Policy on Refunds Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Strategy on Refunds - Research Paper Example This ought to be offset anyway with business sober mindedness so the quantity of discounts won't negatively affect the business main concern. Before discounting the client, the business should endeavor to supplant or fix the unit to keep the deal. On the off chance that this is unavoidable, the accompanying models ought to be met as an approach; 1. The unit separated inside the manufacturer’s guarantee period. It ought to be set up that the breakdown was because of typical use. A short request with regards to the situation why the unit separated ought to be directed by the frontliners. 2. In situations where customers’ simply had a difference in heart as to the buy, there will no discount. On the off chance that the items are flawed, we will meet our commitments under the Consumer Guarantees Act to give a cure. To spare the deal, a supplanting with a service agreement can be offered to the client. 3. The business ought not hold up under the expense for the broken unit as we are insignificant sellers. All expense with units that has been discounted due to manufacturer’s imperfection and inside guarantee ought to be given to the provider for discount. B. On the off chance that the business is in the administration part, set up an arrangement on how you will charge your customers. Guarantee that the strategy consents to all important enactment and accommodates an away from of the administration being advertised. Incorporate the terms and conditions that will apply to evaluations and statements and make arrangement for some arrangement of assertion in the event of a contest. To keep customer’s altruism and build up a â€Å"service leader† picture among our clients, units which are defective that are inside the manufacturer’s guarantee ought to be supplanted without cost and burden to the clients. The business anyway should be cautious that the manufacturer’s rules for substitution are carefully met so we can pass the expense to them. For units that failed past the manufacturer’s guarantee period, could be fixed by our administration specialty unit at a markdown to empower client maintenance and dev elop client generosity. This will likewise expand our primary concern as the organization can even now make business for an after deals bolster that isn't secured by the producer. However much as could be expected, we will abstain from engrossing the expenses because of discounts as this will trouble our uses and sabotage our seriousness. It must be comprehended that right now, the business is still in its initial stage and it will be indiscreet to raise costs to factor in costs related with discounts. The business is still during the time spent entering the market and it has direct contenders with a similar item and all things considered, valuing ought to be kept to be serious to stay feasible in the business. C. A breakdown of the considerable number of costs that you will bring about in gaining or assembling your items or building up your administrations up to the retail location (you may, on the off chance that you wish, center around one item or administration). The expenses ou ght to be comprehensive, including all materials, work, organization, protections, rental, power, advancement and different costs. The idea of the business is retail so the assembling overheads won't reflect in our fiscal summaries. Cargo and conveyance ought to be carried by the provider too. Our overhead will chiefly concentrate on the activity of the item conveyance and upkeep of the outlet

Dth Industry Scope Essay Example for Free

Dth Industry Scope Essay The all out number of families in our nation is around 231 Million out of which Television families are just 148 Million (TAM Annual universe Update 2012). DTH Subscribers enrolled with Pvt. Specialist organizations is 44.21 Million (Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicator Report Dec 2011 by TRAI). That shows the future development capability of DTH industry. With the Government drive for ascend in rustic zap, pay and the utilization designs, individuals have begun requesting quality items. This is coming about into quicker appropriation of DTH as a class. The nearness of all channels the nation over is an empowering agent and will keep on being the distinct advantage for DTH Platforms. The ongoing guideline of Telecom Regulatory Authority specifying the total Digitalization in India by 2014 will additionally reinforce the interest and development of the division. With the administration forcefully pushing in for digitization of TV, Multi System Cable Operators (MSOs) are relied upon to lose their endorsers of DTH during the 4 stages that requires the total digitization of four metros to be specific Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata, at that point 38 urban areas across India, all the urban regions lastly complete India by 31st December 2014. The ongoing achievement in establishment of DTH TV in railroads and transports will likewise unfurl chances of such turn out in times to come. The new retail chain outlets spreading the whole way across the nation will likewise help in nearness and acknowledgment of the DTH classification as an off-the-rack item. The ongoing fruitful dispatch of HD set top box, set top box with live chronicle etc†¦ will likewise make another interest for the innovation, further emphasizing the development story. In nutshell, the ascent of country utilization, decrease in the section level value, assortment of substance, wide range of significant worth included help, huge scene still under link dry zone and the methodology towards customizing the administrations to the clients will keep on going about as happenstance regions in the approaching a very long time for DTH administration.

Welcome to our Fall 2017 Program Assistants COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

Welcome to our Fall 2017 Program Assistants COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog Im excited to welcome our new program assistants to the admissions team! Ill be sharing their stories in the coming days, so keep an eye out. In the meantime,  theyll be here in the office to help answer any questions you may have about SIPA in general our programs, student life, extracurricular activities, etc. Theyve all been where you are now and are the best resources for learning more about our SIPA family. Nick Calbos was  born and raised abroad as the son of a US Army Officer and Diplomat. He earned his undergraduate degree at the United States Military  Academy at West Point, graduating in 2009.  After commissioning as an Infantry Officer in the United States Army, Nick was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment. He had the honor to lead Soldiers in a variety of dynamic and challenging assignments forward deployed on the Korean Peninsula. Following Korea, Nick was assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. From 2012-2013 he was deployed to Afghanistan as a combat advisor to an Afghan National Army infantry battalion in Kandahar province, leading to his involvement in the founding leadership team of AFG2USA, a nonprofit with a mission to assist in the resettlement of former interpreters seeking political asylum in the United States.  Following  his service in the military, Nick participated in a specialized internship at Goldman Sachs, working primarily in sales a nd trading. In the summer of 2017 he interned at Moody’s Investors Service,  working on the Public Finance team.  Nick is currently pursuing his Masters of International Affairs at Columbia University, concentrating on Economic Policy.   In his free time he enjoys traveling, hiking, skiing and shooting. Mark Jamias  is a second-year student concentrating in Economic and Political Development (EPD) with a specialization in International Conflict Resolution (ICR). As a five-year student between Columbia College and SIPA, Mark will be graduating in May 2018. Before SIPA, Mark worked at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations during the annual sessions of the UN General Assembly. For three years, Mark also worked for a major U.S. airline, and most recently gained experience in the maritime shipping industry. Erin Lue-Hing  is a 2nd-year MPA student in the USP concentration/Management US Regional specializations. Prior to SIPA, Erin worked as a Data Analyst and Project Manager for the New Jersey Homeless Management Information System under the Department of Community Affairs. She graduated from Brandeis University with a Bachelor of Arts in Health Policy and a minor in Legal Studies, and served as the Future Leader for the Jamaica Diaspora Advisory Board, Northeast USA. Her background comprises law, health policy, social policy, advocacy for under-served communities and government administration. Rahel Tekola is a native of Dallas, Texas and advocate of racial and gender equality. She has spent the past seven years working across government, non-profit and community organizing to advance marginalized communities. Before going to graduate school, Rahel spent three years in Dallas working at the intersection of domestic violence and poverty. In her role as Chief of Staff to the CEO and advocate for women and children who have been victims of violence, she worked to make sure clients received full services, counseling and education to a stable life free of violence. In this time, Rahel worked on the organization’s largest capital campaign project and also helped launch Texas’ first men’s domestic violence shelter. She also served on the Mayor’s Star Council to revitalize Southern Dallas and the City of Dallas Domestic Violence Task Force. In June 2017, Rahel joined the Reisenbach Foundation and is now currently working as the foundation’s grant Program Officer. Rahel i s currently pursuing her Masters in Public Administration at Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs with a concentration in Urban Development and Policy. In her free time she enjoys cooking and rollerblading.

