Chapter 22: Vera Takes the Call

The Cushing Shield office took up the fourth floor of a limestone building on Michigan Avenue.

At a quarter to nine the elevator doors opened on a hall of dark carpet and framed photographs.

Eleven of the company's guards stood waiting in it.

They were in suits, and some had come off a shift.

Joan had let them gather.

She had said it was proper for them to see.

Ray walked down the middle of the hall with the phone in his hand, and nobody spoke.

Two federal agents in plain coats followed him.

Behind them walked Joan Whitaker with her hair pinned up and her briefcase held against her chest.

At the end of the hall was a glass door, with the founder's name on it in gold.

Behind the glass, Vera Cushing sat at her desk under a green lamp.

She wore her camel coat over her chair.

She had the receiver of the desk phone in one hand and a cell phone in the other.

A cup of tea at her elbow had gone cold.

She was looking at the clock.

Ray stopped outside the door.

He did not go in.

Eight fifty-nine.

The seconds ticked forward.

Somewhere behind him, a young guard said, very quietly, "Is that her?"

"Yes," said another.

At nine o'clock exactly, Vera lifted the cell phone and pressed one key.

The phone in Ray's hand lit up, and rang.

It rang in the hall, loud as a bell, and every head in that corridor turned.

Through the glass, Vera heard it too.

She looked up.

She saw him standing on the other side of the door with his phone ringing in his palm.

The screen showed her name, and the whole floor of her company stood behind him.

For a long moment, nothing in her face moved.

Then she set down the phone.

She stood, with her hands flat on the blotter, and smoothed the front of her skirt.

"Well," she said through the glass, and it carried, because the hall had gone completely silent. "You came yourself."

Ray opened the door and went in.

"Answer it," Vera said. "It's rude not to."

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