A Deeper Dimension (7 page)

Diana smiled.

“Surely things aren’t as hectic as this all the time?” she queried.

“No, really we have had a lot happen that normally doesn’t. But Alex is simply too energetic to let things happen at a slower pace. If something isn’t going on, he starts something else,” Carrie replied ruefully.

“I bet he’ll be unbearable whenever he decides to retire, then!” Diana chuckled.

“Oh, he’d be the type that would drive his wife up the wall with too much energy and too little to do,” Carrie laughingly agreed. “But Alex probably would be the kind that works until collapse. No inactivity for him!”

Diana nodded. That did sound like Alex, she thought. Then she remembered how tired Alex sounded when he talked to her before he left. She also remembered something else. “Carrie, do you know a woman named Alicia?”

Carrie grimaced. “Do I know Alicia!” she exclaimed. “The only Alicia that I know is Alicia Payne, Derrick Payne’s daughter. And if that’s the one you mean, you don’t want to know her!”

“That bad, huh?”

“Worse. This girl is the original blonde-haired, blue-eyed, hypocritical bitch.” Diana whistled, and Carrie continued, “Alex used to date her from time to time, and she was always careful that he didn’t see her temper, but I saw her get angry at a poor girl who spilled coffee on her skirt by accident.” She shuddered. “She was so vindictive!”

“Alicia Payne,” Diana looked at the ceiling as she spoke. “Her father is also in steel, isn’t he?”

“Yes, although he really isn’t much competition for us now. His company is smaller than ours and his output is less. I don’t think he’s very efficient, myself.”

“Do we have the potential ability to put him out of business if Alex wanted to?”

Carrie looked surprised. “Why, I suppose we do, although Alex doesn’t work like that.”

Diana looked at her. “But old Derrick might think like that?”

A light began to gleam in Carrie’s eyes. “I believe he might at that. What are you thinking, Diana?”

“A motive,” she told her, “for murder. The murder of Mason Steel. I take it that Alex is no longer seeing Alicia?”

“That’s right. A few months ago, Alex told her he didn’t want to see her again. Little Miss High and Mighty was getting a bit too possessive for her own status. She started demanding, expecting Alex to give in like I’m sure her daddy does for her.” Carrie rolled her eyes at Diana. “She came storming out of Alex’s office, eyes spitting venom, and we haven’t seen her in here again, much to my delight.”

“All of the motives are there, Carrie!” Diana said excitedly. “Do you see it? Fear, hate and revenge.” She ticked them off on her fingers as she spoke. “Fear Derrick feels for Alex’s growing power in his own line of business and his own inability to cope. Hate comes when you fear something as a direct threat to yourself. Also, I’m sure Alicia isn’t feeling too friendly towards Alex right now. And revenge. Remember that old saying about a woman scorned? I think we can paraphrase it to make it fit our needs. How about ‘Hell hath no fury like a bitch who’s scorned’? Nice, huh?”

“Oh, dear, do you really think they would?” Carrie asked doubtfully.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I couldn’t be sure until I met them both and found out for myself how they really are. I overheard Alex talking to Owen, and Owen seems to think so! Anyway, there’s nothing we can do about it for tonight, so the only thing I’m going to do is go home to bed. I can ask Alex about it tomorrow,” she finished.

Carrie took out the used Styrofoam cups while Diana began to tidy up the office. She turned off the light when she was through, and locked the door. On her way out, she stopped at Carrie’s desk.

“How long do you plan on staying, madam?” she asked.
 

Carrie smiled as she looked up. “I think I’ll stay for another fifteen minutes or so, until I finish up these two business letters.”

“Is it all right if I leave you to finish the locking up, then?”

“Of course. Please don’t stay around here if that’s all you need to do,” she replied. She smiled warmly up at Diana.

“Then I’ll say goodnight,” Diana smiled back as she took her leave and left the office.

