Bad for Business

Chapter 15

Fox permitted himself three seconds for a rapid movement and reorganization of his cerebral forces, covering the operation by wiping his face with his handkerchief.

“Wrestling with the dog made me sweat,” he observed.

The lady in mink had nothing to say to that.

“Naturally,” he went on, “I disagree with your characterization of my conduct and demands.” Smiling pleasantly at her had of course been wrong, and he was meeting her intent regard with a rude stare. “And I certainly have no intention of making any display of filial sentiment, even if I felt any, which I don’t. If you’re going to appeal to me...” He left it hanging.

She continued to gaze at him another moment and then said abruptly, “My brother told me you were a blackguard. A vulgar common swindler. I think he made a mistake.” A frosty smile was on her lips and gone. “A woman can tell those things better than a man. You don’t look — that way. My brother is not very tolerant or understanding, and I think he handled — undoubtedly he was blunt about it.” She tried to smile again. “That’s his manner. He probably insulted you about this — this business you want the money for—”

“Womon,” said Fox aggressively.

She nodded. “Whatever it is. He thinks that’s just a sham and a pretense, that you really want the money for yourself. He doesn’t realize, as I do, that young people are often genuinely unselfish and idealistic. But a million dollars — that’s impossible! He won’t pay it!”

“I think he will,” said Fox menacingly.

“But he won’t!” She extended a gloved hand, and let it fall again. “I admit that I would, if I had it, but I haven’t. I have nothing. I have come here, to this place, to appeal to you! I am dependent on my brother for everything. He has been generous with me, but I am dependent on him, and to expect him to pay any such sum — even half that—”

“He will. He’ll have to.” Fox scowled at her. “You might as well cut it. If all you came for is to try to save him some money, you may as well save your breath. You know damn well he’ll pay it.”

She was silent, gazing at him. Her jaw twitched, and her lips worked, but Fox was saved the bother of swallowing any compunction by the expression of her eyes, for even in fear and real distress there was no softness in them. He had no difficulty to maintain his scowl intact.

“You are a blackguard,” she said in a thin hard tone. “You are willing to ruin me. I bore you, and you would destroy me. Then this is what I want to say. You think my brother will pay what you demand. Maybe he will. I don’t know. But I know he won’t on your terms. He has already given you ten thousand dollars. He won’t give you another cent, this I know, until you give up the papers about — your birth — and until you sign what he wants you to about that, and about your going to meet him that evening. If you do tomorrow what you threatened to do if you don’t get the money, you’ll lose everything and so will I. That’s what I came to tell you, that’s why I was willing to suffer this intolerable humiliation, because apparently you think my brother is bluffing, and he isn’t. I know him.”

“I am not bluffing either — uh — madam.”

“I suppose you’re not.” Deep and bitter resentment was in her eyes and tone. “You’re a man — look at you! I was doomed to be ruined by men. When I was a poor little pretty thing in that factory — that finished me, I thought, with men — but there are more ways than one. You have some of me in you, and my blood is the same as my brother’s. Your father — you haven’t learned from those papers who your father was, have you?”

“No.”

“He was hard, too, in a different way from us. But you’re half him and half me.” She laughed, a terrible little puff of rancor. “So I wouldn’t expect you to bluff. But I have warned my brother and I came here to warn you: unless you fix this, unless you two somehow make terms, all of us will suffer. I’ll be smashed, finished. His pride will get a blow that it will never recover from, hard as he is. You won’t get a dollar, let alone a million. And there’s another thing.”

“Still another?”

“Yes.” Her eyes bored into his. “Tuesday night.”

“What about Tuesday night?”

“Don’t be inane,” she said contemptuously. “I don’t know who killed Arthur Tingley. Do you? Does my brother? I don’t know.”

“Same here,” said Fox gruffly. “That’s no good with me for an inducement to compromise. But you knew we were going to be there, and I’ve been wondering if you didn’t decide to make the gathering complete—”

The gleam of disdain in her eyes met the sentence and stopped it.

