Free Love Me and Die by Louis Trimble Page B

become just a little too heavy.
    She said reluctantly, “My father was one of the founders of Jessup Trucking. It’s a company with a fine reputation.”
    She stopped talking. I said, “So you don’t want to tell me anything that might harm that reputation. Is that it?”
    “Yes,” she admitted.
    She looked at me and her expression was that of a schoolgirl caught trying to play a pair of steady boy friends against one another.
    “I wanted to frighten Bonita,” she said slowly. “I thought she would see you at the plant tomorrow. Then when she had her meeting with you tomorrow night, she’d realize you were a detective and she’d stop. And I did think you were Mr. Ditmer!”
    I said, “She’d stop what?”
    “Trying to ruin the company,” Toby said with sudden force.
    I said, “Back up and try that again. You aren’t making much sense. She owns sixty per cent of the company and it’s making good money. Why should she try to ruin it?”
    “I don’t
know
why,” Toby said vehemently. “I thought you—I mean Mr. Ditmer—could find out.”
    I kept pressing her, “Just how is she trying to ruin the company?”
    She said reluctantly, “There’s been trouble with some of the trucks lately. I don’t know what it is.” She looked pleadingly at me. “Really, I don’t. I manage the office. No one tells me anything if they don’t have to.”
    I didn’t want to be inundated by a flood of self-pity from her. I was in no mood to cope with it. I said, “You have to have
some
idea, damn it!”
    “And don’t swear at me. I don’t like it.” She emphasized the remark by reaching down and tugging at her skirt. It was too dark for me to see her knees even if I had been interested.
    I said, “All right. Delete the ‘damn it.’ ”
    She didn’t appreciate that either, but she said, “I know that Rod Gorman has been upset lately. Not at all easygoing like he used to be. And he had a frightful row with Turk a few days ago.”
    “They had a row about what?” I demanded. “And when exactly was ‘a few days ago’?”
    “Rod has been upset for over two weeks now,” she said. “But it wasn’t until Tuesday morning that he fought with Turk.”
    Her voice was reluctant, as if she thought she might be giving away company secrets. She said, “And I don’t know what they were fighting about. I really don’t. Turk was going off just as I came to work Tuesday morning. He stopped in the office to leave some invoices. Rod came running in from the loading platform. He said something to Turk I couldn’t hear. Turk walked outside. Rod followed him. I could see them standing by Turk’s car, arguing. Then Rod hit Turk. Turk hit him back and knocked him down. Then Turk got in his car and drove away. Rod got up and went into Bonita’s office. He was mad all day.”
    I said, “And you don’t know what they fought about?”
    She said, “No. Nobody tells me anything.”
    I said, “Did you ask your uncle?”
    She said, “He just said it was personal—something to do with the way Turk handled the truck routings on his night shift.” She looked through the dimness at me. “But I think it was more. I think it had something to do with what Bonita is up to.”
    “But you don’t know what that is?”
    “I told you—” she began.
    I said, “So you told me. Could the two have been fighting over Bonita herself? Did she ever drop one of them in favor of the other?”
    Toby said coldly, “I don’t listen to office gossip.”
    I said, “It’s information like that that counts some times. Bonita brought both Turk and Gorman to work for the company, didn’t she?”
    Toby said, “Not exactly. She brought Rod in to be traffic manager. Eight months ago the night manager retired, and Rod brought Turk from Tucson to take over the job.”
    I said, “Is that when Gorman lost out with Bonita? When Turk showed up?” She didn’t answer. I added pointedly, “That’s the kind of gossip I can check easily enough, so you