Sweet Fortune

dies down.”
    “Mrs. V, are you firing me?”
    Mrs. Valentine sighed again. “I'm afraid so, dear. Don't worry, I shall be happy to give you a good reference.”
    The telephone on the rolltop desk started to ring.

    Hatch paused briefly at Grace's desk before going on into Vincent Benedict's office. “Hold all his calls until I come out, will you, Grace? No interruptions.”
    “Yes, Mr. Hatchard.” Grace smiled. “By the way, I saw the full story of your adventure with Jessie in the morning papers. It sounds as if it was all terribly exciting.”
    “That's one way of describing it.” Hatch went on past the desk and into the inner sanctum.
    Benedict looked up, frowning in disapproval at the unannounced visit. “I'm in the middle of something, Hatch. Is this important?”
    “Very.” Hatch put down the file he had brought with him and went over to the coffeepot to pour himself a cup. He carried the coffee back across the room and leaned against the edge of Vincent's massive desk. “Seen the morning papers?”
    “Goddamn right, I saw the morning papers.” Vincent tossed down his pen and leaned back in his chair. “When you told me what had happened up there in the San Juans, you left out a few minor details, didn't you?”
    Hatch shrugged. “A few.”
    “I'm damn glad that nonsense is over.”
    “So am I.”
    Vincent paused and slanted Hatch a speculative glance. “David really clobber that guy?”
    “Knocked him cold with a karate punch. Saved the day. We probably wouldn't have gotten out of that mess alive without him.”
    “I'll be damned.” Vincent nodded, quietly pleased. “Maybe he'll be okay. Maybe he's going to turn out different than Lloyd, after all.”
    “Maybe it's time you gave him credit for being his own man.”
    “Yeah. Maybe.” Vincent picked up his pen. “Like I said, I'm glad the whole thing is finished. But I'm holding you personally responsible to see to it that Jessie doesn't get herself into any more scrapes like that one.”
    “I'll do my best.”
    Vincent eyed him. “Speaking of Jessie, you two set a date yet?”
    “No. But we're going to make the formal announcement of our engagement on Friday evening. Jessie said she was going to book a table at her favorite restaurant, the one down in the Market. Everyone in the family is invited. Even you.”
    Vincent grinned. “Reckon I can make that.” He pulled his calendar across the desk and jotted a note on Friday's date. Then he leaned back in his chair again. “You in here to talk business or just pass the time of day?”
    “Business.” Hatch sipped coffee meditatively. “There are a few things that need to be cleared up before Friday.”
    “You're talking about buying into Benedict Fasteners, aren't you? Don't blame you for wanting to get the deal done. You've waited long enough.”
    “It's a little more complicated than my share of the deal, Vincent. There are a few other people involved.”
    Vincent scowled. “What the hell are you talking about now?”
    “I'll lay it out in plain, simple terms. We can go over the details later. I want you to agree to divide the company into four equal parts, Benedict. One-fourth goes to David, one-fourth to Elizabeth, and one-fourth to Jessie. I'll buy the last quarter and I'll run the business.”
    Vincent's mouth dropped open. For an instant he was obviously speechless. When his voice returned, it came out in a full-throated roar. “ Are you out of your head ? Break up Benedict Fasteners? After all the sweat I've put into this company?”
    “I'm not talking about breaking it up. I'm talking about keeping it in the family, just like you've always intended. But this way all the involved parties own a piece of it. That gives them a vested interest.”
    Vincent slammed his fist down on a stack of papers. “None of them knows a goddamn thing about running a company like Benedict Fasteners.”
    “That's what you've got me on board for, remember?”
    “Jesus, man, you don't know what you're saying. Give David a chunk of this company and there's no telling what kind of trouble he'll start. He's always blamed me for Lloyd running off. And the boy has no common sense. He's going to study philosophy, for crying out loud. The kid's a flaming liberal with radical notions about the environment and things like that. He'd make all kinds of trouble for me if he owned a quarter of the business.”
    “I can handle David.” Hatch took another swallow of coffee. He was fully prepared