The ice man, p.5
The Ice Man, page 5
“I know that, Riley,” she said impatiently.
“Work nights, when no one else is around.”
“I don’t really want to be picked up on security cameras at this point. Just let me handle it. I always get the job done, don’t I?”
“Always. I guess I’m a little anxious about this case. I don’t want to see another shipment get through.”
“I know. But one just might. This is going to take time. Maybe months.”
“I’ll back off.” He changed the subject. “How’s the house?”
“Little, with a tiny yard.”
“But nice?”
“It’s all right. I mean, we’ve only been in it for two days.”
“How’s the furniture?”
“It’s fine.” Kyra grew quiet.
“What is it?” Riley asked.
“Would you check two other people for me?”
“Sure.”
“Carl Allessandro and Barry Chesler.”
“We have files on them already, just as we do the rest of the employees there.”
“But they’re sketchy. I mean really check them. I want to know everything there is to know about them. Check them as thoroughly as you did Jack and his family.”
“All right. That’ll take a while.”
“I know. There’s a dinner tomorrow night with some business types. I’ll find out what I can there and send you a report when it’s ready.”
“Good. I had a computer installed at your place today with a direct hookup to my computer, along with a scanner. Send me whatever you get as soon as you get it.”
“I will. Thanks, Riley. And just one more thing. I’ll need an updated password finder disk.”
“I’ll Express Mail it to you tonight.”
“Thanks.”
“Anything else? I mean, if you want high-tech, I’ll get you high-tech.”
“Let’s see what I can get on my own first.”
“Fair enough. Bye for now, kid.”
Kyra touched the power button to disconnect the call and dropped the phone into her purse.
Before she could start her car, Jack and The Wendt Woman stepped out of the garage elevator. Kyra watched as they walked away from her. Suddenly the woman stopped. Jack turned toward her. The woman put her arms around his neck and drew his face to hers. His arms went around the woman and pulled her body closer to his as their lips met.
Kyra shifted uncomfortably in her seat, wishing she were anywhere but where she was—and yet unable to look away.
As Jack raised his head, he looked straight into Kyra’s eyes.
Neither of them looked away.
And then in one fluid movement, he turned away from Kyra, put his arm around the woman’s waist and guided her toward his car.
Kyra started her own car and accelerated out of her parking space, past Jack and the woman and out of the garage.
She wasn’t upset.
She wasn’t.
It had nothing to do with her.
The drive home seemed to take forever.
It had been a long day and she wanted to get home to Noah.
She turned on the radio, changed the stations until she listened to ten of them for all of five seconds each and turned it off again.
There was silence except for the purr of the engine.
Kyra wished she were back in Virginia. She had a bad feeling about this assignment. Her instincts had told her from the first moment that she should turn it down.
It wasn’t like her to go against her instincts.
That was another of the qualities that made her good at what she did.
And yet, here she was.
All of her second-guessing disappeared, though, when she pulled into the driveway and saw Noah climb off his bright red tricycle to run to her.
She met him halfway and lifted him high in the air.
And when he wrapped his little arms around her neck to hug her, Kyra pushed work from her mind. She smiled at her aunt, who was sitting on the steps of the small porch.
Everything would be all right.
Jack lay in bed on his back, his arm behind his head, and listened to the even breaths of the woman sleeping beside him.
He couldn’t relax.
Climbing out of bed, he went into Barbara’s bathroom and took a hot shower. With a towel wrapped around his waist, he went to her kitchen to fix himself a drink, then back to the bedroom. For a long moment, he looked down at the woman in the bed.
The sex between them had always been good but meaningless. And tonight when he’d begun to make love to her, the meaninglessness of it overwhelmed him to the point where he’d had to stop. As he looked at her now, he realized that he felt...nothing. Absolutely nothing.
That was usually enough.
But not tonight.
He crossed the bedroom to the undraped window. Leaning his bare shoulder against the frame, he took a long swallow of his scotch and stared into the night.
He found himself wondering if Kyra was alone at that moment.
Or if she was with a man. For all he knew, she could have been living with someone. After all, she had a child.
Jack restlessly dragged his fingers through his still-damp hair. It was none of his business.
She was nothing to him.
Just an assistant.
Chapter 4
Kyra arrived at work early the next morning before anyone else.
The first thing she did was hang up the dress she’d brought for that evening’s dinner party. Reaching over her desk, she turned on her computer to make it look as though she was working at her own area in case anyone came in.
Then she went straight into Jack’s office, closed the door and started going through his desk. There were files in the bottom right-hand drawer and she went through each one looking for something—anything—that was out of place. An invoice. A letter. A notation.
But there was nothing incriminating. The only thing she discovered was that he was neat and had an eye for detail.
Next she went through his appointment book. Starting with the first of the year, she examined every day up to the present. There were all kinds of meetings with recognizable Washington bigwigs listed, including a lot of lunches and some dinners with Burton Banacomp. Most of the meetings with Banacomp and the others occurred in Chicago, which meant that they were going after Jack’s support rather than the other way around.
