After Midnight Part 14

"All right," he said gruffly. "I'll phone the pilot." He indicated the box. "Don't you want to leave that here?"

Her eyebrow lifted. "Why? I'm not coming back."

She turned and walked out the door, leaving it ajar because she had her hands full.

Clayton stood by the desk and stared after her with a mind that absolutely refused to register what had happened. He'd never had to worry about leaving the office before, because Derrie was so competent and capable. She could handle anything. Now she was gone. He'd fired her. He would have to replace her. He wondered if he could. His delight over Seymour's downfall was overshadowed by his emptiness at losing the best a.s.sistant he'd ever had. Bett would be delighted, he realized, because she'd never liked Derrie. But Clayton felt a growing sense of great loss. And not only that, now he was faced with the unpleasant task of learning how to make his own coffee.

Nikki was surprised to see Derrie at the door when she answered it.

"Clayton didn't come with you?" Nikki asked weakly.

"He has to answer the telephone and make coffee," Derrie said with forced carelessness. "You see, this is my last official act as his secretary. I quit."

Nikki stared at her, seeing the faint swelling around her eyes and the visible pain of her decision.

"Why?"

"Because your brother is letting Torrance and Bett Watts mold him in their image," the younger woman said quietly. "He's helping to dispossess the spotted owl out west, and now he's using some underhanded methods to crucify Kane Lombard for something he may not even be guilty of."

Nikki's heart jumped wildly in her chest. "Lombard...what did he do?"

"You don't have television here, do you?" Derrie asked. "Well, it's all over the news. Mr. Lombard has been charged with several counts of industrial pollution of a major tributary. They say he cut costs by throwing out a reputable waste disposal company and replacing it with some local who was notorious for dumping vats of pollutants in deserted fields and marshes. There's been terrible damage to wildlife. Dead birds everywhere. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Toxic Substance Control Act of 1976 make it a felony to dump toxic wastes illegally."

"Oh, my G.o.d," Nikki said shakily.

Without registering Derrie's curiosity, she wobbled to the phone, picked it up and blindly dialed Kane's number without considering the consequences.

His housekeeper answered, and all she would tell Nikki was that Mr. Lombard had been called urgently back to Charleston.

Nikki put down the receiver. She'd never felt quite so bad. "He wouldn't do such a thing," she said.

"I know that," Derrie said. "The poor man's had so much...Wait a minute, how do you know he wouldn't?"

Nikki started. "I've read about him," she began.

"Of course," Derrie said with an apologetic laugh. "So have I. He seems like a decent sort of man." Her smiled vanished. "Your brother is losing all his values, you know. I said I'd come and get you, but I'm through entertaining Ms. Watts and making coffee and I'm not sacrificing my conscience for the sake of any job. I have a good brain and it's going to waste."

Nikki managed a wan smile. "Indeed you have, but I fear for my brother's future if you aren't in it. You were a moderating force. Now, Bett will be telling him how to tie his ties."

"I know." Derrie's eyes were sad as she recalled the things Clayton had said to her, but she forced the misery away. "We have to get you back to Charleston. What can I do?"

"Help me pack," Nikki said. "Then I'll dress and we'll get underway. Are we flying?"

"Afraid not. You know you can't fly in a pres surized cabin with pneumonia, you'd have to be taken off by an ambulance when we got to Charleston. I hired a limo."

"Extravagant..."

"Very." Derrie smiled. "I hope your brother has a migraine when he sees the bill."

Nikki was too sick to argue, but she couldn't help but wonder what Clayton had done to make loyal Derrie quit.

Kane Lombard met the vicious publicity head-on. He knew what was going to happen from the minute Lawson had called to tell him the news. He wasn't guilty, but by the time the media got through with him, he'd look it.

It wouldn't be a nine-day wonder, either, he realized when he saw the headlines. Seymour had jumped in feetfirst with charges that Lombard was a prime example of the capitalist who put profit before conservation. He was going to make an example of Kane. He had strong support, too, from every local environmental group and a few national ones. When Kane got to his plant, he had to get through placard-carrying mobs of people who had probably been hired by some of Torrance's crowd for the benefit of the TV cameras that were strategically placed.

Many of the same public officials who had paved his way when he opened the automobile plant were now lined up visibly with the opposition.

"It's going to be a circus," Kane remarked, looking down on the mob at the gates of the plant from his sixth-story window.

Gert Yardley, his elderly executive secretary nodded. "I'm afraid so. And the news people are clamoring for interviews. You'll have to give a statement, sir."

