Chapter 5

A full week had gone by since Carl left the company and still no decision concerning his replacement had been announced. Toni was getting nervous. The rumors rising out of the situation had been flying hot and heavy all week. And Irma Barnes, Toni decided, was undoubtedly their greatest channel of communication.

"... and so last night, for the first time, Elliot told me what really happened."

Toni put down the emery board she had been using and cupped the telephone receiver a little tighter between her shoulder and her chin. "What really happened?" She repeated the phrase with dutiful enthusiasm. In the back of her mind, Toni didn't expect to hear any earth-shattering news. But the lingering one percent of doubt compelled her full attention toward Irma's breathless reply.

"Of course, Toni, I know you won't let this go any further than the two of us."

"Of course." Toni assented automatically and wondered who else Irma thought would be the least bit interested.

"Elliot told me," Irma's hushed tone took on the aura of a second-rate melodrama, " ... that the real reason he fired Carl was to save the company's face."

"What?" Toni wondered for a moment if that was Irma's bad attempt at a pun about the cosmetics industry. She laughed politely.

"Don't you understand?" Irma proceeded, still whispering. "Carl was going to quit."

Toni perked up. "Carl walk out? Don't be silly. He was here later that night with Stan and me. He would have said something...."

"I don't think so," Irma said decisively. "From what Elliot tells me it was a battle royal."

"But why?" Toni felt a familiar urge compelling her to goad Irma on ... to keep her on the subject of the office and her knowledge of it until something useful could be said ... something Toni could manipulate with.

"Well, it seems that my darling husband got himself told off." Irma giggled. "I wish I had been the one to do it, though."

Toni took a moment to try to estimate Irma's degree of sobriety before proceeding further. "Told off about what?"

"Elliot didn't say," Irma answered. "He just said that Carl was blasting him and the office and everything about the company. Carrying on like a madman. I suppose it's because he's sick-you know, his heart and all that."

"Yes, I know." Toni's voice was bland because her mind was somewhere else ... rooted on an idea that had just occurred. A dangerous one. She realized that she'd better get off that phone and fast.

"Irma, honey." Toni hoped she sounded sincere. "I've got something on the stove. I really have to run."

"Don't you want to hear what else Elliot told me?"

Irma sounded like she'd just discovered herself to have been betrayed.

"You know I do." Toni's hand started to tremble. She resisted the temptation to simply hang up. "Tell you what," she said in desperation, "I'll call you back. Okay?"

"Well, if you won't be too long...."

"Not long at all. Speak to you soon." Toni hung up before Irma had the chance to stop her. Saved.

Toni walked over to the sofa and tried to think of a good reason not to interfere. She couldn't think of one. Stan wasn't about to do anything on his own behalf, of that she could be sure. Wasn't it her duty to try to help him? Wasn't it the moral and ethical responsibility of a wife to....

Baloney. Toni smiled, glad that she was alone in the room and alone with her thoughts. She didn't give a damn about wifely duties and she knew it. The only thing that interested her about Stan's possible promotion to Assistant Manager was the raise in pay.

She had to arrange it. This was the big break she'd been waiting seven years to see.

The boldness of her goal shook her for a moment and made Tom start to doubt her own abilities. She'd never be sure unless she tried. But what was there for her to try?

The telephone bell jarred her from her scheming. Toni walked slowly to answer it, hoping fervently that it wasn't Irma ... calling back before Toni was ready to handle her.

"Hello darling." Stan's voice sounded fatigued. "Miss me today?"

"Of course. Don't I always?" Toni answered in an earnest tone. Stan had been in a lousy mood all week. No sense in adding to it by letting him know how she really felt.

"Do you think you could get through one more night if I don't make it home for supper?" Stan asked, apologetically.

"I don't see why they don't give you Carl's job as long as you're doing his work," Toni complained, despite her complacent intentions. "If this is the firm's way of saving money it's a crummy...."

"Come on baby, don't start that again." Stan's patience sounded strained. "I told you these things take time, company politics being what they are...."

"Well, don't you have any idea at all? Besides, whom else could they be considering?"

"There's always the possibility of hiring an outsider, through personnel. You know that."

"No, I didn't." Toni felt the motive pop up right in front of her. There it was, plain as day. They might be considering someone else. A stranger. A man who didn't deserve that job. The decision was unavoidable. She would have to do something to prevent that. And fast.