She found that interesting but not unusual. Politicians were constantly going where the money was. It was their life’s blood.
The problem was figuring out if Banacomp was in league with any of the others. A cursory look told her that when Jack met with the congressman, it was alone or with Barry. Never with another politician.
Kyra took a legal pad out of Jack’s middle desk drawer and began scribbling down names for Riley to check out along with the dates and locations of the meetings.
She worked fast, but not fast enough. A look at her watch told her that others would be arriving anytime.
She put everything back in its proper place, then stepped away from the desk to make sure she hadn’t overlooked anything.
Perfect.
“What are you doing?”
Kyra’s heart slammed against her ribs as she whirled around to find Jack Allessandro standing in the doorway watching her. “Nothing really,” she lied as she casually dangled the legal pad from her left hand with the pages turned away from him. “Just seeing if you left any instructions for me. I thought you were going to be gone today.”
“I am,” he said tersely as he moved past her to his desk. “I just stopped in for a file. And if I had left any instructions for you, I would have put them on your desk, not mine.”
“Of course. I was just trying to cover all of the bases.” She started to leave his office.
“Ms. Courtland?”
Kyra wanted to get the legal pad out of sight, but she had to turn back. “Yes?”
“How is your taste in jewelry?”
“Do you mean my taste in general or in terms of what I can afford?” She had meant to be amusing, but he didn’t smile.
“Your taste in terms of what I can afford,” he said as he took a file from his middle drawer and dropped it into his briefcase.
“Oh, well, then I’d have to say I have an unerring eye. Almost anyone would.”
He snapped his briefcase closed and moved around the desk to stand in front of her. To Kyra’s surprise, Jack raised his hand and gently fingered her delicate gold hoop earring. “That’s very pretty.”
“Thirty-four dollars and ninety-five cents on sale at Sak’s.” She was uncomfortable being this close to him, but she didn’t step away.
“I want you to pick out something for me to give to Barbara—Ms. Wendt.”
“Anything in particular?”
“I don’t know. Earrings. A bracelet.”
“Is there a price limit?”
“Under ten thousand.” His hand fell to his side.
“You know,” said Kyra quietly, “if I were Barbara, I’d rather have you pick out something for me yourself, even if it’s not in perfect taste. A gift has no real meaning otherwise.”
His eyes looked into hers. “But you’re not Barbara, are you?”
His words were almost a challenge.
Then he brushed past her as he walked out the door. “Have it ready for me tonight.”
“Yes, sir.” Kyra walked into her own office and angrily slammed the legal pad onto her desk. Buying Jack Allessandro’s mistress a gift wasn’t in her job description, but she was stuck with it. She couldn’t make a fuss without risking her job at this point.
“Kim,” she said into her speakerphone, “I have to buy a nice piece of jewelry at Mr. Allessandro’s request. Is there a good store nearby?”
“Tiffany’s is just a few blocks away.”
“Does he have an account there?”
“I don’t know. Just tell them who it’s for. If he doesn’t have one already, I’m sure they won’t have a problem opening one.”
“Thanks.”
Ripping the pages from the legal pad, she folded them and put them in her purse before heading out of the office.
It was a beautiful day, and Kyra had to admit that she liked Chicago. She always had. Downtown, at least, seemed clean and safe. People were dressed up and in a hurry, as in any big city, but that didn’t stop them from smiling if they made eye contact, and politely holding doors open for those coming in behind them.
She also liked the architecture. Old and new combined beautifully.
By the time she’d walked the three blocks to Tiffany’s, she was relaxed and in a better mood. An elegantly dressed associate approached her with a smile. “May I help you?”
“I hope so. I need to buy a gift for someone I don’t know very well.”
“Do you have anything special in mind?”
Kyra looked at the display case in front of her and saw a very delicate gold bracelet with emeralds embedded in the clasp. “May I see that?” she asked, pointing it out.
The woman unlocked the case and removed the bracelet. “Would you like to try it on?”
“Yes, thank you.”
The woman fastened it onto Kyra’s wrist, then turned a mirror toward her so she could see how it looked. “It’s beautiful. If I were buying it for myself, this is what I’d get. But somehow I don’t think it’s quite right for the intended recipient.”
The woman unfastened the bracelet and placed it back in the case.
“Just out of curiosity, how much is it?”
“Fifteen thousand dollars.”
Just a tad out of her price range, thought Kyra as she moved on to another case and then another. “This is it,” said Kyra suddenly, pointing at another gold bracelet, this time a chunkier one made up of Tiffany’s signature x’s. It was a beautiful piece—simple, but large enough to suit Barbara’s height. “It’s perfect for her.”
“Would you like the earrings to match?”
“Perhaps another time. Just wrap that, if you’d be so kind, and charge it to Jack Allessandro.”
