Escape the Night Read Online Free Page B

all I mean this family to keep. I watched his eyes while you were being clever. He’ll remember you thirty years from now.”
    â€œI want him to—men like that only prey on weakness.” Charles wheeled on his brother. “If you ever again cut me off in front of strangers, particularly someone who’ll go for your throat if he sees any weakness at all, you’d better pray that it is you who inherits this firm. And while you’re praying, pray that what happened to Garfield doesn’t happen to you or anyone in this family, because there’s no one who can survive that. Especially you.” He rose to leave, turning in the doorway to say in a softer voice, “It’s not fatal that you lack Stalin’s taste, Phil. But to lack his guts …”
    He turned and left.
    Staring at his stricken second son, still hearing the anger of his first, John Carey felt the unborn presence of the grandson who might follow them, to sit where he now sat.
    Within weeks, Phillip Carey knew that their upsetting visitor would not forget the Careys.
    Their writers were abruptly hauled before the Committee; Charles’s tax returns were audited; the author of the slave novel was indicted for refusing to appear. At Committee hearings, in newspapers, the name Van Dreelen & Carey was constantly repeated. One department store refused their books …
    Phillip began hearing noises on his telephone.
    He could not explain this sense of dread.
    What so clearly was in progress—a carefully calibrated form of torture—was ominous enough. Yet Phillip Carey kept seeing Englehardt’s strange smile reach for him across the table, felt the penetration of his eyes. In that one moment, he had sensed this man looking back into his childhood until he saw Phillip as the boy Phillip still despised remembering, who envied Charles for his boldness, yet was fearful of offending. The young Phillip strove to please John Carey; Charles stole their father’s gaze without bothering to notice. This injustice fueled a smoldering adolescent envy Phillip felt too unworthy to display; unlike the fearless Charles, he had not earned the right to his emotions. Growing, he took refuge in fine tailoring and a polished air, hoping that its shine would deflect deeper glances until he became the man John Carey was, and thereby gained his favor …
    All this he had seen in one long look of infinite comprehension on the face of a total stranger.
    He did not want this man to know him.
    â€œThey’re watching us,” he told his father. “It’s been three months now, and tomorrow HUAC’s parading yet another of our Marxist authors, with no sign of stopping.”
    The two brothers sat in their father’s office. Looking from Charles back to Phillip, John Carey’s eyes seemed to harden. “What is it you want?”
    Phillip paused, distracted by the weary look with which Charles had arrived from one of those mysterious appointments to which he dragged the pregnant Allie. Perhaps there was a problem, some chance of a miscarriage …
    Hastily, he answered, “To advise Mr. Englehardt that we’re pulling the novel that offended him.”
    â€œ Englehardt .” Charles turned on him with a look of disgust. “You’d trade a gifted writer for the smile of a cockroach?”
    Irresolute, Phillip wavered: he could not speak his fears in front of Charles.
    â€œWe’re committed,” John Carey cut in. “To which Charles has added a HUAC problem we damned well could have dodged.”
    â€œToo late for hindsight.” Charles’s tone was flat. “Two men followed me here, the same ones I saw yesterday. It’s time that we fight back.”
    â€œWith still more words?” John Carey flashed a contemptuous smile. “Without so much as calling you to testify, Mr. Englehardt and his Committee have displayed far greater weapons. Now we can only hope to bore them,