Hidden Agenda

Langston didn't know what he expected to find in the office that once belonged to Emitt Matheson. After searching for over an hour he didn't find much of anything. He had hoped to locate something that would explain his father's behavior and the hold Matheson had on him, but all he found were a lot of old bills and receipts. Whatever he had that he used to keep his father in his grasp must be stored away somewhere. Since he didn't know the layout of the house, he didn't have a clue where it might be stashed.

He walked out of the office and looked around the rest of the house. He just imagined his father wandering though the house stealing some time with Lilly out of the sight of the Mathesons. He wished that his father had been brave enough to take a stand, but he knew in his heart that he would have suffered because of it and he understood why his father chose to keep it concealed.

Langston could hear Mavis and Emily upstairs moving around and he wondered if they found anything at all. He went back into the office and looked around the room. Where would someone hide something that they didn't want anyone else to know about? The office was large and he had searched the desk thoroughly. That would be an obvious place to look. He looked around. There were two chairs in front of the desk where he surmised that his father must have sat in on most occasions. The room was large and there wasn't much else in the room.

The walls were lined with bookshelves and he knew that it would take quite a while to look through all of those. There was an old stuffed rocker in the corner of the room opposite the desk. Why would anyone want a rocker in an office? It looked somewhat out of place.

Langston walked over to it and sat down. He rocked back and forth for a moment, surprised that it still worked and was quite comfortable. Still, he couldn't imagine anyone sitting in here rocking staring at Emitt Matheson and considering that to be a relaxing moment. Maybe Emily's mother sat there while he conducted business, but Langston couldn't imagine Emitt Matheson having warm and cozy moments with his daughter while he was conducting business.

He got up and turned the chair over. The bottom revealed wire and straw for the support. He then noticed that the cloth on the back of the chair was unraveling and someone had done a bad sewing job to fix it. He ran his hand across it and heard a slight crinkle like paper. He then gently pulled it back and could see that something had been stuffed in the back of the chair.

The paper was yellow with age and was neatly handwritten. He quickly realized that it was notes someone had taken...an agenda of sorts. It was dated July 1947 and had notes about President Truman's plan to abolish segregation in the military. It further stated that the Klan was meeting to discuss ways to hinder the plan. It was then followed by a note to talk to Langston.

Did Emitt Matheson try to use his father's vote to try to stop what the President was doing? He poked around the chair some more but didn't find anything further. He quickly folded the paper and put it in his jacket pocket.

                                           ((***))

Emily fell back on her mother's bed while Mavis sat next to her going through a box she had found in the closet.

"Aren't you tired yet?" she asked looking over at Mavis.

"I'm fine. I'm sitting." Mavis replied laughing. "You were the one climbing up into that closet and going up under the bed on your hands and knees."

"Look at me! I'm a mess!" Emily snapped. Mavis looked at her and smiled. She was dirty from crawling under the bed.

"You can take a shower if you want." Mavis replied. "There's still plenty of your things here."

"No thank you! I'll be fine til I get home" Emily replied sitting up. "What's in there anyway?"

Mavis sifted through the papers. "Well I found your birth certificate" she said grinning and placed it on the bed. She then pulled out a small pink diary.

"Look what I found" She turned it over in her hand. It was leather with a gold lock and not much bigger than her hand.

She handed it to Emily. "Is it yours?"

Emily shook her head. "I could never stay still long enough to do much writing."

She noticed that it was locked and wondered if she could open it without damaging it. "I can't open it" she said flipping it over. "I don't want to break the lock."

"You may not have to" Mavis replied taking it from her. "Sometimes you can trigger these locks with a hairpin. Hold on a minute."

She got up and fished around on the dresser and found a black hairpin and put it in the lock. It took several tries but them the lock popped open. She didn't open it but handed it to Emily instead.

Emily stared at it a moment and Mavis noticed that her hands shook slightly and she slowly opened it.

"My mama's writing" Emily said more to herself than to Mavis.

                                              ((***))

Matheson rode from the airport trying to get his thoughts together as to what he was going to say to his grandfather. He was tired of his meddling.

Since he had the day off, he caught an early flight to Daytona. He would return that evening.

He realized that the old man came from a different era and that his upcoming marriage would be a hard thing for him to digest, but he was not going to let him or anyone else interfere with his happiness.

He got out of the taxi and quickly paid the driver. He stood before the large brick house that belonged to his grandparents and walked up to the door and rang the bell.

A young woman answered the door that he didn't recognize. She looked to be no older than he was.

"May I help you?" she asked curiously.

"I'm Matheson Hendricks. I'm here to see my grandfather." Matheson replied.

