Sylvie's Cowboy: Cinderella In Reverse

CHAPTER 9: THE BULL

In the wee hours of that same night, at the Pace-Larrimore-Stern office building, the janitorial team moved through the rooms, emptying trash receptacles and vacuuming carpets. A man in janitor's coveralls stopped at the locked door of Leslye Larrimore's private office. He took a key from his pocket and let himself in.

Once inside, the janitor flicked on lights, set aside his cleaning supplies, and went to Leslye's elaborate wall unit. A curio shelf swung out at his touch, revealing a hidden cabinet behind the wall unit. Removing a second key from his pocket, he unlocked the hidden cabinet. He removed four file folders from the cabinet and dropped them into his cleaning cart.

The file labels read: Tropigale, N.V.; Danmore Limited, N.V.; King's Cay, Limited; and Pace Tower.

The janitor cleaned the cabinet, curio shelf, and wall unit meticulously - until not even a fingerprint could be seen on their glossy surfaces. Then he closed and locked the office, leaving it looking exactly as he had found it.

Downstairs in the Pace-Larrimore-Stern parking garage, the cleaning crew packed their van and prepared to depart. One janitor removed four file folders from his cleaning cart and walked across the echoing concrete to a 25-year-old pink Mustang parked nearby. He handed the files in through the window. Accepting them was the driver of the Mustang: a man in a yellow windbreaker and Stetson hat. The driver handed the janitor an envelope.

The janitor opened his envelope, fanned a number of twenty-dollar bills, nodded, and left.

The Mustang started, sputtered, died, started again, and drove away. It had no license plate.

After exiting the parking garage, the Mustang, running rough, stopped at a corner post office. Windbreaker Man leaned out of the car window to drop an overnight express envelope into the curbside drop box. The envelope was addressed to Ichi-Nobuko Corporation, One Independent Square, Jacksonville, Florida 32201.

....

The light of dawn seeped into Silvie's ranch house bedroom to find her sound asleep. Outside, the air resonated with a symphony of birdsong. Inside, Maude slept at the foot of Silvie's bed, atop a Laura Ashley coverlet.

Silvie had made her mark on the room since that awkward first day at the ranch. Now the ten-point buck was covered with drying pantyhose. Rings and bracelets dangled from the claws and teeth of the bearskin. The moose had become a shoe rack, and the mountain lion wore a diamond choker. The robe of Silvie's sheer negligee hung from the curled horns of a mountain sheep.

A cacophony of pounding metal and shattering glass abruptly jolted Silvie from sleep. The pounding and crashing continued, coming from outside. Silvie leaped from bed, snatched the sheer robe off the wall, and donned it over her equally sheer nightie as she raced down the hall toward the front door.

She arrived in the living room to find Walt's bulk blocking the open front doorway. She elbowed past him to look out into the yard. Silvie screamed. "What is he doing! Stop that! Stop it right now!"

A large, foul-tempered Brahma bull bashed into the Volkswagen bug, beating the heck out of it. From the doorway behind her, Silvie heard Walt say calmly, "I told you not to park there."

Silvie shook off the paralysis of surprise and went into action. She charged at the bull, pelting it with rocks she picked up from the ground as she crossed the yard. "Stop it! Get out of here! Get! Go on! How dare you! Get out!"

Walt grabbed Silvie about the waist and thrust her behind him as the bull turned toward them. Walt stood between Silvie and the bull, knowing the bull could easily obliterate them both. Walt held his breath.