The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

'I'll find a way.' An hour and one telephone call later, the realtor took a
cashier's check for fifty thousand dollars from her banker husband. Russell had
directions to the local furniture and appliance store. After an hour there,
Marvin purchased a white Ford van from the local dealership and drove it to the
ranch. He parked it in one of the barns. He'd be keeping the rental for a while.
He would spend one more night in the motel, then settle into his new house. He
did not feel any sense of accomplishment. There was much left to do.
***
Cathy Ryan found herself paying closer attention to the newspapers now. They
were good for reporting scandals and leaks, and she now had the interest in such
things that she had lacked before, especially for the byline of Robert Holtzman.
Unfortunately, the new articles on the problems at CIA were more general,
concentrating mainly on changes within the Soviet Union that she had difficulty
understanding. It just wasn't an area in which she had much interest – as Jack
didn't much care about the developments in eye surgery that his wife was very
excited about. Finally, there did come a piece about financial impropriety and a
'very senior official.' That was the second such item and she realized that if
it were Jack, she had all the investigatorial documents there in her own home.
It was a Sunday, and Jack was away at work again, leaving her at home with the
kids again. The kids enjoyed this chilly morning in front of the TV. Cathy Ryan
went into the financial files.
They were a disaster. Money management was another thing that failed to interest
Dr Caroline Ryan, and Jack assumed the duties more or less by default, just as
cooking fell into her domain. She didn't even know the filing system, and was
certain that Jack never expected her to wade into this colossal mess of
documents. Along the way, she learned that the blind trust that managed their
stock portfolio was doing rather well at the moment. Ordinarily, she just saw
the year-end earnings statements. Money didn't interest her very much. The house
was paid off. The kids' education funds were already set up. The Ryan family
actually lived off the combined income of the two Doctors Ryan, which allowed
their investments to grow, while complicating their annual taxes, which was also
something that Jack – who still had his CPA certification – took care of, with
the aid of the family's attorney. The most recent statement of net worth drew a
gasp. Cathy decided to add the money manager to the Christmas card list. But
that was not what she was after. She found it at two-thirty in the afternoon.
The file was simply marked 'Zimmer,' and was naturally enough in the last drawer
she got to.
The Zimmer file was several inches thick. She sat cross-legged on the floor
before opening it, her head already aching from eyestrain and the Tylenol which
she should have taken but hadn't. The first document was a letter from Jack to
an attorney – not their regular attorney, the one who did their wills and taxes
and the other routine work – instructing him to set up an educational trust fund
for seven children, a number which had been changed to eight several months
later, Cathy saw. The trust fund had been set up with an initial investment of
over half a million dollars, and managed as a stock portfolio through the same
managers who did part of the Ryan family account. Cathy was surprised to see
that Jack did actually make recommendations for this account, something that he