JR (67 page)

—Rough preliminary figures yes, now I think we discussed three million dollars as a conservative figure in evaluating the company which

would bring the decedent's share, the value of the decedent's forty- five percent to one million, three hundred fifty thousand. Now anticipating the government taking four hundred twenty-three thousand on the first million, and forty-two percent on anything over that, forty-two percent of three fifty is one hundred forty thousand, add the state's flat eight percent and you have six hundred seventy-one thousand dollars.

—I have? What do you mean I have, they have, and I have a handful of…

—Just preliminary figures yes, of course we can't put a precise evaluation on the company until recapitalization goes through and the underwriter makes the…

—Look, God damn it now look, don't get me started on this going public again Coen you know what I … he paused there pulling off his jacket, the shirt he tucked in behind coming back out with his hand, and he turned to drape it over the back of the chair at his desk where he sat down heavily.

—But I don't know how else you plan to raise six hundred-odd thousand dollars Mister Angel.

—Well for one thing I told you to look into what we can get for our interest in Nathan Wise there, no reason to hang onto an outfit like that and I never did like the…

—I've looked into it yes, I think some of the correspondence is right there on the bottom, apparently your lack of ah, enthusiasm is widely shared. From a look at their consolidated statements recently it's not hard to see why no one's interested in acquiring it of course, a chronic money loser though considering the nature of their product it's hardly surprising. I would have thought demand would have evaporated some time ago.

—Well sure, the pill hit them real hard, they just never expected something like that.

—The, pardon?

—The pill all these girls are taking, you read about even twelve-year- old girls on these pills, I read where one of them's own mother had her own doctor prescribe them.

—Oh I, I see, yes I'm aware this entire pill situation has assumed quite alarming proportions among the ah, the young, though I'm afraid I fail to see precisely how its deleterious effects could extend to something

as …

—See that's a good example there at Nathan Wise of old-fashioned management, one quality product that pretty much took over the top of the market so they just stayed with it.

—Yes, I understood they…

—Never used rubber or anything coarse like that you know, just these strong real thin sheep membranes.

—Yes I recall Miss ah, the decedent's sisters mentioning…

—The, you mean those two old ladies out there talked to you about

this? He drew his hand over his mouth and his cup closer on the desk.

—Well. I'd never have thought it.

—Our conversation was, I think I've mentioned that it was not the most logical, they seemed to have the impression I was trying to pry into family matters but…

—I have to hand it to you Coen, I sure never would have…

—As I recall this matter though they appeared to take a good deal of pride in it, the quality aspect you speak of, I remember them mentioning the sheep membranes yes and a senator I believe, from a sheep producing state in the west… ?

—Yes Billikin or Millikin or something, some old goat that got quite friendly there for a while, but it sure does beat… and he brought his paper cup up, and put it down empty. —But this isn't selling any apples, now look… He pulled over a pad and found a blunt pencil, — one way or the other you see twenty of the old man's shares going for these estate taxes, now where the hell are they going?

—Well, in the very nature of making a public off…

—I mean that would be one hell of a big foot for those Jubilee Musical people to get in our door here.

—Unless they did it through a third party though I think it would be possible to get an injunction to prevent it, in view of the longstanding litigation between them and your ah, the decedent over these punched forms and the entire concept as it might be held to apply to …

—Holes is what it is, a lawsuit over a lot of God damn holes.

—Precisely but of course in the event of an eventual decision supporting the position of the decedent, the ramifications could very well extend far beyond the immediate…

—All right but that's eventual, I want to get back here to right now, I want…

—Yes once we've resolved the financing I think we can…

—And that's not what's on my mind right now either, it's not just the money it's who the hell's going to end up running the show here.

—Well as I say, I think any immediate threat by the Jubilee Musical Instrument Company can be effectively dealt with by …

—All right then what about the rest of it, now look. He recovered the pad, where a large ellipse had begun to take shape. —Here's my twenty-three shares here. Here's this twenty of Stella's aunts and this seven of her Uncle James, then over here…

—Five, yes I find five listed in the name Gibbs, someone named Gibbs, I'd intended to ask you if you…

—Wait we'll get to him, now look, down here is this twenty-five there in the estate after taxes, now…

—Speaking frankly Mister Angel I think you can put your mind at rest there, from my dealings to date with this rather ah, this artistic branch of the family, I doubt if there will be much difficulty in establishing

your wife as sole heir and with those twenty-five shares and your own twenty-three there should be no …

—Well just wait though, just suppose it did come to her and Edward splitting up this twenty-five shares, I'd like to …

—That would seem, excuse me for interrupting but that seems extremely remote. This nephew, this nephew Edward has never sent me the signed waiver I requested, I've never received the particulars on his birth, I've never heard anything from him in fact or even a call from an attorney representing his interests and I can only assume he doesn't find it worth bothering with, though this rather lofty indifference to money on his part does seem rather ah, exceptional. Of course I did understand from his aunts that his consuming interest is music and artists in these matters are rather notoriously impractical, if I recall the case of …

—Yes well I don't know about all that Coen … he sat tapping the empty cup for a moment, and then stood pushing the chair back and the jacket off to the floor. —You see you got to remember he was pretty upset by all this, I just met him that once out there that night and I've tried to call him since but I never can get him at home, his one aunt there even told me one time he was off on a business trip but… he paused, pouring, and turned, —there's just something about him you like, something you kind of like and trust about him that you want to help out. Now right now he's maybe a little mixed up but I think I could talk some sense to him and maybe…

—That may all be quite true Mister Angel but I don't quite see the precise relevance to …

—Well put it this way then. I don't exactly want to go into details here but put it this way. If instead of Stella holding twenty-five shares against my twenty-three it turned out that her and Edward split that twenty-five I'd, well I guess you see what I mean… and he raised the cup again before he came down behind the desk.