On her way down to the main floor, she stopped to drop off the chart that she had completed to the third floor where the accountants were, then hurried out of the building. She got into her little sports car and backed out of her parking space.

Diana felt uneasy as she drove home. Fear, she thought as she carefully made a turn, revenge and hate. All of them were intense emotions, and she felt uncertain of the conclusions that she had so blithely drawn in the office when she was talking to Carrie. She did not know either Alicia or Derrick Payne. All she had to go on was a half-heard conversation that Alex had with Owen, and Carrie’s own opinion of Alicia Payne. Part was gossip and the other part was incomplete. By the time Diana had reached home, she had successfully talked herself out of believing that anyone had such a malicious intent towards Mason Steel. Feeling a little foolish, she resolved not to talk about it to anyone else.

There was another car pulled up by the kerb as Diana reached home, and she was delighted to see that Terry and Brenda were back home from their trip. She ran lightly up the front porch steps to knock on their door. Brenda answered it, a wide grin on her face as she saw who was at the door.

“Hello, strangers,” Diana exclaimed.

“Hello, yourself,” Brenda retorted. She held the door open wide and motioned with her hand. “Don’t just stand there gawking, girl, come on in!”

Diana stepped through the doorway.

“When did you get back?” she asked, waving at Terry as he passed by the doorway going down the hall. He rolled his eyes as he braked suddenly and came back to talk to her.

“All of fifteen minutes ago, wasn’t it, hon?” Terry passed his arm around Brenda’s waist.

“You idiot!” she pushed him away as she smiled, and turned to Diana. “Don’t believe a word of it! We’ve been home for at least three hours!” Diana began to laugh at the look of injured hurt on Terry’s face.

He said stiffly, “Just because I happen to be an accurate judge of time, she calls me an idiot!” Sticking his nose up in the air, he marched out of the room.

Diana, still chuckling, turned towards Brenda. “What plans do you have made for supper?”

“We were just going to have sandwiches and soup,” Brenda replied. She continued hopefully, “Unless you want to invite us over?”

“I was thinking that maybe we could combine suppers. I’ll make a chicken casserole if you’ll bring a salad, or something,” Diana offered.

“Great!” Brenda said enthusiastically. “We’ll bring our deck of cards, too. After supper we can play a few games.”

“All right. How about around six-thirty?” suggested Diana. She was secretly relieved that she didn’t have to spend another night all alone in the house.

“Will do. See you then.”

They had a wonderful time that evening. Terry made an unexpected trip to the store and returned with a bottle of wine to top off the meal. Then they spent a hilarious evening playing all sorts of card games, and making up their own rules as they went along. As Terry put it, they were being innovative and creative. “After all, the rest of the world just plays by somebody else’s rules,” he explained haughtily.

All the same, Diana wondered what it would be like to have a foursome. More specifically, she wondered what it would feel like to have a partner, someone to team up with in games, someone to take your side in trouble, someone to go home with at night. She felt a great affection for Terry and Brenda and wished them all the happiness in the world, but at the same time they made her feel something was missing in her life. They were a team, while she had no one but herself. She didn’t like to spend a great deal of time with them.

All three of them had to get up for work the next morning, so Terry and Brenda left fairly early after helping Diana clear up the supper mess and do the dishes.

After they left, Diana decided to go out biking. As she locked her apartment door, she assured herself that it was merely a physical tension she wanted to dispel. She tried not to think of her cold and empty bedroom. Wheeling down the driveway, she turned for the country roads, pedalling fast.

Terry and Brenda were in their darkened bedroom when they heard the sounds of the garage door being opened. Brenda padded to the window and peeped through. “She’s leaving again,” she said worriedly. “I always feel anxious when she goes out at night like this.”

“She’ll be all right,” Terry said soothingly. “This is a nice neighbourhood, and it’s quiet. She’s always been all right in the past.”

“All the same, I don’t like it,” Brenda replied sharply. “I wish she wouldn’t do it.”

