The Naked Typist

17

“I didn’t do it.”

Steven Winslow frowned. He looked at Kelly Blaine through the wire mesh screen in the visiting room of the lockup. “They charge you yet?”

“Yes.”

“What’s the charge?”

“Murdering David Castleton.”

“That’s what you didn’t do?”

Kelly frowned. “Why are you talking like that? Like you didn’t believe me? You’re my lawyer.”

“Hang on,” Steve said. “Let’s get something clear. I’m not your lawyer. I did a job for you. That job is finished. Now you’re consulting me again. I may take the case and I may not. That’s still up in the air. I’m not your lawyer till I tell you I am.”

“But-”

“Hold on. Let me finish. You’re now consulting me as an attorney. Whether I take the case or not, anything you tell me is confidential. It can’t implicate you, and I can’t divulge it. So there’s no reason to hold anything back. You can talk as freely as if I were your attorney.”

“I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t you take the case?”

“We have a slight credibility problem here. You come into my office, tell me a story. I act on it, get you a settlement. As it turns out, I have no idea how much of your story is true. All I know is, you gave me a phony name and address and then you didn’t cash your settlement check. Next thing I know you’re palling around with David Castleton and he’s dead.

“That’s in the debit column. You expect me to have any dealings with you, you better start filling in the credit side of the ledger.”

Steve took a breath. “Okay. Let’s start with your name. You told me Kelly Blaine. The cops have you down as Kelly Wilder. Which is it?”

“It’s Wilder.”

“And what’s Blaine?”

“Nothing. I made it up.”

“Why?”

“It’s a long story.”

Steve gestured at the surroundings. “Yeah, well it looks like you’re gonna have plenty of time. So start explaining.”

Kelly took a breath. “Well, I guess you could start with my name.”

Steve’s eyes narrowed. “It isn’t Wilder either?”

“No, it is. But it’s my married name.” She wrinkled her nose. “I was married two years. To an actor. A total creep. I don’t know why it took me that long to figure it out. It was just one of those things. Anyhow, I’m divorced. Almost a year now. I just haven’t gotten around to changing my name.”

“Yeah? So what?”

“My maiden name is Clay.”

Steve frowned. “Clay? Why is that name familiar?”

“My brother’s name is Herbert Clay.”

“Herbert Clay.” Steve’s eyes widened. “The bookkeeper for Castleton industries, went to jail for embezzlement?”

“That’s right.”

“Good lord. Do the cops know that?”

“I don’t know.”

“They’re sure as hell gonna find out.” Steve shook his head. “Jesus Christ.”

“What’s the matter?”

“What’s the matter? That’s the motive. Indignant sister of jailed brother wages one-woman war against industry that put him away.”

“That’s not true.”

“I didn’t say it was true. I just told you how it’s gonna sound. But we’re not talkin’ true here. Which from you would be a real innovation. So far, all I’ve had from you is a bunch of bullshit. Start at the beginning and tell me what the hell happened.”

“You know about my brother?”

“I know he worked for Castleton Industries, went to jail for embezzlement. That was about two years ago, right?”

“Right. I was in California. Married to a schmuck.” Kelly shook her head. “Alan Wilder. The great Alan Wilder. Teen heartthrob, rising screen star. What a fool. There I was, working, supporting both of us. And there he was, making the rounds, going to Hollywood parties alone to further his career. Snorting cocaine and screwing starlets. And I shouldn’t stand in his way, his chance to make the big time. I don’t know why it took me so long to wise up.”

Steve shifted restlessly.

Kelly held up her hands. “All right, all right. Anyway, the point is, I was in California when it happened. The thing with my brother, I mean. I knew about it, I knew he was in trouble and all that. But I was a million miles away, and I had my own problems.

“But I knew Herb. I knew he wouldn’t do anything like that. I figured it was all a big mistake, and everything would get straightened out. Next thing I know he’s in jail.

“Well, I wanted to do something to help, but like I say, I had my own problems.

