The Thief of Time (28 page)

‘I don't want to bother you,' she said and I could see her eyes fill with tears again. ‘But I would appreciate it. I have to be honest with you, Mr Zéla -'

‘Matthieu, please.'

She smiled. ‘I have to be honest with you,
Matthieu,
the reason I've come here is because you are my last resort. I don't have a job any more, I haven't had one in a while. Some of the clerks were laid off about a year ago and I've been struggling through on my savings ever since. Then I missed a payment on our small home and we had nowhere to go. My mother died last year and I had hoped that we might inherit something then but her house was mortgaged to the bank and there was nothing left after they were paid off. And I have no other family, you see. I wouldn't have come, but Tommy . . .' She drifted off and put a hand to her mouth as she sniffled slightly.

‘The boy needs a home, of course,' I said. ‘Listen to me, Annette. You mustn't worry. You should have come to me earlier. Or I should have come to you. One or the other. But either way, he is my nephew and you're my niece of a sort, and I'm happy to help you. Thrilled to help you.' I paused. ‘What I mean is,' I added, as if further clarification was needed, ‘I'm
going
to help you.'

She stared at me as if I was more than she could have ever hoped for, then put her glass down and came over to give me a hug. ‘Thank you ...' she began before giving up the fight completely and letting the tears come. And, when they came, it was like a downpour.

Fate has a way of bringing the most unexpected people together. I made an appointment with Denton to discuss a few questions I had regarding some investments and he had to cancel our meeting to attend a funeral.

‘It's my secretary,' he explained over the phone. ‘She's gone and got herself
murdered,
would you believe?'

‘Murdered?' I asked in surprise. ‘My God. How did that happen?' I remembered the woman from my meetings with Denton in the past; a plain sort with a constant odour of cold cream about her.

‘Well, we're not quite sure yet. Seems she got herself involved with some man who moved in with her, some actor type I'm told, and they were talking about getting married. Then he came home one night after having missed out on an audition for some Broadway part and hit her one too many times. Poor thing didn't stand a chance.'

I shivered. ‘That's terrible,' I said quietly.

‘Sure is.'

‘Has he been caught?'

‘Oh, he's locked up in a city cell even as we speak. But I gotta go, all right? Her funeral's in about an hour and I'm dog late as it is.'

I'm not a man who likes to take advantage of another's misfortune but it occurred to me shortly afterwards how suitable Annette would be for the vacant position. She had several years' experience working as a postal clerk, which I assumed brought her into contact with a lot of office administration, and over and above that she was an intelligent girl, friendly and helpful, who I believed could be an asset to his firm. By then, she had been staying with me for a few weeks but had managed to land herself a job as a waitress while Tommy was at school. It didn't pay much and she insisted on giving me a portion of her earnings for her keep, even though I tried to decline, for the pittance she earned could hardly have been divided down any further.

‘But I don't
need
it, Annette. I should be supplementing you.'

‘You are, by allowing us to live here rent free. Please, just take it. It would make me feel better.'

Although it bothered me, I could see how important it was for her to feel that she was contributing to the household in some way. She had spent all of her son' s life being self-sufficient, being solely responsible for his upkeep, and she had succeeded brilliantly. Although he was a very quiet child, he was intelligent and likeable; once we got to know each other a little better he became relaxed around me, as I did around him, and I found that I enjoyed returning to my apartment in the evening after wherever my day had taken me and discovering the two of them there, Annette preparing a little dinner for us all, Tommy sitting quietly with a book. Our domestic life quickly settled into an easy, unpressurised routine, and I felt as if they had been there for ever. As for our own relationship, although Annette was an extremely attractive girl, I immediately saw her as how I had described her on our first night – a niece – and our relationship was clear and relaxed.

Denton agreed to meet with Annette about the job, and she was more than keen to meet with him, having discovered that the joys of waitressing are not enormous, and the interview must have gone well for he offered her the position immediately and she was overjoyed. She thanked me profusely for my help and bought me a new pipe with her first week's salary.

