Better Than This (31 page)

I saw this wasn’t a spur of the moment decision. It was something he’d thought about and if I hadn’t suggested selling, he would have offered to take over my share anyway. I knew then that Sally was right, nothing would ever be the same again. I felt a mixture of sadness and hurt, but I tried not to let it show. “Sure,” I agreed. “If that’s what you want.”

He appeared to suddenly realize how hasty he must have seemed. “I mean, I don’t know what else I’d do anyway.”

“It’s a good idea.” I filled everyone’s glasses. “To the new sole owner of Carpe Diem.”

I could see how it would probably work out. Marcus had the creative talent, and I guess Karen could fill my role. She was bright enough and hard working. With slight bitterness I acknowledged that he would probably do pretty well without me. I met Sally’s eye and from her expression it was obvious that she knew what I was thinking. Our smiles were forced as we touched glasses. Across the table even Alice gave me an oddly sympathetic look.

I’d probably drunk two hundred dollars’ worth of Krug and it had settled sourly in my stomach. My good spirits evaporated like the gas in the wine. Over our meal conversation was stilted, filled with uncomfortable pauses. I wondered what the hell I’d been thinking of when I suggested we do this. Sally was reserved, Marcus and Alice barely spoke except when Alice made some comment directed at him that seemed barbed with an inflection only they understood. She seemed to be enjoying herself, but chiefly because of Marcus’s discomfort.

“This was such a good idea, Nick,” she beamed as I refilled her glass. “I always wanted to know what it felt like to be rich.”

Marcus glanced at her sourly but didn’t say anything. By the time we’d eaten dessert I needed a cigarette though I hadn’t smoked for years so I excused myself and went back to the machine outside the washrooms and bought a packet. I lit up out on the terrace. I was standing in the shadows thrown by the lamps beneath the bougainvillea that grew along the overhead trellis. There had been a shower earlier and out in the lot vapour rose in steaming wisps from the tarmac. The air felt closer than ever, and my palms were damp. It was going to rain anytime, a real deluge.

“Care for some company?”

I turned and was surprised to find Alice there.

“I went to the bathroom. I saw you standing out here.” I offered her a cigarette and she took one and leaned over when I lit it for her, the flame highlighting her eyes in the flare of light.

“I never expected this,” I said.

She raised her eyebrows. “Meaning?”

“You and I as allies, I guess. It seems we’re the only ones happy about this money. That’s kind of ironic don’t you think?”

She stared off into the lot. I couldn’t see her eyes or tell what she was thinking. “I suppose it is.” She turned back to me. “You were surprised when Marcus said he’d take over the agency weren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Because he’d thought it out?”

“Partly,” I admitted. “I suppose I hoped that everything would go back to the way it used to be. Sally warned me not to expect it would.”

“Did she?” Alice didn’t say anything for a while, then she said, “Why did you think everything would be the same again?”

“We’ve been friends for a long time. At least I always thought that we were.”

“But you don’t now?”

“In the past? I don’t know. I always thought I was doing the right thing. I never meant to deceive Marcus exactly, or push him into anything.”

“Oh?”

“Well, maybe I did in a way. But only because I thought it was the only way to go forward. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always thought Marcus is talented. I just think he can be a little conservative when it comes to business decisions.”

“Unlike you.”

I looked at her, expecting to see a familiar sarcasm taint her features, but to my surprise it wasn’t there. I suppose that allowed me to say what I did next. “Maybe you were right about me all along,” I mused.

“In what way?”

“You never thought I was much of a friend did you?”

“Well, I thought a lot of things.”

I wondered what she meant by that. I watched her as she smoked her cigarette. She’d sounded slightly bitter, which I assumed had something to do with what was going on between her and Marcus. “You can tell me to mind my own business if you like, but will you and Marcus get back together?”

“No,” she said without a moment’s thought, and without looking at me.

“I’m sorry.” I hesitated before asking my next question. “Did this have anything to do with me?”

She turned to face me again and I could tell she was thinking about how to reply. “In a way,” she said at last. “But it wasn’t your fault if that’s what you’re wondering.” She put out her cigarette. “It’s going to rain.”

