“I don’t know, love, lately it feels like all I’ve been writing about is corporate sludge. I’m just a bit restless, I think.”
“Okay.” Kate thought about it. “Why don’t you pitch Trish a story that you really want to write?” When Jay looked at her with a raised eyebrow, she continued, “Well, why not? You’ve got the clout now; she’s got you writing a cover story every other week. Maybe it’s time to leverage your value a little.”
Jay pondered the idea. “What would I want to write, if I had my choice?”
“It seems to me you most enjoy the stories that have a human angle.
Something with depth.”
“That’s true.”
“You know, when I was traveling through the Navajo and Hopi reservations near Four Corners...” Kate glanced sideways when she heard the pained sigh. Even all these months later, Jay studiously avoided any mention of their brief separation. Kate reached over, brushing her fingers lightly along Jay’s arm. “I had an opportunity to talk with their healers.
Their approaches to medicine are so spiritual, so different from our scientific bent.”
It was as if they could feel my emotional pain and
wanted to heal it.
“More holistic, you mean.”
The Cost of Commitment
“Yeah. It’s like they treat the mind and spirit as well as the body. I think we here in the ‘civilized’ world could learn a lot from our Native American brothers and sisters.”
“I thought they were pretty secretive about their customs, though, aren’t they?”
“Yeah, to an extent, but I’ve seen you in action, love; I have no doubt you could get them to share some of their ways with you for a story.
Heck, you could talk a mother hen off her nest.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, sweetheart. I’ll give it some thought. Besides, it’s beautiful country out there.”
“That it is, love, that it is.”
Kate pored over the faxes that had been arriving in a steady stream from the superintendent’s office at Auburn for the past hour. So far, the coverage of the murder had been relatively evenhanded. The young buck at the
Citizen
had wisely withheld the name of the victim pending notification of next of kin, Wendy from the Associated Press had refrained from any wild speculation linking the murder to other recent incidents at the prison, and the transcripts of the television coverage seemed rather benign.
“Yeah, I think she’s down meeting with the commissioner. No, so far she seems to have it under control. No, I tried to keep her from seeing that, but she got a hold of it by herself. David, I’m doing my best here...”
Curious about the whispered conversation her assistant was having about her, Kate set the papers aside and focused her acute hearing outside her door. It was abundantly clear that Marisa didn’t know she was in her office.
“Christ, David, I don’t want to be too obvious here. She’s bound to figure it out...Hey, it’s not my fault she’s sharp. You’re the one who told me this would be easy and you’d be back here soo—” Her voice trailed off as Kate strode purposely past her desk. “Oh God, I’ve got to go.” She didn’t wait for an answer before hanging up.
Unsure what to do, her face burning red with embarrassment at having been caught, Marisa chased her boss down the corridor.
“Are you quite finished with your report to Mr. Breathwaite?”
“I—”
“Because if you are, I believe there is plenty of real work sitting on your desk waiting for your attention.”
“Kate—”
“No.” Kate rounded on her assistant. “I don’t want to talk about this right now, nor do I think you would want me to. I suggest you go back to
Lynn Ames
the office and think about how important your job is to you and just who it is you work for.”
Without another word, Kate resumed her course, leaving her deflated assistant behind. In truth, she wasn’t sure where she was going, nor was she sure what she wanted to do about what she had just heard.
She sorted through her dealings with Marisa over the past three months. At first she had wondered why her predecessor hadn’t simply taken his assistant with him when he left; after all, that was standard procedure. Although she could have hired someone of her own choosing, Kate had decided to give Marisa a chance, reasoning that it would be wise to retain someone familiar with the workings of the office. Now she faced the ugly possibility that her assistant had stayed behind only to monitor and undermine her. In any event, keeping Marisa seemed an untenable option at this point.
Having made up her mind, Kate directed her steps to the executive deputy commissioner’s office. He was the one charged with handling staff matters, and she knew that she would need his blessing to have the woman reassigned.
Through his closed door, she could hear him screaming at some poor soul on the other end of the phone. “What? You idiot! All right, don’t worry, I’ll take care of it...Never mind. I’ll fix your little mess...
this
time.”
