Page 38 of The Facilitator: Part 2
“What brings you up here? Not that I’m not thrilled to see you, of course,” heasked.
“I met with Jerry, it’s not lookinggood.”
I recounted what I was told, and how I had responded to the comments Jerry had made. I told him I just couldn’t bring myself to spoil hisday.
“I think you played it just right. Addison would have wanted you to respond the way she’d said. To do the opposite, he’ll just question whether she is right, hopefully. The more I think about it, the more I really don’t think you should get involved. He’s told you his news, you can support him in whatever way you need to, but I’m going to suggest, and it’s not a request—for your own sake—you do that from adistance.”
“I agree. But you were also worried. A few days ago,remember?”
“I do but that’s not about her and him. It’s more about her father making moves to get back intobusiness.”
“Jerry said he was looking at investing in property and a couple of business ventures. She could be priming him for her father’sdeals.”
“Maybe. But what can we do about it? I’m just concentrating on Frank for now. He’s more of a threat tous.”
It was the first time he had used Addison’s father’s name Ibelieved.
“How much of athreat?”
“Threat is the wrong word, I guess. I thought about what you’d said before. I don’t believe, now, he can hurt my association with the drug rehabilitation centres; if anything, he incriminates himself. I was just a kid. But he can cause ripples, and ripples spreadwide.”
I smiled at him; glad he had reconciled himself with that, and praying I was correct, ofcourse.
“Do you want to play hooky?” heasked.
“It means I’ll have to work a little while this evening,” Isaid.
“So? Come on, let’s get out ofhere.”
He grabbed his suit jacket from the back of his chair and took my hand. We walked down to my floor where I picked up my bag, laptop, and some papers. Carolyn was on the phone, and I waved my mobile to let her know how she could contact me. She smiled. I hadn’t connected with her as well as Alex had, not that she, or I, had been rude. There just wasn’t the friendliness I would have hoped for. But then, I had been used to Jenny, who was way too informal at times; in fact, she reminded me of a younger Mary. I chuckled as we descended to the ground floor. Mackenzie took my hand as we walked out into the busy streets of CanaryWharf.
“I was thinking, Jenny could be related toMary.”
“Jenny?”
“From my old office. They are both soinappropriate.”
“Ah, yes, Jenny. Mother and daughter, or grandmother and granddaughter. Thank fuck she didn’t come over here, I doubt I could manage twocharacters.”
A silver car pulled to the kerb and we climbed into the back. Mackenzie instructed the driver to take us home. If we were to play hooky, then home was exactly where I wanted to playit.
