CHAPTER 9
I was sipping my morning coffee and going over the latest monthly financial report when I saw that something was wrong.
Then it hit me. The numbers didn't tally. The firm was still losing money, but our cash intake remained positive. Not by much but illogical all the same. We were spending heavily on promotions and publicity in the non-fiction and imprints markets and sales weren't up. In fact, the decline continued.
I went downstairs to speak to the people in the finance and accounting department. Mother followed me down. I had asked her to join us. She seemed reluctant, quoting her workload. I insisted. I guessed she was working on her plans to build a "shrine" to her dead husband – and the nostalgic past.
Elka Lamprecht was waiting for us at her desk – or workstation as it
