Murder Over Broken Bonds, page 22
“You don’t think Peter could’ve had anything to do with Michael’s murder, do you?” she asked slowly.
“He wasn’t at our meeting. I don’t see how.”
A heavy weight settled on Anne’s chest. “Unless the two of them met early that morning before anyone else got in.”
“That’s why I thought we should discuss this in my office. If we’re going to start looking in Peter’s direction, we sure as hell don’t want him to get wind of it.”
The political fallout would be huge. They might as well sign their own death warrants and hire a band to play the funeral march. She looked at him appreciatively. He had done the right thing to make sure they had total privacy for this discussion. “We could ask Kelsey.”
Alex sighed deeply.
“She was in that morning and saw who was around.”
“But then we have to trust her to keep this quiet,” Alex said with a frown.
“Do you have a better idea?”
* * *
After a quick phone call to make sure she was available, they were knocking on Kelsey’s office door.
“We’re still trying to get this deal finished up, so I don’t have a lot of time,” she greeted them, wearing a double-breasted navy pinstripe suit and her hair up in an elegant knot.
“We were wondering about the morning of Michael’s death again,” Anne began, all the while resisting the urge to fuss with her own tousled hair.
Kelsey stiffened.
“Did anyone else meet with him really early that day?” Anne gave up and ran her fingers from front to back, pulling the loose strands off of her face and tucking them behind each ear.
“I don’t know…” Kelsey said slowly, a puzzled expression on her face. “It’s possible.”
“Is there some way you could find out?”
“Possibly…” She fixed her eyes on Anne. “Is there someone, in particular, you have in mind?”
“Peter Eckert,” Anne replied.
“Whoa.”
“He may be close with Michael Kingston’s widow.”
“I’ll do a little digging around. Maybe you could do the same on your end with Peter’s activities.”
“That’s my plan. But we’ve got to keep this just amongst the three of us.”
* * *
Anne stopped on the way back to her desk to grab a candy bar and then considered ways to get a look at Peter’s calendar. With no immediate ideas coming to mind, she decided to set that problem to the side and focus instead on the Arkansas hotel deals.
After some back and forth with one of the secretaries, she got copies of the offering statements for the deals. She studied them and quickly found they were virtually identical to one another, except each one was guaranteed by a different bank. Typically, a bank promising to pay off the bonds in the event of default would make them a safer investment, but these bonds were unrated by any of the national services, a red flag that they were inherently risky, maybe even junk bonds.
She pulled out a publication that gave financial information on all banks in the country and scanned the listing for the twenty-five used in these deals. Only one of them appeared, Skyward Savings, and its financial condition was rated as deplorable.
She picked up the phone and began dialing. When she asked the finance officer about one of the other banks involved in the deals, he paused and put her through to the president, who answered, “Why yes. They are a subsidiary of ours. But you should be familiar with that already since your firm underwrote the bond issues.”
Anne asked about the remaining no-name banks involved in the deals. Each and every one of them was a subsidiary of Skyward Savings. Of course, this detail had not been disclosed in the offering statement. In addition, he claimed that the hotel projects were all in very good shape. After asking for a copy of their most recent financial statements, she hung up the phone and called Alex to let him know about the inter-relationships amongst the banks on this set of bonds. He sounded about as pleased as a dead bird.
She stood up to stretch and found the entrance to her cubicle blocked by Carter. He immediately pounced upon her, flashing an insincere smile. “How’re you doing?”
She eyed him warily, immediately on guard. He wanted something. The question was, what. “Fine,” she replied, trying to keep her tone light.
There were bags under his eyes, and he looked shaky, as if his small frame were crumbling under the constant weight of too much pressure. She assumed he was worried about his future at Spencer Brothers, given the spectacular failure of his recent coup attempt.
“Are you mad at me for anything?”
“No,” Anne said slowly, wondering where this was leading.
“It seems like you’ve been avoiding me ever since William returned from vacation.”
She shrugged. “I’ve been busy.”
“Still working on those Pandora Bonds?” He pulled a Kleenex out of his pocket and prepared to sneeze. “That project seems to be taking forever.”
“Yes,” she paused, suddenly seeing an opening. “I was just about to grab a Coke. Do you want anything?” She took a step forward, but he did not move.
He shook his head and then gave a loud sneeze. “How come you’re working on it rather than Donna? Housing bonds fall within her area of expertise, after all?”
They also fell within Anne’s. She debated whether to point that out and thought better of it. “She was too busy when the initial request came in.”
“Oh,” he said smugly as if he knew better.
Her curiosity was immediately piqued. She sensed an underlying current of animosity and wanted to know what was behind it. And then she thought of Kelsey, being asked to meet with Marvin, Walter, and David the night of Michael’s death? With everything that had happened that day, she must have been intrigued. Was it really that strange that she had agreed to see them? Suddenly she noticed Carter staring intently at her. “I’m sorry,” she said, “would you repeat that?”
“Has William mentioned anything to you about what happened while he was gone?”
