‘What’s she going to be reading?’
‘Psychiatry.’
I nodded thoughtfully again. ‘That could work.’
‘She’s had some issues in the past that I can’t talk about. Maybe this will help her deal with that.’
‘And we make sure she has the space to do so.’
‘Her father is a major client of ours, Dan. Seven figures major. So she’s important to us.’
‘What does he do?’
Jack looked at me with a small quirk of a smile. ‘He pays the bills.’
‘Like you said. Need-to-know basis.’
‘You got it, bubba.’ He clicked his glass against mine and drained it. ‘Okay. Let’s go meet the million-dollar baby.’
Chapter 5
I had expected the precious cargo I was going to be babysitting to be just that.
West Coast precious. Serious money, serious Valley attitude. I had her pictured pretty clearly in my mind’s eye – young, tanned and beautiful.
She was young, I got that much right at least. Looked even younger than she actually was.
Hannah’s hair was mousy brown, tied back. She wore tortoiseshell glasses, a simple skirt and blouse with a cardigan, flat shoes. I don’t know the name of the geeky girl from Scooby Doo, but she was like a thinner version of her without the confidence. Maybe a taller Ugly Betty. No make-up discernible to my eye, and my eye was pretty good in that respect. Nervous.
Hannah Shapiro looked like she wouldn’t say boo to a waddling duck, let alone a goose.
‘Hi, I’m Dan,’ I said. ‘Dan Carter.’ I held out my hand.
She shook it with her own small, delicate hand but didn’t say a word or make eye contact.
Maybe it was down to the confident air of masculine authority I exude. Maybe – but she looked as though a strong wind could knock her over. If she was going to be studying psychiatry I was surmising she had ambitions for the research side of the business. I couldn’t see her as a practitioner, with the couch and the reassuring voice and the leading questions. You had to be comfortable around people to do that kind of work.