Silken Threads

by Barrie, Monica

  “I know.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment while she tried to grasp at an elusive thought. “It’s Father’s failsafe, Kirk. It’s what he’s counting on to beat us; I know it.” Then she shook her head angrily. “There will be a profit. There will be!”

  Kirk gazed at Cassandra for a long time afterward, realizing and accepting both the love and the vehemence behind her declaration. Finally, knowing no words would help, he bent and kissed her deeply before he slid down onto the bed and drew her into his arms.

  ~~~~

  Seven-thirty found Cassandra was at her desk, her fingers flying over the computer keyboard, drawing up file after file, in a search to defeat her father. There had to be a way because no matter how much she argued and fought with her father, she loved him and knew somewhere, buried deep within his own heart, Gregory Leeds loved her and would not lie to her.

  The harder she searched the less certain her convictions became. She was coming to an alarming conclusion, too many of the deals made no sense, and too many pieces of a puzzle didn’t fit.

  Earlier she had read the original contract between Twin Rivers and the meat distributor and found it completely legal and binding. She still didn’t understand was why Leeds International had approved the deal, especially in light of the most important clause of the contract, which dealt with price setting.

  In the contract, Carway Distributors had the right to set beef prices, period! It just didn’t make any sense to her. Her father and Murray Charter, who both had to approve any contract, would never have agreed to that clause.

  Yet, they had, Cassandra concluded as she glanced at the signatures on the contract and saw her father’s bold scrawl on one line and Murray Charter’s stodgy penmanship on the other.

  By the end of the day, Cassandra knew she would have to return to New York and confront her father. She needed to face him in person and see his expression when she asked him why they were dealing exclusively with one distributor, to the detriment of the company.

  She was deciding whether to tell Kirk or not when her office door opened and he walked in, a worried frown on his handsome face.

  “Trouble?” Cassandra asked as he sat down.

  “Maybe. One of the men found two of the foals dead, ripped apart.”

  Cassandra’s stomach went queasy with the image Kirk’s words evoked. “What happened?”

  “Seems to be a mountain lion. It’s unusual, but it happens. We caught one two years ago. That one went for the cattle.”

  “What can we do?”

  “Catch the cat before it kills any more of the horses.”

  “How?”

  “Go after it; hunt the cat down.”

  “Kill it?” Cassandra asked.

  “I hope not,” Kirk said in a low voice. “There’s usually a reason why a cat goes after livestock. It may be injured.”

  “Who’s going?” she asked, already knowing the answer. “You?”

  Kirk nodded. “And a few of the men. I just wanted you to know I’ll be gone for as long as it takes, hopefully only a day or two.”

  “When are you leaving?”

  “Now,” he said as he stood.

  Cassandra stood, too, and went around her desk and into his already open arms. “Be careful, Kirk, please.”

  Gazing down at her, Kirk nodded, his mouth set in serious lines. “I will, for you.” Then he kissed her, gently, lovingly, and with the promise of many, many more.

  After he’d gone, Cassandra sat at her desk for another hour, wondering if she really should go to New York. She glanced at the projections for the sale of the cattle and saw that no matter how she played with the figures, there was no way to make a profit. She had to go to New York.

  The only problem she faced would be with Kirk. When he learned she’d gone to New York to challenge her father and demand an explanation about Carway, he would be furious. His pride would get in the way of their happiness. His pride and her father’s deceptions could prove the undoing of their love. She couldn’t let such a thing happen.

  Glancing at her watch, Cassandra saw it was almost six. She stood, stretched, and then left the already deserted offices. She walked past Thelma’s desk without stopping to check the stack of messages sitting there, as was her habit. She never saw the pink slip with her name on it and the note that Somner Barwell had called.

  She went to the small house where Jane lived and knocked on her door. When it opened, Jane smiled at her as she dried her red hair. “Hi. Coming for dinner?” she asked. For the last five months, two or three times a week, she and Jane went to the dining hall together for dinner. It was a ritual she enjoyed.

  “Not tonight. Jane, you know about the cougar?”

  “Uh-huh,” she said, grimacing with disgust. “I was out there today.”

  “Kirk said he’ll probably be gone for a few days.”

  “At least. He’s got to go into the mountains to look for its lair.”

  “I have to go to New York,” Cassandra said.

  Jane looked at her and waited.

  “I don’t want anyone to know,” she added.

  Jane still didn’t speak.

  “Can you cover for me?”

  “You mean with Kirk?” Jane asked, her stare penetratingly deep.

  Cassandra sighed. “You know, don’t you?”

  “How could I not? I saw it from the beginning,” Jane admitted.

  Cassandra smiled. “And I thought we had everyone fooled.”

  “As far as I know, no one else suspects a thing.”

  “I wish it didn’t have to be that way.”

  “For Kirk, it does,” Jane stated sagely. “If you hadn’t come here with a big title, it might have been different, but to most of the men...the cowboys, it would look as if Kirk was chasing money and selling out.”

  “But it’s not that way.”

  “The men like you; they’re getting to know you. When the time is right, it won’t matter to them. But right now it may.”

  “You really do believe that. You accept it, too, don’t you?” Cassandra asked, surprised by this new revelation.

  “I accept it because there’s no choice. Everything is changing in the world; here it just takes longer. I accept it, yes, but I don’t like it. Just remember one thing, Cassandra, both of us—you and I—are living in a man’s world.”

  “So I’ve noticed,” she said dryly.

  “Which doesn’t mean we can’t do what we want.” Then Jane took a deep breath. “I know it’s none of my business, but…”

  Cassandra waited, but she saw that Jane was still hesitating. “We’re friends, remember?”

  “I remember. This trip to New York you don’t want anyone to know about it; is it personal?”

  Cassandra smiled broadly. “Business, all business.”

  “Then why not tell Kirk?”

  “Because he wouldn’t agree with what I’m going to do. His pride would get in the way. I’ll tell him when I get back. Will you cover for me?”

  “I’ll do what I can.”

