Timothy's Game

by Lawrence Sanders

  “Yes,” she says, looking at their scabrous surroundings with some astonishment, “thank you. May I sit down?”

  “Of course, of course,” H.H. says hastily. He drops her hands and pulls an armchair closer to the side of his desk. “After what you’ve been through in the past few days, I would have been happy to postpone this meeting or at least come to your office.”

  “No,” she says decisively. “Mr. Dempster wanted to come here, and I’m carrying out his wishes as best I can. Our Chief of Security, Theodore Brodsky, was supposed to come along, but he’s tied up with the New York police and the FBI.”

  “I understand completely. And tell me, has there been any progress at all?”

  “They don’t tell me anything,” she says fretfully. “Only that the investigation is continuing. Infuriating!”

  Haldering nods his fat head benignly. “I can understand that, having worked for the FBI for many years. They’re making progress; I’m sure they are. But nothing will be released until all the facts are nailed down, and either the perpetrators have been taken into custody or suspects identified. I hope, dear lady, that you and other Dempster-Torrey executives are taking extra precautions for your personal safety.”

  “The police insisted on it,” she says, not happily. “My bodyguard is sitting in your outer office right now. Ridiculous! I can take care of myself.”

  “I’m sure Mr. Dempster thought the same thing,” he says. And then, fearing that comment didn’t show the proper respect for the departed, he clasps his pudgy hands and leans across the desk. “Well!” he says with a treacly smile. “I’m sure you didn’t come here to discuss the murder of Mr. Dempster. Now what can I do for you, ma’am?”

  “You’re familiar with Dempster-Torrey?”

  “Of course. Who isn’t? One of the largest conglomerates in the country, I believe.”

  “Eighth largest,” she says, lifting her chin. “Two years ago we ranked number twelve. If J.J. had lived, we would have been the largest within five years. Fantastic! Dempster-Torrey owns twenty-seven subsidiaries with a total of eighty-three divisions. We’re into everything from peanut butter to sheet metal. We produce golf carts, paper napkins, scuba diving gear, ventilation ducts, potato chips, ponchos for the U.S. Government, pasta, hair dryers, forklift trucks, and more. That chair you’re sitting on was made by a Dempster-Torrey subsidiary. One of our industrial divisions made the tile on this floor. You name it and the chances are good that it is produced by Dempster-Torrey.”

  H.H. shakes his head in wonderment, although he knows the chair he’s sitting on was purchased secondhand, and the floor tile was part of a job lot—and cruddy stuff it is, too.

  “For the past six months or so,” Eve Bookerman goes on, “our factories, warehouses, and distribution centers all over the country have been hit by a series of attacks. Deliberate! Fires, vandalism, unexpected strikes, and consumer lawsuits. There have been eighteen separate incidents. Mr. Dempster did not think that was coincidence, nor do I. He was convinced there is a plot by some person or some group directed against Dempster-Torrey. He had no idea what the reason for such hostility might be, nor do I, nor does anyone else in our organization. Mystery!”

  “Surely Mr. Dempster must have made enemies during his career.”

  “Of course he did. How could a man do what he did without making enemies? But I can’t believe any of them would take revenge by setting a fire in a little flag and banner factory we own, a fire that killed two innocent workers. Despicable!”

  “You said that Mr. Dempster considered the possibility of a plot by some group. Liberty Tomorrow, for instance—the terrorists who called the newspapers after the murders?”

  “It was the first time I ever heard the name. That’s one of the most frustrating things about the attacks against Dempster-Torrey. There were no telephone calls, no threatening letters. No one claimed responsibility.”

  “And I presume each of these incidents was investigated?”

  “Of course. By local police and by our own security people. No arrests, not even a theory on who is responsible. Maddening!”

  “Tell me, dear lady, have you told all this to the officers investigating Mr. Dempster’s death?”

  “I told them,” she says grimly. “I don’t believe they think there is any connection between the attacks on our factories and J.J.’s murder.”

  “But you think there is?”

  “I don’t know what to think. Nightmare!”

