“So you’re giving me money for the information I give you, right?”
“Of course not,” she said, just as smoothly. “But rest assured, I’ve met plenty of cons, just like you.”
“Yet you called me tonight,” he said. “So isn’t that a bit of a contradiction there?”
“Depends on what kind of information you give me.”
“Nothing,” he said, and, pissed in spite of himself, he ended the conversation. He tossed the phone on the couch and glared down at his body, reacting to her voice, to his vision. “Like hell,” he said. “You can think about something else next time. Because she is out of the question.”
When his phone rang again, he ignored it. It finally stopped ringing, and ten minutes later it started again.
He glared.
He picked it up to see his ex-fiancée’s name. No way he was answering that. When his doorman called from downstairs, he didn’t want to answer that either. “Hey, Harry. What’s up?”
“A lady is here who wants to talk to you.”
Simon reached out to touch the bridge of his nose, sure that it was the damn detective again. “If she’s got a badge, you pretty well have to show her up,” he said. “But I’m not happy about it.”
“Badge?” Harry said in surprise. “She hasn’t flashed any badge.”
“Then it’s a hell no. I don’t want to see anybody,” he snapped.
Harry hesitated.
“Who is it, Harry?”
“It’s your ex,” he said.
“Idefinitelydon’t want to seeher.” And, with that, he hung up. As he walked away from the intercom system at the door, it rang again, and he started to get furious. “Harry, I said no.”
“Please,” his ex-fiancée cried out in the background. “Dear God, please.”
Something about her tone made him stop and freeze. “What the hell?”
“I know. I know,” she cried out. “Please, just listen to me.”
“Are you kidding? After all the shit you’ve pulled?” he said. “Why would I listen to anything you say?”
“Because I’m desperate,” she said.
“You’re always desperate,” he snapped. “Nothing new or different.”
“It’s not me,” she said. “It’s my nephew, Leonard.”
“What about him?” he asked.
“He didn’t come home from school today. It’s Wednesday, and he had nothing scheduled for after school today.”
Instantly he froze. “And?”
“You know,” she said urgently. “You know.”
“I don’t know anything about your nephew,” he roared. “Why the hell would you dare to even suggest such a thing?”
She burst into tears, and he heard the sobs in her voice. Through the phone, Harry spoke again, “I’m really sorry, sir. I’ll make sure she doesn’t come back again.”
“You damn fucking well better not,” he said, and he slammed down the phone. He tossed back the rest of his wine and walked over to the bottle and refilled his glass. That killed the bottle, but it sure as hell wasn’t doing much for his mood. He sat back down on the couch, staring at the wine, as it swirled in his glass. When the phone rang again, it was his ex.