“And that’s what did it. What woke me up, I mean. Because I wanted to come here, see Herb, see if there was anything I could do to help, and Alan wouldn’t hear of it. What was I thinking of, going to New York? We didn’t have the money. He didn’t have the time. He couldn’t come with me, he didn’t want me going alone. And he didn’t want me calling attention to myself. He had his career to think of, for god’s sake. He didn’t want people associating him as the guy married to the sister of an embezzler.

“Anyway, that was the beginning of the end. We separated, we eventually divorced, and I started saving money to come out here. Which wasn’t easy. New York is not cheap. I got a one-room apartment-lucky to get it-that costs me close to a thousand a month.

“I hit town about four months ago, went to see Herb.”

Her eyes misted over and her lips trembled. “Jesus. I couldn’t believe it. What jail had done to him. Oh, nothing physical. He wasn’t beat up. He wasn’t even thin. But his eyes. They were dead. Defeated. Yeah, he was glad to see me and he was animated, but it lasted about a minute. After that there was nothing but dull resignation. Hopelessness.”

“So what?”

Kelly’s eyes widened. “So what? What do you mean, so what? This is my brother we’re talking about. He’s in jail and he didn’t do it.” Kelly’s jaw tightened. “Yeah, go on, look at me like that. I’m telling you he didn’t do it. I don’t care what you think, I know.”

“How do you know?”

“I just know.” Kelly held up her hand. She took a breath. “I know, that’s no answer. But it is for me. I know my brother. If he’d done it, he’d have told me. Look, you want the truth? My brother’s no saint. He’s been in scrapes before. But he wouldn’t try to lie out of it. Not to me. He wouldn’t say, ‘I didn’t do it, you gotta help me.’ He’d say, ‘Kelly, I did this, I’m in a mess, now what can I do?’ You understand? If he’d done this, he’d tell me everything he’d done to see if there was anything we could do about it. If he tells me he didn’t do it, I gotta believe him.”

“He was found guilty in a court of law.”

“Yeah, sure,” Kelly said contemptuously. “Probably the first time the courts ever made a mistake.”

“What was the evidence against him?”

Kelly’s eyes shifted.

“Well?” Steve prompted.

“Well, he was in charge of the books. And …”

“And?”

Kelly took a breath. “Well, my brother is weak. He likes to gamble.”

“Oh?”

Her eyes blazed. “See? You made up your mind already. Just like the jury did. Which wasn’t fair. All right, I’ll tell you. Herb liked to play the ponies. It was a weakness with him. He tried to control it, but it was always there.

“Anyway, he was in charge of the books, so if he was a little short until payday, he’d sometimes dip into the petty cash to cover his losses. It wasn’t that much, and he always made good by Friday when he got paid.”

“That came out in court?”

“Yeah. He got arrested on Thursday. He was short, as usual. A couple of hundred bucks. Anyway, there’d have been no trouble the next day, but as it was he was screwed.”

“He didn’t go to jail for two hundred bucks.”

“No. That was the tip of the iceberg. It was over a hundred thousand.”

“How was that possible?”

“Stocks had been manipulated, transactions misreported, entries carried on the books that weren’t accurate. Over a hundred grand of investors’ money had been siphoned out of the company.”

“And the bookkeeper in charge had a history of playing the ponies and dipping into petty cash to cover his losses?”

She took a breath. “Yes. I know it sounds bad. Hell, the jury didn’t have to hear any more than that. They brought in a verdict without even thinking. But the fact is, he didn’t do it.”

Steve held up his hand. “Fine. Let’s not argue the merits of the case anymore. What has this got to do with you working for Castleton?”

She looked at him. “Isn’t it obvious? To get my brother out of jail. To find something to prove he didn’t do it.”

Steve looked at her skeptically. “Wasn’t that a hell of a long shot.”

“Not at all. I knew exactly what I was looking for.”

“What was that?”

“Well, you gotta understand. The way Herb tells it, he knew something was fishy with the books long before this happened. It was all somewhat complicated, he couldn’t be sure what was going on, but the way the entries were coming in, he had a suspicion everything wasn’t entirely kosher.”

“So?”

“So, about two weeks before his arrest he wrote a memo to Milton Castleton, telling him this.”

