by Stephen Frey
“What are you doing here?”
“In case you hadn’t heard, Paul, we won the Pharmaco mandate this afternoon.” Conner wasn’t going to tell Stone he was staying at the apartment. That would spark more questions. “Typical Gavin. He wanted to get going on it right away. He told me to come over tonight so we could start mapping out strategy.”
“Did I hear you say,we won the Pharmaco mandate?” Stone asked sarcastically. “What you meant to say was thatGavin won it. Don’t kid yourself, Conner. You didn’t have anything to do with that mandate.”
Conner shrugged. “Whatever you say, Paul.”
“Why are you poking around in here?” Stone asked, nodding at the open drawer.
“I was looking for a bottle opener.”
Stone moved slowly toward Conner. “I understand you and my wife had quite a conversation in East Hampton the other night. About Rebecca mostly,” he added, stopping a few feet away.
“Look, I told your wife—”
“In the future keep those nasty little comments to yourself. Or I’ll sue your white-trash ass off for libel.”
“Mandy started the conversation. She brought up Rebecca. Not me. I was just trying to help.”
“Sure you were.”
“I told her Rebecca wasn’t very attractive.”
“That’s not my wife’s story.”
“Well, it’s the truth.”
Stone took another step toward Conner. “Mandy showed up at Phenix today and introduced herself to Rebecca.”
Conner grimaced. That couldn’t have been pretty.
“You’re probably happy about that.”
“Why would I be happy?” Conner asked.
“Because you figured out what happened to the presentation I brought out to the old man’s mansion Wednesday night, didn’t you?”
“I sure as hell did,” Conner snapped. “And I didn’t appreciate it.”
“Too damn bad.”
“Why don’t you get off my back, Paul?”
“Why don’t you leave Phenix, Conner?”
Conner moved directly in front of Stone. “Not a chance.”
“It won’t matter anyway.” Stone smirked, stepping back. “You’ll screw up on your own at some point.”
“And you’ll do everything possible to make that happen, won’t you?”
“Of course.” Stone sneered. “Welcome to the big leagues.”
“You might screw up first, Paul.”
“Not a chance,” Stone shot back confidently. “I’ve been in the business for fifteen years.”
Conner hesitated. It was time to get into the other man’s grill. “Maybe not under normal circumstances, but when people are under pressure, things slip. Little things at first, then big ones.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I hear Mandy’s father could make it pretty tough on you if he found out about you and Rebecca.”
Stone glared at Conner, but said nothing.
“Now, if her father was to get a few anonymous tips on those extracurricular activities, I bet he’d—”
Stone lunged forward and swung, but Conner blocked the punch easily and tossed the other man to the floor. He reached down and grabbed Stone by the neck, yanking him roughly to his feet.
“Get off me,” Stone gasped, trying desperately to pry Conner’s hand from his throat.
“Listen to me and listen to me good, you prick,” Conner seethed, jacking Stone against the wall. “I’m not a guy who rats on people. But you screw with my career one more time, and so help me, I’ll do whatever it takes to get you out of my life.”
“Let me go!”
“You understand me, Paul?”
“You stay away from my wife, you bastard!” Stone shouted. “You see her again, and I’ll have both your knees broken.”
“What the hell are you—?”
“What’s going on!” Gavin roared, rushing into the room.
Conner released his grip and backed off. He hadn’t heard the old man enter the apartment.
“He’s trying to kill me, Gavin!” Stone pointed a trembling finger at Conner. “You saw him just now. He’s crazy. I told you there was something wrong with him.”
“He swung at me first,” Conner said calmly. “I was just making sure he didn’t hurt himself.”
Gavin glanced back and forth between them, finally focusing on Stone. “What’s your problem, Paul?” he growled, furious.
The color drained from Stone’s face. “What?”
“You’ve got to stop this,” Gavin snapped. “It’s getting ridiculous.”
