A Safe House by Stuart Woods

Author:Stuart Woods [Woods, Stuart]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-03-22T00:00:00+00:00

32

Stone, Jenna, Dino, and Viv were having dinner in the kitchen booth downstairs, talking of not much, when Jenna brought them to attention.

“I have a job,” she said.

Everybody else stopped talking. Images flashed through Stone’s mind of her in the typing pool at Steele Insurance.

“Tell more,” Stone finally managed to say.

“It’s a modeling job. A trusted friend booked it for me,” Jenna said. “It’s the cover of a mother/daughter special edition of Vogue.” She looked around at the blank faces staring at her. “I’m the mother,” she said.

“Oh,” Stone said.

“Let me see if I can answer the questions you probably have,” Jenna said. “First of all, it shoots tomorrow, but it doesn’t publish for another couple of months.”

“Are you getting a published credit for the work?” Viv asked. “I mean, on the contents page where it gives the name of the cover photographer: Does it also give your name?”

“The photographer is Harry Benson.”

“Good. Wonderful,” Viv said. “Does it give your name?”

“Yes.”

“Which name?”

“Jenna Jacoby.”

Each of the diners emitted an unintelligible sound.

“I can’t go on being Jamie,” Jenna said. “Being her means that I don’t exist. I tried to use a credit card on a phone purchase today, and they said the card account was closed. I can’t go into my bank and cash a check.” She looked around the table at their faces. “Is anybody hearing what I’m saying?”

“Actually,” Stone said, “I spent half an hour on the phone with Lance Cabot today, explaining that very thing to him.”

“And what did Lance say?”

“He said, and I quote: ‘I’ll get back to you.’ ”

“Has he?”

“Not yet.”

“I can’t go on being dead,” Jenna said. “I can’t live that way.”

“Literally, true,” Viv said.

“So, what’s the answer?”

“The answer to what?” Dino asked.

“We need all the publications that said I was dead to say that I’m not.”

“I think the news report that you are not dead would get more media coverage than the one that said you were.”

Dino spoke up. “I can see the line on the ‘corrections’ page in the Times: ‘Last week we said Jenna Jacoby was dead. She is not. Our apologies to everyone who thought she was.’ ”

“Do you think they will also say that Senator Wallace Slade, R-Tex, didn’t murder her?” Stone asked. “Otherwise, he’s going to sue the socks off them.”

“That’s Lance’s problem, isn’t it?” Dino asked.

“Yes, but I don’t want to be the one telling him that.”

“Are you afraid he’ll press a button and dissolve the phone in your hand?”

“Something like that,” Stone said. “And my ear with it.”

“Okay, that’s your problem.”

“Let’s go back to the root of this business,” Viv said. “Who was the first person to say that Jenna was Jamie?”

“I don’t think that anybody actually spoke those words,” Stone said. “The idea just sort of descended from above.”

“You’re blaming God?” Viv asked.

“No, no, it was just so obvious that we all went along with it.”

“How did it get into the papers?”

“I don’t know. Lance sort of jiggled an elbow or something, and the next thing we knew, it was on the AP wire.

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