  ~~~~

  Cassandra missed the last direct flight to New York, but she’d caught a flight to Dallas and from there by the sheer strength of determination and desire, managed to make all the connecting flights to New York.

  At ten o’clock, the morning after her conversation with Jane, she walked into the offices of Leeds International and went straight to her father’s private office, only to find him gone.

  “When will he be back?” she asked his secretary, Elizabeth.

  “He’s in Switzerland and isn’t expected back for another week. Your mother’s with him, too.”

  “That’s surprising,” Cassandra commented.

  “Not really; it’s their anniversary,” Elizabeth informed her.

  Cassandra closed her eyes and shook her head. “And I’m stupid. Is the office I was using still free?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. They’re staying at the Mont Royal?” Her father’s secretary
nodded her head. “Elizabeth, could you do a favor for me, please. Would you get me an international florist?”

  “Of course,” Elizabeth said, her tone softer now.

  “Could you also call Mr. Charter? I need to meet with him.”

  “He’s out of town also. He won’t be back for two more days.”

  “I see,” Cassandra said. “Okay, I guess I should have called before I flew back.” Cassandra went to the available office and sat down at the desk. While she waited for the call to the florist, she played absently with the computer.

  A moment later the phone rang, and she ordered a large bouquet of flowers, charging them to the company and making a mental note to leave a check with Elizabeth to pay for them when the bill came in. Since her father had canceled her credit cards, Cassandra hadn’t bothered to apply for more.

  Refusing to accept her efforts in traveling to New York as wasted, Cassandra looked up files in the company’s main computer.

  As she worked, she realized that perhaps this trip had not been futile. She was here, and her father and the comptroller were not. It was a golden opportunity to do some unsuspected checking-up.

