by Hart, Randi
Back home, however, she had to admit she did feel better. Now she actually wanted to go back to work and be her old super-efficient self. There had been plenty of time to think about what to do with her life on the plane. For the time being, Alison just wanted to immerse herself in work. Familiar work, work that was well within her comfort zone. She did, after all, have the best staff under her of any legal team in the city.
One season changed into another and then it was fall again. The most beautiful October in San Francisco that Alison could ever remember blessed the residents of the Bay City.
She was baking macaroons one evening when she got an unexpected phone call from Mom. Granny Paula had died and her parents were going to Connecticut to make the funeral arrangements. They didn’t immediately pressure Alison to go. It was just going to be a small memorial service. There would be legal matters—including finances to deal with—but they figured they could handle it okay themselves.
“You sure you don’t need my help, Mom? I do this kind of a thing for a living, you know.”
“Well, honey, I happen to know that mother left you a significant amount of money and the will is going to be read, so it’s up to you if you wish to be there.” Her mother sighed, that sigh Alison hated so much.
“Mom, if I’m going to hear the will read, I’m certainly going for Granny’s funeral. When are you and Daddy leaving?”
“Our flight is at 9:10 tomorrow morning. Let me know, sweetheart. We’ll be at Granny’s apartment and you can stay there too, if you like.”
Alison left Mike a message at the office after booking a flight into LaGuardia. A short trip meant light packing, fortunately. She pulled her passport, got some money together, and was off to the airport first thing in the morning. She would actually arrive shortly before her parents. Before leaving her house, she sent an email to Mike apologizing for the short notice, but knowing he would understand. This would, she fully realized, be unpaid time off, having already used up her vacation and sick leave on that unpleasant business earlier in the year.
* * *
Two million dollars. Alison couldn’t believe it. She never even called Granny anymore. This was absolutely stunning. Sure, Alison had always known there was some money in the family, but never really thought about inheritance or the death of loved ones. She certainly never guessed Granny was loaded like that! And Granny had done it right, too—handling her estate through a GRAT trust, leaving just over two million to Alison without any further tax burden. It was a cool two mil, tax-free. The money was already in her bank account as she sat on the plane ride home. Who would have thunk? The first thing Alison planned on doing was spreading it out between five or six different banks, the big ones like Chase and B of A.
Alison normally slept on planes, but not this flight. She couldn’t stop thinking about her grandmother, remembering the role she played in Alison’s life. They spent quite a bit of time together and built some emotional bridges when Alison was young, especially during her teenage years. Back then, Granny lived on a beautiful farm in Connecticut and whenever Alison’s parents took a trip to Europe, which her dad did often for business, they would stop at Granny’s and drop Alison off at her “second” home.
She and Granny had special conversations about everything in life. Everything. Granny was one person Alison really trusted. Alison got her first period while at Gran’s on one visit. Gran was prepared and handled it with her well. Granny was the one who first told her about “the birds and the bees,” long before Alison needed any of that information.
They baked pies and cakes together, Granny letting Alison be creative sometimes. That’s where Alison first discovered her love for food and everything related to it. She helped Granny make dill pickles and can vegetables. Gran would use those as her Christmas gifts for friends and neighbors.
“Gran, I miss you already. Sorry I abandoned you and stopped calling. Please forgive me.” Alison wiped tears from her face.
Alison went back to work as if nothing had changed. As the holiday season approached, however, she found herself restless and thinking about Rick again. Why couldn’t she lose this guy from her thoughts? Last year the holidays had been as a wonderful dream, like none other, and here they were coming up again. This year it was going to seriously suck, unless Brenda had another gorgeous bachelor lined up for Alison at her Thanksgiving party.
She didn’t.
Just before Christmas, when Alison’s firm was planning its schedule for coverage over the holidays, Alison went into Mike’s office and gave written notice that she was resigning. She hadn’t told anyone except Brenda about the inheritance, so Mike’s first reaction was to ask if she was going to be okay financially. She assured him she would be, and just needed time to sort things out—but wanted no fanfare, no goodbye party, and would appreciate Mike making the announcement after the holidays when everyone came back to work …everyone but her. He reluctantly agreed to her wishes.
It wasn’t as if she had anything planned. Alison just wanted to enjoy the holidays as much as she could and not have too much to think about. Maybe she would redecorate her home, something a bit richer, perhaps—but when all was said and done, she still loved her existing furnishings, the Danish styling and clean cut easy lines of all the teak pieces, her dishes, and everything else she’d put together over the years.
She did begin running again, this time putting more focus on the workout as opposed to the pleasure of being outdoors. Perhaps that’s when the idea first popped into her head. She wasn’t sure. What she was sure about was doing something to change her focus and help her find a new direction. In order to accomplish that, Alison knew beyond any doubt that she had to let go of Rick completely. He was still in her head, messing with her. That needed to stop.
