The Mural. Michael Mallory

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СКАЧАТЬ one that was pleasurable, certainly, but one that was also disturbing.

      The Devil made me do it. That used to be the catch phrase from some old television comedian. Then the Devil went away again, leaving her with a swirling storm of contradictory emotions: a strange kind of shame for pouncing on a man she had only just met, offset by the desire to see him again, mingled with worry over having complicated his marriage and home life.

      But there in Jack Hayden’s pickup truck in the woods, she at once knew what it felt like to want to be a bad girl, the kind of girl so bad that at the moment of orgasm she had a sudden, horrible urge to take her two thumbs and push them as far as she could into Jack’s eyes, shove them inward until her fingernails went up into his brain.

      And some small part of her enjoyed the feeling.

      Dani Lindstrom shuddered. She desperately wanted to talk to Jack. She desperately wanted to learn if had felt the same sort of dark shadow steal into his soul up there at Wood City.

      Or was she having some kind of breakdown?

      CHAPTER SEVEN

      “You told him what?” Jack Hayden shouted, sitting in Marcus Broarty’s office. Ordinarily he would not have taken such a liberty as screaming in his boss’s face. But after a largely sleepless night resulting from Elley’s having literally locked him out of the bedroom, followed by her leaving early this morning without so much as a word, just a good deal of slamming and thumping, he was not in a good state of mind.

      “Jack, I just relayed what you told me,” Broarty responded, looking like a finalist in the Mr. Guileless competition.

      “What I told you, Marc, was the place was a near total loss!”

      “You used the word ‘encouraging,’ and I’m quoting you, Jack.”

      “Maybe I did, Marc, but I used a lot of other words around it, and they add up to the fact that there’s nothing there. Didn’t you even look at those pictures I emailed you?”

      “What pictures?”

      “Don’t tell me you didn’t get the pictures.”

      “I believe that is what I am telling you, Jack.”

      “Okay, okay, fine. Even without them, how could you ignore my telling you the place was a disaster area?”

      “I don’t remember hearing you say that.”

      “Maybe not verbatim, but—”

      “Oh, so now I have to interpret what you really mean instead of what you say?” There was a hint of a triumphant smile on Broarty’s face.

      “Oh, fuck off, you fat asshole!”

      “What...did...you...say?”

      Hayden looked at his boss, feeling his own face starting to redden. As with that crass old bat at the restaurant the night before, he had not intended to say what he really felt, and certainly not so vehemently, but it had come out anyway. God, he must be more tired and upset than he thought. “I’m sorry, Marc, that was way out of line. Totally. I’m a little ragged this morning. I slept on the couch last night. I apologize for my rude, unconscionable behavior.”

      “Accepted,” Broarty said in an uncertain tone. “I just hope you know what to say to Emac, after he’s gone and told his board that the project is completely doable.”

      Jack exhaled slowly, attempting to maintain what little control he had left. “Look, I know you got my phone call because I remember talking to you. And I remember what I said to you. So please tell me how you came to the conclusion that the place was in usable condition.”

      Broarty leapt up from his chair and leaned over his desk, as much as his 44-inch waist would allow. “Okay, mister, I’ll tell you. You think I do nothing around here. You think I’m a total shithead, don’t you? What were your words? A fat asshole?”

      Jack said nothing in contradiction, just continued looking at him.

      “Well my contribution to this place is keeping the goddamned doors open. Emac was about to pull the contract on us unless I saw reason. Is that what you would rather have happen? A big, juicy, lucrative contract with a deep pockets corporation just yanked out from under us, and the news spread around the industry that we had failed in our responsibility to Resort Partners, which would serve to drive other prospective customers away? Is that what you really wanted to happen, Jack?”

      “Marc, our responsibility to Resort Partners, the job for which we are getting paid, is to give them an honest evaluation of a parcel of land, pure and simple. Apparently we’ve already failed in that.”

      “Goddammit, Hayden, you are not getting it! The lights in here are still on, thanks to me. Not you, me! We still have the contract with Resort Partners. We’ll find something to tell them. We’ll find a way to get around this. We still have time to do that. Had I told him the truth, that would have been the end right there. Why can’t you be enough of a team player to acknowledge that?”

      Jack exhaled loudly again. “Okay, Marc, what do you want me to do?”

      “Those pictures you took, you still have them, right?”

      “The original ones, the ones I sent you, or tried to, no. I don’t know what the hell happened, but they disappeared.”

      “Ahaaaaa,” Broarty said accusingly.

      “But I went back and took more. Those I still have.”

      “Good, that’s good. The ones you sent me...tried to send me...are gone, so we’re clear. And the new ones...those we’ll doctor in Photoshop.”

      Jack stared at Broarty’s fat, jowly face. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

      “Do I look like I’m joking?”

      “You’re proposing we commit fraud?”

      “Bullshit. This isn’t fraud, just a little cosmetic surgery.”

      “What happens when they see the site for themselves, Marc? I mean, at some point they’re going to have to visit the place in person.”

      “We’ll worry about that later.”

      “I won’t do it, Marc,” Jack said, rising and heading for the door. “Sorry, but I draw the line here. I won’t falsify the photos.”

      “You know, Jack,” Broarty said, “even though I have personally accepted your apology for your outburst with no hard feelings, I’m afraid it will have to go into your personnel file, which will strongly reflect on your next performance review. However, a little cooperation from you might convince me to just forget the incident altogether. Now get me the goddamned pictures.”

      “Fine, I’ll give you the pictures. That’s the reason I went up there, after all. But don’t make me Photoshop them.”

      “Since I need the job done correctly and soberly, I won’t.”

      Jack Hayden said nothing. He merely stared open-mouthed at Broarty’s smirking face, then left the office, walking past СКАЧАТЬ