The completeness of the teahouse’s destruction was fortunate, Sam thought. If the fire had been less aggressive the accouterments of her hidden Geisha life might have become visible to her family. Sam stepped back from the bedroom window and surveyed the room where she had spent her teenaged years. She felt no connection to the space now. The sounds of her brother getting ready in the bedroom next door reminded her that she would again be obliged to share the outmoded bathroom down the hall with him.
The Geisha doll’s red silk parasol lay on the bedside table. She picked it up. As she twirled it in her fingers she thought about what the doll had brought into her life. At first there was the joy of possessing a beautiful object, and later a child’s curiosity about the flower and willow world. But as her identification with the Geisha lifestyle grew, there had been a moment when she changed. In that moment she had dissociated from part of the real world and substituted a fantasy, one that over time had taken over more and more of her consciousness. She knew that what she had been doing in the teahouse was not healthy. She recognized that she was now more isolated than she had ever been as a child, and she had done it to herself.
Her thoughts turned to the previous evening. Her visit to Adela had not gone as she had expected. Nonetheless, her investigation was now complete. Later in the morning she would carry out the arrest that would bring her relationship with Alejandro Rios to its proper conclusion. She thought back to the last time that she had seen Rios alive, on the day that he had presented her with the jade brooch. She had been tempted, fleetingly, to accept the gift. What might have transpired if she had kept the brooch, and if Rios had lived? She could have cultivated him as a patron as a Geisha would, or she could have married him. Sam was confident that she could have led Rios to a quick proposal. When they were with him, Rios’ wives occupied a special, prominent place in the Ranch social hierarchy, and later, as ex-wives, they enjoyed luxurious lifestyles courtesy of generous divorce settlements. But Sam had rejected Rios’ gift and its gilded promise. Why?
The two of them were, after all, kindred spirits. Like her, Rios was an “other” in the Ranch and like her, he was defined by a singular obsession. In his case the obsession was with winning; his frenzied deal making had never been about money, but about victory. It was clear to Sam that Rios had paid too high a price for his victories. In the end he possessed nothing of real value. Rios’ obsession with winning had crowded out everything that was truly meaningful in life and he had died alone and unloved. As she twirled the tiny red parasol in her fingers Sam could wondered whether the life, and death, of Alejandro Rios was a cautionary tale for her.
“So, what should I do about this startup?” Adela asked.
“Georgina will walk you through the financials,” Mark replied. He nodded his head toward Georgina but did not make eye contact with her. Looking only at Adela or her notes as she spoke, Georgina presented the ZIFIX deal in a clear, calm voice. When she was finished she asked Adela if she had any questions.
“Just one,” Adela said. “I gather that the major asset of this company is the patent. How did you value it?”
“I can explain that,” Mark said. “A consultant gave us the initial estimate. But before I left New York I got a firm bid from a pharmaceutical house. The bid is for several times the amount that Rios Capital has offered to pay for the entire company.” Georgina scowled. Why had Mark not told her about getting a bid?
“Does this drug company plan to absorb the startup or are they just buying the patent rights?” Adela asked.
“They’re only interested in the patent,” Mark replied. “I’ve lined up a liquidation firm to close down the existing operation.” Liquidation. Georgina’s stomach flip-flopped.
“Very well, it’s a go,” Adela said. “How do we proceed?”
“We’ll get Dr. Carmichael over here today to sign,” Mark said.
“Do that,” Adela said. “Now if you will excuse me, I need to go see what the vet has found to be ailing my horse.” Adela walked briskly through the French doors of her office and out onto the patio. As soon as Adela was gone Georgina demanded to know why Mark had not told her that he planned to liquidate ZIFIX.
“Rios made that decision,” he said. “I didn’t tell you because you had no need to know. I gave you a role on the acquisition side of this deal. I never intended for you to be involved with ZIFIX after the sale was completed.”
“No one told Carmichael that Rios Capital was going to put his staff out on the street,” Georgina complained.
