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The first thing Bryn did, once she’d checked her office for damage, was pull out the paper on which she’d scrawled the phone number from the voice mail, and dial it. Joe Fideli hadn’t left; he took up a post in the chair across from her, and even though she made significant motions for him to leave, he shook his head and made himself more comfortable with a steaming cup of coffee. He’d gotten her one, too, which was nice. Mr. French was waddling around the room busily sniffing things, which included a close inspection of Fideli’s socks and shoes.
As Bryn dialed, Fideli said, “Put it on speaker. ”
She did, and they listened to three rings before the connection clicked in and a shaky voice said, “Hello?”
“Hello,” Bryn replied. “This is Fairview Mortuary. I’m calling on behalf of Mr. Fairview. ”
There was a brief silence, and then the man said, “Is he there?”
“No. There’s been … an accident. I’m afraid Mr. Fairview is dead. ”
“Oh. Oh, God. ” She heard him take a damp, shaking breath. “What am I going to do?”
“Sir—what’s your name?”
“Spiro. Spiro Kanakareides. Look, Mr. Fairview, he was … doing something special for me—do you understand?”
“Yes. Yes, I understand. ” Bryn glanced at Joe, who nodded encouragement. “Mr. Kanakareides, why don’t you come in to talk to me? I’m sure that I can help with your problem. ”
“You can?”
“Yes, I can. ” She tried to sound soothing, professional, and utterly reliable. She must have succeeded, because after a moment he agreed, and hung up the phone.
“Good,” Joe said. “Let me know when he gets here. I’ll have a team ready to take him. ”
“Take him where?”
Fideli frowned. “I thought you understood, Bryn. We’re in the cleanup business. We get Fairview’s contacts and his clients. Mr. Kanakareides has to be brought in and debriefed and we have to decide what’s to be done with him. ”
“But you’ll probably let him die, right??
??
Fideli looked away this time. “Yeah, probably, unless there’s a real good reason to keep him maintained,” he said. “Look, I’m not wild about any of this, but it’s got to be kept inside the company. That’s what we’re here to do: seal the leak, repair the damage. People will get hurt. Can’t be avoided. The good news is that we’ll have all of them within a few days; they can’t be skipping too many shots in a row, and they’ll be contacting us. This isn’t the hard part. ”
“Isn’t it?” she asked softly. “He preyed on people who were scared and desperate, and made them even more scared and desperate. And now we’re going to victimize them all over again. That doesn’t bother you?”
“If it did, I’d be in the wrong line of work. Look, I’m as compassionate as I can be, but there have to be limits. These people weren’t supposed to live. They’re only here because Fairview got greedy, not because God came down from on high and granted them a miracle. ”
“And what about me? I’m only here because you had a spasm of conscience, right? Now I’m marking time, because you already told me your mysterious supplier was done with us. I’m surplus goods. After the last one of these … these revived checks in for their shot, I’ll be dealt with, too. ”
He didn’t deny it. “Theoretically. But in practice, there may be other ways you can be useful to us. ”
She laughed, and it sounded empty. “Forgive me if I don’t feel reassured by that. It’s not very theoretical to me. ”
“Bryn. ” He leaned forward and took her hand in his. “I’m not going to let you down. Pat’s not going to let you down. You can count on that, okay?”
She didn’t believe him—not that he wasn’t sincere at the moment. She did believe that. But Fideli wasn’t a rogue; it wasn’t in his nature. He’d do what he was ordered, even if he didn’t like it. Sooner or later, Patrick McCallister would order Fideli to walk away while she was put in some sterile little room again, to die. And Fideli would feel bad about it, and probably carry guilt for a while, but his life would go on.
And hers would not.
There was absolutely no point in saying all that, she realized. Nothing was going to change her fate.
So Bryn smiled and said, “It’s okay. What do we do now?”
“We get this place running,” Joe said. He seemed relieved that she’d accepted his reassurances. “So let’s get started. ”
Going through the files was empty work, but at least it passed the time, and that was all Bryn was doing now … passing time.
