The Heir

31

There was no hope. Now I was speeding down the highway I’d watched from my high tower, peeling off the miles between us. I went through a dozen ways to say it but they were all the same. We had been such partners, even yesterday, and now what? Was there any hope?

I pulled up in front of the house. Whose house was it? Melvin’s or Katie’s? Not mine. Maybe I should just give it to her.

She was in the kitchen with Rosita. They were side by side at the table, papers in front of them, planning the week’s menu.

“Jason!” I’d startled her. “Where have you been all day?”

“Let’s talk,” I said.

She excused herself and we walked together upstairs to my office. She closed the door behind herself. Then we sat awhile quietly, both of us waiting to hear what I would say. The seconds dragged into a minute and then minutes, and finally the silence said what I couldn’t bring myself to say.

“So, what are you going to do?” she said, struggling, through tight lips.

“I’m giving it to the foundation,” I said.

I couldn’t make it any better. The words were hammer strikes against her. “What will we have left?” The words wavered, barely making it through the air between us. All I had for her was more blows.

“Nothing, Katie.”

“The house?”

“Nothing.”

I’d seen two men ruined in just five days, not just their careers but themselves. I’d heard death in their voices and seen it in their eyes. But now, this third time, this voice and these eyes were so precious to me, and the death in them was my death as well as hers. Mine was the fourth life being shattered by my own desperate stupidity.

“No!” The force of her word and the force of her hand against my face were equal.

“Yes.” My cheek stung and I thought she would slap me again. I just waited and didn’t move.

“You liar.” Now the storm broke. “You said I could have this house. You cruel… liar!”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry! You gave it to me!”

“It wasn’t mine to give.”

“We could have everything!” She was yelling as loud as she could and still sob at the same time. “Last night we had it all in our hands. There was nothing to stop us. And now, you… you fool! I hate you!”

“Don’t,” I said. Everything she’d said was true. How could I have been more cruel to her? Buy a house, Katie. Buy everything! Anything you want! And now… what a fool she was to have trusted me.

The door slammed behind her. Some time later I could move again and I opened it and went downstairs. I told Rosita that Katie wouldn’t be down for a while. Then I left. I didn’t take anything.

Eric was not home. That was good. The drive to his apartment hadn’t been long enough. I let myself in and waited. I focused my thoughts on what I would say here-mainly to pull them off of Katie.

There was a little noise from the street, but it was mostly quiet. All I could hear was Katie’s voice. How could I get her out of my ears?

I tried to concentrate on my brother instead.

What would he be like if he’d had more struggle in his life? There were no roots. A good yank would pull the tree right out of the ground, and he’d be getting a real jerk soon. Me.

My cell phone rang.

“Hello, Fred,” I said.

“We need to talk.”

“We sure do,” I said. “I’ll call you this evening sometime. I don’t know when. You should come to my office.”

“I’m in my office now. There’s already been reaction in the state senate leadership. Forrester has been trying a counterattack.”

“I’ll call you later.” That would be another conversation to look forward to.

I waited more. There were no books in the apartment, not even magazines-just all the televisions. The place was swept clean. It was the mirror of his soul, a place to never think. I propped my feet up on the big heavy coffee table. If I stayed long enough, all thought would be sucked out of my own brain…

“Jason?”

I woke with Eric standing in front of me. He was in cool outfit number four-torn jeans, gunmetal sweatshirt. Katie had them listed out on index cards so he’d know what went with what. Or maybe this was outfit number five.

“Hi.” I shook out cobwebs. “I guess I fell asleep.”

“What’s up?”

“Sit down.”

He sat facing me. Even he could tell this was serious.

“Is something wrong?”

“Eric… I’ve made some decisions.”

“Okay.” His face lit up. “You’re going to be a senator! Just like-”

“No.”

“Then what?”

It was still so hard to say. “I’m giving it up.”

“What? Giving up what?”

“Everything.”

“I don’t get it.”

It was too hard to do this! He wasn’t opposing me like Katie had, but I was still angry at him for not understanding.

“I’m getting rid of it all! Everything! The money, all of it. I said I would. Back at the beginning, when Fred was reading that stupid will, I said I didn’t want it. Why is it so hard to get anyone to understand?” He was staring at me, his eyes wide. I took a breath.

