by Linda Cajio
Pain tore through Diana’s body.
“Someone,” Angelica went on, “who knew exactly what to look for. Someone who knew Diana probably wouldn’t be home until very late last night, or possibly not at all. Someone who decided to take advantage of that. And maybe that someone had a partner who was romancing Diana all along just to keep her busy and off-guard.”
Diana cried out in agony at her cousin’s destructive reasoning. She didn’t believe it. Refused to believe it. But, heaven help her, it sounded so horribly logical.
“Are you implying that I had something to do with this?” Adam demanded.
Eleven
Adam forced himself to rein in his temper at Angelica’s incredible line of reasoning. He couldn’t imagine anyone even thinking that he’d had any part in the breakin. And who the hell was supposed to be his “partner”? The whole idea was laughable—completely and totally laughable.
Then he realized Diana wasn’t laughing.
“Starlight Software has made several offers in the past for Diana’s latest game,” Angelica said in a very soft voice, drawing his shocked attention back to her. “They were all turned down as too low. We didn’t hear from Starlight again. Then Diana met you. Suddenly, this past Monday, we received yet another offer, from the president of Starlight. I believe that’s your brother. Tuesday he made an appointment to see me on Thursday to discuss the offer further, then abruptly canceled it later that same day. Thursday night—last night—Diana went out to dinner with the two of you. It’s obvious that she spent the night with you. You have been in this house before, in this room, and you knew what kind of alarm system there was. I can only wonder about the sudden renewed interest of Starlight. And having dealt before with Starlight’s high-pressure tactics, I also wonder just how far such people would go to ‘acquire’ a game.” She turned to her cousin. “I’m sorry, Diana. But the circumstantial evidence is overwhelmingly against him and his brother.”
As Angelica spoke, Adam watched Diana’s face. There was no trust, no belief in him in her violet eyes; only a knowing sadness and pain. Her cousin’s reasoning was outlandish, and yet Diana believed it.
“My brother might have bid for Diana’s games,” he said between clenched teeth. “But you’re crazy to think he or I had anything to do with the missing source codes.”
“Adam, Dan did bid on the game,” Diana whispered, her eyes not meeting his.
Her words staggered him like a driving punch to the solar plexus. They were a confirmation of everything her cousin had said. Diana really believed he was capable of being involved in some stupid scheme to get her game.
He stood up, unconsciously curling his hands into fists. But he didn’t hit anything, in spite of the overwhelming urge to do so.
Instead he turned around and walked out the door.
Diana cried. She cried until she was emotionally drained and almost physically sick from weeping so much. Angelica had given her a full box of tissues and left her alone with her grief while she quietly dealt with the telephone-repair man and the glazier from the hardware store.
“A few things are back to normal, kid,” Angelica said as she rehung the curtains over the repaired door.
Wiping her eyes with the last of the tissues, Diana said, “You were wrong about Adam.”
“No, I wasn’t. But I do understand what you’re feeling, Diana. It’s obvious that you’re in love with the man—”
“That’s right,” Diana broke in, getting to her feet. She turned to face her cousin. “And I shouldn’t have doubted him for a moment. But I did. For one tiny instant, I did believe he could have done it.”
Shaking her head, Angelica stepped down from the chair she’d been standing on and walked over to Diana.
“There’s a fact of life you ought to learn now, Diana,” she said, putting her hands on her cousin’s shoulders. “Women always fall in love with their first man. And women fall in love with the wrong kind of man. Face the truth, Diana. Adam used you, and in the worst way. It happens to a lot of women. The only good thing about it is that you’ll be wiser in love next time. I was.”
“Maybe Dan had something to do with stealing my source codes,” Diana said in a strong voice. “But not Adam. Adam has honor. He has so much honor that he didn’t try to defend himself. He just walked out the door. I admit I was shocked by the direction you were heading in, but I should have straightened you out on that point—”
“You’re not objective about this, and right now that’s understandable. But think about who else might have wanted your game so badly that they would have stolen your source codes.”