‘I wanted to buy you something that you'd appreciate,' she said. ‘And I saw your collection of pipes over there. And, although you really should quit for health reasons, I got you one anyway. How long have you been smoking, might I ask?'

‘Too long,' I said, recalling the first time Jack Holby had introduced me to the joys of the pipe. ‘Many, many years now. But look at me: I'm still here.'

I kept a close eye on the economy. Investments were taking up most of my business life then and I read the newspapers and listened to the analysts carefully. I had a lot of money invested in various enterprises and, while Denton was a great adviser to me, I made sure to keep track of where everything was going myself. I attended a public meeting given by the National Association of Credit Men at a hall in TriBeCa where they warned about the state of the public finances, claiming that the level of investment credit in the country was at its highest in history. Their advice to both businessmen like myself and the banks' lending institutions was to exercise caution as any credit pinch could, they claimed, have the most devastating consequences.

‘Don't worry about it,' Denton told me. ‘They're right in what they say – the level of credit
is
far too high – but it's not exactly going to bankrupt the country. Look at Herb, for Chrissakes. He's got his hand shoved so far up the ass of the Federal Reserve that it would take about ten tonnes of dynamite to shift it.'

‘I think I want to liquidise a little,' I said, charmed as ever by his turn of phrase. ‘Just a few things here and there. Nothing too substantial. I've been hearing stories and I don't much like what I hear. This Florida business for one ...'

Denton laughed and slammed his hand down so hard on his desk that not only did I jump in surprise, but Annette ran in from the outer office to see what had happened. ‘It's all right, honey,' said Denton quickly, smiling across at her warmly. ‘I'm just making my point in my usual boorish manner.'

She laughed and pointed her pencil at him before leaving the room. ‘You'll give yourself a heart attack if you're not careful,' she said flirtatiously, turning on her heels and closing the door behind her. I turned around – even though she was clearly no longer there -surprised by the intimacy of their brief remarks and, when I turned back, Denton was staring at the closed door with puppy dog eyes.

‘Denton,' I said cautiously, trying to redirect his attention. ‘Denton, we were talking about Florida.'

He looked at me as if he wasn't sure either who I was or what I was doing there before shaking his head, as a wet dog might do to dislodge the rain, and returning to the conversation. ‘Florida, Florida, Florida,' he said, lost in a daydream as he tried to recall what the word meant, and then: ‘
Florida).'
he roared for no apparent reason. ‘I told you don't worry about Florida. You know, what's happened down there is about the biggest financial bust in the history of the so-called sunshine state and up here in New York City, where the real money is, you know who gives a damn?'

‘Who?' I asked, although I knew what he was going to say even before he said it.

‘Jack F. Squat,' he said. ‘That's who. No one at all. Not a soul.'

I frowned. ‘I don't know,' I said. ‘I still hear talk about the same thing happening here.' I wasn't prepared just to let the matter drop when my entire future financial stability could be at stake.

‘Look, Matthieu,' he said slowly, rubbing his eyes as if he was dealing with a child. One of the things I liked about Denton was his absolute belief in himself and the completely arrogant manner with which he dismissed anyone who questioned him. ‘You wanna know what went on down there in Florida? I'll tell you what went on. ‘Cos I don't know what your sources are or where you're getting your information from but I do know that they're probably all screwed up. Down there in Florida the last few years have been like a re-enactment of the Oklahoma land rush. Anyone with ten cents down there has been buying up land like it's been going out of style. You want to know something, and this is top secret ‘cos I got this from a guy I know in Washington and I think we both know who I mean so there's no going outside of this room and talking about it, but the fact is that over the last few years investors have staked out more house lots in Florida than there are families in the entire [U-nited States of America. What do you think of that?'

I laughed. ‘You're kidding me,' I said. Even I hadn't heard that fact, and wasn't entirely convinced of its veracity.

