Power Play: A Novel (13 page)

“Would you like to talk to my sister about her book? Maybe the two of you can share ideas.”

“Not yet,” Smith said honestly, “although I might like to interview her eventually, about her book, and how she arrived at her theories. Mine come from careful observation and writing about the heads of corporations for many years. Actually, there is something else I want to ask you.” She hoped it wouldn’t be about her sex life. If so, she wasn’t going to answer him. “What about letting me do an in-depth profile of you? I’ve wanted to for years.” She was startled by what he said, although she had had numerous requests. There had been one piece about her in
Time
magazine when she first took the job, in the business section, but usually she declined interviews. She didn’t want the spotlight on her. It was unnecessary and she didn’t like it.

“That’s very flattering, Mr. Smith,” she responded, “but I don’t think so. I’m not much for publicity. I prefer to stay behind the scenes and do the work. That works better for me.”

“That’s why you’re so interesting,” he explained. “I’ve been watching you for years. I never hear about you, one rarely reads of you. You just run the corporation with incredible efficiency, and go about your business. And the value of the NTA stock goes up every five minutes. As a matter of fact, the only money I’ve ever made in the stock market was thanks to you.”

“I’m happy to hear it.” She smiled at the compliment, which was
the only kind she was interested in, about her skill in business. “But that’s really all the public needs to know. If I’m doing my job right, that’s all anyone needs to hear about. Where I went to school, what I eat for breakfast, and whether or not I get my hair done is all irrelevant.” He had heard the theory before, but if enough people felt as she did, he would have been out of a job, so it wasn’t a philosophy he loved.

“You went to Harvard, right?” He was just checking, but remembered that about her. He had always been intrigued by her, and how quiet she was. The public knew a lot more about Marshall Weston, particularly now. He made a lot more noise, as most of the male CEOs did.

“Yes, I did,” she confirmed, “but there are a lot of other good schools in the country, and business schools, that turn out fine young people who wind up in important jobs and have great careers.” Like her own daughter at Stanford, and several of her friends. But she didn’t say that to him. It was more personal information than she wanted to share.

“You don’t give away anything about yourself, do you?” he complained. “That’s why I want to interview you. People deserve to know more about you, especially your stockholders. You’re a hero in the business world, and you refuse to act like one. That’s because you’re a woman. If you were a man, you’d be blowing your own horn, and out chasing bimbos,” he added. “And you’d make a lot more noise.”

“That’s one of my sister’s theories too. You two really should get together. You have a lot in common.”

“We’d probably bore each other to death, or argue about who thought of what first. Similarities don’t usually attract.”

“I wasn’t suggesting you go out with her.” She thought it was a good idea, but she wouldn’t admit it to him. “Just talk.”

“I’ll call you for her number sometime. Now I’m going to go to the sleazy bar across the street from my office and cry in my beer, because you told me absolutely nothing I can use about Marshall Weston for the article I’m working on, with a deadline, I might add. And you won’t give me an interview. You win. I must be losing my touch.” He wasn’t, but she was relentlessly discreet, which was what he had suspected about her too. But she was also pleasant to talk to, which had surprised him, and she sounded like a real human being. Just one who didn’t talk to the press, or divulge anything private about herself. And he admired that about her. Some of his male interview subjects had such big egos, he could barely fit them on the page. She was the opposite of that, although he was sure she had one too. She was just a hell of a lot more modest.

“Thank you for calling,” she said sincerely. “It was nice talking to you.” She dismissed him politely. And after they hung up, Smith looked up Jillian Hamilton on the Internet. He was curious about her sister too, and wondered if he had read anything she’d written. Her credentials were impressive, the list of books and articles she’d written was long. He figured out that she was about ten years older than he was—he had just turned forty-five. From a photograph he could see that she was an attractive woman, but looked about ten feet tall. Clearly not a date, but possibly an interesting source, and he jotted down her name. But he wanted to interview Fiona, not her sister, and he had no idea how to convince her that she should agree to it. He decided to try again in a few weeks. Meanwhile he had to dig up whatever he could on Marshall Weston, and whoever was willing to comment on him. But he would have loved to have Fiona’s
female point of view, and clearly that wasn’t going to happen. He just hoped he could talk her into an interview one day. He was sure that he’d enjoy it, and he’d been honest with her, and not pandering, when he told her he was a fan.

