Free Diagnosis Murder 4 - The Waking Nightmare by Lee Goldberg Page B

just happened to overlook a tribute to an enduring cultural icon of rugged American individuality and courage, everything Thrill Seeker was supposed to stand for.
    Mark was surprised that Grace was manning her post the day after Brant's murder. The stockholders' meeting, originally scheduled for today, had been postponed for a week, so he couldn't imagine what business needed to be done that couldn't wait for a few days.
    "This is where I belong," she'd said flatly, explaining it was a job she'd held first for Winston's father, Gaylord Brant, during "the great man's later years."
    The way Grace talked about Gaylord Brant, it was clear the woman not only admired him, but loved him. She'd also worked on the day of his death. In fact, she proudly declared that she'd only missed one "non-vacation day" in thirty-five years, and that was to attend the funeral of her beloved poodle Starchy, the dog who was now stuffed and positioned beside her desk.
    Grace told Mark that she'd babysat Winston when he was a child and had continued, throughout his life, to "protect him as if he was one of my own bear cubs."
    Her comment gave Mark, who was practically dozing off in his guest chair after more than a day without sleep, a natural segue into the questions he'd come to ask.
    "Did he still need your protection?" Mark asked.
    "More now than ever before," Grace said.
    "From whom?"
    "His so-called partners," she said. "Every day was war. Win took the company public because he wanted to expand the brand, but his new investors had other ideas."
    "What kind of ideas?" he asked.
    "Like buying this building, changing the name of the magazine, and spending a fortune on advertising," she said.
    "They said they were focusing on maximizing profits rather than speculative spending."
    "Speculative spending," Mark repeated. "I don't think I've ever heard that phrase before."
    "They came up with it as a way to reject every idea Win had," she said. "They felt his ideas were too risky. All they wanted to do was tout the surge in circulation since they freshened the concept of the magazine."
    "You mean when they changed the name of the magazine and started putting women on the cover."
    "Half-naked women," Grace said, scowling. "Win prided himself on only using real people on the cover, doing the activities they genuinely excelled at. No touch-ups, no trickery, and no pandering to prurient interests."
    To illustrate her point, Grace held up the same issue Sara had showed Mark before, the one with the woman hang-gliding in her skintight jumpsuit.
    "This woman hang glides as much as I do. This photograph was shot in a Van Nuys studio against a green screen. Everything else was added and enhanced on a computer, including her bust." She tossed the magazine into the trash can. "It made us all sick, especially Win."
    "Even though the magazine's circulation was up?"
    "He was convinced they were cooking the numbers somehow. He had lots of anecdotal evidence that the core audience of the magazine, the folks who'd stuck with us since the beginning, were leaving in droves," she said. "Even if they were right, and we had two hundred thousand new readers, Win said to me, 'Grace, I'd rather have fewer subscribers and a magazine I can be proud of.' God, it was powerful. In that moment, he was truly channeling his father, may he rest in peace."
    "Then why didn't he order an audit?" Mark asked.
    "Because he felt a responsibility to the shareholders and to the reputation of the magazine," she replied. "He didn't want to appear bitter and vindictive or create a scandal. It would hurt the magazine too much."
    Grace reached down and petted Starchy, who stared at Mark with his glass eyes. "It really got to Win over the last few months. He'd lost his spirit. He didn't seem to care any more."
    "So what changed Win's mind?"
    "What do you mean?"
    "Sara told me he was preparing to fight back," Mark said. "She said he was going to announce at the shareholders' meeting that he had evidence