Descriptive Essay The Playground - 1682 Words

As a small child in elementary school, I remember the anticipation of lunchtime recess, do you? Ordinarily, the lunchtime bell would ring, the teacher would line everyone up to eat lunch, that’s when the excitement began to build. The chatter of voices began to fill the air; students begin discussing what they want to conquer first. Mary-go-rounds, slides, swings, monkey bars, balls, jump ropes, a time where imaginations would explode and run rapidly. Once Lunchtime is over, the Teachers would open a portal to a wondrous world of whimsical delight: the playground. First, you hear the screeching of chairs sliding across the cafeteria floor. Then the rumble of wild, uncontrollable energy would fill the area. Bursting through the doors,†¦show more content†¦An unstructured recess can offer students’ benefits that structured pay will never allow for. The government, school districts, and teachers may not see the need or the benefits of recess, but research tells us that children build social, mental, and physical skills through this type of interaction. The United States Department of Labor requires two paid fifteen-minute breaks and a one-hour lunch break for employees working over eight hours a day (WHD); if adults must ahead to these guidelines why shouldn’t students/children be permitted the same provisions? Everyone needs a break from a rigorous work day: students need unstructured recess play. Viewed as Satan himself: pure evil, Common Core State Standardized Testing has been labeled by critics as the predominant reason for vanishing recess time. Verging on seven years, forty-one states around the country adopted the State Board of Education Common Core standard test for both Math and English (EdSource). One might ask why the U.S. Government felt it necessary for this type of testing? Created to eliminate discrepancies between educational experiences and strengths among high school graduates from different states, and the growingShow MoreRelatedNarrative Essay1444 Words   |  6 PagesNarrative Essays: To Tell a Story There are four types of essays: Exposition - gives information about various topics to the reader. Description - describes in detail characteristics and traits. Argument - convinces the reader by demonstrating the truth or falsity of a topic. Narrative - tells a story, usually from one person’s viewpoint. A narrative essay uses all the story elements - a beginning and ending, plot, characters, setting and climax - all coming together to complete theRead MoreRhetoric and Argument Essays1334 Words   |  6 Pagesare essential elements to all valid arguments, though they may take different forms. 1. Claim 2. Evidence 3. Counterargument 4. Rebuttal A successful argument depends upon the delicate balance between these elements. 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Supporting the teacher - Teachers are incredibly busy and the teaching assistant is a valued asset to ensureRead MoreScientific Method and Research5682 Words   |  23 Pages * b) effects of music on memory performance among introductory psychology students 12. c) effects of self-selected incentives on productivity among auto workers 13. d) effects of television violence on playground aggression among kindergarteners. 14. 15. 20) What is the main difference between experimentation done in a field setting and experimentation done in a laboratory? 16. a) in field experimentationRead MoreTexas Rangers13480 Words   |  54 Pagesï ¼Ë†Contrary to Bernard Shaw,those that can are frequently able to teach as well;those that can’t,usually can’t teach either.ï ¼â€° Well versed in the German Wasmuth and Dutch Wendinger editions of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright but now *7:Designed with a playground and day care center on the roof,a midblock level containing shops(to bacconist,charcuterie,laundry and dry cleaner, etc.)the Unite was also a prototype mixed-usestructure.Out of fashion with most architectural critics since the early 1960s,the UniteRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 PagesCoaching and Counseling 244 Coaching and Counseling Problems 245 Defensiveness and Disconfirmation 246 Principles of Supportive Communication 247 Supportive Communication Is Based on Congruence, Not Incongruence 247 Supportive Communication Is Descriptive, Not Evaluative 248 Supportive Communication Is Problem-oriented, Not Person-oriented 250 Supportive Communication Validates Rather than Invalidates Individuals 251 Supportive Communication Is Specific (Useful), Not Global (Nonuseful) 253 Supportive

Benefits Of A Supply Chain Management Essay - 1697 Words

A supply chain management may be defined as the process involving all the activities like planning, organising, implementing and controlling the cost effective flow of goods from the point of origin to the point of consumption. This involves various other activities which is required to add value to the product along the supply chain like procurement, sourcing and conversion of the products. There are a lot of players involved like the suppliers, manufacturers distributors etc. They have to have a lot of coordination and collaboration among them to in order to be really efficient and deliver good quality products and services. The whole process is integrated to meet the supply and demand. The supply chain networks have drastically changed over the years in the era of globalization. They are very global in nature involving various complex interactions and flow of goods, data and funds between companies which are situated in different countries and continents. Even though the companies are spread across the world the manufacturing plants generally follow a similar structure which normally comprises of the suppliers, assembly plants, distributors, retailers, inbound and outbound logistics providers. There were a lot of challenges which arose because of the competition which made the companies to rethink their strategies in order to get the product to the right place at the right time at the lowest cost possible of the best quality, so choosing the right supplier is alwaysShow MoreRelatedBenefits Of Supply Chain Management1677 Words   |  7 Pageswhich allow companies to capture their customers’ voice. Supply chain stages hear the voice from the customers and react to them appropriately using flexible automated warehousing, and rapid logistics through the electronic data interchange. 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Advantages of Outsourcing †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 4 V. Disadvantages of Outsourcing †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 9 VI. Current Changes in Outsourcing †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦... 11 VII. OutsourcingRead MoreBenefits Of Outsourcing Supply Chain Management942 Words   |  4 Pagesdefeat the company’s purpose of saving money (The Risks and Benefits of Outsourcing Supply Chain Management). Another major issue could be the lack of experience on behalf of the organization hired. The vendor may have never been involved in the industry their hiring business is in. 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The Last Dance Chapter Seven Free Essays

When they went to see Norman Zimmer again, they were prepared to threaten him with a grand-jury subpoena. Instead, he seemed ready to cooperate. This was now Friday morning, the third day of December. We will write a custom essay sample on The Last Dance Chapter Seven or any similar topic only for you Order Now They had last seen him on Tuesday. They assumed he’d had time since then to talk to his lawyer, and fully realized the folly of impeding a homicide investigation. They sat in his corner office overlooking Stemmler Avenue and Stockwell Street. On The Stem, six stories below, thick traffic crawled by. Even with the windows closed, they could hear the incessant honking of horns, an annoyance specifically prohibited by law in this city. Here in the privacy of his own office, Zimmer nonetheless projected as if trying to reach the last row in the second balcony, his booming voice easily overriding the traffic noises floating up from below. â€Å"I’m sorry I was so short with you when you popped in the other day,† he said. â€Å"But we were just starting auditions, and I’m afraid I was a bit on edge. Things have calmed down a bit now. Ask me anything you’d like.† He was dressed the way he’d been on that last day of November, the suit brown this time, the shirt a sort of ivory color, the jacket again draped over his chair, the tie pulled down, the sleeves rolled up, the suspenders picking up the color of the tie again, which was a sort of rust-colored knit. A big man, Mrs Kipp had said. Very big. â€Å"First of all,† Carella said, â€Å"these rights.† â€Å"The rights,† Zimmer repeated. â€Å"Describe them.