“Was that brought out in the trial?”

“Yes and no. Herb claimed he wrote the memo. His lawyer subpoenaed Castleton’s files. Of course, it wasn’t there.”

“I see.”

“No, you don’t. They were making a case against him. If the memo had been in the files, they’d have destroyed it.”

“Did his lawyer point that out?”

Kelly sighed. “In a halfhearted way. He was just going through the motions. Look, I have to be honest with you. The way Herb tells it, his lawyer thought he was guilty too.”

“Yeah, fine,” Steve said. “But what’s the point? Of you working there, I mean? If the memo was destroyed, what good was it gonna do?”

“That’s the thing,” Kelly said. “Herb remembered something. He hadn’t during the trial. Probably because his lawyer was a piece of shit and didn’t believe in him to begin with. But I talked to Herb. Drew him out. I know how to do it. And I got something.”

“What’s that?”

“He faxed it.”

“What?”

“The memo. He faxed the memo.”

“To whom.”

“Milton Castleton. Look, you gotta understand the setup. This was two years ago. Milton Castleton was still head of the company then. He hadn’t stepped down yet. He was still running things.

“But he was sick. His health was bad. I don’t know what he’s got, no one seems to know, he’s real quiet about it. But the last year before he stepped down, when his health got bad, he stopped going into the office. He ran things from his apartment on Fifth Avenue. Had his office set up there.

“Well, fax machines were the new craze, and of course Castleton had one, to get reports directly from the company. Herb remembers he faxed the memo to him.”

“What difference does that make?”

“It’s recorded. There’s a record. See, Castleton Industries is all computerized. The latest state-of-the-art equipment. Very sophisticated. We’re not talking a desktop computer here. Castleton’s got a setup in his office like they got in the Pentagon. You could run an army with it.

“And it’s tied into everything. Including the fax system. When a fax comes through, it’s automatically copied.”

“How do you know all this?”

“I’m not just a typist. Back in California-when I was supporting the schmuck-I was working as a computer programmer.”

Steve’s eyes widened. “So that’s why you took the job.”

“Of course. See, after I pumped Herb for everything he could give me, I knew what I had to do. I went out and investigated Castleton Industries. I was looking for some way to get a job, to get in.

“I managed to make friends with one of the secretaries there. What she told me wasn’t that promising. The only thing I’d be able to get would be in the typing pool, the girls in the pool wouldn’t have access to anything. It’d be a hell of a long shot. Still, it was better than nothing.”

Kelly lowered her eyes. “Then she told me something else. She’d heard rumors about Milton Castleton. His memoirs, the whole bit. She said he advertised in the New York Times, just like it was a regular job. But when girls answered the ad, well, you know.”

Kelly shook her head. “Well, it was so bizarre I couldn’t believe it. Or I didn’t want to believe it. But I kept watching the Times. Five days later, there it was. Secretary wanted to type memoirs. Castleton’s name wasn’t mentioned, but it gave the address and it was his building.

“Well, I had to think about it, but not too long. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to go to the interview.

“I called the number. Phil Danby answered. I gave him the name Kelly Blaine. I rattled off a list of qualifications. Some I made up, some were actually mine.

“He asked my age. When I told him, he said fine and set up an interview.

“It was at Castleton’s apartment. The morning I went, there were four other women there. Two of them were rather plain. Danby took them first. He was the one conducting the interviews. Castleton was not in evidence. Anyway, we were all sitting in a drawing room. Danby came in, smiled at one of the women, led her off. Was back two minutes later to get the other.

I doubt if he even took them into the office. Just told them in the hallway they weren’t suitable and sent them home. Anyway, they never came back.

“The next person he took was me. He led me to the office-the one where I worked-and explained the situation. It was just like the secretary said. There was a window in the wall with a one-way glass to Castleton’s office, he was eccentric and liked his secretaries to work nude, for which he paid a hundred bucks an hour, and if I had any problem with this there were no hard feelings and he was sorry he’d wasted my time, but did I want to hear more?

“Well, I was willing to listen. And he explained the setup. I would work there in the office at a word processor. I’d be typing up dictation from a microcassette. I would be in a locked room and no one would disturb me. I’d make eight hundred bucks a day.”

