He is part of the anti bank protest, and he is left wing. Paul says he is never too busy to see his young friend, and lets him in, dismissing his bodyguard. Suddenly, Paul is shot by a Russian member of the protest. Bruce shoots the Russian.
Steve Sullivan realises there must be a conspiracy to kill Paul. He knows that members of the bank must be involved or Kraskov could not have gotten into the bank, and hidden there till he could shoot his target.
He spends a lot of time trying to make sure that rumours of an inside job do not get out, but he tells Sylvia that he will look for Paul's killers, even if he cannot bring them to legal justice.
Steve narrates the next part of the book; he is several years Paul's junior and regards him as a patron and big brother...He does not share Paul's intellectual interests but they enjoy each other's company.. and he is more intelligent than he appears to be. He is the one who ends up dealing with Cornelius, who has inherited Paul's share of the bank. He is startled when Cornelius tells him that he wants to go into the bank and learn the business, and not go to college.
Steve finds that Cornelius is tougher than he expected... He is only 18 but he's very determined to do things his way. Steve is now very wary of him. Bruce Clayton commits suicide after a year or so. He leaves a note saying that he had made himself believe that the assassination of Paul was justified because of his wealth, but he now feels guilty. He refers to others being in on the conspiracy, but does not name anyone. Steve finally ends up working with Cornelius to take the law into his own hands and bring the killers to a vigilante justice.
He finds out that the conspiracy to kill Paul came about because Charley Blair, one of the partners, had money troubles. He had embezzled money from his yacht club. He had asked Paul for help and Paul refused.
The other conspirators were the Da Costa brothers, Bruce Clayton and O'Reilly. Blair was the one who was able to let the assassin gain entry to the bank.
Stewart Da Costa had been killed in a gun incident by a detective whom Paul had sent to watch him, and this adds to Greg Da Costa's anger against Paul, so he took part in the plot. O'Reilly left New York after Paul's death and moved to South America, but he contacted Sylvia later in hopes that she would become his wife.
Steve knows that he can't bring them to court as it would destroy the bank. But he gets O'Reilly to come to New York, by getting Sylvia to invite him. Then he has a confrontation with O'Reilly and Blair. Charley Blair shoots O'Reilly, tries to shoot Steve and kills himself. Steve covers it up, and hopes that this will be the end of things. However, he is afraid that letting Cornelius in on the whole thing was a mistake. He keeps in touch with Dinah occasionally, and she tells him she wants to buy back her house from the Van Zale estate. She had been planning to do this when Paul was killed. He tells her to wait a while...but the deeds of the house do not turn up..
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