Robin Cook - Seizure

Stephanie heard the rustle of the newspaper as it was thrown aside, a slapping of hands that she could picture as a handshake, and an exchange of “How’s it going? Great! How’s it going for you? Great.” When the conversation switched to sports talk involving the various Boston professional teams, Stephanie tuned them out.

“I’ve got to be going, Mom,” Stephanie said.

“Why don’t you stay? I can have the dinner on the table in no time.”

“I can’t, Mom.”

“Dad and Tony will miss you!”

“Oh, yeah, sure!” Stephanie said.

“They love you in their own way.”

“I’m certain they do,” Stephanie said with a smile. The irony was, she believed it. Stephanie reached across and squeezed Thea’s wrist. It felt fragile, as though if she pressed too hard, the bones might break. Stephanie pushed back her chair and stood up. Thea did likewise, and they hugged.

“I’ll call from the Bahamas as soon as I get situated and give you the details about where we’re staying and the number,” Stephanie said. She gave her mother a peck on her cheek before sticking her head back into the living room. The cigarette haze was denser with both men smoking. “Goodbye, you two. I’m on my way.”

Tony looked up. “What’s this? You’re taking off already?”

“She’s going on a trip for a month,” Thea said over Stephanie’s shoulder. “She has to get ready.”

“No!” Tony said. “You can’t go. Not yet! I got to talk with you. I was going to call you, but since you’re here, face-to-face is better.”

“Then you’d better come in here on the double,” Stephanie said. “I really have to be on my way.”

“You’ll wait until we’re finished,” Anthony said. “Tony and I are talking business.”

“It’s okay, Pop,” Tony said. He gave his father’s knee a squeeze as he stood up. “What I have to say to Steph won’t take long.”

Anthony grumbled as he reached for his discarded newspaper.

Tony walked back into the kitchen. He sat down backward on one of the kitchen chairs and motioned for Stephanie to sit in one of the others. Stephanie hesitated for a moment. Tony had become increasingly peremptory since he’d assumed more of his father’s roles, and it was irksome. To avoid making it an issue, Stephanie sat, but as a compromise with herself, she told her brother he’d better be quick. She also told him to put out his cigarette, which he did grudgingly.

“The reason I was going to call you,” Tony began, “is because Mikey Gualario, my accountant, told me that CURE is about to tank. I said that’s impossible, because my kid sister would have told me. But he says he read it in the Globe. What’s the scoop?”

“We’re having financial difficulties,” Stephanie admitted. “It’s a political problem that is holding up our second round of financing.”

“So the Globe wasn’t making this all up?”

“I didn’t read the article, but as I said, we are in rather a bind.”

Tony screwed up his face as if in thought. He nodded a few times. “Well, that’s not such great news. I guess you can understand that I might be concerned about my two-hundred-thousand-dollar loan.”

“Correction! It wasn’t a loan. It was an investment.”

“Wait a minute! You came to me crying that you needed money.”

“Correction again! I said we needed to raise money, and I certainly wasn’t crying.”

“Yeah, well, you said it was a sure thing.”

“I said I thought it was a good investment, because it was based on a brilliant and fully patented, newly discovered procedure that promises to be a boon to medicine. But I said it wasn’t risk-free, and I gave you the prospectus. Did you read it?”

“No, I didn’t read it. I don’t understand that kind of crap. But if the investment was so good, what’s the problem?”

“What’s happened that no one anticipated is the possibility of a congressional ban being enacted on the procedure. But I can assure you we’re working on it, and we think we have it under control. The whole thing has been a bolt out of the blue for all of us, and proof of that is that both Daniel and I have invested every penny we have in the company, including mortgaging Daniel’s condo. I’m sorry that at the moment the investment looks less than rock-solid. I might add, I’m sorry we took your money.”

“You and me both!”

“What’s going to happen about this indictment of yours?”

Tony batted the air as if shooing a fly. “Nothing. It’s a bunch of nonsense. The DA is just trying to drum up publicity to get reelected. But let’s not change the subject. You said you think you have this political problem under control.”

“We believe so.”

“Does this have anything to do with this monthlong trip your going on?”

“It does,” Stephanie said. “But I can’t give you the details.”

“Oh, really?” Tony questioned sarcastically. “I got two hundred K involved here, and you can’t give me the details. There’s something wrong with this picture.”

“If I were to divulge what we’re doing, it would jeopardize its efficacy.”

“Divulge, jeopardize, efficacy!” Tony mimicked derogatorily. “Give me a break! I hope you don’t think I’m going to be satisfied with a handful of ten-dollar words. Not a chance! So where are you going, Washington?”

“She’s going to Nassau,” Thea said suddenly from where she was standing near the stove. “And don’t you be nasty to your own sister. You hear me?”

Tony sat bolt upright with his hands dangling lifelessly at his sides. His lower jaw slowly dropped open in utter amazement. “Nassau!” he yelled. “This is getting crazier and crazier. If CURE’s ready to tank because of a political bombshell, don’t you think you should hang around and do something?”

“That’s why we’re going to Nassau,” Stephanie said.

“Ha!” Tony shouted. “What it sounds like to me is this so-called boyfriend of yours has it in his mind to pull off a scam.”

“That couldn’t be further from the truth. Tony, I wish I could tell you more, but I can’t. Hopefully, in a month things will be back on track, and at that time we’ll be happy to consider your money a loan, and we will pay it back with interest.”

“I’ll try to remember not to hold my breath.” Tony sneered. “You say you can’t tell me more, but I can tell you something. That two hundred grand wasn’t all mine.”

“No?” Stephanie questioned. She sensed the unpleasant conversation was about to get worse.

“You painted it as such a sweet deal, I felt I had to share it. Half the money came from the Castigliano brothers.”

“You never told me that!”

“I’m telling you now.”

“Who are the Castigliano brothers?”

“Business partners. And I can tell you something else. They are not going to like hearing about their investment loan going south. They are not accustomed to that. As your brother, I think I should tell you it’s not a good idea to go to the Bahamas.”

“But we have to.”

“You said that, but you’re not telling me why. It forces me to repeat myself: You and your Harvard boyfriend better stay put and mind the store, because it looks like you’re planning on frolicking in the sun with our money while we stooges freeze our asses here in Boston.”

“Tony,” Stephanie said in the calmest, most reassuring tone she could muster. “We’re going to Nassau, and we are going to deal with this unfortunate problem.”

Tony threw his hands up into the air, palms up. “I tried! God knows I tried!”

Thanks to power steering, Tony only needed the index finger of his right hand to turn the steering wheel of his black Cadillac DeVille. With such a balmy evening, he had his window open with his left hand dangling outside, holding his cigarette. The distinctive crunching sound of the car tires on gravel drowned out his radio as he entered the parking area in front of the Castigliano Brothers Plumbing Supply building. It was a gray one-story, flat-roofed cinderblock structure that backed onto mudflats.