The Prodigal Daughter (25 page)

Richard, on the
other hand, plodded around San Francisco from bank to bank.

The personnel
director always asked him to call back and when he did, there suddenly “wasn’t
a position available at the present time for someone with his qualifications.”
As the day of the wedding drew nearer, Richard became increasingly anxious.

“You can’t blame
them,” he told Florentyna. “They all do a lot of business with my father and
they won’t want to upset him.”

“Bunch
of cowards.
Can you think of anyone who has had a row with Lester’s Bank and therefore
refuses to deal with them?”

Richard buried
his head in his hands and considered the question for a few moments.
“Only the Bank of America.
My father had a quarrel with them
once over a stop-loss guarantee which they took rather a long time to honor and
it resulted in a considerable loss in interest. He swore he would never do
business with them again. It’s worth a
try,
I’ll give
them a call tomorrow.”

When the manager
interviewed him the next day he asked if the reason Richard had applied to work
at the Bank of America was the well-known disagreement with his father.

“Yes, sir,”
replied Richard.

“Good, then we
have something in common. You will start on Monday as a junior teller, and if
you are indeed the son of William Kane I don’t imagine you will stay in that
position for long.”

On the Saturday
of their third week in San Francisco, Richard and Florentyna were married in a
simple ceremony at St. Edward’s Church on California Street. Father
O’Reilly-accompanied by Florentyna’s mother-flew in from Chicago to conduct the
ervice. Claude gave the bride away and then ran around to Richard’s side
to be best man while Bella was the matron of honor, gargantuan in a pink
maternity smock. The six celebrated that night with a dinner at DiMaggio’s on
Fisherman’s Wharf. Florentyna’s and Richard’s combined weekly salaries didn’t
cover the final bill, so Zaphia came to the rescue.

“If
you four want to eat out again,” added Zaphia, “just give me a call and I’ll be
out on the next plane. “

Bride and groom
crept into bed at one o’clock in the moming.

“I never thought
I would end up married to a bank teller.”

“I never ihought
I would end up married to a shop assistant, but sociologically it ought to make
an ideal partnership.”

“Let’s hope it
doesn’t end with sociology,” said Florentyna as Richard turned off the light.

Abet tried every
means at his disposal to discover where Florentyna had disappeared. After days
of phone calls, telegrams and even attempts to involve the police, he realized
he had only one lead left open. He dialed a number in Chicago.

“Hello,” said a
voice every bit as cold as William Kane’s.

“You must know
why I’m calling.”

“I can guess.”

“How long have
you known about Florentyna and Richard Kane?”

“About three months.
Florentyna flew up to Chicago and told me all about him. Later I met Richard at
the wedding. She didn’t exaggerate. He’s a rare man.”

“Do you know
where they are right now?” demanded Abel.

“
Yes .

“Where?”

“Find out for
yourself.” The line went dead.
Someone else who didn’t want
to help.

On the desk in
front of him lay an unopened file giving details of his forthcoming trip to
Europe. He flicked over the pages. Two airplane tickets, two reservations in
London, Edin-

155
burgh and Cannes.
Two opera tickets, two theater tickets, but now only one person was going.
Florentyna would not be opening the Edinburgh Baron or the Cannes Baron.

He sank into a
fitful sleep from which he didn’t want to be wakened. Goorge found him slumped
at his desk at eight o’clock the next morning.

He promised Abel
that by the time he had returned from Europe, he would have located Florentyna,
but Abel now realiyed-aftcr reading florentyria’s letter again and again-that
even if he did, she would not agree to see him.

“
I
WOULD LIKE TO BORROW thirty-four thousand dollars,” said Florentyna.

“What do you
need the money for?” said Richard coldly.

“I want to take
a lease on a building on Nob Hill to open a fashion shop.”

“What are the
terms of the lease?”

“Ten years, with
an option to renew.”

“What security
can you offer against the loan?”

“I own three
thousand shares in the Baron Group.”

“But that’s a
private company,” said Richard, “and the shares are in effect worthless as they
can’t be traded over the counter.”

“But the Baron
Group is worth fifty million dollars of anybody’s money, and my shares
represent one percent of the company.”

“How did you
come into possession of these shares?”

“My father is
the chairman of the company and he gave them to me on my twenty-first
birthday.”

“Then why don’t
you borrow the money direct from him?”

“Oh, hell,” said
Florentyna. “Will they be that demanding?”

“I’m afraid so,
Jessie.”

“Are all bank
managers going to be as tough as you’? They never treated me like this in
Chicago.”

“That’s because
they had the security of your father’s account. Anyone who doesn’t know you is
m going to be as accommodating. A loan manager has to consider that every new
transaction will not be repaid, so unless his risk is covered twice over, it’s
his job that will be on the line. When you borrow money you must always look
across the table and consider the other person’s point of view. Everyone who
wants to borrow money is sure they are on to a winner, but the manager knows
that over fifty percent of the deals put up to him will eventually fail, or at
best break even. So the manager has to pick and choose carefully to be certain
he can always see a way of retrieving his money. My father used to say that
most financial deals saw a return of one percent for the bank, which didn’t
allow you the opportunity to make a one hundred percent loss more than once
every five years.”

“That all makes
sense, so how do I answer ‘Why don’t you go to your father’?”

