Monahan 02 Artificial Intentions Read Online Free PDF Page B

time?”
    “We don’t know Kate. It’s too soon for the police to be telling us anything. In the meantime, we’ve got a public company here. A press release has gone out but we have to do some damage control.”
    “Fuck damage control. Fuck the company. I don’t care. I’m in the wrong place. At the wrong time. This isn’t right Cleve.” I was having trouble putting coherent thoughts, words and sentences together.
    “Right or wrong, Kate, you were listed as his next of kin. His secretary told us that his mother and father are both dead. Did he have any brothers, sisters, aunts?”
    “No.” I shook my head. I remembered Tommy telling me how he felt being an orphan at twenty-three. His parents had died in a head-on collision. He had grand plans for a large family, to make up for his loss. We never even got to the planning stages.
    “As his heir, you’ll have some decisions to make. Hard decisions.”
    “Not now Cleve. I’d rather just help look after the funeral arrangements.”
    “That’ll have to wait. The police aren’t releasing the body until after the autopsy and they can’t say when that’ll be.”
    He reached inside his jacket and took out a white envelope which he held out to me. I didn’t take it.
    “This was found in his papers. It has your name on it and says to be opened only on his death.”
    “I don’t think I can right now Cleve. I need to use the ladies room.”
    “Please Kate. Be reasonable. I can’t possibly imagine how you’re feeling right now. I understand though. So I’ll leave the envelope here for you and when you’re ready, please, read it. Have Carrie find me when you’re ready to talk.”
    He placed the envelope in the center of Tommy’s desk and left the office.
    I spent the next fifteen minutes huddled in a cubicle in the ladies room. Trying to sort out my feelings. The heaviness I felt was my body and mind in mourning, that I knew. I had felt the same way when my best friend Evelyn had died earlier that year. I finally surmised that my behaviour was denial. Denial that another good friend had passed. It was too early to be discussing wills and inheritances. Tommy’s body was probably still warm in the morgue and Cleve wanted me to participate in damage control.
    Control of what I wondered? Phoenix Technologies was a company I knew little about. I had been involved with it over ten years ago when it was a fledgling high-tech company. What I did know was that technology ten years ago didn’t even resemble technology today. I hadn’t read much of the file when it came over from Scapelli’s, so my only current knowledge of the company was a brief conversation the previous week with Cleve. He had told me that Phoenix Technologies stock was still listed on the TSE and NASDAQ, and that they had grown to over 1,100 employees with offices in several cities. Tommy had moved the executive offices out of Phoenix to New York a few years ago. That was the extent of what I knew of the company.
    I edged Tommy’s large executive chair closer to the desk and picked up the white envelope gingerly with my thumb and index finger of each hand. It was addressed to me in Tommy’s handwriting. The first line read: Kathleen Monahan . Underneath that in small, printed capital letters it read: To be Opened By Addressee Only On The Occasion of My Death . Occasion of his death? How formal. I turned the envelope over and noticed that Tommy had signed his name over the seal.
    I touched the floor with the tips of my toes and swiveled the chair around to face the windows. I sat that way for a few minutes while I smoked and collected my thoughts. Sure, we’d been friends all these years. I tried to remember if Tommy had ever had another girlfriend. He had never remarried. When I asked for a divorce he’d told me very somberly that he’d never marry again. Not fucking likely, I remember thinking. Tommy was a catch. Handsome, caring, rich, funny. But after a while there wasn’t any spark for