Chapter 44
FORTY-FOUR
Derek was sweating his way through a meeting with Nordstrom on Wednesday. There was no one to save him. He was alone, on his own, soaking through his shirt to the jacket of the new black suit Reese had insisted he wear today.
Nordstrom looked ready to pop a vein in his temple and Derek’s knee was aching like hell. It was acting up from all the activity lately. Namely, too much sex. Who would have ever thought he would be saying that?
“So let me get this straight. Your girlfriend, who I was subjected to the sight of you PDA-ing in the elevator, now has a job at Delco Pharmaceutical as some kind of gopher for Ashton Chatterton?”
“Yes, sir.” He kept his mouth shut about the Public Display of Affection comment.
Nordstrom’s jaw worked back and forth. “You know, you’re a good agent.”
There was a big old fat-ass but coming on the end of this, Derek just knew.
“But…you have an incredible talent for just sucking trouble right to you. Like dirt to a little kid. I’ve got Washington on my ass, I’ve got anti-trust chomping at the bit wondering when they can take a look at our case, and what do I have?
I have a bunch of papers that indicate possible patent-fixing and one meeting of execs acting like maybe they engage in dividing the drug market.
I’ve got a nervous CW who is likely to bolt at any second, and an agent with a personal life that is suddenly spilling over onto the Bureau.
” He shook his head. “I’m not a happy man. ”
Derek wasn’t sure why making Nordstrom happy seemed to be his job, but he would give it his best shot.
“We need to go to New Zealand, sir. We need that entire meeting on camera so we can see and hear everything. We need a surveillance guy to rig a conference room with the equipment. All we need on tape is some kind of verbal agreement from Chatterton and the guys at Stanfield and Ricould and we’ve got them.
Together with all the documents we have, the antitrust prosecutors will be happy. ”
“Nothing makes those guys happy.” Nordstrom snorted. “But okay, we’ll go to fucking New Zealand. The three case agents and Schwartz, who can set up the equipment. We’ll contact the New Zealand authorities and get permission and you need to try and find out the hotel this is happening in.”
Nordstrom leaned back in his chair, making it squeak. He tossed the pen he’d been twirling in his hand onto his desk. “How’s Markson holding up? Is he going to be able to handle this?”
Derek sure in the hell hoped so. “He’s okay so far.”
“And your girlfriend? Can you control her? She can’t be running around saying her boyfriend’s a Fed.”
Derek knew that his ability to control Reese was about as likely as the weatherman ordering sunny skies and seventy degrees. “She’s a smart woman. She understands and won’t slip up.”
His boss’s eyebrow rose. “Man, you’re completely whipped, aren’t you?”
Derek knew he should protest, but he wasn’t convinced that he wasn’t, in fact, whipped. It certainly seemed like Reese managed to get her way the majority of the time.
“Nice suit, by the way. I’m guessing Girlfriend picked it out for you.” Nordstrom gave a crack of laughter.
“She had nothing to do with the suit. I picked it out.” With his sister. And was wearing it at Reese’s request.
Shit. He was whipped.
Nordstrom shook his head and picked up his coffee mug. “Anyway, I can’t believe this case is dragging on like this. New Zealand. Hell, you’re going halfway around the damn world. Let’s hope they say something worth getting on tape.”
Derek had surpassed hoping and had gone to praying. This was it. Make or break time.
Reese was bored to tears. Ashton Chatterton had no meetings scheduled for Wednesday, only phone calls and some afternoon golf. Jennifer didn’t seem to know what to do with her.
“Is there anything I could file, or make copies of, or call caterers or something?”
“Well…” Jennifer looked around her cubicle at a loss.
Jennifer was Marjorie’s assistant, who was Chatterton’s actual personal assistant.
Marjorie’s desk was in a real office attached to Chatterton’s and Marjorie herself was elusive, squirreled away all day, apparently busy doing things Reese couldn’t even fathom.
