Page 19 of Operation Protector
Colby smothered a snort. “Yeah. Top-of-the-line stuff. French, mostly.”
Ali smiled. “Hayley says they can handle that.”
Colby looked at the other woman questioningly. Hayley nodded. “We have a couple of bottles that were a gift from a client. Very high-end. Not to our taste, so now it can be put to good use.”
“Anyway,” Ali went on, “I’ll take her the wine, and if I can get her to drink some and relax a little so we can…talk. And since I know nothing about conducting an inquiry or investigating—” she held up what looked like a pair of pearl earrings “—I’ll have Foxworth in my ear, guiding me.”
He should have guessed, given what Foxworth had accomplished around here, but somehow it was only now registering just how sophisticated and well-equipped they were. But was it enough, when his little girl was involved?
“But if she finds out Grace has been sneaking over here—”
“We’re going to send Grace a message to stay quiet about that. Cutter will deliver it.”
He blinked. “What? How?”
“He’ll manage. He always does,” Quinn said.
“Will she recognize your writing? In a note?” Hayley asked. “We need her to be sure it’s you.”
“I always put a star after I sign it. Because…she’s the star of my life. So she’d know if it wasn’t there, that it wasn’t really from me.”
“Brilliant,” Ali said approvingly.
He smiled at her, but it was a bit wry. “Not feeling it, at the moment.”
“Then we’ll fix that, too,” she said, with a certainty he wished he could feel.
And he’d like a lot more of that look she gave him, too. After years of Liz’s haughty looking down her nose, he definitely liked Ali’s smile and, even more, her obvious approval.
Whether he deserved either, he wasn’t sure.
Chapter 9
Ali clipped on the second earring, glad that they were a subtle style. They looked so normal she was almost startled when she heard Hayley’s voice in her ear.
“Copy?”
“You’re loud and clear,” she told her as she came out of the bedroom and into the great room. The time was getting close. Her new neighbor had returned home from work or wherever she’d gone for the afternoon—did women on her level really work?—and Grace was ensconced back in her bedroom, according to the new camera aimed that way. Everything was in place. While Quinn would also be listening, they’d decided Hayley would take the lead in the communications.
“She’s the best at picking up the subtle stuff,” Quinn had said. “And she understands women better—” he’d thrown his wife a loving glance “—much better than I do.”
“Your biggest problem,” Hayley said now, “and I speak from experience, will be not automatically answering verbally when I say something. I’ll try to keep it to a minimum, so you don’t get too distracted. I’ll feed you background info we’ve gathered, if it seems appropriate, and might help.”
“And I’ll feed her ego,” Ali said, remembering their earlier discussion.
“Yes. And play up to her, like you’ve heard of her family and you’re impressed.” Hayley shifted her gaze to Colby, “Any goals or causes she’d be particularly receptive to?”
He let out a short, sharp laugh. “Anything that makes her feel more important. Her family supports a few charitable causes, but it’s all for the PR. She doesn’t really believe in any of them. In fact, it annoys her to have to pretend she does. Even her grief organization to help widows and orphans is about making her feel she’s better, stronger than they are.”
That jabbed Ali deeper than she wanted to let on. Colby had no way of knowing, of course, so she kept her gut-level reaction hidden.
“Interesting,” Quinn put in. “We have a contact who dealt with that organization say much the same thing, that Ms. Hollen seems to be in it for the photo ops, that when it comes down to actually dealing with or even talking to the people she’s supposedly trying to help, she’s mostly absent.”
“What about close women friends?” Ali asked.
Colby turned his head to look at her. “She doesn’t trust anyone, male or female, who might be…tougher than she is. Doesn’t want them around her.”
“Because they might show her up?” She was guessing, but from what she’d heard so far it seemed to fit. And Colby nodded.
