The Stars Shine Down

chapter Sixteen
The following Monday Lara had a visitor.

"There's a Mr. O'Brian here to see you from the city planning commissioner's office, Miss Cameron."

"What about?"

"He didn't say."

Lara buzzed Keller on the intercom. "Will you come in here, Howard?" She said to the secretary, "Send Mr. O'Brian in."

Andy O'Brian was a burly red-faced Irishman with a slight brogue. "Miss Cameron?"

Lara remained seated behind her desk. "Yes. What can I do for you, Mr. O'Brian?"

"I'm afraid you're in violation of the law, Miss Cameron."

"Really? What is this all about?"

"You own the Dorchester Apartments on East Fourteenth Street?"

"Yes."

"We have a report that about a hundred homeless people have crowded into those apartments."

"Oh, that." Lara smiled. "Yes, I thought that since the city wasn't doing anything about the homeless, I would help out. I'm giving them shelter."

Howard Keller walked into the room.

"This is Mr. Keller. Mr. O'Brian."

The two men shook hands.

Lara turned to Keller. "I was just explaining how we're helping the city out by providing housing."

"You invited them in, Miss Cameron?"

"That's right."

"Do you have a license from the city?"

"A license for what?"

"If you're setting up a shelter, it has to be approved by the city. There are certain strict conditions that are enforced."

"I'm sorry. I wasn't aware of that. I'll arrange for the license immediately."

"I don't think so."

"What does that mean?"

"We've had complaints from the tenants in the building. They say you're trying to force them out."

"Nonsense."

"Miss Cameron, the city is giving you forty-eight hours to move those homeless people out of there. And when they leave, we have an order for you to take down the boards that you put up to cover the windows."

Lara was furious. "Is that all?"

"No, ma'am. The tenant who has the roof garden says you put up a sign blocking his view. You'll have to take that down, too."

"What if I won't?"

"I think you will. All this comes under harassment. You'll save yourself a lot of trouble and unpleasant publicity by not forcing us to take you to court." He nodded and said, "Have a nice day."

They watched him walk out of the office.

Keller turned to Lara. "We'll have to get all those people out of there."

"No." She sat there, thinking.

"What do you mean 'no'? The man said..."

"I know what he said. I want you to bring in more homeless. I want that building packed with street people. We're going to stall. Call Terry Hill. Tell him the problem. Have him get a stay or something. We've got to get those six tenants out by the end of the month or it's going to cost us three million dollars."

The intercom buzzed. "Dr. Peters is on the phone."

Lara picked up the telephone. "Hello, Alan."

"I just wanted to tell you that we finished the operation. It looks like we got it all. Kathy's going to be fine."

"That's wonderful news. When can I visit her?"

"You can come by this afternoon."

"I'll do that. Thanks, Alan. See that I get all the bills, will you?"

"Will do."

"And you can tell the hospital to expect a donation. Fifty thousand dollars."

Lara said to Tricia, "Fill her room with flowers." She looked at her schedule. "I'll go down to see her at four o'clock."

Terry Hill arrived at the office. "There's a warrant for your arrest coming in."

"What?"

"Weren't you warned to get those homeless people out of the building?"

"Yes, but..."

"You can't get away with this, Lara. There's an old adage: 'Don't fight City Hall, you can't win.'"

"Are they really going to arrest me?"

"You're damn right they are. You were given notice by the city to get those people out of there."

"All right," Lara said. "Let's get them out." She turned to Keller. "Remove them, but don't put them out on the street. That isn't right... We have those empty rooming houses that we're waiting to convert in the West Twenties. Let's put them there. Take all the help you need. I want them gone in an hour."

She turned to Terry Hill. "I'll be out of here, so they can't serve me. By the time they do, the problem will be solved."

The intercom buzzed. "There are two gentlemen here from the district attorney's office."

Lara motioned to Howard Keller. He walked over to the intercom and said, "Miss Cameron isn't here."

There was a silence. "When do you expect her?"

Keller looked at Lara. Lara shook her head. Keller said into the intercom, "We don't know." He flicked the key up.

"I'll go out the back way," Lara said.

Lara hated hospitals. A hospital was her father lying in bed, pale and suddenly old. "What the bluidy hell are you doin' here? You've work to dae at the boardinghouse."

