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Buffalo, New York
Thompson was getting nervous. Why hadn’t she called him? It was lunchtime. Surely, she would have taken a break. Maybe he should just go downstairs to the housekeeping office? He snapped his fingers. He’d call her from the house phone and ask if she had gotten his letter. Then he would ask if he could stop by and ask her a few questions. She wouldn’t be able to run away, and she might feel safer in her own environment. The question was should he be dressed as himself? Why not? He really wasn’t doing anything illegal. He was simply seeking information for his employer. But why was this job giving him a creepy feeling? There was a tense undercurrent in his communications with Arthur.Anger and desperation, Thompson thought.
His job was to find out whether or not Ms. Petrov had witnessed a signature. And to find out whether she saw where Randolph Millstone had put the document. There was nothing truly shady about finding out about those two things. But the subterfuge he had used involved more deceit than was usual in his investigations, and therefore seemed shadier.
Thompson took the elevator to the lobby, went to the phone banks, and asked to be connected to housekeeping. A woman answered. “Housekeeping, Colette speaking. How may I help you?”
“Hello, Colette, this is Jacob Taylor from Dunbar, Wilson and Chase. I believe a letter was delivered to your home this morning,” he half asked.
Colette’s heart started to pound. She didn’t know who it was who was pretending to be from Dunbar, Wilson and Chase, but she was going to find out. She might be naïve when it came to men, but when it came to life in general, she was pretty savvy. “Yes, Mr. Taylor. My apologies for not calling you sooner. We have had a busy day this morning. A lot of people checking out. And in. You mentioned something about Mr. Millstone? What is it that you need from me?”
“Do you have a few moments to sit down with me? If it isn’t any trouble, I could come to your office. I won’t take up much of your time.”
Colette put him on mute and looked over her cubicle. There was a lull in the confusion, and she had a lunch break coming up.
“Are you close to the Curtiss?” Colette thought she heard familiar music in the background. The music they played in the hotel lobby. Then she checked the caller ID and saw the call was coming from an internal line. It was not from the cell number on the card.
“Yes, actually. I’m right down the street. I could meet you in ten minutes.” He’d stop in the men’s room to kill some time.
“There is an employee cafeteria on the mezzanine level, but you have to take the service elevator from the kitchen.”
“I’ll figure it out.”
“How will I recognize you?” Colette asked.
Thompson stopped for a moment.Heknew whatshelooked like, butshedidn’t know whathelooked like. And he wasn’t about to tell her, either.
Conversely, he didn’t know that she knew he was a fraud.
They each thought they had the upper hand.
He gathered himself. “I’m wearing a gray jacket with black pants. I’m bald, with black-framed glasses.”
“All right, Mr. Taylor. I will sit close to the elevator door.”
“See you soon.”
Colette called the front desk immediately. It was the same music she had heard in the background when she was on the phone with Taylor. Or whatever his name really was. She was taken aback that he was already in the building. Now she was really on her guard.
She stood and leaned over the barricade that separated her desk area from her coworker. “Dottie? Got a few minutes?”
“What do you need?” Dottie answered.
“I need for someone to come with me to the cafeteria.”
Dottie chuckled. “Can’t find your way?”
“No. Just come with me, and I’ll tell you. Like now!” She yanked her head in the direction of the elevator.
“OK. OK.” Dottie grabbed her purse and met up with Colette at the elevator. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know yet. But someone who claims to be with my previous employer’s law firm wants to talk to me.”
“What do you mean,claims?” Dottie asked.
“Someone sent a letter to my sister’s house, where I’m staying with my son. The letter said he was from the law firm and had some questions for me. But I left his card in my car, so I phoned the law office directly. When I asked for him, they told me there was no one by that name working there.” Colette was almost out of breath.
“Jeez. So?”
