— Oh but I didn’t want any.
— What did you mean though, you don’t like those drapes?
— No I meant the young lady, you had a secretary with red…
— Terry you mean, yes, well she… He raised his cup and drank half of it off, — she got a little lonely in here I guess you’d say, I changed her around with Myrna out there in the order room. Softest berth in the place right in here but I guess sometimes they, they get a little lonely with just me to look at… and he finished off the cup. — This Myrna’s good though, you know who she almost reminds me of sometimes? You remember Joan Bennett when she dyed her hair black? I always thought it was terrible when she did that, he said back at the cabinet, bent down shaking its door again, — think a man that calls himself a big contractor could put a little cupboard door on straight now wouldn’t you, look at that. Same little Eyetalian that just gave us that sky high estimate on this new production layout, he thinks he’s doing you a favor by walking in the door. Sooner we can get that going though the sooner we…
— No but wait Mister Angel you, excuse me for interrupting you but you can’t. You can’t commit that kind of money right now. You don’t know when this estate will be settled and the government may step in any minute with a lien on the property and tie your hands. With their back tax claim against the company I don’t know why they haven’t already done it, and these estate taxes are going to…
— What’s all this then… his hand came across to sweep the neatly piled papers toward him, — is this it?
— Rough preliminary figures yes, now I think we discussed three million dollars as a conservative figure in evaluating the company which would bring the decedent’s share, the value of the decedent’s forty-five percent to one million, three hundred fifty thousand. Now anticipating the government taking four hundred twenty-three thousand on the first million, and forty-two percent on anything over that, forty-two percent of three fifty is one hundred forty thousand, add the state’s flat eight percent and you have six hundred seventy-one thousand dollars.
— I have? What do you mean I have, they have, and I have a handful of…
— Just preliminary figures yes, of course we can’t put a precise evaluation on the company until recapitalization goes through and the underwriter makes the…
— Look, God damn it now look, don’t get me started on this going public again Coen you know what I… he paused there pulling off his jacket, the shirt he tucked in behind coming back out with his hand, and he turned to drape it over the back of the chair at his desk where he sat down heavily.
— But I don’t know how else you plan to raise six hundred-odd thousand dollars Mister Angel.
— Well for one thing I told you to look into what we can get for our interest in Nathan Wise there, no reason to hang onto an outfit like that and I never did like the…
— I’ve looked into it yes, I think some of the correspondence is right there on the bottom, apparently your lack of ah, enthusiasm is widely shared. From a look at their consolidated statements recently it’s not hard to see why no one’s interested in acquiring it of course, a chronic money loser though considering the nature of their product it’s hardly surprising. I would have thought demand would have evaporated some time ago.
— Well sure, the pill hit them real hard, they just never expected something like that.
— The, pardon?
— The pill all these girls are taking, you read about even twelve-year-old girls on these pills, I read where one of them’s own mother had her own doctor prescribe them.
— Oh I, I see, yes I’m aware this entire pill situation has assumed quite alarming proportions among the ah, the young, though I’m afraid I fail to see precisely how its deleterious effects could extend to something as…
— See that’s a good example there at Nathan Wise of old-fashioned management, one quality product that pretty much took over the top of the market so they just stayed with it.
— Yes, I understood they…
— Never used rubber or anything coarse like that you know, just these strong real thin sheep membranes.
— Yes I recall Miss ah, the decedent’s sisters mentioning…
— The, you mean those two old ladies out there talked to you about this? He drew his hand over his mouth and his cup closer on the desk. — Well. I’d never have thought it.
— Our conversation was, I think I’ve mentioned that it was not the most logical, they seemed to have the impression I was trying to pry into family matters but…
— I have to hand it to you Coen, I sure never would have…
— As I recall this matter though they appeared to take a good deal of pride in it, the quality aspect you speak of, I remember them mentioning the sheep membranes yes and a senator I believe, from a sheep producing state in the west…?
— Yes Billikin or Millikin or something, some old goat that got quite friendly there for a while, but it sure does beat… and he brought his paper cup up, and put it down empty. — But this isn’t selling any apples, now look… He pulled over a pad and found a blunt pencil, — one way or the other you see twenty of the old man’s shares going for these estate taxes, now where the hell are they going?
— Well, in the very nature of making a public off…
— I mean that would be one hell of a big foot for those Jubilee Musical people to get in our door here.
— Unless they did it through a third party though I think it would be possible to get an injunction to prevent it, in view of the longstanding litigation between them and your ah, the decedent over these punched forms and the entire concept as it might be held to apply to…
— Holes is what it is, a lawsuit over a lot of God damn holes.
— Precisely but of course in the event of an eventual decision supporting the position of the decedent, the ramifications could very well extend far beyond the immediate…
— All right but that’s eventual, I want to get back here to right now, I want…
— Yes once we’ve resolved the financing I think we can…
— And that’s not what’s on my mind right now either, it’s not just the money it’s who the hell’s going to end up running the show here.
— Well as I say, I think any immediate threat by the Jubilee Musical Instrument Company can be effectively dealt with by…
— All right then what about the rest of it, now look. He recovered the pad, where a large ellipse had begun to take shape. — Here’s my twenty-three shares here. Here’s this twenty of Stella’s aunts and this seven of her Uncle James, then over here…
— Five, yes I find five listed in the name Gibbs, someone named Gibbs, I’d intended to ask you if you…
— Wait we’ll get to him, now look, down here is this twenty-five there in the estate after taxes, now…
— Speaking frankly Mister Angel I think you can put your mind at rest there, from my dealings to date with this rather ah, this artistic branch of the family, I doubt if there will be much difficulty in establishing your wife as sole heir and with those twenty-five shares and your own twenty-three there should be no…
— Well just wait though, just suppose it did come to her and Edward splitting up this twenty-five shares, I’d like to…
— That would seem, excuse me for interrupting but that seems extremely remote. This nephew, this nephew Edward has never sent me the signed waiver I requested, I’ve never received the particulars on his birth, I’ve never heard anything from him in fact or even a call from an attorney representing his interests and I can only assume he doesn’t find it worth bothering with, though this rather lofty indifference to money on his part does seem rather ah, exceptional. Of course I did understand from his aunts that his consuming interest is music and artists in these matters are rather notoriously impractical, if I recall the case of…