interview, if that's even what it was."

"Will do," Hank said, having no interest in a discussion about how he had handled that situation. "I'd like to show it to Kalinda too. Maybe I'll do that tonight."

"You should," she said positively. "I'm going to take some photos so that we've got some 'before' pictures."

Being able to contrast before and after once the business was up and running would be interesting, Hank thought. "Okay, do that. I'll be through here."

With that, he went through to what would soon become the bullpen. Erin, Kim and in time possibly Jay would work here. He pictured how the desks would be arranged, and imagined his team at work.

"You look deep in thought," Erin said when she came through from the reception area.

"Yeah. We're going to have three desks in here, but it's just occurred to me that we don't have a separate office to sit down with clients. I don't want them sitting at your desks."

"Hmmm," Erin said thoughtfully. "You make a good point. What if we made a somewhat informal meeting space in this corner? I'm thinking a couple of couches with a coffee table in the middle. There's enough room."

Informal didn't appeal to Hank. However, he was intelligent enough to know that it didn't need to appeal to him, it needed to appeal to clients. Most clients were likely to be closer to Erin's age than his, so maybe she knew best?

"You think that's appropriate for an office environment?" he asked.

"Definitely. It also might help to put people like one-off clients at ease if they have matters to discuss that are difficult for them. If you need to speak to professional clients, you can do that in your office."