Alison now had enough money to do anything she wanted, but the more she thought about it, there was only one thing she really wanted to do. Rick needed to pay. He had to be punished for what he had done. He destroyed her, not just emotionally, not just mentally, not just the last year of her life, but also from ever being able to have a child. That’s all she ever really wanted, deep down, and he took that away from her.
A plan gradually formed in her mind as winter turned into spring. One she could never reveal to anyone, not even Brenda. No one. Ever.
CHAPTER SIX
On a windy day in late March, Alison called an old friend of hers who worked for the Swiss Embassy in San Francisco and invited him to dinner. They hadn’t seen each other for a few years, but were tight in times past. She knew she could trust him.
Emil Carter was a friend from her old law firm, where he was known as “the fixer.” Because of him, Alison used to assume every law office had a fixer, until she started working at Mike’s office and discovered otherwise. That old firm, where Alison worked when she first began her paralegal career, was not exactly known for being the most ethical law practice in town. It took a few years before Alison learned enough to catch on to that fact, which is when she went looking for another job. Emil never did anything blatantly illegal, so far as Alison knew, but he was good at walking extremely close to that line when it came to getting clients out of messes. He was originally from Switzerland and managed to land a job at the Swiss Embassy shortly after Alison quit.
Alison arranged to meet Emil at MacArthur Park. He was on time, apparently still the same punctual, all-business man she knew from the old days. They hugged and ordered cocktails while waiting for a table. He fussed over her, marveling about how good she looked. Alison had to admit she did. It was the best she’d felt about herself in a while.
Emil talked about his wife and new baby, and how happy he was to still be able to live in San Francisco and work at the embassy. Alison briefly discussed politics with him as well, something they used to enjoy talking about together regularly, both having rather liberal viewpoints.
Then Alison caught him up on her personal life, but omitting the affair with Rick and the surgery. He was shocked to learn she qui
t her job without first having another lined up, and asked if she needed any help financially—probably thinking that was the real reason for their little get-together.
“Emil, my grandmother died and left me a large amount of money, two million after taxes.”
His mouth opened and his eyebrows went up.
“So,” Alison continued, “I kept working for a little while, then decided I couldn’t stand being in the office any longer and that’s when I quit. Right now I’m kind of figuring out what I want to be when I grow up, but in the meantime, there’s something I need to do, something I need your help with. I want to pay for that help, because I know I can trust you—and this is something you are going to want to be paid for, believe me.”
She reached into her purse and handed him an envelope. He looked inside and was shocked. Alison told him it contained nine American Express gift cards for $3000 each, a total of $27,000. Emil gulped.
“Alison, my God, I can’t take this from you. We’re friends, for crying out loud. Whatever it is, I’ll help you if I can, but I can’t accept this from you.”
Alison shook her head. “There’s no other way I will do it, Emil. I’m sure you can use the money, and I can certainly afford it these days. It has to be this way.”
Emil tried to hand the envelope back but Alison withdrew her hands from the table.
“Now listen,” Alison said. “What I need is for you to connect me with someone in Zurich who can provide me with a new identity—passport, driver’s license, social security card, and anything else I might need, the best money can buy. Whatever it costs—and I know it might be a lot—I will pay. I’ll need to use the false identity for maybe a year.”
That’s when the staring contest began. Suddenly you could hear crickets chirping, when the two of them had been chattering like squirrels up until now. Emil’s expression gradually changed from one of alarm to one of a man who was thinking and planning. She could see those old gears in his magnificent head start to turn, as they had done so many times in the past, saving so many people from landing in a fire. Alison knew she had him then, and noticed he pulled the envelope slightly closer to him.
“It will cost a lot of money, Alison. A lot. I’m talking about $100,000, maybe more, in American dollars. That’s a job that has to be done right—and the people that can do it right charge dearly for it.”
“Glad to hear you say that. I’m prepared to pay and understand completely. I need the job done right. So, you do know someone, then?”
Emil rolled his eyes while tucking away the envelope. “Yes, I know someone. Let me get ahold of them and assemble the details. Do you have a timetable?”
Alison thought for a moment.
“I’m flexible on the time. If it’s a month or two months, that’s fine. Whatever it will take, as long as the work is not compromised. If your people want money up front and you trust that, I will get the money there first. Just tell me what needs to be done.”
Their table was ready, so they followed the hostess from the cocktail lounge to the dining room and changed the topic of conversation. Delicious shrimp dinners with small talk that was now only a tiny bit uncomfortable occupied the next ninety minutes. When they parted, Emil agreed to contact her as soon as he could make the necessary arrangements, and advised her not to discuss any of it over the phone.
Several days later, Emil phoned. He asked Alison to meet him for breakfast the next morning at the Embarcadero Center, close to his office. She knew from the tone of his voice that he had put together the information she needed.
They met at nine. Emil was already seated with coffee for two and muffins on the table. They exchanged pleasantries and talked about the weather for a few minutes. He mentioned he put the money she gave him in a safe deposit box without telling his wife about it, as he hadn’t yet figured out what to do with it. Probably best to access it a little at a time, as needed. He then looked around the restaurant and lowered his voice.
