‘How are you, Searle?’ Alexis bestowed one of his rare warm smiles upon him.
‘Can’t grumble, sir. Mr. Howard’s waiting for you in the library.’
‘Has my father had dinner?’
‘Not yet, sir. He’s been waiting for you.’
‘Good.’ Alexis found that the drive had awakened his appetite. ‘Thank you, Searle.’
He crossed the hall to double panelled doors, and taking a handle in each hand, he swung them open and stepped into the book-lined room which his father used as his study.
Howard Whitney was seated behind his desk, and he looked up dourly as Alexis closed the doors behind him and leaned back against them, surveying the room thoroughly.
‘So you’ve finally decided to appear!’ he remarked grimly. ‘Not before time!’
Howard Whitney’s voice still had traces of his northern ancestry that no amount of southern intonation could entirely dispel. He rose from his desk to face his son, and in his dark evening clothes he was quite impressive, big and broad and physically dominating.
But Alexis was never dominated. He was as tall as his father and although he was leaner, it was a leanness of muscle and sinew that was far tougher than his father’s loose flesh.
‘I got held up,’ he said now. ‘Besides, I don’t see why I should account to you for my movements. I’m not a boy.’
‘No, you’re not!’ muttered Howard, reaching for a cigar, but refraining to offer one to Alexis. ‘If you were, you wouldn’t create the kind of mess we’re in at the moment.’
‘What do you mean?’ Alexis moved away from the door.
‘I mean Janie Knight, Alex.’
Alexis frowned. ‘I seem to have missed something along the way. As I recall it, last night we were discussing Frank Knight, not Janie.’
‘It’s all the same thing,’ retorted Howard. ‘My God, what is there about you that makes a woman like Janie Knight prepared to go to any lengths to get you back?’
Alexis glanced across at the tray of drinks on a side table. ‘Perhaps you’d better start at the beginning,’ he advised dryly. ‘Do you mind if I have a drink?’
‘Help yourself!’ said Howard Whitney irritably, and Alexis poured himself a generous measure of Scotch. ‘Go on!’ he said.
Howard shuffled the papers on his desk. ‘I wish to God you’d never got involved with her!’
Alexis swallowed half his drink, surveying the remainder in his glass thoughtfully. ‘It was your idea,’ he pointed out.
Howard clenched his fists. ‘Do you think I’m likely to forget that?’
‘Well?’
‘Knight left a note – a suicide note.’
‘I see.’ Alexis was beginning to understand. ‘Where is it? Have the press got it?’
‘Nothing so simple, Janie’s got it. When the night watchman phoned her about Knight’s attempted suicide, she was first on the scene, before the ambulance or the police. She took the note, and she still has it.’
‘You mean she’s attempting blackmail?’ Alexis frowned. ‘What does it say, for God’s sake?’
His father heaved a deep sigh. There were lines of strain around his mouth and it was obvious he was most disturbed. ‘Well, he mentions the difficulties his company has got into, and how he can see no future short of selling out to a larger corporation. He apparently owes money all over the city.’
‘But that’s not what’s worrying you, is it?’ Alexis was impatient.
‘No. No, he goes on to say that – he knows his wife is being unfaithful to him, and that she’s – the mistress of the son of the man who has been systematically trying to ruin him!’
Alexis finished his Scotch and replaced the glass on the tray, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. For a few minutes he said nothing, and then, when his father was beginning to get agitated, he asked: ‘Have you seen this letter?’
Howard Whitney frowned. ‘What kind of a fool do you think I am? Of course I’ve seen the letter.’
‘When?’
‘Yesterday evening. In my office.’
‘You mean Janie Knight walked into your office with the actual letter her husband wrote?’ Alexis gave his father an old-fashioned look. ‘Wasn’t she afraid you’d take it from her?’
Howard sighed. ‘She wasn’t alone.’
‘You mean someone else knows about this?’
‘Yes. That chap Lorrimer – her lawyer.’
‘Philip Lorrimer?’ Alexis shook his head. ‘I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him!’
‘Maybe not, but there it is.’
‘But how can you be sure the letter was written by Knight?’
‘If it wasn’t, it’s a damn good facsimile. Good enough to fool me!’
‘But not good enough to fool a handwriting expert.’
‘My God, Alex, what good is that? Even if the whole thing is a hoax, even if we take them to court and prove it’s a hoax, it’s going to cause a God-awful stink, and that’s something I could do without right now.’
‘Oh, yes.’ Alexis was bitter. ‘It wouldn’t do to jeopardize your knighthood for services to industry, would it? That’s quite a pun, isn’t it?’
‘Shut up, Alex! If it wasn’t for you there’d be no mess.’
‘What do you mean?’ Alexis was indignant. ‘I wasn’t responsible for buying up the shares in Knight’s company – you were.’
‘I know it, I know it. But don’t you see, if Janie Knight wasn’t so infatuated with you, she’d never have contacted me the way she did. She’d have been just as eager to hush up a scandal as I am.’
‘So what’s the deal?’ Alexis was wary.
‘It’s quite simple really. She wants you back again.’
‘You can’t be serious!’ Alexis was half amused.
‘Can’t I?’ But Howard was not joking. ‘She said you love her – you love one another! You only gave her up because Knight’s company was practically ruined, and I told you to do so.’
‘Nobody tells me what to do,’ muttered Alexis grimly.
His father made a frustrated gesture. ‘I did tell her that,
