Free An Accidental Life by Pamela Binnings Ewen

“It’ll take us a few minutes to set up.” He glanced at Rebecca. “This is a nice office. Good light.”
    “Would you like coffee or Coke-Cola?” Rose Marie asked.
    “No thanks. We had breakfast at the hotel.”
    Rose Marie shuffled aside as Art reappeared carrying a camera tripod this time. Tom motioned to his right, toward the windows. “Can you shoot from there?”
    Rebecca wandered out into the hallway with her secretary while they discussed the lighting. Leaning against Rose Marie’s typewriter, she folded her arms and looked down the row of desks outside the attorney’s offices.
    Tom came to the doorway and motioned. “Let’s get started.” As she entered the office, he gestured toward the sofa. “Sit right over there. Art will do the shots with you sitting on the sofa first, and around the office. Then, when we’re ready to start the interview, you’ll sit in this chair, and I’ll sit here on the sofa, facing you and we’ll just talk.”
    “All right.” Rebecca took the spot he’d indicated on the sofa and sat down. She crossed her legs and watched Art setting up the camera near the windows.
    “The light’s fierce in here,” Art said, peering through the lens. “We weren’t prepared for this sunshine. We left gray skies and cold wind behind yesterday out of LaGuardia.”
    “The weather here is always like this,” Rebecca said.
    Tom let out a laugh. “We sound like tourists, huh? I’ve been here in August.” Hands on his hips, he looked at Ray then studied her position, then turned in a circle taking in the entire room. At last, facing her again, he said, “Oh, and we’ll need some shots in a conference room. Can you arrange that?”
    Rebecca said sure, and stepped out of the office to tell Rose Marie. Art followed her out and walked on down the hallway. She asked Rose Marie to try to get the executive conference room on the eighteenth floor for the pictures, if it was free. Walking back into the office, she had to step aside again for Art, who came in this time carrying two large silver-looking umbrellas. To filter the light, he said. He opened the umbrellas in the middle of the room, and angled them around the interview area they’d chosen.
    Tom and Rebecca sat together in the corner while Art looked through the camera and moved the umbrellas around several times. When Art said, ready, Tom stood up and walked to stand behind him, telling her the photographs would take about twenty minutes. Art said he’d do a few test shots. Then he’d take a series of photos with her sitting on the sofa, first.
    Tom sat behind her desk scribbling in a notebook while Art took the first pictures. He guided her into different poses, talking and clicking, sometimes with a small camera and sometimes with the larger camera set on the tripod, which he moved around. They took shots of her in front of the bookcase, and then Tom moved and Rebecca sat behind her desk and pretended to be writing, talking on the phone, and Art took pictures there.
    When the photography was finished, Tom walked toward her, waving his hand at the rows of leather bound books. “What are all those?”
    She moved to the chair, as he’d earlier instructed and looked over at the bookcases. “Oh, that’s my work.” Tom took a seat on the sofa beside her. “Six years of transactions I’ve worked on here at Mangen & Morris are recorded in those.” She smiled. “Each one brings back memories.”
    He set a black-cased tape recorder on the coffee table, and looked at her. “Do you mind? This is more efficient.”
    “That’s fine.”
    He checked the tape, then turned it on. “Okay. We were talking about the books in your office and you said that each one brings back a memory. Are they good ones?
    She grinned. “Yes. Great memories.” The camera clicking surprised her.
    From behind the camera, Art gave her a thumbs-up. “Good smile,” he said. Leaning around the camera, he twisted the lens. “You’re the first one we’ve