“Anybody!” Diana snapped impatiently. “What you’re pointing the finger at Starlight for, any number of other companies might have done. I realize it looks like Dan did it, and he very well could have. I don’t know him. But I know Adam.”
“What you know is a skillfully created illusion,” Angelica retorted, her hands on her hips. “Adam Roberts may be a lot of things, but he didn’t strike me as someone who could be played for a chump by his own brother!”
The ringing of the doorbell interrupted Angelica. “I’ll get the damn door,” she said. “Meantime, you try finding a plausible substitute for the brothers. I doubt if you can.”
“And you try finding a little hard evidence against Adam,” Diana said, glaring at her cousin. “I doubt if you can either.”
Angelica swung around and marched out of the workroom.
Diana rubbed her temples in exasperation. Damn Angelica and her circumstantial evidence, she thought. And she should have kept her mouth shut about Adam when she’d ruined her hair. Then Angelica wouldn’t have drawn her terrible conclusions.
With a groan Diana realized she shouldn’t be trying to convince Angelica of Adam’s innocence. She should be trying to convince Adam of her trust in him. She wished she could replay that terrible moment when her cousin had accused Adam. She should immediately have shouted her faith in him.
“Where’s Diana?”
She jumped at the sound of the familiar voice coming from the front of the house. Adam! Feeling as if she’d just been granted a miracle, she ran through the hallway into the living room … and stopped dead when he turned toward her. His expression was hard and his eyes were cold.
Seeing Dan with him, she guessed their visit wouldn’t be pleasant. She swallowed back a lump of butterflies.
“Now, will you tell me what the hell this is all about, Adam?” Dan asked angrily. “And it had better be damn good to make me miss my appointment.”
“This way,” Adam snapped, and dragged his brother by the arm toward the workroom.
“Diana, do you know what’s turned him into a Grue?” Dan asked in a genuinely frustrated tone as they passed her.
She never had an opportunity to answer Dan, for Adam practically yanked him the rest of the way into the workroom. She and Angelica trotted after them.
“What’s a Grue?” Angelica asked.
In spite of her growing fear and depression, Diana chuckled. “A real nasty from the Zork games. You wouldn’t want to be one.”
Once in the workroom, Adam stopped his mad rush. Dan looked around the almost-straightened room.
“Much as I can appreciate the scope of Diana’s working environment,” he said, “I could have waited until another time to see it, Adam. Now, what the hell is going on?” he shouted.
“This place was broken into last night,” Adam said, folding his arms across his chest. “And Diana’s source codes for her new game were stolen.” He paused. “And you and I are accused of doing it.”
Dan’s mouth dropped open, and he stared wide-eyed at Adam. Finally he closed his mouth and seemed to pull himself together to speak. Then his mouth dropped open again. His astonishment and bewilderment were obvious and genuine.
“I rest my case, counselor,” Adam said to Angelica.
Angelica just raised an eyebrow.
Dan managed at last to recover from his shock, and asked, “But why w
ould anyone think that?”
Adam tilted his head toward Angelica, and Diana braced herself for the coming confrontation. She only hoped her cousin would keep her out of it.
Angelica smiled, and replied smoothly, “Because you have not been satisfied with my client’s refusals of your low bids for her games. Yet you have not offered an equitable price. When your brother made personal contact with my client, we became suspicious of his motives.”
Diana died a little at Angelica’s words. Before she could protest, her cousin continued in her blunt, professional voice.
“Our suspicions were rewarded when you made yet another offer and were insistent that my client be told of it. I advised my client that your tone was one of confidence that your offer would be accepted this time—in spite of the same offer being turned down months before. My client then stalled about giving an answer, deciding to investigate a possible connection—”
“Angelica,” Diana interrupted.
“—between her personal relationship with Mr. Roberts and the acquisition of her game.”
