Asbestos

By James D. Beeson

Other Beeson Books

Death in the Recovery Room
Kidnapping, Drugs, and Murders, Oh My!
Death by Plastic and Revenge, Oh Dear!
Death in the Preserve
Death and the Lottery Family
Redemption
The Wages of Sin Is
Damaged Merchandise
Max and Friends
Round Trip to Syria
Gods Little Deputies
Reaffirmation
Recycled

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 29, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984538024

James D. Beeson

James Beeson was an Indiana farm boy till his father died when he was ten. He was never without a job. His mother cobbled together the means for maintaining a home for him for the next seven years without the intrusion of any governmental or charitable institution. He skipped the twelfth grade, enlisted in the navy, and was sent to Notre Dame University for his premed studies in their college training program. He graduated from Indiana Medical School in 1949 at the age of twenty-two. He is a board-certified anesthesiologist (retired). He had five fine children by his first dear wife, who died in 2002. Two of his sons are also anesthesiologists. In 2003, he married his wife’s best friend, who was a widow. He retired in 1996 and was a caregiver for six years. He began writing books in 2009. He enjoys cruising, dinner with friends, Cubs’ baseball, Jaguar football, good Scotch, and the love of his adored wife. He is chronically happy and healthy as of 2016.

Book preview

CHARACTERS

CHAPTER ONE

This book is titled Asbestos. You’d think a novel mostly about one family would be like a simple genealogy search rather than a carcinogen indictment. Not so, Kokomo.

Sheldon Arthur was a successful entrepreneur. His father before him had made a bundle off prohibition contraband while adroitly avoiding those pesky government agents. Sheldon was an only son, so he inherited a million or so dollars’ worth of assets when his father died at the premature age of fifty-two. His father was a widower, hence the direct passage to Hector.

Dad was found all pink and dead in his garaged car, with a stomach full of barbiturates.

Obviously a suicide, the coroner intoned.

Oh, and the car was out of gas by then. That happens when you idle an engine for a bunch of hours. Newer cars have automatic engine shutoffs after idling for so long a time.

Carbon monoxide goes about elbowing oxygen out, competing for its receptors. You die, but you sure would look pink and pretty, early on.

Anyway, at the time, there was some whispering about possible foul play, but whispers didn’t bloom into police action. Oddly enough, dear old dad had become recently engaged to an enterprising young lady—like very young, twenty-one. She screamed about the aforementioned suspected foul play, but nobody expressed any sympathy for the little gold digger. She had missed grabbing the brass ring by one month. You know, wedding ring—brass—little play on words. Very little.

Sheldon had avoided the competition successfully. Patricidally inclined people don’t use barbiturates that much anymore.

CHAPTER TWO

Sheldon went to law school, graduated, and set up practice in Jacksonville. He piddled around for a year or so. Mind you, he was a millionaire, but he wanted to succeed on his own.

By chance, a potential client showed up on his doorstep, having just been diagnosed with mesothelioma, and he was wondering if his work for years in the shipyards had played any part in his malady. Kaging! (That’s the sound a cash register makes—or used to.)

This was at about the first time when the correlation was being made between asbestos and mesotheliomas.

The shipyard company he sued fought long and hard, and maybe the courtroom presence of the dying man moved the needle, but the jury did find for the plaintiff and suggested that a four-million-dollar judgment would be about right. The 2.6 million went to the tearfully grateful client, and 1.4 stayed with Sheldon.

He had friends on the local newspaper staff who front-paged his triumph. He was suddenly anointed as the guru for mesothelioma patients. He did other work too, but the cash cow was the asbestos, and he milked it for all it was worth.

Ultimately, the asbestos companies entered bankruptcy and a thirty-billion trust fund was established. Where the insurance companies covered clients during the period of exposure, they had been unable to get off the hook, even if they had canceled the policies subsequentially.

