“Why not?”
“Because there are better ways. You should make them respect you. You should demand a public apology and some remuneration for the inconvenience they’ve caused you, to say nothing of the damage they’ve done to your reputation.”
“I’m afraid I’m not built that way.”
Leith surveyed her critically. “There is,” he announced, “nothing wrong with your build.”
She flushed, then laughed. “Really, Mr. Leith, I’m sorry about your story having been rejected, but I can’t stand here chatting. I’ve work to do.”
Leith indicated his car parked at the curb. He asked, “Couldn’t you postpone it for about thirty minutes — just long enough to have a drink?”
She hesitated.
“And if you’d let me handle Jason Bellview,” he said, “I feel quite certain that he would make an apology in front of all the employees of the Precision Instrument Designing and Installation Company.”
She said, “I’d just love to have that happen, but it’s asking too much. Bellview would die first.”
Leith said, “Let’s talk it over while we’re having a drink. I know where they make some marvelous spiced coffee with brandy and cinnamon bark, orange peel, and— Oh, come on. We’ll talk it over there.”
She said, “Well, all right, but I don’t want to be too late.”
Fifteen minutes later, over a restaurant table, they watched a deft waiter mix ingredients, saw the blue flame of burning brandy flicker upward to cast an aromatic halo about the bowl, as the waiter stirred the mixture with a silver ladle. Then, when he had lifted out two cups of the spiced beverage and discreetly withdrawn, Leith said, “At least let me ring up Jason Bellview.”
“What would you tell him?”
“I’d tell him that he had done you a great wrong, that you wouldn’t return to work until he paid you ten thousand dollars and made a public apology. Then, after a little trading, I’d settle for five thousand.”
She said, “Five seconds after you telephoned, I’d be out of a job.”
Leith gravely took a billfold from his pocket. From it he took ten one-hundred-dollar bills and placed them in a neat pile on the tablecloth. “I have one thousand dollars,” he announced, “which says that no such thing would happen.”
She stared at the money, then raised her eyes to his face. “You’re the strangest individual I’ve ever met.”
“At least that’s something,” Leith acknowledged. “In these days of widespread mediocrity, it’s something to be outstanding, even if one is given credit for a mild brand of insanity.”
“There’s nothing mild about it,” she retorted, laughing. “Are you really serious?”
By way of answer Leith caught the waiter’s eye. “Bring me a telephone.”
The waiter brought a telephone with a long extension cord and plugged it into a phone jack at the table. Lester Leith consulted his notebook and swiftly dialed a number.
Bernice Lamen watched him with apprehensive eyes.
“Hello,” Leith said. “I want to talk with Mr. Jason Bellview. Tell him it’s about his blueprints.”
During the interval which elapsed, while Leith was waiting for Jason Bellview to come on the line, Bernice Lamen said, “In about ten minutes I’m going to think this was the most madly insane impulse I ever had in my life. I’ll kick myself all around the block for not stopping you, but right now I’m curious and... and—”
A heavy masculine voice came over the wire, saying, “Yes, this is Bellview. What’s this about the blueprints?”
Lester Leith said suavely, “I wanted to talk with you about Miss Lamen.”
“What about her?”
Leith said, “You’ve damaged her character. You’ve accused her of a crime. You’ve forced her into submitting to a most humiliating experience. Now, you apparently think that—”
“Who’s this talking?” Bellview roared in a voice so loud that it seemed his words might rip the receiver apart.
“This is Lester Leith.”
“You a lawyer?”
“No,” Leith said. “I’m a friend. I’m hoping that it won’t be necessary...”
“Well, if you’re not a lawyer, what business is it of yours?”
Leith said, “I’m a financier.”
“A what?”
“A financier. I finance various business activities. At present I’m financing Miss Lamen in her claim against you. I’m hoping it isn’t going to be necessary to get a lawyer.”
“Get a hundred lawyers!” Bellview shouted.
“Very well,” Leigh said, “only kindly remember that I offered to make a reasonable settlement with you. Perhaps you’d better consult your own attorney and see what he has to say.”
“I refuse to pay blackmail!” Bellview said.
“Have it your own way,” Leith said. “Only remember, when your company gets involved in a hundred-thousand-dollar lawsuit and your lawyer tells you you haven’t a leg to stand on, you had a chance to settle the case out of court. And if the stockholders of the Precision Instrument Designing and Installation Company learn of it...”
“Say, wait a minute. I never turn down anything sight unseen. What’s your figure?”
“Ten thousand dollars.”
“All right, it’s turned down. I feel better now. You couldn’t stick us for that much.”
“That’s what you think.”
Bellview said, “That’s what I know. Good-by.”
The sound made by the slamming receiver at the other end of the line was distinctly audible.
Bernice Lamen sighed. “I knew it,” she said.
Lester Leith picked up the ten one-hundred-dollar bills and slid them over under her saucer. “Remember, you’ve got these coming if it doesn’t work.”
“No. I can’t take the money — but we’re licked. He’s already reached his decision. It was a gamble, and we lost.”
Leith smiled. “Under those circumstances, we’d better have a little more spiced coffee. There’s no reason for you to go back to the office now.”
Tears came to her eyes. She blinked them back, laughed, and said, “Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted.”
Leith said, “Well, don’t worry about it. Things are happening about the way I thought they would.”
“You mean you thought he’d turn you down?”
Leith nodded.
“Then why did you do it?”
“Because he’ll think it over and call up his lawyer. After we’ve had another cup of coffee I’ll call him up again, and then you may hear a different story.”
They chatted over the second cup of coffee, had a brandy and Benedictine, and then Leith dialed Jason Bellview’s number again and got the crusty president of the instrument company on the line. This time Bellview’s voice was cautious. “Listen, Leith, perhaps you won’t have to go to a lawyer. The more I think of it, the more I think Miss Lamen is entitled to something — but ten thousand, of course, is out of the question.”
“She’ll want an apology,” Leith said, “delivered in front of the entire office force.”
Bellview hesitated for a minute.
“That might be arranged,” he conceded.
“And,” Leith went on, “she’ll want ten thousand dollars in cash.”
“Wait a minute,” Bellview said, and Leith heard the sounds of whispers at the other end of the line.
“We’ll offer twenty-five hundred,” Bellview said.
“Nothing doing,” Leith told him. “Ten or nothing. The minute I hang up I’m going to see my lawyer. Personally, I think she’s entitled to a real nice chunk of money. You—”
“Wait a minute,” Bellview said.