Kane and Abel/Sons of Fortune Read online

  William, acting for the bank, immediately took over the Brookes estate, which was already insolvent, dissolved it and tried to cut the bank’s losses by selling all the land held in Florida except for two acres on which the family home stood. The bank’s loss still turned out to be over $300,000. Some directors were slightly critical of William’s snap decision to sell off the land, a decision with which Tony Simmons had not agreed. William had Simmons’s disapproval of his actions entered on the minutes and was in a position to point out some months later that if they had held onto the land, the bank would have lost most of its original investment of more than $1 million. This demonstration of foresight did not endear him to Tony Simmons although it made the rest of the board conscious of William’s uncommon perspicacity.

  When William had liquidated everything the bank held in Max Brookes’s name, he turned his attention to Mrs. Brookes, who was still under a personal guarantee for her late husband’s debts. Although William always tried to secure such a guarantee on any loans granted by the bank, the undertaking of such an obligation was not a course that he ever recommended to friends, however confident they might feel about the venture, as failure almost invariably caused great distress to the guarantor.

  William wrote a formal letter to Mrs. Brookes, suggesting that she make an appointment to discuss the position. He had read the Brookes file conscientiously and knew that she was only twenty-two years old, a daughter of Andrew Higginson, a member of an old and distinguished Boston family and great-niece of Henry Lee Higginson, founder of the Boston Symphony. He also noted that she had substantial assets of her own. He did not relish the thought of requiring her to make them over to the bank, but he and Tony Simmons were, for once, in agreement on the line to be taken, so he steeled himself for an unpleasant encounter.

  What William had not bargained for was Katherine Brookes herself. In later life he could always recall in great detail the events of that morning. He had had some harsh words with Tony Simmons about a substantial investment in copper and tin that he wished to recommend to the board. Industrial demand for the two metals was rising steadily and William was confident that a world shortage was certain to follow. Tony Simmons could not agree with him, feeling they should invest more cash in the stock market, and the matter was still uppermost in William’s mind when his secretary ushered Mrs. Brookes into his office. With one tentative smile, she removed copper, tin and all other world shortages from his mind. Before she could sit down, he was around on the other side of his desk, settling her into a chair, simply to assure himself that she would not vanish like a mirage on closer inspection. Never had William encountered a woman he considered half as lovely as Katherine Brookes. Her long fair hair fell in loose and wayward curls to her shoulders, and little wisps escaped enchantingly from her hat and clung around her temples. The fact that she was in mourning in no way detracted from the beauty of her slim figure, and the fine bone structure ensured that she was a woman who was going to look lovely at any age. Her brown eyes were enormous. They were also, unmistakably, apprehensive of him and what he was about to say.

  William strove for his business tone of voice. “Mrs. Brookes, may I say how sorry I was to learn of your husband’s death and how much I regret the necessity of asking you to come here today.”

  Two lies in a single sentence which would have been true five minutes before. He waited to hear her speak.

  “Thank you, Mr. Kane.” Her voice was soft and had a gentle, low pitch. “I am aware of my obligations to your bank and I assure you I will do everything in my power to meet them.”

  William said nothing, hoping she would go on speaking. She did not, so he outlined the disposition of Max Brookes’s estate. She listened with downcast eyes.

  “Now, Mrs. Brookes, you acted as guarantor for your husband’s loan and that brings us to the question of your personal assets.” He consulted his file. “You have some eighty thousand dollars in investments—your own family money, I believe—and seventeen thousand four hundred and fifty-six dollars in your personal account.”

  She looked up. “Your knowledge of my financial position is commendable, Mr. Kane. You should add, however, Buckhurst Park, our house in Florida, which was in Max’s name, and some quite valuable jewelry of my own. I estimate that altogether I’m worth the three hundred thousand dollars you still require, and I’ve made arrangements to realize the full amount for you as soon as possible.”

  There was only the slightest tremor in her voice. William gazed at her in admiration.

  “Mrs. Brookes, the bank has no intention of relieving you of your every last possession. With your agreement we would like to sell your stocks and bonds. Everything else you mentioned, including the house, we believe should remain in your possession.”

  She hesitated. “I appreciate your generosity, Mr. Kane. However, I have no wish to remain under any obligation to your bank or leave my husband’s name under a cloud.” The little tremor again, but quickly suppressed. “Anyway, I have decided to sell the house in Florida and return to my parents’ home as soon as possible.”

  William’s pulse quickened to hear that she would be coming back to Boston. “In that case, perhaps we can reach some agreement about the proceeds of the sale,” he said.

  “We can do that now,” she said flatly. “You must have the entire amount.”

  William played for another meeting. “Don’t let’s make too hasty a decision. I think it might be wise to consult my colleagues and discuss this with you again.”

  She shrugged slightly. “As you wish. I don’t really care about the money either way and I wouldn’t want to put you to any more inconvenience.”

  William blinked. “Mrs. Brookes, I must confess to have been surprised by your magnanimous attitude. At least allow me the pleasure of taking you to lunch.”

  She smiled for the first time, revealing an unsuspected dimple in her right cheek. William gazed at it in delight and did his utmost to provoke its reappearance over a long lunch at the Ritz. By the time he returned to his desk, it was well past three o’clock.

  “Long lunch, William,” commented Tony Simmons.

  “Yes, the Brookes problem turned out to be trickier than I had expected.”

  “It looked fairly straightforward to me when I went over the papers,” said Simmons. “She isn’t complaining about our offer, is she? I thought we were being rather generous in the circumstances.”

  “Yes, she thought so, too. I had to talk her out of divesting herself of her last dollar to swell our reserves.”

  Tony Simmons stared. “That doesn’t sound like the William Kane we all know and love so well. Still, there has never been a better time for the bank to be magnanimous.”

  William grimaced. Since the day of his arrival, he and Tony Simmons had been in growing disagreement about where the stock market was heading. The market had been moving steadily upward since Herbert Hoover’s election to the White House in November 1928. In fact, only ten days later, the New York Stock Exchange posted a record volume of over six million shares in one day. But William was convinced that the upward trend, fueled by the large influx of money from the automobile industry, would result in an inflation of prices to the point of instability. Tony Simmons, on the other hand, was confident that the boom would continue, so when William advocated caution at board meetings he was invariably overruled. However, with his trust money, he was free to follow his own intuition and started investing in land, gold, commodities and even in some carefully selected impressionist paintings, leaving only 50 percent of his assets in stocks.

  When the Federal Reserve Bank of New York put out an edict declaring that it would not rediscount loans to those banks that were releasing money to their customers for the sole purpose of speculation, William considered that the first nail had been driven into the speculator’s coffin. He immediately reviewed the bank’s lending program and estimated that Kane and Cabot had more than $26 million out on such loans. He begged Tony Simmons to call in these amounts, c