Читать книгу The Iceman - Jeff Edwards - Страница 11

Jim Sutton

T

he untidy old man in his well-worn and much creased suit stepped onto the board. He took up the white knight and walked between the uninterrupted rank of pawns before depositing his load on the selected square.

Opposite him, his equally ill-dressed opponent moved his black queen’s pawn one space forward, thereby opening up a gap in his row of pawns for his rook to break out onto the centre.

Many storeys above them, the chessboard in the park opposite seemed almost normal size and even from this height I could recognise the opponents. Both had at one time been Middle European refugees and I had played them both several times. They were a pair of old warhorses and although I had managed to beat them both, the margins of wins over losses were very much in their favour. These were a pair of men who had played chess all their lives and the game had become second nature to them while I had come to the game only in adulthood. Matty had taught me.

The thought of her brought a lump to my throat and I tried desperately to concentrate on the game below. I needed to clear my mind of everything else, but I knew that it was useless.

My Matty! My Matty had cancer!

The call from the doctor had come through only minutes before. He had confidently assured me that there was still hope of a full recovery. There was always hope, he insisted, and treatment would be started immediately. I accepted his reassurances but couldn’t bring myself to fully trust him. After all, I had placed my wife in his care for a simple broken leg. It wasn’t supposed to have come to this!

It was all my fault of course. Matty had been at me for weeks to bring that box down from the attic. The announcement that our daughter was pregnant with our first grandchild had sent her on a mission to recover the past. ‘I want Allison’s baby photos down from the attic so that I can compare them with the baby when it arrives.’

‘Why?’ I asked. ‘It’s not as though it can’t be Allison’s. She’s the one carrying the child.’

Matty had stood looking at me, legs apart, hands on hips, the very picture of tried patience. ‘Don’t try that foolish logic with me, Jim. Humour me and get the box down from the attic.’

‘Sure, love. I’ll do it as soon as I get back from my meeting.’

I hadn’t done it, of course, and had also forgotten to do it the second time she asked.

I was working in the garage when she appeared in the doorway and I could tell immediately what she was about to say, but she simply looked at me as I continued to plane away at the piece of timber resting in the vice and shook her head.

I placed the plane down. I knew instantly that I was in trouble and went to follow her, but she called out to me as she turned to leave. ‘Don’t bother, Jim. Continue with what you’re doing. It looks important.’

As every husband knows when you’re in this sort of situation, attempting to remedy the matter by insisting on doing the right thing is the very worst thing to try to do. Matty was determined to play the martyr and nothing I could do or say at this time would help the situation. At moments like this you let your woman do what she is determined to do and wait till later to make amends.

Sheepishly I returned to my task, wondering what I would have to do to atone for my shortcomings.

I had decided to take her out to a restaurant for dinner that evening and was feeling better about the situation when I heard Matty give a startled yell followed by the loud crash of a falling box and the dreadful sound of a body tumbling down the stairs.

Rushing into the hallway I found Matty spread-eagled on the floor with a large cardboard box split open beside her and its contents scattered everywhere.

My stomach dropped as I raced to Matty’s side. She groaned and attempted to sit up, emitting a piercing scream as she did so, before grabbing at her left leg.

‘Lie still!’ I ordered, kneeling by her side and trying to find where her leg was injured.

She yelled again at my touch. ‘Get your clumsy hands off me and call an ambulance.’

‘Are you all right?’ I asked stupidly.

‘No! I think it’s broken. Now go and call!’

Giddy with fear, I did as she directed and ten minutes later there was the sound of sirens outside. I rushed to the door to let them in.

The ambulance medics were efficiently friendly and we were soon on our way to the hospital with me in the back holding Matty’s hand and trying desperately to think of something to say that would make things right.

Matty simply gripped my hand harder and smiled at me through her pain. I knew she had forgiven me but couldn’t find that same measure of solace for myself.

After a flotilla of tests and X-rays Matty’s leg was plastered and she was installed in a private room with picturesque views over the hospital’s parking lot.

‘We’ll have you up and running around in no time at all, Mrs Sutton.’ Our doctor smiled reassuringly at Matty. ‘We can’t have one of our hospital’s best fundraisers cooped up in here when she can be out searching for more sponsors, now, can we?’

Matty had been on the hospital’s fundraising committee for years and one of her favourite pastimes was to use my position as the Chairman of Transglobal Developments Inc. to induce our clients to donate to one of Matty’s many charities. She had been doing this ever since our old company had merged with Transglobal which had put Matty out of a job. She had accepted the redundancy with glee, knowing she had more worthwhile things to do than to spend her life in front of a computer paying bills and trying to placate unhappy clients.

