Kane and Abel/Sons of Fortune Read online

  “Have you heard?” she asked.

  “Yes,” said Fletcher, “I’ve just spoken to Jimmy. I thought I’d go directly to the hospital so we could meet there.”

  “No, it’s not just Dad,” said Annie. “It’s Lucy, she had a terrible fall when she was out riding this morning. She’s concussed and has broken her leg. They’ve put her in the infirmary. I don’t know what to do next.”

  “I blame myself,” said Nat. “Because of the takeover battle with Fairchild’s I haven’t been to see Luke once this term.”

  “Me neither,” admitted Su Ling. “But we were going to the school play next week.”

  “I know,” said Nat. “As he’s playing Romeo, do you think the problem might be Juliet?”

  “Possibly. After all, you met your first love at the school play, didn’t you?” asked Su Ling.

  “Yes, and that ended in tears.”

  “Don’t blame yourself, Nat. I’ve been just as preoccupied with my graduate students these last few weeks, and perhaps I should have questioned Luke more closely about why he was so silent and withdrawn during term break.”

  “He’s always been a bit of a loner,” said Nat, “and studious children rarely gather a lot of friends around them.”

  “How would you know?” asked Su Ling, glad to see her husband smile. “And both our mothers have always been quiet and thoughtful,” Su Ling added as she drove onto the highway.

  “How long do you think it will take us to get there?” asked Nat as he glanced at the clock on the dashboard.

  “At this time of day, about an hour, so I expect we should arrive around three o’clock,” said Su Ling, as she took her foot off the accelerator, once she’d touched fifty-five.

  “Three, oh hell,” said Nat, suddenly remembering, “I’ll have to let Murray Goldblatz know that I won’t be able to make his meeting.”

  “The chairman of Fairchild’s?”

  “No less, he requested a private meeting,” said Nat as he picked up the car phone. He quickly checked Fairchild’s number in his phone book.

  “To discuss what?” asked Su Ling.

  “It has to be something to do with the takeover, but beyond that I haven’t a clue.” Nat pressed the eleven digits. “Mr. Goldblatz, please.”

  “Who shall I say is calling?” asked the switchboard operator.

  Nat hesitated, “It’s a personal call.”

  “I will still need to know who it is,” the voice insisted.

  “I have an appointment with him at three o’clock.”

  “I’ll put you though to his secretary.” Nat waited.

  “Mr. Goldblatz’s office,” said a female voice.

  “I have a three o’clock appointment with Mr. Goldblatz, but I fear I am going …”

  “I’ll put you through, Mr. Cartwright.”

  “Mr. Cartwright.”

  “Mr. Goldblatz, I must apologize, a family problem has arisen and I won’t be able to make our meeting this afternoon.”

  “I see,” said Goldblatz, not sounding as though he did.

  “Mr. Goldblatz,” said Nat, “I’m not in the habit of playing games, I have neither the time nor the inclination.”

  “I wasn’t suggesting you did, Mr. Cartwright,” said Goldblatz curtly.

  Nat hesitated. “My son has run away from Taft and I’m on my way to see the principal.”

  “I’m so … so … sorry to hear that,” Mr. Goldblatz said, his tone immediately changing. “If it’s any consolation, I also ran away from Taft, but once I’d spent all my pocket money I decided to go back the following day.”

  Nat laughed. “Thank you for being so understanding.”

  “Not at all, perhaps you’d give me a call and let me know when it’s convenient for us to meet.”

  “Yes of course, Mr. Goldblatz, and I wonder if I might ask a favor.”

  “Certainly.”

  “That none of this conversation is reported to Ralph Elliot.”

  “You have my word on that, but then, Mr. Cartwright, he has no idea that I planned to meet you in the first place.”

  When Nat put the phone down, Su Ling said, “Wasn’t that a bit of a risk?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” said Nat. “I have a feeling that Mr. Goldblatz and I have discovered something we have in common.”

  As Su Ling drove through the Taft gates, memories came flooding back to Nat: his mother being late, having to walk down the center aisle of a packed hall when his knees were knocking, sitting next to Tom, and twenty-five years later, accompanying his son back on his first day. Now he only hoped his boy was safe and well.

  Su Ling parked the car outside the principal’s house, and before she had turned the engine off, Nat spotted Mrs. Henderson coming down the steps. He felt his stomach churn until he saw the smile on her lips. Su Ling jumped out of the car.

  “They’ve found him,” Mrs. Henderson said. “He was with his grandmother, helping her with the laundry.”

  “Let’s both go straight to the hospital and see your father. Then we can decide if one of us should go on to Lakeville and check up on Lucy.”

  “Lucy would be so sad if she knew,” said Annie. “She has always adored Grandpa.”

  “I know, and he’s already begun planning her life,” said Fletcher. “Perhaps it would be better not to tell her what has happened, especially as she obviously won’t be able to visit him.”

  “You may be right. In any case, he did go and see her last week.”

  “I didn’t know that,” said Fletcher.

  “Oh yes, those two are plotting something,” said Annie as she drove into the hospital parking lot, “but neither of them is letting me in on the secret.”

  When the elevator doors opened, the two of them walked quickly down the corridor to Harry’s room. Martha stood up the moment they walked in, her face ashen. Annie took her mother in her arms as Fletcher touched Jimmy’s shoulder. He looked down at a man whose flesh was drawn and sallow, his nose and mouth covered with a mask. A monitor beeped beside him, the only indication that he was still alive. This was the most energetic man Fletcher had ever known.

  The four of them sat around the bed in silence, Martha holding her husband’s hand. After a few moments she said, “Don’t you think one of you should go and see how Lucy is getting on? There’s not a lot you can do here.”

  “I’m not moving,” said Annie, “but I think Fletcher ought to go.” Fletcher nodded his agreement. He kissed Martha on the cheek, and looking at Annie said, “I’ll drive straight back just as soon as I’ve made sure that Lucy is OK.”

  Fletcher couldn’t recall much of the journey to Lakeville as his mind wondered from Harry to Lucy, and for a moment to Al Brubaker although he found that he was no longer preoccupied with what the chairman of the party wanted.

  When he reached the road sign announcing the intersection for Hotchkiss, Fletcher’s thoughts returned to Harry and how they had first met at the football game. “Please God let him live,” he said out loud as he drove into his old school and brought the car to a halt outside the entrance to the infirmary. A nurse accompanied the senator to his daughter’s bedside. As he walked down the corridor of empty beds, he could see in the distance a plastered leg, hooked high into the air. It reminded him of when he had run for the school presidency and his rival had allowed the voters to sign his cast on the day of the election. Fletcher tried to remember his name.

  “You’re a fraud,” said Fletcher even before he saw the huge smile on Lucy’s face and the bottles of soda and bags of cookies scattered all around her.

  “I know, Dad, and I even managed to miss a calculus exam, but I must be back on campus by Monday if I’m to have any chance of becoming class president.”

  “So that’s why Grandpa came down to see you, the sly old buzzard,” said Fletcher. He kissed his daughter’s cheek and was eyeing the cookies when a young man walked in and stood nervously on the other side of the bed.

  “This is George,” said Lucy. “He’s