“Yes,” I agreed, looking up at the night sky. I gathered she didn’t want to talk any more. I felt we’d torn down some of the old barriers between us, but it would take a little time before we could really feel comfortable with each other. However, there was one question I needed to ask. As we turned to go back inside I stopped her. “One more thing?”

“What?”

“The other night. What did you say to convince Marcus to agree to sell the program to Morgan? I didn’t think he would.”

She smiled enigmatically. “You’re right. He wouldn’t have.”

Then she went inside without answering my question.

As we threaded our way back to our table I saw a man talking to Sally and Marcus. He had his back to us, but as we drew nearer something about him was instantly familiar.

“What is it?” Alice said, seeing my expression.

Sally saw me just then, and picking up on that the man turned around. He smiled, that mocking smile I hated so much, as if he always knew more than anybody else, and his eye travelled quickly and lasciviously over Alice’s tight fitting dress and what it hinted of beneath.

“Nick. What a coincidence meeting you here like this.”

“Dexter,” I said without enthusiasm. “What the hell do you want?”

He blinked and adopted a look of exaggerated hurt. “That’s no way to greet an old friend and colleague.” He turned his attention to Alice who looked puzzled. “Nick and I once worked together. I suppose we were rivals in a way. Nick takes these things to heart. I’m Larry Dexter by the way.”

He held out his hand, which Alice automatically took. He was impeccably dressed as usual, wearing a charcoal suit with a white silk open-neck shirt. It was the first time I had ever seen him without a tie.

“Nick, where are your manners? Marcus here has introduced me to your lovely wife by the way.”

Sally was looking at me with an odd expression. Both she and Marcus appeared to be silently trying to tell me something.

“Alice,” I said. “Dexter here works for KCM. He’s the sonofabitch that was responsible for making sure we didn’t get the Spectrum Software account.”

“Me?” Dexter said with theatrical affront. “That’s hardly fair now is it? You make it sound personal. We were competitors, Nick. Somebody had to lose after all.”

“The only reason we lost is because you bad mouthed Carpe Diem to Mendez, and you know it. Otherwise you wouldn’t have had a chance.”

Dexter laughed unpleasantly. “All I did was point out one or two facts that you had omitted to let anyone know about, Nick, that’s all. The rest had nothing to do with me. Admit it, you bit off more than you could chew that time.”

I shook my head, struck all at once by the absurdity of this conversation. Dexter had always had the ability to get to me. It was the combination of his smug superiority along with his willingness to go to almost any lengths to get ahead that I detested. But I reminded myself that maybe Dexter thought he’d won, but if he knew the truth his victory would be a hollow one. I smiled, genuinely amused.

“Dexter, get out of here.”

I brushed him off, and walked around him as if he wasn’t there, and held Alice’s seat out. As I sat down myself Dexter hadn’t moved and he still had the mocking look in his eye. Once again I saw that something was bothering Sally and Marcus. They stared at me but didn’t seem to know what to say.

“Celebrating I see,” Dexter said, picking up the empty bottle of Krug from the ice bucket. “You must have had a change in fortune, Nick.”

“Dexter,” I said again wearily. “I’ve tried to be polite, but my patience is wearing thin. Why don’t you do yourself a favour and get the fuck out of here.”

I fixed him with a look that was meant to signal that I was serious, but he seemed unaffected.

“I wonder if it has anything to do with Leonard Hoffman? This change of fortune?” he said casually.

I reacted, even though I hadn’t meant to. Some flicker of shock registered in my expression and Dexter saw it. Silence had fallen like a hammer over the table and I knew now what Sally and Marcus had been trying to tell me. As casually as I could I reached out for my glass and took a sip of wine, but it was an act and Dexter knew it without a shadow of doubt.

“Cat got your tongue?”

“What about Leonard Hoffman?” My mind was working overtime, wheels spinning within wheels. It wasn’t inconceivable that he could know about Hoffman. I didn’t know how. Maybe from someone in Morgan Industries. Even from Morgan himself for all I knew. But it didn’t mean he knew anything else. But why would Morgan tell Dexter about Hoffman? He wouldn’t was the answer, unless I was missing something. Thoughts spun around and around but I couldn’t grasp anything for long enough to think straight. I don’t think I betrayed any of what I was thinking outwardly, but Dexter looked on with amusement as if he knew exactly what was going on in my head.

