I was going to call Lee Endicott and put him on the spot. We knew he was with Tori, perhaps at the office, perhaps at home, maybe even out and about. We also knew that he was going to ditch Tori and meet DirtyGirl shortly. My plan was to try to get Lee to meet with me before his rendezvous with his girlfriend. Then follow him to see where that might lead. Hopefully right to DirtyGirl.
"I'm calling Lee now," I said.
"What the hell are you going to tell him? We just saw him," Imogen said.
"Trust me, he'll meet with us. He'll do anything if he thinks it will help him get us to fork over the cash he needs," I said.
I dialed Lee's cell.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
"Jesus, he's not picking up," I said.
Ring. Ring.
"Hello," Lee said.
"Lee? Max. Hope I'm not catching you at a bad time," I said.
There was silence for a second. It sounded like Lee was collecting his thoughts. Then came the cheery, car-salesman voice.
"Max. Max. Hello. Good to hear your voice. Already inviting me back to Delmar so you can take more of my money?"
I forced a laugh.
"No, no. I wouldn't do that to you so soon. I'd have waited another couple of days before I called," I said.
He genuinely laughed.
"Listen, I was thinking about what we discussed, and I had a few questions," I said.
"Shoot," he said.
"Could we do it in person?" I asked.
"I'm a little tied up at the moment, Max," he said.
"Oh, well then, I'm sure we can discuss it another time," I said.
You could almost hear Lee thinking on the other end of the line. He was humming a monotone buzz while his mind must have been moving a mile a minute.
"Um, let me see what I can do here," he said. "If you've got some questions I certainly want to make myself available to answer them for you. Let me call you back in a couple of minutes."
"Sure. No rush," I said.
"I'll call you back in five," he said.
Then he disconnected.
"He told me he'll call me back in five minutes. He's trying to figure out a way to meet with us," I said to Ginny.
"Brilliant."
As soon as I disconnected I saw a new file created under Lee's email address.
From Lee: Make it T+3
He had emailed DirtyGirl asking to push the meeting back another hour. He figured he would squeeze me in and try to squeeze me out of my hard-earned two mil.
"He just emailed DirtyGirl," I said.
"Sneaking around seems like a lot of work," she said. "Cheating would never work for me."
"I should hope not!" I said.
Imogen shook her head at me.
"I would never, I mean, I'm just saying," she said.
I smiled at her. "I know, my love. I'm just joking around."
From DirtyGirl: Boo hoo :( How about we skip dinner and move right to dessert?
"Look at this," I said, pointing to the screen.
"Glad to see it's still spicy after all this time," she said.
"Something is keeping that romance alive," I said.
"Viagra," she said.
From Lee: Yum
"Eww," I said.
"No comment," Imogen said. Her face puckered.
My cell rang. It was Lee Endicott.
"Max," he said.
"Lee, hi. That was fast."
"Listen, I can meet tonight if you like," he said.
"Sure, we can be in the city in a couple of hours," I said. "What time works for you?"
"I'll be in Manors around seven. Anywhere good to meet? Somewhere private?"
"How about my place?" I asked.
"Great," he said.
I gave him the address and told him that we were looking forward to seeing him later tonight. Then I disconnected.
"He's coming here," I said.
"To the office?"
"No, to our place," I said.
"Really?"
"Whoever DirtyGirl is, she lives in Manors."
"Bloody hell," she said.
"You can say that again."