Monahan 01 Options by Rosemarie A D'Amico Page B

I’d try my luck with Jay. See if he’d forgiven me.
    “Yeah,” he answered on the first ring.
    “What telephone manners,” I said. “How’re you doing?”
    “I’m fine thank you. And you?” he said like a five year old.
    “Bored. Sad. Restless. I cleaned the apartment, ate dinner, tried to read for a while. Have you forgiven me yet?” I asked.
    “For what?”
    “Don’t be a smart-ass Jay.” I changed the subject. “What time did you get out of the office?”
    “About seven. I headed for the hills when the yelling reached a fever pitch.”
    “Yeah? Who was yelling?”
    “I don’t know. It sounded like Oakes and Cox. I was working on that stock option report, trying to get it finished. I had a couple of questions for Rick but never got past his door. When I went to go in I could hear yelling in his office so I hightailed it out of there. They sounded busy.”
    “I’m surprised. I saw Oakes with his coat on when I left. What were they yelling about?”
    “I didn’t stop to listen Kate.”
    “Come on Jay. Didn’t you put your ear up to the door?”
    “Unlike you Kate, I believe in letting some people have their privacy. Besides, it was none of my business.”
    Ouch. “So Rick never got his report.”
    “Yes he did. I sent it to him on e-mail. Not that he’ll read it but my ass is covered. There’re still outstanding problems. I worked backwards and ended up using the stock option numbers you gave me from the last board meeting. There’s no sense to why those numbers on the system were changed and I couldn’t find any back-up for them. I’m sure it’ll get sorted out when I talk to Rick about it. Why did Didrickson keep the originals of the two lists?”
    “I’m not sure. And, he was anxious to see Oakes at the end of the day. Must have been something important for Harold to want to see Oakes. Maybe it was about the lists.”
    “Oh yeah, really Kate,” Jay said sarcastically. “Didrickson is going to bother Oakes with a clerical error.”
    “Well, Mr. Smarty Pants, maybe Harold thought someone had been diddling with the numbers. Maybe he thought you had a fairy godmother too.”
    “Are you starting up again?” Jay’s voice went up half an octave.
    “Sorry. Really. Forget it. Listen, I talked to Danny. They haven’t released Evelyn’s body yet. He said they want to do an autopsy to determine the cause of death.”
    “It wasn’t a reaction to nuts?” Jay asked.
    “They’re not sure.” The sadness started to overwhelm me again. I slumped against the wall. “I gotta go Jay.”
    “Kate? You all right?” Jay asked quietly.
    “Yeah, sure. I’ll call you tomorrow.” I could hear Jay calling my name as I hung up the phone but I ignored him and hung up anyway. I slid down the wall to a sitting position on the floor and hugged my knees and was suddenly so tired I couldn’t move. The adrenaline had finally vacated the body. I had been up since five that morning.
    The phone rang and I didn’t answer. If I could just get up the energy to stand up and go to bed, I thought. I didn’t even have enough fuel in me to crawl. The phone stopped ringing after five rings. My throat tightened up and I started to cry. Twice in two days. My crying was quiet at first and slowly changed to gasping sobs. I rolled on my side and hugged myself. I could feel the carpet beneath my cheek getting wet.
    I stopped crying when the phone started to ring again. It seemed like I had been crying for a century but it must have been about two minutes. I ignored the phone and closed my eyes and fell asleep and dreamed that Jay was holding me. He was telling me it was okay, that he forgave me. He was stroking my hair and his arms felt good around me.
    I opened my eyes and I was looking into Jay’s. He was sitting on the floor in my hallway, holding me on his lap. His arms were around me and it felt good. My heart was in my throat the moment I realized I wasn’t dreaming.
    “Jesus Christ. You scared me