trying the menâs patience and that he was sensitive to it.
âI think that maybe Ms. Leeâs time would be best spent with Marx,â Ordonez said, his breathing rapid and heavy. âThere is nothing more we can tell her.â
âI agree,â Uncle said, reaching over to touch her hand.
âIâll have my girl take her down,â Ordonez said to Uncle, turning slightly away from Ava.
âWeâll spend some time getting caught up, and we still need to finalize your fee,â Chang said. âThen Iâll have you taken to the Peninsula. Ms. Lee can join you there later.â
( 4 )
Louis Marx looked up from his chair. He was in the boardroom one floor below Ordonezâs office, surrounded by boxes and files strewn across the table.
âHello,â Ava said from the doorway.
Marx looked confused. âAnd what do you want?â
Ava took a few steps forward and stood across the table from Marx. âIâve been brought in to help find the money. I thought theyâd told you about me. My name is Ava Lee.â
âThey said they were bringing in an accountant. They didnât give me a name. They also didnât tell me you were a woman â a young woman.â
âWhat did you expect?â
âSomeone more like Dog the Bounty Hunter.â
She smiled and extended her hand. âWell, Iâm Ava Lee.â
âPleased to meet you,â Marx said. He stood and reached across the table to shake her hand. His palms were sweaty. He was a large, flabby man, the kind who spent his life indoors behind a desk and had no appetite for exercise. His wrinkled grey slacks were half covered by the tail of his white dress shirt, and his stained blue tie hung loosely around his neck.
âAre you all right?â she asked.
âNot really,â Marx said, his eyes darting manically around the room.
âAnything I can do?â
âYeah, letâs get this over with so I can get on a plane and get back to Vancouver.â
âWhatâs been going on?â
He waved a hand over the boardroom table. âTheyâve been using me as a punching bag,â he said. âI think theyâre trying to pin this entire fiasco on me. Thatâs whatâs been going on.â
âHow so?â
âFor the past three days Iâve been stashed away in this room getting grilled by Mr. Chang and one or another of the other senior financial people here. They come in together, ask questions, and then talk to each other in Chinese or Filipino or whatever language theyâre speaking, as if Iâm not even in the room. Then they start up again. Iâve answered the same questions ten times.â
âThat must be unpleasant,â Ava said.
âReally? Let me tell you how it started when I got here. They stuck the most incredibly detailed and one-sided non-disclosure agreement in my face and told me to sign it. I said I was an employee and that Iâd already signed one in Vancouver. They told me I needed to sign that one too, and if I didnât theyâd fire me and then sue me for the missing money. So I signed, of course, but things didnât get any easier.â
âWell, it isnât my style to make threats, so why donât we sit and chat. Unless Iâm completely misinformed, this is now my project, so you only have to concern yourself about dealing with me.â
He seemed to relax as he looked down at the files. âThereâs a lot of information here, but truthfully, Iâm not sure how relevant it is.â
She sat at the table, removed a new Moleskine notebook from her Chanel purse, and wrote Ordonez across the top of the first page. Ava always used a new notebook for each case, and when the job was completed â successful or not â it was stored away in a safety deposit box at the Toronto-Dominion Bank a few blocks from her condo. âLetâs forget about the files for now,â she said.