Divided in Death

She stopped, shook her head. “And this isn’t of any possible interest to you.”

“No.” Eve gestured Caro back down when she started to rise. “Finish it out. I am interested.”

Caro sat again, sighed. “I will, then, as all this keeps ru

“Must’ve been pretty smart, then.”

“Thank you. I wasn’t as… seasoned then as I am now. And he had better lawyers,” she added with a ghost of a smile. “So I was in a pit, financially, emotionally, even physically as I let myself become ill with the stress and grief. I was very, very frightened. But it was nothing-no more than a bump that leaves you momentarily off-balance-compared to this. Reva might’ve been killed.”

Caro pressed a hand to her lips, visibly fought for control. “No one’s said that, but it’s there, the possibility of what might have been. Whoever did this thing might have killed her instead of using her to cover the tracks.”

“She wasn’t. Might-have-beens shouldn’t scare you.”

“You don’t have children,” Caro said with another, stronger smile, but her eyes were begi

“You figure he wants payback for pitching in for you and Reva?”

“No. He never does.” She opened her purse, took out a tissue and dabbed at her cheeks. Every movement was economical. “It a

Eve felt her throat close, and only managed a shrug.

“I wondered if you would be. When you first came to the office, so fierce and tough. And cold. At least that’s how I saw you. Then I saw him, after you’d gone. He was baffled and dazzled and frustrated. A rarity for Roarke.”

“Really? Well, that made two of us.”

“It’s been an education watching the two of you find each other.” She replaced the tissue, closed her neat black handbag. “He’s an important part of my life. It’s good to see him happy.”

She didn’t know what to say to that, so asked a question that was circling in her brain. “How did you come to work for him?”

“I took a secretarial position, entry level, and did drone work at an advertising agency here in New York. My skills weren’t as rusty as I’d thought, and I’d scraped together the money for some classes to reacquaint myself with them. For the most part I was a gofer in one of the legal departments for a time. Then I was a revolving clerk, moving from department to department, filling in where and how I was needed.”

“Getting a little bit of everything.”

“Yes. It pleased me, and I thought of it as training. It was good work, and paid well. At a point, I suppose it’s been about a dozen years ago now, Roarke took over the company where I worked, and the company-along with several others-moved into the midtown building.”

Her voice was stronger now as she took herself back. Took some distance from the present. “Shortly after, I was promoted to an assistant to an assistant in one of the project development arms of the company. A year or so into that, I was asked to sit in on a meeting-just to keep notes, fetch coffee, and look presentable as Roarke himself would be attending. The New York branch was quite young then. There was such energy, and most of it came from him.”

“He’s got more than his share,” Eve added.

“He certainly does. During the meeting, one of the execs snapped at me when I didn’t move fast enough to suit him, and I responded with something about his ma

“So Reva gets her temper from you.”

Caro let out a half-laugh. “I suppose she does. Roarke ignored the little altercation-or so I thought-and continued with the meeting. At some point he asked me to run the holo of the building he was designing, and later to bring up the data on something else. He had me hopping around, doing tasks that weren’t in any particular domain, but those years of revolving had paid off. Still, once my a

“Now I knew I was going to be fired, and I was frantic thinking of how I’d find another job, keep Reva in college, make the payments on the condo I’d bought three years before. He took me in his private elevator, and I was shaking inside, but I wasn’t going to let him see it. I’d had enough humiliation from my ex-husband to last me a lifetime, so I wasn’t going to let this young turk see how frightened I was.”

“He knew,” Eve commented, picturing it.

“Of course. He always knows. But at the time I was proud of my composure, and assumed it was about all I had left. He asked me what I thought of…” Her forehead creased. “I’ve forgotten his name. The exec who’d snapped at me in the meeting. I answered back, very crisply as I thought I was already heading out the door, did he mean personally or professionally, and he gri

She paused a moment, angled her head. “I hope you won’t take offense if I add something here.”

“Go ahead. I don’t offend all that easy.”

“I was old enough to be his mother, and when he looked down at me and gri

“I get that, too.”

“Undoubtedly you do. When he gri

“The next thing I know I’m in his office, and he’s offering me coffee, and asking me to wait just a moment. He went to his desk and went to work while I sat there in complete confusion. I didn’t know then that he’d pulled up my file, was checking my work evals, my security ratings.”

“And very likely what you’d had for breakfast that morning.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Caro agreed. “Then he said, pleasantly, that he was looking for an administrative assistant who could think on her feet, who had good judgment of situations and people, and who wouldn’t serve him a plate of bullshit when he wanted the truth. She’d have to be efficient, tireless, and loyal, as she’d answer only to him and there would be times he’d ask the… unusual. He continued on, outlining the job description, but I’m not sure I was hearing it all clearly. And he named a salary that made me very grateful I was sitting down. Then he asked me if I was interested in the position.”

“Guess you were.”

“I said, with heroic calm, that, yes, sir, I would be very interested in applying for the position. That I’d be happy to sit for an interview and any tests required. He said we’d just had the interview and I’d already passed the tests, so I might as well start now.”

“He’d had his eye on you before.”

“Apparently so. And because of it, I was able to finish raising my daughter in comfort, in security. And to discover myself. So I owe him a great deal. You’ve settled me down,” Caro said with a sigh. “Just by taking me through all that. You’ve reminded me that you get through a crisis by doing what needs to be done next. So I’ll leave you to do what you have to do next.” She rose. “Thank you for taking the time.”