Chapter 2 – An Impressive Start

Louise Gardner was an heiress. A very rich heiress. Her family’s diverse investments and business interests had produced an eye-watering fortune. Louise had inherited the lot aged 25, when her large-living parents had been killed in a plane crash on a private flight to Acapulco. It seemed that the parents had no interest in using their resources to help those less fortunate than themselves (which included most of the rest of the world) but had spent their time gallivanting around the planet in search of new pleasures.

Their daughter, meanwhile, their only child, busied herself studying any and every subject that caught her attention and interest. She had acquired several bachelors degrees, four masters and two PhDs by the time her parents died. Bobby couldn’t see how she could have spent much time in their company, since they appeared never to have been at home, and her path in life was in a quite different direction.

He no longer had access to DMV records, and there seemed to be no pictures of her online, so he had no idea what she looked like when he arrived at the headquarters of her charity operation next day. He had been trying to remember what stood at the address she had given him, and when he got there, he discovered it was a large office building whose ground floor had once housed a department store. The huge windows now carried art work showing the causes Good Works Inc helped out. He thought it was a waste of money to rent a place like this when the money could go to the causes, till he noticed an old plaque declaring that the building was opened by the Gardner Corporation in 1910. No rent to pay here, then. And the family fortune was well-established.

Bobby parked his car and walked to the entrance to the upper floors, as Ms Gardner had directed him. There was a foyer of faded grandeur and an elevator next to a list of occupants of the building. A bright-eyed young receptionist greeted him.

“Yes, sir, can I help you?”

“Thank you, I’m here to see Ms Gardner.” He expected her to consult a list and pick up a telephone, but she pointed to a door that appeared to lead into the old department store section of the building. “Louise just went in to check on some new supplies.” Bobby followed her directions.

Through the door he was confronted by organised chaos. The old shop floor was covered in storage – shelves, bins, you name it – but everything was clearly labelled and signposted. Human activity was busiest in a section called Disaster Contingency Supplies (Tropics). Bobby walked towards the 10 or so people. They turned to watch his approach.

“Hi. My name’s Robert Goren. I’m looking for Ms Gardner.”

A pretty young woman in her twenties stepped forward. She was the right age and, without any idea of what Louise Gardner looked like, Goren assumed this was her. But she said, “Let me take you to her” and peeled off towards the front of the store. There, a pair of jeans contained the bottom half of a body bent over a large packing crate.



His guide called, “Louise, Mr Goren is here.” The jeans straightened up and revealed a white cotton top smeared in dust, a thick sheet of dark hair tied in a band and, as she turned around, a face half masked by dirty smudges. She was quite petite – about 5’3” or 5’4” – and gave the overall impression of being slim, until you noticed the curves under her tight shirt.

Mentally, Bobby slapped himself and reminded himself he was here to be appraised for a job, not himself to appraise a potential employer.

Louise Gardner stepped forward, wiped her grubby hands on her jeans, then proffered the right one for Bobby to shake. “Pleased to meet you, Mr Goren,” she said, with a wide, sincere-looking smile. Bobby felt his own mouth respond. How could you not smile back at this woman?

It was impossible to tell anything about her age or features because of the smudges on her face, which she proceeded to make worse by trying to rub them away with her still-messy hands. “Glad you didn’t wear a suit, Mr Goren, but even so, you might regret not being more casually dressed. I should have mentioned the mess we tend to get in.”

Bobby looked down at his black shirt and trousers, already dusty and looking far from smart, and remembered all the days when he’d been covered in grease working on vintage cars. Then he recalled the snappy suits and ties from his early days at Major Case, before his life began to overwhelm him.

Louise Gardner was very observant. She noticed immediately the flicker of sadness in his eyes. She had read enough of his recent history to understand that this man was wounded, and needed to mend. She was more sure than ever that her plans for him would relegate his sadness to a less prominent place in his mind and relieve his unhappiness for long periods at a time. He wouldn’t accept charity, but he was one of her causes anyway. No one should serve their city and their country so faithfully and then be treated so abysmally by the representatives of those he had served.

Missing barely a beat, she said, “I have an office on the next floor. Let’s go up there and discuss what we can do for each other.” She strode back towards the door and Bobby followed, trying not to admire the neat butt with the dusty handprints on. At the elevator she stopped and pressed the up button. Once inside, she took one look in the elderly mirrors and burst out laughing. “This is bad, even for me!” she said. Her good nature infused her voice with a quality that made you want to make her happy, so that she would never stop laughing. Bobby leaned forward and brushed a cobweb from her hair. She’s so young, he thought, I have to be careful.

He didn’t dare ask himself, “Careful of what?”