“I have a contact for you who will arrange for the work you requested to be done. It is of the highest possible quality on all levels. They want you to go to Zurich and meet in person, pay in cash up front, and stay there while the work is done. You’ll need to provide passport photo negatives as well. It will take about a week. Then you’ll be ready to do whatever and go wherever you wish. The price is $100,000 complete, in American dollars only, and is not negotiable. You get $5,000 of that back in a new bank account set up for your new identity. The only reason it’s this cheap is because I personally assured them you are not a hot client.”
Alison noticed Emil was studying her face as if to measure her reaction, but Alison was cool and business-like.
“Excellent. Exactly what I needed. I knew you’d come through for me, Emil. Thank you! I’ll make the arrangements to go within a couple of weeks. I have some things to do first, as I plan on being gone for about a year. So, here’s another proposition for you. You mentioned you and your wife are renting a small apartment and will have to move soon, now that you have a baby. I propose that you to move into my house for the time I am gone, one year, to live rent free as my house sitter, and you can have use of everything there. It would make me feel better knowing I had a reliable person there watching over things. That should allow you to save up enough to move into a bigger place.”
Emil was once again stunned into silence. Alison smiled. She knew she was surprising him out of left field, and didn’t see how he could refuse.
“Alison, I hardly know what to say. That’s an incredible offer. Why?”
“It’s simple. We trust each other. You need a new place to live. My things will be safe and I don’t have to worry about renting it to a stranger. Just say yes. The utilities are very reasonable. You can park in my garage, which is vacant because I don’t have a car. Money is not an issue for me right now. I’ll tell my next door neighbor so there won’t be any confusion. So talk to Lisa. What do you think she’ll say?”
“Ha-ha, are you kidding? She’ll say ‘when do we move?’ We have been talking every night about what to do when our lease ends next month and this is like manna from heaven.”
They parted with Emil promising to get back to her that same evening on the housing proposal. Alison felt an enormous sense of relief, knowing she could go forward with her plans and her home would be taken care of. When Emil phoned later that night, they agreed on a time the next day for him and Lisa to come over and do a walk-through. Alison would provide copies of everything from insurance policies to appliance manuals.
After she hung up, Alison went through every room in her house taking photos and verifying the insurance logs she kept of china, silver, and other important items. It occurred to her that she should give Emil power of attorney for anything relating to her home, so she planned to take care of that in the morning. She also decided it would be best to put her financial records not related to her home in her safe deposit box.
There would need to be an emergency communication method, in case something happened. Alison would tell her friends she was going travelling in Europe for a year, but only she knew she would be there just a short time. What if something happened to her parents or Brenda, or any of her other friends? She’d want to know. One more item to add to the list.
The last thing Alison did before crashing on the couch to watch television was book a flight to Zurich. She made so much progress tonight she no longer felt she needed two weeks of preparation. One week from today she would be on her way.
* * *
Despite leaving San Francisco almost an hour late, the plane landed in Zurich within ten minutes of its scheduled arrival time. It had been a long time since Alison last took the red-eye to Europe. She knew she would be jetlagged today, but could handle it. She wasn’t meeting Emil’s contact until tomorrow, so she just needed to stay awake until eight or so tonight and then sleep the night through to wake up fully operating on Swiss time.
A taxi took her to the Hotel Villette where she did Sudoku puzzles unt
il she received the call she was waiting for. It was a woman’s voice on the phone. The instructions were simple: Wear a white flower in her hair and sit in a booth on the left side of the pub next to the hotel tomorrow at 1:00 pm. The contact would find her.
Alison’s hotel room was very feminine. It had wicker furniture and photos on the walls of mothers with their children. Pictures of women with kids were not Alison’s favorite thing to see these days. Heck, she didn’t even like seeing real women with real small children—and often changed the channel when commercials came on television which had babies in them. Alison took two of the pictures off the wall and turned them around before leaving the room for a walk around town. Several hours later she returned, did more Sudoku’s, ordered room service, and forced herself to stay awake watching Swiss reality TV shows until eight. She almost made it.
The next morning, it was raining outside. Her German was rough and she was concerned about communicating, but would just have to manage. Hopefully, her contact spoke at least some broken English. Most Europeans did, especially businessmen.
Her money belt was secure on her body when she walked into the ZeigerHut at noon with her brand new, large Swiss handbag strapped securely across her opposite shoulder. The flower she purchased from the cart in front of the hotel was tucked into the side of her hair and she quickly forgot it was there.
Alison had a leisurely lunch of a cheese and mushroom omelet with a beer, and then began to get restless. Second thoughts invaded her mind for the first time. Perhaps this was all a mistake. As if on cue, the bartender then came over and handed her a slip of paper. She read it, quickly paid her bill, and walked out the front door into the public square. The rain had stopped and it smelled wonderfully refreshing outside, the fragrance of blooming bushes nearby mixing with the scent of rain. Shortly, a tall blonde woman pushing a baby carriage bumped into her.