“Grade two. The tumor is about three centimeters. What I recommend is that we do a lumpectomy and determine if it’s spread to the lymph nodes.”
“I already explained that I can’t have a mastectomy now.”
“This isn’t a mastectomy. It’s only the removal of the lump. If the margins are clear, we won’t have to do the mastectomy. We’ll also do a sentinel lymph node biopsy, which will require a pregnancy test. You’re not pregnant, are you?”
“No, I’m not.” Her hand stopped shaking long enough to hold the glass and take one long sip. “Will you do that today?”
“The surgery center had a cancellation, and they can work you in this afternoon.”
“It can’t wait until February?” she asked, even though she knew what his answer would be.
He eyed her from under a thicket of graying eyebrows. “I wouldn’t advise it.”
She squeezed her clasped hands so tightly the blue veins pumped more noticeably beneath the thin layer of skin. “Since I’m already here, let’s do it.”
“Do you have a friend you can call to be with you? You don’t need to be alone.”
She endured his stare, holding her composure, precarious as it was. “I’m alone every day. Today’s no different.”
Chapter Forty-Four
University of Kentucky Medical Center – December 29
ELLIOTT SAT IN the hospital bed, balancing two cell phones, a laptop, and a legal pad. “I’m sending the plane to Edinburgh to pick you up,” he said into one of the phones.
“I’ll fly commercial,” Evelyn said. “Don’t spend that kind of money on me.”
He glanced at the yellow legal pad on the tray table and counted. “I’ve got eight people on the same flight.”
“Good God, Elliott,” she said, forcing him to yank the phone away from his ear. “Are you doing all of this to get laid?”
He shook his head, chuckling. “I think I’ll get lucky without a party, but it’ll be New Year’s. If I have to be here and reminded of what happened last year, then I’m having a hell of a party to see me through the night.”
She mumbled an obscenity. “A bottle of whiskey and a hot woman will get you through any night.”
“I dare say the same is true for you.”
“As long as the hot woman is Lou. By the way, where is she?”
“Shopping with Mrs. Collins.”
Evelyn cackled. “Oh my God, the woman drives Lou nuts. What are they shopping for?”
“Food.” Elliott attached a document to an email and clicked send. “An email should be popping into your inbox.”
“The city’s wearing a blanket of frigging snow, and you want me to run all over town filling your order.”
“Can you handle it?” he asked.
“Of course, I can handle anything. This party will cost a fortune.”
“Dear God,” he belted out in dramatic fashion. “We do not ask you to give us wealth. But would you mind showing us where it is?”
Evelyn laughed. “You are feeling better.”
“I am. Now, if you run into any trouble, call me. We don’t have much time.”
“I’ll send you a status report. Ciao.”
Elliott smiled for the first time since he’d crawled into bed with Meredith four days earlier. If he could keep all the plates spinning, this would be one hell of a party; the kind of party that could keep him quoting Burns until the wee hours of the morning, except that he had different plans for those particular hours.
Kevin rushed into the room. “I got the Ferris wheel, but it’s going to cost you. And you know David won’t let you ride it anyway.”
“We’ll talk about that later. When will it get here?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Allie.” Elliott’s executive assistant sat at a table across the room, a laptop open in front of her. “Call our insurance agent, and let him know about the Ferris wheel.”
“Did that.”
“Did you invite Dr. Lyles and his wife?”
“Yep,” she said. “And I also have RSVPs from all of the members of the board of directors.”
“What’s your count?”
“We have one hundred twenty-five confirmed,” she said. “Wait. Here’s an email from Jake. Oh good. He’s got the men lined up to install the tent tomorrow.”
“What about the heaters?”
Allie gave him the check signal with her index finger. “Heaters and portable dance floor. Done.”
Elliott groaned. “I won’t be dancing.”
Kevin’s face brightened. “If Ms. Montgomery needs a partner—”
“Don’t you have a date, Kevin?” Allie asked.
