Nadia Nichols - Everything To Prove

“Whatever will they do with such a beautiful guest in their midst? It’s too bad you don’t fish,” Karen said. “I’ll introduce you to Joe after supper. He seems to think he can wrangle you an interview with that old hermit, Daniel Frey.”

Conversation during dinner began like spurts of machine-gun fire then rapidly progressed to a nonstop barrage as her fellow dinner guests sought to outboast one another to gain her attentions. Bottles of wine circulated around the table, fueling the frenzy. Each had a story to tell, an important story about themselves. Libby concentrated as best she could, nodding and smiling her appreciation of their intelligence and importance, but she was relieved when the meal was over. She helped Karen clear the table and would have plunged into the task of washing the dishes except that her hostess led her outside onto the porch.

“Joe?” she said as a lean, wiry gray-haired man with a deeply lined and weather-beaten face pushed off the railing. “This is Libby Wilson. She’s staying with us for a few days. Libby, meet Joe Boone. He’s been guiding since he was seventeen years old.”

Joe shook her hand. “Karen tells me you want to talk to Dan Frey. Dan and I go way back. He’s a crotchety old coot, no doubt about that, but I bet I could soften him up for you.”

“That would be great. I’d so appreciate any time at all he could give me. I’m writing an article about Ben Libby and all the philanthropic things he did with his money over the years before he died. I was hoping Mr. Frey could cast a more personal light on the man, having known him for so long. I’m sure you could, too.”

“Oh, no doubt. You busy right now? I could run you over in my boat. This is a good time to catch him. He likes to sit on the porch with his whiskey and cigars. I’ll hook the two of you up, and come pick you up in a hour or so. We can talk then, if you like.”

Libby could hardly believe her luck. “I’ll just grab my notebook and meet you down on the dock,” she said.

SURE ENOUGH, AS THEY approached the opposite shore Libby could see Daniel Frey on the vast covered porch that fronted the log mansion and faced the lake. He watched their approach without moving, sitting in a recliner with a side table at each hand. Libby stayed on the dock while Joe Boone climbed the steps onto the porch. After a few minutes he turned and motioned for her to come up. She drew a steadying breath and climbed the porch steps as Frey rose to his feet.

“Hello,” he said, extending his hand. “I’m Daniel Frey.”

All of her life she’d wondered what this moment would be like. She looked at Frey and was amazed that lightning didn’t streak across the wronged heavens. She marveled that the evening could remain so calm in the midst of the emotional tempest that raged within her. She smiled and shook the hand of the man who had robbed her of her identity and may have had something to do with her father’s plane crash. “Libby Wilson. Thank you for seeing me, sir.”

Frey was even more imposing in real life than he’d been depicted in the pages of Forbes magazine. He was a tall, vigorous and handsome eighty-two-year-old man, with the hawklike eyes of a predator. His hair was thick and pure white, brushed back from the weathered, tanned brow. “Please, have a seat,” he invited. It was obvious her name meant nothing to him. “Joe, will you have a glass of whiskey with me?”

“Thanks, but no. Have to guide a couple sports for the evening hatch. I’ll return for Ms. Wilson in about an hour or so, if that’s all right, or if I can’t make it I’ll send another guide along.”

Joe Boone returned to his boat and motored back across the lake. Libby perched on the edge of the matching leather recliner and waited while Frey tried to light his cigar. At length an acrid stench flavored the air and he grunted with satisfaction. “I don’t like people very much,” he said, refilling his shot glass. “Normally I wouldn’t talk to you, but Joe said you wanted to discuss Ben Libby.”

“Yes, sir. I’m writing a story about him. I won a scholarship from the Libby Foundation and that helped pay for my education.”

“LUANNE!”

Frey bellowed so suddenly that Libby jumped in her seat. She heard a little scurrying sound and the screen door of the log mansion opened to reveal a very timid-looking young woman, maybe eighteen or twenty, pretty, dressed in a maid’s uniform that harkened back to the 1950s.

“Yes, Mr. Frey,” she said, advancing with her eyes on the floor.

“We have company. Perhaps you could offer Ms. Wilson something to eat or drink. That’s what I’m paying you for, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Mr. Frey.” The girl glanced questioningly at Libby. “Miss?”

“I’m fine, thank you, Luanne. I just had a wonderful meal at the lodge across the lake.” Libby watched as Luanne rushed back inside. “She must be from one of the native villages?”

“Athapaskan,” Frey said. “They’re all I can get out here. Now, what do you want to know about Ben Libby?”

Libby poised her pen over the notebook. “Everything, I guess. I mean, I already know a lot about how he made his fortune. What I really want to know is what kind of man he was. What he was like. Did he have a sense of humor? Did he like animals? You know. Human interest stuff like that.”

“Sense of humor?” Frey clearly thought this was an odd question.

“Well, maybe you could start by telling me how you met him. How you became partners.”

“We were officers in the navy and we served on the same sub.”

“Wow. I mean, I just can’t imagine being in a submarine under all that water. So, what did the two of you do on the sub?”

“We played cards. Poker. Endless games of poker.” Frey took a sip of his whiskey. “Ben always won. He won at everything. When the torpedo hit, that was the only time I thought he might lose.”

“You were playing poker when a torpedo hit the sub?”

“It flooded the forward compartment. There were two men trapped inside. We could hear them shouting, screaming for help. Everyone else evacuated because our compartment was starting to flood, too, but Ben stuffed his cards inside his shirt and went to rescue the trapped men. He couldn’t do it alone, so I helped him.”

“That was courageous of you.”

“On the contrary, it was quite stupid. Our rescue attempt could have lost the sub. But we were lucky. We got the two trapped men out and managed to seal off the compartment behind us. Afterward Ben showed me his cards. He had a full house. He said that was why he knew he’d make a successful rescue.” Frey barked a humorless laugh. “He was a brave son of a bitch. Smart, too. We survived the war and when we were discharged he asked me if I wanted to go in on a business venture. He told me he’d found some weird patents he wanted to back. He thought they’d be big moneymakers. I had some money saved up so I said, sure, then went home to Maine. Ben took my little wad of savings and in less than two years he’d made me a millionaire.”

“He must have been a genius.”

“He was. I quit my job as a shift supervisor at the paper mill in Rumford, bought a better truck and went to work at a furniture factory making chairs. I’d always wanted to learn how to make furniture. A year later I was discovering that making it wasn’t nearly as much fun as I thought it would be when Ben calls out of the blue and asks if I want to go on a fishing trip to Alaska.

“I said sure, and this is where we came. He’d been studying maps of Alaska for years but had never been here. We were flown in with all our gear and camped in a tent on this very beach. We fished and explored the country. At the end of the week Ben said he didn’t want to leave, and neither did I. When the plane came to pick us up he told the pilot we’d be staying another week. Then he asked me if I wanted to go in on a fishing camp in this very spot.”