“We handle the inve
stments for one extended family-a couple of dozen members-and we advise them both as a group and individually.”
“The family name?”
“I’m afraid that must remain confidential,” she said. “It’s a condition of my employment.”
“I understand.”
Twenty minutes later she was out of there, and an hour after that she received a phone call from Mrs. Bonner.
“I’m delighted to tell you the board has approved your application,” she said. “I must say, you got everything together breathtakingly fast. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Neither had Holly. “I’m ready to close whenever you like,” she said.
“Tomorrow, ten a.m. at my lawyer’s office.” She gave Holly the address.
“Can you give me the firm’s trust account number? I’ll wire the funds today.”
“Yes, I have it right here.” Mrs. Bonner read out the number.
“I’ll see you tomorrow morning then,” she said. She hung up and hugged Daisy. “We have a home, baby!” Daisy approved, wagging all over. Holly called her broker, told him to sell five hundred and forty thousand dollars of her investments and wire the money to New York.
THIRTY-FIVE
TEDDY WALKED INTO HIS APARTMENT, took off his coat and leaned against the wall. He was sweating. He went into the kitchen and got himself a glass of ice water and sat down. He was seeing way too much of this Holly woman, and the string of coincidences was driving him crazy.
First, the opera, then the record shop, now coming out of an apartment building a block and a half away. He habitually maintained a high level of paranoia, as a means of survival, and alarm bells were ringing all over the place.
He waited until evening and called Irene Foster.
“Hello?”
“Are you inside?”
“I’m in New York, at the Waldorf again. We must meet.”
“Central Park, in an hour?”
“Where in the park?”.
“Outside the boathouse restaurant, find a bench; I’ll find you.”
“All right.” She hung up.
____________________
TEDDY ENTERED THE PARK only after walking around the block twice, checking for tails. He was going to have to relocate to another city immediately, that was clear. He walked up to the boathouse, past it, then back by another route, before he sat down on the bench where Irene was reading the Post.
“I don’t know how you read that trash,” he said, not looking at her.
“I never miss Page Six,” she said. “Can I pass you something?”
“Put it inside the paper and hand it to me,” he said. She did so, and he found two CDs.
“They’ve changed the codes again,” she said. “They suspect someone inside the Agency is helping you. In fact, I suggested that myself, in order to avoid suspicion, and Hugh English has put me in charge of the internal investigation.”
“How very convenient.”