Chapter 11
WHEN I WALKED INTO MY APARTMENT at SEVEN fifteen, Diana was up and dressed and watching the door like a cat at a mouse hole. Only angrier.
I knew immediately, by the look on her face, that the two of us had had it.
"Don't tell me where you've been," she said as she stood up and crushed a cigarette in an ash tray that was already full to overflowing. "I don't want to know. But I've got a few things to tell you." Her voice was cold. She'd gone through the hot phase of anger and had reached the point of hard determination.
"Okay," I said. "Let's have them."
"First, I'm moving out. Today. In fact, my things are all packed. You can look in the bedroom if you don't believe me."
"I believe you," I said. I could have added that I didn't give a damn, but I didn't want to hurt her more than she'd been hurt already.
"Second, our partnership is washed out, as far as you're concerned. I'm taking over the business again."
Now, this was another matter. I'd worked by butt off putting the business on its feet, and I was damned if I was willing to sit by and let her take the whole works away from me. We could liquidate it, sure, but in such a way that I would get my share. That was really what I wanted to see happen, as a matter-of-fact, because it would separate Diana and me once and for all and would take care of the Zimmer problem at the same time.
Still I didn't want to fight with her, because I figured she was just talking. I had as much say-so in the business as she did, thanks to the partnership contract, and that protected me ... I thought.
I said, "As far as the business is concerned, we'll work something out."
She glared at me. "The only thing to be worked out is you. You're going to be out as of today."
"And just how do you propose to accomplish that?" I asked.
"There's a way. A very simple way. I've already been in touch with Hugo."
"Hugo?" I snapped. "You mean Zimmer?" I laughed. "So ifs Hugo now, is it?"
She ignored my verbal barb: "There's nothing you can do, Jack, because there's a clause in our contract that gives any two partners the right to buy out the third by refunding his original investment, with or without his consent."
I remembered the clause. We'd had the lawyer insert it to protect us against Zimmer, since we had foreseen the possibility that we might not be able to work with him. I'd never thought that he and Diana might some day direct the clause against me. She had always disliked Zimmer, right from the beginning. The idea of them working together seemed ludicrous.
I laughed again. "You've got to be kidding! Now, let's be sensible, shall we, and talk about selling the whole thing out for a three-way even split. Or, we might be able to sell it all to Zimmer."
"I don't want to sell out," she said. "The business is all I have now. Anyway, Hugo and I can get along. I might find, as a matter-of-fact, that he's a lot easier to work with than you are."
"You don't know what you're talking about, Di," I told her. "You don't have any idea what sort of man Zimmer is."
"I admit I've never liked him," she said. "But he's never tried to interfere, and his part of the operation has been clean."
"Clean, hell If you knew what I know...."
"And just what is that?" she asked.
I couldn't tell her. I was too deeply involved myself. There was a good chance that Diana would come apart if she knew what Zimmer had been doing, and my neck was at stake. I kept quiet.
"You're bluffing!" she said with a look of triumph. "You have no evidence whatever against Hugo. You just resent the fact that you're out and he's in. I had a long talk with him a half-hour ago and he's very receptive to the idea of the two of us taking the whole operation over."
"Sure he is!" I said. "He's had his eye on you right from the beginning. Don't you know that? He wants to cozy up to you-to try to take over my place in your personal life as well as in the business. But you'll find that it won't be the same with him as it's been with me. He's not right, Di. He's badly twisted. I don't think he's even a real man!"
She took two quick steps toward me and then swung her arm in a stinging slap across my cheek.
My first impulse was to strike back. But I held myself. There would be none of that. It would be silly.
"You can't think of anything but sex, can you?" Diana snapped. "You think Zimmer's leching after me and that I'd give myself to him. You don't have any respect for him or for me, either. You don't have respect for anyone or anything."
"That's enough, Di," I said, fearing that my restraint was about to melt.
"As far as Hugo and I are concerned," she continued in a calmer voice, "our relationship will be strictly business. I could never think of him in any other way, and he doesn't think of me in any other way, either."
"Like hell," I said. "Haven't you noticed the way he's always looked at you, whenever the three of us have gotten together?"
"It's all in your mind, Jack. As far as you're concerned, sex is all there is to life. Well, it isn't that way at all. Not everybody thinks about things the way you do."
"Oh, don't go holy-holy on me, now," I replied bitterly. "That I couldn't stand. You've been just as hot for bedtime all these months as I have. A damned sight hotter, as a matter-of-fact. If you hadn't been looking for sex when I met you, you'd never have taken me into the business in the first place."
"There's sex, Jack, and then there's love. Evidently you don't know the difference. I doubt if you've ever been in love-except with yourself, of course. That's a very tender affair of long and permanent standing."
"All right, Di," I told her. "I think we've both said enough. Just what do you plan to do? Spell it out to me so that I'll know where I stand. I think you owe me that, if nothing else."
