“Have they read it?”
Undean drank two more swallows of beer, then shook his head. “Say they haven’t.”
“But they think Isabelle’s murder and the book are somehow connected.”
“They get paid to think like that. First I heard of the book was this afternoon right after they buried Steady. I told ’em to buy it and save themselves a lot of grief. They laughed it off.”
“Why’d you tell them to buy it, Mr. Undean?”
“Because I knew Steady. Saw him operate and know some of the corners he cut, the lies he told, the deals he made, the promises he broke, the deaths he caused.”
“He killed people?”
“The things he did and the lies he told caused people to die. And those who died put the fear of God in the ones who managed to stay alive. Their minds got changed. And maybe their politics. When you get right down to it, Steady was sort of a mental terrorist.”
“My father, the mindfucker.”
“And damned good at it, too.”
“In Laos?”
“That’s where I watched him work. Even hurrahed him on some. I’ve only heard about what he did in other places, but I believe eighty percent of what I’ve heard.”
“What’s the real reason they didn’t try to buy the book after Isabelle told them about it?”
“No demand.”
Haynes frowned. “I just lost my place.”
“No demand for dog vomit,” Undean said after a swallow of beer. “That’s what they figured Steady’s book’d be and why there’d be no demand for it. Even if it got published, nobody’d buy it. But when Gelinet got killed, the price of dog vomit shot up and now they figure there must be a big demand for it after all.”
“Have they figured out where the demand’s coming from?”
“They’re still working on that.”
“How bad do they want it?”
Undean shrugged. “Pretty bad.”
“What’s your lowball offer?”
“Thirty-five.”
“And you can bump it to what?”
“Fifty.”
“Cash?”
“Any way you want it.”
“What happens to the book?”
“What book?”
“Will they read it before it goes into the shredder?”
“I doubt it. If they read it, it’d ruin their deniability. If nobody reads it, then nobody knows what’s in it and they can deny all knowledge of its contents. Then it’d be just like it was never written.”
“What if I read it before I sold it to them?”
“I’d advise you not to mention it.”
“And fifty thousand is your best offer?”
“That’s it,” Undean said. “So what do I tell ’em?”
“Tell them I want a minimum of seven hundred and fifty thousand.”
“They’ll fall about laughing.”
“When they’re finished, tell them I know where I can put my hands on enough offshore development money to produce a feature film based on Steady’s book. Tell them I’ll also direct, write and play the lead. And finally, you can tell them the name of the film will be the same as the book,
Undean smiled for the first time that night. “I’ll also tell ’em you look just like him.”
“One more thing, Mr. Undean.”
Undean nodded, still smiling.
“Tell them I’ve already had an unsolicited offer of one hundred thousand for all rights to the manuscript but turned it down. So if they want to stay in the bidding, they’d better start thinking in terms of important money.”
Undean’s smile broadened until he looked almost delighted. “Know what else I can say? I can say you not only look and talk just like him, you also think just like him. Except faster. And right after I tell ’em that is when they’ll start passing peach pits.”
