"Not quite," I said. "Lady Macbeth was essentially a greedy woman.
I don't think Clemency Leonides is.
I don't think she wants or cares for possessions."
"But she might care, desperately, about her husband's safety?"
"That, yes. And she could certainly be - well, ruthless."
"Different kinds of ruthlessness..." That was what Sophia had said.
I looked up to see the Old Man watching me.
"What's on your mind, Charles?"
But I didn't tell him then.
I was summoned on the following day and found Taverner and my father together.
Taverner was looking pleased with himself and slightly excited.
"Associated Catering is on the rocks," said my father.
"Due to crash at any minute," said Taverner.
"I saw there had been a sharp fall in the shares last night," I said. "But they seem to have recovered this morning."
"We've had to go about it very cautiously," said Taverner. "No direct inquiries.
Nothing to cause a panic - or to put the wind up our absconding gentleman.
But we've got certain private sources of information and the information there is fairly definite.
Associated Catering is on the verge of a crash.
It can't possibly meet its commitments.
The truth seems to be that it's been grossly mismanaged for years."
"By Roger Leonides?"
"Yes. He's had supreme power, you know."
"And he's helped himself to money -"
"No," said Taverner. "We don't think he has.
To put it bluntly, he may be a murderer, but we don't think he's a swindler.
Quite frankly he's just been - a fool.
He doesn't seem to have had any kind of judgement.
He's launched out where he should have held in - he's hesitated and retreated where he ought to have launched out.
He's delegated power to the last sort of people he ought to have delegated it to.
He's a trustful sort of chap, and he's trusted the wrong people.
At every time, and on every occasion, he's done the wrong thing."
"There are people like that," said my father. "And they're not really stupid either.
They're bad judges of men, that's all.
And they're enthusiastic at the wrong time."
"A man like that oughtn't to be in business at all," said Taverner.
"He probably wouldn't be," said my father, "except for the accident of being Aristide Leonides's son."
"That show was absolutely booming when the old man handed it over to him.
It ought to have been a gold mine!
You'd think he could have just sat back and let the show run itself."
"No," my father shook his head. "No show runs itself.
There are always decisions to be made - a man sacked here - a man appointed there - small questions of policy.
And with Roger Leonides the answer seems to have been always wrong."
"That's right," said Taverner. "He's a loyal sort of chap, for one thing.
He kept on the most frightful duds - just because he had an affection for them - or because they'd been there a long time.
And then he sometimes had wild impractical ideas and insisted on trying them out in spite of the enormous outlay involved."
"But nothing criminal?" my father insisted.
"No, nothing criminal."
"Then why murder?" I asked.
"He may have been a fool and not a knave," said Taverner. "But the result was the same - or nearly the same.
The only thing that could save Associated Catering from the smash was a really colossal sum of money by next -" (he consulted a notebook) "by next Wednesday at the latest."