"Ready to get back to the grind?" Grant asked when Penny arrived at work.
"Yes, but there's something that you should see," Penny replied, smiling. "Come with me," she said and led him to the boiler room that was unusually abuzz with whispering. "Amy, do you have a minute?" she asked.
Every head in the room turned as Amy got to her feet and went to see what Penny wanted, Grant's jaw dropping when he saw that she was wearing a pale-green blouse that did nothing to hide her breasts, her large cherry nipples clearly visible, and a short skirt and sandals, the nails on her long straight toes painted a matching green.
"Well, I'll be damned!" Grant finally managed to sputter. "What prompted this?" he asked.
"Finally feeling appreciated," Amy replied, smiling. "As long as I feel appreciated, I'll dress more appropriately."
"Well, you...you look great," Grant said. "I'll make sure that you continue to feel appreciated."
Later that afternoon, Penny placed a large envelope on Grant's desk that had come by special courier.
"These are the men that our client's wife is seeing," she explained, smiling as Grant looked through the material.
"This is perfect," Grant said, sitting back and smiling. "I think that it's time for me to give our client a call."
For the first time in almost two months, Penny didn't go flying. She felt as though something was missing from her life, so accustomed had she become to flying every day, if not in actuality, in the simulator.
"Looks like we're going to Arizona," Grant told her towards the end of the day. "We've got seats on the 6:30 flight tonight, so you'd better get home and pack a bag. Figure on 2-3 days."
With the time zones taken into account, they arrived at the Phoenix airport just after 9:00pm after a 41/2-hour flight. They saw a uniformed man holding up a sign with STUDDER on it and approached him, Grant introducing himself.
"Mr. Walker had something to take care of, but he will be at the resort by the time we arrive," the man explained as he led them to a white Rolls Royce Phantom limousine.
"This is something else," Penny said as she looked around the interior of the limousine, all done in white, the seats soft tuck and roll leather, the carpeting plush sable. There was even a bar and a small refrigerator, in addition to the 36" QLED television that was folded up against the roof.
"Someone likes their creature comforts," Grant said.
The ride was only 20 minutes, arriving at the entrance to The Canyon Suites at The Phoenician. When they went to the reception, they were informed that Mr. Walker had reserved the Presidential Suite for them and that he was awaiting them in the J&G Steakhouse for dinner. They were given their room keys and their bags were taken by a bellhop, another one escorting them to the dining room where they were shown to a table on the window overlooking the Sonoran Desert.
Don Walker was a big man, almost as tall as Grant, with long, wavy greying hair and ice-blue eyes. He was dressed all in white, from his cowboy boots up to his shoestring tie, which had a beautiful turquoise clasp holding it.
"Don Walker," he introduced himself as he got to his feet. "Sorry about the late dinner. I hope that you're hungry."
"We are," Grant said as he shook hands. "My co-counsel, Penny Lane."
"Like from the Beatles?" Don asked, his blue eyes sparkling and a friendly smile on his craggy face as he gently shook Penny's hand. "Magical Mystery Tour was my favorite album."
"That's me," Penny said, smiling and immediately liking him.
"The kitchen's about to close, so we'd best order," Don said as they sat. "They'll give us a bit of leeway - they know me - but I don't like to take advantage. What do you drink?" he asked. "I'm a red wine man myself."
"I prefer white ones, sauvignon blanc if they have it," Penny said.
"Bring a bottle of the best sauvignon blanc for the lady," Don told the server who was standing by.
"That would be the Cade, from Napa Valley," the server said.
"You drink red wine or would you prefer something else?" Don asked Grant.
"Red wine is fine," Grant replied.
"A bottle of the Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve Pinot Noir," Don told the server. "We'll order the food when you bring the wine."
"Well, how much of a pickle am I in?" Don asked.
"That depends upon what we learn when we interview each of the 10 men," Grant replied.
"How are you going to do that without tipping our hand and letting Betsy know that I'm looking into her?" Don asked.
"You're going to announce a company-wide new security system," Grant replied. "In the announcement, you'll explain that one salesperson to be picked at random from each dealership will be vetted under the new security system's protocols. In actuality, you'll privately tell the managers of the 10 dealerships that we're really interested in who that salesperson is going to be."
"I assume that none of the 10 are aware of the other, so we'll have them all gather at the same time, each one going through my interview," Grant continued. "The interviews will be videotaped and they will be told that there will be no repercussions if they answer the questions truthfully, even if their answer might put them in a bad light. Failure to answer questions truthfully will result in immediate termination."
"How are you going to know if they're telling the truth?" Don asked as the server returned with the two bottles of wine.
The two bottles were opened and poured, then they ordered, Penny ordering the shellfish platter with half a chilled lobster, two oysters, two clams, five jumbo shrimp, and four mussels, and also the tuna tartare with avocado, spicy radish, and ginger marmalade, and the crab cakes with avocado, cucumber, lime, and crystalized ginger.
Grant ordered the same seafood platter, crispy calamari with a rosemary dipping sauce, and the sautéed Dover sole, while Don ordered the foie gras terrine with a ginger jalapeno-apple compote, black truffle French fries with black garlic aioli, parmesan, and truffle ketchup, and a 12oz filet mignon, rare with a warm center.
"To answer your question, one of my people gave me this little toy called a voice stress analyzer," Grant said when the server had left the table. "If someone lies, it will be obvious."
"A lie detector?" Don asked skeptically.
"In so many words, yes," Grant replied. "It measures stress in the voice. Unless they've been trained, people who lie have stress in their voices that this particular device can detect. I'll explain that it's being used, what it does and how, then demonstrate that it actually works before commencing the interviews. Then we just need to see what we learn. I'm optimistic because each of the 10 dealerships involved were acquired after your marriage. That raises all sorts of red flags for me. I don't believe that it's coincidental."
"I see where you're going," Don said, nodding. "Smart. Good plan. But you're saying I can't fire any of the sons of bitches?" he asked.