Lara walked into Kathy's room. It was filled with flowers. Kathy was sitting up in bed.

"How do you feel?" Lara asked.

Kathy smiled. "The doctor said I'm going to be fine."

"You'd better be. Your work is piling up. I need you."

"I...I don't know how to thank you for all this."

"Don't."

Lara picked up the bedside phone and put a call through to her office. She spoke to Terry Hill.

"Are they still there?"

"They're still here. They intend to stay until you return."

"Check with Howard. As soon as he clears the street people out of the building, I'll come back."

Lara replaced the receiver.

"If you need anything, let me know," Lara said. "I'll be back to see you tomorrow."

Lara's next stop was at the architectural offices of Higgins, Almont & Clark. She was ushered in to see Mr. Clark. He rose as she walked into his office.

"What a nice surprise. What can I do for you, Miss Cameron?"

"Do you have the plans here for the project on Fourteenth Street?"

"Yes, indeed."

He went over to his drawing board. "Here we are."

There was a sketch of a beautiful high rise complex with apartment buildings and shops around it.

"I want you to redraw it," Lara said.

"What?"

Lara pointed to a space in the middle of the block. "There's a building still standing in this area. I want you to draw the same concept, but construct it around that building."

"You mean you want to put up the project with one of the old buildings still standing? It would never work. First of all, it would look terrible and..."

"Just do it, please. Send it over to my office this afternoon."

And Lara was gone.

From the car she telephoned Terry Hill. "Have you heard from Howard yet?"

"Yes. The squatters have all been cleared out."

"Good. Get the district attorney on the phone. Tell him that I had ordered those squatters out two days ago and that there was a lack of communication. The minute I heard about it, today, I had them moved out. I'm on my way back to the office now. See if he still wants to arrest me."

She said to the driver, "Drive through the park. Take your time."

Thirty minutes later, when Lara reached her office, the men with the warrant were gone.

Lara was in a meeting with Howard Keller and Terry Hill.

"The tenants still won't budge," Keller said. "I even went back and offered them more money. They're not leaving. We've only got five days left before we have to begin bulldozing."

Lara said, "I asked Mr. Clark to draw up a new blueprint for the project."

"I saw it," Keller said. "It doesn't make any sense. We can't leave that old building standing in the middle of a new giant construction. We're going to have to go to the bank and ask them if they'll move back the start date."

"No," Lara said. "I want to move it up."

"What?"

"Get hold of the contractor. Tell him we want to start bulldozing tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? Lara..."

"First thing in the morning. And take that blueprint and give it to the foreman of the construction crew."

"What good will that do?" Keller asked.

"We'll see."

The following morning the remaining tenants of the Dorchester Apartments were awakened by the roar of a bulldozer. They looked out of their windows. Halfway down the block, as they watched, a mechanical behemoth was moving toward them, leveling everything in its path. The tenants were stunned.

Mr. Hershey, who lived on the top floor, rushed outside and hurried over to the foreman. "What do you think you're doing?" he screamed. "You can't go ahead with this."

"Who says so?"

"The city does." Hershey pointed to the building he lived in. "You're not permitted to touch that building."

The foreman looked at the blueprint in front of him. "That's right," he said. "We have orders to leave that building standing."

Hershey frowned. "What? Let me see that." He looked at the plan and gasped. "They're going to put up the plaza and leave this building standing?"

"That's right, mister."

"But they can't do that! The noise and dirt!"

"That's not my problem. Now, if you'll get out of my way, I'd like to get back to work."

Thirty minutes later Lara's secretary said, "There's a Mr. Hershey on line two, Miss Cameron."

"Tell him I'm not available."

When Hershey called for the third time that afternoon, Lara finally picked up the phone and spoke with him.

"Yes, Mr. Hershey. What can I do for you?"

"I'd like to come in and see you, Miss Cameron."

"I'm afraid I'm rather busy. Whatever it is you have to say you can say on the phone."

"Well, you'll be glad to know that I've talked to the other tenants in our building and we've agreed that it might be best after all to take your offer and vacate our apartments."

"That offer is no longer good, Mr. Hershey. You can all stay where you are."

"If you build around us, we're never going to get any sleep!"

"Who told you we were going to build around you?" Lara demanded. "Where did you get that information?"

