Marty gave Elgin and Harm a mock bow and stood aside for them. The large table, covered with thick white tablecloths, fairly groaned under the weight of all the food. Lox, bagels, cream cheese and even caviar. Fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, melon and pineapple. Pastries, muffins, biscuits, English muffins. Covered trays of bacon, sausage and ham. Crisp hash browns.
“Joseph makes pancakes, omelets and a Belgian Waffle that is absolutely decadent.”
“Ohhhhh,” she breathed, “that sounds good.”
The chef smiled. “Thank you, Miss. Would you care for fruit on it?”
“Oh yes, Elgin,” Marty urged. “Have the apples. Trust me, you will absolutely weep with ecstasy.”
“All right. Apples please.”
“And you sir?”
“A couple of eggs, over easy please.”
“Ah, a simple man of simple tastes. I like that.” Harm thought he detected just the faintest note of sarcasm in the other man’s voice.
“I’ll have the usual, Joseph.”
“Well, we can sit down now. Ernesto will bring everything to the table.”
“So, how is it that you and Elgin know each other?” Harm asked.
“You mean Elgin hasn’t told you about us?”
Harm’s fork stopped halfway to his mouth and he stared at Elgin.
“Oh, Marty, stop that,” she giggled, tapping his arm lightly and turning a little crimson. “Camp isn’t interested in such ancient history.”
“No,” Harm told her, “I’d be very interested.”
“Well, there really isn’t very much to it.”
“Nonsense,” Marty objected. “There’s a great deal to it and since we’ve an hour to kill between here and West Shore, I think you should absolutely tell Camp all about us.”
“I agree.”
“All right. Marty’s great-great-grandfather came here during the gold rush hoping to make his fortune. He didn’t find any gold but he opened the first general store on this side of the lake. Had to have everything shipped up here by mule train and later on ‘The Belle.’ Eventually, he built a little cabin on the bluff just overlooking the store and got married.”
“Had twelve children,” Marty interjected. “How they managed that in a single room log cabin escapes me absolutely, but they did. My grandfather, being the eldest, naturally inherited the mercantile.”
“That’s kind of how it went,” Elgin continued. “Every generation improving their lives. Built better houses and expanded the mercantile. Every parent wanted better for their children.
“Rebecca, Marty’s mother, made up her mind that he should be the first college graduate in the family.”
“She read to me as long as I can remember. Played the phonograph. Bought one of the first televisions in the area. Taught me to read and write and do numbers before I went to school.”
“She was also the first one to realize that Marty wasn’t just bright, but gifted. He finished high school at ten. At twelve, he had a full scholarship to Winston Technical University but his family couldn’t close the mercantile and go with him.”
“At that time, Elgin’s aunt suggested to my mother that I go and live with Elgin and her mother. They lived less than six blocks from the campus, they had a spare bedroom and with Elgin’s father departed, her mother needed the money a boarder could provide. I knew Elgin slightly because she used to come up here summers with her aunt and uncle.
“So, clutching a suitcase and a book bag, I went to live at Elgin’s house and begin college.”
“It must have been rough.”
“A masterpiece of understatement, Mr. Harm,” Marty responded acidly. “Oh not the academics. I thrived on the challenge and the opportunity to expand my horizons. But the social milieu was hellish.
“There I was, thirteen years old, showing up so-called men twice my age in every academic area but totally isolated. Friendless and totally alone in an alien environment. Add to that the fact that my budding sexuality hardly fitted the norm and you have the makings of a nightmare. I should no doubt have killed myself if it hadn’t been for Elgin.”
“Oh Marty, really…”
“No, it’s true. Younger than I, she didn’t care about my IQ or my sexual problems. She was warm and funny and loving and absolutely accepting of me. We listened to music and talked about the kinds of things children talk about and I did her algebra homework so she wouldn’t flunk out of eighth grade.”
“I graduated at fifteen, took my first Masters at seventeen, my Doctorate at nineteen. All those years I lived with Elgin and her mother. In the summers, she and I came back here.”
“At twenty-one,” Harm continued when Marty paused, “after receiving his second Doctorate, M. Van Scoyk founded Pine Box Computers utilizing a chip of his own design. The third generation of that chip is the foundation of most PC’s running today. Rarely photographed and said to be an eccentric recluse, Van Scoyk spent most of his time behind the scenes. At thirty, he sold the company, retaining a healthy chunk of stock and disappeared.”
“Business bored me. Even computer research became confining in the face of a universe to be understood. So I took the money and ran. Here in Spirit Cove, I’m still Fred and Rebecca’s only son, Marty. Made some money but still runs his father’s mercantile. Even give you credit in the winter if things get a little thin. They talk about me and laugh behind my back, but they’re family so I forgive their trespasses as they forgive mine.”
He glanced at Elgin and back to Harm. “Sometimes there’s no security like home.”
Ernesto arrived with their breakfast and the conversation drifted to other matters.
“So how long does it take to get across the lake?” Harm asked.
“About an hour, give or take,” Marty told him, spooning caviar onto a thin slice of toast. “If I’m in a hurry, I have Paul run her wide open. On a day like today, when I have guests whose company I wish to enjoy, I have him take it easy. Don’t want any queasy tummies now do we?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Harm responded casually, “Navy myself. Carrier duty in the Pacific. Two typhoons in one cruise. You know what a wave looks like breaking over the bow of a ship eight stories high?”
“Large, I would imagine.”
After breakfast, they went back out on deck, enjoying the beauty of the lake, a second cup of coffee that even Harm had to grudgingly admit was excellent, and small talk. Well, mostly Van Scoyk talked, Elgin giggled and he sat quietly, watching the hotels and casinos rising out of the thick pine forests grow larger on the opposite shore.
“Well,” Marty announced finally, “we’ll be docking in about ten minutes. I assume, Elgin my dear, that you’ll want to adjourn to the powder room before we land.”
“You know me too well, Marty. I’ll be right back.”
“So Harm,” Marty began, turning those pale eyes on him again, his voice serious, “I don’t want to sound like a meddling old Auntie but Elgin is very special to me in ways you couldn’t possibly understand, even if I were so inclined as to explain them to you, which I am not. If this…this thing is merely a summer dalliance, a passing trifle on her part, so be it. She’s a grown woman and certainly entitled to take up with whomever she desires. I have only to look at her to see how happy she is. But should this turn out to be more serious to her than to you, I wouldn’t like it. I wouldn’t like it at all.”
“Which means?”
“Just this. I’ve checked you out very thoroughly. You’re educated, successful in your chosen profession of keyhole peeping and comfortably well off. You seem to be a man of reputable character, not given to excesses of wine, women or song. Nevertheless, hurt Elgin, no matter how slightly or even inadvertently, and you will have to deal with me. I know you think me a foolish, silly little fag but make no mistake. I am very rich and very powerful. My feelings for her run deep. Rest assured Mr. Harm, I would make a formidable enemy.”