Master of the Game

Chapter 32

Kate Blackwell was tired. The meeting had gone on too long. She looked around the conference table at the three men and three women on the executive board. They all seemed fresh and vital. So it's not the meeting that has been going on too long, Kate thought. I've gone on too long. I'll be eighty-two. I'm getting old. The thought depressed her, not because she had any fear of dying, but because she was not ready yet. She refused to die until Kruger-Brent, Ltd., had a member of the Blackwell family running it. After the bitter disappointment with Eve, Kate had tried to build her future plans around Alexandra.

"You know I would do anything for you, Gran, but I'm simply not interested in becoming involved with the company. George would be an excellent executive..."

"Do you agree, Kate?" Brad Rogers was addressing her.

The question shook Kate out of her reverie. She looked toward Brad guiltily. "I'm sorry. What was the question?"

"We were discussing the Deleco merger." His voice was patient. Brad Rogers was concerned about Kate Blackwell. In recent months she had started daydreaming during board meetings, and then just when Brad Rogers decided Kate was becoming senile and should retire from the board, she would come up with some stunning insight that would make everyone wonder why he had not thought of it. She was an amazing woman. He thought of their brief, long-ago affair and wondered again why it had ended so abruptly.

It was George Mellis's second visit to Peter Templeton. "Has there been much violence in your past, Mr. Mellis?"

George shook his head. "No. I abhor violence." Make a note of that, you smug sonofabitch. The coroner is going to ask you about that.

"You told me your mother and father never physically punished you."

"That is correct."

"Would you say you were an obedient child?"

Careful. There are traps here. "About average, I suppose."

"The average child usually gets punished at some time or another for breaking the rules of the grown-up world."

George gave him a deprecating smile. "I guess I didn't break any rules."

He's lying, Peter Templeton thought. The question is why? What is he concealing? He recalled the conversation he had had with Dr. Harley after the first session with George Mellis.

"He said he hit his sister-in-law, John, and - "

"Hit her!" John Harley's voice was filled with indignation. "It was butchery, Peter. He smashed her cheekbone, broke her nose and three ribs, and burned her buttocks and the soles of her feet with cigarettes."

Peter Templeton felt a wave of disgust wash over him. "He didn't mention that to me."

"I'll bet he didn't," Dr. Harley snapped. "I told him if he didn't go to you, I was going to report him to the police."

Peter remembered George's words: I feel ashamed. That's why I insisted on coming to see you. So he had lied about that, too.

"Mellis told me his wife is suffering from depression, that she's talking about suicide."

"Yes, I can vouch for that. Alexandra came to see me a few days ago. I prescribed Wellbutrin. I'm quite concerned about her. What's your impression of George Mellis?"

Peter said slowly, "I don't know yet. I have a feeling he's dangerous."

Dr. Keith Webster was unable to get Eve Blackwell out of his mind. She was like a beautiful goddess, unreal and untouchable. She was outgoing and vivacious and stimulating, while he was shy and dull and drab. Keith Webster had never married, because he had never found a woman he felt was unworthy enough to be his wife. Apart from his work, his self-esteem was negligible. He had grown up with a fiercely domineering mother and a weak, bullied father. Keith Webster's sexual drive was low, and what little there was of it was sublimated in his work. But now he began to dream about Eve Blackwell, and when he recalled the dreams in the morning, he was embarrassed. She was completely healed and there was no reason for him to see her anymore, yet he knew he had to see her.

He telephoned her at her apartment. "Eve? This is Keith Webster. I hope I'm not disturbing you. I - er - I was thinking about you the other day, and I - I was just wondering how you were getting along?"

"Fine, thank you, Keith. How are you getting along?" There was that teasing note in her voice again.

"Jus - just fine," he said. There was a silence. He summoned up his nerve. "I guess you're probably too busy to have lunch with me."

Eve smiled to herself. He was such a deliciously timid little man. It would be amusing. "I'd love to, Keith."

"Would you really?" She could hear the note of surprise in his voice. "When?"

"What about tomorrow?"

"It's a date." He spoke quickly, before she could change her mind.

Eve enjoyed the luncheon. Dr. Keith Webster acted like a young schoolboy in love. He dropped his napkin, spilled his wine and knocked over a vase of flowers. Watching him, Eve thought with amusement, No one would ever guess what a brilliant surgeon he is.

When the luncheon was over, Keith Webster asked shyly, "Could we - could we do this again sometime?"

She replied with a straight face, "We'd better not, Keith. I'm afraid I might fall in love with you."

He blushed wildly, not knowing what to say.

Eve patted his hand. "I'll never forget you."

He knocked over the vase of flowers again.

John Harley was having lunch at the hospital cafeteria when Keith Webster joined him.

Keith said, "John, I promise to keep it confidential, but I'd feel a lot better if you told me the truth about what happened to Eve Blackwell."

Harley hesitated, then shrugged. "All right. It was her brother-in-law, George Mellis."

And Keith Webster felt that now he was sharing a part of Eve's secret world.

George Mellis was impatient. "The money is there, the will has been changed - What the hell are we waiting for?"

Eve sat on the couch, her long legs curled up under her, watching him as he paced.

