Bleeding Hearts(14)

Well, almost.

If she’d had an absolutely perfect life, she wouldn’t have been writing this book.

Casey Holder was sitting cross-legged on the rug in front of the living room fireplace, frowning down at photocopies of Candida’s original sample chapters. She’d been pawing through them all night, as if she expected to find something new there.

“Of course, the really delicate thing,” Casey Holder said, “will be deciding how to handle the murder and everything that came after it. Linda told me to bring that up especially. She said the strategy on that ought to be planned right from the beginning.”

“Linda” was Linda Bell, the real editor on Candida’s book. Linda was also the president of this division of her publishing company and a reputed expert in how to make best sellers. Candida had wondered from the first if that could really be true. When Candida talked to Linda, she always got the impression that Linda hadn’t read the last few chapters Candida had written.

“I don’t think we have to worry too much about the murder,” Candida said now. “I did put it in the very first chapter. Or something about it, anyway.”

“Of course you did!” Casey Holder was encouraging. Candida wondered what that meant. So far, she had noticed an odd thing about publishing people: They never told you anything you had written was rank awful even if they thought it was. It was as if they expected you to explode at the very suggestion of real criticism.

“If there’s something wrong with the way I did it,” Candida said, “I can always change it. I do try to be reasonably accommodating, you know.”

“Oh, you’re very accommodating,” Casey Holder said. “There isn’t anything Linda wants changed about the first chapter. It’s perfect just the way it is. It’s very arresting.”

“So to speak.”

Casey Holder was oblivious. “The tension that chapter creates is just perfect, and it goes right to the heart of what people are going to want to read. And you follow it with the two chapters on the senator, and that’s good too, because the senator is always interesting to people who like gossip. And after the senator, well, things are very straightforward.”

“They were fairly monotonous, from what I remember.”

“Yes. I see. The point is, the real charge, the real excitement in this book the way you have set it up so far—it was you who set it up this way, of course, I mean, we’re going by your original proposal. It wasn’t our idea to put the murder first.”

“Of course it wasn’t.”

“All right, then, you see, the way you’ve set it up, the real interest is going to be in the murder.”

“Of course,” Candida said again. “I want the real interest to be in the murder.”

“So do we,” Casey Holder said, “so do we. But then the question becomes how you’re going to handle it, you see.”

“No.”

“No?”

“I don’t see why I can’t just tell the story and get it over with,” Candida said reasonably. “Start at the beginning, write through the middle, and stop when I come to the end.”

Casey Holder looked distressed. “But there are issues. You must realize that. There are legal issues, for one thing.”

“What kind of legal issues?”

Casey Holder was being brave. “There are libel issues, for instance. If you’re going to speculate on the identity of the murderer—.”

“I’m not going to speculate on anything.”

“If you’re even going to hint, or slant the story in such a way that an inference couldn’t help being made—.”

“I’m not going to do any such thing,” Candida said. “I’ve been entirely open about what I intend to do. I don’t know who killed Jacqueline Isherwood Hazzard. Nobody knows. Nobody has ever been convicted of the crime.”

“Oh, convicted.” Casey Holder shook her head. “Convicted isn’t everything.”

“It is in the United States legal system,” Candida said firmly. “Innocent until proven guilty. That’s what the Constitution says.”

“Yes. Of course. But in your outline—.”

“I say that I will reveal information never before published.” Candida nodded vigorously. “And I will. I will reveal a lot of information never before published, because I have a lot of information never before published. But that information won’t be the identity of the murderer, because I don’t have that.”

Casey Holder was getting very uncomfortable. She was squiggling around on the rug like a baby too young to turn over yet, frustrated at being unable to move. Candida stretched out her right leg and used the toe of her high-heeled pump to press a button imbedded in the floor. That would buzz the kitchen and bring the maid, who could be sent off for coffee and liqueurs. Maybe coffee and liqueurs could cheer things up.