“I expect I’ve been presumptuous,” Nathan said, “simply assuming you would take on your father’s role with the foundation.” He lit a cigarette. We obviously needed a smokescreen for this conversation.
“It would have been a natural assumption,” I said.
“Then I would like to ask you, what is your expectation? What do you think of the foundation?”
“I’m very impressed.” Melvin probably had been. “And there’s no question about the funding. That will continue as it has.”
Nathan laughed. “I hadn’t really had a chance to consider that it might not. That would have been upsetting!”
Upsetting, right. At least upsetting. I could imagine these experts trying to get real jobs.
“As for my own participation,” I said, “I’m not sure. I’m willing to put money in. For now, we’ll leave it at that.”
“That’s quite a lot.”
“And I’d like to get together once in a while, Nathan. We started a conversation two weeks ago that I’d like to continue.” I considered the man in front of me-sophisticated, sincere, intense, waiting patiently for the next words of this callow youth. “I’ve been going through Melvin’s papers. The picture they’re painting isn’t nice.”
“I understand.”
“How do you feel about the money you got from him, knowing where it came from?”
He leaned back with a deep sigh. “I’ve simply done the best I could with it.”
“I’ve been wondering,” I said. I hadn’t meant to get into this. “You warned me before, how money corrupts. I knew it was true, but now I’ve seen more closely how that works. What if…”
“Yes?” he said, after my long pause.
“What if I shut it all down? In some way that wouldn’t put too many people out of work. But what if I got myself out of it all?”
His stare was piercing, right through me. As debonair as he might be, his eyes were the eyes of a very deep man.
“I think you would have done a very noble thing.”
“Even if the foundation lost its funding?”
He took a moment to load, and let me have it with both barrels. “The foundation’s good work is small compared to the evil that your family’s business practices have wrought. On balance, shutting down the foundation would be a small price to pay to restore integrity to this state.”
He said it calmly, which helped me listen the same way. Then I calmly considered whether I should deck him, and then whether I should just fire him.
“Well, I asked for it,” I said. “You wouldn’t have said that to Melvin.”
“He wouldn’t have asked. Would you actually consider taking such a step?”
“I don’t think it’s possible. The tumor is too big and too deep. The patient would die on the operating table.”
We stepped back from the precipice. “It is something to think about,” he said. “I agree it would be, at least, tumultuous.”
Time for a new subject.
“Did you have a chance to call Angela?”
He smiled. “Yes. It was an excellent conversation. She didn’t commit, but she had a number of questions. I think she will decide to join the board.”
“Good,” I said. “That will be to everyone’s benefit.”
Back toward my office. I decided I needed a second opinion on the meaning of life.
“Mr. Spellman’s office,” the voice said.
“This is Jason Boyer. Could you please tell him that I’d like to drop in, in about thirty minutes? If he’s free.”
“Just a moment.” I was pulling out of the foundation parking lot. “He would be pleased to see you.”
As much as I would be to see him. I got on the highway and crossed the vast space between Nathan Kern and Fred Spellman.
Fred was waiting, as large as life.
“I’m just checking in,” I said. “Is anything happening?”
“From Governor Bright? No. I’ve heard nothing.”
“Is that good?”
“Probably not. Although I expect he’s still off-balance.”
“I’ve been through Melvin’s papers. I guess I know a lot of the details now.”
“I would advise you to stay away from the individuals named in those papers.”
“My own employees?”
“They’re doing what you employ them to do.”
“That’s an interesting point,” I said. “It was Melvin who employed those gentlemen.”
“Of course.”
“But I’m going to have to claim them as my own, sometime.”
“Yes. In what context do you mean that?”
“I can’t play ignorant forever.”
“No. Are you worried that these people might betray you? Or that they might need encouragement that you continue to approve of their activities? That might be useful, but it should be done very carefully. With this type of person, a financial bonus would be the best way to enhance their cooperation.”
Yes, this was certainly an alternative viewpoint on life.
“That had crossed my mind,” I admitted. “But that’s not what I mean. My threat against Governor Bright is to expose the whole bid-rigging arrangement. It’s only a threat while I’m still supposedly innocent. But the threat fades the longer I don’t use it.”
“I know.” He’d been through all those angles. “Which you should have considered earlier.”
“What if I still mean to carry through?”
“Then go ahead and do it, and get it over with.” Apparently Fred was one person who no longer believed I would. What did that say for Bright or Grainger? “But Governor Bright will quickly decide you’re not serious, if he hasn’t already. If he ever thought you were. So I suggest you start working on your next step.”
“I will think about it,” I said. “Would you have any thoughts?”
“I wouldn’t.”
“Perhaps a financial bonus would enhance your cooperation?”
He scowled, but he did appreciate the humor. “Just remember, you are now the man in the locked room with the gun, and the governor is the desperate one, trying to disarm you. That may be just as dangerous a place to be in.”
First opinion, second opinion-I wanted a third opinion. I got back into the elevator and pushed the up button.
There were signs of Pamela, but no Pamela. After the morning of facing other people in their offices, I settled into my own.
What is my opinion?
What am I doing here?
Pamela’s gray head popped through the open door. “Jason? There you are!” She blinked suddenly and dabbed at her eyes. “It’s like your father sitting there.”
That’s what I’m doing here: being Melvin. Except I didn’t hold her observation against her the way I did against Fred.
Instead, I jumped up and smiled and gave her a hug. Then I sat her down at her desk and I pulled up a chair and we talked for an hour. It was partly business, and a lot about old times.
It was a strange feeling, remembering my youth with someone who’d watched me go through it, and enjoying the conversation.
But then she had papers I’d asked for from George Elias and my corporate accountants, which easily filled my remaining afternoon hours. I was trying to get some handle on what would happen without Melvin’s framework.
I called home at four, and Rosita told me Katie was out at the new house.
I surprised her there. The place was being transformed. Furniture was arriving, the grounds were trimmed-it was all feeling snug and homey and palatial.
Katie was in jeans and a sweatshirt and I was still in my suit.
“Do I have any other clothes here?” I asked.
“No. Everything’s still at the old house.”
“Are there any stores around here?”
I thought my wife might swoon. I called Rosita and told her to put dinner in the freezer, and Katie and I went shopping. Dressing Eric might have been fun, but he was no substitute for her own husband. The first place we found was a farm supply store, and I soon had a new identity in good, honest work clothes. My pants even had an actual hammer loop.
Autumn was running rampant through the trees. We took a slow back road and explored our new district. There were still farms and open spaces and countryside.