Blood Ties Read Online Free Page B

Blood Ties
Book: Blood Ties Read Online Free
Author: Ralph McInerny
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nor Henry wanted to hear about. They agreed that the discipline at the school was foolishly demanding, certainly not Maurice’s cup of tea.
    â€œMy sympathy for the Dolans never wavered, Father, and I will tell you why. I feared that I might have acted as they did if we had ever had children.”
    â€œI doubt that, Amos.”
    â€œI will never know.”
    When his school days had ended after two quarters of grades featuring letters seldom seen on a transcript, Maurice was set up in an apartment on the Near North Side, the better to look for suitable employment. He interviewed well. He made a marvelous first impression. All he lacked was ambition and a desire to work. The list of companies by which he had been briefly employed made a sad litany. The truth was that Maurice had no worry about his future. Henry’s success ensured that.
    Maurice laughed when Henry threatened to cut him off. “It can’t be done. I’m your heir.”
    â€œI’ll give everything I have to charity.”
    â€œNo you won’t.”
    He was right. It was too late to reverse a lifetime of indulgence.
    One day, Vivian stopped by Maurice’s apartment. The door was opened by a woman.
    â€œA floozy,” she reported to Henry, shuddering. “Brazen. And the way she asked me who I was.”
    Henry cut off Maurice’s rent money and stopped his allowance, bringing an apparently contrite Maurice home.
    â€œShe’s nobody,” he said when Henry demanded to know who the girl was.
    â€œIs she living with you?”
    â€œOf course not.”
    But Maurice was a stranger to the truth. “For God’s sake, son, consider your soul. You’re on the path to perdition.”
    Maurice hung his head. Did the boy still believe anything? “I’ve been thinking of becoming a nurse.”
    Henry just stared at him. This was not a young man he would want near any patient of his. Why couldn’t he be like his sister, Sheila?
    â€œI guess that isn’t realistic.”
    Amos paused. “Father, the one thing Maurice did well, very well, was golf. He won club tournaments. He almost qualified for the Open as an amateur.” Good as he was, though, his performance was far below that of the pros.
    It was golf that took him to California. After several weeks, he telephoned, excited. “I have found my niche, Dad.”
    His niche was a driving range in Huntington Beach. The owner needed a partner. The place ran itself. It was a gold mine. Henry came to Amos to discuss the proposition.
    â€œWhy does the owner need a partner?”
    â€œExpansion. There’s an opportunity to double the business.”
    Amos had flown to California. The location of the driving range seemed excellent. The adjacent land could be acquired. Sprucing up the place would help. Amos was able to report to Henry that he had never seen his son so serious. But the proposed partner, Hadley Markus, was not a man to inspire confidence. He had the moist eye of a drinker. His stomach looked like a bass drum hanging over his belt. He needed a shave.
    â€œCould you buy him out?” Amos asked Maurice while they dined at a hotel.
    â€œAre you serious?”
    â€œFind out.”
    Markus was interested in the proposition. In the end, he stayed on for a time as manager, wanting to continue to occupy the little office where he had spent so many years. Amos flew home, looking out over the cloud cover, praying for the Dolans’ sake that Maurice had grown up at last.
    With Henry, Amos went over the papers he had brought from California.
    â€œWe’ll want to make sure there is no lien on the property. I am having that checked. Otherwise, it seems sound.” Then he looked steadily at Henry. “The fly in the ointment, I need not say, is Maurice.”
    â€œI know. But he seems truly determined to make a go of this.”
    There was to be a silent partner, Catherine Adams, another transplanted
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