For a moment there was no response from the caller, except a deep vibrating wheeze that sounded almost like a shrill to Bette’s hearing perception.

”Ms. Porter,” a male voice stated with an overwhelming superiority, ”very nice to talk to you, finally.”

The brunette tensed once she recognized the person on the other side of the line. She got on her feet and paced ahead, coming to a standstill at one point. She stood in the middle of the apartment as her mind processed what could be a possible intent of the call that had never occurred before.

”Doctor Arnodelo,” she acknowledged with self-restraint and waited for the man to go into particulars.

”You must be wondering why I’ve got in touch with you in person.”

Bette kept silent, confident that he didn’t need her approval. She bided her time, listening to the man’s meaningful speech break that was filled with his husky breathing.

”As a rule, I don’t speak to my deputies’ subordinates, but this does not mean I have lack of respect for them. I value each of my people,” he stopped briefly, carrying out a still another emphatic pause, ”and I am willing to reward them for this hard job that they do for me.”

A click of a lighter could be heard, followed by a crunchy sound of a smoldering cigar.

”Come over to my office tonight at nine. Don’t be late.”

And then the line went dead.

A couple of hours and half a pack of cigarettes later the thoughts in Bette’s mind transformed into one big mishmash of assumptions. Following the phone talk with the boss of bosses the brunette had been trying to reach Dominic several times, but each of them she had been greeted by his voicemail.

Something was clearly off, Bette thought. She counted how many days Dominic hadn’t called her to give instructions and the total left her suspicious, even more so after having rung up a few sources, which were closely connected with him in some way or another, and found out that no one had heard from him. A realization came to Bette all of sudden that Dominic had literally vanished into thin air.

Bette looked down at her hand watch. Almost two hours left before the meeting. She was sure her coming to Doctor Arnodelo’s office had something to do with Dominic’s disappearance. Not that she was worried about her boss’s well-being. She only wondered if this unexpected turn of events would take a toll on her personally. For some reason she sensed that it would.