‘Does that mean I’ve lost the deal, not to mention a hundred thousand?’
‘No, I’ve already thought of a way round that, but it will need your agreement.’
‘If it will secure the property,’ said Julia, ‘I’ll do whatever you advise.’
As soon as they entered the bank, Tom went straight to his office, picked up a phone and asked the chief teller to join him. While he waited for Ray Jackson to arrive, he took out a blank cheque book and began writing out the words three million six hundred thousand dollars. The chief teller knocked on the door and entered the chairman’s office.
‘Ray, I want you to transfer three million one hundred thousand dollars to Mrs Kirkbridge’s account.’
The chief teller hesitated for a moment. ‘I’ll need a letter of authorization before I can transfer such a large amount,’ he said. ‘It’s way above my limit.’
‘Yes, of course,’ said the chairman, and removed the standard form from his top drawer and quickly filled in the relevant figures. Tom didn’t comment on the fact that it was also the largest sum he had ever authorized. He passed the form across to the chief teller, who studied the details carefully. He looked as if he wanted to query the chairman’s decision, and then thought better of it.
‘Immediately,’ emphasized Tom.
‘Yes, sir,’ said the chief teller, and departed as quickly as he had arrived.
‘Are you sure that was sensible?’ asked Julia. ‘Aren’t you taking an unnecessary risk?’
‘We have the property and your five hundred thousand, so we can’t lose. As Nat would say, it’s a belt and braces job.’ He turned the cheque book round and asked Julia to sign it and print beneath her signature the name of her company. Once Tom had checked it he said, ‘We’d better get back to City Hall as quickly as possible.’
Tom tried to remain calm as he dodged in and out of the traffic while crossing Main Street before jogging up the steps to City Hall. He kept having to wait for Julia, who explained it wasn’t easy to keep up with him in high heels. When they re-entered the building, Tom was relieved to find Mr Cooke was still seated behind his desk at the far end of the hall. The chief executive rose when he saw them heading towards him.
‘Hand over the cheque to the thin man with the bald head,’ said Tom, ‘and smile.’
Julia carried out Tom’s instructions to the letter, and received a warm smile in return. Mr Cooke studied the cheque carefully. ‘This seems to be in order, Mrs Kirkbridge, if I could just see some form of identification.’
‘Certainly,’ said Julia, and took a driver’s licence out of her handbag.
Mr Cooke studied the photo and the signature. ‘It’s not a flattering picture of you,’ he said. Julia smiled. ‘Good, now all that is left for you to do is sign all the necessary documents on behalf of your company.’
Julia signed the council agreement in triplicate and handed a copy over to Tom. ‘I think you’d better hold on to this until the money is safely transferred,’ she whispered.
Mr Cooke looked at his watch. ‘I shall be presenting this cheque first thing on Monday morning, Mr Russell,’ he said, ‘and I would be obliged if it were cleared as quickly as is convenient. I don’t want to give Mrs Hunter any more ammunition than is necessary only days before the election.’
‘It will be cleared on the same day it’s presented,’ Tom assured him.
‘Thank you, sir,’ said Mr Cooke to a man he regularly had a round of golf with at their local club.
Tom wanted to give Julia a hug, but restrained himself. ‘I’ll just run back to the bank and let them know that it all went smoothly, then we can go home.’
‘Do you really have to?’ asked Julia. ‘After all, they won’t be presenting the cheque until Monday morning.’
‘I guess that’s right,’ said Tom.
‘Damn,’ said Julia, bending down to take off one of her shoes, ‘I’ve broken the heel running up those steps.’
‘Sorry,’ said Tom, ‘that was my fault, I shouldn’t have made you rush back from the bank. As it turned out we had more than enough time.’
‘It’s not a problem,’ said Julia, smiling, ‘but if you could fetch the car, I’ll join you at the bottom of the steps.’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Tom. He jogged back down and across to the parking lot.
He was back outside City Hall a few minutes later, but Julia was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps she had slipped back inside? He waited a few moments, but she still didn’t appear. He cursed, leapt out of the illegally parked car and ran up the steps and into the building to find Julia in one of the phone booths. The moment she saw him, she hung up.
‘I’ve just been telling New York about your coup, darling, and they’ve instructed our bank to transfer the three million one hundred thousand before close of business.’
‘That’s good to hear,’ said Tom, as they strolled back to the car together. ‘So shall we have supper in town?’
‘No, I’d rather go back to your place and have a quiet meal on our own,’ said Julia.
When Tom pulled up in his driveway, Julia had already removed her coat, and by the time they reached the bedroom on the second floor, she had left a paper-chase of clothes in her wake. Tom was down to his underwear and Julia was peeling off a stocking when the phone rang.
‘Leave it.’ Julia said as she fell to her knees and pulled down his boxer shorts.
‘There’s no reply,’ said Nat, ‘they must have gone out for dinner.’
‘Can’t it wait until we get back on Monday?’ asked Su Ling.
‘I suppose so,’ admitted Nat reluctantly, ‘but I’d like to have known if Tom managed to close the Cedar Wood deal, and if so, at what price.’
33
‘Too close to call’ ran the banner headline in the Washington Post on election morning. ‘NECK AND NECK’ was the opinion of the Hartford Courant. The first referred to the national race between Ford and Carter for the White House, the second to the local battle between Hunter and Davenport for the State Senate Chamber. It annoyed Fletcher that they always put her name first, like Harvard before Yale.
‘All that matters now,’ said Harry as he chaired the final campaign meeting at six that morning, ‘is getting our supporters to the polls.’ No longer was there any need to discuss tactics, press statements, or policy. Once the first vote had been cast, everyone seated round the table had a new responsibility.
A team of forty would be in charge of the car pool, armed with a list of voters who required a lift to their nearest polling place, the old, the infirm, the downright lazy and even some who took a vicarious pleasure in being taken to the poll just so they could vote for the other side.
The next team, and by far the largest, were those who manned the bank of phones back at headquarters.
‘They’ll be on two-hour shifts,’ said Harry, ‘and must spend their time contacting known supporters to remind them that it’s election day, and then later to make sure they’ve cast their vote. Some of this group will need to be called three or four times before the polls close at eight this evening,’ Harry reminded them.
The next group, whom Harry described as the beloved amateurs, ran the counting houses all over the borough. They would keep a minute by minute up-date on how the voting was going in their district. They could be responsible for as few as a thousand voters or as many as three thousand, depending on whether theirs was a built-up or a rural area. ‘They are,’ Harry reminded Fletcher, ‘the backbone of the party. From the moment the first vote is cast, they’ll have volunteers sitting outside the polling stations ticking off names of the voters as they go to the polls. Every thirty minutes those lists will be handed over to runners, who will take them back to the house where the full register will be laid out on tables or pinned to a wall. That list will then be marked up — a red line through the name for any Republican voter, blue for Democrats, and yellow for unknown. One glance at the boards at any time, and the captain of the precinct will know exactly how the vote is progressing. As many of the captains have done the same job for election after election, they’ll be able to give you an immediate comparison with any past poll. The details, once “boarded”, are then relayed through to headquarters so that the phoners don’t keep bothering a pledge who has already cast their vote.’