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The result was that Bruce Galbraith had multiplied the value of the family real estate business to the point
where his sixty-year-old father had simply turned over the reins to him. At his retirement dinner his father
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had said, Bruce, my hat s off to you. You re a good son and a far better businessman than I ever was,
and I was good. Now, you keep making money for us, and I ll pursue my goal of becoming a scratch
golfer.
Bruce was in Arizona on Wednesday when he made his daily late-afternoon call to his secretary. She
told him that a Carolyn MacKenzie had phoned and left a message that Mack had been in contact again
and would Bruce please call her.
Carolyn MacKenzie? Mack s kid sister? These were not names he wanted to hear.
Bruce had just returned to his suite in the hotel he owned in Scottsdale. Shaking his head, he walked
over to the minibar and reached into it for a cold beer. It was only four o clock, but he had been outside
in the heat most of the day and deserved it, he assured himself.
He settled in the big armchair facing the floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the desert. At any other
time it was his favorite view, but at this moment he was seeing only the college apartment he had shared
with Mack MacKenzie and Nick DeMarco, and reviewing again what had happened there.
I don t want to see Mack s sister, he told himself. All that happened ten years ago, and even then
Mack s parents knew I was never close to him. He never once asked me home to Sutton Place for
dinner, although he was always taking Nick with him. It didn t even cross Mack s mind that I might enjoy
going, too. To him, I was just an unobtrusive guy who happened to be sharing an apartment with him.
Nick the lady-killer; Mack, everyone s choice for the nicest guy in the world. So nice that he apologized
for beating me out by a fraction to be one of the top ten graduates of our class. I ll never forget the look
on Dad s face when I told him I hadn t made it. Four generations at Columbia, and I was the first not to
be in the top ten. And Barbara, God, the crush I had on her in those days. I worshipped her& . Shenever
even glanced in my direction, he thought.
Bruce tilted his head and finished the beer. I ll have to call Carolyn, he decided. But I ll tell her what I
told her parents. Mack and I lived together, but we never hung out together. I didn t even see him the
day he disappeared. I got out before he and Nick were awake. So, leave me alone, little sister.
He stood up. Forget it, he told himself impatiently. Just forget about it. The quote that often ran through
his head whenever he happened to think about Mack jumped into his mind again. He knew the quote
wasn t completely accurate, but it worked for him: Butthat was in another land, and besides the king is
dead.
He went back to the phone, picked it up, and dialed. When his wife answered, he knew his face lit up at
the sound of her voice. Hi, Barb, he said. How are you, sweetheart? And how are the kids?
18
After his luncheon with Aaron Klein, Elliott Wallace went back to his office and found himself thinking
about Charles MacKenzie Sr. and the friendship they had forged in Vietnam. Charley had been in the
army s ROTC and was a second lieutenant when they met. Elliott had told Charley that he was born in
England of American parents and had spent most of his childhood in London. He had moved back to
New York with his mother when he was nineteen. He had then enlisted in the army, and four years later
he had earned his own commission and was side by side with Charley in some of the fiercest fighting of
the war.
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We liked each other from day one, Elliott thought. Charley was the most competitive person I ve ever
met and probably the most ambitious. He was planning to go to law school the minute he was
discharged. He swore that he was going to be a very successful lawyer and a millionaire. He was actually
pleased that he had grown up in a family that didn t have two nickels to rub together. He used to kid me
about my background. And what was the butler s name, Ell? he would ask me. Was it Bertie, or
Chauncey, or Jeeves?
As he leaned back in his leather chair, Elliott smiled at the memory. I told Charley that the butler was
William, and he was gone by the time I was thirteen. I told him that my father, God rest him, was the
most cultivated human being and the worst businessman in the history of the civilized world. That was
why my mother finally threw in the towel and brought me home from England.
Charley didn t believe me back then, but I swore to him that in my own way I was just as ambitious as
he was. He wanted to become wealthy because he d never known that world. I was one of the haves
who became a have-not and wanted it all back. While Charley was in law school, I went to college and
then got my MBA.
We both succeeded financially, but our personal lives were so different. Charley met Olivia, and they
had a wonderful marriage. God, how like an outsider I felt when I saw the way they looked at each
other! They had twenty-three good years, until Mack disappeared, and after that they didn t have a day
that wasn t filled with worry about him. And then 9/11, and Charley was gone. My marriage to Norma
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