Bitter Business

straps of Scarlet’s girth. “He thinks that because when he says ‘jump’ the factory workers all answer ‘how high?’ that he can order everyone else around as well. It’s sickening how they’re all always assuming----And it’s not just Eugene. Take Philip. It’s true that he’s going to be the boss after Jack’s dead, but the greedy little bastard just can’t wait.”
    I reached up and pulled the saddle off my horse’s back with a grunt, staggering a little under the sudden weight.
    “It goes in the tack room, over there. You’ll see the spot,” Peaches instructed, clipping a lead line to the horse’s halter and leading it toward the paddock behind the barn. I lugged the saddle into the dusty tack room and followed her outside, blinking in the sunlight.
    Lydia’s son, Peter, was standing with one Doc Martened foot on the split-rail fence, chewing on a piece of hay.
    “I was wondering if you could give me a lift back to my mom’s house?” he asked. “I was going to go with Tom and J.T., but Uncle Eugene’s sending them back to the bam to get some sand and they can’t take me until they’re done.”
    “That shouldn’t be a problem,” Peaches replied. “What have you been up to?”
    “Actually, I’ve been trying to avoid my mother. We all have. When Uncle Eugene asked me to help out with the new puppies, I jumped at the chance. But I have to get back and get cleaned up for dinner. Mom’s invited Nursey, so we all have to be on our best behavior and pass inspection.”
    “Nursey’s the old housekeeper who came to work for Jack after Eleanor died,” Peaches explained. “Her husband, Lucas, was killed in a fire and so she agreed to come up to Chicago and help Jack with the children. She lived with the family until Lydia went away to college. Now that she’s retired she lives down here with her sister.”
    “My mom always says that Nursey’s her real mother. Don’t you think that’s a weird thing to say?” Peter inquired, kicking the dirt.
    “I’m sure she means it as a compliment,” Peaches replied firmly. “Her real name is Henrietta Roosevelt, but everyone calls her Nursey, even Jack. She really is a part of the family, especially for your mother. She must be eighty if she’s a day—and half-gaga, but still, terribly sweet.”
    “More like terribly gaga and half-sweet,” grumbled Peter, sticking his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and heading toward the car.
     
    It was obvious that Jack Cavanaugh had already put away a fair amount of bourbon before dinner. It wasn’t that he was acting drunk, but he had the slow, measured speech of a man who’s taking pains to appear sober.
    “You know what I’m going to miss most about Daniel Babbage?” he asked, pouring himself another drink. Peaches had turned in early with a headache. Someone had made us a couple of bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches for our dinner. Jack’s sat on his plate, untouched.
    “What?” I asked, putting my hand over the top of my glass, indicating that I was still fine.
    “Babbage understands guys like me. Now, I’m sure that you’re one hell of a lawyer—Daniel’d never have asked me to hire you if you weren’t. And I know that you’re going to make sure that all my is are dotted and my is are crossed. But from what everyone tells me about your background, it sounds like you’ve been handed every single goddamn thing in your whole life. Am I right?”
    I had learned from experience that there’s no answer to that question, so I said nothing.
    “Nobody ever handed me anything,” he continued. “I was seventeen when my father died. He was killed in a bar fight in an argument over a woman. Not many people know that. He left me a factory that was practically falling down, half a dozen other pieces of property that he owed back taxes on, and about two thousand dollars in bar debts—which in those days was considered a fortune. From that I built one of the biggest plating operations in the country. I have two hundred employees, a house in Chicago and this one down here and a plane that gets me between the two of them. You want to know how I did it?”
    “Yes,” I said. I really did want to know.
    “I told my customers any lie that would get me their business and then I did whatever it took to make good on my promise. We didn’t have OSHA back then, or the damned EPA. We dumped our waste chemicals at night and had an accounting system that would have done credit to a call