The sum of all fears - Tom Clancy [298]
They were a disaster. Money management was another thing that failed to interest Dr Caroline Ryan, and Jack assumed the duties more or less by default, just as cooking fell into her domain. She didn't even know the filing system, and was certain that Jack never expected her to wade into this colossal mess of documents. Along the way, she learned that the blind trust that managed their stock portfolio was doing rather well at the moment. Ordinarily, she just saw the year-end earnings statements. Money didn't interest her very much. The house was paid off. The kids' education funds were already set up. The Ryan family actually lived off the combined income of the two Doctors Ryan, which allowed their investments to grow, while complicating their annual taxes, which was also something that Jack - who still had his CPA certification - took care of, with the aid of the family's attorney. The most recent statement of net worth drew a gasp. Cathy decided to add the money manager to the Christmas card list. But that was not what she was after. She found it at two-thirty in the afternoon. The file was simply marked 'Zimmer' and was naturally enough in the last drawer she got to.
The Zimmer file was several inches thick. She sat cross-legged on the floor before opening it, her head already aching from eyestrain and the Tylenol which she should have taken but hadn't. The first document was a letter from Jack to an attorney - not their regular attorney, the one who did their wills and taxes and the other routine work - instructing him to set up an educational trust fund for seven children, a number which had been changed to eight several months later, Cathy saw. The trust fund had been set up with an initial investment of over half a million dollars, and managed as a stock portfolio through the same managers who did part of the Ryan family account. Cathy was surprised to see that Jack did actually make recommendations for this account, something that he did not do for his own. He hadn't lost his touch, either. The yield from the Zimmer portfolio was twenty-three percent. Another hundred thousand dollars had been invested in a business - a Sub-Chapter-S corporation, she saw, whatever that was - with Southland Corporation as - oh, she realized, a 7-Eleven. It was a Maryland corporation, with the address given as
That's only a few miles from here! It was, in fact, right off of Route 50, and that meant that Jack passed it twice a day on his way to and from work.
How convenient!
So, who the hell was Carol Zimmer?
Medical bills! Obstetrics!
Dr Marsha Rosen! I know her! Had Cathy not been on the faculty at Hopkins, she would have used Marsha Rosen for her own pregnancies; Rosen was a Yale graduate with a very fine reputation.
A baby! Jacqueline Zimmer! Jacqueline? Cathy thought, her face flushed scarlet. Then the tears began streaming down her cheeks.
You bastard! You can't give me a baby, but you gave one to her, didn't you?
She checked the date, then searched her memory, Jack hadn't been home that day until very late. She remembered, because she'd had to cancel out on a dinner party over at
He was there! He was there for the delivery, wasn't he! What more proof do I need? The triumph of the discovery changed at once into black despair.
The world could end so easily, Cathy thought, just a slip of paper could do it, and that was it. It was over.
Is it over?
How could it not be? Even if he still wanted - did she want him?
What about the kids? Cathy asked herself. She closed the file and replaced it without rising. "You're a doctor," she said to herself. "You're supposed to think before you act."
The kids needed