Only the Strongest Survive (38 page)

“Please, go on.”

She smiled
and then continued. “She started taking over companies that were in
trouble. This means that she waited for a victim, like a spider
does, and as soon as an opportunity arose, she bought nearly all
its shares in the market, acquiring the majority share. You can
follow what I’m saying, can’t you?”

“
Barely.”
Miles was able to write maybe every other word. He was trying to
work out what this woman was telling him. “What do you mean, she
started taking over companies?”

“
It’s simple.
As soon as she heard rumors about liquidity problems of a
particular company, she hired financial experts, detectives, and
God knows who to find all sorts of information. Then she decided,
on the basis of this information, whether she would go for the
company or not. If she decided to do it, she began spreading false
rumors among banks and other stockbroking companies. This meant
that the price of the company’s shares fell and banks refused to
give it a loan. And then Emely would come on the scene. Within a
few days she bought nearly all the shares on the market and became
the majority holder. Simple, isn’t it? But only if you’ve got a lot
of money to begin with.”

Miles forgot
to close his mouth. What he had just heard was more than worth
those lousy five thousand bucks. “How did you get this
information?”

“I did work in accounts, didn’t I? Everyone
there knows everything. Nothing remains hidden. And then all those
attacks by people who wanted to personally get at Emely. These were
the people whom Emely had robbed of their pride and power. Before
she came on the scene, they were managers and afterward only the
owners of a few shares. Many were unable to take this. I think
there were at least two suicides.”

Damn it, why didn’t I charge those batteries for the
recorder last night
?
Miles thought while cursing himself and
scribbling whatever he could manage.

“If you don’t believe me, ask one of my
former colleagues. If you offer them enough money, they’ll tell you
the same. Emely was nothing but a greedy, cruel woman who stopped
at nothing to reach her goal. She trampled on and swallowed
everything in her way. Her power grew on the destruction of others.
That’s the real truth about the famous Emely Donnovan. Why do you
think she always lived alone and had no children? Because no one
could live with a woman like that.”

Anita
was happy with what she had divulged, knowing it
shocked Miles. She was pleased that he had invited her to talk to
him, and that five thousand would come in very handy as well. She
tried to imagine how much he’d make from all she had given him and
for a moment she regretted not having asked for more.

Robert Miles
was speechless.
My Emely—cruel
and greedy? Impossible. What are these lies Anita Walters is
spreading around? No one would commit suicide because of Emely. But
what if it’s true?

He imagined
an article with this content and people fighting for the
paper
, and this excited him. He could see
newsagents full of
News
Continental
in the morning and after two
hours, not a copy left. And all because of him. Suddenly he wanted
everything Anita had told him to be true.

H
e said, “And you think someone
murdered her because of all this?”

“
I’m certain.
Justice prevails in the end. Do you think that after having built
her empire, Emely would simply disappear? She’s not that dumb. She
wasn’t a woman who didn’t know what she wanted. No, she was
following the path she mapped out for herself. She didn’t regret
her actions. On the contrary, she wanted more and more.”

“Yes, but it doesn’t seem like a good enough
reason for someone to kill her.”

“
Think
logically. She can’t have disappeared just like that. She wasn’t
the type to suddenly want a different life and leave her empire.
There are only two possibilities. Kidnapping and extortion, or
kidnapping for revenge. So far no one has asked for anything and
there’s no trace of her whereabouts. So, this can only mean that
she was murdered. The woman is lying in some ditch and after three
months there can’t be much left of her. They’ll probably never find
her.”

Miles was
astonished. A volcano was brewing inside him. He kept seeing
readers fighting for his article and his satisfied boss, praising
him in front of everyone.
Maybe I’ll even become the new editor in chief.

Then he
imagined
the other news agencies offering
him heaps of money to come and work for them. Offering him part
ownership, a luxury car, his own office, anything. He could see
young girls trying to seduce him, wanting a man like him—smart,
ambitious, attractive.

He said to
her,
“I cannot believe what you’ve told
me. I just can’t.”

“Oh, believe me, Mr. Miles, what I’ve told
you is the truth.”

He asked her
a few more questions, wanting another confirmation of what he had
heard, wanting her to convince him, but then he could wait no
longer. He got up and said goodbye.

Miles drove
straight to work in his old car and immediately went to see his
boss.

*

“
If it’s all
true, it’s gonna be big,” the editor
said.

“That’s what the woman said.”

“
But you’ve
got to get someone else to confirm it. You know we can’t publish it
otherwise. Do it ASAP.”

And Miles
did. The same afternoon, he spoke to one of the accountants still
working for Donnovan and offered her five hundred dollars. The
woman refused to cooperate at first, but when she saw the money she
wavered.

“I know you feel like a traitor,” Miles said.
“I’m not expecting new information from you, I just want you to
confirm what I already know. Someone will do it sooner or later.
The truth never remains hidden.”

The woman
kept looking down at the table, but these reassuring words gave her
courage to look him in the eyes.

He
said,
“Journalists are still trying to
find a motive for Emely’s murder, and I found out that she had
quite a few enemies.” Miles looked at his informant, wanting to
check whether it was worth continuing. On the other hand, if he
didn’t carry it through to the end, the woman could cause a panic
in her department and then no one would want to talk to him. So he
went on: “We don’t really know if it is a murder, it’s just a
guess.”

The woman nodded, still not saying a
word.

“
It is
well-known that Donnovan Corporation was involved in takeovers of
other companies. It was a way in which Emely was trying to salvage
companies that would otherwise almost certainly go bankrupt. Am I
right?”