“Can you blame her?” he asked quietly as he went over to the bed and pulled back the covers. “She has nothing in that apartment to make her want to stay. And nobody to make her care to.”

Brenda turned from the window and her eyes rested on him. “I suppose so…”

Diana, unaware of the discussion going on about her, sped on down the streets while visions of Mason Steel, and especially Alex, flashed through her mind. She shook her head angrily. I don’t want to think about him! she told herself. I don’t want to think… She thought of the short blue robe with muscled bare legs underneath, and her mouth went dry. A long steep hill lay before her and her mind accepted the challenge with relief.

By the time she reached home, she was physically and mentally exhausted. In the past she had been attracted to other men, but they had all been a sort of schoolgirl crush. Diana had realised early the nature of these crushes. She had known that they were unrealistic and fleeting. She also had realised that they were for her a form of escape when she was most weary. She had dimly envisaged a knight in shining armour who would come and carry her away from all of the unpleasantness of life and all responsibility.

Now she looked upon her attraction to Alex with dismay. Diana didn’t want all of those old feelings to come back; she regarded them as unhealthy, a threat to her strength of personality. She resolved to do what she had in the past: avoid the situation at all costs.

With that settled in her mind, Diana wearily went to bed.

The next morning, she got up early. She wanted to be at the office by eight to work a little on a few financial reports before Alex got back from Philadelphia. She remembered something he had said about having those done by the weekend, and today was Friday.

Dressing quickly, she thought again about how strange events had been lately at Mason Steel. Alicia Payne came to mind, and she wondered what kind of motive the other girl would consider strong enough reason for such an act of vengeance. Diana had never experienced any wrong horrible enough to want to revenge it. She couldn’t fathom somebody else imbued with such spite. Therefore such a thing was not possible.

Diana reached Mason Steel with all her doubts diminished.

As she entered the office, she was greatly surprised to see Owen Bradshaw in Carrie’s seat with the phone receiver in his hand. He looked at her over his glasses, but said nothing. There was a look of strain about his face that sat oddly on such plumpness. Feeling rather horrible with a sick foreboding of disaster, Diana forgot to take off her coat as she sank on to the couch to wait for him to finish the call. As he finished, he leaned back in his seat with a sigh. “I can’t get hold of Alex,” Owen said flatly.

“He must be at the factory, because he told me he would be either there or at the motel,” she mused out loud. “Of course the phone lines are out at the factory, so you couldn’t reach him there.” She looked at Owen and forbore to ask any questions, although her eyebrows went up a little. He smiled a twisted smile at the expression on her face.

“We have to find him, Diana,” he stated quietly. “It’s going to happen today.”

For some inexplicable reason the words sent a chill down her back. “Why?” she asked. “What’s wrong? What’s going to happen today?”

He stood up and walked heavily around the desk. “I don’t know what,” he spoke reluctantly, acting half ashamed at his admission. “Things have been happening so quickly around here…” He broke off. Then, with a direct look into Diana’s eyes, he asked, “Have you ever been so sure of something that, even though you have no proof, no logical argument, nothing concrete or sane to hold on to, you still believe in it with every conviction you hold solid?”

Only half comprehending what Owen meant, she asked tentatively, “Do you mean something like intuition?” He nodded, looking a bit relieved, and she replied, “Yes, I think I know what you mean. What are you so sure of?”

After a moment he said heavily, “Alicia Payne.”

Diana closed her eyes. Oh no, she thought. “And you think something else is going to happen today,” she stated, rather than asked.

“Yes.” The unemotional reply held a powerful conviction. “The Pittsburgh factory is behind schedule. The Philadelphia one is not producing, even though you and I know that the delay is very temporary. Alex is away, unable to make decisions, with no knowledge of the current events taking place today. We can’t reach him at the motel. The best time for another blow to Mason Steel is today, this morning. If there’s somebody behind this, they’ll know when to strike.”

Diana was thinking rapidly. “Did you try sending someone in Philadelphia to the factory to try and locate Alex?”