Treasures (42 page)

Yes, minimum security or not, this was a prison, and he was immured. There were just so many steps permitted to the boundary. Beyond, just a little way, lay the Susquehanna River; it flowed all the way to Chesapeake Bay, where one of Eddy’s clients had a fine colonial estate and used to invite him in duck-hunting season. Northwest a little way, near Bald Eagle Mountain, was Williamsport, where, flying to meet another client, he had been fogged in one afternoon and had to circle for an hour. He remembered being scared and vowing never to fly in a two-seater again. Well, “never” was a long time; he’d be glad enough to do it now. Two-seater or hot air balloon, anything to get out of here.

Immured.

C
HAPTER
S
EVENTEEN

“N
ow, who can that be?” Lara wondered, looking up from her desk, at which she was going over the Davis Company’s monthly bank statement. It was not often that a stretch limousine drew up to the factory door—only when some important customer drove in from the airport.

A bulky man wearing, of all things, a long mink coat, got out and came picking his way up the walk through puddled, melted snow. A minute or two later she was summoned to Davey’s office across the hall.

“Franklin Bennett,” said the newcomer, “but call me Frank. I’m informal.” He sat down, stretching his legs. “I never thought I’d find myself in the wilds of Ohio. I haven’t been in a small burg like this since I grew up in one. The weather’s nice today at least.”

Neither Davey nor Lara had any comments to make to that.

Bennett lit a cigar and offered one to Davey.

“Thanks. I don’t smoke.”

“I don’t usually visit every small operation,” Bennett
began, leaning back so far that the chair creaked. “But I hear you gave my man a hard time.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” said Davey, very calmly. “I’ve never been known to give people a hard time.”

“Well, you turned him down flat, didn’t you?”

“That’s my privilege.”

“You could have listened to him, couldn’t you?”

“I heard all I needed to hear, Mr. Bennett. This is our place, and we want to keep it that way.”

Now Bennett switched to a smile. It doesn’t look natural on his face, Lara thought.

“Well, I guess I can try to understand that. Your brother-in-law Martin,” he said, indicating Lara, “has told me how you people worked to get this operation under way.”

Martin! On the instant Lara’s eyes met Davey’s. So Eddy’s gossipy, foolish-sounding rumor had been more than a rumor. After all these many months, during which Martin had made no mention of anything: Martin, the benefactor, the rock of strength! She felt as if she had been struck in the chest or pierced with something sharp and cold.

“You’ve done a nice job too. Very nice. But you don’t want to stop here, do you? You want to grow, don’t you?”

“Not particularly,” Davey said. “We fit the town, we’re part of it, the right size for it. We’ve got a nursery school on the grounds for the employees’ kids, there’s the Davis Ballpark—”

Bennett was impatient. “I know all that. Martin gave me the picture. But if you’re so social minded, you
ought to be thinking of all the good you could do by expanding.”

It was Davey’s turn to interrupt. “It wouldn’t be expanding. It would be breaking up, and I don’t want to do that, Mr. Bennett.”

“Martin told me you were stubborn.”

“Did he?”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong! He didn’t mean anything by it. He thinks the world of you both. He also thinks you’d be fools to turn down what we’re offering.”

Davey shrugged. “Then we’ll be fools.”

“You could find yourself worth millions in a couple of years.”

“Mr. Bennett, you probably won’t understand this, and it seems that my brother-in-law doesn’t, either, but neither my wife nor I have the least desire to be worth millions.”

“My God!” Bennett said. He leaned forward so that cigar smoke rose into Lara’s face. “You may not care about money, but your stockholders will care, and you can bet on that. All I need is to present my offer at a stockholders’ meeting, and they’ll vote to sell out.”

“I guarantee that they won’t. I know them, and you don’t.”

“I know human nature,” Bennett replied.

Davey was silent. And Bennett resumed, “But I’ll wait awhile. I’m not usually a patient man, though. I didn’t get where I am by being patient.”

“I can see that,” Davey said.

