Whirligig

by Fish, Robert L. ;

  The long winter months had not been the best introduction to New York for Lisa, but at least the activity involved in the furtherance of the Big Scheme had kept her occupied and relatively content. By early March, however, her new inactivity had driven her patience to its limit, and Kek decided that a trip home to Maastricht for her was the best solution. Accordingly, early in that month he bundled her aboard the Ile de France complete with an armful of novels and sufficient bonbons (should the ship’s store not have her variety). The trip was also designed to allow her to keep an eye on Vries Waldeck and see that nothing went wrong at that end.

  It was a cloudy, windy day, with the threat of rain in the air, and Kek stood dutifully on the dock as the ship was tugged slowly into the Hudson. Lisa, a tiny blond figure among the other blurred faces lining the rail, waved frantically; it was not until the ship was well into stream and being swung against the current that she finally gave up and tearfully went below to unpack.

  Huuygens caught a cab with the intention of returning to the apartment but then, with a change of mind, directed the driver to drop him off at the Lexington branch of the Battery Bank instead. He paid the cab, walked into the bank, and took the elevator to Mr. Fairbanks’ floor. Somehow today he didn’t want to have lunch alone, and he had become quite fond of the elderly vice-president of the bank.

  Gloria recognized him at once and smiled at him brightly. She rang through to her superior, explained the guest, and a moment later ushered Huuygens into the office.

  “Well, well, Jan! It’s been a long time, or at least it seems like a long time. I won’t ask how you are, because you look fine. And I won’t ask how things are coming, because I know.” Mr. Fairbanks shook hands without attempting to explain his cryptic statement, and remained standing, smiling brightly at the other.

  “I thought,” Kek said, glancing at his watch, “that since it’s around lunchtime …”

  “You thought very right,” Mr. Fairbanks said, and walked to the closet with a spry step. He took his topcoat, hesitated a moment over his hat, and then decided to take it along as well. He slipped into his garments and took Kek by the arm, ushering him to the door. “Lunch,” he said succinctly to Gloria, and started toward the outer door.

  “But, Mr. Fairbanks, you have an engagement at the Club with—”

  “Had,” Fairbanks corrected firmly. “Not have. Please let the gentleman know.” He led Kek toward the elevators. “Terrible man. Horrible bartender. Lousy club all around.” He pressed the Down button.

  At the corner restaurant—where the two had lunched together frequently once Kek knew that no other banker of his acquaintance was apt to drop in—they surrendered their topcoats and hats to the stoic behind the cloakroom counter, and groped their way through the gloom of the room to a familiar table. The bartender, seeing them pass, automatically began to prepare their drinks. Seated, their faces illuminated only by the flickering of a candle englobed in a blue glass cage, they waited patiently, and in a matter of seconds their drinks were before them. Mr. Fairbanks clutched his in his usual manner, but instead of gulping half of it instantly, as was normal, he paused and raised the glass in a slight gesture of a toast.

  “I thought it only appropriate to wait until proper libations were at hand before offering you my sincerest congratulations,” he said, and beamed. In the wavering light his smile was like that of the Cheshire Cat.

  Kek stared at him. “What on earth for?”

  This statement so startled Mr. Fairbanks that once again he forbore taking his drink down in two quick swallows. His bushy white eyebrows went up and down for several moments.

  “You mean you don’t know? You haven’t heard?” He reached the end of his endurance and quaffed deeply, wiped his lips daintily, and returned his attention to his young companion. “Are you kidding me? Haven’t you read your mail this morning?”

  It occurred to Kek that he hadn’t stopped at the postal boxes for several days; helping Lisa pack was a full-time chore that involved many visits to candy shops and bookstores, and in any event he had not expected any word for some weeks yet.

  “No,” he said, his drink untouched. “I was at the docks this morning. My wife left to visit her mother in Belgium. She’s European, you know.”

