Inheritance (93 page)

"It's neat and straightforward. We got the broker. He still had the pamtings from Clay's last job, and he gave us the names of his chents who had the rest. We worked with Interpol, and we had simultaneous raids in five cities in the homes of some respectable millionaires you wouldn't believe if I told you, and we got everything back. You might call it a bonanza. That's what I call it, anyway. So I'm giving it all to the press: names, dates, places. I'll also tell them you're absolutely out of it. That should help, don't you think?"

"Yes." Yes, yes, yes, that will help. But she was crying, for Clay. If there was any other way . . . But there wasn't. Clay had gotten her into this mess, and Clay would have to get her out.

"Sam, one more thing," Paul said, taking the phone. "Can you mention that Laura dismissed Clay from the hotels as soon as she discovered what he was doing?"

"No problem. That should help even more. Anything else?"

"Laura?" Paul asked.

She shook her head.

"Let us know how it goes," Paul said. "We'll be in Laura's office."

"You'll hear how it goes," Colby said ruefully. "You'll be bombarded. You better make notes on what you had for breakfast; they're going to want that and everything else about you. I make the news, but Miss Fairchild is a lot prettier than I am, so she'll get more space. But, then, I'm going to be in a movie. RightT'

"Probably," Paul said with a laugh. He talked to Colby for a few more minutes, then hung up. "Shall I stay with you

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todayT* he asked Laura. "There are a few of the cousins I haven't reached for the shareholders' meeting; I can call them from your office."

"Yes, rd like you there."

He stayed in ihe office all that day and the next, standing near Laura while she repeated to the reporters what Colby had already told them and fended off their questions about how she felt about her brother. "Fm unhappy about him and I miss him,** she said briefly and would say no more. *They*re not going to put my grief on their evening news,'* she said angrily to Paul after an afternoon of having microphones thrust in her face; and the reporters on television were much more perfunctory than they would have been if Laura had been willing to weep for the cameras.

On the third day after Colby*s announcement, Paul was with Laura again in her office when other telephone calls began coming in. Kelly called at noon; reservations were beginning to pick up. The managers in Chicago and Philadelphia called at five with the same message. And at five-thirty, Havia Guameri called.

"Laura, my dear,** she said, her voice like syrup, "it*s almost like being allowed to come home again.**

Chapter 35

FELIX positioned himself at Owen's desk and waited, silent and stone-faced, while twenty shareholders gathered in his library. He looked to the opposite side of the room when Laura arrived with Paul—what the hell was she doing with Paul?—and again a few minutes later, when Leni walked in, wearing a fur jacket he did not recognize. Last of all came Asa's wife, Carol, and then Asa, avoiding Felix's eyes. Felix stood. "Asa, I'd like to see you for a few minutes before we begin."

"I d-d-d-don't think ..." Asa's eyes darted about the room and came to rest in urgent appeal on Thomas Janssen.

"There's no need to wait," Thomas said. "We're all here and everyone is ready."

"In a minute," Felix snapped. "Asa." He gestured toward the door. Asa, looking hunted, went to it, with Felix at his heels.

An uncomfortable silence fell when they were gone. Ben and Paul talked quietly; they sat on two chairs against the wall, and beside them, Allison and Leni sat with Laura on the love seat beneath the new paintings that had replaced the stolen Rouaults. The others in the room watched, but did not join them. They had greeted Laura cautiously, then held back, waiting for more clues. It was true that she was sitting with Leni and Allison, but it was impossible to forget the last time the family had been gathered in a library, when Owen's will

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had been read and Laura had been exposed, shamed, and forced to leave.

There were just too many upheavals in the family these days: all the meetings and discussions about forcing Felix to resign, Leni divorcing Felix, Laura reappearing—and she and Ben were brother and sister!—and something between her and Paul again. Emily was in California and, from what everyone heard, staying there; and Leni and Allison were sitting with Laura, which meant they'd forgiven her. But nobody could be sure. Nobody knew what to think. So they waited, hoping for some kind of signal that would tell them the right thing to do.

