She walked out of Dr. Harley’s office and onto the street. She leaned against the building, taking deep breaths. I did it, Eve thought exultantly. I got away with it. She threw the prescription away.
32
Kate Blackwell was tired. The meeting had gone on too long. She looked around the conference table at the three men and three women on the executive board. They all seemed fresh and vital. So it’s not the meeting that has been going on too long, Kate thought. I’ve gone on too long. I’ll be eighty-two. I’m getting old. The thought depressed her, not because she had any fear of dying, but because she was not ready yet. She refused to die until Kruger-Brent, Ltd., had a member of the Blackwell family running it. After the bitter disappointment with Eve, Kate had tried to build her future plans around Alexandra.
“You know I would do anything for you, Gran, but I’m simply not interested in becoming involved with the company. George would be an excellent executive…”
“Do you agree, Kate?” Brad Rogers was addressing her.
The question shook Kate out of her reverie. She looked toward Brad guiltily. “I’m sorry. What was the question?”
“We were discussing the Deleco merger.” His voice was patient. Brad Rogers was concerned about Kate Blackwell. In recent months she had started daydreaming during board meetings, and then just when Brad Rogers decided Kate was becoming senile and should retire from the board, she would come up with some stunning insight that would make everyone wonder why he had not thought of it. She was an amazing woman. He thought of their brief, long-ago affair and wondered again why it had ended so abruptly.
It was George Mellis’s second visit to Peter Templeton. “Has there been much violence in your past, Mr. Mellis?”
George shook his head. “No. I abhor violence.” Make a note of that, you smug sonofabitch. The coroner is going to ask you about that.
“You told me your mother and father never physically punished you.”
“That is correct.”
“Would you say you were an obedient child?”
Careful. There are traps here. “About average, I suppose.”
“The average child usually gets punished at some time or another for breaking the rules of the grown-up world.”
George gave him a deprecating smile. “I guess I didn’t break any rules.”
He’s lying, Peter Templeton thought. The question is why? What is he concealing? He recalled the conversation he had had with Dr. Harley after the first session with George Mellis.
“He said he hit his sister-in-law, John, and—”
“Hit her!” John Harley’s voice was filled with indignation. “It was butchery, Peter. He smashed her cheekbone, broke her nose and three ribs, and burned her buttocks and the soles of her feet with cigarettes.”
Peter Templeton felt a wave of disgust wash over him. “He didn’t mention that to me.”
“I’ll bet he didn’t,” Dr. Harley snapped. “I told him if he didn’t go to you, I was going to report him to the police.”
Peter remembered George’s words: I feel ashamed. That’s why I insisted on coming to see you. So he had lied about that, too.
“Mellis told me his wife is suffering from depression, that she’s talking about suicide.”
“Yes, I can vouch for that. Alexandra came to see me a few days ago. I prescribed Wellbutrin. I’m quite concerned about her. What’s your impression of George Mellis?”
Peter said slowly, “I don’t know yet. I have a feeling he’s dangerous.”
Dr. Keith Webster was unable to get Eve Blackwell out of his mind. She was like a beautiful goddess, unreal and untouchable. She was outgoing and vivacious and stimulating, while he was shy and dull and drab. Keith Webster had never married, because he had never found a woman he felt was unworthy enough to be his wife. Apart from his work, his self-esteem was negligible. He had grown up with a fiercely domineering mother and a weak, bullied father. Keith Webster’s sexual drive was low, and what little there was of it was sublimated in his work. But now he began to dream about Eve Blackwell, and when he recalled the dreams in the morning, he was embarrassed. She was completely healed and there was no reason for him to see her anymore, yet he knew he had to see her.