He soon took on a junior partner or two, which enhanced his efficiency and his bank account. Along the way, he married a lady from an old-money family, which turned out to be older than money. No matter. He had three sons. His eldest was twenty-five-year-old Anthony, who was almost finished with his own law school training. The other two sons were identical twins. They were seventeen and very ambitious.

He had an idyllic family, with a net worth of over twenty million dollars. What could go wrong?

CHAPTER THREE

Who you taking to the prom? Andy asked his twin brother, Art.

It’s a month away. Haven’t given it much thought. How about you?

I’m thinking of Peggy Patrick. She’s the one with the significantly modified sweat glands on the ventral aspect of her thorax.

They’re a lot like breasts, aren’t they?

Indeed, they are. I plan to investigate their authenticity.

I happen to know they’re for real.

Personal knowledge?

Wiggling his eyelids, Art said, Very personal.

Since we’re twins, we need to share more than our DNA.

Speaking of sharing, are you satisfied with Dad’s allowance?

I guess so. He antes up for any out-of-the-ordinary needs.

I wonder what his net worth is.

Millions. What are we going to do with all that money when Dad passes?

Buy the best headstones money can buy. I hope he lasts a long time.

May I remind you that you need to be twenty-five before the ship comes in.

I get mine first. I’m ten minutes older than you.

You think Tony’s ship has put in to port yet?

Well, he was twenty-five last week.

We need to get to know him better.

Because he’s twenty-five?

No. Because he’s our brother.

CHAPTER FOUR

Anthony (Tony) Arthur always felt left out of his younger twin brothers’ activities. It was not that he really cared all that much. Identical twins think identically.

Timing. It was always timing. He needed to know them better.

He had no trouble in finding girlfriends. Besides his family’s wealth, he was handsome, athletic, and articulate.

A female classmate, Doris Clay, in law school intrigued him. She was beautiful and smart as a whip. She was always friendly with him, but she was that way with everyone. He was used to easy pickings. She had indicated that she planned to stay in Jacksonville after she graduated. Everybody presumed Tony would affiliate with his father’s upscale group after he graduated. So did Tony.

One day, while awaiting a tardy teacher, Tony struck up a conversation with the adjacent Doris. They talked about this and that. What does your dad do? he asked her.

Pretty much what he wants to within reason.

Puzzled, he asked, What does that mean?

He’s in prison.

Open mouth, insert foot. I’m known for that. Sorry.

It’s okay. You’re the first one around here I’ve shared my little social stigma with.

Touched, he said, I’m good at keeping secrets.

It’s not a secret but hardly a credential, so I don’t dwell on it.

Tony wondered why her father was in prison but was not so indelicate to ask.

As the teacher was hurrying to his lectern, Tony whispered, Will you have dinner with me this evening?

Not hesitating, Doris answered, Yes.

To herself, she whispered, Just as I planned.

CHAPTER FIVE

Mrs. Burns says our 30 percent is too high and she wants a reduction.

What did you tell her? Sheldon Arthur asked his junior partner.

I said I’d approach you on it.

And she said?

She said she wanted to speak to you today. She was more than a little brusque.

Get the bitch on the phone for me!

This is Sheldon Arthur. What can I do for you that I’m not already doing?

Thank you for returning my call. I was talking with Ed [her husband], and he thought your fee might be a bit too high.

How were you faring before you came to me?

What do you mean?

Where was the money you paid for food before me?

Hesitant, she answered, Workman’s Comp.

How much do you have left in savings?

With a weaker voice, she replied, Nothing.

How have you been managing your mortgage payments?

Weaker still, she answered, Money you loaned us.

Who else offered you a loan?

With her weakest voice, she replied, Nobody.

If you don’t win your case, what will you do?

In tears, she answered, I don’t know.

I have never lost a case like yours, and I’ve done a lot of them. If you want to save money you don’t have on an amateur attorney, you’re certainly within your rights.

Defeated, she said, No! No! Please go ahead with us. Ed hasn’t been thinking all that straight since … since …

"I know you