The Last Day by John Ramsey Miller

point.”
    “I thought we agreed on that point.”
    She lifted her glass of wine and stared at it. “Barney's gone. Nothing will bring him back, but we have to go on. I have to go on.”
    “He's not gone anywhere,” Ward said quickly. “He's dead.”
    Natasha's eyes filled with tears. “You imagine I don't know he's dead. He was killed by the actions of some idiot and I'm mad as hell about it. Beyond mad. I just want to stop feeling so mad, so damned empty, or whatever it is I'm feeling all the time. Maybe if this suit was over we could get on with our lives.”
    Natasha looked out through the windows. “I can't keep hating faceless electricians.”
    “Natasha,” Ward heard himself saying. “I'm dead set against settling. This is not something we're doing to be vindictive. This suit is supposed to be for Barney, not us. So they'll remember. So some good can come from this. The money from this suit is going to help children who need helping. Kids who will have a chance to live longer lives because of Barney.” Instead of Barney living longer.
    Natasha said, “I know all of that. Can we please change the subject?”
    Ward finished his Scotch and set his glass down. Natasha took a sip of her wine.
    “Flash Dibble raised his offer for the company,” Ward said.
    “The amount hardly matters, does it?” she said.
    “The idea of selling the company to the Dibbles makes my skin crawl,” he said honestly. “I don't know how much clearer I can make that to Gene. Trey was there and I told him to his face that he'd never get his hands on the company. I think even Gene understands, but I doubt it.”
    “Gene's a lawyer,” she said.
    “He's my best friend.”
    “Yes, he is. But he is seeing the fees attached to a twenty- million- dollar transaction he'll handle.”
    “That's true enough. Can't blame him there.”
    Natasha took another sip. “What does your uncle want to do?”
    “We haven't discussed it lately, but Gene told me he'd sell. Unk stands to make seven million dollars. I'm sure Bunny knows.”
    “Well, couldn't you buy Unk out?”
    Ward hadn't thought about that, but he imaginedhe could get a loan to buy Unk's stock. “I suppose I could.”
    Natasha put it into words. “It wouldn't be the same company without him. No offense, but he is the people person. He has the close relationships with the clients.”
    Ward tried to imagine the company without his uncle, and couldn't, because he knew that his uncle was such an integral part of the business that his absence was unimaginable. It would take a team to replace him, and Mark was RGI in the minds of most of their client base.
    “I'd need at least two people to take his place. We have other salesmen, but he's the closer. He makes sure the contracts are fair to us, and to the customers.”
    “Gene could help you with the contracts,” Natasha said. “He looks them over and passes on them anyway. And I'm sure Unk would still help you out. You could pay him, pay for his entertaining the clients.”
    “I hired the guy who's been dating Leslie.”
    “For what? I thought he was a private investigator.”
    “I hired him to be a private investigator.”
    Natasha's eyes grew large with disbelief. “Why would you hire a private detective?”
    Ward told her the story about the stolen prototype, and how Todd had already located the girl who took it.
    “Why did you take it with you?” she asked. Precisely the question he didn't want her to ask, because she knew the answer. It was Barney's favorite toy.
    He shrugged. “Just an impulse. I shouldn't have. Maybe the same reason you took Barney's baseball out of his room and put it in the bowl in the den.”
    “What are you talking about? I found that ball where you put it.”
    Ward couldn't believe what he was hearing. “Where I put it?”
    “Under the other pillow in my bed. The one you used to lay your head on. Remember that pillow?”
    “I'm pretty sure I would have noticed taking the ball out of Barney's