Robin Cook - Seizure

Daniel’s pale face turned crimson. “That hearing was a goddamn farce!”

“Maybe so, but that doesn’t justify your saying as much to Butler’s face, because it nipped in the bud any chance of success we might have had, however small. I think his goal was to get you mad so you’d look bad, and it worked. It was his way of discrediting you as a witness.”

“You’re pissing me off.”

“Daniel, I’m as irritated about this outcome as you are.”

“Yeah, but you’re saying it’s my fault.”

“No, I’m saying that your behavior didn’t help things. There’s a difference.”

“Well, your behavior didn’t help things either. How come you never told me about your brother being indicted for racketeering? All you told me was that he was a qualified investor. Some qualifications! It was a fine time for me to learn about that little sordid tidbit.”

“It was after he was an investor, and it was in the Boston papers. So it’s not as if it was a secret, but it was something I felt I’d rather not talk about, at least at the time. I thought the reason you didn’t bring it up was that you were being considerate. But I should have known better.”

“You didn’t feel like talking about it?” Daniel questioned with exaggerated astonishment. “You know I don’t bother reading the stupid Boston rags. So how else would I have learned about it? And I would have had to know about it eventually because Butler was right. If we’d gone for an IPO, it would have had to be disclosed that we had a felon for an investor, and it would have held things up.”

“He has been indicted,” Stephanie said. “He’s not been convicted. Remember, in our system of justice you’re innocent until proven guilty.”

“That’s a rather lame excuse for not mentioning it to me,” Daniel snapped. “Is he going to be convicted?”

“I don’t know.” Stephanie’s voice had lost its edge as she coped with a tinge of guilt at not having been more forthright with Daniel about her brother. She’d thought about mentioning the indictment on occasion but had always put it off until a tomorrow that had never arrived.

“You have no idea whatsoever? That’s a little hard for me to believe.”

“I have had vague suspicions,” Stephanie admitted. “I had the same suspicions about my father, and Tony has essentially taken over my father’s businesses.”

“What are the businesses we’re talking about?”

“Real estate and a few restaurants, plus a restaurant and a café on Hanover Street.”

“Is that all?”

“That’s what I don’t know. As I said, I had vague suspicions with such things as people coming and going from our house at all hours of the day and night, and the women and children being sent out of the room at the end of extended family meals so the men could talk. In many ways, in retrospect it seemed to me we were the cliché of an Italian-American Mob family. Certainly it wasn’t on a scale like you’d see in gangster movies, but modestly similar. We females were expected to be consumed by the affairs of hearth and home and church without any interest or involvement in business whatsoever. To tell you the truth, it was an embarrassment for me, because we kids were treated differently in the neighborhood. I couldn’t wait to get away, and I was smart enough to recognize that the best way was by being a good student.”

“I can relate to that,” Daniel said. The sharpness in his voice mellowed as well. “My father was also into all sorts of businesses, some of which were close to being scams. The problem was that they were all failures, meaning he and subsequently my siblings and I became the butt of jokes in the town of Revere, particularly at school, at least those of us who were not part of the ‘in’ crowd, which I surely wasn’t. My father’s nickname was ‘Loser Lowell,’ and unfortunately the epithet had a tendency to trickle down.”

“For me, it was the opposite,” Stephanie said. “We were treated to a kind of deference, which wasn’t pleasant. You know how teenagers like to blend in. Well, it wasn’t possible for me, and I didn’t even know why. I hated it.”

“How come you’ve never told me about any of this?”

“How come you’ve never told me about your family other than the fact that you have eight siblings, none of whom, I might add, I have met? I at least asked you about your family on several occasions.”

“That’s a good point,” Daniel said vaguely. His eyes drifted outside, where a few lonely snowflakes could be seen dancing on the wind gusts. He knew the real answer to Stephanie’s question was that he’d never cared about her family any more than he cared about his own. He cleared his throat and turned back to Stephanie. “Maybe we haven’t talked about our families because we were both embarrassed about our childhoods. Or maybe it’s been a combination of that and our preoccupation with science and founding the company.”

“Perhaps,” Stephanie said without a lot of conviction. She stared out through the front windshield. “It is true that academics have always been my escape. Of course my father never approved, but that only increased my resolve. Hell, he didn’t think I should go college. He thought it was a waste of time and money, saying I was just going to get married and have kids like it was fifty years ago.”

“My father was literally embarrassed that I was good at science. He told everyone that it had to have come from my mother’s side, like it was a genetic disease.”

“What about your brothers and sisters? Was it the same for them?”

“To some degree, because my father was a small enough person to blame his failings on us. You know, sapping the capital he needed to really get started in whatever was the current bright business idea. But my brothers, who were good at sports, fared a bit better, at least back when they were in school, because my father was a sports nut. But getting back to your brother, Tony. Whose idea was it that he invest in CURE, yours or his?” Daniel’s voice regained some of its earlier brusqueness.

“Is this going to become an argument again?”

“Just answer the question!”

“What difference does it make?”

“It was a monumental error in judgment to allow a possible-or probable, as the case may be-mobster to invest in our company.”

“It was a combination of both of us,” Stephanie said. “In contrast with my father, he’s been interested in what I’ve been doing lately, and I’d told him biotechnology was a good place to put some of his money from the restaurants.”

“Wonderful!” Daniel exclaimed sarcastically. “I hope you realize that investors in general don’t like losing money, despite having been adequately warned of the risks in start-up companies. My guess would be that such an attitude would be an understatement for a mobster. Have you ever heard of such inconveniences as smashed patellae?”

“He’s my brother, for Christ’s sake! There’s not going to be any kneecap smashing.”

“Yeah, but I’m not his brother.”

“It’s insulting to even suggest such a thing,” Stephanie snapped. She turned her head to look out her window. Generally she had a reservoir of patience to put up with Daniel’s sarcasm, ego, and antisocial negativity, thanks to the awe she felt about his scientific brilliance, but at the moment and given the morning’s events, it was wearing thin.

“Under the circumstances, I don’t have a lot of interest in hanging around Washington for another night,” Daniel said. “I think we should get our things together, check out, and get on the next shuttle back to Boston.”

“Fine by me,” Stephanie clipped.

Stephanie got out her side of the taxi as Daniel paid the fare. She headed directly into the hotel lobby, only vaguely aware that he was close behind her. She was upset enough to wonder what she’d do when they got back to Boston. In her current state of mind, the idea of returning to Daniel’s Cambridge apartment where she’d been living was not appealing. Daniel’s suggestion that her family was low enough to be capable of physical violence was galling. She wasn’t sure if anyone in her family was involved in loan-sharking or other questionable activities, but she was darn sure no one ever got hurt.