“Gavin, I—”
“Go in the living room, Paul,” Gavin ordered, turning toward Conner as Stone walked away, shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry about all this, pal. I really am.”
Conner watched Gavin’s eyes flicker down to the open drawer. “It’s all right. Like you said, Paul’s going through a tough time.”
“That’s no excuse for what just happened.” Gavin shook his head. “Be back in a minute. Stay where you are.”
Conner nodded, watching Gavin stalk out. That had been an important moment. The old man wasn’t going to put up with Stone’s pettiness any more. His cell phone rang as he was sliding the drawer shut. “Hello.”
“Conner?”
“Yes?”CALLER ID UNAVAILABLE had flashed on the tiny screen.
“It’s Jackie.”
“Hey, Jo. What’s up?”
“Remember asking me when you were here at the office today if the name Delphi meant anything?”
“Sure.”
“Well, I did some research.”
“And?”
“And I think I’ve got an answer.”
“Fantastic.” This was incredible news. He’d been counting on Gavin to come up with an answer to this question. But, so far, the old man hadn’t found anything. “What’s the deal?”
“Delphi was an ancient town in central Greece. It was built on a hill called Mount Parnassus.”
“I’ll have to take your word, Jo. Ancient history and I never got along too well.”
“Which probably had a lot to do with some blonde sitting next to you in class,” Jackie observed dryly. “But the point is, there’s a Parnassus Road in Fairfax County, Virginia. Fairfax is just west of Washington, D.C. At 2000 Parnassus Road is the worldwide headquarters of Global Components Incorporated.”
“Global Components,” Conner repeated. “They’re big, right?”
“Huge,” Jackie confirmed. “Twenty-first on last year’sFortune 500. Sixty billion in revenue and four billion in net income. They make all kinds of component parts for everything from automobiles to oil rigs to airplanes. They’ve got plants all over the world.”
It seemed to fit. A simple two-step code. Delphi to Parnassus Road, then Parnassus Road to Global Components. But he would have felt more confident if there had been something more.
“And,” Jackie continued, “according to the company’s annual report, they have operations in Birmingham, Dallas, and Seattle. Just like you told me Delphi does.”
“What about Minneapolis?”
“No. No mention of Minneapolis in Global’s annual report.”
That was strange. Still, three of four were the same and maybe Minneapolis was too small to be mentioned in the annual. And it seemed unlikely another company based near Washington would have manufacturing operations in exactly those three same locations. Especially Birmingham. “Thanks, Jo.” Now that he had a solid lead on Delphi’s identity, there was another way to confirm her suggestion. He’d follow up on that as soon as they finished talking.
“And I didn’t stop there,” Jackie said.
“What else you got?”
“I also checked the annual report to see who the company’s auditors were. I figured it would be one of the big firms, and I was right. Global’s accounting firm is Baker Mahaffey.”
“That’s one of thereally big firms.” Conner remembered reading somewhere that Baker Mahaffey audited
one of every threeFortune 500 companies. “Right?”
“Yes. I called a woman I know in Baker’s Washington office to find out who the partner on the Global account is in case you want to talk to him. I wasn’t sure exactly what you were looking for, so I didn’t say anything specific. I didn’t mention your name either.”
“What’s the partner’s name?” Conner asked.
“Vic Hammond. He’s been with Baker awhile. He’s a big wheel in the D.C. office.”
Conner caught his breath. Vic. Short for Victor. The name of the individual who was supposed to have received the e-mail that ended up on the apartment computer two nights ago. “That’s great, Jo. You’re the best.” He didn’t want to raise her antenna, but it would be critical for her to find out one more thing as quickly as possible. “Could you call your contact at Baker Mahaffey again and ask her if there’s a junior guy on the Global audit account named Rusty?” There was dead air at the other end of the line. “Jo?”
“What’s all this about?” she asked suspiciously.
“I can’t say right now,” Conner answered, lowering his voice. “I’ll come to your office and fill you in, but I really need you to call that person back and find out about the junior guy. Can you do that for me, Jo?”