† â€Å"Long story.† â€Å"We have time.† â€Å"I’m not sure I do,† Zimmer said, and looked at his watch the way he had on Tuesday. The detectives thought for a fleeting moment they might have to get that grand-jury subpoena after all. Zimmer took a deep breath. â€Å"Fade in,† he said. â€Å"1923. A twenty-two-year-old woman named Jessica Miles writes an autobiographical play called Jenny’s Room. It’s a big hit, it runs for three years here on The Stem. In 1928, it’s turned into a musical that opens and closes in a month. End of story, right? Not quite. My partner Connie – whom you met at the auditions Tuesday? She’s the one who smokes a lot?† â€Å"The one I’m old enough to be her father,† Brown said. â€Å"That’s the one. She dug up the original sheet music for the musical – this was before there were such things as cast albums, you know – and guess what? ‘The score is terrific!’ The book was hopeless, of course, but that could be rewritten. So she convinced me we should do it together.† â€Å"This is the same show you’re doing now?† Brown asked. â€Å"Yes,† Zimmer said. â€Å"Well, I shouldn’t say that. It’s essentially the same show, yes. We’ve had the book rewritten, and there are several new tunes, but those are minor changes. For all intents and purposes, it’s the same show, yes.† Brown was wondering why he’d want to produce a flop all over again. â€Å"And it was based on this play called Jenny’s Room, is that right?† he asked. â€Å"Still is based on it,† Zimmer said. â€Å"That’s why we had to go to Cynthia Keating.† Brown looked at Carella. Carella looked back at him. â€Å"To obtain rights to the underlying material,† Zimmei said. â€Å"The source material. Cynthia Keating owns those rights.† Again the detectives looked stupid. â€Å"We’d already acquired the other essential rights from the three people who’d written the musical’s songs and book, but we still needed – well, wait a minute, let me correct that. The original creators had all passed away a long time ago. In most instances we were dealing with grandchildren, or even great-grandchildren, who’d succeeded to the rights by inheritance. But the underlying rights were another matter. When the musical closed in 1928, the rights to the play reverted back to the person who’d written the play – Jessica Miles. And without those underlying rights, we couldn’t proceed.† â€Å"Is Cynthia Keating a grandchild?† Carella asked. â€Å"Is that it? Or a great. . . ?† â€Å"No, Jessica Miles never married.† â€Å"Then how’d Cynthia get those rights?† â€Å"Another long story.† â€Å"We still have time.† At first, Andrew Hale knows the woman only to talk to. He sees her on his way in and out of the building, and they always exchange a friendly good morning or good evening, but that’s it. The woman is very old, far older than Andrew, who – when he first meets her – is in his early fifties. He is still married at the time. This is long before he suffers his first heart attack. In fact, this is shortly after he quit working at the hospital, or – to be more accurate – got fired from the hospital because they thought he was too old to be nursing, even though there were/ema/e nurses his age on the ward. Fifty-three, is that old? – talk about sexism. He guesses it’s because when a man reaches a certain age, they think of him as a dirty old man, and they don’t want him moving in and out of rooms where girls are wearing only surgical gowns tied up the back, their behinds all showing. He supposes the woman is in her mid-eighties, a frail little thing who looks arthritic and possibly lame in one leg, maybe she’s diabetic, who knows? One morning, he comes across her struggling to get a bag of groceries up to her third-floor apartment. He asks if he can help her with that, and she says oh, thank you, I’d truly appreciate it. A British accent, he figures she’s originally from England. Well, one thing leads to another, and this and that, and the next thing you know they’re truly friends, he’s making tea for her in the afternoons, and running little errands for her, helping her hang photographs, put up screens, dust the apartment for her, little things like that. It makes him feel young again, taking care of her. It makes him feel wanted and needed again, nursing a frail old woman this way. One day she tells him she was once a famous playwright, did he know that? He goes Come on, what are you telling me? She says No, it’s true. When I was twenty-two years old, I wrote a play called Jenny’s Room, it was a big hit, may I drop dead this very minute if I’m not telling the truth. He goes Come on, you’re kidding me. She goes Oh yeah? So look it up in the library. Jessica Miles. I’m in Who’s Who in America, i He is almost afraid to look in the book because suppose her name isn’t there? Suppose this is all some kind of fantasy? Then she’d be just a crazy old lady making up things, wouldn’t she? He doesn’t know if he can deal with that. But, hey, guess whatl His friend up there on the third floor is a celebrity! Not only did she write the play she says she wrote, but it was also turned into a musical five years later, whatty a know about that? The play starred somebody named Jenny Corbin, who was a big star back then. When he sees her the next time, he says Well, well, well, grinning at her, and she says Was I lying? and he says I’d sure love to read that play sometime, I’d be honored. She tells him it was originally called Jessie’s Room, not Jenny’s Room, because it was all autobiographical, about her coming to the city here from England and all, and her first years here working for Beneficial Loan, and the experiences she’d had with various beaux and all, and her disastrous love affair, which resulted in her vowing never to marry, all of which was in the play. But when Jenny Corbin, who was a tremendous star of the day, agreed to take the role, she also insisted they change the title to Jenny’s Room, to make it her play, you see . . . â€Å"That’s terrible,† Andrew says. â€Å"Well, no, not really,† Jessica says. â€Å"Because she made it a tremendous hit, you see. I mean, no one would have come to see something about me, but they thought the play was about her, you see, about Jenny Corbin the star, so they all flocked to the theater and I made a lot of money. And, oh, she was so very beautiful.† She does not have similar kind words for the producers of the musical five years later. She tells Andrew that they took a sensitive play – well, a play about Jessica herself – and turned it into something cheap and crass, with a libretto by some person born in Liverpool who’d previously written a comedy about soccer, can you imagine? And the words and music weren’t much better. Everything had an insistent ragtime beat to it, with obvious rhymes and the crudest sort of innuendo. As an example, they took one of the play’s most sensitive scenes – which Jenny performed like an angel, by the way – and turned it into a dance number! â€Å"The scene where she breaks up with the one true love of her life though she doesn’t realize it at the time? A truly wonderful, touching scene, the audience cried every night when Jenny did it. But in the musical, they had colored boys and girls dancing in the background in the most suggestive manner, it was just dreadful. If F d known what was going to happen to my little play, I’d never have given them permission.† â€Å"I would love to read it sometime,† Andrew says, and Jessica goes briefly into the other room and returns a moment later with the leather-bound copy her producer presented to her on opening night. That night, Andrew cries when he reads the scene in the play where Jessie breaks up with the one true love of her life without realizing it, though the audience does. His wife tells him to please be quiet, she’s trying to sleep. Not long after that, Jessica Miles becomes desperately ill. He cares for her at home until it becomes apparent she must be removed to a hospital. And then, he visits her every day, often lingering by her bedside from morning to night, and sometimes throughout the night. She dies within a matter of weeks. In her will, she leaves to him the leather-bound copy of her precious play, and something even more precious: the copyright to the play itself. â€Å"How do you know all this?† Carella asked. â€Å"Hale told me. A hundred times over,† Zimmer said. â€Å"Of course, no one at the time expected the musical would be revived. Jessica died fourteen, fifteen years ago. For all intents and purposes, the play she left him had only sentimental value.† â€Å"Until your partner rediscovered the musical.