been instrumental in helping her deal with the loneliness that came with moving to a new city—even if it was her choice to do so.
Their get-togethers became less and less formal, until Alexis felt their doctor-patient relationship had transformed into a friendship. He even began giving her stock tips that one of his other patients had passed along. “If you invest in this stock today, by tomorrow afternoon you’ll have recouped the money for today’s session,” he’d told her. Never having dabbled in money markets before, he convinced her he could buy the stock on her behalf and she could pick up the paperwork the following morning. She was at his office at 8:55 a.m., where he handed over her stock certificates and showed her an official looking printout indicating she had already made $106.
“I think my luck is about to change, Dr. Max,” she said with a wide smile.
“I think so too, Alexis,” Max had replied. “It’s not a lot of money but it’s a start. If you want, I could keep my ears open and pass along any other tips I think might appeal to you—and your bank account.”
“Really? You would do that for me?”
“There’s just one small catch.”
“What’s that?” she asked, thinking she might have to perform some sexual favour with the nice doctor in exchange for the tips—a requirement that she would not dismiss out of hand, mind you.
“Well, technically, getting tips from one patient and then giving them to you is a violation of the doctor-patient ethical code. A mild violation in my mind, as I could probably get the same information from a newspaper column or a financial channel. However, these kinds of tips,” he pointed to the certificates in Alexis’ hand, “are a bit more detailed. In legal terms, what we did here was a crime called insider trading. You’ve heard of that term, right?”
“People go to prison for that,” Alexis replied, suddenly terrified of the consequences of making a whopping $106 profit overnight.
“Only those making millions, not us small potatoes. Our buys are too low to make a blip on the government’s radar. We’re safe, trust me.”
“I do.”
“Good,” Max said. “I wanted to be completely up front with you. I am the only one taking the risk here anyway. You could have heard me talking in the hallway about this sure thing and decided to play along on your own.”
“Like playing a hunch on a horse at the track.”
“Exactly.”
She glanced down at the printout and said, “Small potatoes, huh?”
“The smallest.”
A month went by before Max started hinting that a major financial opportunity was on the horizon. He’d continued to give her sound advice on four more “small potato” stock buys, each one more profitable than the last. They were on a roll and she’d made it very clear she might consider a substantial investment if the right prospect presented itself. He advised her not to go too big too fast. “People lose their retirement savings that way. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Nevertheless, three weeks after making this statement, he had shown her stock certificates made out in his name adding up to over $300,000.
“I would never recommend any stock I had not checked out myself,” he told her, handing her five other certificates. “These are the same companies I advised you to buy. You can see from the dates that I purchased them prior to passing along the information to you.”
She was amazed by Dr. Max’s openness and confirmed these were the same stocks she had purchased. “I don’t know what to say,” she said, placing the stack of certificates on his desk. “But what happened to small potato stocks? Three hundred thousand dollars is only small potatoes to billionaires and sheiks.”
Max had been ready for this question all week. “This didn’t come from my patient. When I had lunch in the financial district a few weeks ago, I overheard two brokers arguing about these stocks in a booth at the Trader’s House Grill.”
“You overheard it? Really?” She remembered their earlier discussion about how an overheard conversation wasn’t insider trading.
“I swear to you, Alexis,” he said excitedly. “I checked them out and found this is a computer company jointly owned by Microsoft, Apple and IBM. They are about to launch a new system that will revolutionize the industry, if not the entire world.”
“Why haven’t I heard of this before?”
“It’s top-secret. If any of the three boards found out their research departments were working with their rivals, they’d get scared and pull out immediately.” She gave him a disbelieving look. “I know how far-fetched this sounds, but I verified everything. Do you think I would invest three hundred grand of my own money into some crackpot idea?” He paused and looked directly into her eyes. “I had hoped by now you would trust me about these things. If you don’t, I’ll understand.”
“No, it’s not that. You’ve completely gained my trust with your tips so far.”
HOOK.
“Then what is it?” Max asked slowly. “Like all the other investments, you don’t have to buy this one on my say-so.”
“No, I want to buy it.”
LINE.
“Okay, that’s good to know. Now, if you want to start with a low amount—say $500—that’s fine.”
“Actually, I wasn’t thinking about starting low at all,” she said with a savvy smile. “I did pretty well in the divorce and was wondering how much I could invest all at once?”
AND SINKER.
SEVEN
The problem with giving your heart to someone is not knowing in what condition they’ll give it back. Maria, followed closely by my ex-wife and now Linda, had all entrusted me with theirs and each had lived to regret it. Sadly for Samantha, she had paid the ultimate price for loving me.
Today I had the unenviable task of warning Maria I may have put her in a risky situation. I also needed to ask if she would help me track down the mysterious Jarvis Larsh and, in the process, Linda as well.
The call went as well as could be expected. Being told your life may be in danger would shock anyone. To then be advised this threat had nothing to do with you personally, aside from your association with someone evil—me—would be even harder to comprehend.
“So, you want me to drop everything and just run off out west with you to search for this Jarvis Larsh person?” There was a long pause. “I don’t know, Steve,” Maria finally said. “I’m still trying to make sense of what’s happened lately.”
I could hear the conflict and doubt in her voice.
“I know I’m asking a lot, Maria,” I started, “but I honestly feel you are in some danger and the best way to protect you is to have you with me.”
“Did you ever think maybe I don’t need your protection? I have plenty of people here in Delta who will watch out for me,” Maria stated, somewhat forcibly.
