Read Online Justice Done by Jan Burke - Free Book Online

men exclaimed. “A mere state senator at the moment, but with your grandmother’s generous help, I may trade Sacramento for Washington, D.C.” He extended a hand. “Archer Hastings, my dear, at your service.”
    â€œA pleasure to meet you, Senator,” Sarah said, now realizing why he seemed familiar. She was sure she had seen him on the evening news once or twice. He wasn’t the senator for their district, but Ada had many political friends, not all of them her own representatives.
    When Ada introduced the second man, Gerald Dolman, the retired army captain turned crimson and nodded in Sarah’s direction, but did not meet her eyes. He was a thin man with a prominent Adam’s apple. It bobbed as he swallowed nervously. She wondered why he was so flustered over meeting her, but soon decided he was merely shy—he would not, in fact, look directly at any of the others, and the blush which had stolen over his neck and face remained throughout the time he sat with them.
    Archer Hastings had no such reticence. He gave the others a quick biography of himself, a sort of résumé from the time he was a paperboy in the 1930s. He spoke at length about his enlistment in the army, his service (mostly behind a desk) during World War II. By the time he was telling them about his return to California and his establishment of an accounting firm, the drinks had arrived. What a pompous ass , Sarah thought, but Hastings was only warming up.
    â€œHave you had a chance to tour the ship?” Ada was asking him.
    â€œYes, yes. Wonderful! Wonderful place for this lovely lady to celebrate her birthday,” he said to the others. “I’m certainly looking forward to that party tonight. The Grand Salon. Used to be the first class dining room. Largest single public room ever built on a ship. You could fit all three of Christopher Columbus’s ships in there and still have space left over. Have you seen it yet, Sarah? No? Oh, you must see it. Probably won’t let you in while they’re getting ready for the big to-do, but”—he winked conspiratorially—“you have friends in high places. Then of course, you will see it tonight, won’t you? Yes, a grand ship.”
    Captain Dolman was making quick progress through his drink as Hastings went on.
    â€œA symbol of triumph over the Great Depression, that’s what it was to the British,” the politician said.
    â€œYes,” Robert Parsons said, “she was a symbol of hope.”
    For reasons Sarah could not understand, this caused Captain Dolman and Ada to look at him sharply. But Hastings was oblivious.
    â€œI’ve always liked the British,” he was saying. “Don’t you like them? Sure. Like to do things on a grand scale—just like you, Ada. Say, did you know that if you measure from the Queen Mary ’s keel to the top of her forward funnel, this ship is one hundred and eighty feet tall? That makes her eighteen feet taller than Niagara Falls! Now, that’s something, but her length is spectacular. If you could stand this ship on end, it would be taller than the Washington Monument. Taller than the Eiffel Tower, too. In fact, the Empire State Building would only be two hundred feet taller.”
    â€œTwo hundred and thirty feet,” Sarah said without thinking.
    Parsons smiled, Ada laughed, and Captain Dolman nervously rattled the ice in his glass, which he was studying intently. Archer Hastings seemed taken aback until he noticed Ada’s reaction, then burst into hearty guffaws. Sarah felt her own cheeks turning red, and wondered if her complexion now matched Captain Dolman’s.
    â€œI warned you, Archer,” Ada said. “She’s a wonder with numbers. As addicted to facts and figures as you are.”
    â€œReally?” Hastings seemed unable to resist the challenge of testing this claim. “I suppose you know about the anchors?”
    Sarah hesitated, but