Finally. The real reason he was standing in her cubicle, chattering away. “No,” she said curtly and then immediately regretted her tone. Even though The Carp was annoying, there was no need to antagonize him. “Why would he?”
“Well, Elise said the two of you talked for a long time on Monday afternoon.”
A tight smile crossed her lips. Leave it to the Ice Princess to try to stir things up. “I don’t recall.”
He stuffed the wet Kleenex back into his pocket. “I just thought he might have confided in you about it.”
“Why?” She stole a quick glance at her watch.
“You know.” He cocked his head toward William’s office and then toward Anne’s cubicle. “Because of your special friendship.”
Anne stared at him, trying to understand what the waving head was supposed to communicate.
“Nobody else can stand the guy,” he chortled. “Yet you two are virtually best friends.” He finished with a suggestive wink.
She looked at him, wondering what planet he was on, and then it slowly dawned on her. He thinks I’m having an affair with William. Is everybody sleeping with their boss except for me? Anne was beyond annoyed. She was downright offended. “Oh, you mean our special relationship,” she said coyly and raised her eyebrows.
He nodded.
She trained her eyes on him and then fired. “I hate to break it to you, but if I were going to attempt to sleep my way to the top, I wouldn’t bother with a low-life like William. I’d go after someone much higher up. The kind of person who owns a gulf coast island with beautiful white beaches and horses…and a private jet.” She brushed past Carter, feeling annoyed that she had allowed him to waste her time.
“I understand your position,” he twittered after her. “Elise said you were trying to keep it a secret.”
Anne stopped abruptly and wordlessly turned back to face him.
“But don’t worry,” he warbled, “I won’t tell anyone.”
That evening when she told Katie about the conversation, enough time had elapsed that she was able to see some humor in the situation. “I’m thinking that aliens must have landed on Earth and experimented with his brain.”
“I’m seriously starting to wonder about the people you work with,” Katie said. “I don’t know how you stand it.”
“Me neither,” she replied.
20
One Hundred Pennies
Monday, Three Weeks After the Meeting
Jennifer gave a surreptitious glance around and then lowered her voice. “First of all, the Ice Princess shows up wearing this tacky, leopard-like catsuit and pounds of makeup smeared onto her face.”
“I know exactly the outfit you’re talking about,” Anne whispered back. “It’s a hideous shade of orange and green.”
“Exactly,” Jennifer said with a disapproving sniff. “She doesn’t have the figure to wear it. Plus, it’s totally unprofessional.”
“I wonder what the woman in Personnel thought.”
“It can’t have been good.” Jennifer laughed. “But get ready for this. She hobbles into her chair and puts on this pathetic act about being a victim.”
Anne shook her head. “Elise? Injured because she missed a phone call from her boyfriend? Spare me.”
“Yeah.” Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Fortunately, she barely managed to say more than three sentences before she’d already contradicted herself. I had the shock of my life when the HR woman actually noticed the inconsistencies and asked Elise to clarify her statements. Of course, all she could manage was to trip all over herself again. Eventually, Pauline—that’s the HR woman—told her to just stop. Case dismissed.”
“That’s great! You must be so relieved!”
“Totally. And it was hilarious to see the Ice Princess storm out of there in a huff. But that’s not all….”
Anne looked at her, puzzled.
“After she left, Pauline told me that this wasn’t the first time she’d had this sort of ridiculousness with Elise.”
“Figures,” Anne muttered. “And yet no one has bothered to rein in the self-righteous little queen, despite everything.”
Jennifer’s mouth widened into a broad smile. “That’s what’s so interesting. Pauline went on to say that Elise wouldn’t get away with this anymore, because—” she paused to make air quotes, “Michael Kingston is no longer around to protect her.”
“What?!”
“That’s what I thought. But it totally makes sense. How else do you explain her longevity around here?”
Indeed. It was the perfect explanation. And then Anne was struck by another, more sobering thought. She had spotted Elise on the investment banking floor the morning Michael was killed. Could Elise have had something to do with his murder?
Jennifer’s smile became smug. “I’m guessing she had dirt on him.”
“I’m sure,” Anne answered absently, her mind focused on Elise’s behavior that day. She had left early, with a migraine, after reporting Michael’s death to the trading floor. Perhaps she needed to get away from it all. Regroup and collect herself.
“I was so happy to wash my hands of the mess. Yet, I have to admit, it was kind of funny at the same time.”
“You’ve got a better attitude about it than I would,” Anne said. “What she put you through was terrible.”
“Well, a summary of the situation is going to be put in her file.” Jennifer gave a conspiratorial smile. “And from the look of things, I would guess it won’t be positive.” She finished off in a sing-song voice, “Not the best thing to have happen around bonus time….”
Anne shrugged. “It’s her own doing.” She slipped into her pumps and grabbed a pen and pad of paper. “I’m going to have to run. I’ve got a meeting with Alex.”
“Hey,” Jennifer said as she exited the cubicle. “Maybe you should ask him to join us for drinks one night after work.” When Anne did not reply, she continued, “Just a suggestion.”
“No comment,” Anne called out over her shoulder.