The girl looked surprised. "Was he expecting you?"

Matheson crossed his arms across his chest and tried not to be irritated.

"Since when does a grandchild need an appointment to see his grandfather?" Matheson asked dryly.

The girl raised an eyebrow but didn't reply. She opened the door wider. "Come in and I'll tell him you're here"

"No need." Matheson replied walking briskly past her. "I assume he's in his study."

The girl started to protest and quickly followed him as he walked down the hall. "He asked not to be disturbed" she said weakly catching up to him. "I don't want to get into any trouble-"

"You won't" Matheson replied cutting her off. He reached the study door and knocked quickly and then opened it before walking in.

Matheson found his grandfather sitting behind his desk and a man was sitting in a chair across from him. He could tell that his grandfather was surprised to see him.

"Matheson! What are you doing here?" he asked jumping up. Matheson didn't reply but walked across the room uninvited. He stared at his grandfather's guest a moment and then looked back at him.

"We need to talk" he snapped.

"Mr. Hendricks, I told him that you didn't want to be disturbed-" the girl said nervously.

Matheson's grandfather waved his hand in a dismissive fashion. "Forget it, Heina." He said looking at Matheson. She then walked out and shut the door.

"What's so damn important that you would bust into my office and disturb my meeting, boy?" William Hendricks asked sitting back down.

"I want you to stop meddling in my life." Matheson replied.

"You came all the way down here to tell me that?" William Hendricks asked laughing. "Boy you could have saved yourself some plane fare."

"I mean it, Gramps." He looked at the man sitting in the seat across from his grandfather. "Who is this, one of your henchmen?"

"You make me sound like the mob or something." William Hendricks said sitting down. "Let me introduce you to my colleague, Mr. Jones."

Matheson nodded at the man and then turned back to his grandfather. Jones didn't reply but continued to look back and forth between the two of them.

"Look Gramps, I'm marrying Valysia next month. You need to check yourself. This marriage is going to happen." Matheson snapped.

William Hendricks smiled. Matheson reminded him of Emily when he got riled up.

His grandfather sat back in the chair. "Someone has to look out for the Hannah's interest! I didn't work all my life to have my business go down the toilet!"

"Hannah's is doing well, Gramps. What are you talking about?"

Matheson looked at Jones. "What did my grandfather hire you for?"

"You don't come into my home, boy and question me or my colleagues!" William Hendricks growled jumping up from his seat. "You got yourself a fresh piece of black ass and now you've lost your mind!"

"You will watch your mouth, Gramps!" Matheson replied not backing down.

William Hendricks walked around the desk and pointed to the chair next to Jones. "Sit, boy. There's a few things I need to enlighten you on!"

Matheson sat down and crossed his arms across his chest. "Fine, but nothing you say will change my mind"

"I still own 51 percent of the business, boy." William Hendricks replied pointing his finger in Matheson's face. "Of course I'd promised that portion to your father in my will and I was going to leave you and the rest of my grandchildren cash, but I'm not giving you a dime if you go through with this marriage and I'm not giving your father the business either!"

"You can't do that Gramps! Pop has been running the business for years. You can't just cut him off." Matheson gasped clearly shocked.

"I can and I will" Gramps replied bringing his face close to his grandsons. "Your uncle and aunt still own five percent of the business each with your father owning the rest. He wanted to buy them out years ago and they did sell him a portion of their ownership, but Gregory only has 39 percent which is much less than my 51 percent. If you marry that girl, you won't get a dime of my money!"

"I don't need your money" Matheson snapped back.

"Perhaps not" Gramps replied smugly walking back to his desk. "However I know you'd hate to see Hannah's sold to the highest bidder."

"You would never do that!" Matheson snapped. "Hannah's is a family business."

"Exactly and that girl is not our family. You had better think long and hard about this. " he said calmly. "I'd rather sell at a profit rather than have the business go down the tubes because of your interracial mess."

"I've tried to tell you that the business is fine, Gramps. Just because I'm marrying a black girl does not mean that the business will suffer." Matheson said trying to reason with him.

"How do you know that this marriage will work? She could divorce you and sue you for all you're worth. I've already been told that you won't make her sign a prenup. That puts yourself as well as Hannah's at risk!" William Hendricks replied in contempt.

"Is that what this is all about? You're worried about the marriage ending before it even begins?" Matheson replied. "My marriage could end if I married a white girl or any other girl. You're not making sense! Valysia is a wonderful and decent woman. She loves me and I love her. You don't know anything about her!"