"It's very simple," she said. "Hugo and I are getting together at the lawyer's' office this morning. We're going to sign the necessary papers. Legally, we don't have to pay you a dime for your interest in the partnership, since you didn't invest a dime's worth of money or property to start with."
"I invested a hell of a lot of time and sweat. Yes, and some brain-work, too. Or don't those qualities count for anything in your book?"
She shrugged. "They count ... to some extent. That's why, even though we don't have to, Hugo and I have agreed to make you a cash offer. It will be a modest one, but something nevertheless. I'm not going to be vindictive and send you away with as little as you had when you met me."
"How nice of you," I said. "Just what amount did you and your new boy friend have in mind?"
"Don't call him that!" she snapped. "He isn't my boy friend and he never will be. There's absolutely nothing between us except business."
"Okay," I said. "How much are you going to offer me? TeD me and maybe I can give you a turn-down right now. That will save you, Hugo and your lawyer a lot of unnecessary trouble."
She watched me for a while, then she said, "I was thinking about a thousand dollars. Hugo agreed to that amount."
"Well, isn't that generous of both of you!" I said acidly. "As far as I'm concerned, you can take the thousand dollars and stick it. My third of Sunnical is worth a hell of a lot more than that."
"You think," she said. "Hugo and I happen to look at it differently. And if you'll refer to your copy of the partnership and contract, you'll find that it's very explicit. It says the purchasing partners have to pay the selling partner no more than the amount of his original investment in cash and property. Cash and property, Jack. So the thousand dollars is really just a gift!"
I stared at her. "Did you have this in mind when the papers were drawn up-cutting me out some day, I mean?"
"No, I didn't. But my attorney did. He was protecting my interest, the way a good lawyer should. He regarded me as his client, not you."
"Have you talked with him about this thousand dollar pay-off?"
"Certainly," she replied. "I called him after I talked with Hugo. I reached him at home before he left for the office."
"I think you're bluffing," I said.
She shrugged again. "You'll find out I'm not."
I sat down heavily in a chair. Things were working out far differently than I had expected. A thousand dollars for all the time and work and know-how I'd put into Sunnical Tours! It was ridiculous. But maybe she was right-maybe I couldn't do a thing about it.
I said, "There's a better way to settle things than this--a fairer way.", "Don't talk about being fair, Jack. Not you."
We stared at one another and it was very clear that this was it. There was nothing more that I could say.
I stood up. "You don't have to move out of the apartment. I'll go."
"No," Diana replied. "I don't want to stay here. You can have the place."
"Do you want me to go with you to the lawyer's office?"
"I certainly don't," she told me. "What you'd better do is go to the Sunnical office and clean out your desk. You can also kiss Eleanor good-bye. No ... on second thought, I'm going to fire her anyway. Perhaps the two of you can take off together and find another little spot for yourselves. I think you'd make a pretty good pair."
"I don't hate you, Di," I said. "In spite of everything, I don't."
"I'm sorry that I can't say the same thing. But, then, I loved you, Jack, and you never loved me. What they say about the relationship between love and hate is true. I've found out the hard way."
She walked to the door. "I have to meet Hugo and the lawyer now. I'll be back later to pick up my things. For your sake as well as mine, it will be better if you're not here then. As for the thousand dollars, I'll have my attorney send that over to the office by messenger, along with the formal notice under our contract. When you get it, that will be your cue to be on your way. Oh, yes ... and just in case you had in mind writing yourself a big fat check against the business account, it might interest you to know that my lawyer will be in touch with the bank the moment that they open this morning. No check you write will be any good."
I stood up. "This is a hell of a way for it to end, Di."
"Yes," she said. "Isn't it!" And then she turned and walked out.
I collapsed in the chair again.
In spite of what she'd said about her lawyer's advice, I believed I could have fought her and gotten a damned sight more than a thousand dollars. But there was my personal involvement with Zimmer to think about. I weighed the fact that it would take me off his hook if I just faded away and never bothered him or Diana again; on the other hand, if I made trouble he would be able to strike back at me in a way I wouldn't like.
So I went to the office and cleaned out my desk, as Diana had advised, then I waited to get the thousand dollar check and the notice. I didn't say a thing to Eleanor about what was happening. I certainly didn't want to have anything further to do with her, and there was no point in going through a long process of saying good-bye.
The check arrived and I signed for it. I hardly glanced at the accompanying document, except to see that it was set up on the lawyer's stationery and bore the signature of both Diana and Zimmer. That proved there had been no bluffing on her part. I jammed the paper into my coat pocket, put the check in my wallet, and walked out of the Sunnical office for the last time. My few personal belongings were in a brown manila envelope under my arm.
When I got back to the apartment, I found that Diana's things were gone.
I sat down in the living room, lit a cigarette, and poured myself a drink. After that, I poured myself another ... and another ... two more ... and then I lost count.
By noon I was stoned.