Sophie Mayor stuck her neck out, and for a while she was a genius. Then Clu fails the drug test, and presto, she's an idiotic bimbo who should let the men run things."
"So tell me about her background."
"Background?"
"Yes. I want to get a feel for her."
"Why?" Bruce asked. Then: "Ah, what the hell. She's from Kansas, I think, or Iowa or Indiana or Montana. Someplace like that. An aged Ivory Girl type. Loves fishing, hunting, all that nature stuff. She was also something of a math prodigy. Came East to go to MIT. That's where she met Gary Mayor. They got married and lived most of their lives as science professors. He taught at Brandeis; she taught at Tufts. They developed a software program for personal finance in the early eighties and suddenly went from middle-class professors to millionaires. They took the company public in '94 and changed the m to a b."
"The m to a b?"
"Millionaire to billionaire."
"Oh."
"So the Mayors did what lots of superwealthy people do: They bought a sports franchise. In this case, the Yankees. Gary Mayor grew up loving them. It was going to be a nice toy for him, but of course he never got to enjoy it."
Myron cleared his throat. "And they, uh, have children?" Senor Subtle-ol
"They had two. You know Jared. He's actually a pretty good kid, smart, went to your alma mater, Duke. But everyone hates him because he got the job through nepotism. His main responsibility is to keep an eye on Mommy's investment. My understanding is that he's actually pretty good at that and that he leaves the baseball to the baseball guys."
"Uh-huh."
"Theyalso have a daughter. Or had a daughter."
With great effort, Win sighed, closed the closet door. So difficult to pull himself away from a mirror. He sat across from Myron looking, as always, completely at ease. Myron cleared his throat and said into the phone, "What do you mean, had a daughter?"
"The daughter's very estranged. Don't you remember the story?"
"Vaguely. She ran away, right?"
"Right. Her name was Lucy. She took off with a boyfriend, some grunge musician, a few weeks before her eighteenth birthday. This was, I don't know, ten, fifteen years ago. Before the Mayors had any money."
"So where does she live now?"
"Well, that's the thing. No one knows."
"I don't understand."
"She ran away, that much is known for sure. She left them a note, I think. She was going to hit the road with her boyfriend and seek her fortune, the usual teenage stuff. Sophie and Gary Mayor were typical East Coast college professors who read too much Dr. Spock, so they gave their daughter 'space,' figuring of course that she'd come back."
"But she didn't."
"Duh."
"And they never heard from her?"
"Duh again."
"But I remember reading about this a few years ago. Didn't they start a search for her or something?"
"Yeah. First off, the boyfriend came back after a few months. They'd broken up and gone their separate ways. Big shock, right? Anyway, he didn't know where she went. So the Mayors called the police, but they treated it like no big deal. Lucy was eighteen by this time, and she had clearly run away on her own. There was no evidence of foul play or anything and remember that this was before the Mayors had beaucoup bucks."
"And after they became rich?"
"Sophie and Gary tried to find her again. They made it like a search for the missing heiress. The tabloids loved it for a while. There were some wild reports but nothing concrete. Some say Lucy moved overseas. Some say she's living in a commune somewhere. Some say she's dead. Whatever. They never found her, and there was still no sign of foul play, so the story eventually petered out."
Silence. Win looked at Myron and arched an eyebrow. Myron shook his head.
"So why the interest?" Bruce asked.
"I just want to get a feel for the Mayors."
"Uh-huh."
"No big deal."
"Okay, I buy that. Not."
"It's the truth," Myron lied. "And how about using a more up-to-date reference? No one says not anymore."
"They don't?" Pause: "Guess I gotta watch more MTV. But Vanilla Ice is still hip, right?"
"Ice, ice, baby."
"Fine, okay, we'll play it your way for now, Myron. But I don't know anything else about Lucy Mayor. You can try a search on Lexis. The papers might have more detail."
"Good idea, thanks. Listen, Bruce, I got another call coming in."