I'll Protect You (Clueless Resolutions Book 1) by W B Garalt Page B

she reciprocated the greeting.
    “Carl, can we use the meeting room please?” Max asked.  Carl agreed and they followed him toward the small meeting room at the rear of the office.
    “Pull up chairs and make your selves comfortable.”  Carl said amiably as he closed the French doors.
    The meeting went on for approximately twenty minutes. Max started it off and Maggie filled in as they explained their personal involvement.  Carl was quite surprised, for some reason, or at least he acted that way.  He assured the couple in a factual manner that they were both considered valuable to his operation and acknowledged that business had slowed a bit, but it was expected to pick up going into the summer season.
    From his perspective there were no reservations about the two of them working as a team, in fact, he thought it would be a non-productive move for them to alter their business relationship.
    Maggie and Max exchanged commentary with Carl on the Sheffield matter, thanked him for accommodating their meeting request, and left.
    At 3:25 PM, Francine Stanley was expecting company.  Maggie Marshall had asked to speak with her, along with Max Hargrove. Francine had agreed, although waiting here at Stanley Real Estate, in her office, she was experiencing some anxiety.
    Maggie had been asking about business in general, which was unusual for her.  She was usually up to her eyeballs in her specialized work and didn’t seem to care much about the brokerage sales. Maggie had been the source of a steady, low scale but high volume income to Francine.
    Is she getting ready to leave and go out on her own?  Why was she bringing Max Hargrove?  Was she going into a partnership with him, she wondered?   He is good looking though, s he thought.  She decided to dab on a little extra perfume.
    At 3:30 sharp, in walked Maggie, followed by Max.
    “Good afternoon Francine,” It’s good to see you.” said Max, successfully disguising his rather jittery distrust of this woman.  Anyone so overly done with cosmetics and so heavily perfumed must have something to hide, he felt.
    “Hello you two”, Francine said with an inviting tone, “come on in and shut the door.  I’m doing phone duty today.  Unless I get a call we shouldn’t be interrupted,” she volunteered.  Francine was protecting against the conversation being overheard by one of the sales women if one happened to come by.
    Following basically the same approach to the subject as they had with Carl Benson, Maggie and Max described how, with their business life mixed so closely with their private life, it could be considered unethical, or at least being conducted with bias.  They asked for her feelings on the matter.
    Francine hesitated and then with an uncharacteristic shrewdness that Maggie had never seen in her she said; “Well, Maggie, you haven’t recommended Mr. Hargrove for personal reasons, to the exclusion of someone else that might do better, have you?”
    “No.” Maggie answered flatly
    “Well then, I see no reason why a good-looking young couple like you two should worry about it.  With the golden reputation you both have, if anyone questions your situation to me, they will get nothing but a glowing recommendation.” Francine exclaimed in thinly disguised relief.    Maggie isn’t leaving after all, she thought.
    With no further discussion on the subject needed, Maggie and Max thanked Francine for her time and went on their way.
    While driving out of the office parking lot they simultaneously raised the thought that no mention of the Sheffield killing came from Francine. Maggie suggested that the usually preoccupied woman probably hadn’t heard of it as yet.
    Maggie had decided that her lender clients didn’t have any reason to question her operation. They were mainly interested in timely resolution of the problem loans.  The only group of local people with which Maggie and Max associated with was socially related.  The tennis club members mostly