Small Town

He turned as a tall silver-haired man, wearing a seersucker suit over a black T-shirt, approached the table. Creighton recognized him, got to his feet.

“John Creighton? I’m Roger Delacroix, I heard your good news and I just wanted to extend my congratulations.” They shook hands, and Delacroix lowered his voice to add, “And my support. I can imagine — no, actually, I can’t imagine what you’re going through. But I know you’ll come out of it all right.”

He sat down, watching as Delacroix rejoined his party at a table on the far side of the room. “I’ll be a son of a bitch,” he said. “Roger Delacroix.”

“And half the town just saw him come over and shake your hand.”

“Roger fucking Delacroix. I wouldn’t have thought he knew I was alive, and this morning he probably didn’t. But that was a hell of a nice thing he just did, and with no ulterior motive that I can see. I mean, it’s not as though I can swing a couple of votes in Sweden and get him the Nobel he’s had coming for the past twenty years.”

“I wish somebody could.”

“So do I, especially now. Did you hear what he said at the end? Just to me, not to the whole room. Not ignoring the murder charge, but acknowledging it and dismissing it. Essentially saying he knows I’m innocent, and how the hell can he?”

“I can think of slightly more than three million reasons.”

“Is that it, do you figure? I can’t possibly be guilty if I’m worth all that money? And speaking of which, you were going to tell me how it got to be three million.”

“I was wondering when we were going to get to that.”

“St. Martin’s bid two point four,” he said, “and that plus fifteen percent comes to exactly two point seven six. Which is nothing to sneeze at, but it’s not where we wound up.”

“I was a pretty good editor,” she said, “but I’ll tell you something. I’m a better agent.”

“And?”

“Before I called Esther,” she said, “I called Joan at St. Martin’s and told her she was the last one standing.”

“At two point four.”

“At two point four, and I reminded her Crown had the right to top that with a bid of... what did you just say it came to?”

“Two point seven six.”

“So, I said, I wanted to give her a chance to raise her own bid, because this was her last chance, and I had the sense she really wanted the book—”

“If not, she was bidding like a lunatic for no good reason.”

“—so maybe she’d like to edge it a little bit higher and make it that much harder for Esther to top. She thought about it and said what did I think about two point six.”

“And I bet you thought it was dandy.”

“Now here’s where I’m really proud of myself, sweetie. What I said was it was a step in the right direction, but if she went one notch higher to two point seven, then Esther would have to go over three million dollars to beat her out, and she was a lot less likely to get clearance at that figure.”

“And she went for it.”

“She thanked me. Pour us some more champagne, why don’t you? You want to know the best part?”

“You just told me the best part.”

“No, this is even better. I called Esther, not really thinking she’d top, because you have to remember we haven’t heard from her since it was her floor at one point one. I kept her in the picture, I told her what level we were at, but she never said anything, because what was there for her to say? Now we’re at two point seven and she’s got to say something, and what she said was yes.”

“ ‘Yes I said yes I will yes.’ ”

“Her exact words. No, as a matter of fact her exact words were I’m glad we wound up where we did, so we can announce a sale in excess of three million dollars. The more they spend, the more important the deal is to everybody, and the more ink they’ll get for it, and the ballsier Esther looks for throwing all those dollars on the table.”

“What did you say to Joan?”

“That she gave it her best shot, but that frankly I didn’t see how anybody was going to get you away from Crown. And she said evidently two point seven wasn’t enough, and maybe she should have gone to three herself. And we both told each other that three probably wouldn’t have worked either, and I said I’d better get off and call you, because you were probably climbing the walls.”

“As indeed I was.”

“No, because I’d already spoken to you, I wasn’t going to make you wait until I called her. I’m telling you all my secrets, and from now on you’re probably not gonna believe a word I say, are you?” She put a hand on top of his. “Saved by the bell. You don’t have to answer that, because here’s somebody else to congratulate you.”

“Oh, dear,” Susan said. “It’s beginning to look as though I’ve been stood up, doesn’t it?”

“I can’t believe that,” Jay McGann said. “Whoever he is, the man’s probably dead.”

“Or kidnapped by terrorists,” Lowell Cooke offered. “Or he’s a damned fool. Which is what I feel like, because I’m afraid we have to desert you.”