Suddenly, her cell phone shrilled. Matilda jumped, picked it up and spoke, “Hello?” Then, “Hello … yes … yes … how much … I’ll have to go to Albuquerque to release that kind of cash … okay … okay … Gamerco … what?” She bent over a notepad she’d had ready and scribbled. For a moment she frowned, then said, “Okay, park on an end.”
Everyone in the room heard the caller hang up sharply with a clang. Matilda looked at the men with a frown. “Gamerco Shopping Center?”
A half-hour later, her briefing was done. Enditto, still smirking, recommended that Matilda use their back exit to depart. Jim Mulligan, clearing his throat, asked if he could take the rest of the afternoon off. Enditto agreed but ordered him back to the office by 10:30 a.m. the next day.
Matilda, still feeling a bit dazed, left the office to find herself in a narrow back alley. Mulligan appeared behind her, still clearing his throat. She turned back to see him grinning.
“You know why I asked for the day off?”
“No,” she said, conscious of her silly heart doing unmannerly flip-flops.
“So we could spend it together.” And they did. Jim drove her rental car to Albuquerque, where did the errands they needed to complete. Then they ate Mexican food in an Old Town restaurant, laughing and gazing at each other until it was time to return. They drove back under a wonderfully starry sky, and after dropping Jim off at his house in the east end of town, Matilda returned to her hotel near the mall. A sleepy clerk smiled at her as she crossed the lobby.
Her alarm clock went off too soon. Although it was nearly noon, she’d deliberately slept late. She spent a long time in the shower, conscious of a dread which gripped her about the coming showdown. I’m not meant for cloak and dagger work, she thought ruefully. More and more, she was coming to the conclusion that she’d been set up by Roger. Had there been a small conspiracy of sorts to get back at her director and his success? Whatever the plan, she felt inadequate.
In the car, she turned left onto 491 and stopped at the Dairy Queen just past the mall. Yet after ordering a chicken sandwich, she left most of it untouched and the fizzy soda tasted like antacid. Once back in the rental car she found that the Navajo Shopping Center located in Gamerco was only a short distance out of the city limits. Matilda turned right into the driveway and bumped into the center square which served as parking lot. A variety of buildings in varying states of repair formed a square; they ranged from a laundry, an auto repair shop, commercial offices, and a large general store offering groceries and pawn. The lot was surprisingly full but divided into two sections. She found she’d be unable to follow her instructions exactly, since there were no end spots, so she pushed her way into an open space near the middle of one row.
Her hands trembled only a little as she lowered the two front windows and keyed off the ignition switch. Nobody was in sight, so she had to suppress a tiny yelp when the passenger side door was thrown open and Grayson pulled himself into the seat. He shut the door and leaned his elbow on the window ledge. His big frame filled up the space in the car and his proximity felt like both a threat and an invasion.
He was smirking. “You’re a cold **&*%#@.” His casual obscenity hung in the air. He looked around, “You like the neighborhood? While you got to grow up like a princess in some big New England mansion, these folks have always had to make due with less.”
“Why, Mr. Gray, you sound like you have a social conscience,” she said, stung at his smugness.
But he was active all of a sudden, searching her glove compartment, running his hands along the dashboard, under the seats and turning to her with a leer. “Give me your purse.” Taking it form her nerveless hands, he rummaged through the contents, chuckling at the bank envelope. But then he dropped the bag into his lap and said, “Your turn, missy.”
(Continued next week)
