They ate, and as the sounds of the nearby stream reached them Nash watched as Steers closed her eyes and seemed to sway with the delicate sounds of the water.
“A mental health day?” he said when she opened her eyes.
She took a deep breath. “Sometimes meditation is not enough. The body and mind require something. . .more.”
“Well, not to bring more distress to your day, but I took the liberty of asking your mother about Hiroko-san and her disappearance when we went out yesterday.”
Steers bit off a piece of chicken. “And?”
“And she told me she does not answer questions from staff. But she said if she was gone it was a good thing. She also has demanded that I find out and report back to her about the man who was here and who you said is buying your business, and what the details are. If I don’t, she said, I’m fired. She gave me a day or two to get back to her.”
Steers drank some tea, wiped her mouth, and sat back on her haunches. “And what do you plan to do?”
“I plan to do what you tell me to do.”
“You drove her into town yesterday?”
“Yes, I did. She had a place to visit. It was afterward, when she wanted to stop for a drink, that she asked me about the man who visited you.”
“Do you know the place that she visited?”
Nash sat back, surprised by this question.
Steers looked at him in a knowing way. “You are a very curious person, Dillon-san. You would not wait in the car. You would find out where she went.” She paused. “Out of This World LLC?”
“You know about it, then?”
“It is actually quite simple. She suspects I am planning to sell my business, and she does not wish me to. Especially not to the man who had imprisoned her for all that time. Thus she is doing her own due diligence and perhaps plotting against such a transaction.”
“And what do you think about that?” he asked.
She removed her hat and undid the ponytail so that her hair fell free and rippled across her shoulders in the breeze.
“Would you believe me if I told you I do not know what I think about it?”
“I would,” he said. “Because I don’t, either. And though you said it was simple, for people like your mother I would imagine that it’s difficult to understand their agendas and motivations.”
“And allegiances,” she added.
“Allegiances?”
“They are important, are they not?”
“Yes. So, does your mother want to take over the empire?”
“That seems reasonable and logical, does it not?”
“Which might be why she wants me to report to her about it.”
“She will also know that you found out what business she was visiting, and that you would report that back to me. So my mother’s real goal in going there with you was to use you to let me know that she is taking steps.”
Out of his depth, Nash said, “So what do I do?”
“You can tell her that I have decided to sell. And that the price is acceptable to me.”
Since Nash knew the price was one dollar he said, “But you remarked that you made it perhaps too appealing to the buyer? Has he come back to you yet with an answer?”
“No, but he will. Right now he is fervently trying to figure out why I am selling to him at far below market value. At our next meeting I will explain to him that things are not always what they seem to be.”
