Ex Officio by Donald E. Westlake

Author:Donald E. Westlake [Westlake, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4804-2891-1
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 2013-05-08T16:37:00+00:00

iii

HOWARD CAME OUT FIRST, and Evelyn was waiting for him in the hall. She had gone back to her letter, but not successfully, it had all sounded too juvenile and foolish when she’d tried to write more of it after talking with Robert. But she was still angry, and she said, “Are you going to write a Letter To The Editor?”

“The worst thing we could do,” he said. “Did you talk to him again about that title?”

He meant The Final Glory, the title Bradford had dropped so unexpectedly into the middle of that interview with George back in August. Howard had spent most of the month of September trying to get Bradford to explain what he’d meant by that, what The Final Glory would contain, but he’d been just as obstinate with Howard as he’d been with George, so finally two weeks ago Howard had asked Evelyn to take a stab at prying the information out of him.

It was more than simple curiosity on Howard’s part. Random House, in its ads for Bradford’s books, always listed all the titles in the seven-volume memoirs, those completed and those projected. Now Bradford was insisting that this new title be inserted between The Servant of the Nation and Toward Tomorrow, and he wouldn’t tell anyone what the book was supposed to be about.

“Well, he finally said something,” Evelyn said now. “Not much, I’m afraid.”

“I’ll take crumbs,” Howard said. “Quick, he’ll be out in a minute.”

“He said, ‘Well, it would mean I’m going to do something, wouldn’t it? And I have to keep my options open beforehand, that’s why I don’t want to say anything about it.’”

“That’s what he said?” Howard scratched a knuckle against his jaw, thinking about it. “That means he hasn’t made up his mind yet. There’s something he might do, but he isn’t sure yet whether he will or not.”

“Oh, no, I don’t think so. Bradford’s going to do something, for sure, or he wouldn’t say a word, he wouldn’t mention the title at all, not in public. I think he’s just got a decision to make about which something it is, there are two or maybe three different things he might do and he doesn’t know yet for sure which one to pick.”

“Could be,” Howard said, as Bradford appeared at the other end of the hall. Under his breath, Howard said, “Keep at him.”

“All right.”

Howard turned and said to Bradford, “I was just telling Evelyn, actually he’s given us plenty of quotes, if we want to use them.”

“We don’t,” Bradford said.

“I know we don’t. The point I’m trying to make is that the review isn’t as bad as it looks right off the bat. His tone is unfortunate, but that’s Rutherford. There’s nothing to be done about the way the man sounds. But what he’s saying, once you get past the tone, is mostly complimentary.”

“What he’s saying,” Bradford said, “is that nobody gives a damn about yesterday’s heroes. What he’s saying is that I’m an obsolete politician, I’ve run my last race, I’m out to pasture, all I am now is bedside reading.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.