Chapter 30
Tuesday morning. Carrie had given him directions to get to the office. It was only three blocks from the Starbucks where he'd met Katherine the morning before, and he barely stopped himself from saying that out loud. There was such a fine line, this truth vs. modified truth. Carrie moved her car to the street so he could get his car out, and once downtown he'd driven around the block twice before he found a convenient parking place. The car was nice; he had to give himself that at least. Even if it seemed a sterile choice.
Halstrom-Pierce was in an older building, the date 1903 chiseled into a block in the center of the entry arch, and the lobby was refurbished with polished marble floors and tall palms in large white pots positioned at each of the impressive fluted columns that flanked the wide stairs to the elevator level. A glassed-in directory was attached to the wall next to the two elevators, the kind with a dial above them showing what floor they were on. Halstrom-Pierce was on the third floor. He studied the rest of the names. There was only one other company listing for that floor.
A ping announced his ride. This was it. His livelihood might be at stake this morning. He straightened his tie, checked the collar on his tan dress shirt, and shot the cuffs. Then he opened the door to the completely unfamiliar reception area of the place he'd worked for the last three years.
"Mr. Edwards, good morning." A plump middle-aged woman in a tailored red suit was sitting at a desk. The room was small, only three plush chairs along the wall opposite her. More palms. On the receptionist's desk there was a name plaque, Gloria Stevens.
Brian didn't know who in the office was aware of his plight, beyond Andrea, Lou and Jason. And Katherine. But he thought he shouldn't risk the possibility that this wasn't Gloria, so he just smiled and returned her greeting, without using her name. Luckily there was only one door leading into the offices from the reception area, so he didn't have to risk bungling his entrance.
"Oh, Mr. Edwards," said the woman who was probably Gloria. "Ms. Angeli asked that you come to her office first thing when you got in." She sounded apologetic.
"Thanks." Andrea Angeli, an attractive name to be sure. Until this moment he hadn't tried to imagine her appearance, but the name called up a dark-haired brown-eyed woman with soft curves. Couldn't be. A woman like that wouldn't be an attack dog on the racquetball court.
The door opened onto a large space with half a dozen roomy cubicles on each side and a wide central aisle. On the far side, opposite the door, four offices with large windows and glass doors overlooked the rest of the room. The cubicles in the main room had low partitions that provided wall space for desks, cabinets, tables, what have you. The color scheme was a soothing lavender, blue and cream, starting with a rich carpet with muted wide diagonal stripes. Some decorator must have spent a lot of time and received a lot of company money for this.
He headed for the enclosed offices. On the far left, the corner one with windows to the out-of-doors, Angela Angeli's name was embossed in gold on the door. The tops of some maple trees that still held onto their red and orange leaves were in view. Lou Mueller's door was next to Angela's, and next to that was a door marked Brian Edwards. So, he was one of the upper echelon.
It looked like everyone was already busy at his or her desk. He scanned the faces for someone familiar, but Katherine was the only one he recognized. She sat in the cubicle closest to Andrea's door. When she looked up and saw him he couldn't identify her expression. There was something sly and satisfied in it, something a little unpleasant. It could have been a smile, but it didn't have the effect of a smile. He gave her a quick nod as he passed by, and realized he was trembling a little. He took a deep breath before he rapped on the glass of Andrea's door.
A graying man with a bulky midsection was leaning on his hands at the end of Andrea's desk, his shirtsleeves rolled up and his tie loosened, looking at some papers she had in front of her. Andrea had the dark hair, all right, but the soft round curves were absent. She was all angles, a sharp narrow face with chiseled cheekbones, and thin, deep red lips. But very attractive in an ascetic way. Her glasses were the kind with points on the sides, and the frames were black. She wore a tailored grey-blue suit jacket over a white round-necked blouse. When he knocked she stood and he saw the matching narrow skirt. No jewelry except for an oversized ring with a blazing blue stone.