  “I didn’t know, but that’s unimportant. At the moment, I mean,” Mr. Fairbanks added hastily, not wishing to be misinterpreted. He returned to his original line of thought. “So that explains it …” He finished his drink and tapped the glass on the table. A disembodied arm, clothed in the black cloth of a tuxedo sleeve, reached from the darkness and retrieved it. “Well,” Mr. Fairbanks continued, grinning, “you’re going to get one hell of a surprise when you open your mail today. Because your deal with Waldeck went through!”

  Kek felt a sudden tightening in his stomach. He started to pick up his drink, paused as if to forgo it, and then as if finally realizing the full import of the other’s words, picked it up and drained it. He tapped it on the table in approved Fairbanks’ style.

  “Yes,” Mr. Fairbanks said, enjoying the expression on his young friend’s face, “it went through. I knew you were dickering with them, but I had no idea the deal was that ambitious. In any event, the escrow deposit was made with our bank this morning. How much did you finally end up peddling to them? Four million eight hundred thousand something, wasn’t it? Of your farm machinery? Well, we’re holding twenty percent of it for you right now.” He turned his head to see what was causing the delay at the bar and almost knocked the drinks out of the waiter’s hand. “Ah! That’s better. Well, here’s to more and better sales for your company.” He winked, raising his glass. “Through the New York office, of course. I imagine your family must be pleased.”

  “They will be,” Kek said fervently. “They will be!” He picked up his glass and also raised it. “Here’s to the Battery Bank. And their expert advice on export sales, conditions, etc., etc.” He smiled. “It helped a great deal, you know.”

  “Well,” Mr. Fairbanks said modestly, “it’s what we’re here for, you know,” and he finished his drink, tapping on the table. “Maybe we should order with our next drink. I imagine you’ll be wanting to get to your office and go through your mail …”

  Kek Huuygens half-sat, half-lay in one of the easy chairs in the living room of the apartment, his legs sprawled before him, his gray eyes half closed, fixed on the ceiling but today not even noting the plaster swirls. A large glass of brandy stood on the small table at his elbow; the smoke from the cigarette held almost listlessly in the fingers of one hand drifted upward in lazy spirals, unnoticed. From the time he had lunched with Fairbanks and heard the good news regarding the Washington Harvester Company, in that one short—but also, oh, so long!—week, all of the licenses had been issued. All of them! Without the least sign of hesitation, doubt, or without the slightest investigation. It was incredible! Not that they were out of the woods; far from it. But the first huge giant step had been accomplished, and now there was really no reason for the scheme to do anything but succeed. So why was he worried?

  Of course there were still a thousand things that could go wrong—he crushed his cigarette out almost unconsciously and fumbled for another, considering. He brought a match up and absentmindedly shook it out after lighting the cigarette. No; that was wrong. There weren’t even a hundred. In fact, there were very few. He felt sure that there had to be some, but in all honesty he could not see what they might be. As far as he could determine—and he was honestly searching for the darkest side of the picture—he had covered all possibilities of error. But then, he always did. He shook his head and reached for the brandy. No; as far as he could see, the only thing left to do was to wait for the date of forfeiture to roll around without the further letters of credit being issued and then simply go around to the banks and honestly and openly collect the escrow amounts legally due him.

  For that was the big scheme, his method of getting Waldeck’s francs into the United States in dollars with the complete semb
lance of legality. Together with the licenses, Waldeck would have to pay an amount equal to the escrow deposit to the transferring bank in francs; the bank, of course, would forward actual dollars to its American counterpart. It was that simple!

  In his mind’s eye he could visualize the list of his companies, their current bank assets, the amount of goods they had sold to Waldeck Imports, and the amount of escrow deposits in the five separate banks in New York. He took another sip of brandy, drew on his cigarette, and did the arithmetic in his head for the hundredth time, still searching for some error he might have committed, but none was visible. The figures however, were:

  A.

  The Washington Harvester Co., Secretary-Treasurer: Jan Vrebal. Present balance in the Battery Bank approximately $96,000. Sold to Waldeck Imports about $4,500,000. Escrow deposit made through the Banque de Ghent in the amount of roughly $900,000.

  B.

