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“Then let me fire it back up. If you can pull this off, I have no reason to wish you ill will. Your ideas?”
“I have several.” She sat forward. She did not mind getting lowballed on the finder’s fee for one simple fact.
Clarisse never intended to collect it.
About a half hour later, Trask walked her out. At the front door he said, “Someone visited my father recently. A woman. Know anything about that?”
“I may. But I need to be sure. She could be friend or foe.”
“I don’t need friends and I don’t like foes.”
“Then it may not matter.”
“It always matters. But just so we understand each other really well, you fall into the same category, business associate or not.”
“I never expected anything less, or more.”
“You’re a strange one. I can’t quite figure you out, and that’s unusual. I’ve seen just about everything.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Mr. Trask. I’m a little beyond ‘just about everything.’”
CHAPTER42
CLARISSE WALKED FOR TWO MILES.If they were going to follow her, she was going to make them work for it. She entered a store from the front and went out through the rear, after a pit stop in the ladies’ room where she had previously left a bag underneath the bottom of the trash bag with some fresh clothes and other disguise elements, and her phone.
When she came out she was transformed, blond to brunette, skirt and jacket to torn jeans and a sweater, heels to flats, glasses, makeup and lipstick shorn from her face. She could pass for a fresh-faced teenager with AirPods in her ears and a vape in her hand.
She grabbed an Uber and took it to within two blocks of her hotel. She went to her room, sat at her desk, and opened her notebook.
Then her phone dinged as the email dropped in.
You haven’t matured a bit, it seems. Same old snark. If no leverage on Mommy then I guess she becomes superfluous. What a word. Didn’t expect me to conjure that one, did you, darling? A bullet to the head, or a ligature display? Poison down the pipe. It won’t take much. Huff and puff and blow the old bitch down would do it actually. What shitty care you took of her. Way I see it, I found HL. That was the big part. Your part, finish the job. Then we divvy. And don’t take your time. I’m tired of mops and little diamonds where the fence screws you over after you do all the planning and take all the risk. A faraway beach beckons. I want to get there. But I want to get there in unassailable style. Wow, another SAT word. But I see you’ve been keeping busy too. Poor Mr. Schmuck. How much did you take him for in the offices of Creative Engineering? Saw him giving your ass a rubdown. Hope you enjoyed it. You always were poor at relationships. Haveyou even had sex yet, whirly-girl? I mean, not against your will of course. Not sure you’re capable, but I could be wrong. Let me know on Mommy. She eats a lot and she snores and her gas, well, it’s a problem. Tick, tock, tick.
Cheers, hon.
Her bluff on Mommy had been called, it seems. So what to do, what to do? She consulted the appropriate notebook, even as her mind lingered on the “had she had sex” part. That had been a low blow, and she knew the bitch had meant every word of it.
I could say the exact same about you, babycakes. Isn’t that what they called you? Young and just meant to be eaten up, with no other purpose in life?
But no reason to antagonize, not yet anyway. And she had not even mentioned her comments on Oxblood’s murder. She would give it a bit. No need to rush a reply.Shehad obviously taken her time in answering.
Plus, I have other things to do.
She turned to another notebook and flipped through some pages, making notes and crossing out other ones.
What would I do without these? They allow me to make sense of my world. To put things in precise, logical steps to achieve a precise, logical outcome.
And they also prevent me from losing my damn mind.
Clarisse had told herself she was not going to do what she was just about to do. But things had changed. And when things changed, your plans must as well.
She looked at her computer screen and hit the key. A few seconds later Mickey Gibson answered.
“I wasn’t sure you would pick up,” said Clarisse.
“I almost didn’t.”
“Things weren’t left well, I know. But I have information pertinent to you.”
