round most people. You haven't been tangling with him, I hope, Mr. Sixsmith. I imagine he could walk rings round you.'
'He recommended me for a job,' said Joe defensively.
'Really? Then I imagine it was a job he didn't want done,' laughed Naysmith.
You reckon? thought Joe. Well, I got this close to you, didn't I?
Which, when he came to examine it, was little consolation.
Keep him talking, he heard Endo Venera urge. Good advice. And besides, he was getting very bad feelings about Mr. Douglas Endor, that cheery Cockney vulture.
'You act for him then, do you?' he enquired. 'He didn't sound like he thought you were doing such a hot job.'
'Alas, even I cannot always mend what someone else has broken,' said Naysmith. 'In his early days he employed some East End shyster who was probably OK for small-time fiddles. I glanced at the contract he drew up between Bloo-Joo and this girl athlete, Oto. It creaked and groaned, but it did permit Endor to cream off an extra two or three per cent on top of his agreed commission without too much chance of detection. But Endor is bright enough to know that he needs a really expert hand to work on this new contract he's negotiating now the girl's hitting the big time, so naturally he came to me.'
'That would be the Nymphette deal?'
'You know about it?' said Naysmith, surprised. 'Then even you will have worked out it's going to be worth really big money and our friend, Endor, wanted to be sure he could plunge his hands in deep and still be able to face it out if anyone started asking questions.'
'How does that work?' said Joe.
Despite his own desperate situation, he was genuinely interested and perhaps it was this plus Naysmith's delight in his own cleverness which made Naysmith carry on.
'What you have to understand is that all that Nymphette are concerned about is those parts of the contract which tie the girl up to do exactly what they require of her. They know exactly how much they're paying, of course, but the way that money is distributed is none of their concern.'
'Even if they suspect her agent's a crook?' said Joe indignantly.
'Please, Mr. Sixsmith. He is her agent. They have already paid him a large sweetener in the form of a retainer in return for his guarantee that she will sign up with them.'
'And here's me thinking putting in new gaskets was dirty work,' said Joe. 'What did you have to do to earn your money, Mr. Naysmith?'
'Me. Oh nothing really. Just design a whole chicane of riders and subclauses, addenda and annexes, which would make it virtually impossible for any two experts to agree just how much money there should be in any given place at any given time. Really fine legal work. I'm sorry I shan't get the chance to complete it.'
'You mean you're doing a runner after all?' said Joe with sudden hope.
'Don't be silly,' he said, touching Joe's head almost affectionately. 'I shall be around, but I doubt if Mr. Endor will, at least as far as completing the Nymphette deal is concerned. When the girl signed up with him she was not so naive as to agree to anything more than a three-year contract, renewable only by mutual agreement. Of course if I'd had the writing of it, it would still have taken her ten years and the House of Lords to get herself free. But his shyster did it. Too late he asked me to look at it. Just before Christmas I sent him my reply, saying if she wanted out, there was no way to stop her and his best hope was to make sure the girl loved him so much, she stayed. From the tone of his message, I get the impression the girl has got wind of what an irredeemable crook he is and unless he can bind her in legally,
which he can't, she'll be off, and the only thing he'll be getting from Nymphette is a solicitor's letter asking for the sweetener back.'
'Oh shoot,' said Joe. 'What a mess!'
'What a kind-hearted man you must be,' said Naysmith curiously. To be so concerned about such an unworthy fellow when your own situation is so parlous.'
'It's not Endor I'm concerned about,' said Joe.
'Anyone,' said Naysmith. 'I almost feel a sense of moral pride at being the one to put you out of your altruistic misery.'
'At which point,' said Joe, looking towards Beryl with heartfelt gratitude, 'the cavalry arrived.'
But the two lovers weren't very interested in his marvelous escape.
'Will Naysmith testify to this?' asked Mary eagerly.
'Doubt if he'll be able to spare the time,' said Joe. 'But who needs his testimony? I'll tell Zak.'
Beryl regarded him with fond pride. Here was a guy so honest he couldn't grasp that other people might not accept what he told them as gospel. And he was right! What got him out of much of the crap he kept falling into with the police and others wasn't hard evidence, good alibis, or smart lawyers, it was that light of honesty which burnt in him, steady as the flame in a storm lamp. She'd shifted her judgement of the lovers, especially Mary, into neutral till she saw where Joe's exchange with them was taking him. Now she watched for their reaction, poised for either reverse or forward.
They exchanged glances, then Abe nodded and Mary said, 'I think that should do the trick OK. But just give it her plain. I've tried coming at it sideways, which turned out to be a mistake.'
'Don't know any other way but plain,' said Joe. 'What exactly is it you've been trying to tell her anyway?'
That Endor's ripping her off and she ought to dump the bastard first chance she gets!' declared Mary.
Her story. She and Abe had fallen for each other almost the first time they met and it was from Abe she discovered that Endor had asked for and got a substantial sweetener for advising Zak to accept the Vane University
