Kane and Abel/Sons of Fortune Read online

  “That is exactly what I want to speak to you about, Senator. You’ve had brilliant success in exposing treachery within our own government. But to date, one of the communists’ greatest crimes has gone unpublicized.”

  “Just what great crime did you have in mind, Mr. Rosenevski? I have found so many since I came to Washington.”

  “I am referring”—Abel drew himself up a little straighter in his chair—“to the forced repatriation of thousands of displaced Polish citizens by the American authorities after the war ended. Innocent enemies of communism who were sent back to Poland and then on to the U.S.S.R., to be enslaved and sometimes murdered.” Abel waited for a response, but none was forthcoming. He heard a click and wondered if someone else had been listening to the conversation.

  “How can you be so stupid, Rosenevski?” said the Senator, his tone completely changed. “You dare to phone me to say that Americans—loyal United States soldiers—sent thousands of Poles back to Russia and nobody heard a word about it? Are you asking me to believe that? Even a Polack couldn’t be that much of a fool. And I wonder what kind of person accepts a lie like that without any proof? Do you want me also to believe that American soldiers are disloyal? Is that what you want? Tell me, Rosenevski, tell me what it is with you people? Are you too stupid to recognize Communist propaganda even when it hits you right in the face? Do you have to waste the time of an overworked United States senator because of a rumor cooked up by the Pravda Red slime to create unrest in America’s immigrant communities?”

  Abel sat motionless, stunned by the outburst. Before half of the tirade was over, Abel realized that any counterargument was going to be pointless. As he waited for the histrionic speech to end, he was glad the senator couldn’t see his startled face.

  “Senator, I’m sure you’re right and I’m sorry to have wasted your time,” Abel said quietly. “I hadn’t thought of it in quite that light before.”

  “Well, it just goes to show you how tricky these Commie bastards can be,” said McCarthy, his tone softening. “You have to keep an eye on them all the time. Anyway, I hope you’re more alert now to the continual danger the American people face.”

  “I am indeed, senator. Thank you once again for taking the trouble to speak to me personally. Good-bye, senator.”

  “Good-bye, Rosenevski.”

  Abel heard the phone click and realized it was the same sound as a closing door.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  William became aware of feeling older when Kate teased him about his graying hair, hairs which he used to be able to count and no longer could—and when Richard started to bring girls home. William almost always approved of Richard’s choice of young ladies, as he called them, perhaps because they were all rather like Kate, who, he considered, was more beautiful in middle age than she had ever been. His daughters, Virginia and Lucy, now becoming young ladies, brought him great happiness as they grew in the image of their mother. Virginia was developing into quite an artist, and the walls of the kitchen and children’s bedrooms were covered in her latest works of genius—as Richard mockingly described them. Virginia’s revenge came the day Richard started cello lessons, when even the servants murmured unkind comments whenever the bow came in contact with the strings. Lucy adored them both and considered Virginia, with uncritical prejudice, the new Picasso, and Richard the new Casals. William began to wonder what the future would hold for all three of them when he was no longer around to control their lives.

  In Kate’s eyes all three children advanced satisfactorily. Richard, now at St. Paul’s, had improved enough at the cello to be chosen to play in a school concert, while Virginia was painting well enough for one of her pictures to be hung in the front room. But it became obvious to all the family that Lucy was going to be the beauty when, aged only eleven, she started receiving love notes from boys who until then had only shown an interest in baseball.

  In 1951, Richard was accepted at Harvard and although he did not win the top mathematics scholarship, Kate was quick to point out to William that he had played baseball and the cello for St. Paul’s, two accomplishments William had never so much as attempted. William was secretly proud of Richard’s achievements but mumbled to Kate something about not knowing many bankers who played baseball or the cello.

  Banking was moving into an expansionist period as Americans began to believe in a lasting peace. William soon found himself overworked, and for a short time, the threat of Abel Rosnovski and the problems associated with him had to be pushed into the background.

  The flow of quarterly reports from Thaddeus Cohen indicated that Rosnovski had embarked on a course he had no intention of abandoning; through a third party he had let every stockholder other than William know of his interest in Lester stock. William wondered if this course was heading toward a direct confrontation between himself and the Pole. He began to feel that the time was fast approaching when he would have to inform the Lester board of Rosnovski’s actions and perhaps even offer his resignation if the bank looked to be under siege, a move that would result in a complete victory for Abel Rosnovski, which was the one reason William did not seriously contemplate it. He decided that if he had to fight for his life, fight he would, and if one of the two had to go under, he would do everything in his power to ensure that it wasn’t William Kane.

  The problem of what to do about Abel Rosnovski’s investment program was finally taken out of William’s hands.

  Early in 1951 the bank had been invited to represent one of America’s new airline companies, Interstate Airways, when the Federal Aviation Administration granted it a franchise for flights between the East and West coasts. The airline approached Lester’s bank when it needed to raise $30 million, the financial backing required by governmental regulations.

  William considered the airline and the whole project to be well worth supporting and he spent virtually his entire time setting up a public offering to raise the necessary $30 million. The bank, acting as the sponsor for the project, put its full financial resources behind the new venture. The project became William’s biggest since he had returned to Lester’s, and he realized that his personal reputation was at stake when he went to the market for the $30 million. In July, when the details of the offering were announced, the stock was snapped up in a matter of days. William received lavish praise from all quarters for the way he had handled the project and carried it through to such a successful conclusion. He could not have been happier about the outcome himself, until he read in Thaddeus Cohen’s next report that 10 percent of the airline’s stock had been obtained by one of Abel Rosnovski’s dummy corporations.

  William realized then that the time had come to acquaint Ted Leach and Tony Simmons with his worst fears. He asked Tony to come to New York, where he related to both of the vice chairmen the saga of Abel Rosnovski and Henry Osborne.

  “Why didn’t you let us know about all this before?” was Tony Simmons’s first reaction.

  “I dealt with a hundred companies the size of the Richmond Group when I was at Kane and Cabot, Tony, and I couldn’t know at the time that he was that serious about revenge. I was only finally convinced of his obsession when Rosnovski purchased ten percent of Interstate Airways.”

  “I suppose it’s possible you may be overreacting,” said Ted Leach, “because there is one thing of which I am certain: it would be unwise to inform the rest of the board of all this information. The last thing we want a few days after launching a new company is a panic of selling.”

  “That’s for sure,” said Tony Simmons. “Why don’t you see this fellow Rosnovski and have it out with him?”

  “I expect that’s exactly what he’d like me to do,” replied William. “It would leave him in no doubt that the bank feels it is under siege.”

  “Don’t you think his attitude might change if you told him how hard you tried to talk the bank into backing the Richmond Group but they wouldn’t support you and——?”

  “I am convinced it wouldn’t make any difference.