Page 27 of 2nd Strike
Huh. I may have met someone I can't out argue.
Before I have a chance to form a counterargument, Meg and Matt arrive.
“We’ve got dozens of people to look into." Meg waves a piece of paper in the air and she walks by my office door. "Hey, Jackie. Conference room meeting, now, Charlie.”
Matt sticks his head in and says hi to Jackie more formally. “You okay?" he asks me.
Jackie punches speed dial on her phone, calling her assistant back. “Leave the investigating to them.” She hitches a thumb at Matt. “From here on out, you don't touch anything involving Ethan, Carl, or Lily."
Anotherbutis on the tip of my tongue. I bite it off and stay silent. This seems to make her happy as she gathers her briefcase. “I’ll be in touch tomorrow as soon as we have the lawsuit in hand," she says as she brushes past Matt and disappears.
I rise, square my shoulders, and grab my laptop. “Sounds like you had luck with the cousin."
We head to the conference room, him in the lead. “He gave us quite a list of potential relatives."
At least that's something. I take a seat at the table. "Let me see," I say to Meg and she slides the paper to me.
"I need tea.” She jumps out of her chair like her ass is on fire and heads for the door. I wish I had her energy right now. “You guys need anything?"
"I'm good," Matt says.
I need something, but it sure isn't tea. Probably a shot of bourbon. "Nothing for me, thanks."
The handwriting on the paper is atrocious, and I have to reread some of the names twice. Like Meg said, there are dozens. I start counting them off as Matt takes a call from Taylor. “Yeah, babe, I’ll be home in a little while." There is a pause, and he furtively glances my way. “She’s okay. She's tough like you, and she hired Jackie to help."
Meg returns, and Matt ends his call with Taylor. I draw a couple of lines on the paper. “We have thirty-four people to investigate, so that's eleven a piece, and I'll take the extra one."
Matt looks at me funny. “What are you doing, Charlie?”
I glance up, confused. “Dividing up the work so one of us doesn't get stuck doing all of it."Duh. I don't say that last word, but I think he can read my mind from the way he screws up his face.
Matt shakes his head as if I'm a child who just got caught lying. "Jackie told you to stay away from this."
“What Jackie doesn't know won't hurt her. You guys need help with this, and there's nothing else I can work on at the moment. My hands are tied on everything right now, and I need something to do."
Meg sips her tea. “If Charlie doesn't have something to do, she'll go crazy, which in turn, will make us crazy."
Matt rolls his eyes and holds out his hand for the paper. “I’ll make copies."
At ten, we call it quits. Even though we have the names, we don't have contact information for all of them, so we start by looking up numbers and noting those. Tomorrow we can start calling people.
There are a couple of reporters hanging around outside when Meg and I leave, but I don't engage, per Jackie's orders. I do take pictures of them and the license plates numbers on their vans and forward them to her. Meg and I say goodnight to Matt and head home.
We pick up food on the way, and I eat half of mine before we pull into the drive of our duplex. There are two suspicious vehicles on the street and I assume they’re more journalists.
As I park, a police vehicle, lights flashing, pulls up behind one of them. The officer gets out, and as Meg and I leave my BMW, I hear him tell the person driving to move on and not bother me or my sister again or he'll issue a ticket.
Meg and I exchange a look and she shrugs. Someone is looking out for us. I assume it's Jackie.
“Get some sleep," Meg says. I told her about the lawsuit, and she had some pretty choice words to say about Lily. “We’re going on the offensive tomorrow. She won't know what hit her. I need you in top form."
I appreciate her cheerleading and the fierceness that comes with defending me. After Lily went public, my parents called, several friends, and two of my former FBI colleagues, all to offer support.
A small thing, but an important one. I consider myself a lucky woman, even though my world is starting to split apart.
I promise I’ll try to sleep, even though we both know it's a lie.
Inside, I reset my security alarm but make my way through the house in the dark. It's quiet, and for the first time today, I let my guard down. In the kitchen, I turn on a light and find a bottle of wine.