“Angelica!”
“She concluded a connection was quite valid when a dinner invitation from the two of you was forthcoming—”
“Angelica!”
“—and was determined to foil any attempts to coerce her into parting with her game on your terms.”
“ANGELICA!”
“You must have been quite aware that my client would be away from her home after the dinner was over. You made an appointment with me, then canceled it. Then my client’s source codes were stolen. It was only a logical step to further conclude that you and Mr. Roberts had a possible connection with the theft. I came to that conclusion and expressed it to my client and to Mr. Roberts.”
To Diana’s unhappy relief, Angelica finally shut up. In the tense silence that followed, Diana couldn’t look at Adam. She didn’t want to see the anger and accusation that must be in his eyes. In stating her points, Angelica had managed to nail the coffin lid shut on a reconciliation with him. He’d never understand now, she thought despairingly. She knew she wouldn’t if the circumstances were reversed.
“Ms. Windsor,” Dan finally said.
Diana glanced up, then realized his gaze was directed at Angelica. His expression was as cold and hard as Adam’s, and he was visibly restraining his anger. “I do not refute that my company made several offers for your client’s games,” he said. “That is a fact. Unhappily, when I was informed of her continued refusals, I discovered that my acquisitions manager had attempted techniques of persuasion that I abhor. He was fired. At the time, I felt it was best to withdraw from further negotiations, as your client was most likely offended. I attended the Omega reception with the intention of introducing myself to your client and possibly reopening negotiations. My brother, though, met your client first and agreed to help with the completion of her game. When I learned from my brother that she was still agreeable to him even after the article in CompuWorld—”
“What article?” Adam asked.
Dan turned to him. “After the reception where you met Diana, Jim Griegson printed a blurb that you would be helping me get Diana for Starlight. It was one of Jim’s nasty speculations—totally untrue—and that’s probably where this whole mess started.”
Hot anger blazed out of Adam’s eyes as he swung his gaze toward Diana. She turned her head away in shame. She knew he was wondering why she hadn’t just asked him about it. Even if she had, she doubted that she would have believed him at the time.
“I only hoped that your client might look favorably upon Starlight again,” Dan said, his tone formal once more as he continued speaking to Angelica. “I made another offer. A reasonable offer. You did not decline this time, so I made an appointment with you to discuss further terms. Then I discovered my brother had a personal interest in your client. I canceled the appointment and planned to withdraw my offer after explaining to my brother my inadvertent interference in his personal life. That opportunity has not arisen until, unfortunately, now. My brother had no knowledge of any of this, and I hope he will one day forgive me. I am sorry, too, for any distress my offers have caused your client. I state for the record that I did not, either personally or through agents, steal your client’s source codes. That you have concluded thus is irresponsible and ludicrous—”
“Irresponsible!” Angelica yelled, losing all her lawyer’s poise.
“—and stupid!” Dan shouted back, waving his arms wildly. “I ought to take you to court for slander!”
“You give back Diana’s source codes now and sign a form stating you will never publish any of her games, and maybe we won’t have you thrown in jail for grand larceny! Maybe!”
As the two of them began an all-out shouting match, Diana quietly stepped over to Adam and tugged at his white shirt sleeve. If she could get him to talk to her, she might be able to make him understand.…
“Adam. I can explain—”
“Don’t bother,” he said coldly. “You used me, Diana. I can never forgive that.”
“Adam, please listen,” she begged, tears clogging her throat. “It wasn’t quite—”
“Don’t. Because I won’t believe you, just as you didn’t believe me.”
He walked away from her to stand at the door to the hall and wait for his brother.
Diana took a deep breath to hold back her tears. What could she—
The telephone rang suddenly. Startled, she whirled around and stared at it. Everybody did. A second shrill ring blasted in the now-quiet room.
Diana walked over to the phone, picked up the receiver, and said, “Hello?”
“I have your source codes,” a muffled voice said.
