Lively Game of Death Read Free Page B

correctly.”
    “Where?”
    “In this office, of course! I told you—the prototype has not been out of here ever since it was built.”
    “But what about the film itself?” she asked. “Maybe the lab—”
    Wallis was already shaking his head ponderously, a condescending little smirk on his lips. “No, no, Hilary dear, you’ll have to do better than that. I developed the film myself and personally took the prints to the trade magazines. That’s how we found out just last night that Goetz is knocking us off. Gorman Clancy, the publisher of Buying Toys and Hobbies saw the similarity in the pictures of Tricky Tires and the Goetz knock-off, and he gave me a call. That’s how I got these photos of Goetz’s car.”
    Hilary mumbled something about professional ethics in trade journalism circles, then began to ask Wallis why he’d quit Goetz Sales three years ago to work for Trim-Tram, but Scott cut her short.
    “Dean had better get over to the FAB showroom, Hilary. He’ll have to cover for you today, or at least till we can crack this thing.”
    Hilary nodded curtly, and Wallis, after a few moments of pontification not worth recording, withdrew from the room.
    There was a moment of silence. Scott regarded Hilary with a trace of amusement in his eyes. At last, he spoke.
    “Why can’t you stand Wallis, Hilary?”
    She shrugged. “Two reasons, either one alone conclusive. He is a lamentable adman, like most in this business ...”
    “And ...?”
    “He picks his teeth at lunch.”
    “Okay,” Scott replied, “but don’t let your personal feelings color your judgment. I know where you’re headed, and you can forget it.”
    “Why?”
    “Tricky Tires couldn’t have been copied just by the looks of the prototype, Hilary. That wouldn’t have been enough. Goetz must have had access to the master engineering plans.”
    “Why do you think so?”
    He lowered his voice. “There’s a new salesman working for Goetz, name of Harry Whelan. Used to be a demonstrator for Trim-Tram at a couple of previous Toy Fairs—”
    “You put a plant in Goetz’s showroom?” Hilary interrupted, surprised.
    Scott shook his head, further disordering his already tousled hair. “I had nothing to do with Sid hiring Harry. I didn’t even know Harry was looking for work this year, or I would have taken him back myself. He’s an actor, and you never know where he’s going to be from one month to the next. But he’s a damn good demonstrator, and I imagine he’d be a good salesman, too. Anyway, I first found out he was working for Sid when I ran into him last month, accidentally, in the Fifth Avenue Club.”
    “Get to the point,” Hilary snapped, still suffering the morning with a right bad will.
    “The point is Harry is naïve enough businesswise to be pumped. When I heard about the knock-off last night, I called up Goetz’s showroom, just in case, and I was in luck, because I was able to talk to Harry. He was working late, setting up. He told me all about Goetz’s version of Tricky Tires. Not only is it identical in exterior design to our toy—which Harry didn’t know till I told him about the knock-off at the end of the talk—but Goetz is going to market it as Tricky Tyres, which only adds to the confusion on the retail shelves.” Scott took a deep breath, getting ready for the coda. “But the worst thing is that Sid’s knock-off can perform every racing maneuver ours can complete.”
    “Meaning?”
    “Meaning he had to have access to every single sheet of engineering plans. Anybody could take a picture of the Armstrong-Stewart car, though I don’t for a minute believe Sid has the skill to translate photos into a to-the-inch copy. But say he could; still, nobody but an engineering genius—like Chuck Saxon—could figure out all the modifications that enable Tricky Tires to outperform any other miniature racer on the market.”
    “What exactly can it do?” I asked.
    “Well, it’s faster, for starters. It’s highly