"I wanted Wes to be here," Leni said to Laura. Allison was talking to one of her cousins, and Laura almost felt she and Leni were alone, their heads close together, their shoulders touching. "But we knew it would inflame Felix, so he stayed away."

"You look so happy," Laura said.

"I am," Leni replied simply. "Isn't it strange, how easy it is for me to talk to you about him? It's as if nothing any of us did before I left Felix has anything to do with what's happening now, almost as if we're all different people."

Laura nodded without comment. If Leni wanted to think the past vanished so easily and completely, why should she contradict her? "Wes is very different from Felix," she said.

"Not as much as you think." Leni smiled with tenderness and amusement. "In fact, he's very much like Felix. He's what Felix would have been if he had been a good man. Wes wants to dominate and control; he needs to know he's in the center of events; he doesn't suffer fools gladly or have patience with people who are slower than he. But Wes believes in love and intimacy, and Felix doesn't. Wes is willing to bend with someone he loves, and even learn. Felix can't; he has too much anger inside him. He needs to control people or, if he can't do that, defeat them. But when he can't win, or it's harder than he expected, his anger spills over, and he has to fight to control himself, to keep from exploding in public. Felix's life is one long balancing act, and that takes so much of his energy he doesn't have any left over for love and a family."

Laura was nodding. It was all true. Leni, who had lived

Judith Michael

with both men, saw them more clearly than anyone. "In the most important ways, they're very different."

Leni smiled. *That's why I'm marrying Wes. I don't mind being taken care of—in fact, I'm used to it and I prefer it— but I want to be loved, not owned." She paused reflectively. "A long time ago, before I met Felix, I was in love with someone. And when he sent me away, he said, Tind someone strong and powerful, someone who can use your strength. You'll be happy then.' It took more than twenty-eight years, but I think I've finally done it." There was another pause. "Will you and Paul come to visit us?"

"Of course. I'd like it if we're all friends."

They talked quietly, and Allison turned to join in, and it was the three of them, close together, that Felix saw when he returned, before he quickly jerked his head in another direction. He crossed the room, with Asa a few steps behind. Paul tried to read Asa's face but could not; his deep frown could be from anger or from shame at being cowed. He met his father's eyes, and Cole Hatton's. They couldn't count on Asa after all; he was too fearful.

This family is fueled by fear, Paul thought. Everyone is afraid someone will take something from us. If we had less money, we probably wouldn't be so worried. He wondered what the cutoff point was: with one sum of money people were happy, but if they had a dollar more, they pulled their wagons in a circle and lived in fear that the rest of the world might get too close. We'll have to teach oiu" children to be generous, he reflected, and to believe in themselves so they aren't afraid of taking risks, and to understand that the real tragedy is not losing money, but losing trust and love.

He reached out and took Laura's hand. She had been listening to Alhson, and she returned his clasp before she turned to him, her eyes sofr and warm on his, her smile as open as he remembered from the time they had first loved. The careful, closed look on her face was gone. And then Felix cleared his throat.

Standing behind Owen's desk, his gaze skidding around the room just above everyone's head, he called the meeting to order. *Thomas, you requested this meeting. You said you had questions about Salinger Hotels."

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"I do. But first"—^Paul felt Laura*s hand tighten on his—^'*there are some documents that might be helpful to us. If you would get them for us, Felix ... I believe they're in your safe."

Felix stared at him. "My safe? What are you talking about? There's nothing there of the slightest interest to anyone here."

"I believe there is," Thomas said easily.

Felix's eyes narrowed. He saw Paul and Ben watching him closely, and also Cole Hatton, while the others simply looked curious. They've put something together, he thought, and once again alarm cut through him. He'd gotten Asa in line, but, still, there seemed to be a conspiracy here. What the flick were they up to? He shook his head once, sharply. "If you have something to say, Thomas, you have the floor. If you want to try diversionary tactics to cover the fact that you haven't enough votes to accomplish anything, we can adjourn this meeting now."

Cole Hatton said lazily, "If there's something we ought to see in that safe, I for one want to see it."

"So do I," said Barbara Janssen.

"There doesn't seem to be much harm in opening it," said Paul.

