“I talked to Denny today.”
Dominique sucked her teeth, “How is he?”
“Still doing the same thing. You did the right thing leaving me there.”
“I am sorry about that, Carmen. I never meant to drive you away.”
“It was the right thing to do, even if it didn't seem that way at the time, I had to get away from Denny. You were right all along, about everything. But I was just too young and naïve to see it. Everything I know that matters, I learned from you or I know because of you, Mommy.”
CARPE DIEM!
Marcus parked his car in the visitors parking area and ran to get out of the rain. He shook the rain off his jacket and proceeded to the reception area.
“Good afternoon, my name is Marcus Douglas and I'd like to see Mr. Hudson,” Marcus said to the receptionist and handed her his card.
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No, I'm an acquaintance of his and I'd like to speak with him. I won't take up much of his time.”
“Would you mind having a seat, please,” she said to Marcus and smiled flirtatiously.
Marcus smiled back flirtatiously and sat in the waiting area. It wasn't long before she called him back to the desk.
“Mr. Douglas, Mr. Hudson is out of town, so if it's all right, Mondrya Foster is going to talk to you.”
“And who is Mondrya Foster?” Marcus asked leaning on the counter.
“She is Executive Vice President of operations for Hudson Financial.” A female voice said from behind Marcus. He turned around and smiled at her as she continued. “Her major duties include maintaining domestic and international sales; managing sales forecasts and the sales pipeline providing monthly updates to the CEO and CFO,” she said and extended her hand. “Hi, I'm Mondrya Foster.”
“Marcus Douglas. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Foster,” he said and accepted her hand.
“I'm sure Doris has told you, Mr. Hudson is out of town. So is there anything that I can help you with?”
“I'm sure that you can, Ms. Foster.”
“If you'll follow me then. I'll give you the fifty cent tour on the way to my office.”
“Lead the way.”
“Hudson Financial is an international, full-service financial firm, which provides brokerage, investment banking, and asset management services to corporations, and individuals around the world. Our core services include sales, research, and trading for individuals and institutions. We provide underwriting, advisory and specialty financing for corporations, mutual fund services, futures, and asset management. We offers clients a full range of investment products including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CDs, insurance and annuities, and services such as advice on retirement planning, asset
allocation, portfolio management and other services for affluent investors,” Mondrya explained as she led Marcus into her office. Once she was seated she asked, “What can I do to help you today, Mr. Douglas?”
“Ms. Foster, I'm an acquaintance of Mr. Hudson. Actually we go to the same club and I wanted his help with something.”
“Is it something that I could help you with?”
“You had an employee that committed suicide recently.”
“Two actually,” Mondrya said quickly.
“I'm sorry?”
“We've had two of our employees that have committed suicide recently. Coleman Wilson, one of our senior executives and Frank Collins, one of our account managers.”
“I wanted to ask about Frank Collins, Ms. Foster. As you probably know, I represent the interests of Mr. Roland Ferguson. At the request of Mr. Ferguson and Carmen Taylor, the victim’s sister, my staff and I are now conducting an independent investigation into Mrs. Ferguson’s death.”
“Two things. What can I do to help, Mr. Douglas? And what does it have to do with Frank?”