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Amelia Alice Payne, M.D., was the eldest of the Payne children.
“Matt.”
“I’ll be damned.”
“He called here,” she said. “And he said he would be here in an hour.”
“I wonder what the probability factor of that actually happening is?”
“Maybe he’s got something on his mind,” Patricia said. “He seemed a little strange last night.”
“He didn’t seem strange to me,” he said.
The telephone, sitting on the fieldstone wall that bordered the patio, rang.
Patricia answered it, then handed it to her husband.
“Brewster Payne,” he said.
“Charley Emmons, Brew. How the hell are you?”
Charles M. Emmons, Esq., was a law-school classmate and a frequent golf partner of Brewster Payne, and the senior member of a Wall Street law firm that specialized in corporate mergers.
“Charley, my boy! How the hell are you?”
“At the moment, a little embarrassed, frankly.”
“I can’t believe you want to borrow money, but I will listen with compassion.”
“I don’t have to borrow money from you; I can take all I need from you on the links.”
“Do I detect a challenge?”
“Unfortunately, no. I wish it was something like that.”
“What’s up, Charley? What can I do for you?”
“You don’t know Tom Reynolds, do you?”
Thomas J. Reynolds, if that’s who he’s talking about, Brewster Payne recalled, is chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer of—what the hell is the name?—a Fortune 500 company that has been gobbling up independent food manufacturers at what looks like a rate of one a week.
“Only by reputation. But if we’re talking about the same fellow, Pat and I met his daughter last night.”
“Susan?”
“Yes.”
“Tom knows we’re friends,” Charley Emmons said.
“And how might Mawson, Payne, Stockton, McAdoo and Lester be of service to—what’s the name of his company?”
“Tomar, Inc.,” Charley furnished.
“Yes, of course, Tomar, Incorporated. You know our motto, Charley: ‘No case too small, no cause so apparently harebrained, so long as there is an adequate retainer up front.’ ”
Charley Emmons laughed dutifully.
“The thing is, Brew—the firm is in pretty deep with Tomar; otherwise, believe me, I wouldn’t be making this call—about Tom’s daughter.”