"The foreman on the job showed me a blueprint and..."

"Well, he's going to be fired." There was fury in Lara's voice. "That was confidential information."

"Wait a minute. Let's talk like two reasonable people, okay? Your project would be better off if we got out of here, and I think we'd be better off leaving. I don't want to live in the middle of a damned high rise."

Lara said, "It doesn't matter to me whether you go or stay, Mr. Hershey." Her voice softened. "I'll tell you what I'll do. If that building is vacated by next month I'm willing to go with our first offer."

She could hear him thinking it over.

Finally he said reluctantly, "Okay. I'll talk to the others, but I'm sure it will be all right. I really appreciate this, Miss Cameron."

Lara said, "It's been my pleasure, Mr. Hershey."

The following month, work on the new project began in earnest.

Lara's reputation was growing. Cameron Enterprises was putting up a high rise in Brooklyn, a shopping center in Westchester, a mall in Washington, D.C. There was a lowcost housing project being constructed in Dallas and a block of condominiums in Los Angeles. Capital flowed in from banks, savings and loan companies, and eager private investors. Lara had become a Name.

Kathy had returned to work.

"I'm back."

Lara studied her a moment. "How do you feel?"

Kathy smiled. "Great. Thanks to..."

"Do you have a lot of energy?"

She was surprised at the question. "Yes. I..."

"Good. You're going to need it. I'm making you my executive assistant. There will be a nice raise for you."

"I don't know what to say. I..."

"You've earned it."

Lara saw the memo in Kathy's hand. "What's that?"

"Gourmet magazine would like to publish your favorite recipe. Are you interested?"

"No. Tell them I'm too...wait a minute." She sat there a moment, lost in thought. Then she said softly, "Yes. I'll give them a recipe."

The recipe appeared in the magazine three months later.

It began:

Black Bun - A classic Scottish dish. A mixture encased in a short paste jacket made from half a pound of flour, a quarter pound of butter, a touch of cold water, and a half a teaspoon of baking power. Inside are two pounds of raisins, half a pound of chopped almonds, three-quarters of a pound of flour, half a pound of sugar, two teaspoons of allspice, a teaspoon of ground ginger, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a half teaspoon of baking powder, and a dash of brandy...

Lara looked at the article for a long time, and it brought back the taste of it, the smell of the boardinghouse kitchen, the noise of the boarders at supper. Her father helpless in his bed. She put the magazine away.

People recognized Lara on the street, and when she walked into a restaurant, there were always excited whispers. She was escorted around town by half a dozen eligible suitors and had flattering proposals, but she was not interested. In a strange, almost eerie way, she was still looking for someone. Someone familiar. Someone she had never met.

Lara would wake up at five o'clock every morning and have her driver, Max, take her to one of the buildings under construction. She would stand there, staring at what she was creating, and she thought, You were wrong, Father. I can collect the rents.

For Lara, the sounds of the day began with the rat-a-tat-tat of the jackhammers, the roar of the bulldozers, the clanging of heavy metal. She would ride the rickety construction elevator to the top and stand on the steel girders with the wind blowing in her face, and she thought, I won this city.

Paul Martin and Lara were in bed.

"I hear you chewed out a couple of your construction workers pretty good today."

"They deserved it," Lara said. "They were doing sloppy work."

Paul grinned. "At least you've learned not to slap them."

"Look what happened when I did slap one." She snuggled up to him. "I met you."

"I have to take a trip to L.A.," Paul said. "I'd like you to come with me. Can you get away for a few days?"

"I'd love to, Paul, but it's impossible. I schedule my days with a stopwatch."

He sat up and looked down at her. "Maybe you're doing too much, baby. Don't ever get too busy for me."

Lara smiled and began to stroke him. "Don't worry about that. It will never happen."

It had been there in front of her all the time, and she had not seen it. It was a huge waterfront property in the Wall Street area, near the World Trade Center. And it was for sale. Lara had passed it a dozen times, but she looked at it now and saw what should have been there all along: In her mind, she could see the world's tallest building. She knew what Howard was going to say: "You're getting in over your head, Lara. You can't get involved with this." But she knew that nothing was going to stop her.

When she got to the office, she called a meeting of her staff.

"The Wall Street property on the waterfront," Lara said. "We're going to buy it. We're going to put up the tallest skyscraper in the world."