Again his eyes met Lara’s, speaking to her. Don’t be afraid, they said, I’ve met bullies before.

“I’ll give you a reasonable time to think it over, Davis. I’d like to avoid a fight on account of Berg. He’s financed some sweet deals for me, and I appreciate that. And you’ll find I know how to express my appreciation when people cooperate.” Again a smile flashed across the florid face. “Well, I’ve got my plane waiting. Be seeing you,” he said as he rose to go.

“Not if I can help it,” Davey declared as the door closed. He stood still a moment as if to collect himself. “It’s a raid, that’s what it is, Lara.”

“And Martin’s part of it! I’m numb. Can you believe this? It’s like suddenly finding out that your own father was a Russian spy. Oh, I don’t know what I’m saying,” she cried tearfully.

“Calm down. We have to think now. We have to take our time and think.”

“But I’m just awfully, awfully scared. That man Bennett—he’s brutal, Davey.”

It was as if some wild, threatening vagabond had appeared at the front door of one’s house and then, departing quietly enough, had left behind him the assurance that he would be back. After that, one would live with the doors locked and the shades down.

“What are we going to do?” she asked.

“Right now? Go home and eat.”

Dropping the subject, she made the dinner hour as normal as ever. At the table Sue, now in eighth grade, posed a problem in math over which Davey and she had ten minutes’ worth of discussion. Sue was at the head of her class and knew already that she wanted to be a scientist. Lara watched her with her eyes screwed up and
her tongue in her cheek, drawing a diagram on a paper napkin. Such a serious girl she was, her childhood already almost left behind. And yet she had a delightful giggle too.

We’ve been so lucky with her, Lara thought. It’s true, I have to admit, that we’ve put a whole lot of loving effort into her, but still the good material had to be there in the first place.

Sue was cutting Peggy’s chicken. The care she took of Peggy was beautiful to see. Peggy was a toy for her, a pretty, movable toy. Sue sometimes has more patience with her temper tantrums than I have, reflected Lara.

After dinner Sue and Peggy went next door to the Burkes’ and the parents took their coffee to the den. Lara looked around the comfortable room. Home. The curtains, warm, rose-flowered linen, were drawn against the evening; the sleeping sheepdog yelped once in his dreams; the children’s photographs were ranked on the bookshelves. Home. They’d planned it so well, making it so snug and orderly a place. And now total strangers had come, daring to invade, to disturb, this chosen life. Total strangers! The outrage! Could such things be allowed?

The telephone rang and Davey picked it up.

“Hello, Martin. Yes, he was here this afternoon. What?” He nodded to Lara. “Take the phone in the kitchen. Martin wants you to listen.”

Martin’s voice, with its strong New York accent, had a powerful ring. “So, what happened? What did you think?”

“The first thought that came to me, Martin, was
amazement that you’re a part of this. You never told us.”

Davey’s voice trembled, but so faintly that only Lara would be aware of it. Only she could know the sense of outrage that he was suppressing.

“It’s a very recent involvement, that’s why. We weren’t in it at the start. Bennett switched from some other people and then came to us to do a leveraged buyout.”

“Well, either way,” Davey said, still quietly, “it’s come as a great shock to us.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. It’s a coincidence, that’s all. And yet, not such a strange one. We are, after all, well-known investment bankers, and P.T.C. Longwood is naturally looking for the best help it can get.” Martin spoke lightly, easily.

If only, Lara was thinking, we could speak our minds. But there are all the ties, the ramifications, the favors we accepted. And Connie. How to endure another breach with Connie?

“So tell me, what did you think?”

“I thought he was an awful man.”

Martin laughed. “I can’t disagree with that. But if you had to love everyone you met in the business world, you’d do mighty little business.”

“True. Only, I don’t want to do business of this kind with anyone.”

“If you don’t like the deal, I can get him to sweeten it, you know that. Leave it to me. What part of it didn’t you like?”

“We didn’t get to any of the parts. I didn’t want to hear them. I’m not interested.”