Kelly looked up at Steve with pleading eyes. “Well, it’s not the sort of thing I would have done. I mean, what the hell did I want to be in a locked office for. If I could have worked in his office, if there had been an opportunity to be alone, to have access to the files. But to run around naked in front of that dirty old man … well, there was no way I was going to do it.”

She paused. Took a breath. “Except for one thing. The word processor. The first thing I noticed was it didn’t have a printer. I asked him about it, aren’t I supposed to print out what I type? He said, no, that wasn’t necessary. The word processor was hooked up to the main computer in Castleton’s office. Everything I typed would be monitored and printed out there.

“Well, that was the key. The deciding factor. I wasn’t just working a word processor. I was working a computer terminal. I know computers. I would have access.

“I took the job.”

“And the rest of it?”

“What?”

“When you got fired. Thrown out. Was it true?”

“Not entirely.”

“How not entirely?”

“Well, a lot not entirely. He did lock me out in the hall-Phil Danby. I did play tag in the stairwells and find a coat in the basement. All of that was true.”

“But the attempted rape? The sexual advance?”

“Never happened. You met Danby. Can you imagine him trying that? No, what happened was I found it.”

“Found what?”

“The memo. The one Herb wrote. I found it in the computer.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Not at all. I knew it was there, I looked for it and I found it.”

“How.”

“Well, the way the whole thing was set up, I couldn’t access their computer. But they could access mine. To monitor my work. And I had a way to tell when they were monitoring. Of course, that meant leaving the document I was working on and playing around with DOS.”

“DOS?”

“Yeah. Disk Operating System. I could get into DOS, tell if I was working solo or if they’d accessed my terminal. If they had, it established a link. The line was open. When they accessed my terminal, I could access theirs.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Not at all. But it was risky. Because everything I was doing would be flashing on my screen.”

“And flashing on theirs?”

“No. If they accessed my document, that’s what they’d be seeing. If I exited the document and went into DOS, that wouldn’t show up on their terminal. Unless they knew how to look for it, they wouldn’t find it, and they wouldn’t know how to look.

“But it was on my screen, and even from a distance you could tell the difference. Of course, I couldn’t see through the window, couldn’t tell if anyone was looking through the other side. And I couldn’t turn my monitor away from the window, that would be a dead giveaway. I tried to keep my head in front of the screen, block it the best I could, but even so it was a risk. Besides, if they were looking at the last page of my document, if they stopped to think about it, they could see that nothing new was being typed.”

“Yeah, so?”

“So I had to work fast. Before they caught on, and before they broke the link. Which wasn’t easy. They didn’t keep it open long. It took me half a dozen times before I got in.”

“Into what?”

“Into Fax-log.”

“And?”

“And it wasn’t there.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I found copies of every fax that was sent during the dates in question. Herb’s memo wasn’t there.”

“Maybe he didn’t send it after all.”

“Yes, he did. They erased it. They deleted it from the file. Isn’t that great? That’s ten times more damning than if it had been there. They knew it was important, so they erased it.”

Steve Winslow frowned. “That’s really inverted logic. What you’re looking for isn’t there, so you claim it was destroyed. I thought you said you found it.”

“But I did.” Kelly’s eyes were gleaming. “Don’t you understand? I found the damn thing!”

“What are you talking about? You just said it was erased.”

“Yeah, it was. From the file. But you gotta understand. These computers are very sophisticated. They all have backup systems. Suppose you accidentally delete a file, wipe it out. Well, it’s gone from the main system, and if you didn’t know any better, you’d think that was it. But it’s still saved in the automatic backup, and if you know computers and know how to get into it, you can bring it back.”

“And you did?”

“Yeah.”

“When?”

“The day I got fired.”

Steve took a breath. “Okay. Tell me about that. What really happened?”

She held up her hands. “All right. Look. You remember, Castleton was gone for the day. Or so I was told-how the hell should I know? But as far as I knew, Castleton wasn’t there. So I didn’t expect to get anything because I didn’t expect to be monitored. But I kept checking off and on all day, and finally I hit it-someone was on the line. I didn’t know if Castleton had come back or if it was Danby or what the hell, but I didn’t care. I was in and I had to work fast.

