Kendrick spent the week after the Walker residence conversation doing something he had never done before.
He went looking for his father's history.
Not the company history — he knew that by heart, every acquisition and development and strategic alliance going back to his grandfather's era. Not the public history — speeches, statements, the Walker name in newspaper archives that went back four decades.
The personal history.
The part that hadn't been told.
He went to people who had known Richard before Kendrick existed.
James Okafor had been on the Walker Corporation board for nineteen years.
Before that, he had been a junior lawyer at the firm that had handled the Walker family's legal work. He had known Richard Walker since Richard was thirty-one.
Kendrick called him on a Tuesday morning.
"I need to ask you something personal," Kendrick said. "Not about the board."
A pause.
"Alright," James said carefully.
