Mr. And Miss Anonymous Read Free Page B

Preston, the senior senator from California. You didn’t mean me, did you, when you said you didn’t want any calls from here? I’m sorry about my television comment. I was upset. I am still upset, Pete.”
    Pete squared his shoulders. “Sorry, Millie, it means you, too. I need time and space. I’ll call you. I promise.”
    “Go on, get out of here, you big schmuck. Shame on you for making an old lady cry,” Millie said, wiping at her eyes. She did her best to summon up a smile to send Pete on his way.
    “I love you, Millie. Keep your eye on things. I’ll be back, I just don’t know when.” Pete waved airily as he headed for the elevator. He was glad no one was looking at him when he swiped at his own eyes with the back of his hand.
    Pete stepped out of the elevator to see the senator and his entourage milling about the spacious lobby of his building. He realized in that one second that he did not like the senator, had never liked him.
    An aide approached him, a young guy with his share of zits and spiky hair. “It would be so much better if we could do the photo op in your corporate offices, Mr. Kelly. This lobby is so cold and sterile-looking. It really isn’t the kind of warm and fuzzy image the senator wants to convey. This,” he said, waving his arm about, “is so…corporate.”
    “Sorry, rules are rules,” Pete said briskly. “Can we get on with it? I have a meeting, and I don’t want to be late.”
    The aide looked horrified at Pete’s words. He started to sputter. “But…but the senator cleared his calendar for an hour. We came all the way from Washington.”
    “It’s a forty-five-minute shuttle ride. A letter went out to your offices explaining all this. Now, let’s get on with it, or I’ll leave you all standing here to suck your thumbs.”
    Before the aide could reply, the senator approached Pete, his personal camera crew right behind him. “Ah, Peter, nice seeing you again.”
    Pete extended his hand and gave the senator a bone-crushing handshake. “Guess it’s that time of year again. I hate to rush you, but I have a meeting I can’t be late for.”
    The senator’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t lose his affability. He smiled, knowing he was being captured on film. “I understand, we allotted only fifteen minutes ourselves. I appreciate your agreeing to the op at all. I know how busy you corporate types are.”
    Pete bared his teeth in what he hoped was a smile. “Good, that means we’re on the same page.”
    When the allotted fifteen minutes were up, Pete looked pointedly at his watch.
    Senator Preston threw his arm around Pete’s shoulders. “I have a limo out front. Can we drop you off somewhere?”
    Pete shrugged off the senator’s arm, and replied, “Thanks, but I’m walking.” He was through the revolving door within seconds and on his way down the winding walkway. He had a bad taste in his mouth. Later he would think about the fact that he didn’t like Senator Preston. He wondered if it had anything to do with the few visits he’d made to the shrink. The last thing Dr. Myers had said last week when Peter was leaving his office was to think about the “why” of everything. Why didn’t he like Senator Preston? Peter didn’t have a clue.
    The trees were dressed for spring early that year. As he exited the PAK Industries campus and walked on out to the boulevard, Pete started shedding his clothing. He yanked at the power tie and stuffed it in his pocket. The only reason he knew it was a power tie was because Millie had bought it and told him so. Next came the Armani jacket. He slung it over his shoulder as he maintained his easy gait while at the same time rolling up the cuffs of his pristine white shirt. Ah, now he could breathe. He wished he’d had the foresight to jam his baseball cap into his hip pocket. He always felt undressed without it.
    Thirty minutes later, Pete arrived at a six-suite brick medical building with ivy growing up the bricks, all the way to