A Lively Game of Death by Marvin Kaye

Author:Marvin Kaye [Kaye, Marvin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784086374
Publisher: Head of Zeus Ltd
Published: 2012-10-30T17:18:00+00:00

16

“I WANTED TO DESTROY THEM,” Saxon told us, still sitting with his winter overcoat sagging over his lap and knees, “but if Lasker found out I’d rifled his desk, he might have gone ahead with his threats, just to be nasty. What I had really hoped to find were the negatives. ”

“So,” said Hilary, “that’s what you were doing here that Sunday when everyone thought you were out of town.”

Saxon nodded slowly, then appealed to Scott. “I’m sorry about it, Scotty. You can see why I didn’t want to discuss it this morning, can’t you?”

Not trusting himself to speak, Scott nodded, putting a sympathetic hand on Saxon’s shoulders.

“I didn’t want my wife to know anything about it,” the VP explained. “That’s why I packed her off to Miami. I was afraid there’d be one hell of a scene, and I didn’t want her hearing any of it. Although, as it turned out, the blowup between my daughter Penny and me never took place. I haven’t had the stomach to face her with—”

“Maybe you’d better start over, tell us about it from the beginning,” Hilary interrupted. “How long had your daughter been seeing Lasker?”

“I don’t know. Penny lives with her mother and me in Brooklyn Heights, but she’s of age, and I’ve never pried into her personal life. That’s why I just couldn’t talk to her about this.”

There was a rap at the door. A secretary stuck in her head and told Scott he was wanted on the telephone. He excused himself and left to take the call in his office.

“I never liked Lasker,” Saxon was saying. “Too smooth, too eager to make a good impression. He always struck me as a man out to make good no matter who he hurt.”

“When did he meet your daughter?”

“I think it was spring, a year or so ago, at a company picnic. I know they dated a few times after that, but I had no idea what it had come to. ”

“When did he approach you with the pictures?” Hilary asked.

“Quite a while ago. Late last year, October or November, I forget exactly when. He took me into this office, closed the door, and took those filthy things out of his desk. Said he’d start mailing them around to the other executives, show them to some of the shop workers—”

“What did he want from you? Money?” I asked.

“Hardly. He knows I’m comfortably off, but you wouldn’t call me a likely target for that kind of blackmail. No, he wanted me to talk him up at executive meetings, persuade Scott to promote him to a vice-presidency. It was idiotic!”

“Why idiotic?” Hilary wondered.

“Because I don’t have that kind of power! When it comes to new product design or deciding whether to break into a new area of technical process, Scott’ll pay serious attention to anything I recommend—although even there I have to work hand-in-hand with the marketing experts. But to think I can go bringing up somebody’s name in board meetings so I can give

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