Part 15 (2/2)

I nodded that I thought that was nice.

The nod was not enough for Leen. ”I think it's a wonderful example of putting the right man in the right job,” he said. ”Don't you? That's what RAMJAC is all about, don't you think-putting good people where they can use their talents to the fullest?”

The question was for me and n.o.body else, so I finally said, ”Yes.”

I had to go through the same thing after he had interviewed and hired Clewes and Edel. Clewes was made a vice-president of the Diamond Match Division, presumably because he had been selling advertising matchbooks for so long. Edel was made a vice-president of the Hilton Department of the Hospitality a.s.sociates, Ltd., Division, presumably because of his three weeks of experience as a night clerk at the Arapahoe.

It was then my turn to go into the library with him. ”Last but not least,” he said coyly. After he closed the door on the rest of the house, his flirtatiousness became even more outrageous. ”Come into my parlor,” he murmured, ”said the spider to the fly.” He winked at me broadly.

I hated this. I wondered what had happened to the others in here.

There was a Mussolini-style desk with a swivel chair behind it. ”Perhaps you you should sit there,” he said. He made his eyebrows go up and down. ”Doesn't that look like your kind of chair? Eh? Eh? Your kind of chair?” should sit there,” he said. He made his eyebrows go up and down. ”Doesn't that look like your kind of chair? Eh? Eh? Your kind of chair?”

This could only be mockery, I thought, I responded to it humbly. I had had no self-respect for years and years. ”Sir,” I said, ”I don't know what's going on.”

”Ah,” he said, holding up a finger, ”that does does happen sometimes.” happen sometimes.”

”I don't know how you found me, or even if I'm who you think I am,” I said.

”I haven't told you yet who I think you are,” he said.

”Walter F. Starbuck,” I said bleakly.

”If you say so,” he said.

”Well,” I said, ”whoever I am, I'm not much anymore. If you're really offering jobs, all I want is a little one.”

”I'm under orders to make you a vice-president,” he said, ”orders from a person I respect very much. I intend to obey.”

”I want to be a bartender,” I said.

”Ah!” he said. ”And mix pousse-cafes!” pousse-cafes!”

”I can, if I have to,” I said. ”I have a Doctor of Mixology degree.”

”You also have a lovely high voice when you want to,” he said.

”I think I had better go home now,” I said. ”I can walk. It isn't far from here.” It was only about forty blocks. I had no shoes; but who needed shoes? I would get home somehow without them.

”When it's time to go home,” he said, ”you shall have my limousine.”

”It's time to go home now,” I said. ”I don't care how I get there. It has been a very tiring day for me. I don't feel very clever. I just want to sleep. If you know anybody who needs a bartender, even part-time, I can be found at the Arapahoe.”

”What an actor you are!” he said.

I hung my head. I didn't even want to look at him or at anybody anymore. ”Not at all,” I said. ”Never was.”

”I will tell you something strange,” he said.

”I won't understand it,” I said.

”Everyone here tonight remembers having seen you, but they've never seen each other before,” he said. ”How would you explain that?”

”I have no job,” I said. ”I just got out of prison. I've been walking around town with nothing to do.”

”Such a complicated story,” he said. ”You were in prison prison, you say?”

”It happens,” I said.

”I won't ask what you were in prison for,” he said. What he meant, of course, was that I, and Mrs. Graham disguised as a man, did not have to go on telling taller and taller lies, unless it entertained me to do so.

”Watergate,” I said.

”Watergate!” he exclaimed. ”I thought I knew the names of almost all the Watergate people.” As I would find out later, he not only knew their names: He knew many of them well enough to have bribed them with illegal campaign contributions, and to have chipped in for their defenses afterward. ”Why is it that I have never heard the name Starbuck a.s.sociated with Watergate before?”

”I don't know,” I said, my head still down. ”It was like being in a wonderful musical comedy where the critics mentioned everybody but me. If you can find an old program, I'll show you my name.”

”The prison was in Georgia, I take it,” he said.

”Yes,” I said. I supposed that he knew that because Roy M. Cohn had looked up my record when he had to get me out of jail.

”That explains Georgia,” he said.

I couldn't imagine why anybody would want Georgia explained.

”So that's how you know Clyde Carter and Cleveland Lawes and Dr. Robert Fender,” he said.

”Yes,” I said. Now I started to be afraid. Why would this man, one of the most powerful corporate executives on the planet, bother to find out so much about a pathetic little jailbird like me? Was there a suspicion somewhere that I knew some spectacular secret that could still be revealed about Watergate? Might he be playing cat-and-mouse with me before having me killed some way?

”And Doris Kramm,” he said, ”I'm sure you know her, too.”

I was so relieved not to know her! I was innocent after all! His whole case against me would collapse now. He had the wrong man, and I could prove it! I did not know Doris Kramm! ”No, no, no,” I said. ”I don't know Doris Kramm.”

”The lady you asked me not to retire from The American Harp Company,” he said.

”I never asked you anything,” I said.

”A slip of the tongue,” he said.

And then horror grew in me as I realized that I really did know Doris Kramm. She was the old secretary who had been sobbing and cleaning out her desk at the harp showroom. I wasn't about to tell him that I knew her, though.

But he knew I knew her, anyway! He knew everything! ”You will be happy to learn that I telephoned her personally and a.s.sured her that she did not have to retire, after all. She can stay on as long as she likes. Isn't that lovely?”

”No,” I said. It was as good an answer as any. But now I was remembering the harp showroom. I felt as though I had been there a thousand years ago, perhaps, in some other Ufe, before I was born. Mary Kathleen O'Looney had been there. Arpad Leen, in his omniscience, would surely mention her next.

<script>