Nothing Personal: A Novel of Wall Street

by Offit, Mike

  At the top of the hill, a wide, brick esplanade led to two immense stone staircases that descended to a large, circular piazza. The Bethesda Fountain was a Victorian landmark, with a soaring statue of a winged female figure. Although the water had been drained for the winter, it was illuminated by floodlights, and from the balustrade between the staircases, a sweeping view of the lagoon, iced over, but reflecting the towers of Central Park West, unfolded, a peaceful and private vista on a deserted winter night.

  “This is pretty,” Sam said as they leaned on the stone railing for a moment.

  “Yes, it’s beautiful. This was my favorite spot in the whole city as a kid.” The tension in Warren’s voice made her turn to him. He kissed her fully and held her against him for a long moment. “I love you, Sam.”

  She could see the emotion in his eyes, and she stroked the side of his face. “I love you too,” she said simply. They stood like that for a moment.

  “There’s something I need to tell you. It’s important.” He took the hand that was on his neck and kissed it.

  “What? Tell me.”

  “Okay.” He took a deep breath and drew his other hand out of his coat pocket. In it was a ring, a platinum band with diamonds set in a pattern of steps, which he pressed into her palm. “I want you to marry me. I want to marry you. I love you more than anyone I have ever known, and I don’t want to wait until someone or something comes between us.” He stopped and saw the reaction on her face. There was some surprise, but he could see the tears come up in her eyes.

  She looked at the ring in her hand, then took it in her fingers and put it on. “And I have something to tell you.” She looked up at him, with tears now streaming down her cheeks.

  “Tell me.”

  “There is nothing in the world that I want more. I want to marry you.”

  They came together again for a long kiss. They were both smiling.

  “You know, the first time I ever saw a girl naked, I was standing right here,” he said.

  “When was that?” She wiped away the tears, grateful for the transition.

  “I think it was around 1968 or ’69. There was a moratorium—an antiwar protest—here, and a bunch of hippies climbed the statue and took off their clothes. I think I was about ten or eleven.” The memory was vivid in his head, the warm summer day, the bongo drums, anti-Johnson chants, and the smell of pot smoke and horse manure from the mounted police. It seemed as if only a minute had passed, yet it was a million miles away.

  She took his arm, and they turned back to the car. “I bet you were the cutest little boy at the moratorium,” she said, and for twenty yards, they were both children again, their dreams still ahead of them, in a night that held no threats, only promises.

  fifty-three

  It was hard not to feel silly, with the sunglasses and the driving gloves, but they were both practical, and she looked great. The engine made a growling sound as she ran through the gears, accelerating up the entrance ramp onto the Northern State Parkway, then punching the throttle and easing into the left lane. A serene, almost blissful look was on her face as she banked into a right-hand curve after a quick downshift, gaining speed through the turn and topping ninety on the empty road.

  Warren had turned off the radio, wanting to enjoy the whine of the exhaust and eliminate any distraction for her. He was settled down into his seat, with a light mohair blanket on his lap, relaxed, enjoying the scenery as it sped by.

  When Robert Moses had constructed this highway through the heart of Long Island, he had claimed enough land on either side to guarantee a permanent buffer of trees and woodland. Even now, in late winter, one could rarely see any sign of civilization other than the roadway and its signage, and in light traffic it was like a personal touring track.

  Warren had agreed to deliver the car to East Hampton for Cornelia Harper, who offered them the use of her house for the weekend as recompense, although the drive alone would have sufficed. The Aston Martin DB5 belonged to Ray Karr, Austin’s dad, and Cornelia was storing it for him in her garage. Chas had confided in Warren that his mother and Ray Karr had been seeing a bit of each other, and the car had been the only thing Ray’s ex-wife had let him take from their house in Far Hills. He and Cornelia had taken off for the Alps and asked Chas to look after it. When Warren mentioned that he and Sam had been planning to spend the weekend in Montauk, Chas had hatched the alternative plan.

