Monahan 01 Options (22 page)

“Please Alfredo. Let’s not make a big deal out of this. And you better not make a fuss when he comes in or you’ll lose your best customer. Please,” I begged him. I hated being the center of attention.

“Sure, sure. Don’t you worry. We’ll make this a very,” he strung out the word verrrrry, “romantic dinner.”

“I didn’t say I wanted a romantic dinner. If I wanted romantic, I’d go somewhere else. Somewhere nice,” I teased. “I want food. Good food. Come on Alfredo. Don’t embarrass me,” I pleaded.

“Ah, Cara Mia,” he crooned.

“Cut the phoney Italian shit, Alfredo. Now go away. Get,” I ordered him. We were both laughing so I didn’t notice Jay standing behind Alfredo.

I leaned sideways and smiled at Jay when we both realized he was there. He was wearing jeans and a faded Levi jean jacket with a white T-shirt underneath. Very sexy. He looked good enough to eat. “Come on Jay. Take a seat. Let me introduce you to my great-grandfather Alfredo. Alfredo, this is Jay Harmon.” They shook hands and Jay sat down. Alfredo continued to hover.

“Jay, Alfredo has decided to make my life miserable this evening. Please order something to drink so he’ll go away,” I told him. I smiled up at Alfredo very sweetly.

“I’ll have a beer. Labatt’s Blue,” Jay ordered.

“Right away, sir. And I’m not related to her,” he said over his shoulder as he headed back to his counter.

“So,” Jay started. “Tell me about your day. How were things at the office?”

“You don’t want to know how things were. Things were shitty.”

Alfredo arrived with Jay’s beer and hovered.

“Can we wait a little while before we order?” I asked him. “I know there’s a line-up out the door and down the street, but please sir, we’ll tip big.”

“All right, already. D’you want another soda water?” he asked.

“Not right now. Thanks. I’ll yell when we’re ready to order, okay?”

I looked over at Jay and he was smiling.

“You don’t spare anyone do you? But that’s one thing I adore about you Kate. You treat everyone the same.”

I smiled back at him and thought about yesterday afternoon at his apartment. I leered at him and did my best Groucho Marx imitation.
“Well not exactly the same, if you know what I mean.”

“So, please. Tell me what happened today,” Jay insisted.

“Well, I left the office at ten to five. Traffic was light coming home. I made it in thirty minutes. I went for a long walk at lunch down to the lake.” Jay’s eyebrows went up.

“A long walk? I’m impressed. Are you turning over a new leaf?” he teased me.

“No. For a moment I thought I was. But I took a cab back to the office,” I replied.

“That’s all very nice. But what happened when you got in this morning?”

“I had coffee with Vee.”

“Are you avoiding the subject Kathleen? I just asked what happened today at the office.”

“And I don’t especially want to talk about it right now.”

Jay took a long drink of his beer which Alfredo had poured into a tall pilsner glass.

“All right,” he said. “Let’s talk about my day. I got up. I went for a run, not a walk. I had coffee by myself. I didn’t get caught in traffic. There. That was my day,” he laughed. “Now tell me about yours. And stop being cute. I’m not going to drag it out of you.”

So I told him. About being late and getting chewed out by Didrickson. About the press release going out before the market opened. About the continuing slide of the share price. About my long walk at lunch. About meeting Constable Lofaro. And the smelly garbage. About my talk with Danny. I left out the part about my conversation with Cleve and Rick Cox’s severance package. I didn’t want to rub dirt into his wounds.

I was fairly long-winded and by the time I finished my story, two more couples had come in for dinner and had already been served their pizzas.

“So, that’s it in a nutshell,” I said. “Hey waiter,” I yelled at Alfredo. “Can we get some service over here?” Alfredo shook his fist at me from behind the counter.

Jay picked up the menu and glanced at it. “I’ve only had pizza from here. What else is good?”