The woman nodded.

Wonderful,
thought Miles. He
said, “We also know that quite a few owners of these companies, who
did not want her to become in charge of them, attacked Emely. Is
that true?”

The woman
didn
’t know what to say, afraid of the
consequences and wondering why this man had singled her out. She
looked around nervously as if wanting to leave. Miles noticed her
reaction and put five hundred dollars in her hand and kept another
five hundred in his hand. The woman looked at the money for a while
and then nodded again.

“And what was Emely’s reaction in these
situations?”

“She called security,” the woman said.

“
I
see.”

Miles was
satisfied.
So it is all
true.
He could still not believe it. All
that was left now was to meet with Anita again and ask her which
companies were involved. This would make his story even more
plausible.

“Did it happen often?”

“At least three times during the last
year.”

Miles was
getting impatient. He wanted to go home and begin writing
at that very moment, already seeing in his mind
the first lines with which he would begin this horrific story. His
excitement was making him breathless and his arms tingled.
Oh, life is so wonderful,
he thought.

He gave the
woman the other five hundred and asked her a few unimportant
questions
, and then he left.

On the way
home he
was already composing the story
in his mind. If he had had his laptop with him, he would stop the
car and start writing there and then. He nearly had an accident
because he didn’t brake in time. “This damn road,” he said, and
then he was back to the story.

Chapter
20

_______________________

For a while,
Ronald was emitting high-pitched noises and trying to remove the
hose that was throttling him, but then he suddenly lifted himself
so that she lost control over him. He backed away from her and
freed himself from the hose. He was still coughing badly, holding
on to his throat. This gave her the courage to take a chair and
attack him with it. But he avoided it at the last second and the
chair smashed on the floor.

Ronald looked at the chair angrily and then
grabbed Emely’s shoulders and hurled her against the wall. The
impact was so severe that she nearly lost consciousness. She
collapsed on the floor.

Taking her by
her hair, he began pulling her behind him. She thought he would
pull all her hair out so she screamed and grabbed his hands in
order to relieve the pain. Screaming didn
’t help as he pulled her to the kitchen like a sack of
cement. He opened a drawer. She was convinced he was going to get a
knife and slit her throat. She shouted again and resisted with all
her might.

To her surprise he got a long rope and first
tied her hands behind her back and then her legs.

Emely lay on
her side helplessly while he tried to calm down and gather his
strength. He was standing next to her, leaning on a cupboard, and
his eyes were constantly on her.

“
So, my dear
Emely. As you’ve made me work so hard, I
’ve decided to improve on my original plan.” The top half
of his body was soaking with sweat. “I’ll bury you in the original
spot.”

She
didn
’t care and lay there perfectly
still, resigned to her fate. Earlier she had fought with all her
might, but now it was too late. It was perfectly clear that her end
was near and she was ready to accept it.

“
But first
I’ll go and get that eight million.”

*

In about
three minutes he was back, carrying the red bag. Again he took her
by the hair and pulled her like a dog. This time she
didn
’t scream, but merely clenched her
teeth in order to bear the pain. Her eyes were watering, yet she
managed to endure it without making a sound. She didn’t want to
give him the satisfaction of hearing her moan and being tied made
it impossible for her to resist.

He pulled her all the way to his vehicle,
when another car could be heard in the distance. Emely pricked up
her ears.

Ronald was
holding her by the hair with one hand and pushing her into his car
with the other, but now Emely was resisting and screaming. He
slapped her head
several times, but still
didn’t manage to get her in.

A blue SUV screeched to a halt in front of
them. Emely began crying when she saw who it was.

“Let her go, Ronald,” John hissed through his
teeth as soon as he got out of the car.

Ronald let go of Emely’s hair and smiled.
“John, how nice of you to come,” he said with surprise.

John was standing there firmly, squeezing his
fists. “What were you going to do with Emely?”

Ronald became
aware that he was still holding the red bag. Awkwardly he looked at
the bag and then at John, extending his mouth in a forced smile. “I
was going to protect the money. You know you’re not very good with
it.”

At that
moment John lost it. He hit Ronald in the face with all his might
so that Ronald spun around a few times before finally collapsing.
He lay motionless on the ground.

John’s sharp
eyes moved to Emely and he asked gently, “Oh, Emely, what has he
done to you?”

Her face was
marked with bruises and her bottom lip was bleeding. “John …” she
said weakly, with tears in her eyes.

Gently, he took her face in his hands and
held her to him. “I felt that something was wrong and had to come
back.” He held her with one hand while the other was untying her
hands. “Sorry, I should never have left you, I’m so sorry,” he said
in a trembling voice and with deep pain in his eyes.

When her
hands were free, she embraced him and the flow of her tears
doubled. He freed her legs and comforted her with gentle kisses.
She was saved now and there was no one in the world she would have
been gladder to see than John. He was the only one able to help
her.
Good old John, so
strong.
She pressed herself even closer
to him. “John, I’m so glad you came.”

“
So am I,
honey. If I’d known …
.” He pushed back
the strands of her hair that were stuck to her forehead. “My God,
Emely, you need a doctor. I’ll take you into town right away.”
Gently he lifted her and carried her toward his car. He opened the
door on the right and just as he was about to put her in, there was
a bang that made Emely shudder all over. John’s arms lost their
strength and she could feel herself falling. She had to put her
hands down in order to catch herself. When she looked at John, he
was lying on his back, his arms and legs splayed on the driveway.
His eyes were no longer looking at her, but far away.