  The powerful Aston was perfectly maintained, and they’d agreed to split the driving. At the speed she was going, though, her forty-five minutes would get them most of the way. Although he spent so much of his childhood there, it was difficult to recognize much of the Hamptons. In the daylight, unlike on the trip he’d taken before with Larisa, he’d was disgusted at the way the land had been developed, the houses springing up like deformed shoe boxes in flat potato fields, the Hollywood types and Wall Streeters competing for who could build the most square footage. As with so many other places, the conversations he heard about the Hamptons sounded like supermarket talk—everyone was simply comparing house prices, just as they did with their art collections and their takeover bids.

  Warren decided to let Sam do all the driving. She was enjoying herself, and he would get to look out the windows. Plus, she was a much, much better driver than he would ever be. When they reached Southampton, he directed her to the back roads, rather than the main highway, so she could enjoy the driving, and he could investigate the changes. They went down Flying Point Road in Water Mill, then back to Cobb Road and across the highway again. Everywhere, Warren saw the ungainly developments and the new houses shoehorned in next to two-hundred-year-old shingled farmhouses and manors. The old Henry Ford estate had been converted into a dozen monstrous white elephants, with spindly trees already dying from the underestimated winds and salt spray. In Sagaponack, smaller, cheaper versions nestled on sparsely vegetated cul-de-sacs. They stopped briefly at the old general store that sat among the fields on Sagg Main Street, and Warren was amazed to see a display of designer food and a half dozen $30 pies where he’d once found only bottles of Coke and sandwiches made on Wonder bread. A snack cost twelve bucks, but he had to admit the seafood salad was fresh.

  From the general store, it was only a few minutes back to the highway, then down Buckskill Lane to Baiting Hollow and Hedges and they were on Lee Avenue. A left, then a quick right, and they found the Harpers’ at the end of Terbell Lane—a large, but not massive, shingle-style house surrounded by trees on a slight rise overlooking Hook Pond and, farther on, the Atlantic. As promised, the garage was unlocked, and Warren hoisted the door for Sam to drive in. He grabbed the two green duffel bags from the tiny boot and located the front-door key in the Martinson’s coffee can on the floor. The gravel crunched under their feet as they crossed back to the house, which felt warm and cozy once he had gotten the door open and the lights turned on.

  Gal Harper had bought the Terbell house almost fifty years before, eschewing the grand manors on Lily Pond Lane and Lee Avenue. Like Ray Karr, he didn’t want oceanfront property on a flat, unprotected sandbar, as he referred to Long Island, and he wouldn’t have owned a house there at all except that his wife liked to spend summers on the East End. He had given the house to his daughter on her twenty-fifth birthday and, once his wife passed away, had never visited again.

  His first child, Peter, a fullback at Yale and his heir, had broken his neck and drowned while bodysurfing at the Main Beach in a summer squall in 1947. His body had washed ashore and lain unnoticed for several hours until a local boy, out digging for crabs, had stumbled across it. After that day, Gal Harper almost always had an excuse to stay in the city or travel to Maine in the summer.

  Cornelia Harper had mourned her older brother just as she mourned her younger brother when he died in Korea. She had worn black and been sad, even though Peter had been a bully and beaten her up until he’d been sixteen, and Charles had always resented her. She had taken photographs of her two brothers to a portrait painter on Park Aven
ue, and the two canvases hung in the dining room in East Hampton in curious homage to sudden and untimely death.

  A note from the caretaker was on the foyer table, which Warren read out loud as they toured the house. Three main rooms were on the first floor, all with large picture windows, which opened out to the lawn, the marsh, and the dunes beyond. The kitchen was surprisingly modern and bright, and a small library was tucked into the eastern corner of the house, with French doors that opened to a summer garden, now evidenced only by the neat flagstone grid and canvas-covered evergreens that delineated its beds and borders.

  As he read, Sam opened the refrigerator, well stocked, as promised. They climbed the stairs to the master bedroom, an L-shaped space with gabled ceilings, decorated in hunter green and white, with toile-de-Jouy wallpaper and delicately flowered curtains. Two piles of towels were laid out in the master bathroom, which had wide, chestnut plank floors and Portuguese tile around the sink and bath, which sat by another large window open to the wetland vista.