Kate knocked when she heard him slam the phone back into its cradle.
“Come.”
She poked her head around the door. “Bad time?”
Bill Redfield smiled. “Never for you, Kate. What can I do for you?”
“I hate to bother you with this, but I’m having a problem with my assistant. There are some trust issues and I just don’t think I can continue to work with her. I’d like to have her reassigned to another department.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Kate. Unfortunately, there are no openings right now, so I’m afraid you’re going to have to work through whatever it is. I’m really pressed for time, I apologize.” He looked at his watch as if to emphasize the point. “Don’t sweat it, Kate. I have faith that you’ll find a way to make it work.”
With that she was dismissed.
That was odd.
Walking deliberately back down the hall to her office, she made a couple of decisions.
“Hey, Technowiz, how the heck are you?” She was on the phone in her office with her door shut, having passed by Marisa’s desk without so much as a glance in the woman’s direction.
The Cost of Commitment
“Well, if it isn’t the all-important Ms. Kyle. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Actually, Peter, I was wondering if you had plans for dinner tonight.” Peter Enright was Kate’s closest friend outside of Jay. A security, tactical weapons, and technology expert, he had retired recently from DOCS to start his own consulting firm. At the moment, he was under contract to the feds to try to determine the origin of the bombs that had ripped through the state capitol several months earlier.
“Why do I get the feeling this isn’t just a social invitation?”
“It’s not. There’s something rotten in Denmark and I need to pick your brain. Are you game?”
“Me, turn down an intriguing opportunity like this? Never. Tell me what time and I’ll be there. Not only that, but I believe it’s my turn to bring the Chinese takeout.”
“I knew I could count on you, buddy. See you at 8:00 p.m.”
Kate hung up the phone and redialed.
“Parker.”
“Love, you’ve got to work on your phone etiquette. You’re sounding a little gruff there.”
“Hello, sweetheart. I wasn’t expecting you. How are you?”
“I’ve had better days.”
Instantly alert, Jay asked, “What’s going on?”
“I can’t go into it all right now, but I’ve invited Peter to dinner. I hope you don’t mind?”
“No, babe, of course not. If you’ve called in the big guns it must be serious. Are you okay? You sound a little shook up.”
“I’m not sure. I don’t want to sound paranoid.”
“You? Paranoid? You’ve got to be kidding. What happened, Kate?”
“I’ll explain it all later. Right now I’ve got some ass to chew.”
“Okay. Glad it’s not mine.”
“Never yours, love...although taking a nibble out of those cute buns now and then...”
“Katherine...”
“Okay, okay. I told Peter 8:00 p.m. Will you even be out of the Big Apple by then?”
“You bet. I should be home by 7:15.”
“Good. I could use a good hug and some alone time before he gets there.”
“You’ve got it, sweetheart. See you in a few hours. Don’t take any prisoners.”
“Can you hear me groaning from here, Parker? That was a terrible pun.”
“Well, I never said I was going to quit my day job.”
Lynn Ames
“It’s a good thing. Later, love.”
Kate took a minute to gather herself and put on her game face before opening the door.
“Marisa, get in here.”
The assistant appeared almost before Kate had finished the sentence.
“Shut the door and sit down.”
“Kate, I’m really sorr—”
“You know, there are very few qualities I value more than trust, honesty, loyalty, and respect. You have managed to violate all of those things.”
“I didn’t know you were in your office,” Marisa said quietly.
“You think that was your transgression? Let me see if I understand you: if I hadn’t been in my office, it would have been all right for you to be reporting to your former boss on my handling of the job? It would have been acceptable for you to withhold vital information from me in, what—an attempt to make me screw up?”
Marisa wisely chose to stay silent and avoid Kate’s eyes, which were flashing dangerously.
“I have to tell you that my first inclination was to toss you out of here so fast your head would spin.”
Marisa’s head shot up and her eyes showed real fear for the first time.
“However,” Kate paused here, content to let her victim sweat, “I have reconsidered my position and I’m willing, God help me, to give you another chance.”