"I want to get this thing over with, Eve."

He's losing his nerve, Eve thought. He was like a deadly coiled snake. Dangerous. She had made a mistake with him once by goading him too far, and it had almost cost her her life. She would not make that mistake again.

"I agree with you," she said slowly. "I think it's time."

He stopped pacing. "When?"

"Next week."

The session was almost over and George Mellis had not once mentioned his wife. Now, suddenly he said, "I'm worried about Alexandra, Dr. Templeton. Her depression seems to be worse. Last night she kept talking about drowning. I don't know what to do."

"I spoke to John Harley. He's given her some medication he thinks will help her."

"I hope so, Doctor," George said earnestly. "I couldn't stand it if anything happened to her."

And Peter Templeton, his ear attuned to the unspoken words, had the uneasy feeling he was witnessing a charade. There was a deadly violence in this man. "Mr. Mellis, how would you describe your past relationships with women?"

"Normal."

"Did you ever get angry with any of them, lose your temper?"

George Mellis saw where the questions were leading. "Never." I'm too damned smart for you, Doc. "I told you, I don't believe in violence."

It was butchery, Peter. He smashed her cheekbone, broke her nose and three ribs, and burned her buttocks and the soles of her feet with cigarettes.

"Sometimes," Peter said, "to some people violence provides a necessary outlet, an emotional release."

"I know what you mean. I have a friend who beats up whores."

I have a friend. An alarm signal. "Tell me about your friend."

"He hates prostitutes. They're always trying to rip him off. So when he finishes with them, he roughs them up a little - just to teach them a lesson." He looked at Peter's face, but saw no disapproval there. Emboldened, George went on. "I remember once he and I were in Jamaica together. This little black hooker took him up to a hotel room, and after she got his pants off, she told him she wanted more money." George smiled. "He beat the shit out of her. I'll bet she won't try that on anyone again."

He's psychotic, Peter Templeton decided. There was no friend, of course. He was boasting about himself, hiding behind an alter ego. The man was a megalomaniac, and a dangerous one.

Peter decided he had better have another talk with John Harley as quickly as possible.

The two men met for lunch at the Harvard Club. Peter Templeton was in a difficult position. He needed to get all the information he could about George Mellis without breaching the confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship.

"What can you tell me about George Mellis's wife?" he asked Harley.

"Alexandra? She's lovely. I've taken care of her and her sister, Eve, since they were babies." He chuckled. "You hear about identical twins, but you never really appreciate what that means until you see those two together."

Peter asked slowly, "They're identical twins?"

"Nobody could ever tell them apart. They used to play all kinds of pranks when they were little tykes. I remember once when Eve was sick and supposed to get a shot, I somehow wound up giving it to Alexandra." He took a sip of his drink. "It's amazing. Now they're grown up, and I still can't tell one from the other."

Peter thought about that. "You said Alexandra came to see you because she was feeling suicidal."

"That's right."

"John, how do you know it was Alexandra?"

"That's easy," Dr. Harley said. "Eve still has a little scar on her forehead from the surgery after the beating George Mellis gave her."

So that was a blind alley. "I see."

"How are you getting along with Mellis?"

Peter hesitated, wondering how much he could say. "I haven't reached him. He's hiding behind a facade. I'm trying to break it down."

"Be careful, Peter. If you want my opinion, the man's insane." He was remembering Eve lying in bed, in a pool of blood.

"Both sisters are heir to a large fortune, aren't they?" Peter asked.

Now it was John Harley's turn to hesitate. "Well, it's private family business," he said, "but the answer is no. Their grandmother cut off Eve without a dime. Alexandra inherits everything."

I'm worried about Alexandra, Dr. Templeton. Her depression seems to be worse. She keeps talking about drowning. I couldn't stand it if anything happened to her.

It had sounded to Peter Templeton like a classic setup for murder - except that George Mellis was the heir to a large fortune of his own. There would be no reason for him to kill anyone for money. You're imagining things, Peter chided himself.

A woman was drowning in the cold sea, and he was trying to swim to her side, but the waves were too high, and she kept sinking under them and rising again. Hold on, he shouted. I'm coming. He tried to swim faster, but his arms and legs seemed leaden, and he watched as she went down again. When he reached the place where she had disappeared, he looked around and saw an enormous white shark bearing down on him. Peter Templeton woke up. He turned on the lights and sat up in bed, thinking about his dream.

Early the following morning, he telephoned Detective Lieutenant Nick Pappas.

Nick Pappas was a huge man, six feet four inches and weighing almost three hundred pounds. As any number of criminals could testify, not an ounce of it was fat. Lieutenant Pappas was with the homicide task force in the "silk stocking" district in Manhattan. Peter had met him several years earlier while testifying as a psychiatric expert in a murder trial, and he and Pappas had become friends. Pappas's passion was chess, and the two met once a month to play.

Nick answered the phone. "Homicide. Pappas."

"It's Peter, Nick."

"My friend! How go the mysteries of the mind?"

"Still trying to unravel them, Nick. How's Tina?"

"Fantastic. What can I do for you?"

"I need some information. Do you still have connections in Greece?"