“By then I really knew what I was doing. I’d been close before. I riffled through the files and I found it.

“I was really scared. I didn’t know if I was being watched. If Castleton wasn’t there, I shouldn’t have been. Those were the ground rules. If Danby was in his office, the curtain on the window should have been closed. I couldn’t count on that, but I had to take a chance.

“So I put a floppy disk in the computer and downloaded the memo.”

Steve’s eyes widened. “You what?”

“That’s right. I had a floppy disk in my purse. I mean, why not? They never searched me or anything. It’s just when I was working it was like being in a fishbowl. Anyway, as soon as I hit it I got up, grabbed my purse and went into the bathroom. I took the floppy disk out of my purse, went back to the computer and downloaded the memo. As soon as I had it, I ripped the disk out of the machine, went back in the bathroom and put it in my purse. I put the purse back in the closet and was just sitting down at the machine when the door opened and Danby came in.”

Steve was listening, too fascinated now to even think of a question. “Go on,” he said.

“I was scared to death. I didn’t know what had happened. Was the curtain open? Had he seen me? Had he been monitoring my terminal or what?

“I screamed, covered myself and backed away from the machine.

“That’s when I saw. Shit. I was still in DOS. I was so eager to get the disk out of the computer I hadn’t exited the program.

“I lunged for the machine, pushed the button, and the letter I’d been typing came back on.

“Danby tried to stop me. He grabbed my wrist, said, ‘Don’t touch that.’ But it was too late. I’d switched the screen. Anyway, he grabbed me and I slapped him. When I did he let go. But then I didn’t know what to do. I was panicked. My purse and clothes were in the closet, but I couldn’t get by him to get to them. And he was coming at me. And I don’t want to answer questions, and I’m naked for Christ’s sake, and I’m scared out of my mind and I don’t know what to do.

“So I ran. I ran out of there. Just like I told you before. I found a coat, came to your office and you know the rest.”

“No, I don’t know the rest. You told me a bullshit story and I acted on it. I see now why you did it, but tell me anyway.”

“I wanted the purse, of course. That’s why I didn’t give a damn about the settlement. All I wanted was the disk in my purse.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t get it.”

“Yes, I did.”

Steve frowned. “I searched your purse. It wasn’t there.”

“Yes it was. It was in the lining. It’s the only smart thing I did. It was a big, floppy purse. I cut a slit in the lining. I had the disk hidden there. You didn’t find it and they didn’t find it. That’s why I was so damn pleased when you got me my clothes back. I looked in my purse and it was there.”

Steve thought that over. “Okay. That explains what happened then.” He spread his hands to indicate the surroundings. “How did we get to this?”

Kelly bit her lip. Shook her head. “I was stupid. I should have gotten help. I should have told you what was going on. Either that, or I should have gone to Herb’s lawyer. But he was such a numbnuts-I mean, the guy thought Herb was guilty. Anyway, I tried to do it on my own.”

“Do what?”

“Bluff them.”

“Bluff them?”

“Yeah. See, I was stupid again. I had the memo, but what did it prove? It was just that, a memo. Nothing to prove where it came from. I could have typed it myself on some other machine. If I’d been smart and I’d had time, what I should have done was downloaded the whole file. Then I’d have had copies of all these other fax that would have matched the ones in Castleton’s files. Even that wouldn’t be real proof-I could have just added this memo to it. But even so. I’d have had more credibility.

“Anyway, I had the memo. I didn’t know if they knew I had it. I mean, Danby knew I’d been screwing around with the computer, but he didn’t know what I was after. He wouldn’t know about the backup file.

“And Castleton. Well, Castleton hadn’t embezzled a hundred grand. Not him. Not from his own company. If someone had, and I could prove it to him and prove it wasn’t Herb, well, he’d have no reason not to listen.”

“Yeah? So?”

“So I called.”

“And?”