After Fiona and Jillian played tennis, they went out for coffee and Jillian brought up Marshall Weston as an example of her theories. She had followed him in the news, and had seen his press conference, with Liz standing at his side.

“He looked guilty as hell to me,” Jillian commented over cappuccino.

“What makes you think that?” Fiona was intrigued. “He looked innocent to me. Shows what I know.”

“He looked much too virtuous, and his apology to everyone and gratitude for the woman’s retraction made me retch. And the business of holding his wife’s hand spells guilty to me. He probably cheats on her all the time and she doesn’t know it. That’s usually how it works.”

“What made you so cynical?” Fiona asked her, startled by her refusal to believe Marshall Weston innocent. She sounded almost bitter about it, but Fiona knew she wasn’t, and her experiences with men had almost always been pleasant.

“I have a lot of male patients who are the CEOs of companies. They all cheat, and tell me about it. It really makes you realize how badly behaved most of those guys are, and emotionally dishonest. I’d never date one of them after what I hear every day. Marshall looks like one of the boys to me.”

“He seemed like a nice guy when I met him. And Alyssa is crazy about his son. She says they’re a nice family.”

“That’s what it looks like. Then women come out of the woodwork like this one, and the next thing you know, they’re at the center of a sex scandal, and their wives are in shock, and everybody’s crying. I have a couple of them who even have second families they keep hidden. Their wives help them in their careers, but they’re in love with the other woman who is usually younger and better looking, while the real wife is dedicated to them. And one day they all find out about each other, and the guy finds himself in a huge mess and is stunned that his original wife and kids are pissed off at him and think he’s a dishonest prick, which of course he is. They’re too chicken to get divorced, and too self-serving, so they want to have their cake and eat it too.”

“That must get pretty dicey.” Fiona was impressed. It would never have occurred to her to do that, or cheat on David while they were married. She never had, although they’d been unhappy for years, and she didn’t think David had cheated on her either. But with what Jillian was saying, she wondered. Maybe he had seen women on the side who had been less threatening to him, and less busy than Fiona. But if he had fooled around on her, at least he’d been discreet.

“It definitely gets dicey,” Jillian said with a grin. “I think they get off on it, having a secret, a double life, two women who serve different purposes for them, one for sex, and the other for business. It’s all about them and their needs.”

“Why do you suppose the second woman puts up with it? I’m assuming she knows the guy is married, even if the real wife doesn’t know about the other woman.”

“Most of the time the second woman loves him. And it’s all about the power thing again. The excitement of having a man in your life who runs the world. Most women find that exciting. I sure as hell don’t,” Jillian commented. “I’d rather have a guy who’s smaller scale and more human. But powerful men are exciting to a lot of women.”

“How’s your book coming?” Fiona asked her then.

“It’s coming. Slowly but surely. I use a lot of my patients for research to support my theories.”

“By the way, I talked to a guy this week who thinks like you do on this subject. He called me to comment on Marshall Weston’s sexual harassment accusation, and I refused to. We got on the subject and I told him about you and your book. He’s an investigative reporter, specializing in business, and he’s come to a lot of the same conclusions you have about powerful men, and the difference between how men and women react to power, and how others view them. Smart guy, maybe you’d like him.”

“What does he look like?” Jillian sounded intrigued.

“I don’t know. I talked to him on the phone and I’ve read some of his pieces. He writes well, and his articles are good. His name is Logan Smith. He sounds young though.” That had never stopped Jillian before, but he had sounded even younger than he was when Fiona spoke to him.

“I’ve read him before too,” Jillian said, and knew instantly who he was. “He won a Pulitzer for a series of interviews he did with Nelson Mandela. Fantastic stuff. I think he went to Harvard too.” He hadn’t said so to Fiona. He had told her very little about himself, in fact nothing, and was more interested in her, and writing an article about her.

“He wanted to do an article about me. I turned it down. I hate that stuff.” Jillian knew she did, but thought she had missed an opportunity to meet an interesting person.