“Thank you, Kate.”
“I’m not finished yet.” She waited until the young woman’s eyes were on her. “You need to know that you only get two strikes with me. If I note so much as a comma out of place, you’re history. Do you understand me? That means no phone contact—in fact, no contact of any kind with David Breathwaite about anything related to this office or its business. It means I had better see everything that is meant for my eyes as soon as it hits your desk.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You’ve got a long road ahead of you to try to prove yourself worthy of my trust again, Marisa. I strongly suggest you don’t squander the opportunity I’m giving you. You won’t get another chance, I assure you.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now get out of my sight.”
As it turned out, Jay walked through the door only seconds before Peter’s arrival.
The Cost of Commitment
“I’m so sorry, baby. I really tried to get here sooner. Unfortunately, I haven’t learned how to drive the damn train yet.”
“It’s not your fault, love.”
Jay stepped back and took stock of her lover. “Honey, you look like you’ve been through the wringer today. What the heck happened?”
“I’ll tell you when Peter gets here. For now, I just want to hold you.”
Jay moved into Kate’s arms once again, wrapping herself around her and bringing them into contact all along their bodies. She could feel the tension in the strong shoulders and back. Just as she began a light massage, the doorbell rang.
“If it isn’t my two favorite ladies.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere in this crowd.”
“Don’t I know it,” Peter mumbled good-naturedly.
“Hi, Technowiz.” Jay moved forward and hugged him around the waist. At 6’4”, he was a full foot taller than she was.
“Hi, half-pint, it’s good to see you.”
“Just what do I have to do to gain full pint status around here?”
“Grow!” Kate and Peter answered simultaneously.
“Easy for you two to say. Have you ever tried being vertically challenged?”
“Not since before puberty,” Kate threw over her shoulder.
Jay shook her head in mock disgust as she and Peter followed Kate, who had liberated the food and was headed into the kitchen.
Never one to waste time, Peter started right in as soon as they were seated. “Okay, Spinmeister, now that we’ve got the niceties out of the way, let’s have it. You look like crap, and that never happens. What the heck’s going on over there? Place go to hell after I left?”
“Can you try to be a little less subtle next time, buddy? I’m not sure I know how you really feel.” Running her hands through her unruly mane, Kate sighed heavily. “I’m not totally sure what the real story is, but it definitely smells.” She laid out in detail the events with Marisa and Redfield. “Frankly, two things about the whole sequence really stuck out in my mind.”
“Only two? I can think of a bunch.” Jay was clearly outraged.
Kate put a restraining hand on her arm and continued, “The first was Marisa’s remark to Breathwaite about him promising he’d be back, or at least that’s what she started to say before she saw me. The second was the fact that Redfield never even asked me what it was Marisa had done to prompt me to want to fire her. It was as if he already knew.”
Peter was silent throughout his friend’s recitation, but his expression bespoke his deep concern.
Kate went on, “You know, I’ve been over this a hundred times in my mind, and I still can’t come up with an explanation or scenario that
Lynn Ames
makes any sense to me. Why on earth would Breathwaite want to take a demotion to come back? And what the blazes does that have to do with Redfield? Are they connected in some way? Am I just being paranoid here?”
Jay started to jump in, but Peter interrupted quietly, “I don’t think you’re imagining this, my friend. I’m just having trouble putting the pieces together right now. Redfield was never a Breathwaite fan, to be sure. So that’s a tough one to reconcile. I’ll have to think about that and get back to you. As for Marisa, well, she’s not the sharpest crayon in the box, so I can’t say I’m surprised that she would be doing her ex-boss’s bidding. At the time they created the new position for him, Breathwaite had managed to draw too much heat. I think the governor actually was getting set to fire his ass. The ‘promotion’ was a way to keep him out of trouble while allowing him to save face.”
“Do you know whose idea the new job for him was, Peter? Who conceived it and who created it?”
“I don’t know, Jay, but I suspect that if we find the answers to those questions, we might have a better handle on what’s really behind all this.