“Everything. I’m having pizza. It’s my favourite. I could eat it morning, noon and night. Now tell me about your day.”

“Like I said, Kate. I ran, I drank coffee and I didn’t get stuck in traffic. I played a little on the Internet.”

Alfredo took our orders and returned with more drinks.

“The Internet? You’re not turning into a geek on me are you?”

“No,” he answered. “You’re only a geek if you surf the net all day and all night. I have other plans for tonight.”

He grinned and continued. “I found some interesting things on the net. I was looking up information on the companies we’ve acquired over the last few months.”

“Yeah? What would the Internet have on those companies that we wouldn’t know already? We cover off almost everything on due diligence. I even know the size of most of the major shareholders’ boxer shorts by the time we’re finished with them,” I said.

“Well, because most of the companies we acquired were American, and publicly traded, their public information is filed on EDGAR through the Securities & Exchange Commission. All of their old 10-K’s, prospectuses and stuff like that are on the web. And as you know, those documents contain facts about the company, their officers and shareholders. And their products. You just have to take the information a couple of steps further and it’s magic. Amazing the stuff you can dig up.”

This was interesting.

“So what amazing stuff did you come up with? Come on. Give.”

“Nope. I’m still researching a few things. I could only get so far on the net and ended up at the library in the reference stacks. Bear with me though. If things lead where I think they’re going, we could be in for a very interesting ride.”

“Bear with you? Whaddya mean? Come on Jay. You know I live for this shit. You can’t hold out on me,” I said. Jay was grinning like the Cheshire cat. I grinned back.

“Me?” he asked. “Hold out on you? Now why would I do that? You and I both know that I follow your example. I share all the information with you.” He looked a little more serious now and his tone suddenly changed. “Just like you do with me Kate.”

“Right Kate?” he asked me when I didn’t answer.

“Sorry. I thought it was rhetorical. Yeah, I share everything,” I said quietly. My bluff and blarney was disappearing. I peered at Jay in the candlelight to see how serious he was. He was serious, not angry, but I wasn’t sure what he was getting at.

“Okay, buster. What didn’t I share with you?” I asked.

“Two million in severance? You can’t tell me you didn’t know that. And by the way, it’s not the two million. It’s the severance. The son of a bitch got fired. Fired. And the press release said he resigned. And he got severance?” Jay was angry now.

“Hey, don’t get mad at me,” I said defensively.

“I’m not mad at
you
about the severance. I just get extremely angry whenever I think about it. And I’m thinking about it right now and I’m angry.”

Alfredo chose that moment to arrive with our food. Timely, I thought. The man is very timely.

I dug into my pizza and after a few mouthfuls I put down my fork and asked Jay, “How did you find out about Rick’s severance? Will you share that with me?”

He finished chewing what was in his mouth. Good manners.

“Sure. I’ll share. Tom James told me. He told me everything.”

Why wasn’t I surprised?

chapter twenty-nine

“
Tom James told you?” I repeated. I was incredulous. Tom was a senior officer of a public company and was bound by confidentiality. The severance arrangements for Rick Cox were confidential information. Tom shouldn’t be sharing that information with anyone, especially an ex-employee of the company. Granted, the information would eventually become public knowledge but eventually was a long time off.

Jay nodded.

“When did you talk to Tom?” I asked.

“I took your suggestion and called him today. I told him what had happened with Rick and asked him if he could do anything about it. He said he’d look into the situation.”

“I guess that’s not all you talked about,” I said.

“No. Tom told me what had happened with Rick. And he told me about the severance. Boy, the guy has loose lips. He told me that Oakes had been wanting to get rid of Rick for a long time. He said there was bad blood.”

I shook my head. Unbelievable. I wondered how much Tom told his barber.

“What did he mean when he said he’d look into the situation?” I asked Jay.

“He didn’t get specific. Tom said he’d call me back in a couple of days.”

“Don’t hold your breath. Besides, you don’t want to work at TechniGroup anyway.”