  Her first order of business was to learn about the Carway contract. Because of the sophistication of the Leeds computer, all the information regarding its subsidiaries was permanently stored in the large mainframe computer. Cassandra learned to use the computer during her first week of work, before she’d left for Arizona. What she did now was to request the files for the Twin Rivers Corporation, which she did with a few simple keystrokes on the keyboard. Once she had the directory of Twin Rivers on the screen, she looked it over, and called up the contracts file.

  Reading it carefully, Cassandra saw that there was no new information, but just as she was about to get the directory back, she noticed a cross-reference notation for Carway Distributors.

  Marking down the data base code, Cassandra quickly cleared the screen and called up the new file. When she read the first two lines, her breath exploded.

  “So that’s your secret,” she whispered as she continued to read about Carway Distributors, a wholly owned but well-hidden subsidiary of Leeds International.

  Now she knew why the noncompetitive price-setting exclusivity clause was in the contract. Her father couldn’t lose. The lower the price Carway paid for the beef, the higher the profit for Carway.

  Why make one part of the company have a deficit to make another show a profit?

  Nodding to herself, Cassandra pulled up the profit and loss statements for Carway. She saw that Carway was indeed a big profit maker, much bigger than Twin Rivers would be for several years.

  Switching back to the Twin Rivers file, she looked up the tax statements for the last two years. As she suspected, the losses more than balanced out the taxes on Carway. In fact, the Twin Rivers losses made up for all the taxes paid by Carway.

  Intuitively, Cassandra sensed there was more that wasn’t right. Again, Cassandra checked over the directory for Twin Rivers, her eyes speeding from line to line. At the end of the file, she paused, backing up the screen as she did.

  She studied every entry, until she noted one item that didn’t ring true—the land survey file. It had a sub file titled “Geological Findings.”

  What geological findings? Cassandra asked herself while her fingers pressed the keys that would call up the file.

  The screen went blank for a moment, and then letters began to appear. After the fourth line, the cursor blinked maddeningly as it waited for instructions.

  “What kind of a geological survey?” she asked aloud as she reread the screen.

  GEOLOGICAL SURVEY FINDINGS—TWIN RIVERS CORPORATION

  WARNING! SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED

  SECURITY LEVEL 5.O

  PLEASE ENTER USER PASSWORD

  What is a 5.0 clearance? she wondered. And wondered, too, at the need for a security password. Shrugging her shoulders, Cassandra typed in a random word. The computer responded with quickly formed letters

  ACCESS DENIED—ILLEGAL PASSWORD

  “Okay,” Cassandra said to the screen. She cleared the screen and stood. Only then did she realize how stiff she was and glanced at her watch. It was almost four o’clock.

  Leaving the office, Cassandra crossed the hall and went into the computer department, where she spoke with the data processing supervisor, Mr. Holt.

  When she asked about the security clearance level, he gave her a funny look. “I would think you knew about that.”

  Cassandra shook her head. “I seem not to know about a lot of things around here.”

  The man didn’t think her comment overly funny, and his face attested to that fact. “Most major corporations use a complicated series of security passwords to protect vital information. We have five levels of security here, Miss Leeds. I myself have a 4.0 clearance.”

  “Who has a 5.0?” she asked.

  “Your father and Mr. Charter.”

  Cassandra smiled in defeat. “I should have known. But why would only one file have security protection?”

  “Usually it’s because there’s confidential information contained in it that must be denied to the casual user.”

  “I’m far from a casual user,” she stated imperiously.

  “I’m afraid that anyone not cleared to access the file is a casual user, Miss Leeds,” he replied, turning back to his own console in dismissal.

  Cassandra left the computer center and went back to the office. She sat before the computer once again and called up the information. She studied the information on the screen and then decided to print it out and take it back to Arizona. Kirk’s personnel file stated his experience with computers operated by the CIA in the Middle East.

