'Great,' she said. 'Now try the other window.'
He took several steps across to the west window. 'Whatever happened to that cop you were seeing?'
Mention of Mitch Ayers caused Jill to shut down completely for a moment, as it usually did. She froze. Then, 'It didn't work out.'
'I heard you were really in love.'
'Turn to your right.'
'Don't want to talk about it, huh?'
'Now turn to your left.'
'He dump you or what?'
'Now walk out on the balcony and jump.'
He laughed. 'Guy must've really gotten to you, the way you're acting.'
She walked over. He had to be angled just right for a shot like this to work. She liked to walk through her shots, rehearse them, so that the actual shoot went faster.
She touched Eric's elbow and turned him toward her and that's when he grabbed her and pulled her to him. Before she could gather herself to protest, his mouth found hers and she felt his hot tongue passing between her lips.
She pulled back and slapped him with a ferocity that startled even her.
'You bitch! What the hell do you think you're doing?'
After a long moment, Jill walked to the door and said, 'I guess I don't need to tell you that I won't be doing that shoot of yours.'
'God, Jill, I'm sorry. I really am.'
'No, you're not, Eric. You're not sorry at all.'
A genuine sorrow filled her. Sometimes people baffled her completely. Eric would always remain unfathomable to her. All the high-school macho games he played. Becoming a real adult seemed to hold no appeal to him whatsoever. He would always be one of those aging boy-men you saw so often in sports and politicsand advertising.
'Jill.'
But she didn't stop.
Walked out through the reception area.
Found the hall and walked to the elevator.
A young woman emerged from the restroom at the far end of the hall. She looked upset, and Jill could tell she had been crying.
Eric came up. He looked miserable, but she felt no sympathy for him at all. 'Jill, please, you have to believe me. I really am sorry. Really I am.'
She turned to him. 'Don't make this worse than it has to be, Eric. Go back to your office and let me wait here alone.'
He started to argue but saw that it was no use.
He shook his head, ran a hand through his hair, and then walked sullenly back to his office. He obviously hadn't noticed the young woman standing by the restroom at the opposite end of the hall. She was watching both Jill and Eric.
Jill and the woman looked at each other down the long corridor. Then the woman opened a door marked STAIRS and disappeared.
A few minutes later, Jill's elevator car came. She boarded it and was gone.
CHAPTER 15
Corday knew he should have been concentrating on the job ahead but he couldn't. He kept thinking of how Adam had been unfaithful. Again. After all those promises.
Then he saw Jill.
Time for work.
Couldn't afford to worry about Adam anymore. Or the jerk Adam had spent time with in Miami.
He waited until Jill had disappeared beyond the door leading to the ramp, and then he moved.
Across the lobby.
To the elevator.
Up to pay a visit to Mr Brooks.
Cini had just reached the lobbyhurrying because the deep shadow and the hollow echoing sound of her footsteps unnerved herwhen she went to reach in her purse for a Kleenex… and realized that she didn't have her purse with her. She always carried her toothbrush in her coat pocket so she hadn't missed her purse. But now
Her purse.
Upstairs.
Eric's office.
Of course.
Dammit, anyway.
She turned, saying a dirty word she'd been trying to break herself of, and walked back up the stairs.
CHAPTER 16
'You seem a little preoccupied.'
'I guess I am.'
'Want to talk about it?'
'No big deal, I suppose. Just having a few problems with my business partner.'
'Business partners can be a real pain.'
'Maybe I'll have another drink,' Adam Morrow said. 'I mean, if you don't mind.'
He'd met his new friend just an hour ago in a Village bar. Now he was having drinks in his new friend's apartment. His friend kept casting an anxious eye to the darkened bedroom beyond, but Adam was too worried right now to think about sex.
He just had this awful feeling that finding the note had undone Rick, and that Rick might do something stupid.
Something that could end their perfect record.
'Why don't you let me freshen that up for you?' Adam's new friend said, taking the glass from his hand.
Adam scarcely noticed.
If only he hadn't had to fly to New York at the last minute to take care of a loose end on the last job.
Rick, for all his skills, got so emotional at times that he didn't think clearly.
Early tomorrow Adam would be on a plane headed to Chicago. Just so long as Rick didn't do anything crazy tonight…
'Here,' said Adam's new friend. 'Maybe this'll mellow you out a little.' He smiled. A very white smile. An actor's smile. 'Then maybe we can get to know each other a little better.'
CHAPTER 17