I had begun life as a simple carpenter, but when my parents had died young I invested their meagre inheritance in creating my own small house-building company. More by good luck than good management and very much to my surprise, the company was able to ride the wave of a boom in the building market to become relatively large and successful; however, I was still a person who preferred to be on hand at the building sites doing the manual work and totally useless when it came to the more mundane tasks of paying the bills and keeping the tax office happy. Desperately in need of help, I had advertised for a girl Friday and when Matty stepped foot into my cluttered yard for the first time, I had fallan completely and hopelessly in love.

She was a natural for the business and it was as much through her efforts in the office as much as my workmanship that allowed the business to blossom. I soon had an office staff of ten and several work gangs erecting new or refurbishing old houses all over the city.

Even after Allison was born, Matty continued to work in the office and our business continued to thrive.

Eventually, we reached a stage when we came into conflict with Transglobal Developments Inc. by vying for the same contracts as that much larger firm.

One day Matty came to my office with a worried look on her face. ‘I’ve been going over the last couple of contracts that we lost out on,’ she began. ‘Transglobal is deliberately undercutting us. They’re trying to run us out of business.’

‘How do we fight back?’ I asked, ‘They’re a lot bigger than us.’

‘We act smart. We don’t fight a fight that we can’t win.’

I could see that she had a plan and settled back to listen.

Months later, I sat down at the board table of Transglobal for the first time. Matty’s plan had been a win/win proposal.

I approached Transglobal’s executives and asked why they needed to waste their time and money driving me out of business when a merger would cost them nothing more than a seat for me on their board.

The simple reasoning and the mathematics of combining the companies soon won them over and after being on the board for ten years I was elected the company’s chairman.

I had Matty to thank for much of my success in those years. Her behind-the-scenes support and understanding of market trends in the industry were invaluable.

Now she was in danger and I had to stand by while others held her life in their hands; however, I had decided that I was going to do whatever I possibly could and that meant making wholesale changes in my life.

Below me the old men were jockeying their pieces, attempting to create a weakness in their opponent’s defences that they could use to take advantage of. I, on the other hand, had developed a far simpler plan.

My personal assistant, Roma Blair, entered. ‘Mr Schubert and Mr Strong are here,’ she announced.

‘Send them in,’ I said, turning away from the window and the game of chess below.

Other than myself, Ben Schubert and Robert Strong were the most senior members of Transglobal’s board and we had formed a strong working relationship over the years. Mutual respect and friendship were key reasons for Transglobal’s continued success and Ben and Robert arrived in my office as friends as well as working companions.

‘You’d better stay as well,’ I said to Roma.

‘Do you want me to take notes?’ she asked.

‘That won’t be necessary.’ I looked over at my friends and could see that they had detected the unease in my voice.

‘What the matter?’ asked Ben Schubert.

‘Matty has cancer.’

‘Shit!’ he gasped. ‘Bad?’

I nodded. ‘It’s in her liver. They’re starting treatment immediately.’

The three shocked faces before me remained silent.

‘I’m going to spend my time at her side,’ I continued. ‘She’s going to need me.’

‘Of course. What can we do to help?’ said Robert Strong.

I handed Robert a folded paper from my coat pocket. ‘That’s my resignation as chairman of the board. I’d still like to keep my seat as director, but I don’t think I’ll be taking an active role in the company for some time.’

Robert accepted the document. ‘I don’t think the board will have any trouble accepting your conditions. I hope you’ll be back with us quickly and that Matty makes a full recovery.’

I accepted his words with a nod. ‘Ben, I think you should take over as chairman, and I’ll be making that recommendation to the board,’ I continued.

‘I’d be proud to.’

‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘Roma will stay on to assist you and I’ll be only a phone call away if you need me.’

‘I hate that it’s happening to Matty. She doesn’t deserve something like this,’ said Ben.

‘I know. That’s why I have to do this for her. Now go back to your offices and get yourselves sorted out. You have an important meeting with the group from Dubai tomorrow morning. Their development is almost ready to go to tender and I’d hate for us to miss out.’

‘We’ll make sure Transglobal wraps it up. Don’t you worry about that,’ said Ben reassuringly as he left the office. ‘We’ll do it for Matty.’

Left alone with Roma I saw the trickle of a tear roll down her cheek. I took her in my arms and comforted her. ‘Matty’ll be fine. We have the best doctors available looking after her.’

‘I know, but it’s so very unfair. Matty never hurt anyone. She doesn’t deserve this.’

That was exactly what I had been thinking. ‘I have something for you,’ I said. ‘Something to show my appreciation for all your help over the years.’ I took an envelope from my pocket. ‘I bought it for Matty. It was supposed to be a surprise for when her plaster came off.’

Roma looked inside the envelope and found a pair of return tickets to New York. ‘I can’t accept this!’

‘Of course you can. You’ve earned it. Matty and I will be able to go when she’s better. Now I’ve got to go to her. She needs me.’