And everything starts falling apart
Glorina listens to her bugs
Bing can actually do split screens. though it took a bit of work to not have the faces split right down the middle.
Glorina
Tolly met me at dinner as usual. But instead of that friendly openness I'd spent the last two months working toward, he was detached, distracted. Unfailingly polite, of course, but somehow I got the impression that there was a seething anger behind it. He wouldn't meet my eyes. I tried to pretend that I didn't see that anything was wrong, but I could tell my attempts were a failure. Rather than stay for dessert, as we'd done habitually in the weeks since I'd first convinced him to ask me for dinner, I excused myself early, claiming a headache.
"I hope the meal didn't disagree with you, Ms. Hoi," he said. "You hardly touched your food."
Ms. Hoi. Things were worse than I thought.
"Everything was wonderful, as usual, Mr. McLichtensen," I said, with a formal bow. He was used to them by now, and just gave a nod in response, but people at the other tables stared briefly. "I'm just tired, with a headache. I'll no doubt be fine by morning." In truth, my meal had tasted like ashes, but I doubted that was the food's fault.
He didn't offer to show me to my room, but instead watched me leave, with intense eyes. I walked slowly out of the dining room, my head held high, but once I was out in the hallway, away from his eyes, I scurried back to my room. It was possible that whatever happened wasn't on the bugs, but it might have been; and if so, I needed to find out what it was. Or at least see if it provided a clue.
The morning files provided nothing but normal business activities. I carefully saved them for my real boss, but they weren't what I'd been waiting for. Which went along with what I thought. He'd seemed fine when he checked up on me in the crypt after lunch rush.
Mid-afternoon, though, he'd taken a phone call from someone named Petron. I didn't catch his last name, but I remembered a Petron fondly from three jobs back, from the art school within sight of the Kirion Mountains. At first it was just personal talk, and I was about to fast forward through the rest of the call, when Petron said, "How is Glorina Hoi working out on cataloging your art collection?"
"Fine. Fine. Can't complain." Tolly said. "What of it?"
"I know I'm the one who recommended her to you, Tolly, but something's come up. We think she's trouble, bad news."
"What do you mean?" Tolly asked. "I checked her references, not just from you, myself. Everyone only had high praise for her."
"I know, I know," Petron said, trying to sound conciliatory (and failing). "She even organized and cataloged the Kirion Library collection about five years ago. And did an excellent job at it, too, as far as anyone can tell. But rumors are beginning to go around about her.
"Oh, rumors," Tolly said, dismissively.
"Yes, rumors. She's good at what she does, Tolly. And what she does is art theft. She can make the art vanish from your collection, and make it so you never even notice it's gone. She can make the receipts for it vanish at the same time, so it's hard to prove you ever had it to begin with."
"And you know all this from rumors?" Tolly said, still sounding dismissive.
I was pacing faster. Abort! my mind screamed at me. Sure, Tolly was acting like he didn't believe it, but he would be alert and watching. I got out my phone to make the coded "abort" text, but held it in my hand and didn't turn it on. Another part of my mind was telling me, Wait, wait, consider. I figured I at least needed to hear the rest of the conversation, then decide the best thing to do.
"More than rumors," Petron said. "But nothing completely solid, yet. Nothing anyone can take to court. I know six months ago that I was enthusiastic about you hiring her, but within the last two months I've heard other rumors about her."
"And then next month I suppose that no one will be willing to give her a job at all," Tolly said, sounding angry. I could hear him pacing. "All because of rumors."
"It's more than that," Petron insisted. "She seduced young Ranstin, and then went off with his Vilthrain portrait. His family's had that painting for more than thirty years. Two years later, when he found out it was missing, there's nothing he can do about it."
"Seduced?" Tolly said sharply.
"Well, yes, she does that, too. Several of the collectors mentioned that. A little dalliance, a little distraction, a promise to keep in touch, then off to the next job. Sometimes, if they're watching, nothing happens, then a few months later, thieves break in and take the best items. Like they have a list and know just what to take, and where to look for it."
"What about Grimald?" Tolly said.
"Malkin? Yes. She seduced him, too. Though he claims he seduced her. Quite proud of it, too. Especially . . . never mind. At least I knew that seduction wouldn't work with you, at your age."
I smiled at the memory. Dear Grimmy. I think he had actually cared for me, at least a little bit, in his way.
"Exactly," Tolly said, with a bitter laugh. "At my age." He paused for a moment, and I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. "How do you know all this, Petron?" he asked. "This is more detailed than mere rumor, isn't it?"
Petron sighed. "I shouldn't have called you. I knew better. But, well, I owe you, well, everything. And when I heard where she was working now . . . I didn't want you to be caught totally unaware."
"There's a Formal Investigation going on at the Library, isn't there?"
"Inquiry only as yet. There's a lot of important people who are going to look foolish when this all comes out, if it comes out, so they're trying to go through things quietly at the moment."
"Thank you for the warning," Tolly said, sounding annoyed. "I'll keep my eyes open." They hung up, then I could hear Tolly pacing, louder every turn. "Seduction, you old idiot! She's an expert at it. You should have known better. You did know better, better. But you wouldn't listen to yourself."
I heard the sudden tinkling of breaking glass. "Oh no! The Tilnert!" I almost shouted, before I remembered where I was.
On the tape, I heard Tolly take a deep breath, hold it, then slowly release it. Then he sank deeply into his chair. "Seduction. I'm such an idiot." The next few moments on the tape, I could only hear him gradually calming his breathing. Then he opened the door, yelled at Belinda that he was going for a long walk, and slammed the door behind him. I checked the time on the tape, two hours before we met for dinner. Nothing else was on the tape except the exclamation of the cleaning lady when she saw the broken glass, and her calling for help to clean it.
I sat back down, and considered a few things carefully. That certainly explained Tolly's attitude at dinner. Perhaps he was waiting until morning to fire me?
And I considered again. I had not tried seducing him, and was working on friendly camaraderie. Perhaps if I tried, I might still get out of this? Maybe even now . . . then I squashed that thought. I would not do that to him. I again reached for my phone to send the abort code, then again stopped.
"No," I said. If things had gotten to the point where they were holding a Formal Inquiry, then my usefulness was drawing to an end. I shuddered. Might as well do something entirely foolish. "You're not the only idiot, Tolly," I muttered to myself. This would probably earn me an extra beating. But I'd seen what happened to the girls in the organization who outlived their usefulness. I doubted I'd notice.
I pulled what I called my 'seduction dress' out of the closet, put it on the bed, and looked at it distastefully. I got out my full makeup kit, then called down to the kitchen to get several bottles of their strongest liquor sent up. Then I set out to transform myself. And get roaring drunk.
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