"I know that. What kind of statement do you recommend? How about, 'I'm innocent'?" he asked, turning to face her.

"I have no doubt whatsoever about your innocence," Mrs. Yardley said, and smiled sympathetically. "Neither does Jenny," she added, naming the junior secretary who shared an office with her. "Convincing yon ravenous wolves outside is going to be the problem."

He stuck his hands in his slacks pockets and turned away from the furor below. "Get my father on the line, will you?"

"I can't, sir," she said. "He telephoned two hours ago and said to tell you that he's on the way down here."

"Great." He lifted his eyes skyward. "My father is just what I need to make a bad day worse. I can handle my own problems."

"I'm sure he knows that. He said you might need a little moral support," she added with a smile. "A man who's being publicly hanged shouldn't turn away a friend. Even a related one."

"I guess you're right." His dark eyes narrowed. "I want to see that new waste disposal man, what's his name, Jurkins. Get him up here."

"He's out sick," she returned grimly. "And Ed Nelson is still recuperating from his kidney stone operation. He and Mr. Jurkins both called in, both also protesting their ignorance of Burke's true operation."

"They would, wouldn't they? G.o.d forbid they should try to cross the picket line. All right, call Bob Wilson and get him over here," he said, naming the head of the legal firm that represented Lombard, Inc.

"I antic.i.p.ated that," she said. "He should be here momentarily."

"Thanks, Gert," he replied.

She smiled. "What's a good secretary for, if not to help the boss? I'll buzz you when Mr. Wilson arrives."

She left him, and he turned back to the window. It was threatening rain. Maybe it would dissuade some of the lesser-paid protesters, he mused. He thought about Nikki and allowed himself to wish that she was here. He'd cut her out of his life, and he couldn't sacrifice her even to save his reputation. He wondered how badly he was going to regret that decision, even as he firmed it in his mind.

"As far as the company goes, you haven't got a legal leg to stand on," Bob Wilson told him regretfully a few minutes later. "I'm sorry, but they've got ironclad evidence linking Lombard, Inc., with Burke's and the illegal dumping site. The fact that you didn't personally make the decision to hire him doesn't negate the fact that you approved your subordinate's hiring of him. The buck stops at you. The company is in violation of several environmental laws, federal, local and state, and it will be prosecuted for at least one felony count, probably more as the investigation continues and they find more of Burke's handiwork. A fine is the least of your worries right now."

"In other words, even if I was willing to prove that I was incapacitated at the time of the hiring, it wouldn't lessen my responsibility in the eyes of the law."

"That's exactly right." Wilson frowned. "Of course, Burke will be prosecuted along with you. He's an accessory."

"Good. I hope they hang him out to dry. His brother-in-law Jurkins is my new solid waste manager, but I didn't know about any relations.h.i.+p between the two of them until this came up. How am I supposed to know things like that?" He glanced at Wilson. "Can I prosecute Jurkins for making that decision without my preliminary approval?"

"You did approve it," Wilson said with forced patience. "Jurkins denies any wrongdoing. He said that he told you what he'd done and you said it was all right."

"But, my G.o.d, I had no idea who Burke was or that CWC's record had been misrepresented to me!"

"Jurkins swears that he can show you on paper what CWC did to discredit them. He also swears that he didn't know Burke had been in any trouble, whether or not that's true. You're still culpable, regardless of that," Wilson informed him. "I'm sorry. I can't see any legal way out of this. You'll have to plead guilty and hope that we can negotiate a reasonable settlement."

"While that SOB gets away scot-free?"

"Which one?"

"Burke."

"We're investigating," Wilson a.s.sured him.

"Could kickbacks be involved here?" he asked suddenly, staring at his legal counsel. "If they were, there'll be proof, won't there?" Kane persisted.

"Well..." He grimaced, sticking his hands deep in his pockets. "We can't find any evidence that anyone who works for you has had any drastic change in lifestyles. We're checking into employee backgrounds right now, though. If there is anything, we'll turn it up."

Kane leaned back against his desk. "You mean that this whole situation was innocently arrived at?" he asked.

"I can't prove that it wasn't at this point."

"Suppose I fire Jurkins?"

"What for?" Wilson replied. "He's done nothing except make a mistake in judgment, allegedly trying to save you money on operating expense. He's full of apologies and explanations and excuses."

"We could take the case to the newspapers. My father's, in fact."

