Free Jay Giles by Blindsided (A Thriller) Page A

and trotted into my office.
          I went to the kitchen, dried myself off with paper towels, made coffee, and carried a cup back to my office. I heard the squeak of the front door opening, the flap, flap, flap of some one shaking out an umbrella, followed by a distinct sniff, sniff, sniff.
          “It’s wet dog I’m smelling,” Rosemary announced as she appeared in the doorway of my office. I watched her sniff, sniff, sniff, again. “Wet owner, too.”
          I laughed. “She’s making fun of us, Eddie. Go shake next to her.”
          “Don’t ya dare. I’m a mess already.” She fluffed her hair. “Look at my hair. I’m a fright.”
          Fluffing hadn’t helped. Her blond hair hung limp. “I’d give you some of my curl if I could. You know that.”
          She waved a hand at me. “Oh, go on. Rub it in.” The telephone rang, and she left to get it. “Took me forever and a day to get in; now they’re probably calling to tell us to evacuate.”
          I looked out the window. The rain didn’t look like it had let up a bit. Niagara Falls was pouring off the roof.
          I was bus`y that morning, the day’s normal business plus catch-up from yesterday’s time out of the office. I was placing a list of orders when Rosemary buzzed me. “Your friend Tory on two.”
          “Got your message,” Tory said. “I hope this is something we can discuss over the phone.”
          I looked at the copies Fowler had faxed to me. It would be difficult to explain about thrown trades over the telephone. “I’ve got stuff you need to see. Is there a time we can meet?”
          “You want to go out in this? God, it must be an emergency. Hang on.” She put me on hold. Came back a minute later. “I wasn’t planning on going out today.”
          “What a wuss.”
          She laughed. “I may be a wuss, but you’re going to have to come to me.”
          “Where?” I asked.
          “Pier Grille? About four?”
          “Good choice. If it doesn’t let up, I can get there by boat.”
          I’d said it as a joke, but as I drove to Anna Maria Island , I wished I had a boat. Low areas that had been puddles on my drive in that morning were lakes. Stalled cars marked most of the deep spots. The Saab hit a couple I thought would do us in. It took us a while, but we made it to the Pier Grille, only to find their entire parking lot under water. I parked as close to the door as I could in what I hoped was the shallow end of the pool. I stepped out of the car and water rose above my ankles. Eddie was happy to stay in the car.
          I probably looked like a drowned rat by the time I made it inside. I spotted Tory in the same booth by the window. She looked pleased with herself—and dry.
          I dripped my way over, slid into the booth, wiped water off my briefcase.
          She laughed at me. “You’re sure we couldn’t have done this over the phone?”
          “What? And miss all the fun I had getting here? No way.” I reached into my briefcase, took out copies of the Merrill Lynch orders, spread them out on the table between us, explained thrown trades.            
          “So you want to know who at Merrill Lynch bought and sold these stocks and put your number on them?”
          “Exactly. The other thing I need to know is that person’s connection to Nevitt. If we can find that, I can get these churning charges dismissed.”
          A waitress came over, asked me if I wanted anything. Tory had a cup of coffee in front of her. I asked for one, too.
          After the waitress left, Tory asked, “Won’t whoever did this at Merrill Lynch get in big trouble?”
          “Kicked out of the business.”
          “So that person’s not going to want to cooperate, and the company won’t want this exposed.”
          Our waitress brought my coffee, refilled Tory’s cup