“I got Phil Danby. Of course. But he wasn’t rude and abusive and he didn’t cut me off. That was a good sign. Instead, he seemed interested to find out what was going on.

“Which was perfect for me. It meant they were still in the dark. They had a feeling they’d been had somehow, but they still didn’t know why or what it was all about. And they were interested enough to want to find out.

“Anyway, I wasn’t about to deal with Danby. I told him I wanted to talk to Milton Castleton directly. He said no way, any dealings with Castleton went through him.”

“What did you do?”

“I said, ‘Too bad,’ and hung up. I gave him a few hours to think it over and called back. That time Danby’s attitude was quite different. He said he’d talked to Castleton and Castleton was willing to talk to me, but not on the phone. But if I’d come to the apartment, Castleton would see me personally.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Told him to forget it. There was no way I was going back in that apartment. I told him I wanted to meet Castleton in a public place where I’d feel safe, and I wanted to meet him alone.

“Danby said that was impossible. Castleton was in poor health, he couldn’t go traipsing around the city and certainly not alone.

“I said, ‘Too bad,’ and hung up. I let ’em stew about it and called back the next day.

“I got Danby again. He said he’d relayed my message to Castleton and what I wanted was out of the question.

“But Castleton had a compromise. If I wanted to meet in a public place, he couldn’t meet me but he’d send his grandson in his place.”

Steve’s eyes narrowed. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“The meeting was for last night?”

“That’s right.”

Steve thought that over. “Why his grandson? Why not his son?”

“I don’t know. Only, the way I hear it, the son is not too swift. Just a yes man for dad. But David Castleton is pretty sharp.” She bit her lip. “Was.”

“Yeah. So you agreed to this?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I figured it was true what Danby said, that I’d never get to Castleton himself. And there was another thing.”

“What was that?”

“David was the one I wanted.”

“What do you mean?”

“David Castleton was Herb’s boss. David Castleton had a reputation of being a playboy. Of being a little wild. There were rumors grandpa had him on a short leash.”

“You mean …?”

“Absolutely. He was the one Herb suspected of the embezzlement. The way Herb saw it, he certainly was the most likely. Particularly in light of what happened. Because if Castleton’s own grandson was involved, what would happen then? You’d get a whitewash, a cover-up and a convenient scapegoat. Which is exactly what happened.”

“Your brother have any proof?”

“Of course not. No more than they had proof against him. My brother liked to gamble, live above his means and had access to the books. So did David Castleton. My brother wasn’t anybody’s grandson, he was just a little guy without connections, and he took the rap.”

“All right,” Steve said. “So you figured you’d confront him with this?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t know what I would do. But this was a guy I wanted access to, and here he was. I didn’t know how much I would tell him, I didn’t know how much I would let on. I figured I’d play it by ear. The key thing I had going for me was David Castleton didn’t know who I was. Didn’t know I was Herb’s sister, I mean. So I figured I’d talk to him, sound him out, try to see what made him tick. I’d never met the guy, you know. Anyway, I figured it was a step in the right direction.”

“So what happened?”

“So I met him last night. Seven o’clock. Singles bar on Third Avenue. His suggestion. Well, it was noisy, crowded. I couldn’t talk there. I told him so. He said, no problem, we’d go somewhere quiet, have dinner, talk it over. We went out, hopped in a cab, went uptown to a small Italian place. Not fancy, but nice. Quiet, unpretentious. We sat there and had dinner.”

“And?”

“I took it real slow. During dinner I didn’t bring up why I was there. And neither did he. We just made small talk. Which was kind of one-sided, ’cause I wouldn’t tell him anything about myself. So we talked about him. His grandfather. The company. Which was great, ’cause that was what I wanted to know.”

She stopped. Took a breath.

“And?” Steve prompted.

She frowned. Shook her head. “And he was nice. Not at all what I expected. It could have been an act, considering the circumstances. But I was looking for that. I was expecting that. But I didn’t think so. The guy was basically nice.”

“So?”

“So, it was a slow, leisurely dinner. Then we had coffee. We still hadn’t brought anything up. Finally, he smiles and says, ‘Why are you here?’”

“And?”

