Chapter VIII - Financial Affairs
2011, Sligo
Ostensibly, Jed is talking to his computer: there is no one else in his office. He looks at an Iowa newspaper report dated December 21, 1923, “This is incredible; 1923 was a bad year for our Merrill. First his young wife Madeline Forster dies, then his only sibling Leroy commits suicide in a prison cell; and now at the end of the year, Steve Conway, his main local investor in his new Velo printing venture commits suicide as well.”
The room is unusually silent for a while. “You listening, Sue?”
Five minutes later, Sue walks into the office, bearing two plates of hot bacon sandwiches. Golden melted butter drips from her home-made soda bread. Jed rambles on, “It says here that Steve stayed home from work and left the gas oven on.”
Jed’s words confuse the reluctant waitress, “Who’s Steve? Is he a top chef?”
“What? You know, Steve. Steve who owned this newspaper I’m reading. He was mega-rich.“
“Oh, Steve. Steve Conway. Victoria’s first husband.”
“Have you not been listening to me?”
“I’ve been making your breakfast, but you’re oblivious these days. Go on then, give me the Merrill update.”
Jed repeats his tragic findings: Merrill’s wife and only brother died in the same year. “Then, just before the end of 1923, Steve Conway committed suicide. This wouldn’t be of major significance to our project, taken in isolation, but Steve was the biggest local backer of the new Velo organization, a company that Merrill headed in 1923. And, as you know, Merrill then married Steve’s widowed wife.”
Sue’s assessment is more forthright, “Yeah, Merrill married the richest woman in town, who‘s about ten years older than him—sounds like true love, eh? How long was Madeline buried before Merrill became smitten with Victoria Reiskoff?”
“Less than two years,” informs Jed.
“Remember that great question on a TV chat show? You could use it here: ‘Merrill, what first attracted you to the multi-millionairess Victoria Reiskoff Conway?’ ”
“Sue, I don’t disagree at all. It’s just that I’d really have liked to have been a fly on the wall when Merrill chatted up Victoria. How did he pull that one off? I don’t know if I admire this guy Merrill, or whether I despise his antics up to now…”
Mid-1924, Mason City
Victoria Reiskoff Conway is guided by a secretary into the wood-paneled boardroom of the newly-christened Velo Building. This is the same room in which Merrill gained control of Le Mars Printing, a year earlier—an event which led to Bartholomew Harrison going his own way, along with a handful of elderly lithograph specialists. Meanwhile, Merrill is in the executive bathroom. He rehearses various key selling points for the last time, while sprucing up his facial image and applying copious amounts of cologne.
Two minutes later, Merrill confidently jogs into the boardroom and takes up his presidential seat at the head of the table. He beckons Victoria to come and sit up closer, offering her coffee, “Or maybe a Chinese tea? It‘s very good at cleansing the system, I‘m told.”
Victoria moves seats but refuses refreshment. She had a light breakfast in the Hotel Hanford, she explains. Merrill and Victoria continue to exchange pleasantries until Merrill raises the question of her deceased husband’s heavy investment in the Velo organization’s expansion into the Midwest. Victoria reacts by saying that she is uncertain about maintaining Steve’s outlay in any Mason City businesses, let alone this new Velo venture. Her “priorities have changed.” She wants to look after her own family foremost. She has no experience with big business deals. Her son Vic has told her to “just do whatever feels comfortable.”
Merrill tells Victoria about Velo’s recent successes and plans for the future: “Mrs. Conway, every Midwest state is renewing exclusive printing contracts. New private clients are coming on board every day. We have patented systems that can‘t be touched.”
Victoria nods, but she is out of her depth.
Merrill continues in a more personal tone, “You might have heard: we’ve commenced the building of a new modern print-workshop on the edge of town. It’ll make us the biggest printers outside of New York, but we have a larger client base. It’s a sound investment, Victoria. Better than any bank can offer.”
Victoria cannot make up her mind, and changes the subject, “How are your two lovely girls?”
Merrill confides that the trauma of his brother Leroy’s death resurrected a lot of upset for his daughters. However, he needs to press on, and politely directs Victoria to review and sign the paperwork laid out in front of her. Merrill says that it’s “what Steve would have wanted.”
At the mention of his name this time, Victoria breaks down into pitiful sobs. Merrill moves from his president’s chair to sit alongside his essential but heartbroken investor. He puts his arm around Victoria, and she gently weeps into his shoulder. Merrill says that he can completely empathize with Victoria’s thoughts. Merrill whispers that he, too, has lost his spouse and true love, and then suffered the devastating loss of his closest ally, his brother Leroy, through suicide.
Victoria looks up towards Merrill as he confesses, “I feel guilty. I should have been with Leroy at the end.” Victoria and Merrill instinctively hold hands. Victoria concurs that not being with her husband, when his mind snapped, is the worst part of all. They look deeply into each other’s eyes.
“I cannot turn the clock back, Victoria. You must start to accept this too. Look to the future. Try to forget, with someone guiding you who shares your torment.”
Merrill goes on to say that he will always look after Victoria because of Steve’s generous support for his business when he needed it most, “Trust me, Victoria. I will always have more than your financial interests at heart, if you sign the Continuation Agreement. I’m no cold bank manager or stockbroker. I’m your true friend.” Merrill leans forward and kisses Victoria on the lips, not passionately. She does not recoil. Merrill is a handsome and successful younger man.
The meeting had not gone as planned, for either party, but for Merrill the imminent end result of continued financial backing is what he requires, first and foremost. Merrill’s mind works overtime as a methodical embrace unwinds. He continues his patter, like a champion salesman who cannot control his vocabulary with a closing deal in sight, “We could become secret allies, helping each other through the dark days, whether it be business matters or our tortured emotions about our first loves.”
Whatever the future holds, Merrill swears on his father’s life that he will never hurt his confidante. “We can just get together and talk. I’d like that, would you Victoria?” Victoria, herself, is in a confused state. This was not supposed to happen, but she is smitten. They kiss again, dispassionately from Merrill’s angle. Merrill has one eye on the glass panel of the boardroom door; if any of his fellow directors had happened to peer in, Merrill knew that his credibility as the straight-as-a-die leader of Velo’s expansion plans would be blown out of the water.