Eric paid most of the expenses, so she made sure their clothes, car insurance, and incidental financial needs were met. She had taken a job as a secre...tary for a local law firm, so the cost wouldn’t hurt their lifestyle. The husband objected at first, but soon acknowledged the wisdom behind it. Besides, she was always home before he was, with dinner almost done.’ ‘Sometimes when he worked on Saturdays, she would call his office for his location, cell phones were just becoming available then, and. These he stowed in a large sports bag brought for this purpose.The box room was unlocked but was chock-a-block full of pictures and furnishings, and it was only after a search lasting several minutes that I located the Degas drawings. They had been stuffed in a chest of drawers. I quickly substituted my copies and had turned to leave, when-to my intense surprise-the landing light snapped on and the doorway was blocked by a slim blonde woman holding a large caliber automatic in a two-handed. The parking around Representative Ramon de la Cruz's office was crowded as usual. It took three trips around the block to find a place to park.On the way into the building, I ran into Ken Price, one of the lobbyists for the distribution industry. Or perhaps it would be fairer to say he ran into me. He was that kind of fellow. I managed to not grimace as he smirked at me."Ted Stansbury, what a surprise seeing you here. I was just telling Ramon that I hadn't seen you in weeks." Name-dropping. There had been a couple of calls from his daughter and some from his wife. He sent her a reply, as well as his daughter, saying that he had been tired and had gone off to sleep early the previous night with the mobile switched off as the battery was low. He didn't want to talk to his daughter because by now, perhaps she feared for the worst, and if he let slip anything, then her suspicions would stand confirmed and all hell would break loose. He didn't want to talk to Dawn either for the.