Come and Find Me A Novel of Suspense - By Hallie Ephron Page 0,10
to a ruffled high neck.
“That one’s definitely you,” Diana said. “Little House on the Prairie. Just enter your measurements, charge it to your credit card, and it’s made to order.”
“Leather jacket,” Ashley said into the microphone.
Up came a brown World War I–style bomber’s jacket, followed by a fitted black blazer, followed by a western-style jacket with serious fringe, followed by Diana’s design.
“Order that one and I get ten percent,” Diana said.
“Of what?”
“More than you can probably afford.”
“I doubt that.” Ashley set her chin on her hand as she watched leather jacket after leather jacket materialize and dematerialize. “I could definitely get into this.”
While Ashley changed back into her own clothes, Diana stayed in her office. It took just a minute to reorder the outfit. She planned to set the clothes aside for Ashley’s next birthday. It was an expensive gift, but she’d never been able to adequately repay her sister for the way she’d been there for her when Daniel died.
As she waited for the receipt to print, she picked up the walking stick from the umbrella stand beside her desk. Bleached bone white, the long, smooth, slender piece of driftwood had belonged to Daniel.
She ran her hand along its surface. Her breath caught as pine resin—more a feeling than an actual smell—seemed to enter through the palm of her hand, swirl through her chest, and climb up the back of her neck and into her sinuses. Her eyes stung.
She shook herself out of it, put the walking stick back in the umbrella stand, slipped on her earpiece, and called Jake back.
“Diana?” Jake answered. “It’s about time. Are you trying to get us fired?”
“They were headed for the exit long before I opened my big mouth.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I sure as hell do. I know when I’m being played.”
“Played? What are you talking about?”
“This makes at least the third time a client has circled the wagons the instant we get a lead on the hackers. All we’re doing is damage control, plugging holes. I want to put the hole makers out of business.”
“News bulletin: Gamelan provides a service. We do what our clients want us to do.”
“Is that how you see it, Jake? They tell us what to do and we salute and march? Daniel would have—”
He cut her off. “Would you stop with Daniel already? The truth is, neither of us has any idea what Daniel would or wouldn’t have done. Let’s just stick with what’s going on here and now.”
“Here and now, we’re supposed to have some kind of expertise that our customers are paying for.”
“Paying for. Exactly. We’re in business to make money. And it wouldn’t hurt if we focused a bit more attention on the bottom line.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Diana said. If they were having a cash-flow problem, it was news to her. Jake did their accounting and Diana drew enough to live on. With what they were charging and the way the business had grown, there should have been plenty for her and Jake and more after that.
“We’re doing fine,” Jake said. “But it’s a very small world out there and we can’t afford to piss off clients. So could you at least discuss your next outburst with me before you go off half-cocked again? We’re supposed to be partners.”
Partners? More like the remaining two legs of a three-legged stool. Still, she couldn’t disagree—she should have talked with him before the meeting.
“It’s just that I . . . I get impatient,” she said. “It’s frustrating going after hackers and then getting stopped when we’ve barely slowed them down.”
“Diana, these guys are just pulling the same kind of crap we were up to two years ago. Without them, we’ve got no work.”
“So you’re saying we shouldn’t try to track them down? Gee, maybe we should put them on the payroll.”
“I’m saying that even if you track them down, it won’t fix the problem. You think there’s just one group of hackers out there and they’re targeting our clients?”
“Of course not. That’s ridiculous. But still, it makes me furious. I want to know who they are. This time, and the time before that, and the time before that. We could lose our reputation just as fast as we gained it if it gets out that our clients are being shaken down.”
“You don’t know that’s what’s happening.”
“You’re right. But I’m sure as hell going to find out.”
There was a pause on the other end. “What are you up to?”