“All right.” He shrugged. “Then let us worry about who killed Tingley, if you’re out of it. As for the rest — shall I tell you what I think?”

“I came here in the hope that you would prove to be capable of thought.”

“I am. I hope he is. I’ve been going over it, and I’ve come to the same conclusion you have. If we don’t look out nobody will win and everybody will lose. But he’s a hard man to deal with, you know that. I think if you were with us, if the three of us were together, we would get somewhere. I think the thing to do is for you and me to go to him now and settle it.”

She frowned. “But he—” She seemed to be shrinking. “He would be—”

“You’re afraid of him.” Fox was on his feet. “I don’t blame you, but you are. I’m not. I’ve got him where I want him, and you too. Suit yourself. I’m ready to go.”

She shivered a little.

“Where is he, at home?” Fox asked.

“Yes. Waiting for me...”

“Suit yourself. If you want it settled — I don’t know how I’ll feel about it tomorrow—”

“Wait a minute.” Her head drooped, and for a while she sat there motionless, her face not visible to him. Then she straightened up, arose, and said in a controlled voice, “Very well. We’ll settle it.”

Fox lost no time getting her out of there. But out in the public hall, before he closed the door, he turned to her as one who has suddenly remembered something:

“The dog. I’d better give the dog a bone. I’ll be right back.”

He slipped away and into the kitchen. A quick inspection of the bonds of the captive showed that all the knots were still intact, which might have been expected, since that had been his intention when he tied them. To the eyes that blazed with fury he paid no attention whatever, as he applied two more strips of tape to the mouth, and then began exploring pockets, not finding the bunch of keys until he got to the right hip of the trousers, which was hard to get at. Back at the entrance door, he would have liked to make sure the right key was there for his re-entry, whenever that might be, but the lady in mink was standing waiting, facing him, so he merely pulled the door shut for the spring lock to catch.

She preceded him down the four flights, and from the way she steadied herself with her fingertips along the grimy old rail it was plain that those gloves would have a cleaning before they were worn again. Outside, there was no car in front but his own, and he decided to ignore that, since he wished to preserve appearances and it was an unlikely chattel for an idealistic young man who lived in squalor.

He hesitated. “Your car?”

“I didn’t bring it. I didn’t want to — I came in a cab.”

He turned west and they walked together to Second Avenue and after a short wait flagged a passing taxi, and she gave an address in the Seventies just east of Fifth. She took her corner and he took his, and nothing was said until the destination was reached, the driver was paid, and he hopped out and offered her a hand which she did not take.

There on the sidewalk, she looked smaller, less erect, her eyes less determined and hard.

“I had better go in first,” she said, “and tell him—”

“No,” Fox said bluntly. “We’re doing this together or not at all.”

She didn’t insist. Fox depressed the lever of the massive ornamental door to the vestibule, pushed, held it for her to enter, and followed. She touched a button in the jamb, and almost at once the inner door opened and she passed through, with him at her heels. A man in the conventional uniform closed the door and stood ready for anything from negation of his existence to decapitation without change of expression.

“Is Mr. Judd upstairs?”

“Yes, Miss Judd.”

“Then just take my things here.” He was behind her for her coat. “And take Mr.—”

“Sherman,” Fox said.

“Of course. Mr. Sherman’s coat and hat.”

That was done. Fox followed her across the spacious reception hall and up the broad carpeted stairs, admiring the fine old cherrywood of the curving rail and comparing it with the rail she had touched so gingerly less than half an hour ago. Upstairs was a landing only less spacious than the hall below, and broad corridors in three directions. She led the way to the right, opened a door, and passed through, into a large room of warmth and color and comfort and a thousand books. Only one person was there, a man in an easy chair with his feet raised to a stool, smoking a pipe and reading a magazine. His head turned to them as they entered.

Miss Judd spoke in a high-pitched voice. “Guthrie, I thought the best thing—”

She stopped and stood transfixed, at the expression on her brother’s face.