“What are you going to do now?” she asked when I had finished.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “I’ll have to wait and see what happens tomorrow. To see if I can keep the agency going. At any rate, I’ll have to start shrinking it soon. We can’t afford the payroll the way it is now.”
“You’ll have to let some people go?” she asked.
“There’s nothing else to do,” I answered.
She was silent for a moment. “What a shame,” she said softly.
I knew what she was thinking. “It’s not so bad for them, honey,” I said. “It’s not like when I was let out during the depression. There are plenty of jobs now. It’s just a shame to break up an outfit like this. It took a long time to build.”
“What does Chris say?” she asked.
I knew she thought a lot of him. I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know what he thinks,” I answered. “I didn’t see him all day. He went out early in the day.”
“That’s peculiar,” she said. “Did he know what was going on?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I got a hunch that he does.” I explained my suspicions to her.
“I can’t believe it!” she exclaimed in horrified tones.
I smiled at her. “Ambition is a vicious master,” I said. “It pushes a man in many directions. Some of them are not so nice. It’s one of the conditions of society.”
“But not Chris!” she said. “You’ve done so much for him.”
“Have I?” I asked. “Look at it from his viewpoint. He’s done so much for me. Now he wants his cut.”
“I can’t believe that Chris could be like that,” she insisted.
I pushed my chair back from the table. “I hope you’re right, baby,” I said. “There’s nothing I’d like better to be wrong about.”
I heard the screech of a car stopping in our driveway. “Who’s that, I wonder?” I asked.
“Probably Jeanie coming home from her date,” Marge replied.
The door chimes rang. Marge started to her feet. I waved her back. “Finish your coffee,” I said. “I’ll see who it is.”
I opened the door. Paul Remey stood there. I stared at him in surprise for a moment. “Paul! What are you doing up here?”
“I had to talk to you,” he said, coming into the foyer. “Have you gone nuts? What are you trying to do, ruin yourself?”
I took his hat and coat and hung them in the closet. “We’re just having coffee,” I said, evading his question. “Come and join us.”
He followed me into the dining room. After greeting Marge, he turned back to me. “What’s this I hear about your fighting with Matt Brady?” he demanded.
“I ain’t fighting him,” I said quietly. “I just turned down a job he offered me, that’s all.”
“That isn’t what I heard,” he said irately. “I heard you threw him out of your office.”
“You know me better’n that, Paul,” I said. “I just don’t want to work for him. He came to my office and I didn’t see him. I was busy.”
Paul stared at me, his mouth agape. Finally he caught his breath. “You wouldn’t see him,” he said sarcastically. “One of the five most influential businessmen in the country, and you wouldn’t see him. You must be off your rocker. Don’t you know that by tomorrow he’ll close down your business? Where’re your brains, Brad?”
“You’re late, Paul,” I said. “He did a pretty good job on me today. I dropped almost sixty-five percent of my billings today.”
Paul whistled. “So fast, eh?”
I nodded. “How did you hear about it?” I asked.
“Pearson knows I’m a friend of yours,” he said. “He called to check on it before he ran the item. I told him I knew nothing about it. That all I knew was your outfit was being considered for the industry public relations plan.”
News traveled fast; the word was out. I slumped back in my chair for a moment. They were right. Who was I to fight Matt Brady? It was like sending a fly out to get an elephant.
He looked over at me. “What’s the story?” he asked.
“Brady wanted me to give the industry committee the go-by and come to work for him. I told him I wasn’t interested in working for anybody,” I said in a dull voice.
Weariness crept over me and I closed my eyes. For the first time that day, she jumped before me. Elaine. I could never tell anybody. If I said anything, it would only make it worse. Matt Brady would learn the truth and nothing would stop him then.
Paul was talking. He was trying to figure a way out for me. Nothing he said made much sense though, not even to him. He lapsed into silence after a while and we all sat around glumly.
Suddenly he snapped his fingers. “I’ve got it!” he cried. “Elaine Schuyler!”
I was wide awake now. “What about her?” I asked.
“She’s Matt Brady’s favorite niece,” he said. “I’ll ask her to tell him how much you’re doing for her.”
I shook my head. “Nix. I can fight my own battles.”
“Don’t be a fool, Brad,” he said. “She can twist the old man around her finger.”
“I don’t give a damn what she can do!” I said, standing up. “This is my business and Matt Brady’s. It’s got nothing to do with her and I won’t run crying to him behind her skirts.”
“But, Brad,” Marge said. “You’re doing so much for her. You always said, ‘One hand washes the other.’”
“Not this time,” I said. “I don’t want her mixed up in it.”
“But why, Brad?” Marge reproached me gently. “There’s so much at stake. She would be glad to help you. You said you liked her and that she liked you.”
“That’s right, Brad,” Paul added. “Edith said that she never saw Elaine so crazy about anybody.”
I stared at both of them for a second. I tried to speak but I couldn’t. The words were stuck in my throat. A wild thought ran through my mind. What was it she had said on that last telephone call? Or was it I who said it? I didn’t remember.
It would be like we had never met. What fools we were. How wrong can you be? I found my voice. “No!” I shouted and stalked from the room.
