‘That’s hardly a crime,’ said Murray.
‘Unless she tries to claim you raped her.’
Nat laughed. ‘Elliot’s never going to raise that particular subject, because he might well have been the father himself, and abortion is not part of his holier-than-thou image.’
‘Have you considered going on the attack yourself?’ asked Murray.
‘What do you have in mind?’ asked Nat.
‘Didn’t Elliot have to resign from Alexander Dupont and Bell on the same day as the senior partner because half a million went missing from a client account?’
‘No, I will not stoop to his level,’ said Nat. ‘In any case, Elliot’s involvement was never proved.’
‘Oh yes it was,’ said Murray. Tom and Nat stared across at the chairman. ‘A friend of mine was the client in question, and phoned to warn me the moment he heard that Elliot was representing us in the takeover.’
Nat sighed. ‘That may well be the case, but the answer is still no.’
‘Good,’ said Murray, ‘then we’ll beat him on your terms, which means that we’ll have to spend the rest of the afternoon preparing answers to whatever you imagine might be the questions.’
At six o’clock, Nat left the bank feeling wrung out. He phoned Su Ling and told her what had happened. ‘Do you want me to come along tonight?’ she asked.
‘No, little flower, but can you keep Luke well occupied? If it’s going to be unpleasant, I’d rather he wasn’t around. You know how sensitive he can be, and he always takes it all so personally.’
‘I’ll take him to a movie — there’s a French film playing at the Arcadia that he and Kathy have been pressing me to see all week.’
Nat tried not to appear nervous when he arrived at Goodwin House that night. He walked into the hotel’s main dining room to find it was packed with several hundred local businessmen chatting to each other. But who were they supporting, he wondered? He suspected many of them still hadn’t made up their minds, as the polls kept reminding them that 10 per cent were still undecided. The head waiter directed him to the top table, where he found Elliot chatting to the local party chairman. Manny Friedman swung round to welcome Nat. Elliot leant across and made a public show of shaking hands. Nat sat down quickly and began to make notes on the back of a menu.
When the chairman called for order he introduced ‘the two heavyweights both well qualified to be our next governor’, and then invited Elliot to make his opening remarks. Nat had never heard him speak so poorly. The chairman then asked Nat to reply and when he resumed his place, he would have been the first to admit he hadn’t done much better. The first round, he thought, had ended in a no-points draw.
When the chairman called for questions, Nat wondered when the missile would be launched and from which direction. His eyes swept the hall as he waited for the first question.
‘How do the candidates feel about the education bill that is currently being debated in the Senate?’ came from someone sitting at the top table. Nat concentrated on the provisions in the bill that he felt should be amended, while Elliot kept reminding them that he had completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Connecticut.
The second questioner wanted to know about the new state income tax, and whether both candidates would guarantee not to raise it. Yes and yes.
The third questioner was interested in their policy on crime, and with a particular reference to young offenders. Elliot said they should all be locked up and taught a lesson. Nat was less sure that prison was the answer to every problem, and that they should perhaps consider some of the innovations which Utah had recently introduced into their penal system.
When Nat resumed his seat, the chairman rose and looked around the room for another question. As soon as the man stood up without actually looking at him, Nat knew this had to be the plant. He glanced at Elliot, who was scribbling notes, pretending to be oblivious of his presence. ‘Yes, sir,’ said the chairman, pointing at him.
‘Mr Chairman, may I ask if either of the candidates has ever broken the law?’
Elliot was on his feet immediately. ‘Several times,’ he said. ‘I’ve had three parking tickets in the past week, which is why I’ll be easing parking restrictions in town centres the moment I’m elected.’ Word perfect, thought Nat; even the timing had been rehearsed. A spattering of applause broke out.
Nat rose slowly and turned to face Elliot. ‘I shall not be changing the law to accommodate Mr Elliot, because I believe there should be fewer vehicles in our city centres, not more. It may not be popular, but someone has to stand up and warn people that their future will be bleak if we build bigger and bigger cars that consume more and more gas and then spit out more and more toxic fumes. We owe our children a better heritage than that, and I have no interest in being elected on glib remarks that will be quickly forgotten once I’m in power.’ He sat down to loud applause and hoped that the chairman would move on to another questioner, but the man remained standing.
‘But, Mr Cartwright, you didn’t answer my question as to whether you’d ever broken the law.’
‘Not that I’m aware of,’ replied Nat.
‘But isn’t it true that you once cleared a cheque for three million six hundred thousand dollars from Russell’s Bank, when you knew that the funds had already been misappropriated and that the signature on the cheque was fraudulent?’
Several of the audience began chattering at once, and Nat had to wait for some time before he could reply.
‘Yes, Russell’s was swindled out of that money by a very clever fraudster, but as that exact sum was owed to the local council, I felt that the bank had no choice but to honour the debt and pay the council the amount in full.’
‘Did you inform the police at the time that the money had been stolen? After all, it belonged to the customers of Russell’s Bank and not to you,’ continued the questioner.
‘No, because we had every reason to believe that the cash had been transferred abroad, so we knew that there would be no possibility of retrieving it.’ Nat realized as soon as he had finished speaking that his answer would not placate the questioner or several others in the audience.
‘If you were to become governor, Mr Cartwright, would you treat the tax payers’ money in the same cavalier fashion?’
Elliot was immediately on his feet. ‘Mr Chairman, that was a disgraceful suggestion and nothing more than innuendo and slur; why don’t we move on?’ He sat down to loud applause while Nat remained standing. He had to admire the sheer nerve of Elliot setting up the question and then being seen to come to his opponent’s defence. He waited for complete silence.
‘The incident you refer to occurred over ten years ago. It was a mistake on my part that I regret, although it is ironic that it turned out to be a massive financial success for all those involved, because the three point six million the bank invested in the Cedar Wood project has been a boon to the people of Hartford, not to mention the city’s economy.’
The questioner still wouldn’t sit down. ‘Despite Mr Elliot’s magnanimous comments, may I ask him if he would have reported such a misappropriation of funds to the police?’
Elliot rose slowly. ‘I would prefer not to comment without knowing all the details of this particular case, but I am happy to take Mr Cartwright’s word when he says that he did not commit any offence, and bitterly regrets not reporting the matter to the appropriate authorities at the time.’ He paused for some time. ‘However, if I am elected governor, you can be assured of open government. If I make a mistake, I will admit it at the time and not ten years later.’ The questioner sat down, his job completed.
The chairman found it difficult to bring the meeting back to order. There were several more questions, but they were not listened to in silence, as those seated in the body of the hall continued to discuss Nat’s revelation.