Feast of Murder(31)
“Miss Stack?” he said.
Sidney Stack straightened up and turned around, suspicious. She was a pretty woman nearing thirty, who lived with her parents in Queens and was saving up to get married. Calvin had the uncomfortable feeling that she’d heard this tone in his voice before and didn’t like it.
“I’m giving a birthday party for my father tonight,” Sidney said. “I’ve got people coming at seven o’clock. I really can’t stay late.”
“Of course,” Calvin said. He did his best to smile, but he was angry as hell. That was why Sidney was a secretary, why so many people were secretaries, why women would never get ahead. They always had something else to do that was more important than staying late at the office. He saw Julie Anderwahl come out into the hall from Mark’s office and corrected himself. Julie was an exception.
“We’ve got a major problem,” he told Sidney. “We’ve got a discrepancy in the Europabanc figures.”
“I can’t do anything about a discrepancy in the Europabanc figures,” Sidney said. “I’m really going to have to insist, Mr. Baird. I can’t stay late tonight. I’ve had this party planned for months.”
“If the Europabanc thing falls through, you won’t have to plan anything ever again. You won’t have a job to interfere with your personal life. This is an emergency.”
“My father’s birthday party is an emergency,” Sidney said.
“What’s really the emergency?” Julie Anderwahl asked them. She had drifted in from the hall, attracted by the sound of their raised voices. Calvin thought she looked pale and pasty and just a little ill. “Is there something I can help you with?”
Although Calvin Baird respected Julie Anderwahl’s work habits, he didn’t respect her mind. He didn’t respect the mind of anyone who worked in PR, and he respected the minds of women even less. He thought feminism had been inevitable once women realized how stupid their lives were without real work in the real work force, but he didn’t think women should have been allowed in. They were just so much fluff.
At the moment, they were also his only audience, so he gave it a try. “The Europabanc figures,” he said. “I’ve just been going over them. They’re wrong.”
“Wrong?”
“They don’t add up. I add up the column with our cash on hand, and then I add up the column with the junk bond sales, and then I add the two together, and I don’t get as much as I’m supposed to get.”
“Did you talk to Mark about this? Aren’t those Mark’s numbers?”
“Mark,” Calvin Baird said.
Sidney Stack grabbed her coat from the rack and picked up her pocketbook. “I have to get out of here. You two may want to sit around all night figuring out what numbers belong to who, but I have a birthday party to give. For my father. Like I told you.”
“You’ll never get ahead if you take that kind of attitude,” Calvin told her prissily. “It’s counterproductive.”
“As soon as Joey passes his sergeant’s exam, I’m going to get married,” Sidney Stack said, “and as soon as I get married I’m going to get pregnant, and as soon as I get pregnant I’m going to stop working for good. I’ve had the life of the New York career girl. I just can’t take it. Good night, Mrs. Anderwahl.”
“Good night,” Julie said.
“Silly little ass,” Calvin said. “She’s condemning herself to a life of mediocrity, that’s what she doesn’t understand. She’s just asking to spend the rest of her life in Queens.”
Sidney Stack was out in the hall and really pumping, headed for the reception desk at full speed in spite of her four-inch heels. Calvin sniffed after her and then turned to Julie, who was still standing by his desk, cool and professional.
“Now what do I do?” he asked. “I can’t just let this go. It could bring the whole project down.”
Julie Anderwahl shook her head, stepped back, and said, “Do you have any specific information we can work with? Are these Mark’s numbers? Do you know which set are coming up short?”
“They’re not Mark’s numbers, they’re Jon’s. And I know which set. It’s the cash on hand.”
“Does your assistant know how to operate a computer? It’s Alexa Haye, isn’t it?”
“It’s Alexandra Haye, yes, but I don’t know if she knows how to operate a computer. I suppose she does. They all do coming out of business school these days.”
“We’ll call Mark in anyway,” Julie Anderwahl said. “He definitely knows how to operate a computer, so we won’t have to worry about that. And I’ll get Alexa from the copy room. She was down there making sure we had enough protocol sheets not five minutes ago.”