'Hiding away?'
'Mat's what Parfitt has been telling the directors for the past few days.'
'Me bastard!
'Now that you mention the subject, I am unable to vouch for his parentage,' said Tony.
William laughed.
'Come and stay at the Yale Club. Then we can talk the whole thing out first thing in the morning!
'I'll be there as quickly as I can,' said William.
'I may be asleep when you arrive. It'll be your turn to wake me." William put the phone down and looked over at Kate, blissfully oblivious to his new problems. She had slept right through the entire conversation. How he wished he could manage that. A curtain had only to flutter in the breeze, and he was awake. She would probably sleep right through the Second Con:dng. He scribbled a few lines of explanation to her and put the note on her bedside table, dressed, packed - tbis time including a dinner jacket - and set off for New York.
The roads were clear and the run in the new Daimler took him only five hours. He drove into New York with cleaners, mailmen, newsboys, and the morning sun, and checked in at the Yale Club as the hall clock chimed once.
It was six - fifteen. He unpacked and decided to rest for an hour before waking Tony. The next thing he heard was an insistent tapping on his door. Sleepily, he got up to open it only to find Tony Simmons standing outside.
'Nice dressing gown, William,' said Tony, grinning. He was fully dressed.
'I must have fallen asleep. If you wait a minute, I'll be right with you,'iaid William.
'No, no, I have to catch a train back to Boston. You take a shower and get yourself dressed while we talk.'
William went into the bathroom and left the door open.
'Now your main problem...' started Tony.
William put his head around the bathroom door. 'I can?t hear you while the water~s running!
Tony waited for it to stop. 'Peter Parfitt is your main problem. He assumed he was going to be the next chairman, and that his would be the name that was read out in Charles Lester's will. He's been manoeuvring the directors against you and playing board - room politics ever since. Ted Leach can fill you in on the finer details and would like you to join him for lunch today at the Metropolitan Club. He may bring two or three other board members with him on whom you can rely. The board, by the way, still seems to be split right down the middle.'
William nicked himself with his razor. 'Damn. Which club?'
'Metropolitan, just off Fifth Avenue on East Sixtieth Street.
'Why there and not somewhere down in Wall StreetT 'William, when you're dealing with the Peter Parfitts of this world, you don't telegraph your intentions. Keep your wits about you, and play the whole thing very coolly. From what Leach tells me, I believe you can still win.'
William came back into the bedroom with a towel round his waist. 'I'll try,' he said, 'to be cool, that is.'
Tony smiled. 'Now, I must get back to Boston. My train leaves Grand Central in ten n - iinutes.'He looked at his watch. 'Damn, six minutes.'
Tony paused at the bedroom door. 'You know, your father never trusted Peter Parfitt. Too smooth, he always used to say. Never anything more, just a little too smooth.' He picked up his suitcase. 'Good luck, William!
'How can I begin to thank you, Tony?'
'You can't. just put it down to my trying to atone for the lousy way I treated Matthew.'
William watched the door close as he put in his collar stud and then straightened his tic, reflecting on how curious it was that he bad spent years working closely with Tony Simmons without ever really getting to know him but that now, in only a few days of personal crisis, he found himself instantly liking and trusting a man he had never before really seen. He went down to the dining room and had a typical club breakfast: a cold boiled egg, one piece of hard toast, butter and English marmalade from someone else's table. The porter handed him a copy of the Wall Street journal, which hinted on an inside page that everything was not running smoothly at Lester's following the nomination of William Kane as their next chairman. At least, the journal did not seem to have any inside information.
William returned to his room and asked the operator for a number in Boston. He was kept waiting for a few minutes before he was put through.
'I do apologise, Mr. Kane. I had no idea that you were on the line. May I congratulate you on your appointment as chairman of Lester's. I hope this means that our New York office will be seeing a lot more of you in the future.'
'That may well depend on you, Mr. Cohen.'
'I don't think I quite understand,' the lawyer replied.