“It won’t be a draft,” Stone said, “it’ll be final, and it will include a provision for hidden assets that may be uncovered at some later date.”
“Bernie will sign an agreement for the real estate and half of the assets contained in the file you showed us,” Teich said.
“And half what’s in the Caymans account. I’ll want to see a bank statement.”
“It’s not the kind of account that produces a monthly statement, and for legal reasons, Bernie does not want any document to exist that mentions a balance. We’ll add a million dollars to the settlement to cover the Caymans account and any assets not mentioned in the files.”
“Oh, then there are unnamed assets?”
“All right, two million.”
“Five million.”
“Three million, and no more.”
“Bernie signs the agreement first.”
“All right. We have an agreement.” Teich offered his hand.
Stone shook it. “It’s a pleasure doing business with you, Sam; you gave Bernie good advice.”
“I know,” Teich said, then he turned and walked back into the conference room.
Stone left the law firm in a rosy daze of elation. He forced himself to breathe normally as he hailed a cab and went back to his own office.
“So?” Joan said, as he walked into the office.
“Come in and bring your pad,” Stone said. “I want to get this thing wrapped up today.”
He called Bernice Finger and gave her the news.
“He agreed to everything?” she asked incredulously.
“Everything, plus your legal costs. I cut my contingency from thirty to fifteen percent.”
“If he agreed so quickly, he must be hiding a lot of money,” she said. “We should ask for more.”
“I got you three million to cover any hidden assets.”
“Wow!” she said softly.
“It’s a good deal, Bernice, and without the pain of a trial. I’ll have it ready for your signature by the end of the day.”
“I’ll sign it,” she said.
Stone hung up with his heart pounding.
Joan came into the office. “What did you get for her?”
“The earth, sun and moon,” Stone said, hardly able to believe it himself. Bernie’s net worth was going to run to at least forty million dollars, and he was going to get fifteen percent of half of it. That was…he did the arithmetic…good God, three million dollars! Stone’s mind spun out of control; he started thinking about one of those new, very light jet airplanes.
24
Stone had a dinner date with the lovely, rangy Celia, but first he had promised her he would perform a chore. He got out of the cab in front of the SoHo gallery and peered through the window at the very good crowd that had assembled to see the artist’s work. A very large sign in the window read:
DEVLIN DALTRY
“Wait for me,” Stone said to the cabbie. “I won’t be long. He walked into the gallery, grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing tray and looked around for the artist. He located him at the center of a small group of women who were at least as fascinated with him as with his sculpture, so Stone passed a little time peering at the lumps of marble and steel arrayed on pedestals throughout the large room. They were uniformly uninteresting, Stone thought, the product of an empty mind.