There was a pause until Martin said, sounding incredulous, “That’s impossible.”

“It’s true, Martin.”

“Listen, Davey. I realize that he must have turned you off. Nobody likes the man, but everyone admits he’s a phenomenon. In the entire corporate world there’s nobody who can even come close to what Bennett’s accomplished so fast.”

“I believe you, but we want to keep what we have, just the way it is.”

There was another long pause, and then Martin said, “Listen, I’m going to fly out on Saturday and see you at your house. We’re family, and we don’t talk formally in offices. Can you pick me up at the airport? I’ll phone you when I get in.”

“Martin, we—” began Davey, but Martin had already hung up.

Lara came in from the kitchen. “He’s so determined! I don’t want him here on Saturday.”

“I wish he weren’t your sister’s husband. I wish he hadn’t been so good to us. Then I could tell him to go to hell.”

The car had scarcely stopped in the driveway before Lara was at the front door, watching the two men come up the walk and scanning Davey’s face, for a hint of his mood. But on both faces there were only smiles of greeting, especially as Peggy appeared beside her at the door, shrieking.

“Uncle Martin! What have you got for me?”

For Martin had two white glossy boxes in either hand. During her stay with the Bergs, Peggy had quickly learned the ways of their household. She knew that whenever Martin came into a room where the children were, it was with some sort of gift, if only a few pieces of chocolate.

“Peggy!” Lara gave the obligatory reproof. “That’s not nice!”

Martin laughed, stooped down, and kissed the child. “For you, for all of you. I brought a box of candy, not to be opened until after lunch. And these,” he said to Lara as he put the boxes down on the floor, “are some things Connie bought in Paris for you, Peggy, and Sue. She flew over to the openings with Bitsy Maxwell for a couple of days last week.”

Lara said the expected “Oh, she shouldn’t have!”

Bless Connie as always! The sumptuous clothes would be nothing that anybody would wear in an average American town, but the thought and the love were there.

Lunch was a cooperative effort. Sue had set the table very nicely with the best new china and helped Lara with the salad and the lemon custard. After a week of heavy rain the sun had come out. And from the dining room’s bow window one saw a spread of bright grass. The mild light dappled the pretty table.

“Well, this is nice,” Martin said when they sat down.

It is nice, Lara thought, and a pity in such a setting to be as frustrated and resentful as she was.

“I can read,” Peggy announced, apropos of nothing at all. “Uncle Martin, did you know I can read?”

“No,” said Martin in great surprise. “Well, that’s wonderful.”

“I’ll show you,” Peggy said, starting to climb down from the chair.

“No, no,” Lara ordered. “After lunch you may show how you can read, but don’t bother people now.”

The child, surprised at the unusual reprimand, sat down. Martin promised to hear Peggy read later, and then, diplomat that he was, asked Sue how she liked school.

“It’s pretty good. I like science and math the best.”

“Sue keeps her grades up,” Davey said. “We never have to remind her to do her homework.”

Martin nodded sensible approval. “It’s great that girls are going in for the sciences. There never was any reason why they shouldn’t.”

And so the conversation went, a civilized, amiable family conversation, while all three adults pretended that there was no tension among them.

When lunch was finished, the three went to the living room. Lara set a coffee service on the table before the sofa, and Martin settled back with a cigar.

“Yes, yes, you’ve got a nice place,” he repeated. “Homelike. A lot more so than an apartment on Fifth Avenue.”

Lara was inwardly amused. As if Martin would trade the Fifth Avenue apartment for this!

“We like it,” Davy said. “But then, we’ve always lived here.”

“It’s a good place to bring up kids,” Martin observed. “And you’ve got a beautiful family, with Peggy back to normal, thank God. Sue’s an especially appealing girl too.”

“Yes, we’ve been lucky,” Davey acknowledged.

There was a pause. Now that these amenities were accomplished, Lara was just wondering how long it would take to get to the point of the visit, when the point was abruptly reached.