Tessa wasn’t surprised to find another mailer containing a new cell phone. After the board meeting, she expected it. Once again, it rang as soon as she found it in her trailer, indicating that someone was watching her. She hadn’t noticed anyone outside, and she had been looking.
“Hello?”
“You’ve been a bad girl, Tessa.”
“I have not.”
“And now you’re talking back. That’s a very bad girl.”
“I’ve done everything you asked.”
“Now, you know that isn’t true.”
“I went to the meeting.”
“You brought someone.”
“I had to. I’ve never been to a stockholders’ meeting. I didn’t know what to do.”
“I told you what to do.”
“You told me how to vote. You didn’t tell me how to conduct myself in a meeting. It’s complicated.”
“And now you’re making up excuses. You must want to be a viral star.”
“You know I don’t or I wouldn’t be cooperating.”
“Cooperating? I am very unhappy with this man you brought to the meeting.”
“He’s a producer who knows the ropes.”
“He knows how to stall. I don’t like being stalled. He won’t be at the next meeting.”
“Won’t people think it strange if he isn’t?”
“Do you really think I care?”
“You want the meeting to go smoothly.”
“You really like to argue, don’t you? That could be one of the captions with your pictures, like they used to have with the girls in Playboy. ‘Likes to water paint in her spare time.’ Mr. Barnett will not be at the next meeting. Just you, nobody else.”
“How can I keep him from going?”
He chuckled. “You won’t have a problem in that respect.”
“Why not?”
“You just won’t.”
Tessa pulled Teddy off the set. “He called again.”
“Was he angry?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Did he make threats?”
“Against you.”
“How did he threaten me?”
“He said you won’t be at the next meeting. I asked how I’d stop you from coming, and he said that won’t be a problem.”
“That’s a rather oblique threat.”
“Yes, but it’s a threat.”
“And that’s good.”
“How is that good?”
“He’s threatening me and not you, and he didn’t post the video.”
“He threatened to.”
“Of course he did, but he can’t follow through or he loses his leverage. I bought us two weeks. He doesn’t like it, but there’s nothing he can do about it.”
“He implied he’s going to kill you.”
“Aw, well, he’s not the first person to have said so.”
“You’re not worried?”
“I’m worried, but I’m worried about a lot of things. An unidentified voice on the phone implying that he’d like to kill me is not at the top of the list. Anyway, the guy called you up to piss and moan. That’s good, it means that’s all he can do right now. I doubt if he’ll be calling back. He’s more or less forced to wait for the next meeting to take place. There’s not much he can do until then.”
“I hope you’re right,” Tessa said.
She didn’t sound convinced.