“Why don’t you want Katherine to know you’re coming?” Renata asked.
“I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to tell anyone.”
“I promise,” Renata said. She loved secrets.
“Some people at the office think that Katherine may be having a relationship with a man who works for her. If she is, that’s not allowed. I’m going to her house to find out if it’s true. So when we get there, you have to wait outside. Okay? This won’t take long.”
“Oh, okay.” Renata didn’t see why that was such a big deal, but whatever.
Steven drove up Madison to Katherine’s town house on East Eighty-fourth Street. Two years ago, she had purchased the run-down town house for a song. It had been subdivided into small rent-stabilized apartments inhabited by activist tenants with no intention of moving. After much legal maneuvering, she’d managed to get everyone evicted, even the eighty-seven-year-old woman who had called the place home for forty-two years. That made the newspaper. Katherine had bought her a one-bedroom in a high-rise that was better suited to an old arthritic lady with a son who worked at the Post. Then she engaged in a major renovation that turned the former eyesore into a showplace with a perfectly manicured backyard.
While Renata and Steven waited, Christy walked up the stoop and rang the doorbell. There was no answer. She rang again. Nothing. Frustrated, she came back to the car. “She’s not home.”
“Is there a backyard?” Renata asked. “Do you want me to check?”
Christy considered the offer. “No, I’ll go.” She walked around the corner and up the narrow alley. As she approached the garden, Christy was stopped by familiar voices. She crept silently toward the sound and then hid behind the trees in the back corner of the lot, listening.
“…make a move soon, she’ll drive the company into the ground. Everyone’s options’ll be worthless,” Katherine said.
Christy felt herself go cold. Then she heard footsteps coming down the alley. Renata was doing her patented secret-agent tiptoe down the narrow path. Christy gave her a disapproving look. “I thought you might need me,” the child whispered. Christy scowled, then turned her head so she could hear better.
“…make it seem like a planned transition instead of a coup,” a man was saying. It sounded like Karl Lehmann, one of their directors. “We can’t let the stock drop further.”
“We negotiate a deal where Christy’s made chairman and I’m appointed CEO. Then, six months later, she goes quietly into the night,” Katherine said.
Why that double-crossing, conniving, scheming bitch. I’m gonna kill her, Christy thought. She started to move in, intent on confronting the conspirators. Renata grabbed her wrists, shook her head urgently, and put her finger to her lips. Christy stayed put.
“Will she go quietly?” someone asked. It sounded like Richard Bender. Traitor, Christy thought. After all she’d done to help his son get that track scholarship!
“If we pay her enough she will,” Karl said.
“I don’t think we have to,” Katherine said. “Wall Street Week’s about to publish a very unflattering profile on her.”
“How do you know?” Karl asked.
Rick Slotnik piped up. “I’ve been working with the reporter since the story was proposed. He’s already warned me the piece won’t be pretty.”
“Can’t you do something?” the director who sounded like Richard Bender asked. “A hatchet job on our CEO will hurt everyone.”
Thank you, Dick Bender, if that’s who you are, Christy thought. You have slightly redeemed yourself.
“Believe me, I’m doing my best,” Rick said.
Well, your best isn’t good enough, Christy wanted to scream. How many times do I have to tell you that?
“What about the advertising?” Karl asked. “Christy’s in all our promotions.”
“That’s covered. We’re launching a new campaign using current Olympic athletes,” Rick said.
“It’s about time,” Katherine added. “These new female athletes we’re using have magnificent bodies. Finally a spokesperson who isn’t as flat as a boy.”
What! Christy thought. That hurts. That really hurts. You have crossed the line, Katherine Garcia Winslow Witherspoon Kilborn. There’s no turning back now.
“I think she looks pretty damn good,” Dick Bender countered.
Thank you, Dick Bender. You have redeemed yourself even more. If you weren’t about to stick a knife in my back, I might go so far as to forgive you.
Christy wasn’t sure what to do. Should she storm in on the clandestine meeting and say exactly the right thing to put the conspirators in their place? But what was the right thing to say? Christy knew she couldn’t afford to blow it. Renata gently took Christy’s elbow and led her out of the alley. Barely making a sound, they got back in the car. Christy’s eyes were wide open. Her heart was pounding. She was dumbstruck.
Gently, Renata patted Christy’s hand. “I don’t think you’re flat as a boy.”
Solid as a Rock
Michael, La Dame Blanche was great. I have missed climbing the last few years, the buzz and the risk. And we got a lot of good material to get started with. I will need about 10 more days in total from you for the overall effort. It helps that you know your mind and say what you mean. I will call your assistant and arrange some times—I think chunks of a day or two work best. It can be over 2 to 4 months. Galit
Galit, I’m not sure I like talking about myself so much to a stranger, but your questions were pretty fair. I guess that’s how you suck them in. Part of that famous Galit charm. Let’s hope I survive it. Michael
Steven dropped Renata off at her play date with Stephanie Rich, then drove Christy to Michael’s office. This was the first time since their wedding that Christy had surprised her husband at work. But Michael was delighted to see her. His assistant and secretaries were so solicitous it almost made her uncomfortable. I am the boss’s wife, she thought. I guess this is how wives of
