Final Venture

'Can I help you with the shopping, Mrs Altschule?' I said.

She glanced at Art. 'OK. That would be very kind.' She hesitated, then headed for the door. I followed her, with Art watching us.

Her car was parked in the driveway, the boot open.

'I'm sorry,' I said. 'He offered me a drink and I accepted.'

She sighed. 'It's not your fault. If he wants to drink he's going to drink.'

'I was worried in there,' I said. 'Are you going to be all right?'

She bit her lip and nodded her head, but the frightened glance she shot me made me not so sure.

'When did the drinking start?'

'About a month ago.'

'When Frank died.'

'No, a bit before then.'

'Do you know why?'

She looked at me hesitantly.

'I know Gil is planning to retire,' I said. 'He must have told Art about then. Did he tell him Frank was going to take over the firm?'

She took a deep breath. Art's very ambitious. He's always assumed Gil's job would be his eventually. When Gil sent a note to the partners saying he was going to retire, Art thought his time had come. Then a couple of weeks later, Gil told him Frank had the job. Art was going to be given some grand title, but Frank would have the power. I've never seen Art so angry. He went on about BioOne, and how it was such an important investment for the firm. He felt badly let down by Gil, I can tell you.'

There was something in Shirley Altschule's voice that suggested she agreed with her husband on that score.

Anyway, he ranted on for an hour or so, and then left the house. He didn't say where he was going. He came back in a taxi at midnight, drunk.' She bit her lip. 'If only Gil had been fair to him.' She sniffed. 'It was the first drop he'd touched for nearly ten years, since that awful time when his partner killed himself. Once he started, he couldn't stop. And it's so stupid. It's not going to do anything for his chances.'

'But now Frank's dead, doesn't he think the job's his?'

'He says he does. But his confidence is shaken. He doesn't trust Gil any more. And the drink doesn't help.'

She glanced at me sharply, as though she regretted what she had just said. 'My husband didn't kill Frank Cook,' she said icily. 'I know that. He was here with me all the time. And he might be violent sometimes, but he's not a murderer.' She looked at me defiantly, daring me to contradict her.

'OK,' I said, mildly.

Then her eyes clouded with worry. 'Don't tell Gil, will you?'

'He's bound to find out.'

She sighed. 'Maybe. And I expect when he does he'll be understanding. But I'm still hopeful I can get him off it. I can't go through that again.'

We were standing by her car in the driveway. I saw some movement in the window. It was Art, watching us.

'What are you going to do now?' I said. I looked back towards the house. 'Are you sure you'll be all right?'

'Of course,' she said. For a moment there was fear in her eyes, but then she banished it, and steeled herself. She looked me straight in the eyes. 'We have to face this together. He needs me if he's going to get over this. Now, help me carry these in.'

I grabbed some bags and followed her back into the house. Art was standing in the hallway, his large frame almost blocking it. I squeezed past him, and put the bags down in the kitchen.

'Goodbye, Simon,' Art muttered.

I glanced at his wife. She nodded. 'Goodbye,' she said.

I wanted to stay there, to protect her, or force her to come away with me. But I admired her courage and her loyalty, and I had no right to prevent her from doing what she could to help her husband.

But I couldn't abandon her completely. I drove my car a few yards up the road and stopped. I jogged back to their house, crept up to the living room window, and peeked in.

Art and his wife were standing there, in the middle of the room, holding each other.

18

I was up early on Monday morning, and set out on the river just as dawn was breaking. I needed the exercise to clear my head. My shoulder felt much better than it had on Saturday.

I wished I had somehow stopped Art from drinking the previous night. His wife's courage had impressed me, and I hoped she wouldn't have to pay for her bravery. But if she failed to get him back off the booze, I was sure Art would be in no fit state to run Revere. I just hoped Gil would recognize that too.

I was pulling slowly and steadily back to the boathouse. The sun had risen and the morning air was crisp and clear. As I neared the boathouse, I passed some figures in wet suits on the Esplanade. I eased up and watched. They were divers.

With a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach I knew what they were looking for. I prayed they wouldn't find it.

The Monday morning meeting started on a positive note. Diane wanted to bring the Tetracom management in to present to the partnership that Wednesday. She warmed Gil up nicely. On a non-biotech investment, Ravi would always follow Gil. Art stayed suspiciously silent, ignoring me completely.

Then we came to the two troublesome deals. Net Cop and National Quilt.

I started off with Net Cop. I outlined the deal I had struck with Jeff Lieberman. Revere's holding would be diluted, but we would still have something, and if Net Cop really did work as well as I hoped, we could still make a healthy profit on our original investment. Without Bloomfield Weiss, our holding would certainly be worth nothing.

Gil was pleased, and gave his blessing. The others added theirs.

Then came the National Quilt Company. John explained that owing to an unexpected build up of unsold inventory the company would be unable to pay off its working capital line of credit by the end of the month as the bank had requested. He said it was likely that the company would have to file for Chapter Eleven of the Bankruptcy Code the following week.

'What?' said Gil, frowning. 'I didn't know we had a problem here. I don't like this kind of surprise, John.'

John glanced at Art. Art was looking at the yellow pad in front of him. He had avoided my eye throughout the whole meeting.

'I think it kind of took the management by surprise,' John replied.

'But you're on the board aren't you? Couldn't you see this coming?'

John shrugged. 'I guess I missed it.'

Gil turned to Art. 'This was your deal originally, Art. What went wrong?'

'It's difficult to tell,' said Art. 'Three months ago the company seemed very stable. Unexciting, but stable. So I handed it to John. Since then the management seem to have gone off on some crazy strategy to put naked women on their bed covers. I guess that's what the trouble is.'

'What?' said Gil, turning to John. 'Is that true?'

'Uh. Yes,' said John. 'Or, at least, no. I mean…'

'Are they putting nude women on their bed covers or not?'

'Er, yeah, they are.'

Gil's patience was wearing very thin. And you let them do it?'

'Er, yes.'

'Why, for God's sake?'

John panicked. He could have said that the build up of inventory had been caused by purchasing decisions that were taken when Art was on the board. He could have said that the 'Go Naked' strategy hadn't started yet. He could have said that he had tried to talk to Art about the company, but Art hadn't wanted to know. But he didn't.

'Sorry'

Gil glowered at him. 'This is just the sort of company we cannot afford to lose. Especially now when we know that the Bieber Foundation is looking at what we do so closely'

John cowered. These were strong words from Gil.

Gil turned to Art. 'I'd like you to see what you can salvage from this one.'

'Sure,' said Art. 'It sounds like it might be too late, but I'll see what I can do.'

'Well, I think that just about wraps it up,' said Gil, picking up his agenda.

'One thing, Gil.' It was Diane.

Gil paused. 'Yes?'

'I agree with you. Losing National Quilt is the last thing we need. And I think it's not entirely clear what went wrong. It's extremely important we take the time to learn from our mistakes.'