Elaine Viets & Victoria Laurie, Nancy Martin, Denise Swanson - Drop-Dead Blonde (v5.0) (pdf) by Unknown (best classic books .TXT) 📗

``Oh, I made that up,'' Margery said a little too quickly. ``I don't really know if Minfreda talked to herself when she moved the body, but I know I would. Little details like that make a better story. So I added a few here and there.

``But if you insist on just the facts, Ma'am, here's what I know for sure: Vicki was never seen dead or alive again. The cops may have bought the story that she sailed off into the sunset, but I didn't. Vicki was a corporate creature. And office was her natural habitat.

``Here's another fact: Minfreda was extra jumpy all htat week. She haunted the back hall by the construction chute. She would stand there, pale as a ghost, staring down at that Dumpster, which got fuller each day. Lucky for her, it was a chilly week in Lauderdale.''

``Why was that lucky?'' Margery sighed. ``Use your head, Helen. What do you think one hundred pounds of spoiled meat would smell like in hot weather?''

``Oh, yuck,'' Helen said, when she thought about it.

``Minfreda didn't relax until the construction company carted away that Dumpster a week later. Then she was a different person. She smiled for the first time since Mr. Hammonds's stupid memo.

``One more thing: She never went near the back hall again.'' 148 Elaine Viets

Helen's head was spinning, but she didn't know if it was from too much wine or too much information.

``How did the office react when Vicki didn't show up?''

``I was the first to know,'' Margery said. ``I found the letter in Vicki's typewriter. I took it and Minfreda's carbons straight to Mr. Hammonds's office. Francine read the letter, examined the carbons, and clucked, `Margery, I never did like that young person.'

`` `Me either,' I said.

`` `No sense of responsibility,' Francine said. `What's she thinking, running off with her boyfriend like that? Mr. Hammonds gave her an opportunity no other woman at this company has ever had. Selfish, I call it. She makes all women look bad.'

``People talked that way then. You weren't a good or bad boss. You represented the entire sex.

`` `There's another deserving young woman here,' I re- minded her.

`` `Yes, there is. And we must not forget those were really her ideas and that Vicki person misappropriated them,' Francine said. `We must right this wrong. Wait here, Mar- gery, while I talk with Mr. Hammonds.' She went straight into the CEO's office. Francine was a determined woman, with a strong sense of what was fitting.

``I waited maybe half an hour. Then Francine came out. `Mr. Hammonds would prefer you say nothing about this until he makes a decision,' she said.

`` `I'll have to tell people something,' I said, `or the rumor mill will go crazy.'

`` `Then say that Vicki has taken an unscheduled leave of absence. That is the truth.' ''

``Speaking of the truth,'' Helen said. ``Did you mention your doubts about the resignation letter?''

``They were doubts, not facts,'' Margery said. ``Mr. Ham- monds didn't like anything that wasn't cut-and-dried.''

``And you liked Minfreda.''

``I did. I still do.

``Our department went through the motions for the next week. Everyone was asking me: Was Vicki gone for good? Was she still our boss or not? Everyone but Minfreda. She knew the answers, of course. she didn't ask me anything. She seemed curiously lifeless. KILLER BLONDE 149

``The boys didn't know whether to wear black armbands or break out the champagne. They had the lip balm ready and were prepared for some career-saving smooching. But Vicki's posterior had vamoosed, and they weren't sure if Minfreda would be sitting on the departmental throne.

``Our CEO took his own sweet time deciding, too. Evalu- ation week was canceled for our department, but that made everyone even more nervous. It wasn't natural.

``Mr. Hammonds's announcement came the Monday after evaluation week. We found his memo on our desks first thing in the morning.

``It said that Vicki had resigned. Period. That was all on that unlovely subject. Then the memo said, `Because of her impressive record and innovative ideas,' Minfreda was our new division head of our department.

``There was no explanation for why Vicki resigned and no mention that she'd stolen Minfreda's ideas. Mr. Ham- monds couldn't admit that he'd made a mistake promoting Vicki. I had the feeling that Minfreda would always be a little tainted because of her connection with the episode. Not too tainted, though. Minfreda was now the highest- placed woman in the company.

``There were whoops of glee throughout our department. We were finally, officially, Vicki-free. `Congratulations, Minfreda, I knew you could do it,' Bobby said, though he knew nothing of the kind.

`` `I've been behind you one hundred percent,' said Irish Johnny. With his knife at her back.

``Jimmy just said, `Congratulations, blondie, you deserve it.' He was the most honest of the three boys.

``Oh, the celebration we had in Harper's bar that night. By rights, I should still have the hangover. Minfreda didn't join us. She was smiling but subdued.

``She moved into her new office the next day, and she looked like she'd been born behind that partners desk. That dark wood and burnt-orange walls made her golden hair into living fire.

``As one of her first acts, Vicki's pink office w dismantled. The purloined walls were removed, the pink shag carpet was thrown out, the window and its hijacked sunshine were restored to the whole department.

``The staff saw this decision as a sign that Minfreda really 150 Elaine Viets cared about office morale. I suspected she had other rea- sons. Now all trace of Vicki's reign--and her removal--was gone. But things were about to get sticky.''

``What happened?'' Helen said.

``The cops showed up. And then Minfreda started act- ing strange.'' Chapter 10

It was almost midnight. The moon rose white and cold.

Helen heard odd rustlings