“I… I don’t understand, Jason.”

Two more breaths. “It’s okay.”

“Do you really mean everything?”

“I’m giving it to Nathan Kern and the foundation. They’ll break it up. They’ll sell all the businesses and the stocks, so no one will have it.”

“But last night…”

“That’s what did it. Do you have any idea what… how evil I was last night?”

“But you were telling him who was in charge.”

“No. You can’t know how it really was.” I was staring at the floor. “No one could.”

“But you don’t have to give up. Just get control.”

I looked back at him. “I know what I have to do.”

Somewhere inside him there was still a deep place, not silted up by hours of highway fumes. “I don’t think you’re evil, Jason. I think you’re better than Melvin. I think you can be better than he was. I think you’re smarter than he was. But if you think something is wrong, then you should do something about it. You always do what you have to.”

That was as painful to hear as Katie’s despair, because it was even more wrong. “Thanks,” I said.

He must have heard what I was thinking. “What does Katie think?”

“She’s angry and she hates me. I don’t know what she’ll do.”

“Man.”

This was much closer than politics and business. This was his parents splitting. Katie was nicer to him than anyone else he knew- he might miss her more than I would. Maybe she should marry him. He’d still have lots of money.

He heard me thinking again. Sweet young Eric-only now did his own welfare occur to him.

“What happens to me?”

“Nothing. Melvin set you up so I couldn’t touch anything. It’s all separate.”

“Oh. What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it yet.”

“If you need a place, you can crash here.”

“Thanks.”

So there was some kind of safety net, even if it was sewn together by Melvin’s money. I hit the button for the forty-second floor and gathered myself for this next confrontation.

This would be different. Fred deserved no sympathy. Maybe everything I’d done was my own fault and my own decision, but this man was as bad as I was. Partway up I punched the button for thirty. I wanted to have the option of walking out of his office instead of getting a hernia trying to push him out of mine.

I called him and he let me in-he could unlock the doors from his desk. I knew he could get out of his chair, but just looking at him, a person would wonder. I started to look forward to this. I was not real stable at the moment.

“The impeachment bill is moving faster than I thought,” he said, as if the whole world hadn’t changed in the last twenty-four hours. “It will pass the House first thing tomorrow. I doubt there will be a single vote against it. The FBI has already requested a grand jury, and they should have a criminal indictment by the afternoon.” Fred had been building this house of cards for decades, but he was still fascinated by its fall.

There was still the issue of the King of Diamonds. “And Forrester.” He allowed himself a scowl. “After your performance last night, we can expect Malden to be a hostile governor.” The scowl was worth repeating, and he did. “Do you have any idea the damage you did? I thought we had agreed to overlook his arrogance and work with him. Was that merely a tantrum, or do you have another of your plans?”

“I have a plan, Fred. I came up with it this morning.”

“As well thought out as the previous one, no doubt.”

For a moment I contemplated the world inside his head and the laws that governed it. He would deserve every ounce of the stroke this would give him. “Even more so. Are you nice and comfortable there?”

“Get on with it.”

If I questioned whether I was doing the right thing, at that moment at least it felt good-it just felt a lot more like revenge than virtue. Fred was the serpent in the garden, even if that was not the first image that would come to mind looking at him. There was no regret here. I was going to be free of him.

“I quit.”

“Oh, you do?” He studied me and was hardly convinced. “I think not.”

This wasn’t worth anger. “I’ve tried the job and I don’t like it.”

He was already frustrated enough with a long day of wrestling with politicians. “When are you going to grow up? There is work to do. Save your childish antics for some other day. I’ve been on the phone for eight hours trying to restore some sanity to the statehouse, and now you’re losing yours.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. Actually I wasn’t even trying to be, but he did deserve an explanation. “I said at the beginning I didn’t want to do this. You almost persuaded me over this last month, but last night undid all that. I’m convinced now that I was right back at the beginning.”

“And I am convinced that you are an immature fool. But that can be remedied, possibly.”

“No. I’ll always be a fool. But I don’t have to be evil.”

“What?!” No stroke, but close. “Do you mean that petty comment last night vexed you? Of all the absurd ways to have your feelings hurt.”

I wasn’t angry yet, just annoyed. “You know it wasn’t one comment, Fred. It’s weeks of rolling in this pigsty. At least I can still see it for what it is, and I’ve decided I’m getting out.”

