Джеффри Арчер - The Prodigal Daughter

The Richmond News-Leader came out with a story that all the national papers picked up immediately. A local journalist covering the biggest scoop of his life suggested that Florentyna’s speech was outstanding because it had been written by one of Senator Kane’s most trusted staff members, Allen Clarence, who was an ex-convict himself, having been given a six-month jail sentence with a year’s probation before going to work for Florentyna. Few of the papers pointed out that the offense had been drunken driving without a license and that Clarence had been released on appeal after three months. When questioned by the press on what she intended to do about Clarence, she said, ‘Nothing.’

Edward told her that she must fire him immediately, however unfair it might seem, because those sections of the press who were against her — not to mention Pete Parkin — were having a field day repeating that one of her most trusted staff members was an ex-con. ‘Can you imagine who will be running the jails in this country if that woman is elected?’ became Parkin’s hourly off-the-cuff remark. Eventually, Allen Clarence voluntarily resigned, but by then the damage had been done. By the time the two candidates reached California, Pete Parkin had increased his lead, with 991 delegates to Florentyna’s 883.

When Florentyna arrived in San Francisco, Bella was there to meet her at the airport. She might have put on thirty years, but she still hadn’t lost any pounds. By her side stood Claude, one enormous son and one skinny daughter. Bella ran toward Florentyna the moment she saw her, only to be blocked by burly Secret Service agents. She was rescued by a hug from the candidate. ‘I’ve never seen anything like her,’ said one of the Secret Service men. ‘She could kickstart a Jumbo.’ Hundreds of people stood at the perimeter of the tarmac chanting ‘President Kane’ and Florentyna, accompanied by Bella, walked straight over to them. Hands flew in Florentyna’s direction, a reaction that never failed to lift her spirits. The placards read ‘California for Kane’ and for the first time the majority of the crowd was made up of men. When she turned to leave them and go into the terminal she saw scrawled all over the side of a wall in red, ‘Do you want a Polack bitch for President?’ and underneath, in white, ‘Yes.’

Bella, now the headmistress of one of the largest schools in California, had also, after Florentyna had won a seat in the Senate, become the city’s Democratic committee chairwoman.

‘I always knew you would run for President, so I thought I had better make certain of San Francisco.’

Bella did make certain, with her 1,000 so-called volunteers banging on every door. California’s split personality — conservative in the south, liberal in the north — made it difficult to be the kind of centrist candidate Florentyna wanted to be. But her efficiency, compassion and intelligence converted even some of the most hardened Marin County left-wingers and Orange County Birchers. San Francisco’s turnout was second only to Chicago’s. Florentyna wished she had fifty-one Bellas because the vote in San Francisco was enough to give her 69 percent of the state. It had been Bella who had made it possible for Florentyna to look forward to arriving in Detroit for the convention with 128 more delegates than Parkin.

Over a celebration dinner, Bella warned Florentyna that the biggest problem she was facing was not ‘I’ll never vote for a woman’ but ‘She has too much money.’

‘Not that old chestnut. I can’t do any more about that,’ said Florentyna. ‘I’ve already put my own Baron stock into the foundation.’

‘That’s the point — no one knows what the foundation does. I realize it helps children in some way, but how many children, and how much money is involved?’

‘The trust last year spent over three million dollars on three thousand one hundred and twelve immigrants from underprivileged backgrounds. Added to that, four hundred and two gifted children won Remagen scholarships to American universities and one went on to be the foundation’s first Rhodes Scholar and will soon be on his way to Oxford.’

‘I wasn’t aware of that,’ said Bella, ‘but I’m continually reminded that Pete Parkin built a feeble little library for the University of Texas at Austin. And he’s made sure the building is as well known as the Widener Library at Harvard.’

‘So what do you feel Florentyna should be doing?’ asked Edward.

‘Why don’t you let Professor Ferpozzi hold his own press conference? He’s a man the public will take notice of. After that everyone will know that Florentyna Kane cares about other people and spends her own money on them to prove it.’

The next day, Edward worked on placing articles in selected publications and organized a press conference. They resulted in a small piece in most journals and newspapers, but People magazine did a cover picture of Florentyna with Albert Schmidt, the Remagen Rhodes Scholar. When it was discovered that Albert was a German immigrant whose grandparents had fled from Europe after escaping from a prisoner-of-war camp, David Hartman interviewed Albert the next day on ‘Good Morning, America.’ After that he seemed to be getting more publicity than Florentyna.

On her way back to Washington that weekend, Florentyna heard that the governor of Colorado, whom she had never particularly considered a friend or political ally, had endorsed her without advance warning at a solar-energy symposium in Boulder. Her approach to industry and conservation, he told the convention, offered the resource-rich western states their best hope for the future.

That day ended on an even brighter note when Reuters tapped out the news right across America that the Welfare Department had delivered its first major report since the implementation of the Kane Act. For the first time since Florentyna’s overhaul of the social service system, the welfare recipients leaving the register in a given year had surpassed the number of new applicants coming on.

Florentyna’s financial backing was always a problem as even the most ardent supporters assumed she could foot her own campaign bills. Parkin, with the backing of the oil tycoons led by Marvin Snyder of Blade Oil, had never had to face the same problem. But during the next few days campaign contributions flowed into Florentyna’s office, along with telegrams of support and good wishes.

Influential journalists in London, Paris, Bonn and Tokyo began to tell their readers that if America wanted a President of international status and credibility there was no contest between Florentyna Kane and the cattle farmer from Texas.

Florentyna was delighted whenever she read these articles, but Edward reminded her that neither the readers nor the writers could pull any levers on any voting machines in America, although he felt for the first time they now had Parkin on the run. He was also quick to point out that there were still 412 of the 3,331 delegates who after the primaries and caucuses remained undecided. The political pundits estimated that 200 of them were leaning toward the Vice President while about a hundred would come out in favor of Florentyna. It looked as if it was going to be the closest convention roll call since Reagan ran against Ford.

After California, Florentyna returned to Washington with another suitcase full of dirty clothes. She knew she would have to cajole, coax and arm-twist those 412 undecided delegates. During the next four weeks she spoke personally to 388 of them, some of them three or four times. It was always the women she found the least helpful, although it was obvious they were all enjoying the attention that was being showered on them, especially because in a month’s time no one would ever phone them again.