“Your watch could have paid off half their medical bills.”
We both look at the gold-encrusted timepiece. He grimaces. “This old thing?” After a rueful shake of his head, he says, “No, this piece wouldn’t have touched even a tenth of the debt. You should know. I heard you paid it all off and that you’re planning on donating even more in memory of dear Soph.”
My blood boils even hotter. “You knew exactly how much their debt was?”
“Malcolm kept me informed from time to time.” He looks over his shoulder then, perhaps feeling my animosity creep down his spine. “I suppose it’s too early for a whiskey. I’m parched.”
“It’s barely ten in the morning, Mr. Hedder.”
“You know the old saying. It’s five o’clock somewhere.” His smile dies slowly at my stony glare.
“Not only is it barely ten in the morning, but you’ve wasted fifteen minutes of my day. That’s fifteen minutes too many. You have five minutes to state your business, and then I’m walking out of here.”
“Now wait a minute. I’m here to look out for Tiny. If you care about her, as you profess, then you won’t mind my hanging around a bit. I’ve got some things of her mother’s that Tiny might be interested in. Unless you’ve got something to hide, I can’t imagine why I’d be a bother to you.”
“Cut the bullshit, Hedder. I’ll summarize your visit. You show up uninvited to my office. You suggest that I am of questionable character. You challenge my suitability to marry—yes, marry,” I repeat at his look of surprise, “a woman you have ignored for the whole of her adult life, leaving her and her mother to struggle for every penny, to be worn down by worry, to be crushed under a mountain of debt while you act as the pretty appendage for some rich old socialite in Palm Beach or perhaps even San Tropez. You fail to show up for the funeral of this woman’s mother, and yet you believe that we care about your opinion of us?”
I stand up and proceed toward the door, not even waiting to see if Mitch follows.
“For your sake, I hope you are correct and Tiny’s longing for a parent doesn’t overcome her newfound feelings for you,” Mitch mutters.
It’s a warning, but not an effective one. There are things I might lose Tiny to—her infernal sense of pride and need for independence is one—but a man who cheated on and abandoned her mother? Never.
I don’t give him the satisfaction of a response other than allowing the door to close behind me. I stop at Rose’s desk. “Our visitor is still in the conference room. If he isn’t gone in the next five minutes, call security.”
Before I can sit down at my desk Louis is at the door.
“What is it?” I ask impatiently. After enduring Mitch Hedder’s presumptuousness, I find I have little patience to tolerate Louis’s whining.
“I saw you taking a meeting.” His tone is accusatory. “Should I have been in there?”
“If you should have been in the meeting, I would have invited you.” My response is a dismissal, but this is a different Louis than the one I hired, one whose ability to take a hint, read nuance, and interpret a signal is suddenly nonexistent.
“Given that you’re distracted by other things, I should be in these meetings. For the protection of Kerr Inc.,” he says frostily.
He’s overstepped and doesn’t even realize it. “I am Kerr Inc. I shouldn’t have to remind you of this.” I reapply myself to the regulatory paperwork on SunCorp and dismiss him. He stands uncertainly at the doorway for a few moments. His suit pants make a whisking sound as he shifts his weight from foot to foot. He wants to retort, to say something, to take some power back, but I am Ian Kerr and Louis is a mere employee. He’s feeling that insignificance and wants me to allay it. It’s not going to happen. He’s done here.
I continue to ignore him and he finally drifts away.
TINY
I TELL JAKE I HAVE to take a long lunch. It’s the fourth long lunch I’ve taken this week. He merely nods and shoos me out. My guess is he thinks I’m having sex with Ian. I’m not, although that would be better than what I actually am doing, which is cabbing it down to midtown and loitering around Richard Howe’s office. So far I’ve followed Howe to four lunches with various clients and have taken several surreptitious pictures with my smartphone.
Howe enjoys eating fish. He orders it almost every time, and he tends to drink a lot. He also stares at the waitresses’ asses nonstop. I report all of this to Sarah.
“Field work is pretty boring,” I tell her.
“More boring than sitting inside at a desk and answering phones?”
“Good point.”
“Who does he have lunch with?”
“No one interesting. A bunch of guys wearing blue suits. You know the uniforms the kids who go to private school wear on the Upper East Side? It’s like these are the same kids wearing the same uniforms, only the kids are taller and the sizes are larger.”
“It looks like that because they are the same kids,” Sarah points out. “Any women in the group?”
“No. The only women they encounter are the waitresses. I’m not getting anything out of this.”
“You’ve only followed him for one week and only at lunch. You have to vary it.”
“What do I tell Ian? I’m sorry I can’t be home tonight because I’m stalking this guy we both can’t stand.”
“Then you’ll have to hope that something exciting happens during lunch.”
“Sarah, have you been to the Aquarium?” I ask abruptly. An idea—probably a bad one—starts to formulate. Ian had once said that Howe is at the hottest clubs all the time, and right now there is no hotter club than Kaga’s Aquarium.
“I’ve heard of it. That’s the club with the pools on the VIP level and the giant shark tanks?”
“That’s the one. Would you like to go?”
“God, I’d love to, but do you know how expensive it is? Even if I wanted to stand in line for two hours, which I don’t, isn’t the cheapest drink in there like twenty dollars? I’d have to suck on the same rum and coke all night.”
“Ian knows the owner,” I murmur.
“Are you saying…” she trails off and then lets out a squeak of delight. “Is it crass for me to say yes, hallelujah, yes?”
“No, it’s a pretty cool place.” I hurriedly add, “Howe might be there.”