“Yes,” Lisa said, trying to decipher what was coming. “You said she was a little off, she had problems and they had to let her go.”

“Right. Drugs and drinking after her husband left her. Well, at first, people tried to help her, you know, cover for her at work. I felt bad for her. Then Vida got worse. She’d pass out at her desk, in the bathroom, in an alley. She stole money.”

“I remember you telling me some of this. Okay, so?”

“Shortly after we moved, she started calling me.”

“Why?”

“She wants me to help her get her job back so she can regain custody of her son.”

“Are you going to help her?”

“No, she’s unbalanced. For instance, she’d spew shock talk to get a reaction from people in our office. Once, she said she had friends in prison, only to say later that she was joking. Another time, she said her brother was in prison, then she said that she didn’t have a brother at all. No, you would not want her working with you, believe me.”

“So you told her you won’t help her?”

“Yes, but she’s relentless. The other day she showed up in my office.”

“Here, in Florida?”

“Yes, she says her in-laws have her son and live in Boca Raton.”

“What did she want?”

“She made accusations, claims that I took her work, her concepts, and that’s how I got my promotion here and the South American campaign.”

“Did you steal her work, Jeff?”

“No. She had concepts, but I overhauled them, improved them. It happens in the business. I didn’t steal her work.”

“All right, but is that why we moved so fast, before someone found out you used her concepts?”

“God, no!”

“Swear to me you’re telling the truth.”

“I swear it’s the truth, but—”

“But what?”

“Vida and I had worked together a couple of times, but that was when she was starting to fall apart. She could barely function. I did all the heavy lifting on the concepts. There’s no way anyone could say I stole her work.”

Lisa took a moment to assess what he’d said.

“She’s been by our house,” he said.

“What? She knows where we live?”

“Must’ve had a friend from the Cleveland office willing to look us up.”

“Why would she come by our house? What else is going on?”

“She’s threatening to tell everyone in the Miami office that I stole her work to achieve what I have, unless I get her a job there.”

“This is ridiculous. Tell Reddick she’s harassing you.”

“No, we don’t want police involved.”

“Then, tell your bosses what’s going on before Vida does.”

“I don’t want to do that. She’s given me some time, a week.”

“And you trust her to wait? What will that accomplish—what exactly are you waiting for?”