age.â
Chapter 10
M y impulse was to go around the desk and give Maggie a big Texas hug. Then I remembered we were sitting in my fishbowl office, with all the world and Warner Pier able to look at us, so I restrained myself. I didnât want to call the attention of Warner Pier to the fact that Maggie had teared up.
I knew Maggie had many regrets about whatever had happened to her in California twelve or fifteen years earlier, but she had never confided the whole story to me. I also knew her real dread was that her husband, Ken, would find out all the details. If she had a good cry in my officeâin full view of Fifth Streetâthe word was sure to get back to Ken, and heâd ask her about it.
Warner Pier is a small town.
So I shoved a box of Kleenex closer to her, and I tried to sound sympathetic. But I didnât give her a big hug.
âMaggie, you know you need to talk to some sort of counselor about this issue.â
She nodded, but she didnât speak.
âIâll be happy to listen, just as a friend, any old time. But you need to put all that behind you, and I donât know how to help you do that.â
She nodded again and blew her nose. âIâm sorry, Lee. Most of the time I handle it. But when I see somebody else headed over the same cliff I fell down, I tend to lose it.â
âI hate to trot out the platitudes, but we all have to make our own mistakes.â
âI sure made mine. But Jill is the same kind of girl I was at nineteen or twenty. Sheâs ambitious. And she wants success now. Now! Sheâs not willing to wait.â
âAnd you think sheâd be tempted to take a shortcut?â
âIâm afraid so. Especially since sheâs also absolutely fearless.â
âAre you saying Jill might take a shortcutâseduce the director or somethingâif she had the chance? Or do you think specific shortcuts are being offered to her?â
âI donât know. Maybe Iâm imagining things.â
I sighed. âItâs like we tell children: If you feel as if somethingâs wrong, something probably is. You must have some evidence. What is it?â
âOh, crazy phone calls. Stuff like that.â
âIs Max involved? Heâs the director-producer. Do you think he might be in on some sleazy deal?â
âHe hasnât shown any sign of it to me. Max doesnât seem to be the problemâhe keeps his distance from the cast and crew. Spends most of his off time out in the community. I simply have an uneasy feeling about the situation at the Showboat. And I canât quite put my finger on why.â Maggie leaned forward. âAnyway, no matter whatâs going on, I canât quit and leaveâem to it.â
âContract?â
âRight. I have to work through August thirtieth. So I just try not to notice the clique.â
âClique? As in small group of people who hang together?â
âThatâs right.â
âSo you think thereâs a small group ofâis âtroublemakersâ the right word?â
ââConspiratorsâ might be a better one. But I donât know what theyâre conspiring about.â
âMaggie, anytime you have more than a half dozen people working together or studying together or whatever theyâre doing togetherâwell, donât cliques of some sort develop?â
âSure. But this is different. Itâs the stop-talking-when-a-nonmember-comes-in type of clique, not the letâs-all-go-for-a-beer-and-not-invite-Maggie clique.â She laughed. âI told youâitâs probably my imagination. Itâs just a group of people you wouldnât think had anything in common, and they donât seem to socialize, but they all seem to have some secret link.â
âWhoâs in this group?â
âJill, Jeremy, and Mikki, mainly.â
âBut not Max Morgan?â
âNo, he stays aloof from all of
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