20
A million stars were out, the night was clear and chilly. I sat on the steps and shivered slightly. I dragged on my cigarette, too stubborn to go back inside. Through the brightly lighted dining-room windows I could see Paul and Marge, still at the dinner table, talking.
I looked at the house, then down the long driveway through the landscaped gardens to the street. I wondered how long I could hold on to this if I had to close up shop. I totted up my assets. Not too long. Everything I made had gone right back into the business toward expansion.
A car stopped in front of the house. I heard the sound of young voices, then Jeanie’s footsteps coming up the walk. She was humming a song lightly. I smiled to myself. The kid knew from nothing. The world was her oyster. Better that way.
She stopped short when she saw me sitting there. “Dad!” she exclaimed. “What are you doing out here?”
I smiled at her. “Getting some air, honey,” I answered.
She pecked at my cheek and sat down next to me. “I didn’t tell Mother about her present,” she whispered. I didn’t answer. I had almost forgotten about it. The way things were going now, it didn’t look as if I would be able to pick it up anyway.
Bright kid, my daughter. She was quick to sense my mood. “Is there anything wrong, Dad?” she asked anxiously, peering at my face. “Have you and Mother had a quarrel?”
I shook my head. “Nothing like that, honey,” I answered. “Business problems.”
“Oh.” She didn’t sound convinced.
I looked at her. In that moment I knew she was no longer a child. She was a woman, with all the grace and intuition and inscrutability of her sex. “That’s a funny question for you to ask. What made you say that?”
She hedged. “Nothing,” she answered evasively.
“You must’ve had a reason,” I insis
ted.
She didn’t look at me. “You’ve been acting so queer lately and Mother has been going around with a sad expression.”
I tried to laugh but couldn’t. I’d been fooling nobody but myself. “That’s silly,” I said.
Her eyes came back to mine, her hand crept under my arm. She seemed reassured. “I saw a picture of that Mrs. Schuyler in the paper, Dad,” she said. “She’s very beautiful.”
I played dumb. “She’s all right.”
“Grandpa thinks she’s in love with you,” she said.
Silently I swore at him. Pop should have more sense than to say a thing like that. “You know him,” I said with forced lightness. “He thinks all women are nuts about me.”
A thoughtful look came into her eyes. “It’s possible, Dad,” she said. “You’re not decrepit, you know.”
I smiled at her. “Just a little while ago, you said I was an old fuddy-duddy and not in the least bit romantic. Remember?”
“But you could fall in love with her,” she insisted. “Things like that do happen. I saw a picture once where Clark Gable—”
“That’s the movies,” I said, interrupting her. “And I’m not Clark Gable.”
“You’re better-looking than he is,” she said quickly.
I looked at her skeptically. Her face was serious. I laughed, a warm feeling inside me. “Flattery’ll get you nowhere,” I said.
Suddenly she was a child again, with all the romantic fervor of her age. “Wouldn’t it be terrible, Dad,” she whispered, “if she were in love with you and had to go through life knowing she could never have you?”
An ache, almost forgotten in the last few days, began to throb again in me. Out of the mouths of babes—
I got to my feet. I had enough. “Come inside,” I said. “Uncle Paul’s in there and he’d like to see you….”
I didn’t sleep well. The faint night sounds kept beating at the windows, but there was no comfort in them for me. At last the first gray shadow of the coming day crept into the room. I had found no answers in the night; perhaps the climbing sun would point out a way. I closed my eyes and dozed….
I dropped Paul off at the airport on the way in to the office. He was very glum. “At least let me speak with her,” he asked, before getting on the plane.
I shook my head.
He stared at me for a moment. “You and your stupid pride,” he muttered, holding out his hand.
I took it, his grip was warm and friendly. His eyes met mine. “I hope it’ll come out right,” he said sincerely.
“It will,” I said more confidently than I felt. “It has to.”
He turned toward the plane. “Good luck,” he called back over his shoulder.
“Thanks,” I said. There was a kind of dejection in his walk. Impulsively, I called after him. “Paul!”
He stopped and turned back to me.
“This is only the first round,” I said, smiling. “Be brave.”
For a moment there was no expression on his face at all, then he smiled back at me. “You’re nuts,” he said, shaking his head with a half wave of his hand.
Mickey was at her desk, her typewriter clacking like mad when I came in. “Get Chris,” I said.
She nodded toward my office door. “He’s in there waiting for you.”
I lifted a knowing eyebrow. He wasn’t wasting any time. I went on through to my office. He was sitting in my chair, behind the desk. He was scribbling something on a piece of paper. He looked up as I came in and started to get out of the chair.
I went along with the gag and waved him back into his seat. He watched me curiously. I didn’t speak, just sat there, staring back at him.
After a few minutes’ silence, he became uncomfortable. I could see a flush creeping up past his collar. I still didn’t speak.
He cleared his throat. “Brad—”
I smiled at him. “Comfortable chair, eh, Chris?”
As if touched with a hot iron, he jumped out of it.
I got to my feet, still smiling. “Why didn’t you tell me you were interested in it before, Chris?” I asked gently.