He had a huge repertoire of sounds of annoyance. “Then how do you propose ‘quitting’?”

“Everything’s going to the foundation, just like Melvin intended in the first place.”

His eyes narrowed; he saw this might be serious. “Nathan Kern is supposed to manage the Boyer assets?”

“He and his fellow do-gooder board members. If you want to cut a deal with Bob Forrester or Henry Malden, you can submit your request to the committee of philanthropists, and they’ll get back to you after they’ve discussed it thoroughly.”

“Foolishness. A committee can’t manage power. Someone will take control of it from them. They’ll be no match for one ruthless board member, or even an outsider who captivates them.”

“There won’t be anything to take control of. They’ll only have authority to divest and disassemble. It’ll take a year or two, but the whole cookie is going to end up a pile of crumbs,” I said.

“This is madness! Look at what you’ve done. You’ve torn down an entire state government. You can’t just walk away from it.”

“The thing was rotten by itself. Don’t make it my responsibility.”

“Just days ago you quite proudly took responsibility. I strongly advised you against it. If you hadn’t meant to carry through, you should have left it alone. This would be the worst thing you could do.”

It was all true, and I’d feel remorse for it when I had a chance. But everything I was saying was true, as well. “Maybe I made a mistake.”

“A mistake! Maybe?”

“But probably not. Everyone’s better off with Harry Bright exposed.”

“There are many others to take his place, and they will be worse.”

“If Stan Morton doesn’t have his hands tied, he might keep the spotlight on. There doesn’t have to be a king.”

“Yes, there does. It is the nature of power. It is inescapable.”

“Well, I’m escaping.”

“Then do it quickly.” That was it. The apron string had been machine-gunned. “If you think you can break up your father’s holdings, you’re wrong. Someone will put them back together. But now it is imperative for you to be removed before you do any more damage.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“I don’t need to. You are more than enough threat to yourself.” He opened a desk drawer and jabbed his hand into it.

And then, for three seconds, I knew with certainty who the murderer was. I knew his motives and I knew who his next victim was going to be. I already had my hand balled and ready when his hand came out of the drawer with a handkerchief.

He applied it to his face, where I had been about to apply my own fist, rubbing off the perspiration of his passion. I was sweating from the adrenaline. I had to get out before either of us committed a crime.

“Good night, Fred.”

He already had his own anger controlled and was working through his next move. I left him there, a dinosaur plotting my extinction.

I couldn’t bring myself to drive home. Where was home going to be now? I finished my interrupted climb to the top of the building.

I called Rosita to say I would be out for the night, and laid my buffeted body onto the sofa. I’d had my nap at Eric’s. Now I was awake.

What would happen after one week, or whenever Jacob Rosen-berg finished earning his thirty pieces of silver? I just couldn’t picture it. Maybe I wouldn’t live that long anyway.

Katie. What should I do now? Even if I could talk her into a life with me instead of money, did I want to? She’d be better off without me. But I had to talk to her-to try one more time, with both of us calm. She needed to be rescued as much as I did, and she was much more worth saving. I had to talk to her.

Just not tonight. I’d had enough.

It was night and the office sofa was as good as a bed, but I wasn’t sleeping.

At eleven o’clock I might have been the only person in the building without a vacuum cleaner. Except perhaps Fred. I rode the elevator to the ground, to the empty lobby, and went out into the streets.

Three nights ago I’d been meeting Clinton Grainger in this same dark. I could just get myself shot-if not by an assassin, then just a regular mugger would do. That would end a lot of peoples’ problems. I even looked down a couple dark alleys, but no luck.

I drifted. It was like being lost at sea in the dark. I was no more able to get where I wanted to go, because I still didn’t know where that was.

There were few cars and no people. The hotels were four blocks away. I came to a corner and I could see the Hilton down the street, even the site of Grainger’s last stand.

It made me wonder who had stood there with him and how it was done. Just in the middle of a conversation? Had Grainger even seen the gun? Or maybe they had already parted and Grainger didn’t even know he was not alone.

Angela had known what was about to happen to her. What was that moment like, I wondered. It must seem like an eternity. And then, real eternity.

The night was cold enough to shiver in. There was no hope.