† â€Å"Yes. We did a copyright search, found that all renewals had been made, located the current owners, and proceeded to license the rights. You can imagine how thrilled these people were! The bookwriter’ s grandson works in the mail room of a publishing house in London. The lyricist’s granddaughter sells real estate in L. A. And the composer’s great-grandson drives a taxi in Tel Aviv! This revival is a godsend to them, an opportunity to make some very big bucks indeed. If the show is a hit, of course. Which I’m sure it will be,† he said, and rapped his knuckles on his desk. â€Å"When did you discover Hale had inherited the underlying rights?† â€Å"When our lawyers did the search. We weren’t expecting a problem, why would there have been a problem? In fact, we were already proceeding, assuming that rights to the play would follow as a matter of course. A new bookwriter was already working, we’d commissioned new songs and hired a director and a choreographer, everything was in motion. But finding Hale was another matter. As it turned out, he was right under our noses here in the city, but he’d moved around a lot in the past several years. Apparently he got fired from a nursing job in a hospital somewhere in Riverhead, molested a young girl in her room, or so she later said, who the hell knew? Or cared, for that matter? What we wanted were the rights to the mawkish little play Jessica Miles had written and inconsiderately willed to him.† â€Å"Are you saying it’s not a good play?† â€Å"It’s dreadful. The only thing that put it over was Jenny Corbin in the starring role. She was the mayor’s mistress at the time, you know, and quite a notorious personality. A stunning woman, from what I’ve been told.† He hung both huge hands on the air and outlined the ripeness of her breasts, nodding in appreciation. â€Å"But we needed the damn thing,† he said. â€Å"Without that play, we simply couldn’t proceed any further.† He sighed heavily, opened a cigar box on his desk, and fished a cigar from it. â€Å"Smoke?† he asked. â€Å"They’re Havanas.† â€Å"Thanks, no,† Carella said. Brown shook his head. Zimmer unwrapped the cigar, bit off one end, and struck a match. Puffing great clouds of asphyxiating smoke on the air, he waved them away with one big hand, and then settled back in his chair to puff contentedly. Without asking, Carella got up to open the window. Traffic noises flooded the room. â€Å"Well, I went to see the old man,† Zimmer said. â€Å"Never expecting a problem, mind you. Why should there be a problem? Who doesn’t want to make a fortune? I told him we were reviving the musical based on Jessica Miles’s play and wanted to license the rights from him. He flatly refused.† â€Å"Why?† Brown asked. â€Å"Because he was an idiot,† Zimmer said. â€Å"I tried to explain that he could make a lot of money if the show was a hit. No. I tried to tell him a hit show would play all over the United States, all over the world No. At first, I thought he was holding out for a bigger advance, higher royalties. But that wasn’t it.† â€Å"What was it?† Carella asked. â€Å"He was protecting Jessica’s shitty little play! Can you believe it? He said she’d been unhappy with the musical . . .well, yes, I said, so are we’.That’s why we’re having the book rewritten, that’s why we’re adding new songs. No, he said. I’m sorry. She would not want the musical revived. I would be dishonoring her wishes if I let you have her play. Three times, I went to see him. He simply would not listen to reason.† Zimmer shook his head, and blew a huge cloud of smoke at the ceiling. â€Å"So I went to see his daughter. Cynthia Keating. Mousy little housewife dominated by a legal-eagle husband who immediately appreciated how much money they could make if this show turned out to be a hit. I asked Cynthia to intercede on my behalf, go to the old man, talk some sense into him. No luck. He wouldn’t budge from his position.† Zimmer shook his head again, and looked across his desk at the detectives. â₠¬Å"So I killed him,† he said, and laughed suddenly, like a choirboy who’ d farted during a Christmas chorale. Neither Carella nor Brown even smiled. â€Å"That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it?† Zimmer said. â€Å"That I had good reason to want him dead? Why not kill the stubborn son of a bitch? Be much easier to deal with the daughter, wouldn’t it?† The detectives said nothing. â€Å"Incidentally,† Zimmer said, and puffed on the cigar and then looked thoughtfully at the glowing end of it. â€Å"Cynthia knew her father was leaving her the rights to that play.† â€Å"How do you know that?† Carella asked. â€Å"He told her. Said when he died she’d be getting twenty-five grand in insurance plus the rights to this miserable little play. Forgive the editorializing, but this entire matter pisses me off a great deal.† Gee, imagine what it does to us, Carella thought. â€Å"Tell you what,† Zimmer said. â€Å"We’re having a Meet ‘N’ Greet tomorrow ni. . .† â€Å"A what?† Brown said. â€Å"Little gathering for the usual suspects,† he said, and grinned. â€Å"Why don’t you stop by?† Carella wondered what had happened to those simple cases where you walked in and found a guy with a smoking gun in his fist and a bloody corpse at his feet. Zimmer had suggested that he himself was a good suspect. Carella agreed. But so was Cynthia Keating, or her greedy little attorney husband, or any one of the copyright inheritors in London, Tel Aviv, or Los Angeles. Not to mention all the people now involved with the current show – the new bookwriter and composer, the director, the choreographer, Zimmer’ s partner. Anyone who wanted this show to happen could have hired the Jamaican who’d hanged Hale on the bathroom door like a wet towel. â€Å"What time tomorrow night?† he asked. â€Å"You want a mystery?† Parker asked them. â€Å"Here’s a mystery for you.† â€Å"We don’t want a mystery,† Carella said. â€Å"We already have a mystery,† Meyer said. â€Å"Two mysteries,† Kling said. â€Å"Too many mysteries,† Brown said. â€Å"Here’s a mystery for you,† Parker said. â€Å"I stop this guy the other day, he just went through a red light, I’m standing right there on the corner. I flag him down cause I’m a conscientious cop . . .† Brown blew his nose. â€Å". . . and I ask to see his driver’s license and registration. So he pulls all this shit out of his wallet and his glove compartment, and guess what’s there with it?† â€Å"What?† Kling asked. â€Å"His marriage certificate.† â€Å"His what?† â€Å"Yeah,† Parker said. â€Å"Why’s he carrying a marriage certificate?† â€Å"That’s the mystery,† Parker said. â€Å"Was he recently married?† â€Å"No, the certificate was ten years old.† â€Å"So why’s he carrying it around with him?† â€Å"I don’tknow. That’s why it’s a mystery.† â€Å"I hate mysteries,† Carella said. The Meet ‘N’ Greet was supposed to start at six p.m. in Connie Lindstrom’s penthouse apartment on Grover Avenue, overlooking Grover Park, a world away from the Eighty-seventh Precinct station house, but only a mile and a half farther downtown. If Brown and Carella had gone to work that Saturday, they’d have been to the party in ten minutes. But they were coming down from their homes in Riverhead, and so they allowed themselves forty minutes, Brown picking up Carella at twenty past five. By that time, a fierce snow storm had started in the city and they hit its full force just as they were crossing the bridge over the Devil’s Byte. They did not get to her building until six-thirty. As it was, they were not overly late. Most of the guests, similarly held up by the storm, were just arriving. The detectives had dressed up for the occasion, both of them wearing unaccustomed suits, Brown’s blue, Carella’s gray. They needn’ t have bothe red. Half the guests were wearing blue jeans. One of them, an actor, asked them what they did. When they told him they were police detectives, he said he had once played a cop in a summer stock production of Detective Story. The show’s new songwriter, a man who introduced himself as Randy Flynn, told Carella that the term â€Å"Meet ‘N’ Greet† was usually reserved for the start of rehearsals, when the full cast met the producers and the creative team for the first time. â€Å"Connie’s new in the business, though,† he whispered. â€Å"She sometimes gets the lingo wrong.† Flynn, a man in his sixties with several hit shows to his credit, wore a look of extreme smugness that attested to his worldwide fame. Puffing incessantly on a cigarette, he told Carella that he’d been contacted by Zimmer early in July, when they’d first acquired the rights to the original show’s music from the composer’s great-grandson in Tel Aviv. â€Å"He’s not here tonight,† he said, â€Å"but the others are.† The original lyricist’s granddaughter had been flown in from Los Angeles, where she worked at Coldwell Banker selling real estate. Her name was Felicia Carr, and she was possibly thirty-three years old, a reddish-blonde wearing the only long gown in the room, a silky green number that clung to her like moss. She was listening intently to Naomi Janus, the choreographer, who had on her head the same black rustler’s hat she’d been wearing this past Tuesday. Naomi was telling a man named Arthur Bragg that she planned some startlingly sexy dance sequences for the speakeasy number, whatever that was. Brown surmised that Bragg was the show’s musical director, whatever that was. He decided there were too many people here. Felicia said she couldn’t wait to see the dances, she just loved musicals that had a lot of sexy dancing in them. â€Å"When did you fly east?