Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry(21)

“Better weather than New York. What about Florida?”

“It’s been raining the last few days.”

“Too bad. How have you been keeping yourself busy?”

“Oh, catching up on a few movies.” Gina knew that her father hated to go to the movies alone. “Who did you go with?” she asked.

“A new neighbor who is a movie buff.”

“Good for you.”

“So how is your latest story going?”

She briefly filled him in on her progress or lack thereof. She followed her usual practice of not naming the company she was investigating. They chatted for a few minutes more. It was only after they disconnected that she realized her father had not mentioned the name of the new neighbor. She dismissed the thought as she put on a winter jacket and wrapped a scarf around her neck. It was time to head to the subway and a meeting with Geoff.



* * *



Thirty minutes later, when she arrived at Empire, Jane as usual was the one to greet her. “Always glad to see you. The boss said to send you in when you get here,” she told her.

Gina knew she wasn’t late, but even so she quickened her step until she was at Geoff’s office. She knocked on the door and opened it when he called, “Come in, Gina.”

He was seated at the table by the window again. She wondered if, just like Charles Maynard, he preferred it to his desk for small meetings. “Tell me about your vacation in Aruba,” he suggested. Shocked, Gina stared at him. Did he really consider her trip a vacation?

But then he raised his eyebrows. “My too subtle British sense of humor. Forgive me, Gina. Now, tell me what happened there.”

Gina explained her attempt to replicate Cathy Ryan’s stay in Aruba; the same hotel room and Jet Ski tour. She carefully summarized the conversations she’d had, up to and including her visit to the dump site.

“Geoff, the key is the control device on the ski Cathy was using,” she said. “Was it tampered with while she was having lunch with her group? Klaus from the ski shop said that would have been easy to do.”

She continued. “It certainly appears that the Aruba police were determined to present Cathy’s death as nothing but an unfortunate accident. Inadvertently or deliberately they allowed the evidence to be destroyed.”

“Where do we go from here?”

“Cathy’s brother mentioned the name of a friend from REL News she kept in contact with. Her name is Meg Williamson. I left several messages for her. I’m waiting to hear back.”

“I’d say it’s obvious that’s the place to start,” Geoff said wryly.

He stood up. It was clear to Gina that the meeting was over.

“I’ll get on it right away,” she told him. “Is there any place quiet I can make a phone call?”

“I’ll ask Jane to put you in the small conference room.”

“Don’t bother. I know the way.”



* * *



Two minutes later, closing the door behind her, keeping her fingers crossed, Gina dialed Meg Williamson’s number. After four rings it went to voice mail.





25





“Mommy, why don’t you answer the phone?” Jillian asked. Meg inadvertently put her fingers to her lips in a gesture of shhhh, then smiled self-consciously. “I can tell it’s one of those calls from people trying to sell us something,” she explained, even as she recognized Gina Kane’s number from the earlier messages.

“Or saying that we won something, but only it’s not true,” Jillian replied as she left the living room and headed to the library, which was set up for her to do homework there.

Meg’s eyes followed her six-year-old’s progress. Jillian misses nothing, she thought fondly. And that’s another reason I don’t like her to be around when he phones.

She had told him about the phone messages from Gina. He had ordered her to ignore them. She had followed his instructions, but the phone calls were persisting. How long were they going to keep up?





26





After her attempt to reach Meg Williamson by phone, Gina left the conference room and went home. She had agreed to meet Lisa for dinner, but they had not set a place or time.

She phoned Lisa, who picked up on the first ring.

“Hey, Lisa. Any suggestions about where to go?”

“Any place except where the bartender may let ice cubes fly. The gal who broke her ankle has now figured out that she also hurt her neck when she fell.”

Gina laughed. “I want to hear all about it over a drink.”

“And I want to hear about your sun and fun in Aruba. I’ll make a reservation at Villa Cesare for seven-thirty.”

Villa Cesare on 86th Street was one of those popular restaurants that was always crowded. Both she and Lisa went there regularly and were on a first name basis with the owner and most of the staff.

“I’ll see you there,” Gina confirmed. It’s so good to have a really close friend, she thought as she put down the phone. And when she goes back a long way, it’s even better.

She had been on the worst blind date of her life. It was the older brother of one of the girls in her dorm. He was a Harvard guy and completely full of himself. Her best part of the date was at the bar when he bumped into some Harvard classmates and started talking to them. And just kept on talking. That’s when she met Lisa. By coincidence, Lisa, who was a sophomore at Boston University, was on a first date with one of the Harvard classmates. She was as bored as Gina. They started chatting and rescued each other from a disastrous evening. They had been fast friends ever since.