departments and the great city. A man in that office would know he was very powerful.
The man stood as I entered his inner temple. “Jason Boyer,” he said, standing taller than me. “I remember meeting you before, at your father’s house.” He stood very still, like a monument himself. It made him seem unmovable.
“I remember it, too,” I said, choking back the sir. “It was after the election, at the end of his last term.”
“Long ago.” He turned to the window to make sure I had noticed the spectacle. “I want to offer you my sympathy concerning him. I didn’t have an opportunity at his funeral.” I was trying to remember. He hadn’t been at the cemetery, only at the church. He’d sung the hymns off-key.
“Thank you.” There are many shades of gray. Nathan Kern’s hair, for example, was the discreet color of rain clouds. Bob Forrester’s was light, marbled with darker veins. Each strand either black or white.
“I’ve entered a resolution in the Senate honoring his memory. There are still people here who remember him.”
“Thank you again,” I said. Since the first greeting he hadn’t faced me. “Senator, I don’t need to take much of your time. I wanted to meet you because your association with Melvin goes back a long time and was important to him.”
He turned just his head toward me for a moment, and then away. “Yes. Although I’m afraid I didn’t know him well personally.”
Then he sat, and did not ask me to.
That made me angry. This was rudeness without reason unless there was a reason. My agenda was only to introduce myself and attempt to toss in the governor’s name. The senator had his own agenda.
“I didn’t mean socially. I’ve inherited his estate and his responsibilities.”
“Indeed.” It was a dismissal! He’d accepted the meeting for the purpose of snubbing me.
I did not accept it. It was a measure of the five days since my meeting with Clinton Grainger that I was not feeling at all intimidated in this conversation. As long as I was standing and he was sitting, I was taller. “You understand what I mean, Senator.” If he would look at me at all, he’d have to look up.
He did look up and saw that I was still there. “Then take responsibility for your father’s embarrassment in the governor’s mansion. So far you haven’t been able to.” He had taken up his reading glasses. “And now, if you could excuse me. It has been a pleasure.”
“I doubt that,” I said. I walked out, but this time it was not a retreat, just a strategic move into camp, where I could begin my siege.
I sauntered back toward Georgetown, and it was an irate saunter. Melvin’s kingdom was not passing to his heir easily.
I was back well before noon. I ate at an Indian restaurant, the hottest meal on the menu, and then I took a cold shower. Afterward I was still angry.
More walking finally helped, and I was civil enough later in the afternoon to call for a progress report from Katie, of which there was little, and to give a progress report to Fred, of whom there was much.
“Did you discuss the governor?”
“The senator brought the subject up.”
“Did you suggest that Bright was ineffective?”
“It was not necessary to use that word. Bob supplied a much more pointed one. He’s going to be a problem, Fred. He used the meeting to insult me.”
“Bluntly?”
“We didn’t even make it up to blunt,” I said. “Do I have another war going?”
“Not necessarily. He has no reason to take any action against you, and we need nothing from him at the moment. It is just his opening position.”
“For negotiations. Right. Would he attack if he had a reason?”
“No. He is not offensive.”
“I’d say he is.”
“No less than he finds you. Hopefully he will continue to find Governor Bright the same.” Fred was bemused. “No, he usually is defensive rather than offensive. It is intriguing. It may mean he feels vulnerable.”
“He didn’t act like it. Who did Melvin use to control the state parties?”
“There are several people. That will be another set of meetings when the time comes.”
“Kings have lots of meetings. I think I’d rather march an army into battle, the way kings used to do it.”
“They probably had meetings back then, too. Some things are basic to the human soul.”
I wandered the streets that evening and contemplated the basics of the human soul. The streets were crowded with Saturday merrymakers. It was a warm evening for October, but of course, I was in the South.
I mingled with them but I was not merry. These were basic human souls. They lived without what I had but they still lived, so it must be possible. Why would they want to? What were they doing here? Even without a billion dollars, they would still have the compromises and conflicts.
But I was not part of them. I was above the crowd, or outside it at least. There wasn’t a correct preposition. What was the wall? The money? I was richer than all of them together, yet I was the one on the outside. What would it be like to be one of them?
13
Sunday I toured museums for a while. There are too many things in the world.
My homecoming Sunday night filled my wife with joy. Her weekend had been more fulfilling to her than mine had been to me. She had a house.
“It’s empty,” she said. “We could move in now.”
“Was it anybody’s we know?”
“No. A man named Gilchrist. He had some computer company that made him rich, and then he lost it. I didn’t ask for details.” She had no interest in people who lost their fortunes, or how.
“Is it new?”
“Just a few years old, and it’s beautiful. Can you come to see it tomorrow?”
“Sure. About one thirty?”
She asked about my weekend, for show, but her attention was riveted on the new project. I was soon in my office.
I looked around the room, with its view over the back lawn and garden, the dark cherry desk, the bookcases and books. It was a comfortable place, and I’d miss it. But the first question I had to deal with was: Should I tell Katie that it had been broken into?
It was subtle, but I knew. Papers were not as I’d left them, the chair was at a different angle, and the books especially were noticeable. Governor Bright would not benefit from anything I had there; I was sure he was the ultimate culprit. I was glad Melvin’s papers were in the bank.
I looked in the back of my desk drawer. I kept a cash envelope there, for convenience, with a few thousand dollars in it. It was out of place but intact.
Surely Melvin’s office at the big house had been burgled, also. If Angela found out, she’d panic. Maybe the security there was good enough to keep the governor’s minions at bay.
No, there was no need to tell Katie. I looked up the Gilchrist dwelling on the Internet. It was time to get out of our insecure little house.
Sometimes wealth is so wonderful. I used a fair amount Monday morning, and when I picked up Katie and Francine after lunch, I had a surprise for them. We drove thirty minutes away from town, even past a few farms, and then turned in at a discreet gate.
It was a nice place. It had that rough, rustic, honest feel that only a great deal of money can create. There was lots of stone and wood, a cozy, twenty-foot-tall fireplace that had taken a crane to erect, a friendly country kitchen that a Boston restaurant would envy; and just like any other old farmhouse, it had an indoor pool, wine cellar, sauna, greenhouse, and ten bedrooms. To complete the rural theme, it was on seventy acres.
“Stone floors are always cold.” Francine had maintained a running commentary of flaws.