† Brown asked her. â€Å"Yesterday,† she said. â€Å"On the Red Eye.† â€Å"And you go back when?† â€Å"Oh, not for a while. I’m planning to do some Christmas shopping.† â€Å"This must be very exciting for you.† â€Å"Oh yes, it is!† she said. â€Å"I can’t wait for it to open!† â€Å"When will that be?† â€Å"Next fall sometime,† Naomi said. â€Å"Provided there’s a theater available.† â€Å"That seems a long way off.† â€Å"Well,† Naomi said, â€Å"the show’s been lying dormant since it closed in 1928, so I guess it can wait a few months more.† The bookwriter’ s grandson was a Brit named Gerald Palmer. He was in his early forties, Carella guessed, a clean-shaven man in need of a haircut. Like the two detectives, he, too, was wearing a suit, though his seemed somewhat out of fashion, an impression possibly created by its British styling. The suit was blue, the shoes he wore with it brown. In his Cockney accent, he explained to Carella, unnecessarily, that the bookwriter wrote all the words spoken onstage, as opposed to anything sung or danced. â€Å"He’s sometimes called the librettist,† he said. â€Å"My grandfather wrote an absolutely wonderful libretto for the original musical. I don’t know why they hired someone to rewrite it.† Carella guessed he hadn’t been told that the original book was â€Å"hopeless.† At just that moment, the man who’d revised the book joined them. He was tall and ungainly, in his late fifties, Carella supposed, wearing jeans, a blue shirt open at the throat, and a green shawl-collared cardigan sweater over it. â€Å"Clarence Hull,† he said, and shook hands with both of them. He immediately told Palmer – almost by way of apology, it seemed to Carella – that his grandfather’s libretto had been â€Å"quite artful for its day,† his exact words, but that the new millennium required something more immediately engaging, which was why he’d chosen to place the show’s opening not on a farm in the East Midlands, where the original had started, but instead in London, â€Å"so that the heroine isn’t a simple farm girl coming to America but is instead someone rather more sophisticated moving from one big city to another, do you see?† Palmer told him that his grandfather had once written a straight play as we ll, â€Å"A comedy, actually,† he said, â€Å"about soccer,† which he thought might make a good musical, given the current American obsession with the sport. Hull told him flatly that the only sports musical that had ever made it was Damn Yankees, and then excused himself to go refill his champagne glass. Palmer told Carella that for the past fifteen years he’d been working in the â€Å"post room,† as he called it, of a publishing house called Martins and Grenville, â€Å"the last publisher in Bedford Square, d’you know it? A highly prestigious firm.† He said he was thrilled they were doing his granddad’s show again. â€Å"I hope it’ll come to London one day,† he said. â€Å"When did you get here?† Carella asked. â€Å"Flew over on Wednesday.† â€Å"Where are you staying?† â€Å"The Piccadilly. Sounded a lot like home,† he said, and grinned. He’d shaved too close. There were razor nicks on his chin. â€Å"When will you be going back?† â€Å"Not till next Sunday. I’m taking a little time here, enjoying the city. Plenty of time for work later on, eh?† he said. Cynthia Keating was wearing a simple black cocktail dress. Her husband Robert was another of the men wearing a suit. Brown figured anyone not intimately connected with show business had dolled up for the occasion. He was beginning to feel somewhat like a horse’s ass. The suit Keating had on was a severe pinstripe. He looked as if he might be trying a case for IBM. Cynthia was telling Rowland Chapp, the show’s director, that the original play Jessica Miles had written was â€Å"perfectly wonderful,† something Chapp accepted with a distracted nod that indicated he knew precisely how dreadful the play was. Brown wanted to go home. Champagne and canapes were coming around on trays, served by a pair of wannabe actors who were dressed in black and white tonight, earnestly playing witty waiter and flirtatious waitress. Snow swirled past the penthouse windows, the flakes illuminated by corner floodlights that made them appear as sharp and as swift as tiny daggers. Connie Lindstrom tapped on her champagne glass. â€Å"I have a treat,† she said. â€Å"Randy?† There was applause, and then a hush as Randy Flynn went to the grand piano in one corner of the room, sat, and lifted the lid over the keys. Behind him, snowflakes rushed the night. â€Å"I’m going to play the show for you,† he said. â€Å"Including the three new songs I wrote. We’ve kept the original conceit, the entire musical takes place in Jenny’s room. The window in her room is a window on the city. We see the city, we see everything happening in the city through her eyes, from her point of view.† He began playing. Carella could not determine where any new songs had been added; to him, the music flooding the air in Connie Lindstrom’s penthouse apartment sounded seamless. As Flynn sang in his raspy smoker’s voice, Carella floated back to another time and place, this city in the year 1928, when everything seemed fresh and innocent to a young girl named Jenny, fantasizing in her room all the way downtown, in an immigrant area then called – as it still was – The Lower Platform. But, oh, the differences between then and now. Flynn sang of a young girl’s yearnings and awakenings in a wondrous island bordered by confluent rivers and spanned by magical bridges. He sang of golden towers rising into the clouds, interlaced with immaculate streets, humming belowground with subways not yet sullied by time or wear. He sang of promise and hope for a population of immigrants that had brought with them customs to treasure and to nourish. As he sang, his voice became a choir of voices, the voices of a hundred tribes with as many different backgrounds, joining together in this shining new land, to become at last a single strong united tribe. Here beyond the windows in Jenny’s room. . . Ah, what a wonderland there had been. Flynn struck the last chord of the last dance. It was still snowing. Carella looked across the room to where his partner stood solid and big and black against the white flakes swirling outside. Randy Flynn rose from the piano bench, placed the palms of his hands together like a guru, and bowed in transparently false modesty, accepting applause from the assembled guests. Brown’s eyes scanned the room. So did Carella’s. Almost anyone in this room could have killed Andrew Hale. There was no way the detectives who caught the murder down in Hopscotch could have connected it with the murders uptown. No way. The first victim uptown had been a sixty-eight-year-old white man who’d been hanged from a door hook and then transported to a bed. The second one had been a nineteen-year-old black girl stabbed in the chest with a knife grabbed from her own kitchen counter. The prior ingestion of a drug called Rohypnol was the only connecting link between them – if, in fact, it was a link and not the sort of coincidence that plagued police work. Except when they were reading novels, the cops in this city rarely came across serial killers. Serial killers in novels were enormously popular these days, but that did not mean they were running rampant all over the United States. Current estimates maintained that only some thirty-five to fifty of them were out there loose. In order for a murderer to qualify as a bona fide serial killer, he had to have killed three or more people within a relatively short period of time. On the other hand, a serial killer was not someone who killed Uncle George and two days later killed Cousins Mandy and Maude because they’d seen him commit the first murder. That was merely a careful murderer. The cops in this city investigated some 2,000 homicides annually. Even if the detectives catching the downtown squeal had remotely suspected a connection between the Hale murder, the Cleary murder, and this new murder, they would not have jumped to the conclusion that a raving lunatic serial killer was loose in the city. The detectives catching the squeal early that Monday morning might have heard about the Hale murder from television, but they most certainly had not heard about the murder of an obscure little black girl in Diamondback. So it never once entered their minds that this new murder was somehow related to the previous two, serially or otherwise. According to a birth certificate they found in a candy tin in the