He flushed deeply.
Before he had a chance to speak, I spoke again. “If you had,” I continued in a still soft voice, walking around the desk and seating myself, “we might have done something about getting you one just like it.”
He didn’t speak; the color was fading from his face. I could see his control coming back.
“You don’t understand, Brad,” he said. “I’m just trying to help.”
“Who?” I yelled. “Yourself?”
For the first time since I knew him, I saw him lose control of himself. “Someone around here has to keep his head on his shoulders!” he shouted back. “You’re dragging this outfit down with you because you don’t care about anyone but yourself.”
I began to feel better. Now we were on grounds that I could understand. This pussyfooting, backstabbing, genteel manner of business never went well with me. On Third Avenue we always settled our quarrels in the open.
“Where in hell were you all day yesterday?” I asked.
“I was trying to keep Matt Brady off our backs,” he said. “I was at his office. I made a deal with him.”
“What deal?” I asked. “Almost all our customers are gone and the rest of them are liable to go today.”
He nodded coldly. “I know,” he said. “He told me that he would break us the day you wouldn’t see him.”
“Who gave him the list of our customers so that he could go to work so quickly?” I got out of my chair. “Was that how you figured you could help me? Out?”
His face flushed. “He wanted some references.”
I smiled. “That’s pretty weak, isn’t it, Chris?” I walked around the desk and looked down at him. “You don’t really think I’d buy that, do you?”
He stared up at me. His voice was cold and controlled once more. “I don’t give a damn what you believe,” he said. “I have a responsibility to all the people working here. I can’t just stand by and see their work go for nothing.”
“Very noble,” I jeered. “Judas, too, had a feeling for others. What are your thirty pieces?”
His eyes were bright on mine. I could see the ambitious glitter in them. I knew he felt that I was whipped. “Brady will lay off if you get out,” he said.
“That silent partner deal you spoke about on the phone?” I asked, pretending an interest.
He shook his head. “I’m prepared to offer you a fair price for the company. You have to go for everybody’s good.”
I sat down again. “What’s a fair price?” I asked.
He hesitated a moment. “Fifty thousand.”
Big deal. The outfit was netting better than one hundred and fifty grand a year. “How can you be so generous?” I asked sarcastically.
“It is generous,” he said doggedly. “You might as well face it, Brad; you’re through here. You haven’t enough business left to pay the rent, let alone anything else.”
What he said was true enough, but somehow it didn’t matter. If I had to close up shop, I would do it. But I’d be damned if I’d let someone else take what I had built with so much pride and effort.
“Matt Brady agree to finance you?” I asked. “That part of the deal too?”
He didn’t answer.
I studied him for a minute. He stared back at me. “Chris,” I said gently.
A faint shadow of triumph flickered into his eyes for a moment as he leaned toward me expectantly.
“I’m almost tempted to take the dough and let you have the outfit.” I spoke quietly. “But I have a greater responsibility to the people that work here than you. You see, I built this and made their jobs possible. The easiest thing in the world for me to do would be to take your dough and get into something else. I would make out.”
“Sure, Brad,” he said eagerly, rising to the bait. “You can do anything.”
I let him think he was pushing me in the direction he wanted to go.
“You really think so, Chris?” I asked, as if doubtful.
He was on the hook now and fighting hard to keep it. “You’re one of the best men in the field, Brad,” he said. “There isn’t an outfit that wouldn’t give their eye teeth for you to join them. Your record here speaks for itself. Look what you did here with nothing for a start.”
“You convinced me, Chris,” I said.
He got to his feet, triumph clear in his eyes now. “I knew you’d be sensible about it, Brad,” he said, walking around the desk clapping his hand on my shoulder. “I told Mr. Brady you’d listen to reason.”
I looked at him as if bewildered. “I think you misunderstand me, Chris.”
His hand fell from my shoulder and his jaw dropped.
“If I’m that good,” I continued, “I’m staying right here. We’ll get over this. My responsibility to the staff is too great to allow me to sell them down the river like slaves.”
“But, Brad,” he said. “I—”
I cut him off. “I wouldn’t trust you or Matt Brady with my dog,” I said coldly. “Much less other human beings.” I punched the buzzer on my desk.
Mickey’s voice came from the intercom. “Yes, Brad.”
“I want the whole staff, down to the office boy, in my office right away,” I said.
“Sure, Brad,” she answered, clicking off.
I turned back to Chris. He was standing there as if he had taken root. “What are you hanging around for, baby?” I smiled. “You don’t live here any more.”
He started to speak, then changed his mind and started for the door. As he opened the door, I could see that most of the staff was already in Mickey’s office, waiting. I had an idea. “Chris!” I called.
He turned, his hand on the open door.
I spoke loud enough for all of them to hear, I chose my words purely for effect. “Let my secretary know where to forward your mail. Matt Brady or the devil?” I laughed. “Seems to me there isn’t much choice between them.”
21
I sat at my desk and watched the last of them file from my office. I kept the smile on my face until the door closed behind them. My face ached when the smile went.
Harold Robbins Thriller Collection Page 12