“Yes, but I can—”
“I’ve seen you dance, Kevin. You lead with your damn dick,” Elliott said, feeling usurped by his aide.
Allie laughed. “Better stay away from his woman, Kev.”
“I heard Mrs. Collins was bitching this morning because she was supposed to have the weekend off. Now she’s cooking for a mob. Did somebody calm her down?”
“I talked to her,” Elliott said.
“And it will cost you,” Allie said.
Elliott jammed the cap onto his pen. “The next person who reminds me of the cost of this soiree won’t get an invitation. Got it?” Allie’s cheeks reddened, and Kevin found something interesting on the floor to examine. “Allie, as soon as you’ve updated the spreadsheet, send it to me, then go home. Kevin, get me something decent to eat.”
“They’re delivering dinner right now. Don’t you want to wait and see what’s on the tray?”
“No. Get me the grilled salmon and vegetables from Malones. Go to the Tates Creek restaurant. It’s closer than Harrodsburg Road.”
David entered the hospital room, stopped at the foot of Elliot’s bed, and glared at Allie. “What’re ye’ doing here?”
“Working?” She shot Elliott a look, rolling her eyes, and whispered, “I told you he wouldn’t be happy.”
David turned a pointed gaze at Elliott. “What are ye’ planning?”
“A get-together for New Year’s,” Elliott said.
David shook his head. “A tent-sized party, I’ll wager.”
Allie patted David’s arm. “It’s okay, really. He didn’t get out of bed. He took a nap, and he ate well.”
David removed his coat and tossed it on the sofa. “He followed orders. Is that what ye’re telling me?”
“Cheerfully,” Allie said.
“That must mean Ms. Montgomery’s coming back, and he’s trying to get out of here.”
“Dr. Lyles said he could go tomorrow, and Ms. Montgomery’s arriving tomorrow night.”
It usually irritated Elliott when his staff talked about him as if he weren’t in the room, but knowing that tomorrow he’d have Meredith naked in his arms made everything, with the exception of hospital food, tolerable. He was also monitoring his pain medication. He didn’t want drugs interfering with his performance.
“If he goes home, I’ll set a schedule. Someone will need to be with him constantly.”
“What about Ms. Montgomery?” Allie asked.
“I don’t think she’s going to help him to the bathroom to pee,” Kevin said.
“Yuck! Well, I’m not going to either. Now, I am leaving. I’ll see y’all back at the farm,” Allie said.
“Don’t forget to send the spreadsheet as soon as you’ve updated the list.”
She waved goodbye and closed the door.
David sat at the table and booted up the laptop he’d left there earlier. “Kevin, if ye’re going out to pick up dinner, will ye’ get me whatever ye’re getting?”
“Will you tell the food-service worker to take the dinner tray back? I hate wasting food.” Kevin slipped on his jacket and gloves and left.
Elliott lowered his bed to a reclining position, groaning a bit as he rolled and stretched his tight shoulders. “What’d you learn at the police station?”
David formed a zero with his thumb and ind
ex finger. “They don’t have anything on the Gates lad. I talked to the investigator who worked the case five years ago. He said Gates’s brothers were pieces of shit. He didn’t know how the younger one stayed clean with scum for role models.”
“Maybe he isn’t. Maybe he just hasn’t been caught.”
“That’s where I’d put my money.” David started typing. After a couple of minutes, he said, “Sorry. I had to add a note to my daily report.” He closed the laptop and faced Elliott. “Chuck did hit on a bit of good news, though. He was canvassing young Gates’s neighborhood in Louisville and discovered the lad worked in construction. Tonight he’s making a list of Kentucky companies with projects in the Louisville-Jefferson County area. We’ll divide it up tomorrow and go one-by-one until we get a break.”
Elliott uncapped his pen and drew an outline of the state of Kentucky while David talked. He then divided the state into thirds by area codes. “Are you searching the Lexington area?”
