“Hello, Mrs. Armfield.” Diane looked up from her desk, straightened her hair, and smiled. “It’s been a long time. How are you?”
“I’m fine, Diane. How are you?”
“Great.”
“This is my friend Erica Redmond. She wants to see the plant, and I thought I’d bring her by today. I hope Vernon doesn’t mind.”
“Hello, Ms. Redmond,” Diane said to Erica. To Rebecca she said, “I’m sure Mr. Armfield won’t mind, but he isn’t here just now.”
Erica returned Diane’s greeting.
Rebecca asked, “Do you mind telling me where Vernon is?”
Diane turned back to Rebecca. “Of course not. He left for lunch not five minutes ago. He’ll be sorry he missed you.”
“What about Robyn? Vernon said she’s been coming in to work almost every day. Is she out to lunch, too?”
“She’s here. Would you like me to buzz her for you?”
“No, but you can tell her I want to see her before she goes to lunch. First I’m going to show Ms. Redmond around. I’ll start with Vernon’s office because Ms. Redmond wants to make a private telephone call.”
“Of course. You know where it is.”
Once they entered Vernon’s office, Rebecca closed the door.
“I feel like a spy.” Erica laughed.
“Right now, that’s exactly what we are.” Rebecca picked up the telephone. “We’ve got to make it look like you’re really making a call.” She punched line two and a red button flashed on the phone. She then put the receiver aside and said, “Now we’ll see if we can find anything we think shouldn’t be here. You take the desk, and I’ll go through the credenza.”
In the third drawer down, Erica found a DVD. “Wonder what this is doing here. I don’t see a recorder.”
“Take it. It’s probably that infamous DVD everyone is talking about.” Rebecca picked up what looked like a ledger. Opening it, she said, “Oh, my Lord.”
“What?”
“It’s a record of DVD orders.”
In less than ten minutes, they had confiscated enough material to fill both their purses.
“Maybe we’ve been in here long enough. Even you can talk just so much.” Rebecca laughed and put the last of their finds into her bag.
“Good thing we carry big purses,” Erica said as she stuffed the last bit of material into hers. “Mine is about full.”
Rebecca put the receiver back on the hook, and they left the office. “Now we’ll go by and see Robyn.”
Before Rebecca could introduce them, Erica said, “Ms. Garvey, hello. I met you at Ruby Tuesday’s. You were having a business meeting with Vernon and his attorney.”
Robyn put on her plastic smile. “Of course. How are you, Ms. Redmond?”
After their exchange, Rebecca said, “Robyn, I’m so sorry about Max. Vernon has kept me posted on his condition. Has there been any more improvement?”
“Not a lot. It’s a big mess, Rebecca.”
“I know. I’m sure all the gossip hurts, too.”
“It does. But there isn’t a lot I can do to stop that. I’m just holding my head up and going on. Regardless of what Max has done, I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Maybe you’ve done nothing wrong concerning Max, but you sure have done some wrong things to me. Despite her vicious thoughts, Rebecca smiled at Robyn and said, “I know you haven’ Nic. I’m sure everyone understands that.”
After a few more minutes of chatter, Rebecca excused them by saying, “I’m going to show Erica around the plant. If I can help you in any way, please feel free to call me, Robyn.”
“Thank you. I will. It was nice to see you again.” After a moment’s hesitation she added, “And you, too, Ms. Redmond.”
“Likewise,” Erica said with her back already to Robyn.
When they were going down the hall toward the plant area, Rebecca asked, “How did you like Robyn’s office?”
“It was fine. Needs some lightening up, though. The colors are drab.”
“You can redecorate it.”
“Me? Why should I redecorate it?”
“It’ll be your office.”
Erica stopped. “What about that Robyn person?”
“You don’t really think I’d keep someone on payroll who is in cahoots with Vernon, do you?” She smiled. “Now, let’s make a quick tour of the plant. I want to drop off some of this stuff at Justine’s. I wish we had the opportunity to go through Robyn’s office, too.”
“Why? We can’t get any more into our pocketbooks,” Erica said with a chuckle.