The Girl Who Knew Too Much(87)

“Yeah, that might be enough for Ogden to send in the heavy muscle. But if that’s true, it means the studio considers Tremayne absolutely crucial to the bottom line.”

“I can tell you one thing: Bribery wouldn’t have worked with Peggy Hackett.”

“You’re sure?”

“Peggy was trying to get her career back on track,” Irene said. “She wasn’t after money. She wanted a headline.”

“Get anything else from Picton?”

“She warned me that Ogden can be ruthless. It’s obvious she’s scared of him. She also said she’s decided she’s not cut out for Hollywood or Burning Cove. She just wants to get enough money together to go home, get a job, and get married.”

“Married?”

“Married. Ever tried it?”

“No,” Oliver said. “Came close once upon a time. Got engaged. But it didn’t work out. You?”

“Same story. I thought I was going to marry someone once. But it didn’t work out.”

“The lying, cheating bastard you mentioned in the prop locker?”

“He neglected to mention that he was engaged to someone. When his fiancée informed me of the facts, the lying, cheating bastard thought it was odd that I didn’t want to play the part of his mistress.”

Oliver nodded with a sage air. “Yeah, that lying and cheating stuff will ruin a perfectly good relationship every time.”

Irene propped her elbows on the arms of her chair and put her fingertips together.

“You speak from personal experience, I assume?” she said.

“I do. She was one of my assistants. Ran off with a man I considered a trusted employee. He handled the bookings, ticket sales, and advance publicity for the act.”

“I see.”

“They eloped to Hawaii.”

“Very romantic.” Irene tapped her fingertips together once. “Costs money to travel all the way to Hawaii by steamship or airplane. And then there’s the price of a hotel room. You must have paid your staff well.”

“I like to think so, but evidently Dora and Hubert didn’t agree. On their way out the door, they helped themselves to the cash receipts from nearly two months of performances.”

“Given that the Amazing Oliver Ward usually played to packed houses, that would have been a tidy sum.”

“It was,” Oliver said. “They sent me a postcard from Hawaii apologizing and explaining that they could not deny their hearts. Said they hoped I would understand.”

“Well, look on the bright side,” Irene said. “At least the card didn’t say wish you were here.”

Oliver surprised her with a grin. “Thanks for putting things into perspective. Did you get any revenge?”

“Of the petty sort. The company was in a fierce bidding war with a competitor. The deal involved obtaining the license on a patented device used in the oil business. The lying, cheating bastard was in charge of negotiating the licensing agreement. But I was the one who had done all of the background research. I assembled all the necessary facts and figures. I was about to put everything together in a neat, tidy report for the lying, cheating bastard when the fiancée stopped by the office to inform me of the reality of my situation.”

“Can I assume that something dire happened to the neat, tidy report?”

“Nothing at all happened to it because it never came into existence. That was the beauty of my revenge, you see. On my way out the door I dropped the file with all the raw data on the lying, cheating bastard’s desk. I knew he wouldn’t be able to make heads or tails out of my notes. They were all in shorthand—my own private version.”

Oliver smiled. “They might as well have been written in a secret code.”

“As for the figures, well, he was the first to admit that he never did have a head for numbers.”

“I’m guessing the deal fell through?”

“The rival company obtained the license to the device.”

“Was the lying, cheating bastard fired?” Oliver asked.

“Of course not. His fiancée was the daughter of the owner of the company, and she was determined to marry the lying, cheating bastard. The fiancée was daddy’s little girl, so the lying, cheating bastard got promoted to vice president.”

“Naturally.”

“I’ve heard that revenge rarely works out well. Last I heard the bastard and his wife were living happily ever after somewhere in Connecticut. A real Hollywood ending.”

“I doubt it.”

“So do I,” Irene said. “Truth be told, I even feel sorry for her. After all, she married a lying, cheating bastard.”