A Knife to Remember Read Online Free PDF

was downright Mae West–ish! Seductive! You know that voice she’s got; she could soften up an eggshell just by talking to it.“
    “Jane, I don’t mean to depress you more, but Mike’s a few months away from going to college.
    You’ve got to trust that you raised him right, and you know you have.”
    Jane considered. “No, I think I’ll just take him home and lock him in his room until he’s thirty. There are good educational channels on television. He can learn from them. It’s all because I agreed to go away for the weekend with Mel. I’ve set a depraved example and ruined him.”
    Shelley laughed. “Mike isn’t ruined. It’s Harwell who’s got a problem. She’s old enough to be his mother!“
    “Oh, God! Don’t say that!“ Jane groaned.
    But Shelley was on a roll. “Besides, if somebody were to seduce him, better her than some bimbo teenager who might end up as your pregnant daughter-in-law.“
    “Shelley, have you ever thought about going into the business of professional counseling?“
    “No...“
    “Then don’t. You wouldn’t be good at it.“ Shelley smiled. “Jane, you do know you’re going off the deep end, don’t you?“
    “Yes, but I thought a nice plunge into despair might be an antidote to the cheerfulness I’ve been feeling lately. I don’t feel I’m being a good mother if I don’t worry myself into a froth about something fairly regularly.“
    “So what were you saying about blackmail?“
    “Blackmail? Oh, yes! While I was standing over there I heard somebody trying to persuade somebody to talk to the director about doing something.“
    “Oh, that is enlightening!“ Shelley said. “Who are these somebodies?“
    “I couldn’t tell. But it was real blackmail.“
    “Is this the same kind of berserk overstatement you were making about Mike and Harwell?“
    “No, not at all. The one person was saying he or she had some kind of proof about the other person being in porn movies and how they never give prestigious awards to people like that. And this person would keep it a secret if the other one would talk to the director.“
    “But about what?“
    “I don’t know. But they both seemed to.“
    “Surely you have some idea of whether it was a man and a woman or two men or whatever?“ Shelley asked.
    “No, not really. I have the impression it was men, but I know it’s only because it was a brutal kind of conversation I don’t associate with women...“
    “You ought to get to a beauty shop more often to be cured of that idea,“ Shelley said.
    “What are you two plotting?“ Maisie said. Jane and Shelley hadn’t noticed that she’d rejoined them.
    In an undertone, Jane repeated to Maisie what she’d overheard.
    Maisie shook her head in disgust. “The blackmailer was probably Jake. He’s that sort of unprincipled person. It’s a wonder he’s still walking and breathing. As far as I can tell, he’s mortally offended nearly everyone he’s ever worked with.“
    “Then how does he get work? Doesn’t the director
know him? Why would he hire him?“ Jane asked.
“Oh, Jane,“ Maisie said. “The director doesn’t
hire him. The director is just an employee like everybody else, although he’s a very important employee and would never admit to being part of the ‘hired help.’ It’s the producer who puts the whole staff together. And the reason Jake gets work is because he’s so fantastically good at what he does. He just sits here in the middle of his vast national spiderweb of contacts and can lay his hands on any object you’d ever imagine. You want an eighteenth century tea service or a Revolutionary era spinning wheel or a Meissen toilet—you name it and Jake produces it without any fuss or bother. It just miraculously appears. Nobody likes him much, but he’s very, very good at what he does. It’s the same way with the principal actors. An extra has to be very agreeable, but a principal—if they’re good enough—can get away with murder.”
    Jane