It’s just an impression. But he was like some kind of court-appointed monitor, you know, like he was overseeing something.”
“What social class is Conroy?”
“I don’t mean he’s what my mother would have called low class. But Mr. Smith was always so civilized and charming and gentle. He’d never fire anybody. He always made sure people were taken care of if they were sick or on maternity leave or anything. If there was an employee problem, he would call them into his office and talk it through with them.”
“Conroy was a little less civilized?”
“He wasn’t a dese, dem, dose kind of man. He was obviously educated. But he was very…” She searched for a phrase. “He was a bottom-line person. Very hard-nosed, no nonsense.”
“Do you have an address for Conroy?” I said.
“Just the bank,” she said.
“Okay. I’ll go see him there.”
“You won’t tell him I spoke to you?”
“Not if you don’t want me to.”
“He’s so…” She fluttered her hand. “He’s so cold. He seems like someone who doesn’t care about people.”
“Does he frighten you?”
“Yes.”
“It’ll be our secret,” I said.
She sat back, her body still straight, her knees still together. Both her feet were firmly on the floor, and she tugged the hem of her skirt slightly forward toward her knees. It was an automatic grooming gesture, like fluffing her hair. She probably didn’t know she was doing it.
I smiled at her.
She looked at me.
“That’s the other reason I came to tell you about this,” she said.
“Which is?”
“That he frightens me.”
I nodded.
“You seemed like someone to talk to if I’m frightened,” she said.
I didn’t have anything to say about that, so I smiled encouragingly.
“You seem like someone who would protect me,” she said.
“Do you think you need protection?” I said.
“No, not really. I think I’m probably being a bit of a sissy.”
“Anyone threaten you?”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. Conroy said I wasn’t to talk of this matter, but he meant if I wanted a letter of reference for my next job.”
I gave her my card. On the back of it, I wrote Hawk’s name and cell phone number.
“If you feel threatened, call me, at any hour. If you don’t reach me, call the number on the back. It’s a large black man with his head shaved who could protect Australia if he were asked.”
“Will he know who I am?”
“Yes.”
“It’s silly, of course. But I feel better knowing there’s someone I can call.”
“Anyone would,” I said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Do you think she’s in any real danger?” Susan said.
“Probably not,” I said. “She’s a bright young woman. Went to school, got an MBA, and this is the first time she’s been fired.”
“So her ego requires her to invest it with cosmic proportion.”
“Once she’s been fired a few times, she’ll get used to it,” I said.
“The voice of experience?”
“Something like that,” I said.
I was cooking supper and Susan was pitching in by sitting at my kitchen counter drinking white wine and watching.
“Are you sure you’re cooking those scallops long enough?” she said.
“Of what can we be sure,” I said, “in this uncertain world?”
