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Denny dragged one of the chairs over to face me, with the perceived safety of the coffee table between us. He dropped slowly into it and crossed his arms over his chest, looking like a sulking seven-year-old. His mother would be rolling over in her grave at his display and treatment of the furniture.
Denny looked a lot like my ex-husband, his siblings took after their mother, but he was all Richard. It must be one of those things that skipped a generation.
I didn’t resist the petty spitefulness when I let him stew while I drank my coffee. In truth, I was acting as immature as he was but I bet I could outlast him. Finally, he leaned over and glared at me.
“Well, what do you want?”
“I want many things Denny; comfortable high heeled boots, lip gloss that stay where you put it. An endless clip for my pistol and I actually would love world peace.”
I stopped to take another sip of my coffee; he glared at me in disgust. I decided that it was time to stop playing games with him.
“What I want with you Denny is more complicated and challenging than any of those,” I said.
I could see him going through a mental checklist; no doubt one of all the people he has been pissing off lately. It seemed to be a long list judging by the length of the silence we sat in. After a time, he sat back with a frown.
“Who?” He asked.
“A man by the name of Alex Travis came to see you, and you worked up an insurance deal for him. You then turned around and blackmailed him.”
Instead of filling the silence after I had spoken he sat watching me. I was quite proud of him, instead of rushing in to deliver the punch line he waited.
Many people got uncomfortable when confronted with a dangerous lie, even more so when it was an inconvenient truth. Their tendency was to fill the silence that followed with something. Inadvertently they trapped themselves further and made matters worse. I didn’t expect it from Denny as a consummate professional, but sometimes one got lucky.
“You found some things you shouldn't have, things that are dangerous. Not so much for us as this happens every once in a while. But you Denny, are in terrible danger.”
“Its part of the business, bad things can happen at any moment,” he said.
“And which business would that be? An insurance peddler or that of a confidence man?”
He rolled a shoulder noncommittally, “Either really, you would be amazed at what people would do to an insurance salesman given half a chance.”
“That may be, but I bet you have never come up against this sort of bad thing,” I said.
I decided that Vicky made excellent coffee, worthy of another cup. Pouring more, I felt rushed but worked at not showing it. I needed him to go with me willingly, and I was hoping to give him enough time to process the danger.
“Look, how about we get to the part where you tell me what you want, we can even negotiate a bit if you want. You’ll get what you want and go away,” He said through clenched teeth.
“If only it were that simple,” I said sitting back, cup in hand. “But, that isn’t what my employers are after Denny.”
He went pale, and his body tensed; now we were getting somewhere. He finally realized just how much trouble came knocking today. I could see him weighing up options, escape or attack?
“Please don’t try and escape, I honestly don’t feel like kicking your ass right now. How about we discuss options?” I suggested.
“What’s to discuss? You are apparently here to kill me. Why shouldn’t I just shoot you and leave town? Plenty of good places to start over.”
He leaned forward expectantly, should I just put him in his place now? He was so poised for action that I had to revise my thoughts on his weapons cache.
I stayed where I was, assuming a relaxed posture to put him at ease. There was no point in pushing him into reckless action. I was enjoying my coffee too much to spill any.
“There is plenty to discuss Denny, like what you know for example. Does Vicky know anything, who are you partners and how for heaven’s sake you thought you would get away with it?” I was getting very annoyed with the pup; his stupidity irked me.
“Nothing. Don’t have any and easily.”
Cocky little shit. I felt just a tiny bit proud of him; he appeared rattled, but he, at least, managed not to buckle too much under pressure.
“Okay, now for one of the tougher ones. What exactly do you know about Alex Travis?” I asked, peering over the rim of my cup.
He sat back in the chair, the leather and wood making a pleasing sound.
“Quite a bit, but not as much as I would like.”
His hands were spread wide, a plea? More likely it was a distraction to draw my attention away from something.
“Details, I need to know exact details. And please sit still, I am not sure what you’re trying to do, but it is irritating me.”
“It was worth a try; many women like to watch me move.”
He managed a twinkle and a cheeky grin. I suppressed a shudder, not in a million years.
“Indeed, focus on my question, please. What exactly did you find out about Alex Travis?”
“The usual initially, it all checked out brilliantly. I did a deeper check and things got weird. Bits of information that made no sense.”
He leaned forward, and I tensed, but he was only helping himself to the excellent coffee. I prepared for him to do something stupid, a cup of hot coffee could do some serious damage.
“And what would that be?” I asked.
“For starters, he didn’t seem to have been born Alex Travis or in 1978 for that matter.”
Whoever cleaned the files had been sloppy. The more paranoid part of me knew the possibility existed that Alex was being used to set me up. But was that megalomania talking or were they out to get me?
“I couldn’t find more on Alex Travis, but he had a direct link to a man called Ned Wallis.”
“And did you discover about Ned Wallis?”
How the hell did Alex’s information get linked to Ned? Was this in fact not about me but Ned? Did someone want to get rid of him and I just happened to get in the way?
“No, his files were heavily protected, I could see it but couldn’t get past the encryption. Not even my hacker could, and she is very pissed about that.”
As expected for such a high rank, our defenses were supposed to be ironclad across the board. They shouldn’t have been able to find it in the first place. I put my cup down and looked gravely at him.
“But she got something didn’t she Denny?”