Read Online Where Love Has Gone by Harold Robbins - Free Book Online Page A

Sculpture.”
    Sam looked at her with a new and sudden respect. There had been rumors to that effect, but the names of the nominees were very closely guarded. Especially since this was the first award to be given since the war.
    “How do you know?” he asked grudgingly. Even he hadn’t been able to get any confirmation. “It doesn’t matter,” she said briskly. “What is important is that I do know.”
    “Good. I’m very happy for Nora. I hope she gets it. She deserves it.”
    “That’s what I wanted to see you about. I want to be sure that she does get it.” Sam stared at her. He didn’t speak.
    “Money can be a terrible handicap sometimes,” Mrs. Hayden continued. “Especially in the arts.
    I would like to make certain that my daughter’s wealth doesn’t adversely affect her chances.” “I’m sure it wouldn’t, Mrs. Hayden. The judges are above that sort of thing.”
    “No one is above prejudice of one sort or another,” she said definitely. “And at the moment it seems to me that the whole liberal arts world is oriented to the Communistic ideology. Almost everything accomplished by anyone outside that group is automatically rejected as bourgeois and unimportant.”
    “Aren’t you rather oversimplifying it?”
    “Am I?” she countered, looking directly at him. “You tell me. Almost every major art award during the past few years has been won by an artist who if not actually Communistic was at least closely aligned with them.”
    Sam had no reply. She was very nearly correct. “Supposing I did agree with you. I still don’t see what can be done about it. The Eliofheim can’t be bought.”
    “I know that. But we both know that no one is beyond influencing, beyond the power of suggestion. The judges are only human.”
    “Where would I start? It would take some very important people to make them listen.”
    “I was talking to Bill Hearst at San Simeon the other day,” she said. “He felt very strongly that Nora deserved the award. He felt it would be a triumph for Americanism.”
    Now it was beginning to make sense. He should have known right away where her information had come from. “Hearst could be helpful. Who else?”
    “Your friend Professor Bell, for one,” she said. “And Hearst has already talked to Bertie McCormick in Chicago. He’s very much interested too. There must be many others, I’m sure, if you’d put your mind to it.”
    “It would take a lot of doing. This is February, so we have less than three months before the awards are announced in May. Even then we couldn’t be sure.”
    She picked up a sheet of paper from her desk. “Your salary at the newspaper is about forty-five hundred. In addition to that you average approximately two thousand dollars for magazine articles and miscellaneous pieces.” She looked over at him. “That’s not really very much money, is it, Mr. Corwin?”
    Sam shook his head. “Not very much, Mrs. Hayden.”
    “You have expensive tastes, Mr. Corwin,” she continued. “You have a nice apartment. You live well, even if not entirely within your means. For the past few years you’ve been running into debt at an average of a little more than three thousand dollars a year.”
    He smiled. “I don’t worry too much about my debts.”
    “I realize that, Mr. Corwin. I understand that a good deal of that money is never repaid in cash, but in favors. Would I be too far off if I assumed that your overall income is in the neighborhood of ten thousand a year?”
    He nodded. “You wouldn’t be far off.”
    She put the sheet of paper back on the desk. “I’m prepared to pay you ten thousand dollars for your assistance in securing the Eliofheim Aware for my daughter. If she get it, we will enter into a ten-year contract guaranteeing you twenty thousand a year, plus ten percent of her gross earnings.”
    Sam calculated swiftly. At Nora’s present rate of output she should be able to gross between fifty and a hundred thousand a year if she won