me, when Scott came in. His hair was askew and his pen was in rapid motion, waggling to beat the band. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in a long while, and the overhead lighting wasn’t doing him any favors. His clothes were starting to crease, becoming shiny with constant wear. He looked at me and looked at Petra, who was puffing slightly as she slowly but steadily moved along. I mouthed, do you want me to leave, with a jerk of my head toward the door, but he waved me off, forgetting about me just as soon as Petra looked up and saw him.
“So?” was all she said.
“They’re done now. We should know something soon.”
“Thank you for letting me know. The business meeting tonight—?”
“I’ve already spoken to the board about it. We’ll make the announcement then. You’re sure you don’t want to…do something more? Call things off? I’m sure it’s not up to me, but…”
“Not in the least. Not what he would have wanted either.” This last she said firmly, as though Garrison’s wishes were still paramount.
“Okay.” Scott looked around, distracted, then shrugged. “I can’t think of anything else, at the moment.”
“Then, please, don’t worry about it.” She reached into her sleeve and pulled out a small, plain linen handkerchief, and pressed it carefully to first one eye, then the other.
“Okay.” He nodded, but hesitated a moment longer when he saw the handkerchief. “Is there anything—?”
“Thank you, Scott.” The handkerchief vanished back up her sleeve and Petra moved steadily along.
“Okay.” Scott shook himself and left without another glance at me.
I decided I should just keep stretching back there, let everything I’d heard sort of fade away before I made my presence known again.
“Presumably you know? About Garrison?” She didn’t even turn around to ask me, but rather asked the reflection in the mirror, looking back to where I was trying to be invisible. Her voice started off shakily, then firmed up.
“Yes. I’m sorry. I didn’t know whether you’d heard the news yet.” I got up and moved down so that she could look at me directly. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you. Even when it’s not unexpected, it still takes one unawares. Scott wouldn’t have said anything, if you hadn’t known. He worries about that kind of thing, though he pretends not to.” A businesslike sniff, then a pause. “I suspect many people are learning, now. How did you hear?”
“By accident. I thought Scott was looking for me, but he was actually passing it along to someone else. We’re old friends,” I finished, as if that explained everything.
“Who was he telling?” she asked, suddenly switching off the machine.
I took a breath. “Duncan Thayer.”
“Of course he was. Partners of old.” She nodded her head. “It’s natural to turn to your friends at such a time.” Then she regarded me sharply in the mirror. “But then, perhaps that’s how you know him. You’re Oscar Fielding’s granddaughter, aren’t you? Didn’t recognize you, at first, with your hair short like that, but you’d been seeing Mr. Thayer before he came to us, hadn’t you? Garrison told me.” A small smile crossed her face, and it gave me the shivers. “Quite the affair, as I understand it.”
Then Garrison was better informed than most of our colleagues, I thought. “It was a very long time ago” was all I could manage safely. Anything more and I would have begun explaining too much.
“Oh-o,” Petra said. It sounded like a thousand other things more condescending and complex, though, to my ears, and I suddenly felt like a fourteen-year-old. My face burned.
“Well, we’ll make the announcement tonight,” she said. “I don’t want them to be too formal or too grief-stricken. It wouldn’t have been what Garrison would have wanted.”
“Oh?”
“Well, I knew him as well as anyone, having been married to him, as long ago as that was. In fact, we were both in this very spot last night. About nine.” She frowned and her words became sharper, almost accusatory. “He didn’t like not being able to go outside, but his balance has been so bad, recently. I tried to get him to use the treadmill up here, I tried, but the old…grump was too upset at not being able to get his constitutional as he wanted. He just sat here with me while I walked. There was no need for him to go out there, he could just as easily have used the…”
She took a breath, calming herself. “I walked him back to his room, made sure