Part 55 (2/2)

This problem is far from over, Ellen told herself. G.o.d only knows how it's going to end.

Chapter 23

_Wednesday, April 8

3:22 P.M.

_

As Stone Aimes stepped off the elevator on the sixth floor, his mind was running through his options. This phone call had to be about Winston Bartlett. He was going to step up the pressure. First there was the h.e.l.lfire meeting in Jane's office, and now he'd seen a kidnapping.

Maybe this was about that. Was Jane going to pa.s.s along a threat of legal action if that crime got reported?

The managing editor, Jay, had left a message with the third-floor receptionist, Rhonda, to be forwarded to Stone. Gist: he was urgently required in the office of their corporate counsel.

What does this tell me? he wondered. That they're going to try to do something to me that could have legal ramifications?

No, more likely it means that I'm going to be given an ultimatum, maybe an injunction. And Jane gets to deliver it with all the legal tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs.

Still, he was determined to go on. ”You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you jive.” Right? Well, not necessarily. But at the least, the truth could make a h.e.l.l of a book. And with that came financial freedom, at least for a while... .

The hallway felt desolate and ominous as he walked through the doorway that opened onto the cubicles. Jane Tully was down on the third floor, but he wanted to stop by his desk first and see if there'd been any further communications from Winston Bartlett. Possibly there still could be a deal in the making

The room itself was silent, no one meeting his eye. Maybe, he thought, it's the middle of the afternoon and everybody's dozing off from a late lunch. But when he got to his cubicle, he realized why he had suddenly become invisible. The top of his desk was bare, and there were three large cardboard boxes sitting on the gray carpet next to it.

”I think I get the picture,” he said to the empty s.p.a.ce.

It looked like Winston Bartlett had just provided him with a career decision. For a moment he felt his life pa.s.sing before his eyes, but then all he could think about was the future. This was not just the end of a wage-slave era; it was the beginning of the next phase of his life.

He saw everyone still avoiding his eyes as he turned around and walked back to the elevator. How much did Jane know about this? She had to know everything, which was why Jay sent him to see her. She would have no qualms about giving someone the ax, including a former lover.

When he stepped off the elevator on the third floor, Rhonda looked at him as though he were a corpse.

”She's--”

”I know she's here. Don't bother buzzing her.”

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