“Thanks.” Kate smiled and reached for the cup. “You’re a peach.”
“I’m just buttering you up.”
Kate sipped her drink and glanced over the cup with raised brows. “Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like what you have to say next?”
Jill wrinkled her nose, the nose ring the twenty-something assistant wore making a clinking sound Kate didn’t want to ponder too much. “Because I’m really bad at this kind of stuff. Here.” She held out a note. “This guy stopped by today while you were out. Really familiar looking for some reason, but I can’t remember where I’ve seen him. Anyway, he wanted to speak with you about something, but since you weren’t here, he left you a message. His phone number’s at the bottom.”
Kate scanned the note, then looked back at Jill. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Jill cringed. “Sorry.”
Her day was heading straight for the toilet. Kate reached for the phone. The jerk had listed about ten facts from her article he deemed inaccurate and inconclusive.
She dialed and tapped her foot against the floor while she waited. With everything else going on in her life, she didn’t need this crap right now. A woman answered. “Mitch…” Kate checked his name at the bottom of the paper, “Mathews, please.” She waited another minute. “No, that’s fine, I’ll leave a message.”
Cradling the phone between her ear and shoulder, she fished out a bottle of aspirin from her desk. After dry swallowing two pills, she glanced up at Jill, who was hovering in the doorway. A male voice clicked on the line, and Kate grasped the phone with her hand, wrinkled her brow. Something about the voice was vaguely familiar.
She looked back at the name. Mitch Mathews. Ran it around in her head. Didn’t recognize it. But there was something so familiar in that voice...
Whatever. She’d never met the jerk before. After this wouldn’t talk to him again. She waited for the incessant beep.
“Mr. Mathews,” she began in a smug voice. “This is Kate Alexander at McKellen Publishing. I wanted to take the time to personally thank you for the kind note you left with my secretary today. We really appreciated the pointed and colorful language. Seeing as you had the time to not only track me down but also leave such a lengthy thesis on Queen Charlotte Sound, I must assume you are the expert in this field. From now on I’ll be sure to defer all questions and comments about this and future articles straight to you. One note, however. Jackass is spelled with two s’s, not one. I would have thought they’d teach you that in donkey school. Good day, Mr. Mathews.”
Kate gathered the papers in front of her and pushed to her feet. “I have an appointment this afternoon, Jill. You can forward my calls to my cell.”
“Ah, sure thing. Kate? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Why do you ask?”
“You just seem” —she glanced at the phone and back— “a little on edge.”
Kate took a calming breath. “I’m fine. I’ll be back later.”
Glancing at her watch, Kate realized she was already behind schedule. She climbed into her Explorer and headed across town. Normally, reader comments didn’t even faze her, but there’d been something in the tone of Mitch Mathews’s note that had really grated on her last nerve.
She found a parking place two blocks from her destination and figured that was a sign her day had to be getting better. It couldn’t get much worse. Her life couldn’t get much worse. As she stood in the building lobby and waited for the elevator, a chill spread over her shoulders and a ripple of anxiety rushed down her spine. She was just nervous. That was normal. If this didn’t pan out, she wasn’t sure where to go next.
The elevator pinged, the doors opened. She drew in another calming breath as she stepped into the law firm lobby, which was quiet but for the click of fingers on a nearby keyboard. The secretary looked up as she approached. Kate tried to smile, but her insides felt like they were on a continuous loop-de-loop roller coaster. There had to be a reason she’d fixated on this lawyer’s name amidst the hundreds listed on the Internet. “I’m here to see Simone Conners.”
“Ms. Conners is fairly busy today,” the secretary said. “Do you have an appointment?”
“Yes. Kate Alexander.”
The young blonde picked up the phone, mumbled into it then glanced back at Kate. “Ms. Conners is expecting you.