Felix felt besieged. This wasn't random; they had orchestrated it.

"Well, why not?" one of the cousins asked. "At least then we could get on with the meeting."

"He knows what he has in his own safe," another cousin protested.

Another shrugged. "So? We could still open it; we're not getting anywhere this way." "Right," some of the others said. "Why not, FeUx?" "If they're wrong, it won't take any time to find out." "I don't get it, but what the hell?"

Surrounded by a rising chorus, Felix said angrily, *There is nothing in that safe. But if you insist on this charade . . ." He went to the comer behind him and pushed aside a large painting. He dialed the combination and swung the door open without bothering to glance inside. "As you see. Except for one or two documents relating to the purchase of this house— *'

Judith Michael

"What's that envelope?" Thomas asked. He was standing, and looking straight into the safe.

"What?" Felix asked.

^There's a rather sizable envelope in there. At the back, under some papers. I'd say it's more than one or two documents."

Unthinkingly, Felix yanked the door wide open and, reaching to the back of the safe, pulled out a thick envelope. Those sitting close to him could see, across the front of it, in a bold, black handwriting, Laura's name.

Felix recognized it. He stared at it as if it were alive. "It wasn't in there; it was thrown out with the trash, years ago— '* Abruptly, he stopped.

"Obviously not," Thomas said.

*That's Grandpa's handwriting!" Alhson exclaimed. "And it's addressed to Laura!" Bewildered, she looked at it in Felix's hand. "How did you get a letter addressed to Laura?"

Leni was watching Felix, frowning as she thought back. "Laura told us about a letter from Owen, a long time ago. She went to get it, to show it to us, but she couldn't find it." Still frowning, she looked around the room.

"Is that the letter?" Barbara Janssen asked.

Laura held out her hand. "May I see it, please?"

Felix's head felt as if something were being screwed tighter and tighter around it; he was having trouble breathing. In his own house: things happening he didn't know about. The envelope dropped from his hand. There was no way he could fathom its journey from Owen's study to his locked safe.

"Please," Laura repeated.

Felix looked at her with a dullness so unusual in him that everyone stared in shock and dismay. In the silence, Thomas reached to the floor and picked up the envelope. He walked across the room and gave it to Laura.

She closed her eyes and ran her fingers over the heavily textured envelope, remembering how Owen always hated flimsy stationery. One comer was slightly torn. It was a thing of wonder to her that she held it in her hands again, as she had seven years earlier, when she had asked Owen to keep it for her. Beneath her closed lids, tears filled her eyes. She opened them to see Paul holding out a handkerchief. She smiled at

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him as she took it. To the others, she said, "If you*ll excuse me . . .

It had been opened, she saw; someone had read it. Everyone was watching, except for Felix, who stared at the floor, the safe, the desk, and then back again. Laura took out the letter, many pages, closely written in Owen's bold, slanting strokes, and ran her trembling fingers over it; she could almost believe he was there, sitting at his desk, looking up now and then to smile at her as he filled pages and graph sheets with his notes.

"Perhaps you'll read it to us," said Paul.

"It's very long," Laura said. "And I think most of it is about renovating the hotels."

"Read us some of it," said Allison. She was crying. "Fm so ashamed. So ashamed. I didn't beUeve in it; I thought you were making it up. I don't know how you can ever forgive us. We were so incredibly cruel; I don't think we're usually like that; how could we do that to you?"

"I'd lied to you," Laura said sofdy.

"Well, we can all apologize to each other later," said Leni. "Right now, I'd like to hear Laura read that letter, at least some of it. Unless you feel it is too personal, my dear."

"I don't know; I've never read it." Laura looked at the salutation. "But I don't mind."

"Please," Paul said, and she began to read. •

"Beloved Laura, it is a fine day outside, as fine as I feel. But at my age a prudent man contemplates his mortality, and the things he may never have a chance to finish, and so today, while my mind is clear and my hand still strong, and my heart perhaps steadier than ever, I am writing to put in concise form the plans you and I have made together, for my hotels, because you know better than anyone what they mean to me. But first I want you to know that I am planning to change my will, leaving to you a small part of the family company —"