Night Over Water - Ken Follett [102]
“Riley has promised.”
“And Riley is as trustworthy as a rattlesnake,” she said dismissively.
Peter was stung. “Not if he gets ... an incentive.”
So that was it: Danny Riley had been bribed. That worried Nancy. Danny was nothing if not corruptible. What had Peter offered him? She had to know, so that she could either spoil the bribe or offer more. She said: “Well, if your plan hinges on Danny Riley’s reliability, I guess I don’t have anything to worry about!” and she laughed derisively.
“It hinges on Riley’s greed,” Peter said.
She turned to Nat and said: “If I were you I’d be very skeptical about all this.”
“Nat knows it’s true,” Peter said smugly.
Nat clearly would have preferred to remain silent, but when they both stared at him, he gave a reluctant nod of assent.
Peter said: “He’s giving Riley a big chunk of General Textiles’s work.”
That was a blow, and Nancy’s breath caught in her throat. There was nothing Riley would have liked better than to get a foot in the door of a major corporation such as General Textiles. To a small New York law firm it was the opportunity of a lifetime. For a bribe like that, Riley would sell his mother.
Peter’s shares plus Riley’s came to fifty percent. Nancy’s plus Aunt Tilly’s also amounted to fifty percent. With the votes divided equally, the issue would be decided by the casting vote of the chairman—Peter.
Peter could see he had trumped Nancy, and he allowed himself a smile of victory.
Nancy was not yet willing to concede defeat. She pulled out a chair and sat down. She turned her attention to Nat Ridgeway. She had sensed his disapproval all the way through the argument. She wondered if he knew that Peter had been working behind her back. She decided to put it to him. “I suppose you knew Peter was lying to me about this?”
He stared at her, tight-lipped; but she could do that too, and she simply waited, looking expectant. Finally she outstared him, and he said: “I didn’t ask. Your family quarrels are none of my concern. I’m not a social worker. I’m a businessman.”
But there was a time, she thought, when you held my hand in restaurants, and kissed me good night; and once you caressed my breasts. She said: “Are you an honest businessman?”
“You know I am,” he said stiffly.
“In that case, you won’t approve of dishonest methods being used on your behalf.”
He thought for a moment, then said: “This is a takeover, not a tea party.”
He was going to say more, but she jumped in. “If you’re willing to gain by my brother’s dishonesty, you’re dishonest yourself. You’ve changed since you worked for my father.” She turned back to Peter before Nat could reply. “Don’t you realize you could get twice the price for your shares if you let me implement my plan for a couple of years?”
“I don’t like your plan.”
“Even without restructuring, the company is going to be worth more because of the war. We’ve always supplied soldiers’ boots—think of the extra business if the U.S. gets into the war!”
“The U.S. won’t get into this war.”
“Even so, the war in Europe will be good for business.” She looked at Nat. “You know that, don’t you? That’s why you want to buy us out.”
Nat said nothing.
She turned back to Peter. “But we’d do better to wait. Listen to me. Have I ever been wrong about this sort of thing? Have you ever lost money by following my advice? Have you ever made money by disregarding it?”
“You just don’t understand, do you?” Peter said.
Now she could not imagine what was coming. “What don’t I understand?”
“Why I’m merging the company, why I’m doing this.”
“All right, why?”
He stared at her in silence, and she saw the answer in his eyes.
He hated her.
She was shocked rigid. She felt as if she had run headlong into an invisible brick wall. She wanted to disbelieve it, but the grotesque expression of malevolence on his distorted face could not be ignored. There had always been tension between them, natural sibling rivalry; but this, this was awful, weird, pathological. She had never suspected this. Her little brother, Peter, hated