‘It’s the truth, honest!’
Arden folded her arms. ‘No problem,’ she said. ‘I’ll wait.’
‘But he won’t be back for a couple of days,’ Julie said, looking as if she’d rather be anywhere than here.
‘Listen,’ Arden said tautly, ‘I’ve sat in that seat, remember?’
‘I don’t know what you—’
‘I’ve smiled just as politely as you and lied through my teeth so I could turn away unwanted visitors for that man!’
The other girl shook her head. ‘I’m telling you the truth! Mr Lithgow was called out of town on urgent business.’
‘What urgent business?’
‘I don’t know. He didn’t—’
‘When will he be back?’
Julie shrugged. ‘I don’t—’
‘I have to see him, Julie,’ Arden said urgently. ‘You’ve got to tell me where he is!’
‘I swear, I don’t know.’ The girl looked around, then leaned forward over her desk. ‘What happened?’ she whispered. ‘I was shocked—we all were—when Lithgow announced he’d had to fire you.’
‘Is that what he said?’
‘Uh huh. He left something for you. I was supposed to send it over to the hotel, along with your things, but since you’re here...’ Julie took an envelope from her desk. ‘There’s a cheque in it,’ she said. Her eyes seemed to narrow just a bit and that same damned smile, the one Arden had seen on the faces of the chambermaid and the waiter, bloomed on her lips. ‘It’s for a lot of money. And he drew it on his own account, not the company’s.’
Arden felt a flush rise in her cheeks. ‘You certainly know a lot about it.’
The girl shrugged. ‘He wrote the cheque while I was standing at his desk. I couldn’t help but see it, could I?’
Arden ripped the envelope open without ceremony, pulled out the cheque, and stared at it. It looked as if Edgar Lithgow had decided not to count on intimidation alone to keep her silent. The cheque was for twenty-five thousand dollars.
Julie cleared her throat. ‘See what I mean?’
The women’s eyes met. ‘Yes,’ Arden said carefully, ‘I do.’ With slow, deliberate movements, she tore the cheque in half and went on tearing it until it had been reduced to white confetti, then let it fall like snowflakes over the desk. ‘Tell Mr Lithgow he can stuff that wherever he likes,’ she said, trying to keep her voice from trembling, and she turned sharply and strode from the room.
By the time she’d gone a block, she was calling herself all kinds of fool.
What had it got her, that stupid bit of drama? She had destroyed Lithgow’s cheque, but damn it, to what end? She should have kept it and...
No. She could never have done that. But she could have cashed it and kept at least enough money to get her home. One of the great benefits of this job had been that her room and board were all paid for and so she’d sent most of her pay home. Her mother had been ill last year and Arden had been slowly whittling down the medical bills.
Wait a minute! Her steps slowed. The company owed her severance pay, if nothing else, and a return ticket home. She could go back and demand them...
But what was the point? Lithgow would have to approve such arrangements, and he had conveniently vanished. Well, he couldn’t stay away forever. A few days, Julie had said. Arden’s shoulders straightened. All right, then. She had enough money to keep going that long. The minute he returned, she’d confront him, demand that he issue a cheque for the severance pay due her and meet his other obligations to her, too, including paying her air fare back to the States.
It was the least he owed her.
The days passed, but Lithgow didn’t turn up. His trip had taken him deep into new markets in South America, Julie said when Arden telephoned the office the third time late one afternoon, and he wasn’t expected back for several weeks.
Arden thanked her, hung up the phone, and put her head in her hands.
Now what? She could
n’t take another job, even if she could find one, not without a work permit. There was always the American Embassy, but the thought of telling her story to a bureaucrat who was probably another aristo-bastard like Lithgow was more than she could bear.