"You aren't thinking," the other man said patiently. "Burke may be a scalawag, but he's a working man with a family to support. If you start persecuting him, despite what he's done, it's only going to reinforce the negative image of your company as a money-hungry exploiter of working people. People will overlook his illegal dumping because you're picking on him. In fact, the press will turn it around and make a hero of him-the little guy trying to make a buck, being persecuted by big business."

"I don't believe this!"

"I've seen it done. Being rich is its own punishment sometimes."

"I've provided hundreds of new jobs here," Kane thundered. "I've employed minorities without government pressure and put them in top ex ecutive positions. I've donated to civic projects, I've helped renovate depressed areas...doesn't any of that work in my favor?"

"When the hanging fever dies down, it probably will. You only have to live through the interim."

"You're just full of optimism, aren't you?"

Wilson got to his feet and went to shake hands with Kane. "I know it must look as if we're all against you. Don't give up. It's early days yet."

Kane glowered at him. "And when it rains, it pours. Get out there and save my neck."

"I'll do my best," he promised.

Nikki was exhausted when she and Derrie reached the old Victorian family home in the Battery.

"You'd better sack out in the downstairs bedroom until you're more fit to climb those stairs," Derrie pointed out.

"I guess so," Nikki returned, with a wistful look at the gracefully curving staircase with its sedate gray carpet.

Derrie helped Nikki into the bedroom and then unpacked for her while Nikki got into her pajamas and climbed in bed. "Good thing Mrs. B. has been here."

"If it wasn't for Mrs. B. three times a week, I couldn't keep this place," Nikki pointed out. "She was a young girl when she kept house for Dad, but even middle age hasn't slowed her down. Doesn't she do a good job?"

"Wonderful." Derrie put the last of the dirty clothes in the laundry hamper. "You said that you'd had pneumonia for four days. However did you manage alone?"

Nikki averted her eyes. "I didn't eat much," she said, "and I had a jug of bottled water by the bed. The antibiotics worked very fast."

"Oh, that's right, you have a doctor for a neighbor up there, how silly of me to have forgotten," Derrie said.

"That's right, Chad Holman lives just down the road," Nikki a.s.sured her, relieved. It was highly unlikely that Derrie would run into Dr. Chad Holman to ask about Nikki's return bout of pneumonia. Kane's intervention would never have to be mentioned.

"I told you that you were doing too much at Spoleto," Derrie chided, glancing at the other woman as she lounged in the bed. "Summer pneumonia can be the very devil."

"I'm on the mend. I got chilled, that's all. I'll be more careful."

"You need to take better care of yourself," Derrie chided.

"Yes, ma'am," Nikki said. "Stop brooding. You've stopped working for my stupid brother, so you're hardly required to worry about me."

"I'll miss your stupid brother," Derrie said sadly, as she looked at Nikki and smiled. "But it wasn't because of him that I've been your friend."

"I know that. I'm sorry Clayton ever let himself get mixed up with Mosby," Nikki said quietly. "My ex-husband is a desperate man, and Bett Watts makes a vicious coconspirator. They're going to take my brother down if he isn't very careful. This fight with Kane Lombard could be just the thing to do it, too. Mr. Lombard doesn't strike me as the kind of man who takes anything lying down, and his family owns one vicious tabloid in New York."

"Mr. Lombard is very much on the defensive right now," Derrie observed. "They say his plant is surrounded by rabid environmentalists with blown-up photos of the dead birds in that marsh."

Nikki winced. She could imagine how Kane would feel. She'd learned enough about him during their acquaintance to tell that he was a man who loved wildlife. He'd been against the lumbering bill when her own brother wasn't. If he wanted to preserve the owl, certainly he wouldn't do anything deliberately to kill birds.

"I think you should know," Derrie began slowly, "that some of those protestors who are picketing Mr. Lombard's plant were hired to do it."

Nikki's lips parted as she let out a sudden breath. "Does Clayton know?"

Derrie turned, uncomfortable and uneasy. "Well, you see, that's why I quit. It was your brother who hired them."

Chapter Ten.

Nikki couldn't believe what she was hearing. But she knew that Derrie wouldn't lie.

"But Clayton has always been so concerned for the environment, especially here at home," she said. "It's Haralson, isn't it?" she asked quietly. "He's fighting in the way he knows best. But meanwhile, Clay is allowing himself to be used for what he thinks is political power."

"He thinks he's doing it to protect you from a scandal," Derrie replied, frowning. "Nikki, do you have a skeleton that Kane could rattle?"

"Doesn't everyone?" Nikki asked uncertainly. She chewed on a fingernail. "What are we going to do?"