“Give you a lift?” Marc said to Amanda. “I’m springing for a cab uptown, I can drop you.” He reached for Cissy’s hand which she turned in his grip so that he felt impelled to press it in gentle farewell rather than a firm handshake.
“Iknow we’re going to be seeing more ofyou.” Amanda suppressed a cough and Marc chuckled wickedly. Cissy looked from one to the other in feigned questioning annoyance.
“What?”
Chapter 7
AMANDA felt positively giddy.
“Is everything all right?” Professor Angeli asked anxiously as she hurried into the office. “Mindy told us the waitress said you had an urgent message from your roommate and that you and the other young man rushed away.”
“Is she okay? Cissy okay? I know how she gets nuts sometimes. She’s been hitting the booze again, right? And those damn pills. Should I go to her?” Jimmy was worried.
“Jimmy, she’s fine… now. No, it wasn’t alcohol or pills. I think she would love to tell you all about it. It was a break-in but she was very brave. We got there in the nick of time. It was very exciting.” She turned from her amazed assistant to the stunned older artist. “The other gentleman was very helpful. I was very grateful he was with me. Good Lord, Untermeyer is still here?”
“Yes,” the professor quickly explained as Jimmy rushed to the nearest phone. “Young Nathan was brilliant, charming, effervescent. He showed Untermeyer the most amazing sketches for upcoming projects. Our money man is positively drooling with anticipation and all but forcing largesse into our corporate hands. Ah, Mr. Untermeyer,” he greeted the approaching businessman. “Here is our esteemed executive returned from a rather exciting morning. I’m sure she’s anxious to continue your discussion.”
The compact man’s anxious expression morphed into the scowl of an important person extremely annoyed at having been kept waiting as he swept imperiously into Amanda’s office.
“I’m sorry, I’m not at all anxious to continue our discussion,” Amanda announced quietly as she slid behind her desk. Untermeyer’s jaw dropped. “I was called away and it’s been a difficult few hours for me. Our particular niche of the publishing business is like that, as I’m sure you can appreciate. We must move fast and make, hopefully, well-informed decisions.
“You can appreciate my wanting to meet with you when I can give your proposition my fullest attention. Perhaps you’d like to have further discussions with your partners, now that you’ve had a chance to meet our personnel and observe our operation, before you make your final offer.”
She ushered the startled man from her office. “Please give me a few days to assimilate some new developments. Jimmy will set up another meeting that will ensure my undivided attention. I’m sure you don’t feel your hours here have been wasted?”
“No, no.” The sputtering man could barely speak. “No, not at all. You got a great shop here. Just the kinda thing my guys are looking for. Don’t go with somebody else until I get a chance to pitch. Okay? Promise me that?” He held out an anxious, damp palm.
“I promise. Thank you for being so understanding. Professor, if you would see our guest out.” Jimmy, still on a nearby phone, gave Untermeyer the OK sign as the professor smilingly led him away.
Amanda made a quick stop by Nathan’s cubicle, where the young man was feverishly working on a brilliantly conceived illustration.
“I hear you did good, bozo,” she said, as she smiled in gratitude. “Thanks.”
“The old guy was really excited by this stuff,” he said. He gave a dismissive shrug, but his eyes shone. “And the prof couldn’t stop yapping enough. Maybe…” His look drifted inward. She didn’t recall ever having seen Nathanthink before. He justdid. “Maybe that model guy in last night’s class…” He shook his head as though just as surprised at his reactions as she. “Y’know, I’m kinda looking forward to what ole Antonio might come up with tomorrow night. Who was the suit that drug you out?”
Amanda’s heart skipped a beat. The life drawing classes at the League were held twice a week. The “suit” would be “un-suited” again tomorrow.
“Another money man,” she fibbed. “They’re throwing the stuff at us, thanks to your wicked, wicked ways with a drawing pen. Don’t get any smart ideas: your contract’s iron clad.”
His look was totally devoid of the usual self-interested smirk. “Thanks… Amanda. You’ve pretty much saved my ass again. Between you and the professor…” The old Nathan quickly squelched the glimmer of a buried smirk, but not before Amanda got in a quick hug of appreciation.
“We’re saving each other, buddy. That’s what friends use friends for.”
She went into her office and firmly closed the door.
Drunk with accomplishment was one thing. And Nathan being civil? Now, how was she supposed to spy on her friends?
Amanda stared at her hands, resting on her desk, her fingertips still tingling with the remembered feel of Marc’s warm palms underneath. The heat circulated in her chest. She felt a slight constriction in the depths of her throat and another sting behind her eyes.
I must be coming down with something.
No, Ace. You ain’t coming down with it. You GOT it.
WHAT A glorious day, Marc thought as the cab inched its way through the cacophony of Manhattan traffic. Crisp, bright light glinted off the proliferation of soaring phallic architecture. Clean, fresh, on-the-verge-of-spring air filled his lungs. Rich, healthy blood pumped in his veins.
The cab jolted as the driver bellowed a few well-chosen Pakistani epithets at the blocking taxi in front of him.
I love this city. LA is a helluva lot easier. But New York is… New York.He began to hum happily to himself.
“OKAY, TROOPS, this seems the best way to let you all know what’s going on.” Amanda sat on the front edge of her desk and surveyed the small group she had called into her office.
“Ohmigod, we’ve been bought out, right?” The receptionist’s voice cut through the general murmuring. “It’s the good-looking guy with the glasses, right?”
Amanda smiled. “Mindy, you’ve been influenced by my fine young assistant’s too many over-the-top reactions to things that are not that big a deal.”
“Come on, boss lady. It’s a big deal. You don’t call us into a private confab unless somebody’s hand has been in the till or worse,” Nathan commented, as he slouched in a chair busily scribbling on a pad.
The professor looked concerned. Jimmy looked eager.
“Someone has been going though my files. There was no sign of forced entry so I can only assume it was someone who had access to the office. Do any of you have any idea who, or why, someone might want to do such a thing? Nothing is missing that I can determine.”
The professor blanched. Jimmy looked excited. Mindy gasped. Nathan glanced up from his sketching with a frown. “Your files? Why? What the hell is in your files?”
“Records of sales, contracts. Documents that require a hard copy, a signature. Everything else is in the mainframe and available at everyone’s computer. To everyone at Double A, for that matter. We’re on a network.”
“You mean like who bought what books from us? Who we sold stuff to? Projected series? Stuff like that?” Jimmy was getting into it. “Sounds like illustrated-novel publishing espionage to me. Competitors trying to get the jump on us.” He nodded his head sagely, satisfied they were in the thick of big-city doings.
Professor Angeli sat forward on his chair. “We are somewhat lax about security. It does sound feasible that someone might have secured the proper keys. If nothing’s missing, was there a particular section of the files that seemed to have drawn the intruder’s special attention?”