* * *
The sun streamed through the windows of Alex’s office as Anne, and he listened to advice from the firm’s outside legal counsel.
“At this point, we think the best course of action is to negotiate a settlement with the SEC,” a disembodied voice boomed out of the speakerphone. “We’ll indicate that Spencer Brothers had absolutely no knowledge of the activities of Mr. Kingston and that he exceeded his power immensely.”
Anne locked eyes with Alex, a tight smile plastered on her face. This was very close to what she had proposed three weeks earlier when they had been talking with the dark-haired Oko Sychaito lawyer, trying to figure out how best to proceed.
“We might want to consider an even stronger message than that,” another deeper voice added. “We could say the firm would have fired Mr. Kingston for these transgressions, had he not chosen to take his own life.”
“That’s an option as well,” the first voice agreed. “In addition, we’ll indicate that new policies have been introduced to prevent such wrongdoing in the future.”
“We might want to avoid using the word wrongdoing,” the deeper voice piped up again. “Maybe say activities instead.”
“All good suggestions,” Alex said amiably. “Our management is keen to avoid the SEC levying heavy fines. I expect they’ll concur with the proposed strategy.”
There was a scraping of chairs in the background and some murmuring that Anne could not make out, and then one of the lawyers began talking again.
“We’ll need to finish reviewing the documents you’ve unearthed before deciding which ones to allow the SEC to be privy to…uh…it’s possible that some may fall under attorney-client-privilege, in which case we wouldn’t forward them….”
“Right. We’ll send you copies of everything as soon as we can.”
“It’s a good thing the firm hired these hotshot attorneys at the cost of an arm and a leg,” Anne said as soon as the conference call was finished. “Where would we be without their innovative solutions to these daunting problems?” She began gathering her papers.
“We’d sink down the toilet faster than anyone we know.” Alex raised one eyebrow pointedly. “Wait until I hand this stuff to my secretary to copy. She’s going to freak.”
“At least you won’t get three hours of argument over the matter—” Anne replied, heading toward the door, “—and a discussion about how the other secretaries do so much less, etc. etc. etc.”
* * *
When she got back to her cubicle, there was a lone, small envelope sitting dead center on her chair. It was addressed to simply Anne. She picked it up and felt her nerves go taut, her mind wildly speculating about its contents. A pink slip? Had Peter somehow caught wind of their suspicions about him and decided to cut her loose? Or perhaps the investment banking group had grown tired of her poking her nose into their shady deals and thrown their weight around in the C-suite? Fingers shaking, she ripped the envelope open and found a short, handwritten note tucked neatly inside.
Anne,
As a token of our appreciation for your efforts, we enclose the following bonus. Keep up the good work.
Peter Eckert
VP of Municipal Bonds, Spencer Brothers
Included were a handful of pennies.
She gave a small start as she realized she wasn’t being fired and then began to laugh as she absorbed the humor of the joke.
Jennifer poked her head in sideways. “Thought you’d enjoy that.”
It was hilarious, except that it had almost given her a heart attack when she had initially assumed the worst.
“How about if we haul this pile of metal to the cafeteria and buy ourselves an apple muffin or two?” Anne said, grateful for fun friends.
Jennifer gave a thumbs up. “Great idea. I’ll grab my purse in case we’re a tad short.”
After they returned, Anne began calling the developers of the various Arkansas hotel projects, one by one, to determine their financial condition. Either they all happened, coincidentally, to be very difficult individuals, or they had been told by somebody not to cooperate. Whatever the case, Anne knew she was going to have to find a different way of sleuthing out what she wanted. She turned the matter over in her mind for a moment and then called Kelsey.
Five minutes later, she was sitting in a plush investment banking office, tea in hand. “Thanks for meeting with me on such short notice.”
“No problem,” Kelsey said, flashing a big smile. No longer appearing to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders, she looked relaxed and at ease.
“I’m having a hard time getting status updates for any of the Corn Dog projects—” Anne began.
“They’re on the brink of failure,” Kelsey said, sounding grave.
Anne nodded. This was exactly what she had expected.
“I chatted with one of the other investment bankers on our floor after you asked about them a few days ago and even managed to get copies of their most recent financial statements. I’ll have my secretary make copies for you.”
Anne asked about the banks.
“A total disaster—” Kelsey delivered the news with a dismissive sweep of her hand “—all related to one another somewhat incestuously. I’m fairly certain there’s been double counting of the assets on some of the balance sheets, so the financial picture could be even grimmer than it appears at first glance.”
“Why aren’t I surprised?” Anne sighed.
“As you’ve probably guessed, the banks received unusually generous fees for providing guarantees on the bonds. Unfortunately, they’re not adequately capitalized to honor their promises. All hell will break loose when those projects begin to fall apart.”
Anne sank deeper in her chair. The bonds would likely be in default in less than a year.
“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.” The corners of Kelsey’s mouth turned down in a gesture of commiseration.
“It’s not your fault, and I want you to know that I appreciate your candor.” Anne stood up to leave. “At least now I know what I’m up against.”
