Read Online The Hinky Bearskin Rug by Jennifer Stevenson - Free Book Online

level.”
    Geri said
drily, “Worked fine until he ups and dies on her. She thought she had til he
retired, but he died at sixty-three.”
    “What,” Jewel demanded, “happened to Lena
Sacker?”
    “Well.”
Sharisse leaned forward. “We kind of hoped you knew. It was Steven, for sure.
Lena hated Steven. They had a screaming fight the day she left, and then she
had one with Maida, and then she walked out at one-thirty in the afternoon and
never came back. As far as we know, she still isn’t speaking to Maida, or Maida
to her. Steven must have pulled something.”
    “I think she found out about old John Baysdorter and her
mother, and blew her stack,” Geri said.
    “Lena was no
prude,” Tonia countered scornfully.
    “No lie.” Geri
snorted, and Jewel thought she was about to say more, but Sharisse interrupted.
    “I think Lena
knew about old John being her dad.”
    Shock plus
shock! Jewel would have liked to probe further, but she’d better stay on task. “I
can’t believe this still goes on. God knows I can’t afford to be a prude
either. But I had no idea.”
    “Oh, Steven is
the only real offender,” Sharisse said. “Until he started bucking for partner
after John Baysdorter died, it was all pretty consensual. Old John put Lena
through private school, finishing school, and college. I couldn’t make ends
meet without Hugh’s help. Precious, of course, is playing Mike Redpune for what
she can get, but she’s also playing Steven, which will get her canned someday.”
    “Precious is
spying on Steven for Mike,” Tonia said positively.
    “Precious
could be spying on Mike for Steven, and Mike would never know. Mike’s too
butt-dumb arrogant,” Geri said.
    Jewel waved a
hand. “I don’t care about the white-guy politics. I want to know who put the
Viagra in the coffee at that staff meeting.” And I want to talk to this Lena. Anyone who had dirt on Steven
should be interesting.
    The girls
looked at one another. “You first,” Sharisse said to Geri.
    “Okay.” Geri
said, “I have zero proof, but I think
Steven doped the coffee to discredit Mike.”
    “That’s dumb,”
Tonia stated. “Nobody could have imagined what would happen.”
    “What happened?” Jewel burst out. “Were any of you
there?”
    Sharisse
looked at Tonia. Geri raised her hand, looking from Tonia to Sharisse with her
chin in the air. The other two hunkered down on their swivelly bar stools to
listen.
    Geri said, “The
thing is, we’ve all been on edge for months. As in, horny. Even Precious didn’t
take up with Mike until this spring.” The subtext, audible to Jewel, read, Precious is a total skank. “It was like
the air conditioning stopped working. Know what I mean?” She looked Jewel in
the eye.
    Jewel said, “Girl,
there’s whole weeks go by and I just need it all the time.” Years.
    Geri put up a
palm and Jewel high-fived her. “I can’t speak for anyone else, but I was ripe. I could blame Precious, I guess.
She always makes such a production out of these rollout meetings. Coffee and
pastry, low light, a music track on her Powerpoint. She does it to impress
Mike, and boy, did it work this time. He was dancing around with his
laser-pointer like a monkey on crack. He got all worked up.”
    Geri sipped
her sangria. “And the funny thing was, we were all getting worked up, too. I
mean, we’re talking condos going into a downtown Omaha landmark bank building
with a strip mall rehab on the side,” she said drily. “When Mike put his
pointer down we actually clapped, and he turned to Precious and said something
like, ‘Great job!’ and gave her a big wet one, and she threw her arms around
his neck and gave it right back, and the next thing I know, I’m hugging Anna
from Accounting, and Hugh Boncil jumps on Diane from Marketing and two other
girls are rolling under the conference table.” Geri shrugged. “It just
snowballed. I can’t explain it.”
    Jewel hated to
interrupt. “Steven wasn’t