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“How much?”
“How much do you want?”
Lucy seemed startled by that, but she didn’t let it throw her too far off. “Thirty percent,” she said. “That’s only fair. There’s a lot more to really running this place than just answering the phone and handing out tissues to the bereaved. ”
“I’m starting to realize that. Yes, that sounds fair. Shake on it?” She held out her hand, and Lucy took it for a brief squeeze. “I don’t think we’ll get much done today. Maybe we should make lists of what we need to find first. ”
“First thing, you’d better start looking for a good downstairs man; they don’t come cheap. I do wish we’d never let Vikesh go. And we’ll have to make sure these construction crews know which permits they’re supposed to get. ”
“Do you think you can handle that last part?”
Lucy smiled. “That’s what you’re going to be paying me for, Ms. Bryn. ”
“Did we have anything scheduled for this week?”
“We had Mr. Granberry down there in the freezer—good Lord, we’re going to get our asses sued off for that, I’ll bet. I’ll be in touch with our lawyer to see if he can get ahead of that and offer some kind of settlement. It’d just be the meetings you had yesterday we have to worry a
bout, and I’ll take care of that. ” Lucy thought for a second. “Hmm I think Mr. Fairview had some private meetings booked. I only know that because I worked late a couple of times and people came in looking for him. ”
“Do you remember any names? Maybe I can contact them. ”
Lucy leaned against her car and patted her carefully lacquered hair as wind skirled through the parking lot, picking up ashes and random trash and stirring them ankle-high. “You think he was doing something illegal?”
“Do you?”
Lucy was quiet a moment; then she crossed her arms and stared off at the wrecked building with a distant expression. “I don’t know. He was a good man, but he had his darkness, Mr. Fairview. I know that. Those folks that came in at night—they seemed scared. And desperate. But he seemed to be helping them. ”
“Lucy, do you remember the names? It may be important. ”
She shook her head. “He was right there, soon as they came in. I didn’t even have a chance to ask. There was a man and a woman; she looked familiar but I couldn’t place her. I saw them twice. She didn’t look so good the second time. You think he was selling drugs?”
“Maybe,” Bryn said. “We need to find out what was going on. Is there anything you can tell me that would help?”
Lucy hesitated this time for so long Bryn thought that she wouldn’t bite, but finally she said, “You’re going to think I’m crazy. ”
“No, I promise I won’t. ”
“I think …” She took a deep breath. “I said the woman looked familiar. She did. She looked like one of the clients we had. And the man—I know he was a paying customer. The bereaved husband. ”
“By client you mean …”
“Corpse,” Lucy said. “Deceased. Gone on to glory. Must have been the dead woman’s sister, I guess. ”
“Probably. ” Bryn wondered how much Lucy really knew, or guessed, or didn’t want to guess. “What about the other person you saw? Could it have been … a paying customer? Or a client?”
“Clients don’t go walking around. ”
“Lucy. ”
She didn’t look happy about it, but she finally said, reluctantly, “Maybe one of them looked familiar, too. Bryn, what the hell was going on?”
“Is,” Bryn said softly. “Is going on. I don’t know, but we have to find out. Is the phone still working?”
“I tried the number this morning, and it rang through to voice mail. I changed the message to say that we were closed for repairs. ”
“Good thinking. Were there any messages?”
“I’m not supposed to check the messages. Mr. Fairview always liked to do that himself. ”
