Thirteen Diamonds

they’re doing it. I guess Gerald didn't forget why.”
    “That's the rumor,” I said. “But whether he went beyond looking and talking I don't know. Life for most of us at Silver Acres is pretty routine, unlike that of a college campus.”
    “That's all right. Gerald went there to rest and relax. After his wife died, he lost his zest for the academic life. In fact, he turned all his papers over to me so that I could use them in my research. One thing I'm proud of is that I helped to get his most important book reissued—the one that was instrumental in his being awarded the Nobel Prize.”
    “Fiat Money Madness ?”
    “Oh, you are familiar with it?”
    “Well, I can't say I've read it all, but I did skim it and it seems to make sense to me.”
    “Good. Since you are a mathematician, Dr. Morgan—Lillian—I am glad to hear that. It is just as appropriate today as it was when he wrote it, perhaps more so with the launch of the Euro, yet another fiat currency.
    “I remember well when Gerald won the Nobel. He was very excited—we all were. We were excited for him and proud that we knew him. He flew to Stockholm for the presentation and told us about it when he returned. He said they ate dinner in a large building with gold mosaic tiles on the walls. Can you imagine?  I'm afraid I'll never have that pleasure.”
    “If it's any solace, I never did, either. Uh, Benny, you said you had Gerald's papers. Would it be an imposition to ask if I could take a look at them? We have some people with fascinating backgrounds at Silver Acres, but we rarely get to delve into them. I'm interested not only for myself but for other people who knew him.”
    “No problem, except that there are several boxes of them. But there is an empty office near mine and you can spend as much time as you like on them. I have to teach a class this afternoon, but I'll fix you up before I go.”
    “Sandra, you and Winston don't want to hang around and be bored,” I said. “Why don't you go to the beach? I'm sure Winston would love to play in the sand.”
    “There's no doubt about that,” Sandra said, “but he'll also get dirty.”
    “That's what children do. But, fortunately, there's a shower in our room at the motel and a laundromat down the corridor.”
    Benny drove to our rental car. When Sandra and Winston got into the car he said to her, “I said that Gerald liked a pretty face. He must have liked you very much.”
    “I never met the man,” Sandra said, stiffly.
    She thinks that if a woman is beautiful and smart, inside, it shouldn't matter what she looks like outside.
     
                       *    *    *
     
    Two hours later I was still plowing through papers. Since I didn't know what I was looking for I might not know when I found it. However, I did begin to get a picture of Gerald, the professor. That he was well known I could tell by looking at his correspondence from all over the world; it had come by letter, and more recently, by e-mail.
    He had written a number of books. Benny gave me copies but I did no more than look at the dust jackets, dedications and forewords. Gerald had also written a lot of articles and op-ed pieces that had been published in journals and newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal . He had kept copies of most of the letters that he, himself, had written, apparently. And there were a lot of them.
    Then there were the newspaper clippings about him that filled up several scrapbooks. I got tired of reading them after a while. At the bottom of one of the boxes sat a three-ring binder. I opened it up and saw a title page with the words Fiat Money Madness and the subtitle Government Printing Presses and World Financial Chaos.
    This must be an early version of his book. It would be an exciting find for anybody who wrote a biography of Gerald, but not necessarily for me. Still, I was curious to see if any changes had been marked in the text. I turned the page. The title was repeated; then I got a shock. It said, “by Gerald Weiss and Maxwell Harrington.”
    I picked out a hardcover version of Fiat Money Madness from the books that Benny had given me. It listed Gerald Weiss as the sole author. I compared the opening paragraph of this book to that of the draft version. They were identical.
    The name Harrington didn't ring a bell, but with my memory problems that didn't mean anything. I had brought with me a list of the full names of all the major players so that I wouldn't be