“The whole state, if necessary,” David said.
Elliott drew an odd-shaped circle encompassing Louisville and Southern Indiana, Lexington and the Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati area. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” He tapped his pen against the pad. “Where’d they all grow up?”
“Somewhere in Indiana.”
Elliott circled Indianapolis on his map. “You may have to hire help. You’re looking at a large area to canvas.”
“Chuck has operatives he can pull in if we need them.”
“Bring them on board now. We don’t have time to screw with this.”
David removed a small spiral notebook from his shirt pocket and thumbed through a few pages. “This will cost you.”
Elliott tossed his pad onto the tray table. “That’s all I’ve heard all day. It costs what it costs. Get it done, but I don’t want anyone at the farm to know what we’re doing, and that includes Louise and Evelyn.”
“What about Kevin?”
“Keep him in the loop, but don’t tell Allie yet.”
“I’ll need an advance from Harrison to hire more investigators.”
“I’ll front the money and get reimbursed later.” Elliott had already joked with Kevin that he’d have to sell some Apple stock to pay for a portion of the party. The Ferris wheel, musical entertainment, and food flown in from Scotland were extravagances that he wouldn’t charge to the farm.
David made a phone call. “Dr. Fraser said to bring in extra help now. Okay. I’ll get it to you in the morning.” He disconnected and said to Elliott, “Chuck needs access to twenty-five thousand dollars.”
“What does that mean? Cash in an envelope?”
“His people are legit. I’ll set up a special account we can draw from.”
“Kevin can get a cashier’s check to you in the morning.” Elliott reached for his pad and tore off the top sheet. Here’s a sketch of the state to give you an idea of the size of the search parameters.”
David took the paper and studied it. “Any news from Manning?”
“He talked to the adjuster. They’re still waiting on the final necropsy report, but from what they know so far, they don’t intend to pay the claim.”
David folded the paper in half and inserted it into his notebook. “What’d Harrison say?”
“He cried.”
“You’d think it was his money,” David said.
“I didn’t tell you about his accounting errors that cost us twenty-five thousand dollars. Makes him more than cautious right now, especially since another slip up means he’s out of a job. He’s sixty-two. If he gets fired in this economy, he won’t land on his feet.”
David let out a long, slow whistle. “When do the auditors review the books?”
“Last two weeks in January.”
A young woman brought Elliott’s dinner into the room, but before she could set it on his tray, he said, “Take it back. I won’t eat it.”
“Are you sure?”
He nodded. “Harrison still has the support of the board, but I’m not so sure he has mine.”
“Has he ever?”
“I was impressed with his resume when he was hired, but that was ten years ago. A few mistakes and, well, I’m not that impressed any longer.”
“I’ll look through his personnel file. Maybe there’re some notes about him.”
“I doubt they’re relevant to this investigation, but they might be helpful to the board if the members decide to let him go. Allie said she left the box of files in the office at the mansion. You should have everything you need.”
“Harrison won’t take dismissal lightly.”
“Nothing will happen until after the audit, and if he’s done anything improper, he’ll know the auditors will uncover creative accounting, and he’ll expect to be fired, if not arrested. But I don’t think it’ll come to that.” Elliott’s phone rang and Meredith’s number flashed across the screen. He smiled like a stupid teenager. Damn. I get hard thinking about her. “It’s Meredith. Will you give me some privacy?”
David left the room.
“Fraser.”
Chapter Forty-Five
Montgomery Condominium, San Francisco – December 28
“HOW’S THE PARTY PLANNING?” Meredith was sitting on the sofa in her San Francisco condominium following a lonely clam chowder dinner that she’d ordered in. Now, she wanted nothing more than to curl into a ball and sleep for as long as she could, which probably wouldn’t be long enough. Her breast was tender from the procedures, but it hadn’t taken the doctor long to remove the lump, do the SLN biopsy, then send her home in a taxi.
