situation. I have a reputation to maintain too.'
'Your reputation? What sort of reputation is that?' She spat the words at him.
Frensic leant forward. 'An immaculate one,' he snarled, 'beyond your comprehension.'
Dr Louth tried to smile. 'Grub Street,' she muttered.
'Yes, Grub Street,' said Frensic, 'and proud of it. Where people write without hypocrisy for money.'
'Lucre, filthy lucre.'
Frensic grinned. 'And what did you write for?'
The mask looked at him venomously. 'To prove that I could,' she said, 'that I could write the sort of trash that sells. They thought I couldn't. A sterile critic, impotent, an academic. I proved them wrong.' Her voice rose.
Frensic shrugged. 'Hardly,' he said. 'Your name is not upon the title page. Until it is no one will ever know.'
'No one must ever know.'
'But I intend to tell them,' said Frensic. 'It will make fascinating reading. The anonymous author, Lloyds Bank, the Typing Service, Mr Cadwalladine, Corkadales, your American publisher...'
'You mustn't,' she whimpered, 'no one must ever know. I tell you I forbid it.'
'It's no longer in your hands,' said Frensic, 'it's in mine and I will not sully them with your hypocrisy. Besides I have another client.'
'Another client?'
'The scapegoat Piper who went to America for you. He has a reputation too, you know.'
Dr Louth sniggered. 'Like yours, immaculate I suppose.'
'In conception, yes,' said Frensic.
'But which he was prepared to put in jeopardy for money.'
'If you like. He wanted to write and he needed the money. You, I take it, don't. You mentioned lucre, filthy lucre. I am prepared to bargain.'
'Blackmail,' snapped Dr Louth and stubbed out her cigarette.
Frensic looked at her with a new disgust. 'For a moral coward who hides behind a nom de plume your language is imprecise. Had you come to me in the first place I would not have engaged Piper but since you chose anonymity at the expense of honesty I am now in the position of having to choose between two authors.'
'Two? Why two?'
'Because Piper claims he wrote the book.'
'Let him claim. He accepted the onus, let him bear it.'
'He also claims the money.'
Dr Louth glared at the smouldering fire. 'He has been paid,' she said finally. 'What more does he want?'
'Everything,' said Frensic.
'And you're prepared to let him have it?'
'Yes,' said Frensic. 'My reputation is at stake too. If there's a scandal I will suffer.'
'A scandal,' Dr Louth shook her head. 'There must be no scandal.'
'But there will be,' said Frensic. 'You see, Piper is dead.'
Dr Louth shivered suddenly. 'Dead? But you said just now...'
'There is the estate to be wound up. It will go to court and with two million dollars...Need I say more?'
Dr Louth shook her head. 'What do you want me to do?' she asked.
Frensic relaxed. The crisis was over. He had broken the bitch. 'Write a letter to me denying that you ever wrote the book. Now.'