  She called the airlines and learned the last direct flight to Phoenix had just departed. If she would like, the airlines informed her, she could take a flight with two stopovers, which would get her to Phoenix by five in the morning.

  Cassandra, tired from the hectic pace of the past twenty-four hours, decided not to take the flight. Instead, she made a reservation on the first direct flight in the morning.

  After that, she left the office and went to her parents’ town house, where she soaked in a tub for a wonderful hour and then went to bed as the clock struck nine.

  ~~~~

  Hunting for the mountain lion had been more than just a chore. Although Kirk had three other men with him, being in the mountains and living close to the earth had brought with it a sense of peace and a chance for deep introspection.

  The men had seemed to understand Kirk’s desire for quiet and for as much privacy as possible. For the two nights and the day they hunted the horse-killer, Kirk barely spoke at all. He’d had too much on his mind to want to make any but the most minimal conversation.

  As they had hidden, waiting downwind from the cat’s lair for the cougar to return, Kirk was alone with his troubled thoughts.

  His last talk with Cassandra still weighed heavily in his thoughts. He had seen in her eyes that if the ranch did not make a profit, he would lose her.

  It wasn’t right, he told himself. He also realized that Cassandra was the daughter of a wealthy and very powerful man, and as such, her life had never really been her own.

  He loved her, he admitted, and loved her so deeply and so passionately that whenever he thought of it, he felt shaken. The reality, too, of time reared its ugly, laughing head. They had six weeks left before the end of the fiscal year.

  What can I offer her? he asked himself.

  Only my love, he replied silently. He had nothing other than his emotions and his ability to do the work he loved. It would still take another two years before he could afford to buy the ranch he wanted.

  It would have been sooner, but in order to go to college after his army tour overseas, and in order to make sure Jane would have a future for herself, he’d had to secure a large loan. It had taken him until three years ago to pay it off.

  Kirk never regretted any of what he had done. Jane
was his only family, and his sense of responsibility ran deep. That she had chosen to return to ranching rather than to pursue a career in psychology made no difference. Her education was what had been important.

  What about Cassandra? Kirk had been surprised at how well Cassandra adapted to life on the ranch, but at the same time, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was because she had no choice. She had grown up rich, used to having whatever she desired.

  Suddenly he heard a low whistle. Instantly alert, Kirk watched the trail leading to the mouth of the lair, hidden within a rocky crevice and lit by the newly arriving day.

  A moment later the cat appeared. It was a female. She was sleek and beautiful except for the way she dragged her blood matted front leg.

  Behind him, one of the men cocked his rifle. He raised his hand quickly to stop him. The cat was too beautiful to destroy. Turning, Kirk reached into the small pack and withdrew a long cylindrical object. As the cat neared the lair, Kirk lifted the special his rifle and loaded it with the tranquilizer dart.

  Raising the rifle, he centered the sight on the cat’s flank and, without hesitating, pulled the trigger. The dart struck the cougar. She whirled, snarling at her unseen enemy. In less than fifteen seconds, the cat had fallen helplessly to the ground.

  Kirk and the three hands rose from their concealment and walked over to the cat. None of the men spoke; each held his rifle ready, eyes wary. But the cat remained motionless; its large golden eyes open but empty.

  “Jeez, look at that paw,” one of the men said after he was certain that the cat would not move.

  The men studied the paw, and Kirk, sure that the drug would sedate the cat for a good six hours, bent close to it.

  “At least we know why it was going after the horses.”

  “What do you think happened?” asked another.

  Kirk lifted the injured leg and grimaced. “Stepped in a trap. I don’t know how the hell she got out.” Then he stood. “Let’s get her tied up and over to the Rover. We’ll bring her to the vet and let him figure out what to do.”

  “She’ll never be able to hunt again,” commented one of the hands.

  “Maybe a zoo will take her,” Kirk replied.

  The men worked quickly and efficiently, and an hour and a half later, the carried the cat, suspended between two very nervous horses, out of the mountains.