Marie and Grant exchanged glances. “I fired Ray,” Grant said quietly, “for sexually harassing an employee. There’s no possible way I would have allowed him back here after what he did to you. I have the right to fire any employee for misconduct. Ray was my employee and acting as a representative for Love Lace every moment he was at the trade show. And frankly, we’ve been looking for an excuse to let him go for some time.”
“I don’t understand,” Greer said, bewildered. “I thought he always did an outstanding job.”
“He brought in a great many sales, yes, which is why we kept him for so long, but he didn’t get along with anyone, except maybe you. He couldn’t relate to people. Customers complained about him all the time; Tim has all but quit several times after one of their confrontations.”
“I didn’t know,” Greer said unhappily.
“His references looked impressive when I hired him. So impressive that I was foolish enough not to check. Yesterday, I made several phone calls to places he’d previously worked, and discovered that he was fired from each of those jobs.” Grant sighed. “Ray is ambitious and hardworking, but something is driving the man. Nothing’s ever enough. He always has to outdo the people he works around, and if he can’t, he tries subtle intimidation tactics.”
“Like those phone calls,” Marie said loudly. “I still want to know why you didn’t come to Grant or me, darling. You think we don’t care about you, that you are nothing but an employee to us? I am so disappointed in you I could scream.”
“Marie.” Grant’s voice was soft, but admonishing.
Greer touched trembly fingers to her temples. “What did I do?” she asked unhappily. “I never…threatened him in my job. Why did he pick on me?”
“Because he was a total ass,” Marie hissed.
“Perhaps,” Grant said quietly, “because you were someone he wanted and couldn’t have. It would fit the pattern. Not that I know about his personal life, but in his work, if he couldn’t achieve something he wanted, he made sure someone paid. Greer?”
She looked up.
“He was fired from one job for fabricating an elaborate set of reports that would have made another employee look bad. The saddest part about it was that the company wasn’t dissatisfied with Ray to begin with. He’d failed to bring in an account; it wasn’t the end of the world. He was the one who made trouble for himself.”
“He’s sick,” Marie said emphatically. “Sick, sick, sick.”
“Sad,” Greer corrected in a low voice.
Grant nodded quietly to her over the desk. “He needs help, I expect. Psychiatric help. I told him that when I fired him.”
“But…how did the police know about the phone calls? And I still don’t understand why he told you what happened at the trade show. This morning when I learned he was gone, I assumed that he’d come back here, but-”
“He told us nothing,” Marie said heatedly. “Grant fired him over the telephone when Ray called this morning.”
“But-”
Grant leaned back in his chair. “Your Mr. McCullough made an extremely informative call to me earlier.” A small smile touched his features. “One of several in the last week, actually. After last night, I think he would have preferred to have Ray drawn and quartered, but he settled for explaining to me exactly what Ray had put you through. McCullough also persuaded me to make those reference checks yesterday. And he convinced the police to tap Ray’s phone last week. Unfortunately, they didn’t get a report back on that until yesterday.”
“What?” Marie turned offended eyes to her husband. “You told me nothing about that part of it.”
But Grant was looking only at Greer. “Mr. McCullough had reason to believe that one of our employees was your caller. You changed your phone number twice; yet your caller knew that new number each time-and, of course, you immediately informed us of your new telephone number each time. Except for your family, who could have learned your number and your personal schedule so quickly, except someone you worked with?”
Grant’s voice was soothing, quiet. Greer had always found her boss’s voice gentling. Not this time.
Her thoughts were filled with Ryan. He’d done all of that. And he hadn’t said a single word.
Grant and Marie both urged her to take the rest of the afternoon off and go home. She didn’t. She wanted to think, and always thought best when she was busy. Mulling over a problem while facing four walls and total silence always sounded good, but it never worked for Greer.
She left several minutes before five, though. Ryan, of course, wasn’t back from work when she arrived at the apartment. She didn’t expect him to be. After running a brush through her hair, she left her door open and paced up and down the hall, Truce pacing directly behind her.
Ryan didn’t pop through the door until ten to six, early for him. He was dressed strictly as a businessman, in a pale gray suit that made his shoulders look huge, and was reaching for the newspaper when he noticed her at the top of the steps. She was standing stiff as a board, with her arms folded over her chest, eyes blazing.
He froze.
Greer’s eyes pinned him as securely as a collector pins a moth. “I would appreciate the chance to talk with you,” she said crisply. “I discovered exactly how much you were involved in getting Ray…caught.”
“Greer…” He took a very careful breath, eyes on her face. “You’re upset because I interfered. I don’t blame you, but try to understand. I didn’t want to go behind your back, but I knew damn well you’d say no if I asked you ahead of time.”
“You bet I’m upset. And as I said, I’d like to talk with you, McCullough. Like in an hour. Your place.”
“Greer…”
She turned on her heel, whirled into her apartment and locked the door. Truce screamed. She opened the door, let the cat bound in and relocked it.
Her heart shifted promptly into race, as though a computer button had suddenly been turned on. She flipped off one shoe, then the other, then padded barefoot toward the bathroom, unbuttoning her shirtwaist dress as she went. The pale lavender cotton dropped somewhere in the hall, and she left it there. By the time she turned on the shower taps, she was wearing only bra and pants, and she stripped those off as the shower warmed up.
Ten minutes later, she stepped out, fiercely rubbed her hair with a towel until it was half dry, then used a blow dryer and brush to do the rest. Naked, she walked to her bedroom and bent down over her lowest dresser drawer.
It was there. The cream lace on pink satin negligee. Her quick-quick movements slowed abruptly. Her fingers took the time to caress the soft fabric before she drew it out. Really, Greer. This is terribly out of character.
And her heart was suddenly beating erratic rhythms. Old ghost rhythms.
For so long, she’d valued the safe niche she’d carved out for herself in her relationships with men. “Safe” was being a friend, not a lover. “Safe” meant caretaking and playing with men only when she was in control. “Safe” had been convincing herself that that was what she was as a woman, and all she was and wanted to be.
Ray had blown her definitions of “safe” off the map.
Ryan had made her see what she wanted and needed for herself as a woman.
Slowly, she slipped the satin over her head, and with a whisper it draped itself over her body and fell in long, sleek lines to the floor. Ryan had taught her a lesson in honesty. Now it was up to her to put his teachings into practice.
Fingers suddenly trembling, she drew on the cream lace peignoir that matched the negligee, and caught her reflection in the mirror. A boldly sexual woman stared back at her. An alluring woman. Her breasts were barely covered by the cobwebby bodice; she could see the dark tips of her nipples. Lower, she could even see the indentation of her naveclass="underline" satin did show everything. Every curve, each line of her bottom and thighs, even the small raised mound that was the woman of her.