Howtown by Michael Nava

Author:Michael Nava [Nava, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-9773-5
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2013-01-07T22:47:00+00:00

15

AFTER I LEFT SARA’S HOUSE, I drove to Clayton’s firm, shut myself up in my office and called my sister. I got her answering machine and left an awkward message. I thought about what Sara had said, how Elena and I had compassion for everyone but each other, and I also remembered Elena’s terrifying comparison of our childhood to a concentration camp.

At the time it had seemed extreme, but now, as I thought about it, it reminded me of something I had always known about myself: what kept me alone as a child was a tiny spark of hope I managed to preserve in that crazy, violent household. But alongside that hope was a belief, irrational and profound, that what I had suffered—the beatings, the neglect—I had in some way deserved. Even now, I saw how those feelings persisted, hope alternating with guilt. It made for a conscientious lawyer, but not a particularly happy man. What had Elena said? Those who have been tortured go on being tortured. I wanted my sister at that moment in a way I had never wanted anyone.

Someone was knocking at the door. “Come in.”

Peter Stein pushed the door open, carrying a stack of papers in his hand. “Hey, Henry, I thought I saw you coming in.”

“Hello, Peter,” I replied, swiveling in my chair to face him.

“Are you feeling okay?” he asked. “You look a little pale.”

“I’m fine. What do you have there?”

“That research I told you about on changing venue.” He sat down and plopped the papers down in front of me. I pretended to read them.

“These will help,” I said, stacking them.

“I got some other news that might interest you,” he said, dropping his voice. “About Mark.”

“Yes, go on. I’m listening,” I replied, completing the difficult transition from my private thoughts to this conversation.

“Do you know about S&Ls?”

“Savings and loan associations? Just that a lot of them are failing.”

Peter nodded. “Including one here called Pioneer S&L. The feds are on the verge of taking it over.”

I tried to appear interested. “What does that have to do with Mark?”

“He owns it,” Peter replied. “Not in his own name. He’s got other people fronting for him. The reason it’s going down the tubes is that it made a lot of risky loans, mostly on shopping malls and condos.”

I nodded, waiting for the punch line.

“As it happens, most of those deals involved Windsor Development.”

“I thought Mark was doing well,” I said.

“He was in too much of a hurry to expand,” Peter said. “He put up things that no one wanted to get into and he did it with Pioneer’s money. The worse it got for him, the more ready cash he needed, and the more money he took out of Pioneer.” He tapped the desk. “That’s against the law. The feds call it looting.”

I was beginning to get the picture. “And when Pioneer started failing, the feds came in and took a look at the books.”

“They’re about to run an audit,” he said. “They don’t know what I’ve told you, yet.

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