Free Hoodwinked by Diana Palmer Page B

draftsman there,” she said unexpectedly, and he had to bite his tongue. “But he was transferred to their California plant last year,” she added, and he relaxed. “I don’t guess you’d have known him. He only worked there for a year.”
    â€œI guess not,” he agreed.
    â€œI wonder why I haven’t seen you before?” she mused, smiling at him. “Most of the mechanics share the canteen with us.”
    â€œI was at the construction plant in Kansas City until this month,” he told her. It was true enough, he’d raised hell down there. “Where the Faber-jet renovation is taking place,” he added.
    â€œYes, we know about the other divisions, even if we haven’t seen them,” Maureen agreed. “It’s a huge corporation, isn’t it? There’s the engineering plant, where we are, and the construction plant, the electronics plant. However do you suppose Mr. MacFaber keeps up with it all?”
    â€œHe has capable executives and he delegates a lot of authority,” he said, adding “Probably,” when she stared at him. “I’ve heard some of the men talk about him,” he said to alleviate her suspicions.
    â€œCharlene says he’s heavy,” she murmured. “And old. I wonder what he looks like? There used to be a portrait of him, Charlene said, but somebody lost it.”
    He pursed his lips, remembering all too well what had become of that unflattering likeness of Joseph MacFaber, but he couldn’t tell her.
    â€œHow does Charlene like him?” he asked.
    â€œShe’s never met him,” she said. “She’s only been his secretary for four months, and he’s been out of the country for almost a year. He flies in occasionally, they say, but he has most of his contact with the corporation through memos and phone calls.” She frowned into her coffee. “It seems kind of haphazard to me. I mean, he’s the man on top. If there are design problems with his jet, you’d think he’d be here raising Cain about it instead of jumping off mountains on hang gliders. Wouldn’t you?” she added, looking up to surprise a strange expression on his broad, dark face.
    â€œMaybe he doesn’t trust anybody,” he suggested.
    She shrugged. “You can’t blame him for that. If somebody really is trying to sabotage his new design, he’d be well-advised not to.” She pursed her lips. “I guess he suspects Mr. Peters, don’t you?” she added thoughtfully. “But I wonder if Mr. Peters would do something like that? I know he wants to control the corporation, but he seems like a very nice man to me.”
    He knew he’d stopped breathing. “You know him?”
    â€œDidn’t you see him this morning?” she asked. “He goes to my church.”
    He didn’t flick an eyelash, but he felt his head whirling. “Did he see us?”
    â€œNo, I don’t think so. He was in the front pew and we left early. I would have introduced you,” she added with a smile. “He’s very friendly.”
    That, he thought with blatant relief, would have been one hell of an introduction, all right. But it raised some terrible questions. If she went to church with Peters, and knew him…But would people who went to church really be involved in something as unholy as sabotage? He’d learned over the years that the sweetest faces sometimes masked terrible greed.
    â€œYou look worried,” she said. “Is something wrong?”
    â€œNo. Finish your coffee. We’d better go.”
    She didn’t understand what was wrong. He drove her back to her apartment, murmured something about seeing her the next day, and left her there without a word or a smile.
    Strange, unpredictable man, she thought, worried. Had she said something that made him angry? Did he think she was being disloyal to the company by talking so nicely about Mr.