"Lara..."

"Before you say anything, Howard, let me point out a few things. The location is perfect. It's in the heart of the business district. Tenants will be fighting to get office space there. And remember, it's going to be the tallest skyscraper in the world. That's a big sizzle. It's going to be our flagship. We'll call it Cameron Towers."

"Where's the money coming from?"

Lara handed him a piece of paper.

Keller was examining the figures. "You're being optimistic."

"I'm being realistic. We're not talking about just any building. We're talking about a jewel, Howard."

He was thinking hard. "You'll be stretching yourself thin."

Lara smiled. "We've done that before, haven't we?"

Keller said, thoughtfully, "The tallest skyscraper in the world..."

"That's right. And the banks call us every day, throwing money at us. They'll jump at this."

"They probably will," Keller said. He looked at Lara. "You really want this, don't you?"

"Yes."

Keller sighed. He looked around at the group. "All right. The first step is to take an option on the property."

Lara smiled. "I've already done that. And I have some other news for you. Steve Murchison was negotiating for that property."

"I remember him. We took that hotel site away from him in Chicago."

"I'm going to let it go this time, bitch, because I don't think you know what the hell you're doing. But in the future, stay out of my way - you could get hurt."

"Right." Murchison had become one of the most ruthless and successful real estate developers in New York. Keller said, "Lara, he's bad news. He enjoys destroying people."

"You worry too much."

The financing for Cameron Towers went smoothly. Lara had been right. The bankers felt that there was a sizzle to the tallest skyscraper in the world. And the name of Cameron was an added cachet. They were eager to be associated with her.

Lara was more than a glamorous figure. She was a symbol to the women of the world, an icon. If she can accomplish this, why not me? A perfume was named after her. She was invited to all the important social events, and hostesses were eager to have her at their dinner parties. Her name on a building seemed to ensure success.

"We're going to start our own construction company," Lara decided one day. "We have the crews. We'll rent them out to other builders."

"That's not a bad idea," Keller said.

"Let's go for it. How soon are we going to break ground for Cameron Towers?"

"The deal's in place. I would say three months from now."

Lara sat back in her chair. "Can you imagine it, Howard? The tallest skyscraper in the world."

He wondered what Freud would have made of that.

The ground-breaking ceremony for Cameron Towers had the atmosphere of a three-ring circus. America's Princess, Lara Cameron, was the main attraction. The event had been heavily publicized in the newspapers and on television, and a crowd of more than two hundred people had gathered, waiting for Lara to arrive. When her white limousine pulled up to the building site, there was a roar from the crowd.

"There she is!"

As Lara stepped out of the car and moved toward the building site to greet the mayor, police and security guards held the crowd back. The people pushed forward, screaming and calling her name, and the photographers' flashbulbs began popping.

In a special roped-off section were the bankers, heads of advertising agencies, company directors, contractors, project managers, community representatives, and architects. One hundred feet away, large bulldozers and backhoes were standing by, ready to go to work. Fifty trucks were lined up to cart the rubble away.

Lara was standing next to the mayor and the Manhattan borough president. It had started to drizzle. Jerry Townsend, head of public relations for Cameron Enterprises, hurried toward Lara with an umbrella. She smiled and waved him away.

The mayor spoke into the cameras. "Today is a great day for Manhattan. This ground-breaking ceremony at Cameron Towers marks the beginning of one of the largest real estate projects in Manhattan's history. Six blocks of Manhattan real estate will be converted into a modern community that will include apartment buildings, two shopping centers, a convention center, and the tallest skyscraper in the world."

There was applause from the crowd.

"Wherever you look," the mayor continued, "you can see Lara Cameron's contribution written in concrete." He pointed. "Uptown is the Cameron Center. And near it, Cameron Plaza and half a dozen housing projects. And across the country is the great Cameron Hotel chain."

The mayor turned to Lara and smiled. "And she's not only brainy, she's beautiful."

There was laughter and more applause.

"Lara Cameron, ladies and gentlemen."

Lara looked into the television cameras and smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm very pleased to have made some small contribution to this fabulous city of ours. My father always told me that the reason we were put on this earth was..." She hesitated. Out of the corner of her eye, she had seen a familiar figure in the crowd. Steve Murchison. She had seen his photograph in newspapers... What was he doing here? Lara went on... "was to leave it a better place than when we came into it. Well, I hope that in my own small way, I've been able to do that."

