‘I only heard one side of the conversation,’ said Todd Halliday, handing his wife a glass of whisky after she’d slammed the phone down. ‘Am I right in thinking that Lawrence now realizes the Warhol’s a copy, and Karpenko’s produced the cheque?’
‘Yes,’ said Evelyn, emptying the glass. ‘I forgot that cheques were returned to the issuing bank.’
‘But it was made out to cash, so they won’t be able to trace it back to you.’
‘True, but if Lawrence were ever to discover—’
‘If he does,’ said Todd, ‘we’ll just have to revert to plan B.’
When Alex returned to New York, he had to explain to his mother why he’d come back with a cheque for $500,000, even though he’d told Lawrence the Warhol was a copy. He was surprised by her only question.
‘Have you asked Anna to marry you yet?’
‘Mama, I’ve only known her for a week.’
‘Your father proposed to me twelve days after we met.’
‘Then I’ve still got another five days,’ said Alex, smiling.
Alex stepped off the train at 14th Street just after midday, and headed straight for Lombardi’s. He took a seat, but didn’t order anything. When the manager appeared he handed him the contract. Paolo sat down and took his time checking over every clause. There were no surprises. Everything Alex had promised had been included, so he happily signed on the dotted line.
‘Welcome on board, partner,’ said Alex as they shook hands. ‘You’ll be managing Elena 1, while I concentrate on getting Elena 2 up and running.’
‘I’m looking forward to working with you,’ said Paolo.
‘See you at five to eight on Monday morning, because it’s high time you met my mother. Mind you, it’s probably a good thing you didn’t before you signed the contract. I’ve got to run. I’m having lunch with someone I can’t afford to be late for.’
‘So you found her?’
‘Sure did.’
Alex arrived at Le Bernardin only moments before Anna appeared.
‘How did Boston go?’ was her first question after they placed their orders.
‘It couldn’t have gone better,’ he said, and explained why he would still be opening Elena 2 on time.
‘What a remarkable friend you have in Lawrence,’ said Anna. ‘So where’s the Warhol?’
‘The real one, or the copy?’
‘The copy to start with.’
‘Back in the Jefferson room.’
‘And the original?’
‘Lawrence thinks it’s probably in the south of France. Which is another reason Evelyn won’t be coming back to Boston in a hurry.’
‘Don’t count on it,’ said Anna. ‘The man you’ve described would never allow his sister to go to jail.’
‘You know that, and I know that, but can Evelyn risk it? Anyway, what did you get up to while I was away?’
‘I had lunch at Lombardi’s.’
‘Traitor.’
‘And although your mother cooks a far superior pizza, their menus are in a different class,’ she said as their food was served.
‘I’ve never noticed.’
‘Don’t forget, the customer sees the menu long before they see their food. As design was part of my degree course, I thought I could come up with something a little more enticing for Elena’s.’ She took half a dozen sheets of paper out of her carrier bag and placed them on the table.
Alex studied the different designs for some time before he said, ‘Wow, I see what you mean.’
‘They’re only preliminary sketches,’ said Anna. ‘I’ll have a more polished version by the time we go to Virginia.’
‘I can’t wait,’ said Alex, as the waiter whisked their empty plates away.
‘But you’ll have to,’ said Anna, checking her watch. ‘Must dash. Mr Rosenthal will raise his cultured eyebrow if I’m a minute late.’
While Anna returned to the gallery, Alex took the subway to Brighton Beach and dropped in to Elena’s to let his mother know Paolo would be joining them on Monday.
‘And Anna?’ said Elena.
‘She’s fine,’ said Alex, who quickly left for his other world, before she could remind him he only had three days left to beat his father’s record.
He was sitting in the front row of the lecture theatre at Columbia only moments before Professor Donovan made his entrance.
‘This evening, we will consider the significance of the Marshall Plan,’ said Donovan, ‘and the role President Truman played in assisting the Europeans to get back on their feet after the Second World War. The financial instability facing Europe in 1945 was such that...’
By the time Alex got home just after ten, he was exhausted. He found his mother in the kitchen chatting to Dimitri, who’d just arrived back from Leningrad.
Alex collapsed into the nearest chair.
‘Dimitri tells me that your Uncle Kolya has just been made convener of the dockers’ union,’ said Elena. ‘Isn’t that wonderful news?’
Alex didn’t comment. He was sound asleep and quietly snoring.
30
Alex
Boston
‘I’d love to hear more about your life in the Soviet Union, and how you ended up coming to America,’ said Anna, as the train pulled out of Penn station.
‘The sanitized version, or do you want all the gory details?’
‘The truth.’
Alex began with the death of his father, and everything that had happened to him between then and the day he met her on the subway on 51st Street. He only left out the real reason he’d nearly killed Major Polyakov, and the fact that Dimitri worked for the CIA. When he came to the end, Anna’s first question took him by surprise.
‘Do you think it’s possible your school friend might have been responsible for your father’s death?’
‘I’ve thought about that many times,’ admitted Alex. ‘I’ve no doubt Vladimir was capable of such an act of treachery, and I only hope for his sake we never meet again.’
‘How different it might have been, if you and your mother had climbed into the other crate.’
‘I wouldn’t have met you, for a start,’ said Alex as he took her hand. ‘So now you’ve heard my life story, it’s your turn.’
‘I was born in a prison camp in Siberia. I never knew my father, and my mother died before I could even—’
‘Good try,’ said Alex, placing an arm around her shoulder. She turned and kissed him for the first time. It took him a few moments to recover, before he murmured, ‘Now tell me the real story.’
‘I didn’t escape from Siberia, but from South Dakota, when I was offered a place at Georgetown. I’d always wanted to go to art school, but I wasn’t quite good enough, so I settled for art history, and ended up being offered a job at Rosenthal’s.’
‘You must have done well at Georgetown,’ said Alex, ‘because Mr Rosenthal didn’t strike me as someone who suffers fools gladly.’
‘He’s very demanding,’ said Anna, ‘but quite brilliant. He’s not only a scholar but a shrewd dealer, which is why he’s so highly respected in the profession. I’m learning so much more from him than I did at university. Now I’ve met your indefatigable mother, tell me something about your father.’
‘He was the most remarkable man I’ve ever known. Had he lived, I’ve no doubt he would have been the first president of an independent Russia.’
‘Whereas his son will end up as president of a pizza company in Brooklyn,’ she teased.
‘Not if my mother has anything to do with it. She’d like me to be a professor, a lawyer or a doctor. Anything but a businessman. But I still have no idea what I’m going to do after I leave business school. I have to admit, though, that you and Lawrence have changed my life.’