“It’ll be a star-studded evening,” Elliott said.
“Are you wearing a tux or kilt?”
“A kilt. I’ve got several friends coming in from Scotland who’ll be in Highland dress.”
“Not only a star-studded affair but an international one. How about I provide the wine?”
“Will this be a pre-launch party to taste your new chard?”
“That’s tempting, but I can’t risk letting a review get out before the February event. I’ll bring other labels. How many are on the guest list, and what’s the menu?”
“So far one hundred twenty-five, but I don’t have the menu. Cameron is catering.”
“The Prestonfield House Cameron?” Her voice couldn’t hide the excitement of biting into one of his delectable entrees again.
“You wouldn’t believe what I had to promise him.”
“Let me guess. A trip to San Francisco.” She laughed, and for just a moment, cancer slipped from the number one position in her mind. “After the special accommodations he made for us, I’d be thrilled to give him a tour of the valley.”
“We’ll talk about it later. Tell me about you. How’d your afternoon go?” The soft lull of his voice sprinkled her with warmth and compassion.
Do not tell him. Do not.
Tears slipped from her eyes, creating fresh, salty tracks down her face. Needing and wanting more than the sound of his voice, she hugged herself, but her arms couldn’t give her the depth of comfort she craved from him. In her heart, she knew the pain of his withdrawal if he knew she had cancer would be a hundred times worse than the loneliness now stripping her insides down to a hollow core. She didn’t trust him, but that wasn’t limited to Elliott. Right now, she didn’t trust anyone.
“Tense,” she said, swiping at her tears, “but I got through it. I have two meetings in the morning, then I’m all yours for four days.”
“All you’ll need to pack is something to wear to the party because the rest of the time—”
“Whoa. You’ll have a house full of guests. We’ll have to be sociable.”
“The hell we will.”
She laughed. “I’ll be glad to see you.”
“I promise to be on my best behavior.”
Somehow, she doubted that.
Chapter Forty-Six
Surgeon’s Office, San Francisco – December 30
THE NEXT MORNING, as Meredi
th was going through her emails, she received a call from her surgeon’s office. The lumpectomy and sentinel lymph node biopsy reports were on his desk, and he wanted to see her as soon as possible. She didn’t want to go. So she went for a run to give the endorphins a chance to do their magic. Normally, she ran through pain, but after a mile her breast hurt too much. She walked home, trying to wrap her brain around all that was happening.
Three hours later, she sat in her surgeon’s office. “I don’t want to be here.” She uncrossed her legs and placed both feet firmly on the floor.
“I know you don’t, and I wish we were chatting over a bottle of wine instead, but . . .”
“We have to take care of business first. So tell me. Do you have good news or bad news?”
He focused on her sharply. “I have both.”
She ran damp palms up and down the tops of her thighs, leaving handprints on her double weave trousers. “Tell me the bad first.”
He leaned forward, placed his forearms on his desk, and tapped his fingers together. “The margins were not clear on the lump I removed. We didn’t get all the cancer, and you need a mastectomy.”
Tears fell down her cheeks. Since finding the lump, she had sensed that she would lose her other breast, too, but actually hearing the word mastectomy was like slamming into a rock wall. If she hadn’t been sitting, her trembling legs would have collapsed beneath her.
She wiped away tears with the back of her hand. “You said there was good news. What could possibly be good in this situation?”
“The cancer hasn’t spread to the lymph nodes. With surgery and probably radiation, you should have a good outcome.” He sat back and reviewed his notes. “It will take a couple of weeks to coordinate schedules with your plastic surgeon and oncologist.”
“I can’t have surgery until after February sixteenth.”
He glanced at the calendar on his desk. “That’s a long time to wait.”
“I’m launching a new wine, and there’s too much to do right now.”
“Your health is more—”
She held up a hand to stop him. “I’ve heard that lecture already. Waiting another three weeks isn’t going to impact my heath. Is it?”
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