Kate continued. “Whatwillanybody notice? A woman having an argument with a man won’t even cause a fuss out here. Just too much going on, too many people, and nobody wants to be bothered with getting involved. So, even if somebody were having a hard time down here, how much support do you think they would get from the crowd?”
Rodney replied, “If anybody noticed a problem and if they weren’t in a busy rush to get out of here or if they weren’t on a bus or due in a meeting or something else that was keeping their attention focused somewhere else, the bulk of the time she probably would get some help in that scenario. But lots of things gotta line up for that to happen.”
“Not really,” Kate argued. “All you need is just somebody who cares.”
“Maybe, but if you’re the one who notices, you don’t know that she didn’t recognize the guy. You don’t know that this wasn’t the love of her life. Maybe everybody saw them together and smiled, thinking it was a picture of true love.”
Kate nodded. “Right, that’s part of the problem. We don’t know anything about it.” As she walked into the front of the building, she looked around and noted, “High-end.”
“Most of these business offices look high-end,” Rodney agreed. “They’re paying thousands a month in lease rates, so people want it to look like they’re worth a lot of money. That way, when clients come in, they won’t balk at what they charge them.”
“I guess it’s all part of the mirage, isn’t it?”
“Well, I don’t know aboutmirage,” he stated, with a laugh, “but it’s definitely a part of the image.”
She smiled. “Same thing. Maybe with different connotations though.Miragemakes you think that it’s tenuous, that it may not really exist and could gopoofright before your eyes. Whereasimageis all about projecting an aura of success and making the people believe.”
“You mean, like projecting,Hey, we can make you a million bucks if you just give us your money?”
“Same diff.” She nodded.
He agreed, “On that you are correct.”
“And it’s just sad,” she added. “So many people come in here, hoping and believing that these people can help them, but so often it’s just a crock.”
“But not always,” Rodney argued. “Some really good solid investment firms are here too.”
“But how do you tell the sharks from the good guys?” she muttered.
“Well, presuming that you’re asking because you have an awful lot of money that you think you need to invest somewhere,” he replied, with a laugh, “I think personal recommendations are often the best bet.”
“And then you and your friend share in the rook,” she replied, with a shrug.
He burst out laughing at that. “I forgot how negative you are.”
“I am negative about a lot of things in life,” she admitted, “but I really don’t want to be that way about everything.”
“The trouble is, once you go down that pathway, it’s hard to not let the taint of it carry over into everything else, isn’t it?”
She nodded. “Yes. Especially when you do the job we’re doing.”
“Which is apparently the job that you always wanted to do.”
“It is,” she admitted.
“Is that because of your brother?”
She sighed. “My brother was a big part of it.” Kate shrugged. “So was being in foster care. Being raised that way, and seeing the crime going on all the time, I found it really hard in school to see people cheating constantly, yet nobody seemed to care. Nobody would ever call them out. Nobody would ever get them in trouble. And, even when they were called out or caught, nobody really punished them. It was like,Oh, well. It was almost like,Too bad you got caught. Cheat a little better next time.”
“I think that’s very prevalent in a lot of schools.” Rodney nodded. “Unfortunately the way of our world these days isn’t about doing it on your own. It’s become more about stepping on somebody else to get what you want.”
“There should be better things in life than just climbing vertically without giving a damn about who you take down in order to make it happen.”
“I don’t think everybody is like that,” Rodney stated. “I’m sure enough are out there to challenge your interpretation.”
She looked over at him. “Do you know anybody you’d invest one hundred thousand with?”
He snorted. “One, I don’t know anybody who deals with that kind of money. Two, I have never even seen that kind of money. And, three, I wouldn’t invest it with somebody else even if I did have that kind of money.”