“Tell the truth.
Remember, banking is based on trust, and if they know you’re always being
straight with them, they’ll stand by you when you are going through hard
times.”

“You still
haven’t answered the question.”

“You simply say,
‘My father and I quarreled over a family matter and now I want to succeed in my
own right.”‘

“Do you mink
that will work?”

“I don’t know,
but if it does, at least you’ll have started with all your cards on the table.
Let’s go back over it again.”

“Must we”“

“Yes. No one
owes you money, Jessie.”

I would like to
borrow thirty-four thousand dollars.”

“What do you
need the money for?”

I would like to
take a-”

“Supper’s
ready,” roared Bella.

“Rescued,” said
Florentyna.

“Only until
after we’ve eaten. How many banks are you seeing on Monday?”

“Three.
Bank of California, Wells Fargo and Crocker.
Why don’t I pop
along to the Bank of America and you can simply pass the thirty-four thousand
over the counter?”

“Because
there are no coed prisons in Arnerica.”

Claude put his
head around the door. “Hurry up, you two, or there won’t be any left.”

George spt.nt as
much time following up leads on Florentyna as he did being managing director of
the Baron Group. He was determined to come up with sonic concrete results
before Abel returned from Europe.

George had a
little more success in one quarter than Abel. Zaphia was pleased to inform hirn
that she was making regular trips to the Coast to see the happily married
couple. It took George only one phone call to a travel agent in Chicago to
discover that those trips had been to San Francisco. Within twenty-four hours
he had Florentyna’s address and phone number. On one occasion George even
managed a brief conversation with his goddaughter, but she was fairly reticent
with him.

Henry Osbome
made a pretext at wanting to help, but it soon became obvious that he only
wished to know what was going on in Abel’s life. He even tried to press George
into lending him some more money.

“You’ll have to
wait until Abel retums,” George told him sharply.

“I am not sure I
can last that long.”

“I’m sorry,
Henry, but I don’t have the authority to sanction personal loans.”

“Not even to a
board member? You may live to regret that decision, George. After all, I know a
lot more about how the Group got started than you do, and I am sure there are
others who would be willing to pay me well for such information.”

George always
arrived at Idlewild Airport thirty minutes early whenever Abel was returning
from Europe. He knew the Baron, like any newly appointed director, would be
impatient to learn of any developments within the Group. But this time he felt
cerlain that Abel’s opening question would be on a different subject.

As always, Abel
was one of the first through Customs and once he and George were seated in the
back of the company Cadillac, lie wasted no time on small talk.

“What news?” he
demanded, only too aware that George would know to what he was referring.

“Some good, some
bad,” said George as he pressed a button by the side window. Abel watched a
sheet of glass glide up between the driver and the passenger section of the
car. He tapped his finger on the side pane impatiently as he waited.
“Florentyna continues to be in touch with her mother. She’s living in a small
house in San Francisco with some old friends from Radcliffe days.”

“Married?”

“
Yes .

Abel didn’t speak
for some moments, as if taking in the finality of the statement.

159

“And the Kane
boy?” he asked.

“He’s found a
job in a bank. It seems a lot of people turned him down because word got around
that he didn’t complete Harvard Business School and his father wouldn’t supply
a reference. Not many people were willing to employ him if as a consequence
they antagonized William Kane. He was finally hired as a junior teller with the
Bank of America, at a salary way below what he might have expected with his qualifications.”

“And
Florentyna?”

“She’s working
as the assistant manager in a fashion shop called ‘Wayout Columbus’ near Golden
Gate Park. She’s also been trying
io
borrow money from
several banks.”

“Why?” ~
;aid
Abel, sounding worried. “Is she in any sort of
trouble?”

“No, she’s “
)king
, for capital to open her own shop.”

“How
MUCh
is she ~oping to raise?”

“She needs
thirty-four thousand dollars for the lease on a small building that’s become
vacant on Nob Hill.”

Abel considered
this piece of news for a moment. “See that she gets the money. Make it look as
if the transaction is an ordinary bank loan and be sure that it’s not traceable
back to me.” He started tapping on the window again. “This must always remain
between the two of us, George.”

“Anything you say,
Abel.”

“And keep me
informed of every move she makes, however trivial.”

“What about
Richard Kane?”

“I’m not
interested in him,” said Abel. “Now, what’s the bad news?”

“Trouble
with Henry Osbome again.
It seems he owes money elsewhere and I’m fairly
certain his only source of income is you. He’s still making threats-about
revealing that you condoned bribes in the early days when you had taken over
the Group. Says he’s kept all the papers from the first day he met you, when he
claims he fixed an extra payment after the fire at the old Richmond in Chicago.
He’s telling everyone that he now has a file on you three inches thick.”

“I’ll deal with
Henry in the morning,” said Abel.

Abel was fully
up to date on the Group’s activities when Henry arrived for his private
meeting. Abel looked up at him: the heavy drinking and the debts were beginning
to take their toll. For the first time, Abel thought Henry looked older than
his years.

“I need a little
money to get me through a tricky period,” said Henry even before they had
shaken hands.
“Been a bit u nlucky.”

“Again,
Henry?
You should know better at your age. How much do you need this time?”

“Ten thousand
would see me through,” said Henry.