Unnatural Acts Read Free Page A

a bit of a gambling problem.”
    “How much of a problem?” Stone asked.
    “About two hundred thousand dollars’ worth,” Brennan interjected, “to a bookie and loan shark.”
    “Is he able to pay it?” Stone asked.
    “Of course not,” Brennan replied, “but the bookie knows
I
can pay it.”
    “Do you intend to pay it?” Stone asked.
    “That depends a lot on the advice I get from you. Bill tells me you’ve dealt with people like this in the past.”
    “I was a police officer for fourteen years,” Stone replied. “I dealt with all sorts of people, some of whom were unable or unwilling to pay their gambling and loan debts.”
    “What happened to those who couldn’t or wouldn’t pay?”
    “Unpleasant things,” Stone said. “I’ve rarely known a bookie or a loan shark to kill people, because the dead can’t pay their debts, but quite often such people required medical attention after negotiations failed.”
    “So, these things are negotiable?”
    “Only when the lender is convinced that the borrower can’t pay it all. In your case, as you say, he already knows that you’re Dink’s father.”
    “That’s what I’ve been told.”
    “Then I should think that the bookie/lender has every intention of collecting every penny, and the total goes up daily, at the rate of about ten percent a week, so time is of the essence.”
    “Can I have him arrested?”
    “Such activities are certainly against the law, but I don’t think you want to get into a legal wrangle with a criminal. First of all, such action would not necessarily protect your son or even you from retribution, and second, there might be an unwanted level of public attention brought to bear on everyone involved. The tabloids would love the story.”
    “So I should pay up and end it?”
    “Paying up is probably necessary, but that might not end it.”
    Brennan looked alarmed. “Why not?”
    “Because paying the money won’t deal with your son’s gambling problem. Indeed, if you get him off the hook this time, hemight take that to mean that you always will. And the paid-off bookie will certainly be willing to extend him more credit.”
    “So how do I fix this?”
    “Marshall, may I ask, what is your relationship like with your son, apart from the gambling?”
    “Sometimes good, sometimes bad,” Brennan said.
    “Good when he gets what he wants, bad when he doesn’t?”
    “That’s about the size of it.”
    “Then I can only tell you what I would do if it were my son.”
    “And what is that?”
    “How old is he?”
    “Twenty.”
    “That precludes an involuntary commitment to an institution.”
    “Yes, it does. I thought of that.”
    “Does he have means of his own?”
    “No.”
    “Then I would sit him down and force him to close his bank and credit card accounts and destroy his credit cards. I would leave him no option but to leave Yale and voluntarily enter an intense, residential treatment program, and by ‘residential’ I mean a place with a high fence around it and bars on the windows.”
    “And what if he refuses to cooperate?”
    “Then leave him to the tender mercies of his bookie. After a couple of large men have beaten him to a pulp, he may take a different view of things.”
    To Stone’s discomfort, Marshall Brennan began to cry.
    Eggers comforted him while Stone waited quietly for him to continue.
    Finally, Brennan was able to speak. “I don’t think I can confront my son in that fashion.”
    “Then have someone else confront him.”
    “Do you have someone in mind?” Eggers asked, obviously hoping that Stone would volunteer.
    “I think Herbert Fisher would be well suited to the task,” Stone replied.
    “Who is Herbert Fisher?” Brennan asked.
    “He’s a young attorney with Woodman and Weld,” Stone replied. “He has a history of such problems in his own past, from which he has recovered.”
    “He’s one of the firm’s outstanding associates,” Eggers added.
    Brennan took a deep breath and let