Redemption by Howard Fast Read Free Book Online Page A

that it got him through the day at Columbia. I had never met him before, but then Columbia is a very large university.
    Goldberg ordered a steak and fried potatoes, voicing his contempt for all dietary discoveries, and then asked me whether Charlie had told me about his idea for the book on greed, and what did I think about it?
    â€œIt’s a fascinating notion,” I said.
    â€œGood. We’ll talk about it another time. Charlie tells me you’re squiring William Sedgwick Hopper’s divorced wife.”
    I looked daggers at Charlie, who shrugged and said, “Harvey won’t spread it.”
    â€œMy lips are locked,” Goldberg concurred. “I’m sixty, Ike—you don’t mind if I call you Ike? Charlie says you prefer it—and I’ve been divorced seven years. I have a young lady of forty who’s talking marriage. I understand you’re a widower, Ike. How old are you, if I may ask? Sixty-eight, sixty-nine?”
    â€œSeventy-nine, come December.”
    â€œStatistically, marriage adds eight years to your life.”
    Charlie tried to remedy things by reminding Goldberg that we were there to talk about Hopper.
    â€œHe was once the ‘Golden Boy’ of American athletics, two Olympic gold medals, but now he’s a first-class, unredeemable prick. His wife had him arrested once—if you can believe the Post —the third time he beat her up, but she wouldn’t press charges. Garson, Weeds and Anderson took him in as a portfolio manager based on his reputation. They wanted the name. He’s smart the way a crook is smart. He was trading for a number of accounts, one of which was his own, and he was good. Where there were profits, he shifted them into his own account. Where there were losses, he transferred them elsewhere. I’m simplifying it; it’s far more complex than this. It took three years for him to be caught, and he’s into the firm for fifteen million—but the money sits in the house. He’s rich enough not to need it, and they don’t know how to proceed or whether they have enough evidence to put him down. In some ways, it’s a classic scam. They suspended his trading, but he still keeps his office there; and they’re very careful about what they give out to the press. If you read the stories in the Times and the Wall Street Journal , you’d still have a hard time figuring out what, if anything, he did that was illegal. If the money’s missing, it’s one thing, but the money’s still there—in the firm. I had a talk with Jim Weeds about it. Weeds is worried about the face of the firm. It’s not the biggest outfit on Wall Street, and fifteen mil is still a lot of money.”
    â€œBut they’ll get him in the end, won’t they?” Charlie asked.
    â€œMaybe. Ike,” Goldberg said, “this is a violent, poisonous man. If you want to help this woman he divorced, watch your step.”
    â€œI’m no avenging angel,” I said. “I don’t intend to ever see Hopper or speak to him. Elizabeth Hopper is a gentle, decent woman of forty-seven years. I’m thirty years older, and I’m neither young enough nor foolish enough to fall in love.”
    The food came, and Goldberg turned to his steak and potatoes. “No one,” Charlie observed, “is too old or too foolish to fall in love. It starts with the ductless glands in teenagers, who have no reason for denial. At your age, the libido has shrunk a bit and dignity demands denial.”
    â€œWhen I want instruction in half-baked psych, I’ll enroll in one of your classes.”
    â€œGentlemen,” Goldberg said, “gentlemen.”
    â€œWithout malice, Ike,” Charlie said. “Forgive me. A small worm in my gut envies you.”
    After lunch, I went shopping. I do my own food shopping, partly because I enjoy doing it and partly because it breaks up the day. Sarah Morton, my sometime