“Of course.”
Their version of wrapping turned out to be putting it in a blue box and tying it with a white ribbon.
With the box safely tucked away in her shoulder bag, Kyra quickly walked back to the office.
She worked on returning calls and answering E-mail until people began leaving for lunch.
Then she went back into Jack’s office. Turning on his computer, she began opening the files that didn’t require a password. One of those was a list of names, addresses and telephone numbers.
Kyra hit the print button and waited impatiently while page after page rolled out. She looked at them one at a time and noticed that he had the private office and home number of several politicians. Kyra underlined those to bring them to Riley’s attention.
It could mean something, or it could mean nothing.
She returned to her own office to put the papers into her shoulder bag, then went back to Jack’s office for what little time she had left before people started returning from lunch.
Quickly viewing the files she could get access to, everything seemed aboveboard. But there were a lot of password-locked files that looked interesting. She would have to save those for another day.
Just as she shut everything down, the door opened and Barry Chesler stood there, as surprised to see Kyra as she was to see him.
“What are you doing in here?” he asked.
Kyra’s heart was hammering, but her smile was relaxed. “Working hard.”
“Why in here?”
“I was just checking Mr. Allessandro’s calendar to make sure I wasn’t missing anything on mine.”
“Can you do that in your own office? I need to use Jack’s computer. Mine’s down.”
“Of course.” She picked up Jack’s daybook as she rose from the chair. “Would you like me to call someone to fix your computer?”
“I’ll have Kim take care of that. Thanks anyway.”
One of the things that Kyra had learned was that since Barry wasn’t really active in the business side of the company, he had very little paperwork. He used Kim to answer his calls and type whatever correspondence he had. He wasn’t even in the office all that often; perhaps two days a week, and then only for a few hours.
“I understand you’re taking care of the dinner this evening,” Barry said as he lowered himself into Jack’s chair and turned on the computer.
“That’s right. Will you be there?”
“Of course. Somebody has to supply the charm.” He winked at her.
Kyra smiled at him as she left the office and closed the door behind her.
Two close calls in one day, she thought as she hugged Jack’s daybook to her breast. She was going to have to be more careful. Smuggling wasn’t child’s play. If Jack was involved, Barry probably was, too. And if either of them were to suspect she was other than who she said she was, she could be in big trouble.
Kyra spent the rest of the afternoon sitting at her desk, doing her job. Every once in a while, she would notice the light on her phone go on, indicating that Barry was using Jack’s phone. He was in there for a long time.
When she finally finished the last letter, Kyra looked at her watch. Almost five. She really needed to see about the dinner preparations. “Kim?” she said as she pressed the intercom button to the reception area.
“Yes?”
“Has the caterer arrived?”
“He and his assistant are already working in the kitchen.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s time for me to head home. Is there anything you want me to do before I leave?”
“No, thanks for asking. I’ll talk to you in the morning .”
Kyra hung up and opened the door to Jack’s office.
Barry was gone, apparently through his own connecting door.
Kyra went through the door on the opposite wall that led into a boardroom. The boardroom opened into a lovely receiving area with a bar, which opened into a formal dining room, which in turn opened into a large gourmet kitchen. Kyra pushed open the double doors as she walked from one room to the next, finally entering the kitchen. It was bustling with activity and wonderful aromas.
“Hello,” she said as she surveyed the preparations. “I’m Kyra Courtland, Mr. Allessandro’s assistant. Thank you for doing this on such short notice. Do you know if the flowers have arrived?”
“I haven’t seen them,” said the man.
The woman shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve only been here a few minutes myself.”
“I’ll look around.”
She did. No flowers. So she called the florist to see where they were. The florist claimed they were on their way.
Kyra went to the dining room and started going through the cabinets. She found some beautiful china and silverware that would look splendid on the round, inlaid rosewood table. The crystal was exquisite and the linen napkins were still in their dry-cleaning wrappers. She did one complete place setting then stepped back and studied it.
The napkin wasn’t right.
She changed the folds, arranged it on the plate and stepped back to study it again.
Perfect.
One at a time, she worked on the other place settings until the table was ready—except for the flowers, which still hadn’t arrived. She found some lovely candles that she set at staggered intervals to complement the size and shape of the table. In the cabinets where the china had been, she found the perfect vase for the floral arrangement she had in mind.
As she was finishing that task, the bartender arrived. He began setting out what he’d brought with him and getting the glasses ready in the reception area.
Returning to the kitchen, she checked on the hors d’oeuvres, then called the florist again. For the second time, she was assured that the flowers would arrive shortly.
Kyra went back to her office and took her dress out of the closet. She had her own bathroom just off her office so stepped inside to change into the above-the-knee, sleeveless black dress with a high mandarin collar that gently hugged her figure. Leaning against the counter with one hand, she slipped her feet into her high heels then turned to the mirror to check her hair and makeup.