“I suppose you could book a hotel reservation. Normally our travel department makes flight arrangements and books hotels, but Mr. Chatterton likes one of us to personally oversee scheduling conference rooms when he’s out of town.
The travel department doesn’t always accommodate Mr. Chatterton’s specific needs. ”
Reese tuned the woman out as Jennifer went into a story about Chatterton not being pleased with once having a conference room next to one that was hosting a jump-rope competition.
“Where and when?” she finally interrupted, grateful for the opportunity to do something—anything—besides making copies of her face in the Xerox machine to send as postcards to her brothers.
Taking this job had been meant to serve a dual purpose.
She had thought to speed the Feds’s case along by helping them gather any evidence they needed, or prevent the CW from bolting and leaving them high and dry.
Second, she had thought being on the inside of Delco she could conduct her own journalistic investigation into the company and their illegal dealings.
She now realized both were stupidly optimistic.
There was nothing she could do to assist Knight on this case when the only tasks required of her were ordering twelve club sandwiches and repeatedly plugging Chatterton’s phone in the charger. He didn’t like to plug it in himself because apparently, that was hard.
And there was really nothing to investigate.
She had access to all the information the FBI had sitting in her suitcase at Knight’s apartment.
All the evidence was there, hidden on her laptop.
If there was more information to be had, she didn’t know where to find it.
Even if she did, she probably wouldn’t recognize the significance of it.
Her only hope was to hover at these incessant meetings and hope Chatterton or another exec alluded to something criminal, which Knight would be taping anyway.
“Okay, so book a conference room in New Zealand. Got it.”
Jennifer handed her the file after a pregnant pause. As Reese took it, Jennifer said sternly, “Now, I’ll be at my desk if you have any problems. All Mr. Chatterton’s needs are clearly outlined in the file.”
“I got it.” How hard was it to call and say “book me a room?” A third grader could do this job.
Turning her back on Jennifer, she headed towards the cubicle that had been temporarily assigned to her. No one seemed to know exactly what to do with her, so they had stuck her in the corner by the men’s rest room, which had prompted her to decorate her desk with a scented candle.
Flipping open the file, she quickly scanned it. “Okay, meeting room for twelve, including executives from Delco, Stanfield, and Ricould.” Those names sounded familiar.
Reese scanned further. “Need lunch, need A/V, convenient to airport. No problemo.”
It wasn’t until she was passing Chatterton in the hall an hour later that she realized why those names were familiar. They were the other companies involved in the anti-trust investigation.
When Chatterton nodded and smiled at her, she blurted out, “I made your travel arrangements to Auckland, Mr. Chatterton. Everything’s all set.”
Though he looked a little startled, he smiled and nodded. “Thank you, Reese.”
Reese tipped back on her high heels, wearing a gray skirt and white blouse she had borrowed from Claire. “You know, I’ve never been to New Zealand. I’ve never even left the U.S. I bet it’s pretty there.”
She was babbling, not sure what to say, but she wanted to keep Chatterton talking. Not that she thought he was going to say anything important, but she needed to at least try.
“It’s very nice, I’ve been there several times.”
“You know they filmed Lord of the Rings there. Well, not in Auckland but somewhere in New Zealand. It’s very green.”
There was another small silence while Chatterton looked at her, a slight smile as he seemed to make a decision.
“You know, Reese, I always take an assistant with me on these trips. Marjorie can’t go, her mother is having bypass surgery.
And Jennifer hates to fly. How would you like to go with me?
It’s only three days, but you’d have plenty of time to sight-see in the evenings. ”
Reese tried not to grin. She couldn’t ask for anything better. “Mr. Chatterton, I’d love to. That’s so generous of you considering how new I am.”
Then Chatterton gave her that smile, the creepy I’ve-got- plans-for-you smile that made her want to cross her legs. “I have great hopes for your future here, Reese. You’re just the kind of employee I’ve been looking for.”
As he walked down the hall, Reese was left with the impression that she’d just walked straight into grandma’s cottage and Chatterton was the waiting wolf.