  They also poked their heads into the five other bedrooms, each immaculate, carefully decorated, and cheerful. The house had an air of space and comfort, not ostentation or great wealth. The only people meant to be entertained in this house were its occupants and a few close friends. Warren and Sam felt at ease. The architect, a hundred-odd years earlier, had understood how to design rooms and proportions that did not intimidate or confine.

  “I think this will do,” Sam said happily, plopping down on the cream-colored sofa in the living room. “I am very happy here.”

  “Yeah. This is pretty easy to take.” Warren was poking around in the liquor cabinet and found an open bottle of single-malt Scotch. “Care for a small drink?”

  He poured them each an inch of the liquor and nestled down next to her on the couch. “I guess it pays to have incredibly wealthy friends with great houses.”

  “I guess. I can’t believe you grew up out here.”

  “Why not? Besides, we left when I was pretty young. And our house would have fit in the garage here.”

  “I don’t know. It seems so Puritan out here or something. Like the natives are all fishermen or oystermen or something like that. Were you some kind of quahog-digger or something?” She was taking the tiniest sips of the strong Scotch. “Jesus, this stuff tastes like Sterno that’s been strained through peat moss.”

  “Aye, lassie, that’s the bite of the true Highlands,” Warren said in a decent Scottish brogue.

  She laughed and put the drink down on the walnut coffee table. She thought twice and picked the glass back up, slipping one of the magazines underneath it to protect the finish. The smile faded, and her expression shifted slightly.

  “What is it?” Warren picked up on the change immediately.

  “Look, we, like, never talk about it, but I think we ought to. I mean, it’s not just some fantasy or something. That trip was real. Those bank accounts were real. That money is real. What are you going to do with it? What is your plan?” She sat up and looked at him. “We can’t just pretend none of it ever happened.”

  Warren nodded and sipped his drink. “I know. I know. You’re right. It is real. Very real. And I do have a plan. Look, I don’t know if anyone is looking for that money. There’s been nothing unusual at the office, and it’s been a pretty long time. No inquiries, no questions, nothing. Nothing at the banks either, as far as I can tell. They’re still doing business. I think Warner’s going to go under eventually, but it may take a while yet. The money isn’t going anywhere. If everything works out, maybe we keep it or donate it to charity or something. If not, maybe they’ll find it and figure out a way to take it back. Just so long as are not connected to it until it’s all over. There’s just one piece that’s missing.”

  “What’s that exactly?”

  “Who killed Anson and Bill. Somebody killed them both, and I don’t believe it was a coincidence. If it weren’t for my alibis, the cops would have arrested me for it. I think they may figure I hired someone to do it. It doesn’t matter, though, because they’ll never be able to prove that I did.”

  “Because you didn’t, right? I mean, I’m not engaged to a murderer, right? You’re not going to knock me off for the insurance or anything, are you?”

  “What insurance?”

  “The life insurance you want to take out on me.”

  “I don’t want to take out any life insurance on you. What are you talking about?” Warren turned to face her, completely flabbergasted.

  “Come on. I got that letter and application from your company’s insurance agent.”

  “You’re kidding me, right?” Warren was smiling. “Good joke.”

  “Warren, I’m dead serious. I thought it was nice, you adding me to your medical coverage. And I thought it was generous that Weldon allows you to insure your fiancée.”

  “They don’t. I didn’t. I mean, I would, but I didn’t. What application? Did you send it in?”

  “No, not yet. What do you mean you didn’t send me the application? If you didn’t, who did?” She was sitting straight up.

  “I don’t know. But it sounds like a problem.”

  “A problem? Someone sends me an insurance application? That’s a weird problem. I can see how you’d be concerned if I’d made an appointment to talk to a salesman or something. Actually, that’s worse than dying. But who would bother?”

  “Someone who is trying to set me up?”

  “But set you up for what? Dental coverage?”

  “Think about it for a minute.” He tapped his head.

