Fletch Reflected by Gregory McDonald Read Free Book Online Page A

Harvard, then at Jesus College at Oxford before teaching at MIT.”
    “So he’s a literate, athletic scientist.”
    “A Renaissance man. Harvard. You know, he knows something about everything and everything about something.”
    “And nothin’ about nothin’ much.”
    “He invented the perfect mirror. How did he do that?” Andy asked.
    “Somehow, he must have turned two negatives into a positive.”
    “What?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “The old-fashioned mirrors look weird now, don’t they?”
    “They were standard for centuries.”
    “Now they make your eyes cross.”
    “We never know what we’re missing until someone sells it to us. Isn’t that the truth?”
    “Anyway, he had enough private funds to patent the perfect mirror himself, manufacture and market it himself. Which is why he’s so rich.”
    “How rich?”
    “Billions.”
    “Pretty rich.”
    “He has factories and other business interests all over the world. He built this huge estate in Georgia where he keeps his family, his home office, laboratory, and spends most of his time. He’s known as a sort of restless art collector. He buys the world’s best works of art, then is apt to tire of them and sell them. I guess he analyzes them, absorbs them, or something, then feels he doesn’t need them anymore. At Vindemia he also is trying to develop a new breed of cattle, and, mule.”
    “Mule?”
    “Mule. He married Amalie Houston when he was twenty six, she twenty three.”
    “Was she also academic?”
    “She was a clerk at his father’s bank in Boston. Academic? No. A few years ago, when she was on the board of directors of a juvenile detention center, she made a speech recommending that all boys up to age eighteen who had been found guilty of violent acts be neutered.”
    “Sexually neutered?”
    “Castrated.”
    “Why only those up to age eighteen?”
    “Juvenile detention centers only keep boys until they’re eighteen. I guess she didn’t want to appear overreaching.”
    “She’d spent too long amongst those mules. How about girls?”
    “She stated that girls’ violence was necessary to protect themselves.”
    “From boys who hadn’t been castrated yet.”
    “Mrs. Radliegh claimed to have been misquoted.”
    “Was she?”
    “No. Since then, she’s held no public positions. Apparently, Radliegh is extremely conscious of his public image.”
    “Too bad. Given a free hand, she could have accelerated the emasculation of the American male considerably.”
    “It is not generally known, has never been published, but I understand she has been treated several times for acute depression, including electric shock therapy.”
    “Oh.”
    “It may just be a rumor, but I don’t think so. She is considered eccentric, but she appears at public functions always hanging on to her husband’s arm and smiling. She is known for saying wrong things. On a visit to the White House she is reported to have said to the President’s wife, ‘Really, my dear, you ought be paid for all that you do, or take to your bed.’”
    “Was she invited back?”
    “Of course. She’s Chester Radliegh’s wife. They have four children. The eldest, the daughter Amy, twenty nine, has been married three times, and has seven children.”
    “Doesn’t sound like she’s much in favor of castration for anybody, does it? Does she live on the estate?”
    “Yes, with all her kids. She’s not presently married. Next in line is Chester Junior, football All-American and Phi Beta Kappa.”
    “Number 41,” Fletch said. “Chet Radliegh. I never connected him with the perfect mirror.”
    “He is engaged to marry a girl named Shana Staufel. Bryn Mawr graduate who used to work for Radliegh Mirror in Europe as an interpreter. It is believed the old man is grooming young Chester for a congressional seat from their district in Georgia. A book has been written discussing the conflicts between the First and Fourteenth Amendments tothe United States Constitution, a book