“And I got into it. Not directly. I still didn’t tell him who I was, what I was after. But he’d been talking about the company, so I picked up on that, and then I brought up the embezzlement.”

“What happened then?”

She shook her head again. “It didn’t seem to bother him. I was watching closely, trying to judge his reaction. And there wasn’t any. He knew all about the embezzlement, of course. But my bringing it up didn’t seem to faze him. He was very matter-of-fact about it. Yeah, there’d been an embezzlement, and it was sort of an embarrassment to him because it had been in his branch of the company, but they got the guy who did it and he was in jail and it really hadn’t hurt him much.”

“Did you believe him?”

“That’s the problem. I did. I didn’t want to, but I did. I kept telling myself, the guy’s shrewd, he’s acting, he’s conning you. But I couldn’t make myself believe it. The guy just came across as sincere.”

“So what’d you do?”

“I still didn’t let on who I was. But I admitted what I was after. I had reason to believe that he had been conned and Herbert Clay had been framed and the embezzlement had actually been the work of someone else.”

“How did he take that?”

“He was very skeptical. And his attitude changed. He was still nice, but very condescending, you know what I mean? It was obvious I was sincere, but I was misguided and misinformed. He felt sorry for me, and he just wished there was something he could do to convince me I was wrong and I was wasting my time.”

“What happened then?”

“We went to his apartment.”

“Why?”

“Because he had a computer.”

“What?”

“I had the floppy disk in my purse. The way things were going, I decided to show it to him.”

“You tell him what you had?”

“No, I just asked him if he had a computer. When he said yes, I said, fine, I want to show you something. We took a cab to his apartment.”

“What time did you get there?”

“Ten-thirty.”

“Go on. What happened?”

“We went up there and he turned on the machine. I stuck the floppy disk in and called up the memo.”

“And?”

“It floored him. At least that’s how he acted. He’d never seen the memo before, he had no idea it existed, he couldn’t believe I’d pulled it out of the files.”

“You believed him?”

“Yeah, I did. Because he was angry, you know? He was outraged this could have happened. He promised me he’d get to the bottom of it.”

“Is that when you told him who you were?”

“No. I never did.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. I mean, I trusted him but only so far.”

“Then how’d the police get to you so fast?”

“I don’t know.”

“They didn’t tell you?”

“No.”

“They talk to you?”

“Yeah.”

“Ask you questions?”

“They tried.”

“You tell ’em anything?”

“Absolutely not. I said, I’m not talking and I want to call my lawyer.”

“Good for you. Just keep telling ’em that.”

“You gonna represent me?”

“Let’s hear the rest of your story first.”

“That’s it.”

“No, that isn’t it. You’re in jail under suspicion of murder. Let’s find out how you got here. The last you told me, you were up in David Castleton’s apartment and he seems real sincere and he wants to help you.”

Kelly drew back from the screen. “What’s the matter? You sound sarcastic.”

“Do I? Well, that’s the problem with your story. When you hear it repeated back, it doesn’t sound that good.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“I didn’t say that. But I’d like a few more details. Right now I got you and David Castleton up in his apartment looking at a computer disk. Suddenly, he’s real compassionate and wants to help you?”

“So?”

“You go to bed with him?”

Kelly set her jaw. “What the hell kind of question is that?”

“It’s a question you’re gonna be asked. It would help to have the answer.”

“The answer is no, goddamn it. And I resent that. You’re only asking me that because I typed nude. You’re saying a girl who would do that’s a loose woman, you could expect her to hop into bed with every man she meets. Well, I’m not like that. I told you why I took that job, and that’s not fair.”

Steve shrugged. “Yes, but it’s a two-edged sword.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’d be asked that question anyway. The only reason you’re so pissed off and defensive is because you typed nude. Otherwise, the question wouldn’t bother you.”

“Yeah, but-”

“Look,” Steve said. “There’s some hard realities here. Hard reality number one is you’re charged with murder. Hard reality number two is whatever reason you may have had, you did type nude. When that gets out, you are gonna be on the front page of every tabloid in the city.”

Kelly’s eyes widened. “Oh, shit.”