“I suppose.”
“Can you do it for me tonight?”
“What?”
“Yeah, like right now.”
“It’s after eight on a Friday night,” Jackie protested. “She’s probably gone home.”
“Then call her at home.”
“Conner!”
“I need you to do this, Jo. I need the answer ASAP.”
“Conner, I deserve more of an ex—”
“Just do it, Jo. Please.” Conner heard Gavin’s footsteps heading toward the kitchen. “Got to go.” He slipped the phone into his pocket just as Gavin appeared in the doorway.
“Sorry again about all that,” Gavin apologized. “I know I told you I’d be here at eight, but I got caught at a meeting downtown. If I’d been here on time, none of that would have happened.”
Conner noticed Gavin’s glance at the drawer containing the stack of bills. “Don’t worry about it.”
Their eyes met for a moment.
“Mandy showed up at the office this afternoon to get a look at Rebecca for herself,” said Gavin. “As you suspected she might. I got to Mandy before she was at Rebecca’s desk for too long. I took her to my office and had a long talk with her, and I think I got her calmed down. But it’s going to be touch and go for a while.”
Gavin had been calming Mandy down at the same time her husband was with another woman, Conner realized. Stone was such a slime bucket.
“Mandy wanted to talk to you,” Gavin continued, “but you were over seeing Davenport.”
“She wanted to talk to me?”
“She seems to like you for some reason.”
Conner grinned. “She just doesn’t know me very well.”
“Yeah well, I can’t have Paul distracted by divorce right now,” Gavin muttered. The old man’s expression brightened. “Hey, we’ve finally got ourselves an A-list client, pal. The world’s going to be pretty impressed when it hears about us winning the Pharmaco mandate.”
“Yougot the client,” Conner pointed out. Stone was right about this. It had been Gavin’s reputation that had made the difference. “You figure it’ll be announced in Monday’s newspaper?”
“No, no. I asked the CEO to keep the mandate quiet. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years on Wall Street, it’s that you do your best work when you fly below the radar. Once the deal is done, we’ll let everybody know what our role was.”
Gavin was the consummate professional. He wanted his name in theJournal so badly so he could let the financial community know he was back. Despite that, he was going to do what was best for his client. It was a good lesson. Keeping the ego in check, no matter how hard it is to do, pays dividends down the line.
Gavin rubbed his hands together. “We’ve got a lot of work to do, pal. First thing Monday morning I want you cranking on the Pharmaco valuation. I’ve asked the CEO to get his assistants to send over all the internal numbers by messenger. We need to figure out very quickly if the European bid is fair.” He winked. “I have a feeling it isn’t.”
“I won’t be in the office Monday,” Conner spoke up quickly. He was going to Washington. He was certain the answer to what had happened to Liz somehow involved Global Components and their accounting firm, Baker Mahaffey. Conner saw the old man’s temperature flare. “I’ll be ready to go first thing Tuesday morning,” he promised. “And I can do a lot of prep work this weekend.”
“Pal, I need you to be in Monday morning. As soon as the numbers get to our offices, I—”
“I can’t, Gavin.”
“Can’t?Why not? What in God’s name could be more important than this mandate?”
“Personal business.”
“Personal business?”
Conner stared back at Gavin, not flinching. “Yes.” Despite the deal they had struck yesterday at Helen’s grave, he would say no more. Not yet.
Lucas relaxed onto the couch of the Georgetown apartment and flipped on the television. Cheetah had left an hour ago, and Lucas had used the time to continue researching the five jewels. It was going to be tough going. Forty-three possibilities and so much information to cull.
He glanced at his watch. 9:04. The network anchor was just handing off coverage to a White House reporter. Moments later, the president of the United States appeared behind his desk in the Oval Office, flags on either side.
Lucas smiled as the president looked directly into the camera. The man looked the part with that straight silver hair, strong jaw, and reassuring smile. And he had that NPR voice laced with the hint of a southern drawl.