top drawer of her bedroom dresser, the victim’s name was Martha Coleridge and she was ninety-eight years old. A thin, birdlike creature, she lay in her nightgown at the foot of the bed, her neck apparently broken. The detectives – an experienced First named Bryan Shanahan, and a newly appointed Third named Jefferson Long – went through the lady’s belongings, sifting through browned letters and diaries, knowing they wouldn’t find any clues in all this stuff, but going through the drill anyway. What they figured was that some junkie burglar had come in here, stolen the old lady’s grocery money, and then snapped her neck for good measure. They kept looking through her old papers, tossing them onto the bed while the ME examined the body. One of the things they found was a blue binder with a typed label on it. The label read: MY ROOM by Martha Coleridge What was inside the binder looked like some kind of play or something. They tossed it on the bed with all the other crap. The first thing that attracted the Reverend Gabriel Foster to the case was the fact that the white suspect had been released on bail whereas his black counterpart had been denied bail and remanded to the Men’s House of Detention. Same crime, same judge, two shooters, one white, one black, different disposition. That was the first thing, but it wasn’t enough to send him running through the streets, because what he was sensing here was a change in the public mood. Whereas Maxwell Corey Blaine and Hector Milagros had at first been treated like national heroes for disposing of that vilest of human beings, the informer, they were now being pilloried as monsters or worse because a second informer – who was now a media darling and something of an instant heroine – had for a substantial reward turned in the white man, who had at once copped a plea and given up his partner, the black man who’d been denied bail. The world was full of no-good dirty rats these days, but Foster wasn’t about to take up the banner for a pair of universally reviled murderers. Until a pair of ambitious detectives made life easier for him. The partners were named Archie Bingman and Robert Tracey, familiarly called Bingo and Bop by the people who lived in Hightown, where Enrique Ramirez ran his pool hall and his drug operation. They had been dogging El Jefe’s tracks for the past year and a half now. Under the federal Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, murders committed in the furtherance of criminal enterprise were punishable by lifetime sentences. The Colombian cartel was most definitely a racketeer-influenced and corrupt organization. If they could tie the Guide’s Pizzeria murder to El Jefe’s drug operation, he’d be sitting on his ass in Kansas for the rest of his life, Toto. Bingo and Bop felt certain that the two shooters hadn’t revealed anything that might incriminate Ramirez. The indicted pair knew well enough that the long arm of the cartel could reach into the loneliest of prison cells, and they did not long for an icepick in the eye one dark and stormy night. Better to ride the road upstate alone, do the time, and breathe easy. Besides, if the pair had traded Ramirez for some kind of Chinese deal, the grand jury would have already indicted him. Bingo and Bop knew of no such paper handed down. It galled them to know that one of Ramirez’s hit men was sitting downtown in custody, where any police officer with a bit of ingenuity could gain access to him and perhaps learn something about who had sent whom to shoot the hapless little stoolie neither of the detectives had ever met or used. They already knew who had sent Milagros to that pizzeria because it was common knowledge up here in the Eight-Nine that Milagros and his partner Blaine were two ofEUefe’s cleanup men. In the American criminal justice system, however, knowing something wasn’t enough. You also had to be able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, worse luck. That Monday night, the sixth of December, while two detectives in Hopscotch filed their DD-5 on the little old lady who’d had her neck broken, and the reverend Foster pored over that day’s newspapers trying to figure out a way to turn the arrest of Hector Milagros to his advantage, Bingo and Bop drove downtown to the Men’s House of Detention in its new quarters on Blanchard Street, and told the jailer on duty they were there to see the Guide’s Pizzeria shooter. The jailer wanted to know on whose authority. â€Å"We’re investigating a related drug matter,† Bingo said. â€Å"You got to go through his lawyer,† the jailer said. â€Å"We already talked to him,† Bop said. â€Å"He told us it’s okay.† â€Å"I need it in writing,† the jailer said. â€Å"Come on, don’t break ’em, willya?† Bingo said. â€Å"Where the fuck we gonna find his lawyer, this hour?† â€Å"Find him tomorrow,† the jailer said. â€Å"Come back tomorrow.† â€Å"We got something hot can’t wait till tomorrow,† Bingo said. â€Å"You ever hear of hot pursuit?† Bop said. â€Å"I never heard of hot pursuit leadin to a jail cell.† â€Å"Come on, we want to nail this cocksucker sellin dope to your kids.† â€Å"My kids are grown up and livin in Seattle,† the jailer said. â€Å"Ten minutes, okay?† â€Å"The door was open, and you walked in,† the jailer said. Milagros was in his cell reading his Bible. One other cell in the hall was occupied by an old man mumbling in his sleep. Milagros had never seen these guys in his life, and he wondered how they’ d got in here. His lawyer hadn’t mentioned anything about anybody coming to see him. Far as Milagros knew, he’d be sitting on his ass here in The Catacombs till his case came to trial. The way his lawyer had explained it, you couldn’t convict somebody solely on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice. Anyway, who was gonna believe a guy who tried to kill five cops and succeeded in hurting one of them pretty bad? Nobody, that’s who. Just sit tight and you walk, his lawyer had said, which was fine with Milagros. So who were these two guys, and what did they want here, this hour of the night? The door clicked open electrically. Bingo and Bop entered the cell, and closed the door behind them. From the far end of the corridor, the jailer threw the switch that locked it again. Bingo smiled. Milagros had learned a long time ago all about guys who came at you smiling. The other one was smiling, too. â€Å"So tell us who sent you to the pizzeria,† Bingo said. â€Å"Who the fuck are you?† Milagros asked. â€Å"Nice talk,† Bop said. â€Å"We’re two fellas gonna send your boss away,† Bingo said. â€Å"What boss you talkin abou’, man?† â€Å"Enrique Ramirez.† â€Å"Don’t know him.† â€Å"Oh dear,† Bingo said. â€Å"Get the fuck outta here, I call d’key.† â€Å"The key is down the hall takin a leak,† Bop said. â€Å"I wake up dee whole fuckin jail you don’ ged outta here,† Milagros said. â€Å"Oh dear,† Bingo said again. â€Å"Someone I’d like you to meet,† Bop said, and yanked a nine from a shoulder holster. â€Å"Mr Clock,† he said, â€Å"meet Mr Milagros.† Milagros looked at the semi. â€Å"Come on, whass dis?† he said. â€Å"Dis,† Bop said, mimicking him, â€Å"is a pistol. Una pistola, maricon. Comprende?† â€Å"Come on, whass dee matter wi’ you?† â€Å"Who sent you to kill that fuckin pussy-clot?† â€Å"Nobody. He owe us money, we go on our own.† â€Å"El Jefe sent you, didn’t he?† â€Å"You know who El Jefe is?† Milagros said, and tried a smile. â€Å"My mama is El Jefe. Thass wha’ me an’ my brudders call her. Jefita.† â€Å"Gee, is that what you call your mama?† Bingo said. â€Å"Is that what you call your whore mama?† Bop said. † ‘Ey, man, watch your mou’, okay?† â€Å"You watch your mouth,† Bop said, and rammed the barrel of the nine against Milagros’s lips. â€Å"‘Ey, man . . .† â€Å"Eat it!† Bop said. â€Å"Man, what you . . . ?† Bop swung the muzzle sideways across Milagros’s mouth. There was the sound of something snapping. There was a spray of blood. Teeth clicked loose and spilled onto the air. â€Å"Jesus Chri. . .† â€Å"Shhh,† Bingo said. â€Å"Eat it,† Bop said again, and slid the barrel of the gun into Milagros’s mouth. â€Å"Quiet now,† Bingo said. Milagros began to blubber. His eyes were wide. Blood dribbled from the corners of his mouth, around the barrel of the nine. â€Å"Who sent you to kill him?† Milagros shook his head. â€Å"No, huh?† Bop said, and cocked the pistol. â€Å"Who?