“Perhaps this isn’t the time to discuss business. Tell you what, I’ll call you.” He started to turn away, then stopped. “By the way. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

I could hear him laugh softly to himself as he strode towards the door. An idea struck me and without saying anything I went to the window to see what Dexter was driving. But of course he didn’t get into any green gas guzzling monster. He went to a blue Mercedes, and a second later he pulled smoothly out of the lot.

Dexter’s unexpected visit put an end to our celebration, such as it was. I went back to the table and sat down.

“He knows,” Marcus said.

“He knows about Hoffman.”

Sally stared at me as if she wasn’t certain she understood what I meant. “Nick, he knows everything.”

“We can’t be sure of that.”

“Then what was all that about?” she said incredulously.

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t believe this. He didn’t need to spell it out.”

“Spell what out? So Dexter knows about Hoffman. So what?”

“He came here for a reason, he was taunting you. He wants you to sweat.”

Of course I knew she was right, I just didn’t want to think about it right then.

“I don’t understand,” Alice said. “This Dexter, he works for KCM? So if he does know about the program it was Nelson Morgan who told him?”

I shook my head. “I doubt if they’ve even met, and why would Morgan tell him anything anyway? Why would he tell anyone? The last thing he wants is for more people to know about this. All Morgan wants is to make sure that program never sees the light of day.”

“Then Dexter must have found out about Hoffman from someone at Spectrum,” Marcus reasoned. “And he must know that Hoffman came to us. Which means he must know about the program.”

It seemed the most likely answer, I had to admit, and I couldn’t argue against his logic. “So he knows Hoffman designed his own program and wanted us to help him sell it. It doesn’t change anything.”

“You can’t still be thinking of going ahead with this?” Sally said.

“Why not?”

“You can’t be serious,” Marcus said, the two of them allying themselves against me. “Sally’s right. Dexter was enjoying himself. He wanted to rattle us. Why the hell else did he come here? He’s probably thinking about us having this conversation right now and laughing to himself. If he found out about Hoffman he knows everything.”

I thought about the look on Dexter’s face, the sly innuendo when he’d asked if we were celebrating and I knew that they were right. It worried me, but I wasn’t about to give up thirty-five million dollars because Dexter had succeeded in making us jumpy. I tried to reason with them, talking in measured tones. “Let’s just say for argument’s sake that he’s somehow figured out about the program, he can’t know for sure we have it, he’s only guessing. What can he do about it?”

“He could go to the police.”

“And tell them what? He has no proof. Besides, if that’s what he was planning he would have done it by now.”

“Then what does he want?” Marcus said.

“Just as Sally said. He’s trying to rattle us, see what happens. But if we don’t react, if we stay calm, he can’t do a thing.”

“And what if you’re wrong?” Sally demanded.

“I’m not. And I don’t think we ought to start thinking about changing our plans because of this.”

Sally shook her head. “As long as nobody knew what you intended I thought maybe you could actually get away with this, even if I didn’t agree with it. But Dexter knows, and maybe he isn’t the only one. Face it, Nick. You can’t go through with this now. It’s started to go wrong, stop it before things get any worse.

Call Brinkman, try to reach an agreement with him. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.”

“That isn’t going to happen,” I insisted. I reached for the wine bottle again and as I did I fumbled and knocked it over, spilling wine across the table. Sally pushed back her chair, dabbing at the patch on her dress.

“I’m sorry.”

She stared at me, and shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”

I felt pressured by their arguments, all the more because in part at least they were right. I appealed to Alice, hoping for some support.

“What do you think?”

I sensed the change around the table immediately. A sudden charge in the air. We all waited for her to answer, but a kind of slack acceptance of what was coming was foreshadowed in Marcus’s eyes. Alice looked directly at him before she spoke.

“I think Nick is right. Even if this Dexter thinks we have the program, what can he do? I say we go ahead. If there’s something we haven’t thought of, he’ll come back, and if he does we can decide what to do then.”