Sanity: a Novel by Neovictorian

Author:Neovictorian [Neovictorian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

35. Today, Office, Third Street, Reno, Nevada May 27, 8:44 am

“Our family and the Strauss brothers are friends. From way back.”

I look confused. “Who?”

There’s a visible physical reaction. Her shoulders move back an inch her head comes up and her eyes widen.

“The, umm, the Strauss brothers,” with a hint of emphasis that she hopes will penetrate. She’s played her hole ace now and she’s trying to cover but she really hasn’t played all that many hands in her young life.

“Strauss brothers? Who are they?”

Just the slightest hesitation and to her credit, she comes up with something.

“I’m sorry, I must have misunderstood. The Strausses are family friends, I thought you knew of them but obviously I was mistaken. Anyway, um, let’s get back to the issue of finding my mother.”

“Okay, but I thought I made it clear that this wasn’t really our kind of job,” I say. “Your security guy surely knows of some professionals who do this sort of thing all the time.”

I hit her with the other hand: “So you’ve gone to the police, right?”

“Um, no. We have a good reason not to.”

“Really? And what would that be?” The bizarre and interesting aspects of this setup intrigue me, but the mystification is far beyond what I’d normally put up with. Still, I can’t help myself, I need to know, badly, why the hell she’s here. I make a decision.

“Well, bec—“

“I’m sorry to interrupt. Ms. Hart, but let’s cut through the bullshit now and save a lot of time.” The mild obscenity doesn’t move a single muscle in her face.

“This was an unscheduled meet that I showed up for because you made a weird, wired-sounding early-morning phone call to me and you and your family and your security chief laid out something that I found interesting. You did this precisely and deliberately.

“I don’t know what’s going on, what’s in the background here, but if you want my help finding your mother, here are the conditions: First, contact your Mr. Anders and find out the name of the person or organization that got him the number you called. Second, have him or someone compile a one page brief, where your mother was and what she was doing for the last seven days before she disappeared. Third, my fee for this job, if I do it, is $10,000 a day, plus a $25,000 non-refundable upfront payment, starting today. So you get me the first two pieces, and a cashier’s check for $35,000, and I’ll be back here in this office at noon today. That’s a little over three hours from now.”

I stand, give her a nod.

“You seem sharp and mature for your age. I’m not sure why the family, or the company, if there’s a difference, sent you over here by yourself to hire me, but I suspect that it’s because you’re a very attractive woman who has a sad family story and happens to be heir to a few billions.”

I smile. “I do appreciate the effort. I’ll be back here at 11:59.

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