The Tycoon's Proposition

After agreeing to stay in close touch, Terri left the police station for the Herrick head office. The taxi driver knew the name and drove her to the heart of the city where he deposited her in front of a complex of buildings, one of which housed the company in question.

A Latin beauty sat at the main reception. When Terri told her she needed some information about one of the employees who worked for the Herrick Corporation, the woman told her she couldn’t give out confidential information.

However as soon as Terri mentioned Martha Shaw, Mr. Creighton Herrick’s secretary, her tone changed. The woman made a quick phone call before looking up Richard’s record on the computer. She gave Terri his address, but there was no phone number listed.

After thanking the receptionist, Terri asked her to call for a taxi. Once that was done, she went outside to wait.

When the driver pulled up in front and she showed him the address, he told her it was located twenty-five miles south of the city and would take close to an hour to get there.

Terri didn’t care about that. She climbed in the back seat and handed him fifty dollars to cover the round-trip. Then she told him to step on it.

He smiled before starting up the taxi to merge with the other cars. The drive turned out to take fifty minutes in the early-afternoon traffic. By the time they reached the city limits, she could tell that the barrios in the outskirts were more run-down.

Eventually he pulled up in front of a small three-story apartment called the Mirador. There was no landscaping to speak of, and a cluster of little children played on the stairs. She asked him to stay put while she went to the door. In case Richard wasn’t there, she needed to be sure she had a ride back into town.

The driver nodded and reached for a magazine to read.

Number ten put Richard on the second floor. She stepped past the curious children to find his apartment, then knocked. When there was no answer she knocked again.

“Richard?” she called out. “It’s Terri. If you can hear me, let me know. I heard about the accident and have flown all this way to see you.”

Still nothing.

Afraid he could be inside unable to get up and answer the door, she turned the handle, hoping he might have left it unlocked.

“Aiyee!” she heard a woman scream.

Terri didn’t know who was more frightened.

Through the opening in the door, which the chain guard allowed, she saw a woman probably much younger than Terri’s twenty-seven years. With long black hair and liquid-brown eyes, Terri could well understand her ex-husband’s attraction.

The woman stood there wearing Richard’s yellow robe, looking very pretty and very pregnant.

CHAPTER TWO

“BUENOS tardes.” Terri spoke first. “Habla Ingles?”

The other woman shook her head without the slightest hint of welcome in her expression.

At this point Terri had only her two years of Spanish to rely on. “Por favor, donde esta Richard?” Heavens! It had been so long since high school, she couldn’t remember if she was supposed to use Estar or Ser.

The woman responded too fast. Terri couldn’t follow.

She tried again. “Quiero hablar con Richard.”

There was another spate of unintelligible words before the woman shut the door in Terri’s face.

If Richard had been inside, Terri was positive he would have come out to see what was going on.

The fact that his lover seemed to be angry rather than in despair, led Terri to believe Richard had to be all right. In fact, the fiery woman was probably expecting him home later in the day and couldn’t believe some strange American woman had appeared at the door unannounced and unwanted.

Only jealousy could have prompted her to behave in such a rude manner. It was more than possible Richard had never told this woman about Terri. Certainly he’d never expected to see his ex-wife again. Especially not down here in Guayaquil, which was about as far from Lead, South Dakota, as you could get.

Terri hurried back to the taxi and they left for the city. En route she asked the driver to drop her off at an upscale department store near the San Lorenzo Hospital. She needed to make a few purchases.

Assuming for the moment Richard was out of danger, Terri’s thoughts converged on the stranger who’d been lying in a hospital bed since he’d been rescued. The painful desperation in his beautiful gray eyes would haunt her for a long time to come.

How frightening it must have been to wake up in an unfamiliar place, unable to talk while everyone around him thought he was someone else!

He probably had a wife who was out of her mind with grief because he was missing. Until a relative or friend came to claim him, Terri would stay with him and encourage him to get better. It was the least she could do.

An hour and a half later she rushed inside the hospital with her arms loaded. After taking the elevator, she hurried down the hall of his floor where various helpers were serving dinner to the patients who could eat.

She stopped at the nursing station long enough to be offered a tray of food for herself, then she breezed into his room with her packages.

“Hi!” she called out in a soft voice, not wanting to jar him. As he lifted his left hand in greeting, her dinner arrived. She put everything down on the floor, then reached for the tray and drew the chair next to him so she could be seated.

“I was gone a lot longer than I’d intended. First off I went to the police station and explained the situation. Then I took a taxi to the Herrick office. I’ve been so busy I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast. Now I’m starving.

“I hope you don’t mind my eating in front of you. If the smell makes you nauseous, put up your hand and I’ll eat out in the hall.”

He made no gesture, so she had to believe it was all right.

“Earlier when you told me you knew where Richard was, I asked the receptionist at the Herrick office to give me his address. It took a little doing, but she finally complied. From there I took another taxi out to his apartment to see if he was there, and found a woman in residence. Judging by her pregnant condition, it seems Richard’s been living with her for a long time.”

More indecipherable sounds came out of the stranger.

“She wasn’t in the least happy to see me at the door. I tried out my Spanish on her, but she spoke too fast for me to understand. Later I’ll try to get in touch with Richard through someone at the office who knows him personally. In the meantime, I’m anxious to help you in any way I can.”

The chicken and beans tasted good. So did the fruit juice which was an interesting blend of peach and something else, maybe mango.

After she’d drained the glass she said, “There’s a Captain Ortiz at the police station who’s working on your case. He hadn’t heard of any accident at sea. However with the information I’ve given him, he said he’ll come up with some answers soon and hopefully find out who you are.

“If we don’t hear from him in the next few hours, I’ll call him before I leave. In case there’s no news, I have an idea.

“Since the doctor said they’d be removing the bandages on your hands in the morning, maybe with my help you could write your name or your home phone number on a piece of paper. That is, if it doesn’t hurt too much.

“Depending on your mobility, you might even be able to write down a word that will tell me Richard’s location. One way or another we’ll unravel this mystery.”

She finished the rest of her chicken, then put the tray over on the table. Eager to do something to bring a little pleasure to the man who’d been through so much suffering, she turned to him.

“Now that I’ve eaten, I’ll give your legs that massage you’ve been waiting for.”

Not expecting an answer from the stranger, she picked up the lotion and walked over to the bed.

After squeezing lotion up and down his left leg, she began to rub it in. “When I was in junior high, we once read The Invisible Man for Halloween. That’s a holiday in the States, in case you haven’t heard of it. The children dress up in costumes and go door to door asking for candy.

“Anyway, there was this scientist who’d made himself invisible. He wrapped himself in bandages so it would outline his body. But sometimes a dog or a cat would chase after him in the streets and pull the bandages away. People would scream in terror when they couldn’t see anything underneath.