There was a moment's silence. She said: "What the hell are you talking about, Johnny? I know that the deal with the World Wide agency was fixed. The draft contract was settled. Even the date that they were to take over was all arranged."
He nodded. "You're perfectly right, Dolores. The draft agreement was settled, but it was only a draft; it wasn't signed. For some reason best known to himself Joe decided that he didn't like it. He decided that he wanted to take a run-out powder on you. So do you know what he did? He didn't bother to say anything to World Wide, and I suppose they waited for him to sign the agreement. In the meantime he made a verbal agreement with the Acme Agency, in front of a witness; took ten thousand pounds off them for the business. And that was that. He never told a
