“Tell him I’m older than I was when Newsweek ran that piece about me. Older and more venal.”
“Venal?”
“That means I’m willing to listen to any reasonable offer.”
“I know the word. I don’t understand how you’re applying it here.”
“You’ve done your duty, baby. You’ve convinced me that he’s a major personality who doesn’t like to be disturbed unless it’s important. This can have a bearing on the vote tomorrow, and of course it’s important.”
“All right, Mr. Shayne. We’ll do it like this.”
She signalled with a movement of her head. A rumpled man with ears that had taken a battering in the prize ring separated himself from the drinkers and closed in on Shayne.
“We want to use the office, Louis,” Mandy said. “If there’s anybody there, ask them to step out for a minute.”
He tapped on a closed door and looked in. A small, glistening man in a tuxedo came out, moving sideward to get out of Mandy’s way.
“We’ll only be a few minutes.”
Shayne and the girl entered a small room which was filled to capacity with two people in it. Like all offices of this kind, like certain restaurants and celebrity barber shops, all four walls were crowded with framed, inscribed photographs of entertainers, few of them of any particular luster. Any new additions would have to go on the ceiling.
She perched on a corner of the desk and waved him to a leather sofa.
“I did this to establish something.”
“Okay,” he said agreeably. He had brought his drink. He shook it in his glass to raise the bouquet and drank. “What do we talk about?”
“This is the Oscar situation. He doesn’t want anybody to think he’s really trying. But you know, don’t you, that he didn’t build Oscar Olson Enterprises out of thin air without a certain amount of application? He worries, like the rest of us. He’s been worrying about this vote. He’s committed a good deal of capital. Now if he stays up the rest of the night worrying about Kate Thackera, he won’t be able to look casual at the meeting tomorrow; and that would be out of character.”
“Maybe he ought to worry. There are things he could be doing tonight.”
She pushed her glasses back on her nose. “He’s put Consolidated-Famous out of his mind. He’s had sex. As soon as he gets his testosterone shots and a massage, he’ll drift off. Now if you barge in and jolt him out of this routine — and he decides it wasn’t necessary — he’ll brand me and cut off my ears. On the other hand, if I’m overly cautious, that can be bad, too. That’s why I have to hear about it.”
“He sounds like a pain in the ass. Why do you work for him?”
“An interesting question, and you don’t really want to know the answer. From all I can gather, if Marcus Zion didn’t happen to be the son of Larry Zion, he’d be the manager of a supermarket or a CPA. If we take over the board, he’ll be given thirty days notice; and he knows it. You’re not necessarily an enemy? Of course you’re an enemy, and I think the reason you want to talk to Oscar may be to unsettle him and knock him off balance so he’ll make some mistake tomorrow.”
“How well did you know Kate Thackera?”
“Not at all. She had two conversations with Oscar: one in San Francisco, one here. I talked to her before she got in, the way I’m talking to you. A trifle unstable, wasn’t she?”
“She tried to give that impression. Was she blackmailing Olson?”
“I haven’t heard that word in years.”
“It’s called different things. This was delivered to Kate at the hotel this afternoon.”
He unfolded the composite Brannon-Thackera nude torn from her employer’s magazine and let her study it.
“The face is Kate’s. You may not recognize the body, but Oscar will. It’s Keko Brannon. You hadn’t even started to menstruate when this was taken.”
“And you’re hoping to sell it to him?”
“It’s not for sale. I just want to see what kind of rise I can get out of him. You did it very well. Very cool. No vibrations at all.”
“Why should I vibrate? It means nothing to me.”
She pushed off from the desk and sat down beside him. “I’m not catching much of this, as a matter of fact. You do realize that I’m a girl?”
“You made sure I’d realize that by frisking the top of my socks and not wearing a bra.”
“Oscar writes editorials against bras. He enjoys the aesthetic harmonies of a moving breast; and when the breast starts to sag, he loses interest in the lady it’s attached to. I shouldn’t have to tell you this.”
“What are you telling me? That in addition to a great figure, you’ve got a mind?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, still poker-faced. “Did that sound pretentious? I just don’t think the size and shape of the female breast is the only thing that matters. Shall we start again?”
“How far back?”
She removed her glasses. Switching around on the couch so she faced him, she touched his leg and said in a completely different voice, almost whispering, “You’re a Taurus, aren’t you? That wonderful combination of strength and gentleness.”
“Baby, time’s passing.”
“Too fast.”
She moved her fingers on his leg. The look she was giving him was vague and unfocussed.
“You’ll try to understand, won’t you? I know it’s absurd, because all I am is a secretary; but I have to screen people. He’s such a tyrant. The chances are he’d go into hysterics and call for the bouncers and have them bounce you down the stairs. And I don’t want any bruises on your sexy body. Talk to me instead. Tell me about it. Maybe I can persuade you to come for a dip in our pool. We swim naked, of course.”
She moved her hand on up Shayne’s leg and gave him a quick intimate caress. “Would sex be a better way to do it? Would you prefer that?”
He laughed. “Baby, you’ve got a real chip on your shoulder.”
She put her glasses on. Her voice was back to normal.
“I made a mistake about something minor this afternoon, and he gave me a verbal flogging. It’s true I’m feeling a bit militant. I know Kate Thackera saw him. I don’t know what about. But he’s pretty much wrapped up in himself, and I don’t think he’s going to mind that she’s dead.”
“Have you decided to let me in?”
“No. What can he do about anything tonight that he can’t do just as well in the morning?”
“If he talks to me now, if he gives me something I can use, there’s a chance his name won’t be mentioned. Not much of a chance, but he’ll want to take it. I was hired to keep that girl out of trouble. Somebody got past me. That’s bad publicity in my business. It makes me look dumb. The only way to handle it is to blanket it. I expect to be up most of the night. I don’t have to get a solution, just some names for the lead. Keko Brannon’s a good name. So is Oscar Olson.”
“I don’t see what you mean.”
“Toss me out, and I’ll call a press conference and show this picture. The newspaper guys can take it from there. Oscar’s magazine. Keko Brannon used to share his wonderful bed. She died. Kate Thacker went to Oscar’s parties and saw him privately, and she died. Oscar has money; Kate needed money. She wanted a part in a movie. Oscar could get it for her if he won.”
“You think she was blackmailing him and he killed her? You’re insane.”
“Somebody killed her.”
“He’s been here all day, and sixty or more people can testify to that.”
“Did he know what brand of bourbon she drank?”
“How do I know? What difference does it make?”
“She opened a gift package of Old Grand-dad, only it wasn’t Old Grand-dad. It was a fragmentation bomb.”