  The United States Agricultural Equipment Co., Secretary-Treasurer: John Tenza. Present balance in the Argonaut Bank approximately $45,000. Sold to Waldeck Imports about $5,700,000. Escrow deposit made through the Banque Nationale de Bruxelles in the amount of roughly $1,140,000.

  C.

  Pittsburgh Farm Equipment Co., Secretary-Treasurer: Johann Klees. Present balance in the Lexington Trust approximately $136,000. Sold to Waldeck Imports about $6,200,000. Escrow deposit made through the Banque de Heembeek in the amount of roughly $1,240,000.

  D.

  The International Farm Equipment Co., Secretary-Treasurer: Jack Gleba. Present balance in the General Manhattan Bank approximately $65,000. Sold to Waldeck Imports about $4,300,000. Escrow deposit made through Wallenstein Frères in the amount of roughly $860,000.

  E.

  The Northern States Equipment Co., Secretary-Treasurer: John J. Debroski. Present balance in the North River Bank approximately $48,115. Sold to Waldeck Imports about $4,900,000. Escrow deposit made through Banque Hollandaise in the amount of roughly $980,000.

  He took another sip of the brandy and smiled. Total sold: $25,000,000. Total to be forfeited inside of two months: $5,000,000. Openly and aboveboard. As scheduled. His share: $1,000,000.

  If something doesn’t come along to louse it up, he added to himself wryly, and finished his brandy. And if almost nothing could come along to louse it up, why did he have this cold feeling that something would?

  10

  The Nieuw Amsterdam docked on a lovely day near the middle of April, with the Palisades across the river in New Jersey showing scattered patches of green trying to gain a foothold between the band of factories at the river’s edge and the stepped outline of houses silhouetted on the heights, and with the sun bright off the river. Kek waved to the excited Lisa at the ship’s rail, waited impatiently while she came through customs, and then picked her up in a bearhug, kissing her, and almost carrying her down the steps to the street level while a porter followed with her luggage. They piled into a cab and Kek leaned over and kissed his lovely wife again, surprised at the depth of his pleasure at her return.

  “And how was the trip?”

  “Wonderful! But didn’t you get my letters?”

  “Of course I got your letters, the few there were. I meant, how were things on the ship.”

  “Marvelous! All the staff asked for you,” Lisa said. “All the officers, and even the captain.”

  “And were all very pleased that I was not aboard, eh?” Kek grinned.

  “I think so,” Lisa said, and laughed.

  “And you got that tan on the ship?”

  “This? Heavens, no. It was freezing on deck.” She glanced down at her décolletage, placed a finger there to pull it a bit lower to examine the clear mark of demarcation between brown and white, and then looked up to see Kek watching intently. She smiled at him and took his hand. “This I got in Switzerland. Didn’t I write? After two months of practically living with farm equipment here, I just couldn’t stand Maastricht for too long.” She looked out of the cab window as if she had never seen the city before. “Oh, Kek, I never knew New York could be so nice!”

  “It’s just because you’re home again, sweet. It must be, because if you’re talking about the weather, you happened to come back during one of the three months when it’s tolerable. They have two in the spring and one in the fall.” He tightened his arm around her, smiling down at her. It was wonderful to have Lisa back again. “By the way, did you manage to see Waldeck?”

  “Of course. You asked me to, didn’t you? Actually—can you imagine?—I ran into him first on the Jungfrau. He was spending the weekend there skiing. And then I saw him in Brussels again before I left. Which reminds me, he gave me some letters for you.” She started to fumble within her purse.

  Kek put his large hand over hers, snapping the purse closed.

  “They can wait, sweet. Did he say anything of importance?”

  “Well, he said that the forfeiture date was May first—that’s two weeks from now. And he said everything was taken care of on his end and he’d be coming over around that time. I think the letters explain it in greater detail.” She frowned a moment and then nodded, her face clearing. “Oh, yes. He said now the money was all handled he was going to give up the business …”

  “What?” Kew stared at her. “I hope the damned fool wasn’t thinking of bankruptcy, or anything like that!”

