Читать книгу One Last Kiss - Mary Wilbon - Страница 8

The men in the room looked at each other, wondering how they were going to handle the problem that loomed before them. Collectively, these men had hundreds of secrets, but this evening they were concentrating on only one.

It was a delicate matter that only men of culture and importance could discuss and resolve tactfully. Earlier they had ordered and enjoyed their thick steaks, prepared blood-rare and sipped three rounds of Glenfiddich thirty-year-old scotch while discussing business deals, politics, and the next promising stocks that were about to explode big-time in the market.

The small talk had died down, and they were now smoking cigars and blowing smoke rings at each other. The gentlemen glanced around at one another nervously. The unpleasant business they had to address left many of them sitting in silence.

But they all agreed on one thing: They had to get their hands on the journal. It was the only thing that linked them together outside of this private club. Inside these walls, they knew the prevailing rule: survival at all costs.

The whore had to be dealt with, and her journal had to be destroyed. It all sounded so sensible and reasonable. They all enjoyed the whore, but who knew she had kept the journal? It was a worrisome development. They thought their power and position had made them untouchable in such matters. Those things had always worked in the past.

The senator, the most powerful of them, tapped on his glass of port until he had their attention. He was a fleshy red-faced man, the eldest in the group, with a thick shock of white hair and caterpillar-sized eyebrows. He had the look of a man who had been handsome once, long ago, but whose looks were now fading fast.

“Gentlemen, do we all agree that we have a problem?” he asked.

Rumblings of agreement rippled through the room.

The senator knew they were all listening now, so he continued. “Of course. We’ve all…shall we say…taken our pleasure with her. But now the whore has become a threat to all of us, and she must be eliminated. Swiftly.”

More affirmative chatter.

“This can’t come back to bite any of us. Whatever it takes, this whole thing gets buried.”

And there it was. They were talking about murder. They all knew it, even while they were still skirting around the edges of the subject.

Only one man voiced an objection. All eyes turned to where he sat at the end of the table.

He rose to address them. He was the youngest man in the room, but he had earned their respect.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked. “What gives you the right?”

The senator shot the young man a disappointed look.

“We have no choice,” someone answered.

“You’re all afraid of some journal or diary she may be keeping. You don’t know for sure that she is,” he argued.

“She has a record of all our names and phone numbers. That’s dangerous,” said the senator.

“Isn’t it enough that she’s going away?” the young man asked.

“No, it is not enough. There are no guarantees that she won’t someday start blackmailing us,” came another response.

“If she wanted to blackmail us, she could have done that long ago. She’s never done a thing to hurt or embarrass any of us. And she has had ample opportunity,” he reminded them.

The responses stopped. Maybe there was a chance they wouldn’t have to go through with their plan. The senator knew he had to pull them back from their ambivalence, tap into their fear.

“She tried to quit before,” the senator prompted them. “She changed her mind. She may change her mind again in the future,” he suggested.

The rumbling started up again.

“Listen to me,” said the young opponent. “All she wants to do is get as far away as possible from the life she has led up until now. We trusted her to keep our secrets in the past. She has never betrayed any of us, has she?”

Looks were exchanged around the room. He was right; they had to agree. The whore was selected partially for her well-known discretion.

“I think she can be trusted to keep quiet about us.”

“And what if she’s not successful in her new life?” the senator asked.

Now they all began talking at once, sounding like an angry mob.

“She may decide it would be very profitable to write her memoirs.”

“Or sit down and have a chat with Oprah.”

“We have to act now, or these matters could come to light at a most inopportune time.”

“We could all be ruined and lose everything.”

“She’s a cancer that must be cut out.”

It was useless. They were not listening to him. The young man felt like a ghost from another time. He looked at the senator. He was not talking now but sat silently sipping his port, seeming pleased with himself that the rest had aligned with him.

The man walked over and grabbed the senator’s arm before he could raise the port to his lips again.

“This is murder you’re talking about. You’re crossing a line you will never be able to step back from.”

“We’ll risk it. The stakes are too high.” The senator broke free of the man’s grip on his arm and took a long sip of his port.

The man scanned the faces of the other men in the room and knew they had decided against him. The girl had become a threat swirling around their cherished upper-class lives. Nothing he could say was going to change their minds.

“I don’t want any part of this,” he said. “If anything happens to her, if she twists her ankle, if she breaks a nail, I promise I’ll come after you. I’ll find you, and I’ll do whatever I can to see you get the justice you deserve.”

Then he walked out.

A few attempted to stop him, but it was useless. He forced his way past them and was gone.

“Let him go,” the senator said casually. “He’ll come around. He has as much to lose as the rest of us.” The senator stood up now to address them further. “I’ll take care of it. I know someone the whore trusts. He’ll see that the problem is fixed—disposed of properly.” He sipped his port.

Then the questions started.

“Are you sure he can be trusted?”

“Yes, this man is perfect,” he assured them.

“Perfect how?”

“When it is done, he will be the perfect scapegoat. We’ll use him, then throw him away. He won’t be missed.” Another silence. “Any other questions, gentlemen?” No one spoke.

“I will make sure the whore goes away permanently. It’s extreme, but it’s the only move we have. Put your minds at ease. There will be one less of these miserable bitches to prey on our weaknesses.”

The mood in the room became jovial again. There was a tasteful round of restrained applause and the relighting of cigars.

“We will never speak of it again, and this won’t cost you a thing,” he said.

“We will be in your debt forever,” someone said casually.

“Yes, you will, won’t you…forever. I’ll let you know when and if I intend to collect on that debt.”

He raised his glass and toasted them.

“Good night, gentlemen.”

Every eye was on him as he left.

Then there was a crashing silence. The powerful men in the room let it sink in for a moment just what that debt might cost them. No one said a word. No one even blinked.

This Is Action News 10 in New Jersey…All of New Jersey All of the Time

“Good morning. I’m Michelle Tevotino. Republican Pete Moreno now has a seven percent advantage in New Jersey’s U.S. Senate campaign. The latest election poll in the Garden State shows Moreno leading Democrat challenger Clinton Kendall forty-three percent to thirty-six percent. Seven percent of voters say that they will vote for some other candidate, an independent, or write-in, and fourteen percent remain undecided in this Democratic-leaning state. A month ago, Moreno held a two percent advantage. Moreno has solidified support among Republicans since the last poll, while Kendall has lost ground among Democrats. From an ideological perspective, Family Values Moreno has improved his standing with conservative voters in the state.

“And for the second time, New Jersey voters will decide on a bond for special development improvements. Supporters of the bond claim that the monies would be used to promote smart growth and improve quality of life. The goal is to rebuild cities with an emphasis on residential construction and therefore increase the tax base. The first three target areas would be Newark, Trenton, and Camden. Opponents of the bond proposals claim that there is no way to ensure the money would be used appropriately and that approving the bond would lead to an increase in taxes. The bond failed to pass in the last election when seventy-seven percent of the voters said nay.

“In other news, a twenty-six-year-old unidentified man from Jackson, New Jersey, choked to death on a sequined pastie while getting a lap dance at a local strip club last night. The exotic dancer, identified only as ‘Ginger,’ had this to say to our Action 10 in New Jersey News crew: ‘He was sucking on my…um…titties…oops (giggle snort), I mean, bosoms when he orally removed the three-inch plastic pastie. He started chewing it while he was laughing. It was all in good fun. I didn’t think he was going to actually try to swallow it, ya know what I mean? Those things aren’t edible. He was really drunk. I’m a little hungover myself, ya know what I mean?’” (giggle snort)