Asher began gathering up what he’d worked on yesterday, and carried the coffee with him as he went, following the other investigators who were working on the same case.
* * *
The phone call from Asher last night had been the push that Nora needed. The first thing she did the next morning was contact the leasing agent to notify him that she wanted out of her lease.
He hemmed and hawed for a minute or two, and thenasked her when she expected to leave.
“Within the next couple of days. It is something of a family emergency. The furniture will be out within the week of my leaving, and you can check with the building manager to verify I’m gone before you send cleaners to prep for rental.”
“Yes, well, of course. That’s quite sudden, but we understand how these things happen, and your five-year lease was up for renewal in a couple of months,” he said.
“Thank you,” Nora said. “I will leave the keys with security before I go. You can pick them up there.”
Satisfied that was behind her, she got online and began searching for staging companies, and to her surprise, the Dallas/Fort Worth area was full of them. She called seven, five of which were immediately interested, and explained the requirements that must be met.
She told them she had a penthouse full of fine furniture to sell today, and it had to be picked up within a week, although she would be gone by tomorrow. But it wasn’t until after she gave them the address of the building in which she lived, that their interest soared.
Within the hour, she had five different designers, all arriving at the same time, and had given each of them the same speech.
“There are five of you. You will all meet at the security desk and check in. The guard will have your name. It will require your ID to proceed from there. You will all be escorted up at the same time. I will give you twenty minutes to look at everything. You will write down your name and your bid on a piece of paper, fold it, and hand it to me without comment. I will open them all at the same time, and the person with the highest offer gets the lot.”
Every person she spoke to asked her the same question. “Who are you?”
“A careful woman with someplace else to be,” was theonly answer she gave.
After speaking to the last designer, she called down to the front desk, told them what was going to happen at 11:00 a.m. this morning, and gave them the designers’ names, and requested an escort to take them up to her penthouse.
Once she had everything set up, she logged out of her computers, locked everything into the desk in her office, and thought about what persona she needed to present to get the highest price for her things.
That’s when she remembered the ornate pair of black silk lounging pajamas decorated with a gold-and-white dragon design that she’d brought back from a trip to Japan. She hadn’t given them her name, and a bit of international elegance never hurt. She dug out the little gold silk slippers that went with it and got dressed. After she put her hair up, she added mascara and a lipstick called Go-to-Hell Red, then took a picture of herself in a full-length mirror and saved it to send to Asher.
She was in full-on power mode when eleven o’clock rolled around, and within ten minutes, she got a call from the front desk.
“Ma’am, your guests are on the way up.”
“Thank you,” Nora said, and then stayed sitting until the knock at the door.
She crossed the marbled flooring in the foyer, looked through the peep hole, and then turned the locks and opened the door.
“Thank you, Gage. I’ll let you know when they are leaving,” and then she smiled. “Please come in.”
By their professions alone, the interior designers were not unaccustomed to wealthy clients, but their interest in this place and this woman of secrets was already piqued.
“You may leave your coats in here if you wish. I will be leading you from room to room, but I will not interfere, orcomment in any way. These are your judgments and decisions to make, and yours alone.”
The lone man in the group held up his hand. “A question before we start. It is my understanding that you will not be here when we come to move the furniture out. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“Is there a freight elevator in this building for moving furniture in and out?”
Nora nodded. “Yes, it’s how mine was brought in. It will be simple enough for professional movers to take out.”
“Thank you,” he said.
She explained briefly before they began. “There is a primary bedroom and a secondary bedroom. An office. And then living/dining you see here, and a kitchen and laundry area beyond. You are bidding on the contents of this penthouse. That includes everything but my personal belongings, which will already be with me, and my computers. This way please.”
She began moving then from room to room, watching them making notes, and taking pictures, sending texts back and forth, she assumed to people in their office. And every now and then, catching them glaring at each other, knowing the likelihood of winning this weird silent auction hinged on what the four other people would bid.