There was more applause. Lara was handed a ceremonial hard hat and a chrome-plated shovel.

"Time to go to work, Miss Cameron."

The flashbulbs began to pop again.

Lara pushed the shovel into the dirt and dug up the first bit of earth.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, refreshments were served, while the television cameras kept recording the event. When Lara looked around again, Murchison was nowhere in sight.

Thirty minutes later Lara Cameron was back in the limousine headed for the office. Jerry Townsend was seated next to her.

"I thought it went great," he said. "Just great."

"Not bad," Lara grinned. "Thanks, Jerry."

The executive suites of Cameron Enterprises occupied the entire fiftieth floor of Cameron Center.

Lara got off at the fiftieth floor, and by then the word had gotten around that she was arriving. The secretaries and staff were busily at work.

Lara turned to Jerry Townsend. "Come into my office."

The office was an enormous corner suite overlooking the city.

Lara glanced at some papers on her desk and looked up at Jerry.

"How's your father? Is he any better?"

What did she know about his father?

"He's...he's not well."

"I know. He has Huntington's chorea, hasn't he, Jerry?"

"Yes."

It was a terrible disease. It was progressive and degenerative, characterized by spasmodic involuntary movements of the face and extremities, accompanied by the loss of mental faculties.

"How do you know about my father?"

"I'm on the board at the hospital where he's being treated. I heard some doctors discussing his case."

Jerry said tightly, "It's incurable."

"Everything is incurable until they find the cure," Lara said. "I did some checking. There's a doctor in Switzerland who's doing some advanced research on the disease. He's willing to take on your father's case. I'll handle the expenses."

Jerry stood there, stunned.

"Okay?"

He found it difficult to speak. "Okay." I don't know her, Jerry Townsend thought. Nobody knows her.

History was being made, but Lara was too busy to notice. Ronald Reagan had been re-elected, and a man named Mikhail Gorbachev had succeeded Chernenko as leader of the USSR.

Lara built a low-income housing development in Detroit.

In 1986 Ivan Boesky had been fined a hundred million dollars in an insider trading scandal and sentenced to three years in prison.

Lara started development on condominiums in Queens. Investors were eager to be a part of the magic of her name. A group of German investment bankers flew to New York to meet with Lara. She arranged for the meeting immediately after their plane landed. They had protested, but Lara said, "I'm so sorry, gentlemen. It's the only time I have. I'm leaving for Hong Kong."

The Germans were served coffee. Lara had tea. One of the Germans complained about the taste of the coffee. "It's a special brand made for me," Lara explained. "The flavor will grow on you. Have another cup."

By the end of the negotiations Lara had won all her points.

Life was a series of serendipities, except for one disturbing incident. Lara had had several run-ins with Steve Murchison over various properties, and she had always managed to outwit him.

"I think we should back off," Keller warned.

"Let him back off."

And one morning a beautiful package wrapped in rose paper arrived from Bendel's. Kathy laid it on Lara's desk.

"It's awfully heavy," Kathy said. "If it's a hat, you're in trouble."

Curious, Lara unwrapped it and opened the lid. The box was packed with dirt. A printed card inside read: "The Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel."

The building projects were all going well. When Lara read about a proposed inner-city playground that was stymied because of bureaucratic red tape, she stepped in, had her company build it, and donated it to the city. The publicity she received on it was enormous. One headline read: LARA CAMERON STANDS FOR "CAN DO."

She was seeing Paul once or twice a week, and she talked to him every day.

Lara bought a house in Southampton and lived in a fantasy world of expensive jewels and furs and limousines. Her closets were filled with beautiful designer clothes. "I need some clothes for school." "Weel, I'm nae made of money. Get yourself something frae the Salvation Army Citadel."

And Lara would order another outfit.

Her employees were her family. She worried about them and was generous with them. They were all she had. She remembered their birthdays and anniversaries. She helped get their children into good schools and set up scholarship funds for them. When they tried to thank her, Lara was embarrassed. It was difficult for her to express her emotions. Her father had ridiculed her when she had tried. Lara had built a protective wall around herself. No one is ever going to hurt me again, she vowed. No one.