“Let me remind you of something,” Mark said. “Dr. Carmichael is a grown man who has agreed to sell his company to Rios Capital. Once the ink is dry on the papers, Rios Capital can do whatever it wants with ZIFIX. Carmichael is free to give his employees a severance package out of what he gets from the sale.”
“It’s unethical to negotiate like this.”
“That’s rich,” Mark snorted. “Now you are lecturing me on ethics, after what I saw going on between you and Carmichael last night.”
“There is nothing going on,” Georgina exclaimed. “You have to believe me. When have I ever lied to you?”
“There’s always a first time.”
“Come on,” Georgina said angrily. “If you don’t know me any better than that, then I’ve been wasting my time working for you.”
“We will discuss your future in my group at a later time,” Mark said crisply. “Right now you will act like the professional that you are and you will get Carmichael over here. And then you will go to the airport, because your work here will be done.”
“I’ll put you on the list for a hauler but it may take a couple of weeks to get someone out here,” the insurance adjuster said. “The people that we use are all backed up.”
“Do I get any money for temporary housing?” Sam asked.
“Sorry, no, you don’t,” the man replied. “This type of structure is considered an outbuilding. We only cover living expenses when the main house is uninhabitable. We’ll cover rebuilding and give you something for what was inside. You’ll have to list every item that you had in there to get reimbursed.” Sam’s shoulders slumped. Her Geisha treasures had been expensive but she could never disclose their existence. “You may not think so right now but your family was very lucky,” the adjuster went on to say. “Your neighbor’s house burned down to the slab.”
Sam looked briefly towards the property next door. A dense acacia hedge hid the house from view. Sam knew that its cedar shake roof had attracted the fire. Sam’s mother was over there now with a group of neighbors, sifting through the rubble for any mementos that could be salvaged for the owner. Sam asked where he had taken refuge during the fire. The adjuster said that he had gone to the football stadium. Sam volunteered that a lot of people from the Ranch had ended up at the Fairgrounds. A faint smile crossed the adjuster’s face. “That must have been a real change of pace for these folks,” he said.
“Did you lose anything?” Sam asked.
“I lost everything.”
Sam was astonished. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “How are you managing?”
The adjuster explained that his employer had insisted that he get right back to work processing claims from fire victims. His wife, a nurse, was working extra shifts to deal with the backlog of patients at her hospital. Since neither of them had any free time to look for temporary housing they were still sleeping at the football stadium.
After the adjuster had left Sam called Agostino to find out if the arrest warrant was ready. Agostino was in his office at the police substation near the Ranch; he confirmed that he had the warrant. Sam asked him to find a uniformed officer for backup. Agostino said that he would look into it. Sam carefully checked her service revolver and then concealed it in the shoulder holster that she was wearing under her jacket.
She set out for the substation. At the top of the street a Highway Patrol Officer waved her through the roadblock that had been set up the previous afternoon, before the evacuees were allowed to re
turn to the neighborhood. He was stopping cars as they tried to enter the street to verify the legitimacy of the visit to the neighborhood, but he was allowing cars to exit freely. On the main road Sam was obliged to wait for a few minutes for a construction crew that was shoring up a burned out hillside against the winter rains that would bring mudslides. Sam was grateful for the extra manpower in the neighborhood. The authorities had moved quickly to protect the burned out areas from gawkers and looters and had even restricted the air space above the Ranch.
She found Agostino in his office. He introduced Arturo Lopez, a recent Police Academy graduate. Displeased, Sam asked Agostino to step out into the hallway. “Not a rookie,” she said. “I don’t want someone who might get flustered and blow it. And I need someone who can be trusted to keep quiet.”
“Arturo’s level headed. He can handle it,” Agostino said. “And he’s a doer not a talker.”
“Isn’t there anyone else?”
“I’m not going to ask anyone else. You’re not exactly going by the book and I don’t want to call attention. Arturo will follow your instructions and he’ll do it without asking any questions.”
Sam looked at her watch. She had to leave shortly, or she would risk upsetting the choreography that she had laid out for the arrest. Agostino stood impassively in front of her. Seeing no alternative, Sam went back into Agostino’s office and told the young officer the plan.