Her heart leaping at the words, Diana grasped the receiver tightly. “Thank heavens!” Now Angelica would have to believe the thief wasn’t Adam, she thought.
The voice continued. “You have one chance to get them back before I put the game on every bulletin board in the country.”
Her heart dropped to the floor.
“I want one hundred thousand dollars for—”
She gasped. “A hundred thousand dollars!”
“Shut up! You have until Sunday night to get it. That ought to be easy for a rich, hot-shot programmer like you. I’ll call back Sunday to tell you where to drop the money. No police! And keep your damn bodyguard in his cage!”
“But—”
The line went dead.
Diana stared at the phone for a moment, then carefully hung up. Her whole body was shaking with the shock of the caller’s words. She turned around to face three pairs of curious eyes.
“He claims he has my source codes,” she said.
“Repeat the conversation word for word,” Angelica commanded.
She did, finishing with, “And then he said no police, and to keep my damn bodyguard in his cage.”
“But you don’t have a bodyguard,” Angelica said.
“Yes, she does,” Adam interjected. “Or rather, I know of one man who’s called me her bodyguard on more than one occasion.”
Diana snapped her head up and stared at him. “Jim Griegson!”
“Jim? That’s crazy,” Dan said.
“No, it isn’t,” Adam replied with a cool smile. “You know about the first run-in Diana and I had with him. We had another one recently, and he wound up looking like a jerk again. Through no fault of mine.”
Diana rolled her eyes heavenward.
“He’s made it clear he’s carrying a grudge against Diana and me. Obviously, this is how he’s getting back at us.”
“I was wrong when I said it was crazy.” Dan spoke slowly, shaking his head. “In fact, he’s done it before, although it was just a silly thing at the time. I attended a computer camp last summer, and Jim was there. We all played a game where everyone did programming puzzles and the others had to guess what they’d done. Jim was winning by leaps and bounds, until Stan Fletcher discovered he was swiping the programs during the night to examine them. It was the joke
of the camp after that. You know, he never had the creativity to be a first-class programmer, which is probably why he started reporting. His columns are always a little disparaging toward the industry, too. Right, Diana?”
She nodded, realizing how caustic Jim had always been with her. Suddenly she was furious and, at the same time, frustrated by his outrageous demands. “Dammit! I hate the thought of paying him, but what other choice do I have?”
“The hell you’ll pay,” Adam said harshly.
“But he’s going to put it on electronic bulletin boards across the country!” she protested, close to tears again. “Every kid with a computer modem and a phone can just transfer it onto a disk! You don’t understand, Adam. The game itself was done, except for the graphics. It’s playable. And we can’t prove Jim stole the codes, so we can’t stop him.”
“I’ve got all the proof I need,” he said. “Since I started this, I’ll finish it. Somehow. And today.” She smiled at his defense of her, until he added, “I believe that will make us even.”
“Wait a minute, Adam,” Dan said, laying a restraining hand on his brother’s arm. “Jim will need a few days just to transfer the codes onto a disk so he can put the game on the bulletin boards.”
“Get to the point,” Adam said shortly.
Diana was all too aware of his obvious impatience to be gone, and it added to her pain and guilt.
Dan made a face. “His timetable for Diana’s payment is probably about the same as the time he needs to get the game ready for the bulletin boards.”
“Probably,” Diana agreed in disgust. “And another day or so for the worm—”
“You didn’t!” Dan said, a huge smile on his face.
Diana grinned, realizing that her one protective measure on the print-out might buy them time for whatever Dan had in mind. She turned to Adam and Angelica. “Before I printed out the program I added a little protection called a worm, a routine that makes the game destroy itself when it’s run. When the print-out was stolen. I didn’t think about it because all anybody had to do was look at the codes and realize it was a talking adventure game. Then that idea could be stolen. But it will take Jim a while to find my worm, remove it, and get the game running properly.”