“You should meet him anyway. And I don’t think he’s all that young, from what I remember. He’s somewhere around your age.”

“He didn’t ask me out on a date.” Fiona laughed at her sister, who was always willing to meet new men. But Fiona wasn’t, and too busy to date. “He just wanted to interview me.”

“Well, tell him to call me. I’ll check him out for you,” Jillian teased her.

Then they finished their coffee and talked about their summer plans. Jillian was going to Europe with friends who had rented a house in Tuscany, and she knew Fiona rented the same house in Malibu every year. She and the children loved it, and it was so easy to get there.

“You should do something different for a change,” Jillian suggested, but she also knew that her younger sister was a creature of habit, and too busy to plan a real vacation. And the house in Malibu was relaxing for her. It belonged to a Hollywood producer and was a beautiful place. She always wanted Jillian to come down and visit them, but they usually went away at the same time. And both of her kids had their own plans in August. Mark was going to Kenya with his girlfriend, and planning to do volunteer work in a village that needed help laying pipes to bring in water. And Alyssa was still undecided, but John Weston wanted to go somewhere with her.

When she talked to Alyssa that night, she asked her how John was doing after the stressful week his father had had, and if John was very upset about it. The scandal had been quickly averted, but it
nonetheless must have been unpleasant to have his father accused of having an affair and cheating on his mother.

“It was rough on him when it first came out. But it was over pretty quickly. He believed his father was innocent right from the beginning. Apparently, his older brother didn’t think so, and thinks they just paid the woman off to shut her up.” Fiona didn’t say that her sister thought so too. She felt sorry for Marshall’s children. It must have been upsetting for all of them, and his wife too, even if it wasn’t true. And Jillian hadn’t convinced her. Marshall had seemed innocent to Fiona. She wasn’t as cynical as her sister. And she reminded Alyssa to bring John over soon, and Alyssa promised she would. Fiona was anxious to meet him and hadn’t yet. Alyssa said the romance was going well and they were spending a lot of time with each other. And John would be coming to Malibu for a long weekend. Fiona was happy for her.

And for the rest of June, Fiona was busy at work, and trying to get assorted projects done before she took time off, to go to Malibu with her kids. She always had to pay her dues before she went on vacation, and even more so when she returned, but it was worth it to her.

And on the first of July, her bags were packed, and she flew to L.A. to get the house in Malibu ready for everyone. She could hardly wait to spend three whole weeks with them. They were arriving in time for the Fourth of July weekend. Mark’s girlfriend couldn’t get time off, but Mark and Alyssa would be there, and John Weston was coming the following weekend.

Jillian left for Italy the same day, and promised to return with two hot Italians in tow, one for each of them.

“I don’t know what I’d do with that,” Fiona said, laughing when
Jillian called to say goodbye from the airport, while she was waiting for her flight.

“You’d figure out something,” Jillian said with a grin. “Have fun with the kids. I’ll call you.”

“I’ll miss you,” Fiona said, feeling nostalgic for a minute. Jillian would always be the big sister who was the only adult family she had now, since their parents had died. She liked knowing that she was somewhere nearby, and they talked to each other often. “Take care,” Fiona said, feeling like a kid again, and she blew her a kiss as they hung up. Fiona knew they were both going to have fun on vacation, doing what they each enjoyed most. Jillian was going to be meeting lots of new people, visiting old friends in Europe, and having new adventures. And Fiona was going to be with her kids, swimming in the ocean, and lying on the beach. It sounded like sheer heaven to her. And she was in great spirits and full of anticipation when she flew to L.A. that night.

Both of Fiona’s children arrived in Malibu on the same day, two days after she’d gotten to the house, and checked that everything was in good order for them. She had bought groceries and magazines and put fresh flowers around the house, and everything seemed to be working. They had been renting the same house for seven years, so it was familiar to all of them, and a little bit like coming home. Three weeks in Malibu always felt like real summer to them, no matter what they did later. And for Fiona, this was the best part, and the only vacation she took, except for a week at Christmas, when she went skiing with her kids the day after Christmas. She couldn’t imagine spending vacations without them. Her sister’s plans were always much more glamorous, but this was fun for her.