  Hiram Haldering, nodding, begins swinging slowly back and forth in his swivel chair. He’s getting to look more like a dumpling every day. The double chin is going for a triple. The waistcoat is ready to pop its pearl buttons. And what he fancies is an executive stride comes perilously close to a waddle. He is not totally bald, not quite, but his pate glistens, the color of a peeled apple.

  He stops swinging to lean on his desk once again, suety palms clasped.

  “I should tell you at once, ma’am,” he says, “that Haldering and Company cannot investigate the murder of Mr. Dempster. We have neither the resources nor the personnel. We consider ourselves specialists in corporate intelligence. Buyouts, takeovers, mergers—things of that sort. We provide confidential information on individuals and companies, for a fee. But we are not equipped to conduct homicide investigations.”

  “I didn’t think you were,” Eve Bookerman says sharply. “J.J. made an appointment with you on the recommendation of Mr. G. Fergus Twiggs of Pistol and Burns, our investment bankers. The express purpose was to get to the bottom of this series of assaults against our property and our people. We’ve gotten nowhere in trying to solve them or stop them. Mr. Twiggs suggested you might be able to help.”

  “Very kind of Twiggs,” Haldering says, preening. “It is true that in several cases we have had remarkable success where others have failed.”

  “Then you’ll be willing to take on the job? You can write your own ticket.”

  “With the understanding that our investigation will deal only with the industrial sabotage and not the assassination of Mr. Dempster.”

  “I’ll accept that,” she says crisply. “When will you be able to start?”

  “Immediately!” he cries, picking up on her monosyllabicity.

  “Excellent! In the hope that we might come to an agreement, I’ve brought along copies of a file that will give you an idea of what we’ve been up against. Along with a list of personnel involved, addresses and phone numbers—all of which may be of help.”

  “I admire your foresight,” he says with an unctuous smile.

  “Oh,” she says, snapping her fingers, “one more thing: Mr. Twiggs urgently recommends that we request the problem be handled by one of your investigators—Timothy Cone. Is that his name?”

  “Timothy Cone,” Hiram Haldering repeats, smile fading. “Yes, we do employ an investigator by that name. But unfortunately, Mr. Cone is busy with several other cases at the moment. However, we have a number of other investigators who are fully qualified to—”

  She interrupts him. “No Cone, no deal,” she says.

  He shifts uncomfortably in his chair. “As you wish,” he says. “Perhaps I should warn you that Timothy Cone is—”

  “Mr. Twiggs described him,” she says impatiently. “I know what to expect. If he can do the job, it doesn’t matter.” She rises, holds out her hand. “Nice doing business with you, Mr. Haldering. I’m depending on your shop to make sense out of this whole awful affair. Monstrous!”

  He starts to thank her for her trust and confidence, but she is out the door, leaving behind a taped accordion file bulging with documents. H.H. picks up his phone and punches the intraoffice extension of Samantha Whatley.

  “Sam?” he says. “Come into my office, please. At once. And if Cone isn’t sleeping or beering it up, drag his scruffy ass in here.”

  Cone lumps up Broadway, that humongous accordion file clamped under his right arm. It’s heavy enough so that he lists to starboard, and occasionally has to pause a
nd get a fresh grip.

  “Don’t you dare take that file out of the office,” Sam had warned.

  “Sure, boss,” he replied. “I’m not about to carry that blivet home with me.”

  “What’s a blivet?”

  “Eight pounds of shit in a four-pound bag.”

  “You’re disgusting!” she yelled at him.

  “Yeah,” he said, “I know.”

  So now he’s plodding home to his loft, lugging the blivet and wondering what he and Cleo might have for dinner. He decides hot Italian sausage might be nice, fried up with canned potatoes. Maybe a charlotte russe for dessert. That sounds like a well-balanced meal.

  He stops at local shops for the makings, not forgetting a cold six-pack and a jug of pepper-flavored vodka—something he’s been wanting to try for a long time. Thus laden, he trudges up the six flights of iron steps to his loft.

  The meal turns out to be okay, but that pepper vodka is sparkly enough to make Cone’s scalp sweat. He’s afraid to light a cigarette, figuring a single belch might ignite and, like a flame thrower, incinerate the joint.

