Chapter One
Believe me, it is a definite shock to discover that one's
father was a blackmailer.
This happened to me one rainy Friday afternoon, about ten days after my
father's death. The rain was beating heavily against the library windows
and the room smelled strongly of the coal-burning fire and of old
leather book bindings. I was going through the drawers of Papa's desk to
clean them out when I found the documentation.
When at first I realized what I was holding, I was horrified. There were
five victims identified on Papa's list, four of whom he had caught
cheating at cards and one of whom he had found cheating on his wife (an
heiress). There was a file of the evidence he had accumulated against
each victim and an accounting of the amount of money that Papa had
succeeded in squeezing from each of them as well.
It amounted to quite a substantial sum.
I sat back on my heels and stared at the papers I had heaped on the old
red Turkish ca ... read full excerpt from The Gamble ebook