† he insisted. Milagros shook his head again. â€Å"You ought to go see your dentist again,† Bingo said, and nodded. Bop swung the gun against Milagros’s mouth. He almost choked on his own teeth. The jailer didn’t see what had happened to Milagros until he made his rounds at midnight. Long before then, he had clicked open Milagros’s cell from his end of the corridor and had watched the two detectives approaching the steel door with its bulletproof viewing window, and had let them out into the small holding room, and then out of the complex itself. Now, as he came down the corridor, the old man in the cell next to Milagros’s was sitting upright on his cot, his eyes wide, but saying nothing. The jailer knew right away something was very wrong. Milagros was lying on the floor of his cell. There was blood on the floor, and scattered teeth, and what looked and smelled like vomit. There was also another smell because Milagros had soiled himself while the two detectives were methodically knocking every tooth out of his mouth, but the jailer didn’t yet know the full extent of what had happened here, he saw only the blood and a handful of teeth in the spill of light from the after-hours illumination in the corridor. The jailer had read enough newspapers in the past few months. He didn’t even go into Milagros’s cell. He went back down the corridor, past the cell of the old man with the wide accusative eyes, and he unlocked the steel door at the far end, and locked it again behind him, and walked directly to the wall phone by the officers’ station, and called his immediate superior, the Security Division captain on duty. The jailer’s story was that two detectives had come into the lockup showing a piece of paper authorizing them to question Hector Milagros. He couldn’t remember their names. He’d asked them to sign in, and he assumed they both had; he hadn’t looked at the log book afterward. He told the captain they’d been in the prisoner’s cell for about half an hour, and that he hadn’t heard anything out of the ordinary during that time. Then again, there was a thick steel door at the end of the corridor. He said he couldn’t remember having seen either of the detectives down here before, nor could he remember what either of them looked like, except that one had a mustache. The duty captain figured the man was covering his own ass. He read newspapers, too. Lest anyone later accuse him of having delayed while a story was being concocted, he called an ambulance at once, and had the prisoner expressed to nearby St Mary’s, the same hospital Sharyn Cooke had moved Willis from not four nights earlier. Then he telephoned the deputy warden of Security Division, who listened to the story from his bed at home, alternately expressing surprise and grave concern. The deputy warden in turn woke up the warden, who was commanding officer of the entire facility. The warden debated waking up the supervisor of the Department of Corrections, but finally called him at home. The Police Commissioner himself was awakened at close to three in the morning. It was he who informed the media at once, before anyone began thinking a cover-up was taking place here. Gabriel Foster didn’t hear the news until he turned on his television set the next morning. That same morning, Carella first called Cynthia Keating’s attorney to tell him he hoped he didn’t have to yank her before a grand jury to get a few simple questions answered, and when Alexander started getting snotty on the phone, Carella said, â€Å"Counselor, I haven’t got any more time to waste on this. Yes or no?† â€Å"What questions?† Alexander asked. â€Å"Questions pertaining to the rights she inherited from her father.† â€Å"In my office,† Alexander said. â€Å"Ten o’clock.† They got there at five minutes to. Alexander was wearing chocolate-brown corduroy trousers, tan loafers, a beige button-down shirt, a green tie, and a brown tweed jacket with leather elbow patches. He looked like a country gentleman expecting the local pastor for tea. Cynthia was wearing a pastel-blue cashmere turtleneck over a short miniskirt, navy blue pantyhose, and high-heeled navy patent pumps. She looked long and leggy, her dark hair styled differently, her makeup more unrestrained. Altogether, she seemed to exude an air of self-confidence that hadn’t been apparent that first morning in October, after she’d admittedly dragged her father from his perch on the closet door to his new resting place on the bed. Apparently, the prospects of a hit musical did wonders for the personality. Alexander, on the other hand, seemed his same brusque, blond, blustering self. â€Å"What do you want from my client?† he said. ‘Twenty-five words or less.† â€Å"Honesty,† Carella said. â€Å"That’s a lot less,† Meyer said. Alexander shot him a look. â€Å"She’s always been honest with you,† he said. â€Å"Good,† Carella said. â€Å"Then we won’t have to work so hard, will we?† â€Å"Tell me something. You don’t really think she had anything to do with her father’s murder, do you?† Carella looked at Meyer. Meyer gave a faint shrug, a brief nod. â€Å"She’s a suspect, yes,† Carella said. â€Å"Have you shared that thought with anyone else? Anyone outside the police department, for example? Because I’m sure I don’t have to remind you, if Mrs Keating is libeled. . .† â€Å"The hell with this,† Carella said. â€Å"Let’s go, Meyer.† â€Å"Just a second, Detective.† â€Å"I told you on the phone I won’t waste any more time with you,† Carella said. â€Å"If I walk out of here empty, I go straight to the D.A.’s office. Yes, no, which? Say. Now.† â€Å"I’ll give you half an hour, no more,† Alexander said, and went behind his desk, and tented his hands and sat there scowling at the detectives. â€Å"I’ll make this brief,† Carella said. â€Å"At the time of your father’s death, you knew he’d left you the rights to Jessica Miles’s play, isn’t that so?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Then why didn’t you tell us?† â€Å"I’m sorry?† â€Å"You told us about the twenty-five-thousand-dollar insurance policy . . .† â€Å"Yes?† â€Å"And your concern that it might contain a suicide clause. . .† â€Å"That’s right. But. . .† â€Å"Why didn’t you also mention you’d inherited the play?† â€Å"I didn’t think it was important.† â€Å"You didn’t. . .† Carella turned away from her. He looked at Meyer, who said nothing. He went back to her. There was a tight, controlled look on his face. Meyer watched him. â€Å"How much were you paid for the license to those rights?† â€Å"That’s none of your business,† Alexander said. â€Å"Okay, so long,† Carella said. â€Å"Meyer? Let’s go.† â€Å"Three thousand dollars for a year’s option,† Cynthia said at once. â€Å"And three thousand for a second year, if it hadn’t been produced by then.† â€Å"What kind of royalties are you getting?† â€Å"Same as the others.† â€Å"Which others?† â€Å"The guy in London . . .† â€Å"Gerald Palmer?† â€Å"Yes. And the cab driver in Tel Aviv. And the girl from Los Angeles. The redhead in the long gown. Felicity Carr.† â€Å"Felicia,† Meyer corrected. â€Å"Felicia, yes. We’ll be sharing six percent of the weekly gross.† â€Å"Do you realize how much money . . . ?† â€Å"Cynthia, you can end this any time you want to,† Alexander said. â€Å"And go before a grand jury?† â€Å"I hardly think the gentlemen will convene a grand jury simply to . . .† â€Å"Do you realize how much money that can come to?† Carella said. â€Å"Six percent of the grossl Split four waysT â€Å"I imagine quite a lot,† Cynthia said. â€Å"If the show’s a hit.† â€Å"Then how can you say . . . ?† He turned away from her again. Walked back. Let out his breath. â€Å"Do you want us to arrest you?† he asked. â€Å"Of course not.† â€Å"Then how can you say you didn’t think it was important†? You tell us about a lousy little insurance policy . . .† â€Å"Lower your voice, Detective. She’s not in Canada.† â€Å". . . but you don’t tell us about a play that can eventually earn hundreds of thousands of dollars for you? Because you don’t think it’s important!† â€Å"I didn’t kill him.† â€Å"I think that’s enough,† Alexander said. â€Å"I’m not finished.† â€Å"I said that’s . . .† â€Å"I said I’m not finished.† â€Å"I didn’t kill him.† â€Å"When did you sign over the rights to that play?† â€Å"I did not kill my father.† â€Å"When, Mrs Keating?† â€Å"I didn’t kill him, damn it!† â€Å"When?† â€Å"Right after the will was probated.† â€Å"And when was that?† â€Å"Two weeks after his death,† she said. How to cite The Last Dance Chapter Seven, Essay examples