  He switches to cold beer to soothe his scorched palate and settles at his desk, feet up, to dig through the contents of that Dempster-Torrey file.

  The first thing he finds is three pages stapled together that list names, addresses, and phone numbers of people connected with John J. Dempster and his corporation. Included, Cone sees, are the names of his widow, three young sons, his brother, his parents, his deceased bodyguard and chauffeur, and the top rank of Dempster-Torrey execs, the Board of Directors, attorneys, and bankers.

  Also on the list, Cone notes with some bemusement, are the names of Dempster’s tailor, masseur, physician, dentist, physical fitness instructor, servants, golf pro, pilot, and proctologist.

  “Some people know how to live,” Cone calls to Cleo. But the tom, sleeping off the Italian sausages under the bathtub, pays no heed.

  He starts flipping swiftly through the documents on the attacks that have bedeviled Dempster-Torrey, Inc., for the past six months. There are eighteen reports, all signed by Theodore Brodsky, Chief of Security. They include arson, sabotage, vandalism, product tampering, and similar crimes, all apparently designed to erode the profits and tarnish the public image of Dempster-Torrey. Cone can understand why John J. thought there was a plot against him and his conglomerate; the guy wasn’t just being paranoid.

  He pops another beer and starts reading the reports again, slower this time, wondering if there’s a pattern or link everyone else had missed. He’s halfway through and hasn’t found a damned thing when his wall phone shrills. He carries his beer into the cramped kitchenette.

  “Yeah?” he says.

  “You putz!” screams Neal K. Davenport. “Just what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

  “Hey, wait a minute,” Cone says. “What’s this—”

  “The Dempster kill!” the NYPD detective shouts at him. “Why are you sticking your nose into that?”

  “Come on,” Cone says, “don’t get your balls in an uproar. Who told you Haldering is involved in it?”

  “Eve Bookerman, that’s who. She’s been running the outfit since Dempster got chilled. She told us that she hired Haldering.”

  “Then she must have told you that all we’re doing is investigating industrial sabotage in their plants. Look, Neal, we don’t do windows and we don’t do homicides. That job is all yours; Hiram Haldering made it plain to Bookerman. You know about the accidents they’ve been having?”

  “Yeah,” the city bull says grudgingly, “they told us.”

  “You think there’s a connection with Dempster’s murder?”

  “We can’t see it.”

  “So where’s the conflict? The Department is after the guys on the motorcycle. We’re after the people who are trashing Dempster-Torrey’s property. Listen, what’s your interest in this? Are you handling the file?”

  “Shit, no! I caught the original squeal. I got there right after the blues. But it’s too big to leave to little old me. They think I’m only good for busting pickpockets and flashers.”

  “Tough titty,” Cone says. “So who’s in charge?”

  “Some wet-brained lieutenant who’s got a rabbi in the Department with a lot of clout. The guy’s a real cowboy. He’s riding off madly in all directions. Well, I can’t really blame him. This is an important one, and he wants to cover his ass. The first case of terrorism in the Wall Street district.”

  “The hell it was,” Cone says. “A few years ago Fraunces Tavern was bombed by revolutionaries, and long before that a guy drove a horse-drawn cart down Wall Street and set off a bunch of bombs in the wagon. They called them anarchists in those days. Anyway, the explosion blew the hell out of the horses. You can still see the scars on some of the buildings if you look for them.”

  “Jesus,” Davenport says, “you’re a veritable gold mine of useless information. Well, regardless of past history, this is still a big case, and everyone wants a piece of it. Not only the Department, but the Manhattan DA, the Federal DA, the FBI, New York State, and the CIA. It’s as fucked up as a Chinese fire drill.”

  “The CIA? What’s their interest?”

  “They’re investigating those wackos, the Liberty Tomorrow gang, to see if it’s a terrorist organization with pals overseas, like in Germany, France, or the Middle East.”

  “Lots of luck,” Timothy says. “So everyone is walking up everyone else’s heels and fighting for interviews on the TV talk shows. Where do you fit into this mishmash?”