“Yeah,” Steve said. “So you better get used to it, and you better figure out how you’re gonna handle it. Let me tell you something-righteous indignation is not an act that’s gonna play.”

Steve paused and took a breath. “Okay. Now hold all that for a moment. How did you leave things with David Castleton?”

“That’s just it. I left him the disk.”

“The floppy disk?”

“Yeah.”

“You trusted him with that?”

“It was a copy. I had the original. I wasn’t bringing that with me. I duped a copy to bring to show.”

“And you left him that?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“To show his grandfather. That’s what he said he’d do. First thing the next morning. He said there was no way his grandfather would have let this thing happen. Not if he’d seen that memo. He said his grandfather was hard, ruthless, cutthroat, but fair. He would not frame an innocent man and he would not let it happen. I tell you, he was very upset.”

“Okay,” Steve said. “Say all this is true. If he believed you, your brother didn’t do it. If you believed him, he didn’t do it. So who could have done it? Who had access? Who did he think it could be?”

Kelly shook her head. “He wouldn’t say. But that’s just it. That’s why he was so upset. Not just that this had happened. Because of the implications.”

“What implications?”

“Like you said. Who had access? See, David’s immediate superior was his father, Stanley Castleton.”

“What?!” Steve said incredulously.

“That’s right. In charge of the division, being groomed to take over the company.”

“Why in hell would a man in that position risk something like that?”

“I don’t know, and I tell you, it’s nothing that David said. It’s just the impression I got. And would account for him being so upset. You asked me, so I told you.”

Steve rubbed his head. “Jesus Christ.”

“Yeah. It’s a mess, isn’t it?”

“I’ll say. So you left him the disk?”

“Right.”

“And you left his apartment?”

“Yes.”

“What time?”

“Eleven-fifteen, eleven-thirty. Somewhere in there.”

“And you went straight home?” Steve said. He knew the answer, of course, but he didn’t want her to know he knew.

“That’s right. I went home, went to bed. Next thing I know, cops are knocking on the door.”

“And you never told David Castleton who you were?”

“No.”

“And you never told him your address?”

“No.”

“Or phone number?”

“No.”

“Or any way to get in touch with you?”

“No. I told him I’d get in touch with him.”

Steve shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“What?”

“How the cops got onto you so fast. Tell me something, you ever own a gun?”

“A gun? Why?”

“Why do you think? David Castleton was shot. With a thirty-two-caliber automatic. So tell me. You ever own a gun?”

“Of course not.”

“Ever borrow one?”

“No.”

“There was a gun found next to the body. Are you telling me there’s no way that gun could be traced to you?”

“Absolutely not. How could there be?”

“I don’t know. But it would explain how the cops got onto you.”

“I see that. But the answer is no. I’ve never had any connection with any gun. It had to be something else.”

“Yeah. Great. You sure you didn’t talk to the cops. Tell ’em anything?”

“Nothing. So what about it. Will you be my lawyer?”

Steve ran his hand over his head, sighed. “Yeah, I’m your lawyer. Tell me, where’s the other floppy disk? The original.”

“In my apartment.”

“How will I find it? Is it marked?”

“Yeah. It’s in a box of disks in my top dresser drawer. It’s marked with an X.”

“An X?”

“Yeah. In gold pen. There’s a special gold marker you can use to write on floppy disks. It shows up against the black. You can write right on the disk itself. I didn’t label the thing, I just marked it with an X. Right on the tab. You’ll see it riffling through the disks.”

“What about the other one? The one you left with David? Was that marked?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“X dash one.”

“In gold pen?”

“Right.”

“Then the cops should have found it. I’ll check on that.”

Steve took out a pen and pencil and slipped it through the wire mesh screen. “Here. Write out a note to your super, stating I’m your attorney and you’re authorizing me to get stuff out of your apartment.”

Kelly scribbled the note, pushed the pen and paper back through the screen.

“You’ll get the disk?” Kelly said.

“Yeah. I’ll get the disk.”

She looked at him with pleading eyes. “And then you’ll get me out of here?”

Steve sighed. “That may be a little harder.”