Journal of Management Sciences and Education †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Journal of Management Sciences and Education. Answer: Introduction: Husayn Haykal has established the life of Prophet Muhammad in the most rational and modern way with great expertise. The book The Life of Muhammad has been one of the finest biographies of the Prophet that creates a balance between the miraculous events in his life, and the human part of him which includes rationally explaining his daily activities, and establishing him as a person who is the most loving, most forgiving and perfect (Haykal, 1976). The book starts with the commentary on the relationship of the Christians and the Muslims, the worlds two largest faith and the author has variedly wondered when there were such similarities in the faith and scriptures of these two communities then how could war and hate of such a long time continue unhindered. There is the orthodox section of Islamic scholars who view the life of the Prophet as one being beyond human, which only reflects miracles and super human aspects of him (Fitzpatrick Walker, 2014). Haykal has given more emphasis on rationality and scientific aspects of Islam and life of the Prophet. As a perfect example it can be said that the journey to Jerusalem of Prophet Muhammad in one night has been defined by many orthodox Islamists, done physically by Muhammad. However, the author has stated that such journey can be done in spirit. He has written, Those who believe that al Isrd' took place in spirit do not find such reports unbelievable now that science in our own days has confirmed the possibility of hypnotism and of the hypnotized one to report about events far removed from him. For a spirit holding in unity and presence the spiritual life of the universe in toto, for one so endowed with vision and power so as to penetrate the secret of all life from eternity to eternity, such a feat is not at all surprising. The writer has very consciously rejected the aspects of the faith that can be perceived as superstitious and vague according to the modern sensibility. He has seen Islam as the most scientific and modern religion. The modern society is based on scientific views about life and the author understood well that any attempt to preach unscientific and irrational ideas would result in the larger section of the population rejecting the faith. Therefore, he has given great effort in establishing Islam as a very scientific and understandable religion, and the life of the Prophet has been portrayed as the perfect human. In establishing the life of Prophet Muhammad in the most scientific way, he also countered various criticisms about the Muhammad regarding his marriage and his invasions. The author has effectively validated the Prophets life in the sincerest way maintaining the rational overtone. Any kind of interpretations that are not supported by modern rational are rejected. Therefore, it c an be safely perceived that this book is a great attempt to retrieve the example of the Prophet Muhammad for life in modern society. Islamic states are those where the official religion is Islam. In many Islamic states it is unauthorized to preach other religions publicly. Abul Ala Mawdudi is the person behind conceptualizing and idealizing the modern notion of Islamic state. There is a notable difference between the Islamic state as stated by Ayatollah Khomeini and that of Abul Ala Mawdudi. In the case of Khomeini, the concept was more radical and he supported the idea of enforced Islamization on individuals (Gholizadeh Hook, 2012). However, Mawdudi followed a more softer line of Islamization where the term mainly denotes the Islamization of society and social order instead of individuals. The social rung will be designed in a way that following a life devoid of Islamic principles would be impossible. The three main principles in this regard are Tawhid or the oneness with God, Risala or prophet hood, and Khilafa or the Caliphate. The Islamic government was clearly defined by Khomeini in his book Hokumat-e Islami: Velayat-e faqih. In this book he has clearly denoted the need for establishing an Islamic state, that which will be administered by radical Islamic laws which will include execution in occasions of blasphemy to the religion. Mawdid has on the other hand philosophically recognized the sovereignty of God which denotes that sources of all law is God himself (Mawdudi, 2013). A person born into a Muslim family cannot be considered as a Muslim unless that person follows Islamic way of life with faith. Mawdudi explained a Muslim as a slave of god, and that he does not have the independence in choosing to do what as he likes if that is not permitted by Islam, however he believed that this must be done by educating and convincing, rather than enforcing the way of life on individua l (Mawdudi, 2016). Maududi saught to bring a revival in the religion and wrote several books according to his idea of true Islam. Maududi essentially viewed secularism and socialism as evil and as an input of western imperialism. Maududi is the founder of Jamat-e-Islami, Asias largest Islamic organization, and he is thought to be the inspiration behind the Islamic State of Pakistan. Khomeini who was Shia by faith had been quoted as saying democracy as bad as prostitution. His idea was establishing an Islamic state which will follow Islamic principles by strict authority (Leurs, 2012). According to Maududi Sharia was the basis on which a Muslim society will essentially be Muslim in its nature. Without the presence and application of Sharia the society cannot be called Islamic. The laws which are borrowed from other sources cannot be deemed as laws from the God hence these kinds of societies are not essentially Islamic in nature. Muhammad Abduh has been largely popular as Islamic Modernism. His thought is based on the idea that the present Muslim population of the world, if continues to be rigid about the thoughts and interpretations provided by the ancient scholars, then it will be difficult for the Islamic society to cope up with the modern world. Human intelligence is the key to help him interpret the ancient philosophies in a modern light. The scholar had given various thoughts about the decline in the quality of the Muslim society, some of which are growth of a number of un-Islamic thoughts and beliefs, the present Islamic society being stagnant into age old thought processes. The Islamic society has become stagnant he believed and there was a need of reforming the society with re-interpretation of the older thoughts and through education of the larger section of the society. Education will bring in the required reforms which will help in relieving the Islamic societies from the different crisis it is going through. The scholar had broadly divided the customs of Islam into two categories, Ibadat or which are the inseparable part of the Islamic faith which cannot be changed in any circumstances. On the other hand, the Muamlat were the social affairs of Islamic society which can be changed and modernised or transformed with time. The reason of the failure of Islam in the modern world is mainly because the absence of a clear understanding between these two concepts. The significance of his thoughts in the way of building a modern Islamic society lies in the fact that he tried to assimilate scientific theories with Islamic thoughts, and he believed that if proper interpretation of the Quran can be made there is no distinction between the two (Amir, Shuriye Ismail, 2012). Islam as a religion is complete in its nature, it provides legal, medical, and social solutions to all the problems in human life therefore the Islamic social aspects should be highlighted to the world and all the thoughts that impede the growth of Islam should be reformed through education and re interpretation. The Hadith which describes the discourses and advices given by the Prophet Muhammad gives social direction to human life, on the other hand the Sharia is the legal framework in which the Islamic states should be governed. However, the age old interpretation and application of these have caused a stagnation to Islamic society. The scholar believed in greater harmonious relationship between various religious communities. He also endeavoured in establishing a better friendship between the Shia and the Sunni sect of Islam. He was quoted as saying "I hope to see the two great religions, Islam and Christianity hand-in-hand, embracing each other. Then the Torah and the Bible and the Qur'an will become books supporting one another being read everywhere, and respected by every nation. His thoughts contributed considerably to the idea of establishing an Islamic society that would be modern and reformist in its approach (Aksoy, 2015). References: Aksoy, N. (2015).Meeting the challenges of modernity as experienced by Said Nursi, Muhammad Iqbal and Muhammad Abduh. Rutgers The State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick. A'la Mawdudi, S. A. (2013).Towards Understanding Islam. Kube Publishing Ltd. A'la Mawdudi, S. A. (2016).Let us be Muslims. Kube Publishing Ltd. Amir, A. N., Shuriye, A. O., Ismail, A. F. (2012). Muhammad Abduhs Contributions to Modernity.Asian Journal Of Management Sciences And Education ISSN. Fitzpatrick, C., Walker, A. H. (Eds.). (2014).Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. Gholizadeh, S., Hook, D. W. (2012). The discursive construction of the 19781979 Iranian Revolution in the speeches of Ayatollah Khomeini.Journal of Community Applied Social Psychology,22(2), 174-186. Haykal, M. H. (1976).The life of Muhammad. American Trust Publications. Leurs, R. (2012). Ayatollah Khomeini: The changing face of Islam.Estudos Em Comunicao N o 12, 25-45 Dezembro de 2012, Estudos em, 25-45.