The president was originally from Massachusetts, but party leaders had determined that a southern drawl would hold more national appeal than the New England harda accent. So they’d arranged for him to hone it for a few years prior to the election. Lucas had seen tapes of the man speaking twenty years ago, and the difference between then and now was remarkable. But that was America. All about packaging.
“Good evening, my fellow Americans,” the president began. “I speak to you tonight from the Oval Office on a matter of grave importance. Trust. A simple word but a vital concept that somehow seems to have been forgotten by corporate America and Wall Street. Forgotten by a financial system that has been one of our country’s greatest assets. A system the entire world depends on every minute of every day. As it has ever since a few men began to trade securities beneath a small tree in lower Manhattan many years ago. On ground that is now the New York Stock Exchange. A system that touches every man, woman, and child in our country through IRAs, 401Ks, savings accounts, insurance policies, and mutual funds. A system under fire but a system thatmust endure. A system I will not allow to be compromised by a few evil people.
“At its core, this great financial system of multiple capital markets depends on a fundamental trust in numbers. This may sound obvious, but it is so vitally important. We must be able to trust those who compile, audit, and analyze those numbers for us. The system depends on the public’s ability to open a company’s financial statements and believe that the data between the covers is absolutely accurate. It depends on the public’s ability to believe that the figures presented on the pages are ‘fair and accurate,’ to borrow a phrase from my friends in the accounting world.”
The president paused for a confident smile, conveying to millions on the other side of the lens that even with all the demands on his time, he understood the nuances of financial accounting. That they had chosen well in the last election, and would be wise to make the same choice again in November.
“Without that fair and accurate presentation of a company’s income statement and balance sheet our system is no more dependable than that of a third-world country run by a dictator who could nationalize assets at any moment.
Because without that accuracy, a strong company may turn weak overnight, and a man or woman’s life savings may disappear in the blink of an eye. Which is an abomination. Something we simply cannot let occur ever again in our great country.
“I will keep my remarks brief tonight. At this time, I only want to assure you that in the coming days I will propose a series of regulatory reforms aimed at preventing the kind of irresponsible and unforgivable examples of corporate largesse we have all witnessed—or worse, been directly affected by—in recent times. Unforgivable actions committed by corporate executives and Wall Street investment bankers, with help from their accounting partners, that have been driven by unbridled greed.
“I will call this initiative Project Trust. A contract between you and me. A promise to clean up corporate America, Wall Street, and the accounting profession. I will be working directly with senior members of my administration, including Secretary of the Treasury Alan Bryson, who will personally direct Project Trust. Secretary Bryson is a man who came to Washington three and a half years ago with great experience in these matters. He is the man who ran Morgan Sayers, one of the largest and most respected investment banks in our great nation and the first major Wall Street house to shun the questionable practice of promoting price targets on the stocks of companies they do business with. Alan Bryson is a man of unquestioned integrity. Together, he and I will make certain that your retirement investments and stock portfolios will no longer be threatened by the vagaries of a few individuals acting purely out of self-interest.
“I will make my specific reform proposals associated with Project Trust clearer in the coming days in another speech, but have faith that I will not allow what has happened in the boardrooms and on the trading floors of our country to continue any longer. And that those few who have caused irreparable damage to so many, will pay a heavy price. Our country has been and will continue to be strong at home and abroad. Good night and God bless the United States of America.”
A shiver ran up Lucas’s spine as the network anchor reappeared on the screen. Not because the last sentence of the president’s speech had affected him deeply. The reaction had come because the pressure on him had just been ratcheted up several terrifying notches. The president had thrown down the gauntlet in front of the entire nation, making Alan Bryson his finance czar in the war against corporate and Wall Street fraud. In the war against absurd salaries and bonuses, hidden loans, massive option grants, and out-and-out stealing. Suddenly the need for the operation he was running to succeed had just become infinitely more essential. The party was depending on him. An election lay in the balance.