  “Christ!” the city cop says. “You know what they’ve got me doing? A couple of witnesses swear the driver of the motorcycle was wearing a steel-toed boot. So I’m supposed to check out every joint in the city that puts steel tips on shoes and boots. That’s like looking for a needle in a keg of nails.”

  “Yeah,” Cone says, “I know what you mean.”

  “If we could handle it as a simple dusting,” Davenport goes on, “an ordinary, run-of-the-mill homicide, things would be a lot easier. But all the people involved are real nobs—or think they are. I mean Dempster-Torrey is a powerhouse in local politics. Charitable contributions, campaign donations, and all that shit. So the heat is on. I get pushed every hour on the hour, and when I heard you were joining the pack, I blew my cork. Sorry I yelled at you.”

  “That’s okay,” Cone says. “I can understand how you feel. But believe me, Haldering and Company has no interest in getting involved in Dempster’s death. All I’m supposed to do is find out who’s torching their factories.”

  “And you don’t think it has anything to do with the murder?”

  “Hey, I’ve just started on this thing. I was reading the file when you called. But you said yourself that you can’t see a connection.”

  “That’s right. But that’s today. Maybe tomorrow you’ll trip over something. You’ll let me know?”

  “Hell, yes. I’m no glory hound; you know that. If I find anything that sets off bells, you’ll be the first to know. You can have the headlines.”

  “I don’t know why I trust you,” Davenport says. “You’re such a flake.”

  “Yeah, well, I haven’t ever bollixed you up, have I?”

  “Not lately you haven’t,” the NYPD man says, considerably mollified. “Okay, go back to your boozing; you sound half in the bag already. Every time I think of a wild card like you rampaging around in something like this, my ulcer starts acting up. Keep in touch, will you?”

  “Depend on it,” Timothy says.

  He goes back to his desk, back to reading the Dempster-Torrey reports, back to pepper vodka—which now seems mild, light, dry, sparkling, and guaranteed to dull the senses and make life seem interesting and even meaningful.

  Finished with the documents, he tosses them aside, parks his feet on the desk, dunks a charlotte russe in the vodka, and ruminates.

  As far as finding a link between the eighteen crimes—zero, zip, and zilch. But the lack of a pattern might have signific
ance. It’s unlikely one guy is racing around the country setting fires, dumping rice in gas tanks, blowing up warehouses, and slipping cyanide into sealed bottles of diet pills made by Dempster-Torrey’s drug subsidiary.

  Those sophisticated techniques were devised by someone with a lot of criminal know-how. That makes Cone think it’s a gang, bossed by a villain who knows exactly what he’s doing and what he wants to accomplish. But what does he want to accomplish? Revenge?

  That would point the finger at a fired or disgruntled employee. Or maybe the former owner of some small and profitable company that John J. Dempster gobbled up on his march to power. God knows Dempster must have made enough enemies to last him a lifetime—which didn’t, after all, last very long at all.

  The Wall Street dick pours another small vodka, swearing to himself it will be a nightcap and knowing it won’t because his mind is churning, and he’ll be able to sleep only with high-proof oblivion.

  He’s halfway through that snort when his peppered brain spits out an idea that’s so elegant he feels like shouting. It’s a neat solution: an organization controlled, or hired, by a tough, determined, brainy guy who knows exactly what he wants and how to get it. Cone walks around his brilliant inspiration, and the more he inspects it from all angles, questions it, analyzes it, the stronger it seems.

  And the motive? That’s the best part!

  “I do believe …” he says aloud, and Cleo comes slinking out from under the bathtub to yawn and stretch.

  Later, lying in his skivvies on the floor mattress, lights out, his last conscious thoughts are of Neal K. Davenport, and how rancorous the detective must feel at being relegated to a minor role in a big case he thinks of as his own.

  Cleo pads up to curl into the bend of his knees.

  “He wants praise, kiddo,” Cone says, reaching down to scratch the cat’s torn ears. “Or maybe justification. He wants recognition that he’s doing important work in this screwed-up world. Do you want praise, justification, and recognition, Cleo? The hell you do. I don’t either. We’ve got a roof over our heads and all the hot sausage we can eat. What more do we need?”