minute, Frank. That dinky elevator can’t hold but four or
five people at a time.”
“Persons!” snapped Margo Chang. “How often do I have
to remind you
Judith nudged Renie. “Who’s the big bald guy who
looks like number nine on the chart showing the Ten Steps
From Ape to Man?”
“Max Agasias, vice president-marketing,” Renie whispered.
“He’s sharper than he looks.”
“I hope so. He practically mowed me down when lunch
was served.” Judith glanced at the elevator in the corner of
the lobby which was discharging Ava Aunuu and the small,
wizened man with buck teeth who Judith also remembered
from the midday stampede.
“Leon Mooney,” Renie murmured, “vice president and
comptroller.”
Judith’s brain raced. Not only was she trying to put names
to faces, but she couldn’t keep from trying to figure out if
one of the ten people—or
lobby looked like a murderer. Maybe they all did; certainly
each of them seemed to have the killer instinct.
“Drink ’em if you got ’em,” Frank Killegrew said, his usual
jocular manner tempered by a hint of anxiety. “I believe Ms.
Jones has some news for us.”
“I thought she’d already made her presentation,” Andrea
Piccoloni-Roth said in a waspish tone. “And why is she
wearing Nadia’s castoffs?”
“They’re not castoffs,” Nadia declared with a malevolent
look for Andrea. “Are you mocking me because I don’t make
as much money as you do?”
“Now, now,” said Killegrew. “Let’s get settled and hear
what Ms. Jones has to say.”
Margo, who had just accepted a very dry martini from Judith, stared at Renie. “You haven’t reneged on my color
scheme, have you?”
“
didn’t much like it!”
“It beats the crap out of the purple and pink you wanted,
Andrea,” growled Max Agasias, the simianlike marketing
head. “What the hell do you think we are, a bunch of fruity
florists?”
“It wasn’t purple and pink, you idiot,” Andrea retorted. “It
was purple and
queens.”
“Speaking of queens,” Ava began, “what do you suppose
happened to…?”
But Killegrew cut her off. He was standing in front of the
fireplace, Scotch and soda in hand, looking less like a corporate CEO and more like a building contractor in the casual