"Actually, I've had Jones here checking into your girl's background. Did you know her father went off the deep end after her mother died? The poor weak sap, couldn't recover from her death. He was an alcoholic! The wife died of cancer, and your girl has promiscuous family members. Her grandfather on her father's side of the family was a numbers runner. There are several unsavory members of her family that have a criminal background. I bet you didn't even know that!"

"What has that got to do with Val?" Matheson hissed. "I'm sure you're telling me all this about her family because you couldn't find anything on her to throw up in my face."

Jones pulled out his notebook and began to flip through it. "She doesn't have any assets to speak of" he said. "She does have a car note and a few credit cards. Her credit score is about 650."

"I can't believe you did this" Matheson snapped glaring at his grandfather.

"She hardly dated before you..." Jones continued reading ignoring Matheson's outburst.

"I guess I'll have to believe your virgin story" Gramps replied interrupting Jones. "Though one guy that took her out called her...uh what was it Jonsey?"

"Frigid." Jones replied.

"She's hardly frigid" Matheson hissed turning to Gramps. "You've gone too far, Gramps. I can't believe you had Val investigated!"

"I'm only looking out for your best interest." he replied totally unaffected by Matheson's anger.

"No you're not." Matheson countered. "You're trying to find something on Val that will make me break up with her."

Gramps sighed and relaxed back in his chair. "Well I could only hope. However, I can see that your mind is made up...especially knowing that you've been her only lover."

Matheson stood up. "Look, I came down here to reason with you. I can see that's not going to happen. I won't succumb to your threats against me, Val or my father. You can't run Hannah's on your own and I can tell you without a doubt that if you do this, you will lose your son and your daughter in law."

"Emily loves me" Gramps replied. He knew Emily was high strung, but he didn't like getting on her bad side. He knew that she was crazy about that woman...what's her name that raised her, but this was business!

"But I'm her son, and don't you forget it!" Matheson continued. "She will be very upset with you... and will cut you off! Remember that if it wasn't for her money, Hannah's wouldn't be what it is today!"

A thought suddenly hit him. "Wait a minute...doesn't my mother have a part ownership since she invested her money years ago?"

William suddenly looked sheepish. "Well...maybe a few shares."

"A few shares?" Matheson asked in disbelief. He quickly pulled out his phone and dialed his mother.

"What are you doing?" Gramps said trying not to panic.

"I'm calling Mom and asking her exactly how many shares she owns in the company."

"There's no need to do that" Gramps replied. "Emily has always sided with me in business matters."

"You're crazy if you think Ma's going to go along with this. You must have dementia or something." Matheson snapped listening to the phone ring as he held it in his hand. He watched as his grandfather shifted nervously in his seat.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Ma. It's Matheson." he said looking at his Grandfather.

"Matheson! Son is everything alright? Where are you?"

"In Florida, Ma."

"Florida? Are you visiting your grandparents? Where's Valysia?"

She's at home" Matheson replied. "I called to ask you how many shares do you own in Hannah's. What percentage of the company do you own?"

"Actually, I don't have any Hannah shares." Emily replied. "I signed them over to you father years ago. I think it was about 25 percent. Why do you ask?"

"Well Gramps is threatening to sell the business if I marry Valysia." He watched as his Grandfather jumped up and came around the desk trying to grab the phone out of his hand. "He says he had 51 percent of the business."

"He can't do that. No that's not right..." Emily was saying as he dodged his Grandfather's grasp. "I believe your father already had thirty percent before I gave him my share. I'm sure that he has controlling interest in the company, Matheson. You will have to ask your father when you get back. Don't worry about your grandfather. He's all bark and no bite."

"Thanks, Ma." Matheson replied snapping the phone shut.

"You think you're pretty smart, don't you?" Gramps snapped clearly angry that he had been outsmarted.

Matheson laughed. "It seems you can't sell something you don't own, Gramps."

"Hmph!" Gramps replied pulling a cigar out of the box on his desk and lighting it up. "I was just testing you. I wanted to know for sure if you were really in love with this woman."

Matheson rolled his eyes. "I told you that I'm marrying her and nothing you say and no dirt you can dig up will change that."

"Well it's your funeral!" Gramps snapped back.

Matheson snickered. "So are you coming or not? If you are, I want you on your best behavior."

Gramps puffed the cigar and glared at him. "I hope you don't think I'm going to be happy about this!"

"You don't have to be happy, just well behaved" Matheson replied grinning. He turned to Jonesy. "Make sure he pays you will for all your hard detective work!"

"Oh, he pays very well" Jonesy replied smiling.

Matheson glanced at his Grandfather who was still puffing away on his cigar and glaring at him. "Hmph!" he replied totally disgusted by the turn of events.

Matheson chuckled and walked out of the den.