not found it possible to get a decision out of Davis during the last few days? Davis Leroy hurried past him into the dining room while Abel went over to the reception desk to check on whether the suite on floor seventeen was available. Half the rooms in the hotel were unoccupied and it came as no surprise that the Presidential Suite was free. Abel booked his employer in and then waited by the reception desk for over an hour. He saw Melanie leave, her face blotched as if she had been crying. Her father followed her out of the dining room, a few minuteslater.
'Get yourself a bottle of bourbon, Abel - don't tell me we don't have one - and then join me in my suite.'
Abel picked up two bottles of bourbon from his safe and joined Leroy in the Presidential Suite on the twelfth floor, still wondering if Melanie had said anything to her father.
'Open the bottle and pour yourself a very large one, Abel,' Davis Leroy instructed.
Once again Abel felt the fear of the unknown. The palms of his hands began to sweat. Surely he was not going to be fired for wanting to marry the boss's daughter? He and Leroy had been friends for over a year now, close friends. He did not have to wait long to find out what the unknown was.
'Finish your bourbon.'
Abel put the drink down in one gulp, and Davis Leroy swallowed hi& 'Abel, I'm wiped out.' He paused, and poured both of them another drink.
'So is half America, come to think of it.'
Abel did not speak, partly because he.could not think of what to say.
They sat staring at each other for several minutes, then after another glass of bourbon, he managed, 'But you still own eleven hotels!
'Used to own,' said Davis Leroy. 'Have to put it in the past tense now, Abel. I no longer own any of them; the bank took possession of the freeholds last Thursday.'
'But they belong to you, they have been in your family for two generations,' said Abel.
'They were, They aren't any longer. Now they belong to a bank. There's no reason why you shouldn't know the whole truth, Abel; the same thing's happening to almost everyone in America right now, big or small. About ten years ago I borrowed two million dollars using the hotels as collateral and invested the money right across the board in stocks and bonds, fairly conservatively and in well - established companies. I built the capital up to nearly five million, which was one of the reasons the hotel losses'never bothered me too much - they were always tax deductible against the profit I was making in the market. Today I couldn't give those shares away. We may as well use them as toilet paper in the eleven hotels. For the last three weeks I've been selling as fast as'I can, but there are no buyers left. Ile bank foreclosed on my loan last Thursday? Abel couldnt help remembering that it was on a Thursday when he spoke to the banker. 'Most people who are affected by the crash have only pieces of paper to cover their loans, but in my case the bank who backed me has the deeds on the eleven hotels as security against their original loan.
So when the bottom dropped out, they immediately took possession of them.
The bastards have let me know that they intend to sell the group as quickly as possible!
'T'hat's madness. Theyll get nothing for them right now, and if they supported us through this period, together we could show them a good return on their investment!
'I know you could, Abel, but they have my past record to throw back in my face. I went up to their main office to sug gest just that. I explained about you and told them I would put all my time into the group if they would give us their backing, but they werent interested. They fobbed me off with some smooth young puppy who had a the text book answers about cash flows, no capital base and credit restric tions. By God, if I ever ge ' t back, I'll screw him personally and then his bank. Right now the best thing we can do is get ourselves uproariously drunk, because I am finished, penni less, bankrupt!
'I'llen so am I,' said Abel quietly.
'No, you have a great future ahead of you, son. Anyone who takes over this group couldret make a move without you!