—Oh. I see.

—Yes you see it's not hardly the question of the money here it's, it might even sound to you like I'm just trying to step in and grab all I can but …

—No you make your position quite clear Mister Angel but, excuse me, there is a point regarding this nephew you may have overlooked. Now even assuming that half the residue of the estate should fall to him and that he is as ah, as appealing a young man as you find him, it is still not established whether or not he is a minor and should that prove the case of course, his aunts or his father, or rather his Uncle James it would be if his claim on the decedent's estate proved valid, one of them at any rate would in all likelihood be named his guardian in this matter with the right to exercise the rights of his twelve and a half shares added to their aggregate of twenty-seven. Now…

—Well but I wouldn't mean to …

—No but please let me finish because I shouldn't want you to misunderstand me. While his aunts did express a rather impatient interest in seeing some return on their investment in the form of

dividends I don't for a moment wish to accuse them of being particularly venal, in fact it seems quite a normal attitude for anyone apparently living in somewhat straitened circumstances. But even on my brief visit with them I did feel that their grasp on reality seemed somewhat ah, tenuous at times, they do appear to have occupied that Long Island residence for some time yet what they refer to as the local paper is a weekly they have mailed to them from the Indiana town the whole family apparently left a good generation ago. The attorney they referred me to there has never answered any of my correspondence and I almost feel his very existence may be open to question, and very frankly the figure of James Bast himself seems so ephemeral that when they tell me he is abroad somewhere accepting an award there is the sense that they may be referring to the Paris Exposition of nineteen eleven. The only point I wish to make is that if these ah, if they exercised anything approaching control in an enterprise I was trying to conduct in a rational, businesslike manner, I believe I would be rather uneasy.

—Well that makes enough sense but…

—Now and so, excuse me, from your point of view even though you may have reason to regard the prospect of your, of the decedent's daughter holding this larger number of shares as a threat to your position, it still might be somewhat safer than the alternative I just outlined if you can explore the possibility of these five remaining shares, added to yours of course they would give you the bare majority you…

—Yes well I can add Coen, he said looking up from the long narrow ellipse constricting Gibbs 5 that had taken shape under the blunt pencil,

—the problem is so can she, so can Stella.

—But I oh, oh I see, I wasn't aware this Gibbs person might be someone you both had access to, in that case of course the sooner you can…

—Well I don't know who in hell she has access to as you put it, Jack Gibbs, I lost track of him a few years ago but, this may sound funny but I thought I saw him not too long ago right out here a few blocks away, that first minute I saw him it couldn't have been anybody else but him and then I just wasn't sure, playing ball with a little girl there and he had a bad limp that Gibbs never had and what the hell he'd be doing out here next to nowhere in the first place. And then he was gone and when I asked the little girl after she said that was her father, I'd heard someplace he'd got married that didn't last but just a few months,

right after him and Stella stopped seeing each other and he got to drinking there for a while…

—Yes, well of course the sooner you …

—See he worked here for a while just before I came, just real brilliant but, I don't know but just to give you an idea, one time when we'd all three had lunch and he'd taken a few drinks a bum came up to us on the street with his hand out and the wind blowing his torn coat, a

whole wreck of a man that couldn't hardly see us anyway but Jack all

of a sudden reached out and gave him a dollar and that really, well you know a long time after that I said something about it once to Stella

and all she said was, she said he did it because what he saw coming toward him was himself. And I just always remember the way she said that… he broke off, returned to the figure before him to fringe its edge with heavy strokes and stand abruptly, reaching his cup as he passed toward the cabinet. —See Stella, he said from over there bent to tug at the door again, —sometimes she's just got no real understanding of just how the way things are, that this idea you can fail will just build up inside a man … he tugged it, —or you know maybe she does, he tugged sharply, —better than anybody can guess…

—No be careful!

—There …! He stood with half the door off in his hand, —now look at this thing, look at it! That's a wood cabinet I had put in here, did that split like wood with no grain to split along? There isn't any. They press sawdust and glue together and paint on a grain…

—Yes I, I see it is Mister Angel but I wouldn't let it upset me this much, after all it's only a …

—Coen God damn it can't you see what I mean? Can't you see this is what's going to happen right here, after all it took to put all this together? Can't you see you go public and all these people owning you want is dividends and running their stock up, you don't give them that and they sell you out, you do and some bunch of vice presidents some place you never heard of like the ones that turned this out, this wood product they call it, they spot you and launch an offer and all of a sudden you're working for them trimming and cutting and finally bringing in people to turn something out they don't care what the hell it is, there's no pride in their work because what you've got them turning out nobody could be proud of in the first place … He broke the piece over his knee and stood up with the bottle, —if they'd just understand I'm not just trying to grab this whole show for myself but to keep it doing something that's, that's worth doing…

—Yes and of course the sooner you can…

—You know it's funny, I look back sometimes and I think if it hadn't of been for Stella in there, sometimes I think we could have done something here, me and Gibbs, really done something.

—Yes of course the sooner you can reach him… the unemptied cup was placed carefully aside for a sharp squaring of papers on the corner of the desk, —the sooner the status of these five shares can be clarified and…

—I know, I've been keeping my eye on the time here, I thought I'd just walk over about now where I saw him playing with that little girl if it was him, if it really could have been him I saw … He'd put the bottle down on the desk and stooped behind it to pick up his jacket from the floor and shake it, and he dropped it over the back of the chair again.

—I thought you might want to ride back into Manhattan with me,