Page 61 of Dealing with Kate

“This seems a little over the top, even for her, but I’m going to find out right now,” he said, pulling out his cell phone and stalking off to Kate’s office.

***

After Adam closed the door and was out of earshot, Kate let Luna out of her carrier and turned back to the girls. They wore matching looks of apprehension.

“Hey, guys. We’ll figure this out. Don’t worry,” she soothed. She really had no idea what to do, but wanted to console her coworkers. “Also, what’s Mr. King doing here? Did he say? I know we don’t have an appointment.”

“No idea,” Brooke said. “He came in right before you did and didn’t say much.”

“Okay. I’ll tactfully get rid of him when he comes out. We’ve got to figure out this business asap.”

“What about Doug?” Hope said. “He was not happy about you breaking out on your own. Plus, not to toot our own horn, but the few of us that followed you were some of his best agents.”

“Now that you mention it, I had a run-in with him last week, and you’re right,” Kate said. “He didn’t seem very happy with me. He also offered me condolences on the bad things that were happening to me, which at the time seemed weird and cryptic, but would make sense if he was responsible for these things happening. Maybe he’s even the one that keyed my car.”

“You think he’d be that petty?” Brooke asked.

“One of the reasons I followed Kate out of that office was because of him,” Molly said. “He had a slimy, win-at-all-costs vibe to him I didn’t like. I got into real estate to help people, not just make money. He put the dollar above everything else, and I’m sure us leaving did not help his bottom line.”

“And then we win the King deal…,” Hope said. “That’s when all this started.”

“Holy crap. You’re right,” Kate said. “Maybe I should stop Adam from saying anything he’d regret to Stella.” But just as she started that way, the door to her office opened and Adam returned.

“I don’t think it’s her,” he said, frowning. “She admitted to slashing your tire and says she’s very sorry.” He paused for an exaggerated eye roll. “But she denies doing anything else. According to her, she has a new boyfriend and has been in Maui with him for about two weeks. I checked her social media and found multiple recent photos of her with some guy on a beach, hiking, etcetera, clearly not taken in North Carolina.”

“We think we might know who it could be,” Kate said. “I don’t want to make false allegations though. How do we confirm all this? Should I confront him?”

“Who?” Adam asked.

“Doug Doyle. The managing broker at our old brokerage. When I left and opened the new firm, he lost his best agent. And, as he probably sees it, stole the second and third best on my way out.” She high-fived Molly and Hope. “Losing all three of us undoubtedly hurt his business. I could totally see him being pissed about it.”

“It sounds like he practically admitted it when you talked to him the other day, Kate,” Brooke said.

“You talked to him?” Adam asked Kate.

“I ran into him at The Drip. I’m surprised he still gets his coffee there,” she said offhandedly before continuing. “He offered congratulations and condolences. I didn’t know what he meant, so I blew it off. I guess he could have meant congratulations on a pregnancy or retirement. He sort-of backtracked on ‘condolences,’ saying he just meant it was too bad about the awful things happening to me. Maybe he meant the vandalized signs and my car getting keyed? Iguessthat could make sense.”

Adam’s look straddled anger and frustration. “I interviewed him before picking you. He came across as an arrogant know-it-all.”

“Yep, that’s him,” Kate said. “Hope thinks you hiring us is what pushed him over the edge. That’s when all the monkey business started.”

“Asshole,” Adam muttered.

“Not that it’s not always great to see you, but what are you doing here?” she asked him.

“I stopped by to see if you wanted to get lunch.”

“Oh, good. I thought I’d forgotten to put something on my calendar. I’m just coming back from lunch, and since all this has come up, I think I better deal with it now. Could I take a rain check?” At least this minor crisis would get her out of an awkward conversation with Adam. “Getting lunch” was probably code for “dumping you.” Not that she was petty, but she wanted to be the one to officially end things.

“I want to help.”

“You’re a client. You don’t need to be wrapped up in our brokerage business.”

“I’m a friend,” he said firmly. “And I want to help.”

She looked to her coworkers for their thoughts. They all shrugged. “All right,” she said to Adam. “Let’s head to the conference room and work through this.”

They made a list of all the abnormal incidents, occurrences of vandalism, and potential rumors. It wasn’t much more than they had already. Brooke mentioned an uptick in cold calls from strangers wanting to make an appointment and then never showing. Sure, there were always a few of those, but since the majority of their business was either proactively sought out or from referrals, Kate agreed that was weird.

---