‘How does Vidal make his money?’
Harkness finished his smoked salmon and sat back with a sigh of content.
‘He supplies demands.’
‘Come again. What does that mean?’
‘He has two hundred or so picked men working for him. They’re on the move all the time which explains the size of his travel account. From what I’m told, half these men are hunting for people who have a surplus of any damn thing: sugar, coffee, nickel, oil, ships... any damn thing. The other half are hunting for people who want these things. Vidal then gets the interested parties together, engineers the deal and picks up a fat commission. It’s a nice way to earn a living, only you have to know who wants what and who has what to sell. Vidal seems to have built up an expert organisation that really delivers. The other day I read in the paper that Libya has bought a number of obsolete destroyers from England. I’ll bet Vidal was behind that deal that has to be worth millions.’
I was impressed.
‘Dyer asked me for a schedule...’
Harkness held up his hand.
‘Don’t tell me. Let me guess. Tokyo, Jo’burg and Hong Kong. Right?’
I stared at him. ‘Go on... tell me more.’
‘That’s Vernon’s first ploy to see what kind of job you’ll do and how much you’re going to charge him. He pulled that one on me. I got out the schedule which was never used. When he means business, he’ll meet you for lunch. You’ll get nothing out of Vernon for free.’
‘Is the money safe?’
‘That’s the least of your worries. Vidal always pays up on the nail.’
‘Did you take up references?’
‘Oh, sure: all three banks and the brokers... immaculate. I’ll let you have photocopies if you want them.’
‘Do that, will you, Joe?’
The steaks arrived.
‘Let’s forget about business,’ Harkness said. ‘Let’s concentrate on these fine looking bits of bull.’
We ate for a while, then he said, ‘When are you going to give me a game of golf Clay?’
‘If you’re really looking for a beating, how about Sunday?’
He grinned.
‘Then let’s make it early. Nine o’clock?’
As Rhoda didn’t get up until midday on Sundays this would give me time to get back to prepare a late brunch. Rhoda had no idea how to cook and refused to learn and as I refused to go to the coffee shop on Sundays I got landed with the brunch and supper.
After coffee, we parted.
As Harkness got in his car, he said, ‘Any other little thing you want to know about Vidal give me a call.’ He shook his head. ‘Man, I’m sorry for you. I really mean it.’
He drove away leaving me feeling slightly uneasy.
Back in my office, I put a call through to Humphrey Massingham, the A.T.S. district general manager who was located in Miami. I told him about the Vidal account.
‘That’s an account I have had my eye on for some time Clay,’ he said, his voice excited. ‘I never thought he would move from the American Express.’
‘Harkness is happy to see him go,’ I said. ‘Could be we’re getting ourselves a headache.’
‘Two hundred thousand! I knew it was big, but not that big! We can take a lot of headaches for that amount of scratch.’
‘You mean I can.’
He laughed.
‘All part of the job,’ he said airily, ‘but you’ll need extra help. I’ll want you to concentrate on Vidal’s account. I’ll look around. We can afford additional staff now we have Vidal.’
‘Don’t be too sure you have him.’ I went on to tell him Vidal’s likely terms and what Harkness had said. This damped his enthusiasm a little.
‘Yeah... well, maybe we had better wait to see how you make out. You don’t know he’ll insist on those terms with us.’
‘You can bet Dyer will try to screw us for even a bigger discount.’
‘Five is our limit. Be firm with him.’
‘I’ll wait his first move. In the meantime, we should check the references, shouldn’t we?’
‘Oh, sure, but Vidal is big: one of the biggest. I’m sure there’s no problem from that angle. I’ll handle the references.’
‘You might query the Credit Rating people. Bankers’ references don’t mean much.’
There was a pause, then he asked, ‘Is something bothering you about this?’
‘I’m not all that enthusiastic. I don’t know why. Harkness said he was sorry for us and he meant it. I don’t like Dyer.’
‘That doesn’t mean the money isn’t sound. You leave it to me,’ and he hung up.
As I replaced the receiver Sue came in with the estimate and schedule Dyer wanted. We went through it together As usual with her work I couldn’t find faults.
‘Fine, Sue.’ I dictated a letter to Dyer, adding that formalities for opening the account were in hand and I would be writing him again. ‘Mail it right away, will you? Let’s show him we are on our toes.’
We spent the rest of the afternoon with routine work. We were kept busy until around 17.40. At the approach of cocktail time, inquiring tourists dropped away and gave us the chance to clear our desks. At 18.00 Sue said good night and hurried off home. I went along to the Trendie Miss to pick up Rhoda. She was completing a sale so I hung around in the corridor until she joined me.
‘God! My feet!’ she moaned as we walked across to the parking lot. ‘It’s fine for you, sitting all day, but I never get a chance to sit down.’
I didn’t remind her she had been sitting down reading a magazine when I had cancelled our lunch together. I was used to her moans. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another.
‘Want to go to a movie tonight?’ I asked as we got into Plymouth.
‘There’s nothing worth seeing. I looked.’ She settled herself and kicked off her shoes. ‘This humidity drives me nuts. Put the air conditioner on for God’s sake!’
I put it on. At this time of the season the heat and humidity was bad but not so bad as in Miami. As I drove out of the lot and headed home, I said, ‘Ever heard of Henry Vidal?’
‘Mrs. Vidal was in yesterday. She bought belts and slacks. Our other lines are too young for her.’
‘What is she like?’
Rhoda glanced at me.
‘Why the interest?’
‘Her husband opened an account with us worth two hundred thousand a year.’
‘Wow!’ Rhoda was always impressed with big money. ‘Are you getting a rake-off Clay?’
‘No, he is. Did you see him?’
‘She was on her own.’
‘What’s she like?’
Rhoda sniffed. I’ve never known her to praise any woman or consider any woman to be as smart as herself.
‘All right, I guess, providing you like them slinky and dark. She knows how to dress. I’ll say that for her.’
‘All right to deal with?’
‘I guess. She doesn’t throw her weight around if that’s what you mean; not like most of the hags who drive me nuts.’
‘Pay cash?’
‘She has a charge account.’
‘Prompt payer?’
‘How do I know? Who cares anyway? Do hurry it up Clay. I can’t wait to get under the shower.’
An hour later, Rhoda was lying on the balcony that overlooked the canal, a martini in one hand and a magazine in the other. I had taken a shower and now mixed myself a Scotch and soda. I joined her on the balcony. I knew I wouldn’t get a word from her until it was time to go down to the coffee shop for dinner. I would have liked to have talked to her about Vidal Enterprises, to tell her about Vernon Dyer, but I knew she wouldn’t be interested. She was interested in little else except magazines and clothes.