MURDER IN THE MANOR an addictive crime mystery full of twists by ROY LEWIS

Author:ROY LEWIS [LEWIS, ROY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books crime thriller, mystery and suspense
Published: 2021-05-04T22:00:00+00:00

3

In the history of any corporate body, John Torrance thought bleakly, there comes a point when its head, its driving force, finally understands that his position has changed, perhaps irrevocably, and it is time to move out, relinquish the power he holds and make way for younger, more thrusting executives. The law of business was like the law of the jungle in that respect: he had always known it, and of recent years had become ever more conscious of it. And yet, like most men, he never believed it would ever happen to him. The reins would still be held tightly even when his hands were old, gnarled and weak. Until he decided to give them up, hand them over.

That presupposed he was prepared to fight; teeth and claws still ruled in the business jungle, and he was sure that his strike power was still more than enough to throw back any of these Young Turks, bleeding and defeated. But all that was beside the point, in a sense. There were rules, even while you went out to establish the best power base possible; rules to be followed, patterns to be obeyed in developing your strategy, and one of the basic patterns was the good of the company and the shareholders.

Deliberately, he let the silence grow around him. He took out a cigar, clipped its end, lit it, tasted the strong tobacco on his tongue and in his throat. The aroma reached his nostrils, soothed him, gentled his anger, but only to the point where it became controllable, usable and the more deadly for that as far as these three young men facing him in the room were concerned. They were now seated; he stood in front of them, legs braced, glaring at them as he slowly took the cigar from his mouth.

‘Gentlemen, I’ve had disturbing news — and I want to know who’s responsible for it.’

The three men were silent and tense. Paul Dorset’s eyes were heavy-lidded, contemplative, but Peter Barclay’s glance was nervous and quick as though he were seeking some means of escape from the room when the going got tough. Neil Bradon sat rigidly, stiff-backed, waiting. His hands were still; Torrance recognized the signs of control in the man.

‘All right, fine, you don’t know what I’m talking about,’ Torrance said smoothly. ‘So I’ll put you in the picture, like you were all tyros and didn’t know what the hell this business is all about. Because I sure as hell guess I’ll get nothing out of any of you until I spin you a few facts. First, the obvious one: the whole basis of our venture into Europe is to continue CADS’s growth through the European deals. Right?’

Paul Dorset nodded, almost sleepily. ‘That’s the company strategy.’

‘Tied in with the whole thing, though, is the need for two things to happen. First, we have to keep a low profile on what discussions we’re having, and with whom. If it’s too obvious that we’re dealing with certain people, like

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.