Page 36 of Mario
I don’t trust myself to answer that one.
“Your previous firm made a mistake,” I say.
That stills her pen again.
“What mistake?”
“They let you leave.”
Her face remains composed, but something shifts behind her eyes. Surprise, first. Then suspicion.
She does not trust compliments.
That is useful to know.
“They didn’t let me do anything,” she says. “I resigned.”
“Yes.”
“That was not a mistake on my part.”
“I did not say it was.”
Her mouth closes.
She does not look away from me, but I see the correction land exactly where I want it to.
She doesn’t like being seen, but if she’s going to, she likes being seen accurately.
I understand that.
“My priorities,” I say, before the silence turns into something else, “are simple. I want a structure that can support expansion. I want weaknesses identified before someone else finds them. I want unnecessary exposure removed. I want my legitimate businesses able to survive attention.”
“Legitimate businesses,” she repeats.
One word too careful.
“Yes.”
She writes it down. “That implies some concern about the legitimacy of attention, not the legitimacy of the businesses.”
Clever. Too clever.
“You hear implications in everything?”
“I hear wording.”
“And what does mine tell you?”
“That you choose it carefully.”
“Good.”
Her eyes sharpen. “Was that a test?”
“Everything is a test, Ms. Murray.”
“Then you should know I don’t enjoy wasting time with them.”
