in it during the glory years, there was plenty that had to be
swept under the corporate rug. Now, with divestiture, and
the sprouting up of new companies all over the place, you
have a whole new breed of so-called phone company people.
They’re smarter, tougher, and much more ruthless.” Margo
glanced at her suede bag. “This weekend proves my point.”
“Goodness,” said Judith, aghast. “Do you think power is
what this is all about?”
“Yes.” Margo tucked her bag under one arm and carried
four game hens to the microwave. “What else?”
Judith began uncovering the green bean and mushroom
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dish she had prepared at Hillside Manor. “Yet there’s a
chance OTIOSE might survive?”
“It’s possible,” Margo allowed, waiting for the microwave
to turn off. “But I don’t want to be the one who has to shuck
and jive with the media. Not to mention that I couldn’t go
on working for the company after all this. Good God,
somebody on the executive floor is a killer!”
Judith gave Margo a rueful smile. “Then you don’t think
it’s my cousin or me?”
“Hardly.” Margo removed the first four game hens and put
the next batch in the microwave. “Unless you’re a couple of
hired assassins, I don’t see the point.”
The concept made Judith laugh. “We’re not. We’re exactly
what we seem to be—a couple of Heraldsgate Hill housewives who run their own businesses on the side.”
“Housewives,” Margo repeated. “What a quaint term.”
Unexpectedly, she added, “I like it.”
Involuntarily, Judith’s eyes strayed to the digital time display on the stove. It didn’t tick, but something did, and Judith
guessed that it was Margo’s biological clock.
“Has your career gotten sort of…redundant?” Judith
couldn’t think of a better word.
Margo sighed. “I’m virtually at the top of my profession.
I make good money, I’m well respected, my life’s my own.”
She stopped, staring gloomily at the microwave.
“But it’s not enough.” There was no query in Judith’s
words. “Everyone has holes in their lives, it’s part of human
nature. But some of them can be filled.”
Margo looked at Judith with something akin to awe. “You
do understand. Somehow, I thought you were…” She
fumbled for words; Judith thought Margo didn’t do that very
often.
“You thought I was a pinhead because I’m not in the
business world,” Judith said with a little smile. “The real
world is down on the ground, not on the thirtieth floor. I’ve
spent my life with my feet planted firmly in the earth. Believe
me, there’ve been many times when strong winds
174 / Mary Daheim
threatened to knock me over. But I’ve kept standing there,
as if I’d grown roots. I may not have been a career woman,
but I have worked—and it’s easier to leave your troubles
behind you and head off to the job. On the other hand, except for the paycheck, there’s not much real payoff. At least
not the kind that really counts.”
Margo nodded gravely. “Success—even money and power
and sex—aren’t enough. I want to make somebody happy.
And I want one of those little people to rock in my arms.”
She gave Judith an embarrassed, rueful look. “Have I made
a complete fool of myself or should I go on?”
All her life, Judith had been accustomed to people opening
up to her. Maybe it was her sympathetic face, her friendly
manner, or her innate understanding of human nature.
Whatever the reason, she was never surprised when virtual
strangers unburdened themselves.
“If it hadn’t been for my son,” Judith said grimly, “I’d have
probably poisoned my first husband in the first five years of
our marriage.” She slapped a hand to her mouth. “I don’t
really mean that,” Judith added lamely.
Margo uttered a truncated laugh. “Life’s tough. I thought
I was tough. I’m not. I found that out this weekend, but I
have to pretend.”
“We all do,” Judith said, opening one of the double ovens.
“Tell me—who do you think is the killer?”
“Oh, God.” Margo held her head. “I’ve tried to figure it
out, especially now that Ward is dead. How did anybody—any of us—get upstairs to kill him?”
“Good point.” Judith began lining up the game hens in a
big roasting pan. “After you and Russell took the liquor
bottles to the lobby, what did you do next?”
Margo removed the last four game hens from the microwave. “I’ve thought about that. When Russell and I got
to the lobby, Frank and Nadia had gone to check out the
conference rooms. Ava came out of the library and asked if
I’d go to the restroom with her, but I didn’t need to, and
just then Nadia came back and said she’d go if I’d stay
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with Frank. I tracked him down and we checked the mikes
and rearranged the chairs and then we came back to the
lobby. Max was there, wondering what had happened to
Ward. I honestly don’t remember what the others were doing.”
Judith did, having gone over the scene with Renie. “How
long was Frank alone in the conference room?” Judith asked.
Margo spread her hands. “A minute? Two minutes?”
“Oh.” Judith was disappointed. Something Margo had said
suddenly struck her. “If Ava was going to the restroom, where
was Gene? They’d been in the library together.”
“Gene?” Margo looked blank. “I don’t know. I didn’t see
him after I came back from the basement.”
The basement, thought Judith, panicking. Renie was in the
basement with Gene. They’d been gone an awfully long time.
“Let’s see how my cousin and Gene are doing,” Judith said,
trying to keep the anxiety out of her voice.
But just as the two women headed for the stairs, Renie
and Gene appeared, wrestling with a large and cumbersome
contraption.
“We found it,” Renie announced, short of breath. “It was
in the heating room.”
“Good.” Judith felt pale and drained. “I’m…glad.”
Renie and Gene rolled the big dry-wet vacuum through
the kitchen and out toward the lobby. Margo eyed Judith
with an inquisitive expression.
“You thought Gene had offed your cousin?”
“Well…” Judith tried to evade the question, but finally
gave in. “It crossed my mind.”
Margo nodded. “Mine, too.”
Judith stared at Margo. “You actually suspect Gene?”
Margo gripped her suede bag. “I suspect everybody. Don’t
you?”
THIRTEEN
AFTER THE GAME hens and the bean dish had been put in
the oven, Judith and Margo returned to the lobby. Ava was
next on her list of people to interrogate, and the easiest way
to get her alone was to ask her to take over for Margo and
help set the dining room table.
Ava balked. “I’m tired,” she complained. “After dinner,
maybe I’ll get my second wind and go on cleanup duty.”
Cleanup of another kind was going on near the entrance.
Renie and Gene had turned on the vacuum, which was
sucking up the water. Killegrew shouted to them, saying that
if they also sucked up some of the snow, maybe they could
get the door closed. It was, he asserted, pretty damned cold.
Interrupting Nadia’s attempts to soothe her CEO, Judith