“Reese, sweetie.” Ashton flagged her over to the head of the table. “Can you ask Jennifer to send lunch in?”
“Sure.” Reese squeezed her lips together and hoped it resembled a smile.
Her feet hurt from walking back and forth across the room twelve thousand times as various executives snapped and waved her over, and she had to go to the bathroom so bad she just knew she was causing future bladder damage. Which was amazing, since she hadn’t had a sip of anything to drink since seven that morning and was probably on the verge of total dehydration.
Never again would she complain about interviewing reality show cast-offs. This fetch and carry job was much worse.
Which would be fine, if she was actually learning anything useful, but so far they had discussed nothing but quarterly profits. Even the subtle wink she’d given the CW to let him know she was on his side had been met with a blank stare.
Heading for the door, she called out to the room, “Does anyone else need anything while I’m gone? Tell me now before I go.”
There was a stunned silence, then someone laughed. “I’m fine.” Then he turned to Chatterton and said with a smirk, “Like the new assistant, Ashton.”
“Reese is a family friend who needed a job. We take care of our own here at Delco, don’t we?” Chatterton’s voice was full of innuendo and Reese wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by it.
The only thing she was sure of was that when the Feds came to haul Ashton Chatterton off, she wasn’t going to be the least bit sorry.
Derek had spenta nerve-racking day filling out 302 reports of that morning’s conversation with Markson, hoping the guyhadn’t choked in the meeting, or acted suspicious. Or worse, gotten caught.
When six rolled around, he was waiting anxiously for him at the Holiday Inn again, pacing and looking out the window for a sign of his CW every five minutes. By the time Markson knocked on the door, Derek felt five years older.
But Markson smiled, came inside, and said, “I’ve got it. Everything went without a hitch.”
“That’s great, Stan. That’s great. Good job.”
Markson was already removing his jacket to have the tape taken out by Maddock, and Derek heaved a huge sigh of relief. Step three accomplished.
Now with a little luck, in the coming weeks there would actually be something useful. Enough to justify the Bureau following Delco to New Zealand for the big price-fixing meeting that was scheduled in two weeks’ time.
Given that the FBI would need the cooperation of the New Zealand government and the hotel the meetings were taking place in, they would need these Delco tapes to show intent to price-fix at that meeting.
Derek was convinced that’s what the meeting was all about. Knowing the strict nature of the U.S. antitrust laws, it would make sense to meet outside the country when it came time to discuss actual prices and market share.
Maddock already had the file set to listen to as Derek escorted Markson to the door. “You did great, Stan.”
Markson left, looking relieved and tired.
“Markson said there’s a full eight hours on this,” Maddock said. “Are we going to try to listen to the whole thing tonight?”
“I think we have to. If there’s nothing there, we’re going to have to lean on Markson to guide the conversation around to New Zealand. We don’t have much time.” Derek thought aboutReese and their plans for that night and experienced a big wave of regret.
It wasn’t the first time his job had interfered with his personal life, but he’d never felt it so acutely. In his pants.
And if he was honest, he was disappointed he’d have to miss her company. Reese made him laugh, something he hadn’t been doing a whole lot lately.
Maddock reached for the phone. “Then I’m ordering a pizza.”
“Sounds good.” Maybe, with a whole boatload of luck, they would find something early on and he could still make it to pick Reese up at eight, according to plan.
No such luck. Even fast-forwarding as they munched on greasy pizza, Derek and Maddock weren’t even a third of the way through the meeting an hour later. The only thing they’d discovered was that Delco executives liked to talk. A lot. About nothing.
“Jesus, this is boring,” Maddock complained. “And where the hell is White, by the way? How did she get out of this?”
“She had a previous appointment. Something personal.” Derek listened to Ashton Chatterton rambling on and on about how he was satisfied with profits, but there was room for growth.
“What? Did she have like a date or something? You let her off the hook for a date?”
Derek rubbed his temples and looked across the table at Maddock. What the hell was this all about? “I don’t know if it was a date. She said she had an appointment.” He pinned Maddock with a hard stare. “So what exactly is going on between you and White?”