“Did you hear what I just said?” Jeff blocked his way. “I need to talk to you, man. I’m in some serious shit.”
“Yeah, I…” Craig nervously ran a hand up over his face, across the top of his head and down to the back of his neck. “I gathered, but I can’t.”
“You gathered?”
“Just leave me out of it. This has nothing to do with me.”
“What happened? What’s wrong with you?”
“Look, whatever it is you’re mixed up in, I want nothing to do with these people. I want no part of this.”
Fear crawled up Jeff’s back and nested at the base of his skull.
Hope and his people were going after his friends now? This was insane. How did they even know about Craig?
The application… the reference…
“I don’t believe this,” he muttered. “This cannot be happening.”
Craig tried to get around him then thought better of it. “I don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into-and I don’t want to know-just leave me alone, OK?”
“ Leave you alone? What the hell are you talking about? Did someone threaten you? What happened?”
“Please, I’ve got to get out of here.”
“Tell me what happened.”
Craig’s mouth twitched uncontrollably. “I have a wife, I-I’ve got kids.” He leaned closer. “ Children, you hear me?”
“Who frightened you like this? What did they do? I need to know.”
“I can’t talk to you, I-they could be watching right now, they-they told me they were watching.”
“Who did?”
“You tell me. What’s wrong with you? You’re working with these people? I know times are tough but-”
“No, I’m working with you, remember?”
Craig tried to shoulder by. “I have to go.”
“Hey,” Jeff said, grabbing his arm. “I am working with you, right?”
“They told me you worked for them. I’m not about to interfere with that.”
“I need that job, Craig, don’t-”
“Goddamn it!” He yanked his arm free, dropped the suitcase and squared his stance. “I didn’t want a scene in front of Katy and the kids. Just let me go before this gets out of hand.”
“What are you going to do, hit me? You’re my best friend.”
“Get out of my way, Jeff. Please.”
“I need your help. I’ve got nowhere else to turn.”
“They said they’d hurt my family. My family, do you understand?”
“Jesus Christ,” he sighed, hands on his head. “I’m sorry, I never meant for any of this to touch you. I fucked up. Bad. Real bad. I got into something I didn’t mean to and-I don’t even understand what’s happening myself or how you got involved, but-”
“I’m not involved.” He picked up the suitcase. “I’m sorry too.
I really am. But you’re on your own on this one.”
Jeff watched as Craig walked to the car, tossed the suitcase in the trunk then slid behind the wheel and pulled away. He never looked back.
After a brief flirtation with calling the police and taking his chances with Hope delivering a copy of the disc to Eden, Jeff found himself standing on the curb in front of the brownstone where he’d been interviewed. Again, but for the burned-out shell at the end of the block, there were no other cars or signs of life, and the entire area seemed eerily quiet.
He climbed the steps, moved through the door, past the foyer and stopped at the reception area. As before, the desk was unoccupied, the odd sound of a dripping faucet echoed from somewhere deep within the building, and the empty plastic chairs lined the narrow hallway to his right. But this time the first office door was open, as if in anticipation of his arrival. Jeff swallowed hard. Except for the meeting table and two chairs, the office was empty. No coffeemaker, no donuts, no clipboard with application. Clearly he was alone. Why then did he have the overwhelming feeling he was being watched? Skin crawling, he forced himself into the office, sat in the first chair and watched the closed door on the opposite wall. They knew he was here, Jeff was sure of it. They were just making him squirm, letting him twist in the wind a while at the end of his noose, and probably enjoying it.
After several moments, the door opened and Foster Hope entered.
This time his presence was intimidating. No longer was he simply an eccentric and elderly businessman, but something far more sinister.
He was dressed in the same cream-colored suit as the day before, and Jeff imagined him having dozens of identical outfits hanging in a closet somewhere. The old man acknowledged him with a polite nod.
“Good morning, Jeff.”
“Why are you doing this to me? Who are you people?”
“I’ve done nothing to you.” He slid into the other chair and crossed his legs. “These are decisions you’ve made to-”
“What did you do to Craig? He was terrified out of his mind.
I’ve never seen anyone so frightened. Why would you threaten his family, his children?”
“I simply had an associate pass along some useful information to him, so he could make an informed decision.”
Jeff’s hands clenched into fists but he kept them in his lap. The urge to strangle the old bastard was overwhelming. “This is all just some sort of sick game to you, isn’t it?”
The look in Hope’s emerald eyes indicated he was thoroughly enjoying himself. “ Sick seems rather harsh, but otherwise, yes, that’s exactly what it is. Life is a game, Jeff, and we’re all players of one sort or another.”
“These aren’t just my decisions then. You’re manipulating things, forcing me into corners where I have no other way out.”
“There are always other ways out of any situation. We all move through the world and do what we have to do in order to survive and flourish. We look out for our best interests, and in the end we make our own decisions.” The green eyes narrowed. “Regardless of what I’ve done or haven’t done, you don’t have to be here. You’ve chosen to be here.”
“Why would you want me to work for you under these conditions?
Why would you videotape me with Jessica and-how the hell were you in that room without my knowing it? You and that other…man.”
“I often hide in plain sight, Jeff. I find it most effective.”
Jeff sat forward with an intense stare of his own, hands flat on the table between them. Despite the heat outside, the room was cool to the point of being nearly cold. Why then was he perspiring so?
And how was the temperature so low when there were no fans and appeared to be no air-conditioning? Like everything else, none of it made any sense. “What do you want from me?”
“I’d like to hire you on as a negotiator.”
“No, you’re forcing me to work for you.”
“You have every right to decline at any time. Have I chained you to that chair? Have you been restrained or in any way prevented from leaving? You can get up and walk out of here whenever you like. No one will attempt to stop you, no one will object. We’ll part as friends.”
“ Friends? Friends don’t blackmail and deceive each other.”
“They don’t?” Mr. Hope smiled with his large, brilliantly white false teeth. “Jeff, what most people fail to realize in their narcissism and selfishness is that they’re not always players in their own games, but often in someone else’s.”
“So it’s your game then,” Jeff said, pawing sweat from his forehead.
“Not necessarily.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“That you might want to consider it may not be yours either.”
Jeff couldn’t tell if there was literal meaning in what Hope was saying or if the old man was simply playing with him, so he dismissed his enigmatic musings and tried to focus on what he needed to do to bring the meeting to some sort of conclusion. He’d begun sweating like a stuck pig and needed to get out of there and away from this man. “If I agree to this… job…do I have to kill anyone?”
“Certainly not.” Hope frowned dramatically. “How absurd.”
“If I have to hurt anyone, I won’t do it.” Jeff drew a deep breath, and despite his fear, looked him in the eye. “So if that’s what this is about you can go ahead and deliver a copy of that disc to Eden and I’ll just hope she can forgive me for being so stupid.”