  “Don’t get so excited, darling.” She smiled at him. “Actually, you know, he was thinking of it until I talked some sense into him. He—”

  “My God! An idiot!”

  “Yes, darling, but it’s all right now. He really does need a guardian, though. Now he’s going to sell the company as a going concern. After all, I told him, the company still has value if only for the organization his father built up over the years, and the goodwill from the name. I told him Waldeck Imports is an important name and he could get money for it, so why should he give it away? He said he thought that bankruptcy would be the sort of shameful thing to cause a man to run to another country. I told him he could sell the company and come to the States with equal logic. He really isn’t very bright, you know,” she added.

  “I know,” Kek agreed, and visibly relaxed.

  “Anyway, he had already managed a customer by the time I left. It won’t be much—that he gets from the sale, I mean—but it’s better than going into bankruptcy, isn’t it? There are bound to be fewer inquiries, aren’t there?”

  “There certainly are,” Kek said fervently. “What a narrow escape! I only hope he has enough sense to pull the correspondence out of his files regarding our transactions before he turns over the keys!”

  “Oh, he will,” Lisa said airily. “I told him to.”

  Kek laughed. “You’re marvelous! We’d have been in a jam. I’m just happy you were there.”

  “And also that I’m smart.”

  “Or smarter than Vries Waldeck, at any rate,” Kek amended, and smiled at her affectionately.

  Lisa dropped the subject of Vries Waldeck, looking obliquely at her husband with a pretense of wifely suspicion in her light blue eyes.

  “And just what have you been doing while I’ve been gone?”

  “Nothing like you’re thinking,” Kek said, and managed to sound a bit forlorn that events had contrived to make this so. “Actually, chasing from one bank to the next, keeping our company accounts active and up one day and down the next. You know, once the escrow deposits were all in—and the first came the day you left—I found I had a tendency to let things slide, but then I realized this could also attract attention, so I had to go back to the old schedule, depositing and withdrawing, withdrawing and depositing.”

  “Poor one,” Lisa said with sickeningly false sympathy. “And after your banks closed? Which I believe they do at three o’clock?”

  “One of them stays open until four,” Kek said in self-defense. His smile faded. “Then, my sweet, in all honesty, I spent most of my time worrying. Worrying that something might go wrong, although no matter how I studied it, I couldn�
�t see where anything possibly could.” He shook his head. “Well, this bankruptcy thing of Waldeck’s could have been one thing to go wrong, and it never even occurred to me. So now I’m going to worry twice as much, wondering what else never even occurred to me.” He sighed. “Well, I only have two more weeks in which to worry. At least that’s something.”

  “We’ll keep busy for the two weeks, and you won’t have time to worry. What’ll we do during the two weeks?”

  The cab was drawing to the curb before their apartment. Kek paid the driver, accepted the many bags as they were laboriously thrust at him through the cab door, and started carrying them into the lobby. He finally managed to pile them all into the small elevator, crowd Lisa in beside them, and squeeze in between the mountains of luggage and the door. He twisted about to punch the button and then relaxed as the elevator started up. Lisa looked at him with an innocent expression.

  “You didn’t answer me, darling. What are your plans for the next two weeks?”

  “One day at a time,” Kek said, and smiled. “Anyway, we can talk about it in the morning.”

  “But, darling,” Lisa said. “It is morning.”

  “It’s morning today,” Kek conceded, and drew back as the door slid open. He started unloading the bags, one foot spread-eagled to hold the door open. “I’m talking about tomorrow morning, sweet.”

  “Oh. But I’m starved,” Lisa said in a little girl’s voice. “We had breakfast on board that big, bad boat at six in the morning.” Her voice returned to normal. “Can you imagine?”

  “I can imagine,” Kek said. He opened the apartment door and began carrying the bags in two at a time, setting them in the middle of the living room temporarily. “Well,” he said, pausing in his labors a moment, “all right. Food, I mean.” He raised a warning finger. “But that’s all. No other distractions allowed.”