"Toni, are you there?"

"Look, honey...." Toni turned her voice to sugar, "if you really have to stay late, then maybe I'll just go and have dinner out. You don't mind, do you?" She knew he couldn't object.

"Of course not," Stan replied as expected. "I'll take a cab from the station if you're not there when I get in."

"That's a good boy." Toni threw a kiss into the phone and hung up before Stan had the chance to get mushy.

The receiver was hardly back in its cradle when she snatched it up again and put it to her ear. The phone rang only once at the other end before it was answered. "Hi, it's Toni again," she sang into the receiver. "I was just thinking that I might come over."

"Really?" Irma sounded overjoyed. "How nice."

"You sure you're not busy." Toni felt the plan taking shape as she spoke. "I mean I wouldn't want to impose or anything...."

"Don't be ridiculous. When am I busy?"

Toni couldn't have agreed more. "Fine. See you in ten minutes, then." She hung up.

The shiny new fenders gleamed brilliantly in the afternoon sun. Toni hurried into her car and smiled inwardly. Now, at last, she was on her way. And soon that car was going to fit in with the rest of its surroundings-herself included.

The drive to Irma's was a little faster than usual but Toni decided to risk the speeding ticket. What she had to do couldn't wait. She was working against time-the time it might take to decide to hire some outsider for the job that she wanted Stan to get. And that, Toni realized, was the first thing she'd have to find out from Irma. Just who was responsible....

"You certainly didn't waste any time getting over here," Irma commented as Toni walked into the living room. "What did you do, fly?"

This, Toni decided, was the moment to turn on the charm. "I just wanted to hear the rest of what you had to say." She watched the joy spreading across Irma's heavily made-up face. "It's not fair to start a story and leave off in the middle...."

"It was your own damn fault," Irma protested. "I wanted to tell you but...."

"All right, I'm listening now," Toni said, declining with a shake of her head as Irma pointed to her bottle of gin. "What else did Elliot tell you?"

"I thought you had something on the stove?" Irma looked suddenly perplexed.

Toni felt like she might whack the woman right across the face. "Forget it," she almost snapped. "Stan called to say he won't be home for supper. I tossed dinner into the garbage can."

"How come he won't be home?" A mischievous twinkle appeared in Irma's eye.

"He's working late at the office," Toni answered a little too emphatically. "You know, the way Elliot often does."

"Elliot will be home for dinner at six," Irma announced instantly. "He told me so this afternoon."

"How nice." Toni smiled, pleased that she'd gotten through to Irma with that last dig. "Now tell me what you were going to or so help me I'm leaving."

"Hell, don't do that," Irma grinned, as if the knowledge she was about to impart was her only reason for living. "I've only begun."

Toni arranged herself at the edge of a gold brocade sofa and waited for Irma to continue. The size of the shot that the woman was pouring into her glass made Toni wonder if Irma was going to be able to get through her story at all.

"It seems," Irma hurried back to conversational life with amazing gusto, " ... that not only did Carl tell Elliot off, but he also threatened to go right to Eva Stillwell!"

"You mean the Vice-President?" Toni asked. "None other." Irma made a distasteful face. "Ever meet the woman? "No." Toni shook her head.

"I only met her once myself," Irma confided. "Very ugly."

"What did Carl want with her?" Toni asked, before Irma got herself hung up with how ugly Eva Stillwell was.

"God only knows," Irma sighed. "Maybe he was going to tell her some nasty things about Elliot. You know how vicious people get when they lose a job."

"But you said Carl would have quit, anyhow."

"Yes, but it's never the same when you go in to quit and come out being fired. Elliot says he had to practically throw Carl out of the office, bodily."

"I wish I understood all of this," Toni said softly. "Carl always seemed to be such a nice guy. Stan still speaks very highly of him...."

"Of course he's a nice guy. But the man was slipping. Elliot told me so. Carl couldn't do anything right. Sooner or later he would have had to be replaced."

Toni saw the opening for her all important question and took it. "By the way," she tried to sound casual, "who decides which man gets Carl's job?"

"Elliot," Irma announced proudly. "With Eva Still-well's help, of course. But mostly Elliot."

"Oh, is that so?" Toni thought aloud, wondering if she would dare to go as far as she was thinking ... and knowing all the time that she would.

"Irma, would you mind if I joined you for dinner, tonight?"