When she stood up, the man at her desk turned and saw him. It had to be Lou, and he strode to the door and opened it.
"Brian! Glad to see you!" Then he hesitated and looked uncertainly back at Andrea, who seemed to disapprove of his enthusiasm. He clamped his mouth shut and stepped back a few steps.
"Lou, right?" Brian extended his hand, bypassing Andrea for a few seconds, and Lou shook his hand and nodded. The he turned to face her.
Andrea didn't ask him to sit down, and she remained standing as well. In fact there were no chairs in her office besides hers. It made sense to Brian. No one would be able to waste her time if they couldn't settle down comfortably in her territory.
"Well, Brian. At last." Her eyebrows arched up and she gave him a scornful smile. "Where were you when we needed you?"
"Andrea." He nodded, and smiled back politely. He wasn't going to answer a rhetorical question. And he was going to use as few words as possible until she broke her own ice. If she was going to be angry about something he had no control over, that was fine, but he wasn't going on the defensive.
She looked at him as if considering her next move, and then made up her mind. She picked up a file folder and the Blackberry from her desk and came out from behind it, waving the folder at both men in a signal to follow her.
"Conference room," she said. She ignored the people in the larger office and led the way to the fourth door, the one on the other side of Brian's own office, where he could see Jason was poring over papers at the desk.
They sat at one end of a long table. Brian waited. Andrea had a severe look that went well with her features. She looked hungry to him. He had the passing thought, you catch more flies with honey. He felt a little sorry for her, and her apparent need to keep people in line and keep the upper hand.
"I don't know if you realize what an impossible situation you put us in." She glared at him.
He waited for her to continue. Apparently she needed to get this off her skinny chest.
"Lou and Jason, spent the whole weekend putting the presentation in order. I had to come in on Sunday as well. You know how important this is. The Fitzhugh contract is going to be our bread and butter for the next six months."
She was waiting for an apology. He could afford a version of that. These were the people that allowed him to buy a Lexus for cash, and he ought show a little gratitude.
"I wish it could have been helped. You pulled it off without me? We got the contract?" He hadn't wanted to ask Lou on the phone yesterday, but it was germane now.
"Yes, we got the contract. Thanks to Jason."
What about Lou, he wondered. Does he get any credit for his part? Lou sat there as if he were furniture. Carrie had said Lou was a flunky. What a thankless job.
"Good. I'd hate to have been the cause of a disaster. It sounds like you've got an exceptional team." He wanted to emphasize that there was no permanent damage done.
There wasn't much more she could say, unless she was going to fire him. And he knew she had no grounds for that. He was pretty sure that technically he qualified for sick leave. Just because he was ambulatory didn't mean he was fit for work. She waited.
"I assume you'd like to be brought up to date on what's going on with me. I think you already know I have a complete loss of memory. Identity, personal life, work-the whole thing. It happened suddenly, on Thursday morning. Nobody knows why yet, or how long it's going to last."
"What does the doctor say?"
"So far they haven't found a physical cause." This was going to be the hard part. "I have some more tests, and I have a consultation coming up with a medical psychiatrist." As far as he knew, all psychiatr
ists were physicians, but he wanted to emphasize the medical aspect of his situation.
Andrea sat back and frowned. "You're going to a shrink? You're telling me you're non compos mentis?"
"It's autobiographical amnesia." The doctor hadn't said that, but Brian almost fit the description in the text at the college bookstore. He didn't think Andrea would question it. "It might not last long. Everything could come back at any time, or it could come back in pieces. Apparently it happens. It's happened to me." Brian felt pretty relaxed, because there were just these facts, and it wasn't as though he could voluntarily change them. And Andrea was going to have to accept it. Or not, but in any event it was out of his hands.
"And in the meantime we cool our heels while you lie around on a couch telling someone your dreams?"
"I assume I have some sick leave?"
She looked irritated to have to do it, but she nodded.
