13

In high school and college Gina had been very casual about arriving on time. When a class was taught in a lecture hall, she would often slink into a seat in the back row to avoid the attention of the professor. Her experience as a journalist had made her the opposite. She was now not only punctual; she always arrived early for her appointments. At 3:45 she was in the downstairs lobby of Empire Review with the guard announcing her arrival.

When she exited the elevator, Jane Patwell was waiting to greet her. “It’s just as well you came early,” she said. “Geoff’s last appointment ended early. He’s ready to see you now.”

She paused and added, “Gina, you look so pretty. I love that slacks suit. You should always wear blue. I mean especially that deep rich shade.”

Gina knew what Jane was driving at. She thinks I’m dressing up for Geoff, she thought, amused. Am I? she asked herself with a smile.

Jane knocked on Geoff’s door and opened it as he called, “Come in.”

When he saw it was Gina, he stood up quickly and motioned her to the table by the window.

“Now that it’s your show, how’s it going?” she asked as she settled into a chair.

“Hectic, but all in all very good. Now, tell me, what’s new at REL News?”

Gina quickly summarized her eventually successful attempt to find Cathy Ryan, her conversation with Andrew, and Cathy’s untimely death on the Jet Ski. She explained that she was in the early stages of pursuing a lead on a woman who worked with Cathy at REL News.

Geoff paused, deep in thought. “I have a feeling you’re going to tell me that the Jet Ski incident might not have been an accident.”

“Precisely,” Gina said. “The only way to find out what really happened is for me to go down there, stay at the same hotel, meet whoever rented her the Jet Ski, and the investigator who worked on her case. Basically, just start asking questions.”

“When can you leave?”

“There’s an afternoon flight tomorrow from JFK straight to Aruba. I think I’ll need two to three days on the ground there.”

“Will a three-thousand-dollar advance for expenses be sufficient?”

“Yes.”

“Book your flight. I’ll take care of the advance.”

As she walked to the door he called to her. “Gina, if you’re right, and I think you are, someone went through an awful lot of trouble to arrange Cathy Ryan’s death to make it look like an accident. Be careful down there.”