Zac said, "A good friend of mine had seen her book on the Internet and thought the title sounded familiar. He sent me an e-mail of the site. I'd never have known about the plagiarism otherwise. I'd forgotten after I was attacked, until she," he said, pointing at Jane, "showed me a page."
"How many other people have you told about this?" Jane asked.
"Nobody but the people in this room, the friend who tipped me off, and the literary attorney. To be frank, the attorney urged me to wait to file a suit until the book was published and Vernetta had lots more money. That's why I've kept my trap shut. So far," he added. It was clearly a threat aimed at Sophie.
"But you haven't," Corwin said. "If that was what you intended, why did you give Sophie that book of yours?"
Zac sighed and looked at Sophie. "We go a long way back together, Sophie and me. We've known each other since we started in the business. We've visited over the years at these conferences and exchanged a lot of gossip. I thought, in spite of my lawyer's advice, that she should at least have a chance at knowing what she was in for. If she didn't bother to read the book, I'd be off the moral hook."
"I guess I should thank you for that, Zac." Jane didn't think Sophie was even trying to sound sincere.
"When you said the book was missing, I suspected you took it seriously," Zac said. "That's why I went home to retrieve the last copy I'd kept. I'd really like to have it back or at least a Xerox of it."
"I'll make sure you do," Corwin said before Sophie could speak.
"I wonder, too, Ms. Smith," Jane said, "if Vernetta took your threats about the copyright infringement seriously. She seemed to think it was trivial and she was in the clear because the books were out of print."
"She was very cavalier about that, wasn't she?" Sophie admitted. "She'll see that I meant it when our attorneys point out that she has to give back all the money we've already advanced her."
"I imagine she's already spent it on those ridiculous clothes and the architectural drawings of her mansion," Corwin said.
"If Vernetta is an actual threat, won't that make her even more dangerous?" Shelley asked, glancing at Zac as she spoke.
"Not with you two ladies looking after me," Zac said with a slight smile.
"We can't be your bodyguards forever," Jane warned him.
She was realizing this discussion wasn't really going anywhere. She and Shelley had done all they could. She'd irritated Mel to a dangerous extent by snooping and asking favors of him. She hated letting this go. But it wasn't any of their business anymore. It was up to the attorneys now.
She stood up and Shelley followed her lead and rose as well. "We need to go along now and leave it in your hands," Jane said. "Zac, would you like help getting back to your room?"
"No, thanks. I'm feeling a lot better now. I'll stay here awhile. Thanks again."
Twenty-one
Jane and Shelley went clown the hallway to their suite. Shelley walked. Jane stomped.
When they were inside, Jane flopped into a chair and said, "If I don't have another RC very soon, I'll go entirely mad and my mother-in-law will finally be allowed to have my children to herself."
Shelley obligingly fixed her one the way she knew Jane liked it — a full can in a big glass with very little ice to dilute it. As she handed it to Jane she asked, "Did you really mean everything you said in Sophie's suite?"
Jane had taken her first big gulp and hiccupped happily. "Thanks, Shelley. Exactly right. Cold and strong enough to take my breath away. As for your question, I suppose I did mean what I said. Maybe. I was just so angry that Sophie, Corwin, and even Zac were talking solely about money and reputations. Corwin doesn't surprise me. He seems such a wimpy toady. But Sophie and Zac both suffered at someone's hands and don't seem
to give a fig for their own safety. How stupid can they be?"
"Remarkably stupid. Either one of them could have died from what happened to them," Shelley agreed. "So why are you so much angrier about it than I am? They aren't friends of ours. Neither happens to have died, though I agree that they could have. Why should you care so much?"
"Because I was the one," Jane said, "who was obviously brushed off like a mosquito. Even by Zac. I'd done a lot to help him. I even paid for his drink."
"Forget about them, Jane. It isn't worth working yourself into a fit of nerves over them. Or even over paying for something on behalf of Zac."
"I know you're right," Jane admitted, sipping gratefully on her own drink. "I've paid more than the drink cost for a good hamburger. If you'd been me, though, you'd be just as angry. It's the principle."
"I was thinking the same thing. I mean thinking what you told them about their safety, which appears to be the truth."
"So you believed me?"
"I always believe you. Except when you criticize my driving," Shelley said.
"I don't criticize your driving."
"Not in words, usually. You just sit petrified, shaking, putting your hands over your eyes, and periodically hitting your imaginary brake pedal."
Shelley's driving was the last thing she wanted to think about.
"I really think Vernetta hadn't the faintest idea what plagiarism meant," Jane said. "She couldn't even pronounce it correctly. All she knew was that she thought Sophie was being all het up about nothing. But it scared her when Sophie threatened to withdraw the money she was expecting."
"I agree," Shelley said. "But she couldn't have not realized it was looking bad for her. She's probably already spent whatever she's been paid on the architect who produced the plans for her teaching mansion."
"And do you also agree that she at least sounded sincere about having nothing to do with what Sophie and Zac suffered?"
"She did sound sincere," Shelley admitted. "But maybe she has a secret gift for sounding sincere when she isn't. We don't really know her, Jane. We just know enough to dislike her enormously. And after all, who else would have had a motive to put Sophie out of the conference by any means at hand, and injure Zac, to keep them from knowing she was a plagiarist?"
"But that doesn't work, Shelley. Even you must admit she didn't know what it meant. Who else could want to injure or kill both Sophie and Zac? Who else had a reason to hate them enough to possibly murder them?"
"Who knows?" Shelley said, still calm. "Jane,
we've both learned a lot this week about the business of publishing. And this must have to do with publishing, right?"
"It must."
"But we don't know about the other hundred and fifty people at this conference. Just the surface descriptions of the main speakers in the brochure. There could be any number of creeps in this group."
"We know Felicity pretty well," Jane said.
"You're right. I believe she's absolutely innocent of everything. She speaks her mind bluntly. Sometimes too bluntly for her own good."
Jane speculated. "Maybe Chester Griffith or this mysterious Miss Mystery have a long and horrible history with both Sophie and Zac. We had no idea that Zac and Sophie had a friendship. And I still don't believe it. Come to think of it, Zac may have stayed behind to negotiate his own financial settlement with Sophie. Or blackmail her into reprinting his old books."
"What a horrible thought," Shelley said. "But Mr. Griffith and Miss Mystery are both involved heavily in the book business and have probably been around both of them many times. Even your LaLane Jones might have had some serious tiff with them."
"I doubt LaLane had anything to do with it. She only came here, I think, to win the contest," Jane said.
"But she's rather strange, still. Keeping allthose notebooks you told me about and even having a special case to carry them around with her."