"It's possible that will give me time to get over this. I'll find out more when I meet with the psychiatrist. I doubt if she'll have me lie on a couch, though."
At this point there was no way she could punish him, which he was pretty clear she'd enjoy. He wondered if she kept a little black whip, maybe with sharp bits of metal tied into its thongs, in a desk drawer. She'd be well suited to the profession. Come to think of it, he'd had some of her punishment on the racquetball court. He put his hand to his eyebrow.
Andrea pushed her chair back from the conference table and Lou followed suit. He hadn't said a word. But he gave Brian a straight-faced wink. Good job, buddy. That's what it looked like anyway.
"Check with Katherine about your sick leave. And keep me posted. I want to know immediately of any changes in your situation." She started for the door, taking with her the folder she'd never opened. Apparently it had been a prop. Lou waited until she was out of the room and then patted Brian on the shoulder.
"You survived. I was pretty sure you would. Andrea has never been able to make you grovel." He looked appreciative and at the same time envious. And Brian found himself wondering why either of them worked for her.
"Just so you know, putting the proposal together was a piece of cake. It just took time. You had everything handled except the organizing of the presentation. By the time Andrea got here it was all but finished."
"Thanks for telling me. I hate it that I left you in the lurch." He followed Lou to the door into the big office.
Check with Katherine. Damn!
"She said to check with Katherine. I think she's the one I met at the coffee shop yesterday morning. The one at the last desk there? Is that who handles benefits?" This wasn't going to be much fun.
"Yeah, your girlfriend."
"What?" Brian jerked his head around, and his stomach tightened. "My girlfriend?"
Lou laughed. "Don't worry. You've been a gentleman. I just said that because I'm pretty sure she has the hots for you. But hey, you have the luscious Carrie at home."
"Jesus, don't scare me like that. I think my life is complicated enough right now." If you only knew.
"She was pretty upset when Jenna wouldn't tell her anything about why you weren't at work. Which reminds me, I guess you don't remember Jenna either?" Lou led him to a desk near his office door. He felt like it was his first day on the job, being shown around the office. He supposed it could be his last day, if his brain didn't cooperate.
"This is Jenna, your good right hand." She had a broad, pleasant face, and long straight hair tucked behind her ears.
"Mr. Edwards, you're back? We've been worried about you."
"Not yet. I hope soon, but I don't know. I'm taking a little time off."
"Well, Jason will keep me busy while you're gone." She glanced through the glass where Jason was shuffling through some papers, and he looked up just then and gave Brian a cross between a salute and a wave.
Lou accompanied Brian into Katherine's cubicle. She came up with a pasted-on fake smile and folded her hands together on the desk in front of her.
"Our missing man is here," she said. "Can I do something for you?" She cocked her head, the picture of willingness to be helpful.
Thankfully, Lou was taking charge. "Katherine, would you check to see how much sick leave Brian has coming? He's going to take a little time off."
"Sure thing." She swung her chair around to a low filing cabinet, making a display of her legs in today's short skirt, red this time instead of black, and leaned over a file drawer far enough that her silky blouse bowed open to give them a glimpse of her cleavage and the top of a lacy bra. She thumbed through some files and pulled out a folder, ran her red fingernail down a page and then looked up at Brian.
"You don't get sick very much, do you? It looks like you have 188 hours built up. That would give you twenty days, plus a few hours, if we charge the three days you've been gone. Counting today." She flashed the professional smile again. "I'm sorry you're sick," she said, for Lou's benefit.
"Thanks Katherine." Lou wheeled around out of the cubicle and out of hearing. Before Brian could follow, she grabbed his wrist. In a whispered voice she said, "I'll go home for lunch at noon. Meet me there, okay?"
He pulled his arm free and shook his head. "I'm sorry, you already know I can't do that." He turned away from her, not willing to see her expression, but he heard the venom in her low voice, so low no one else would hear it.
"Say hello to your little pregnant wife, you bastard."