Blake, Sarah - The Guest Book by Blake Sarah

Blake, Sarah - The Guest Book by Blake Sarah

Author:Blake, Sarah [Blake, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flatiron Books


Twenty-four

LIKE A BELL AT the races, the first of August came, and much of Wall Street went north. Milton Higginson was reduced to its skeleton crew. Len wandered the halls of the emptied office, coming in every morning to sit at his desk and nudge along the accounts he’d been given, placing phone calls he knew would not be returned until after Labor Day, happy to be the lone man on the watch. In the motionless hours after lunch, with the windows shoved high, he continued to page through the company holdings, determined to come up with the list of good candidates for the idea he had pitched Mr. Milton by the time the partners returned.

Late one afternoon toward the middle of the month, Len pulled open one of the last of the drawers in the file room. The single file inside gave thick testimony to the fact that the firm must have had a long history with this particular company, and Len brought it back upstairs to his desk and opened it, looking for Ogden’s notes. The Walser Gruppe was evidently a German steel manufacturer Ogden had courted throughout the twenties, culminating in his first investment in 1929. There was a certificate of agreement signed June 19 of that year. And then several pages detailing the inventory—mostly hairpins and kitchen faucets. Len turned the pages quickly, noting the clear evidence of a good investment—the company’s numbers grew and grew over the next five years, expanding into 1935 when Len arrived at a second letter of agreement, signed in June of that year by Ogden and by Walser. Beside Walser’s signature was the Nazi seal.

Len shoved the paper back as if he’d been burned and stared down.

Then, carefully, methodically, he went through every piece of paper in the file. But there was no third letter dissolving the agreement. There was nothing at all. Nothing to suggest anything other than what these letters laid out. Milton Higginson had stayed in all through the war. Could be, in fact, still invested. Len stood up from the desk and found himself, not thinking, walking toward the men’s room at the back of the office, where he turned on the tap, cupped his hands, and filled them with cold water. He drank and then filled his hands and drank again, then filled them a third time, which he simply poured over his head.

Joan. Her name rose in his throat like a sob.

He looked up, dripping wet, and stared in the mirror. It was then that Len wondered if Ogden Milton had meant for him to find those pages all along.

He turned and went back to his desk, not thinking, his hands simply moving through the papers, replacing all the files back in the box. All except the Walser file. Carefully, he arranged all the pages in this one neatly back in order. Save for the two letters of agreement.

He looked at them again. And slid them into his briefcase, closed the lid, and snapped it shut.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.