Her cell phone ringing had her shooing away the hair stylist. It was Jake, and she wanted to find out if he'd been made an offer as yet where he worked. It was well past time they promoted him by giving him this partnership. Winnie was already planning a huge party to celebrate it. People who weren't invited would be so jealous, too. As soon as she answered she knew that it was bad news.
"They said that they're going to wait another week before making the decision. I don't know why they feel they must delay, but they said something more had come in and they wanted to investigate it thoroughly before picking the new partner. I'm certain that it's to do with Manson. The man has more skeletons in his closet than I do shirts in mine." She asked him if he'd told them anything about the new house they were thinking of buying. "No. I started to, but then Pine said that his wife was having a child any day now, and I wasn't sure a new house could top that. It would for you and me, but they were all over Pine like he'd invented pregnancy. Christ, I wish we'd never thought of talking to your sister about this. I think she's going to ruin us all with her lies. I don't suppose you heard anything from that doctor, did you?"
"No, not yet. But I think I've convinced that idiot to help us out. He's telling me that he wants a million dollars. He'll never collect, but he can want all he needs to until I get what I want. And I will have that brat." Winnie looked around and lowered her voice. "I've got someone to take the kid once he brings it to me. They're willing to take it off my hands for less than what Harper owes us, and then kill off the good doctor while making it look like an accident. Then once she pays us, we'll about break even." Jake asked her if she'd gotten any word on the money. "No, but I will soon. If she thinks she can just not pay us back for all we went through, then she's stupider than I thought. To think that we went to a lot of expense for her and this is how she repays us."
Winnie looked at her reflection in the mirror and tried to stretch her neck muscles out to keep them supple. Her face was her money maker, her body the gravy. Just three more years of this and she and Jake would be millionaires, with a nice house and cars, as well as servants.
Winnie realized that Jake was speaking and told him to repeat himself because she'd been busy with someone.
"I said that the house that we wanted has been sold. I just got the email." She asked him if he knew who had bought it and for how much. "It looks like about ten grand more than we had offered. Damn it, that house was perfect for us. I have to see about.... The second house we put an offer on is off the market too, it says here. Well, that's odd."
She waited for him to explain and waved the stylist to come back. Whatever he said now wasn't going to be a secret for much longer anyway. They were buying a house, so what. It was what couples who had it all did. As her hair was curled in a style no human could ever do on their own, she listened to Jake as he told her about the third house that they'd looked at.
"I just got an email from the realtor that we were using. She said that she can't help us find a house any longer. Something about a conflict of interest." Winnie told him to call her and find out. "I will. There are three more houses in that area within our price range. I'll set up a time with her to see them as well. Whatever her conflict is, she'll just have to deal with it on her own time. We need to find the perfect house."
"It'll have to be this week. Next week I'm flying to Paris for the spring fashion event." He said that he'd remembered. "Also, Jake, have you heard from anyone concerning that other matter? I've been tied up here all day."
"No. Nothing. He told you that it would be two more weeks, right? Before anything happened?" She said that was what he said when he called her back a few hours after she'd first called him. "Winnie, you were brilliant in finding the number and calling that guy. To think we could have had him where we wanted him all along. I just wish we didn't have to pay him to do this for us. You'd think he'd want things to be right for people like us. Harper won't go away, and that's just not right of her."
"Some people just don't understand what it's like to be us, Jake. And as I said, he won't have anything to worry about when it comes to his share in all this." When she told him she had to go, Winnie leaned back on the chair and closed her eyes. Makeup was being applied to her face, something dramatic no doubt, and she let them do their thing. While that was being done, Winnie thought of her sister and the mess she'd put them in.