“Wrong Kate. That’s easy for you to say. You have a job. I don’t. You may not want to work at TechniGroup. I do. At least it pays the rent. Right now I have no job and no money coming in. And no references. How do I explain to a future employer why I left TechniGroup?”

“Lie to them,” I said laughing.

“Stop being so damn flip about everything. I personally don’t see any humour in the situation. It wasn’t so bad you know, working there. I was getting well-rounded experience. I was exposed to a lot of things. The salary wasn’t bad and I had some stock options. All in all, not a bad place. Just because you dislike it so much doesn’t mean everyone else does.” Jay was getting visibly angry again.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “What’re you going to do about a job?”

“I’m getting my resume together. I’ve called a couple of my friends from university. I’m putting the word out that I’m looking. But, the wheels turn slowly,” he said.

“I know. Look, if there’s anything I can do, let me know,” I offered. “I could at least type your resume. It’s one thing I do well.”

“Thanks. I’ll probably take you up on that.”

Jay looked down at his plate of food which had quickly turned cold. He turned around and waved at Alfredo.

“Let’s go. I’ve suddenly lost my appetite.” He pulled his wallet out of the hip pocket of his jeans.

Alfredo arrived at the table and looked down at us.

“Ready for some coffee?” he asked. He gathered up the plates.

“No,” said Jay. “Just the bill.”

Alfredo raised his eyebrows and glanced at me.

“Nothing personal Alfredo. The food was great. We’ve got to go,” I explained. “Do up the bill for us, please.”

I gathered up my things and headed for the counter to pay. Jay was right behind me and he snatched the bill from Alfredo’s outstretched hand. I looked at Jay beside me and said, “Let me pay.”

“No way, Monahan,” he said under his breath. He laid two twenties on the counter and took my elbow to steer me out the door.

“Thanks very much Alfredo,” he said over his shoulder.

Outside on the sidewalk he said to me, “Kate, when I ask you to dinner, I pay. Okay?”

“Yessir, Mr. Caveman,” I snapped. “Want to beat your chest now and drag me off by the hair?”

“What the hell is that all about? I asked you to dinner. I pay. If you ask me to dinner, you can pay. I resent the Mr. Caveman remark, Kathleen,” he said. “It was totally uncalled for.” He looked hurt.

Open mouth, insert foot, I thought.

“Sorry,” I apologized again. I had been doing that a lot tonight. Apologizing. It wasn’t often I was called upon to be sensitive and I probably needed a refresher course.

“You’re right,” I continued. “Totally uncalled for. Won’t happen again.” We were facing each other and I looked up at Jay with my best sexy smile.

“Can I make it up to you?” I offered. And I meant it. I admitted to myself that I liked where our relationship was going. And if I kept up the snide remarks there wouldn’t be a relationship.

“How?” Jay grinned at me.

“Coffee at my place,” I offered.

“How can I refuse? Should I drag you by the hair to your car or can you make it on your own?”

I drank too much coffee that night and it kept me awake. Jay and I had talked for a long time. I looked over Jay’s sleeping face to the clock radio on the other side of the bed. The red fluorescent numbers read three-twenty. Lovely. If I didn’t get to sleep soon I knew I’d be a basket case in the morning. I was wide awake now thinking about our conversation and some of the disturbing questions it raised.

I’d been sitting on the sofa and Jay was standing in front of the French doors looking at the park.

“Do you think Danny was right in going to the police?” I asked Jay.

He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Put yourself in his place Kate.” He turned around and came and sat down beside me.

“He’s grieving and angry. Anger is one of the offshoots of grief. He can’t believe his mother’s dead. But the logic isn’t there for me. Yes, Evelyn died at the office where everyone knew about her allergy. But it has to be an accident. Who in their right mind would want to kill her?” he asked.

“No one who kills is in their right mind. You know, I didn’t tell anyone at the office that the police had come about her death,” I told him.