  “Oh, thanks for pointing. I forgot where to think.” Sam paused for a moment. It was obvious. “But, if they were trying to set you up to look like you killed me, isn’t it a little simpleminded? What difference could a half a million dollars make? No one would believe you’d want to kill me to collect a half a million bucks of insurance. That’s no money to you big investment bankers.”

  “An obvious setup might be something a clever guy like me would do to cover his tracks.”

  “You read too many cheap mystery books. Jesus. Take out insurance on me to make you a suspect, but then point out that you’re way too smart and sophisticated to do something so stupid, therefore the insurance policy would actually have been a way to prove it wasn’t you. And you’d get to keep the money.”

  “The application itself could start a fight. You could start to suspect me. Who the hell knows? All I know is that you could be in trouble. Or I could. I can. There’s too much money at stake here. I don’t get it. Why try to set me up? These are some very confusing bad guys. Why don’t they just ask for the fucking money back? It’s not like I can tell anyone about it. They could threaten me. Threaten you. My mother. My father. Kneecap me. Break my fingers one at a time. Disfigure my face. Offer to kill me quick and painlessly if I tell them without a struggle. I’d crack eventually.”

  “I’ve got news for you. You’ve already cracked. Boy. I thought you had a plan.”

  “I thought I did too. Hmmm. Insurance policy? It just doesn’t make sense. Unless…”

  “Hey, maybe someone in your benefits department heard you were engaged and sent you the insurance forms. Maybe you’re paranoid,” Sam said.

  “Maybe. Probably. Or, it could just be a warning. Threatening you.”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  “Yeah. But two people who were pretty tough business are already dead. I think this is gonna have to work itself out soon, or I’m going to just kill myself so I won’t have to deal with the anxiety.”

  “Oh. Okay. How much insurance is there on you? Can I be the beneficiary? Are you worth more dead or alive?”

  “Nice. Let’s go check out that bed up there, then you can answer that question. All this thinking is wearing me out.” Warren stood up and stretched.

  “Why is it every time you say you’re tired, I wind up feeling like I’m in some nature show about rutting antelopes or wildebeests?’

  “I dunno. Meet me in the Wild Kingdom
. I’m going to take a shower and think all this over.” He tugged her up off the couch, and he tickled her as they climbed the stairs.

  “Hey! Cut it out!” She whacked him on the shoulder. “You’re gonna get it!”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.…” They turned down the hall, giggling, for the time being.

  fifty-four

  When he got back to work the next week, he had a busy schedule. First, Warren asked Annlois to book him on a flight to Los Angeles and reserve a room for three nights at the Beverly Wilshire. He told Malcolm that he needed to catch up on things with the banks, that Karlheinz had asked him to come out and review their strategies for the new year, and that he would stop in at Golden State as well. To build up some background, he put in a call to Bill Scherrer in the Reorganization Group and chatted with him for fifteen minutes about some of the bank recapitalizations that Weldon had been hired to complete. It seemed, Warren explained, that the West Coast thrifts were all going to need to be restructured eventually, and getting in the door early couldn’t hurt. He’d met Bill through Larisa and thought he was bright and capable.

  “Say, would it be helpful if I joined you in LA? I could clear the deck.” It never failed to amaze Warren how willing people at Weldon were to fly off to sunny Southern California at the drop of a hat right up until June.

  “I tell you what. Why don’t you see if you can leave it open for Wednesday, and I’ll give you a call tomorrow from out there and let you know.”

  “Okay. I can ask Larisa if she can cover for me if you need me.” Bill knew that Warren and Larisa had been involved with each other, but it had momentarily slipped his mind. “I guess,” he added hesitantly.

  “That’s a great idea. I’m sure she’ll be happy to. I appreciate it. I’ll give you a call no later than five tomorrow, and you can grab the Wednesday-morning flight for an afternoon meeting if it looks like a go.” Bill had agreed, and they’d disconnected. Warren had anticipated that Larisa would have to be notified about the trip—the Reorg group was always stretched thin.