She laughed. “Yeah, I am,” she said. “He’s yanking my chain, and I don’t like it.”
“Good,” he said. “Get angry, get angrier, get really freaking angry, so that, when something does break, you’re in the right mind-set to deal with it. When somebody targets you like that, it’s easy to slip into the mind-set of a victim, and it makes everything in your world seem wrong.”
“And that’s exactly what I’ve been feeling like,” she said. “Good reminder.”
“Hey, no problem,” he said, with a shrug. “You can talk to Dr. Rodney any old time.”
At that, she burst out laughing. “Hey,” she said, snickering. “I get that wasn’t meant to be super, super funny, but I’m sorry. It’s hysterical.” And, with that, she burst into another fit of giggles.
“However you want to take it is okay with me,” he said, with a big grin. “And you’re not hurting my ego in any way.”
*
When Louisa calledSimon, it took him a moment to reorient himself. He was standing in the middle of one of his big buildings, looking at the massive staircase going up inside, wondering why the hell he had decided that this was a good deal.
“Hello,” he answered distractedly.
“Simon, it’s Louisa,” she said. “I wondered if you could take a look at something on David’s laptop.”
He pulled himself together and shifted to look down at his phone. “Sure. What do you want me to look at?”
“Well, I don’t recognize a whole lot here,” she said. “I didn’t think that he would keep anything from me, but now I’m not so sure.” A slight hiccup in her voice said that she was either on the verge of crying or had just stopped. “I really don’t know what to make of it.”
“Are you home right now?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’m off work until I can deal with his funeral arrangements and everything.”
“Right,” he said, wincing. “How about I come over in about an hour?”
“Thank you, that would be great,” she said gratefully. “Honestly I don’t know anybody else who could look at this.”
“It’s business stuff?”
“I don’t know what it is,” she said quietly. “I’d just feel better if somebody else would make sense of it and tell me that it’s nothing.”
“Okay, I’ll take a look,” he said. “I’ll be there soon.” He hung up, then took one last look at the staircase and shook his head because it would be a massive job to fix, which meant expensive as all hell too. Groaning, he shook his head, wondering what he’d been thinking. He knew that fixing the staircase was doable; it would just cost a lot more than he had initially planned for.
He took his leave of the building and headed over toward Louisa’s house. He didn’t know what she wanted him to look at, but they’d all been friends for a long time. If something was there that she didn’t understand, he was more than happy to help out. He would be astonished if it was something he didn’t understand.
David had been a hell of a guy, but he hadn’t delved much into business. At least not that Simon knew of, but maybe he’d sunk some money into an investment and had lost it all or something. That could account for why he’d decided that life wasn’t worth living after all. If that were the case, Simon sure as hell wished his buddy would have contacted him. Simon could have bailed him out or at least helped him find a path forward.
As he walked up the front steps and knocked on the door, he turned to look around. Nobody was nearby, but Simon had that weird sensation in the back of his head. And just then came a whisper.
Do it. Just do it.
“Simon? Simon?” Louisa said in a louder voice.
He gave a headshake, turned to look at her, and said, “Sorry, I was off in another world.”
“You looked like it,” she said, with a half smile. She reached up, gave him a hug, and said, “Come on in.”
He stepped inside, noticing that it was the same as the last time he’d been there. “So what’s this all about?” he asked, as he walked in.
“I’ve left David’s laptop open on the dining room table,” she said, pointing over at it. “If you want to take a look, I’ll go put on some coffee.”
He would never say no to coffee, so he nodded and said, “Sounds good.” He walked over, sat down at the dining room table, and took a look. She was already logged in, but he didn’t even know what security might be here, if any. His friend was not really a business guy but had dabbled around in some online stocks and did a few bonds. He kept a few high-interest savings accounts, but that was about it. He worked for a car dealership as a salesman, working off commissions and generally had a solid reputation.
Simon wasn’t sure at first what he was looking for here. He checked all the open tasks on the taskbar, and they all appeared to be chats.