her

alone, so I went to her room last night. She wasn’t there. I

had no idea she was waiting for Leon in his room. That’s

when you must have seen me in the corridor.”

Judith felt surprise register, but desperately tried not to let

it show. “Last night. Yes, that’s what we must have seen.”

She flashed a warning glance at Renie.

Max stretched his long legs out towards the hearth. “I

suppose she was going to show the file to Frank. Or maybe

she was just going to hold it over my head. Blackmail comes

in some weird forms.”

SNOW PLACE TO DIE / 203

“Why would Andrea want to blackmail you?” Renie asked.

“Well…” Max seemed genuinely puzzled. “I honestly don’t

know. Like everybody else in the company, she felt marketing

types aren’t real telecommunications people. We’re mavericks, and as vice president, I get to wear the black sheep label.

Plus, my wife, Carrie, and I’ve been having some problems.

We fight a lot, we always have. Carrie hates company functions. She’s a master gardener and has her own career.

Playing the part of corporate helpmate makes her puke. As

you might guess, a wife with an attitude really pisses off

women like Patrice Killegrew. It pissed off Andrea, too. She

liked to fit everybody into their own little niche.”

“What about Mrs. Haugland?” Judith inquired. “I understand she’s too sickly to take part in company social gatherings.”

Max waved a big hand. “That’s different. Helen Haugland

thrives on sympathy. She got plenty of it from poor Ward,

and most of the others. Oh, some of them saw through her,

but Helen can pull the wool over lots of eyes. I wonder

what’ll happen now that Ward’s dead. She might have to

get off her dead butt and do something.”

While Judith was interested in Max’s assessment of his

colleagues and their spouses, she realized he hadn’t answered

the original question. “You mentioned blackmail,” Judith

said. “Do you mean that Andrea would have used the

hooker ring files to make you do something you otherwise

wouldn’t do?”

Max seemed to consider Judith’s somewhat garbled suggestion. “Maybe originally. She and Alan have a couple of

kids. One of them is out of high school, I think. It might be

that she wanted me to hire him. Anyway, that can’t be true

now. I mean, Alan’s going to run WaCom, right? And WaCom wants to merge with OTIOSE. So now I figure that

Andrea was going to use that file to get me canned.”

204 / Mary Daheim

Renie leaned forward on the footstool. “And replace you

with someone hand-picked by Alan? That makes sense.”

“I’m afraid so.” Max assumed a brooding expression as

the lobby grew silent.

The silence was short-lived. A sound came from somewhere, unexpected and distant. Judith, Renie, and Max all

tensed.

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