‘It's the case, my friend,' he said. ‘Florida is one of the most underdeveloped states in the union and people have been just cottoning on to that fact over the last ten years or so. But they've sold and sold and sold and sold until there wasn't anything left to sell. So then you know what they did? They sold it all over again. Millions upon millions of house sites sold that there isn't even the room for, but worse, not even the people in the whole Goddam country to fill, even if you could get everybody to relocate to Florida which -' here he snorted and bounced back in his chair – ‘is even less likely. Do you know that if every man, woman and child in America was to suddenly descend on Florida the earth would be thrown off balance and we'd all go floating off into outer space?'

I hesitated and my eyes flickered from side to side nervously. ‘No, Denton,' I said. ‘No, I was not aware of that.'

‘And! And!' he shouted, hitting the desk again in excitement. ‘I'll tell you something else too. If everyone in China jumped up at the same moment, the same thing would happen. The whole axis or whatever it is would just break down, gravity would stop, we'd all go flying off to Mars. So, if you ask me, China could be the most powerful country in the world if only they'd think about it. They could hold the entire planet to ransom, just by threatening to jump up a few centimetres. Think about that!'

I thought about it and hoped that he was finished. ‘That's all very interesting, Denton,' I said, stating his name with some firmness to make it clear that we were finished discussing China's global strategies for world domination. ‘But I think we're getting off the subject somewhat. I just think it's important to do a little liquidising and I'm sorry, but that's how I feel.'

‘Hey, it's your money,' said Denton, leaning back with a smile. ‘I'm just here to serve you,' he added graciously.

‘Well,' I said, unable to prevent a laugh from escaping my mouth. ‘Let's get on to it then. A little here and a little there, that's all. Let's not go crazy. Just come up with some ideas and let me know.'

‘Will do,' he said. I stood up to leave, shook his hand and made for the door. ‘One last thing, Matthieu,' he said suddenly before I could open it. ‘And then I'll let you go.' I smiled and raised an eyebrow as if to say yes? ‘That Florida thing. You know it wasn't the overspeculation that blew them out, don't you?'

‘It wasn't?' I asked, surprised because that was what I had assumed had caused their troubles. ‘What did then?'

‘The hurricane,' he said. ‘It's that simple. One son-of-a-bitch hurricane came flying through Florida late last year and caused millions of dollars' worth of damage. When it was all counted the truth about the overspeculating came out. Wasn't for that they'd still be doing it today. It was all the hurricane's fault. And I can't see any hurricanes coming down Fifth Avenue, can you?' I shrugged, unsure. ‘And you know what the moral of the story is, don't you?' he asked as I opened the door and prepared to leave.

‘Go on,' I said, glad that I had paid for an hour's entertainment if nothing else. ‘Tell me. What's the moral of the story?'

‘The moral of the story', he repeated, leaning forward and placing his hands flat on the desk in front of him, ‘is that every so often a natural disaster comes along, an act of God, and it blows all the dust away and when it does people can see that whatever's left underneath ain't so pretty. You get it?'

Denton Irving was Old Money. Although his own father had inherited the firm from his father-in-law, the money on that side went back generations, almost to Pilgrim days. And despite the fact that his father's stroke meant that he could no longer compete in the day to day world of the firm, he pulled a lot of strings from the sidelines, watching most of his son's moves carefully and commenting on them in about the most ungracious manner possible.

I knew that Denton lived both in awe and in terror of his father. A giant of a man who had worked out in his private gym every day of his life – and this was long before such things were fashionable – I knew that he had been a strict father by the way Denton sat up straight in his chair or got a look of tension across his face whenever he phoned.

As 1929 went on, I continued to liquidise a lot of my portfolio, just as Denton himself buried his firm deeper and deeper into options which he claimed could never go wrong for him – solid firms like Union Pacific or Goodrich. As summer approached, the economy slipped as industrial production and prices began to fall. President Hoover forced the Federal Reserve to raise its discount rates in order to discourage speculation in the stock market, but nothing that he did seemed to work. The amount of money being poured into the stock market simply rose and rose until it was near to reaching saturation point. To calm nerves, both Hoover and the New York governor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, declared their optimism in the Stock Exchange, Hoover himself referring to ‘The Great Society' which could never be overcome; whether he was referring to the country or Wall Street I wasn't so sure.