‘No, I do not care. If that person wished to be known, there would have been no point in using a nominee. Mr Smith, you’re not suggesting there’s anything illegal in what’s been done, are you?’
‘No, I’m not,’ Wylie admitted; he’d been thrown on to the back foot.
‘Me neither,’ I said, ‘but as the chair of your partner I want to know the process that’s led to the Gantry Group being exposed in this way.’
‘Then hadn’t you better ask your managing director?’ Fabricant suggested. The man was confident, annoyingly so.
‘I did,’ I told him. ‘My former managing director, currently suspended from his position. From that, you might gather I wasn’t given a satisfactory answer, so now I’m asking you. Who initiated this deal?’
‘I’ll throw you one bone, Mrs Blackstone. I’m prepared to tell you that Mr Culshaw was approached by a representative of Monsoon. The proposition was that we own a piece of land in Ayrshire that’s ripe for leisure development, and that we needed a fifty-fifty partner to fund the operation.’
‘And how’s our investment going to be recouped?’
‘Entry to membership will be through the purchase of bonds or debentures. These will be marketed internationally. It’s quite a common model; there are many examples.’
‘And how many are currently active,’ I asked him, ‘with the global economy hiding somewhere up its own arse. Man, I don’t live in Scotland, but even I know that the Ayrshire coast is lined with golf courses, and that the current insolvency rate among ventures like this is scarily high.’
‘You have to take a long-term view, Mrs Blackstone,’ he countered.
‘No, I don’t,’ I shot back at him. ‘First and foremost I have to protect the interests of the Gantry Group, and this deal is undermining them. Leaked information about it is being used against us in the City, and it’s very damaging. I’m pulling our company out of this thing and I want our money back, pronto.’
He shook his head, still wearing that annoyingly assured smirk. ‘It’s not as easy as that,’ he said. ‘Babylon Links can only be wound up by agreement between the parties, and I have very firm instructions from my principal that we are not going to agree to that. The same goes for the Gantry Group’s investment; it won’t be returned either.’
I was contemplating how long I’d get for battering dear Diego to death with his own Purdy when my mobile sounded. I looked at the number, recognised it as Cress Oldham’s, and took the call.
‘I’ve got a certain amount of information,’ she announced. ‘It’s strange. Two different consultancies have been active against us. One of them is Seventh Financial; its people have been spreading the personal stuff about you, but I’m sorry, they won’t tell me who’s instructed them.’
‘Don’t worry about that,’ I told her. ‘I know who it was, and I’ve dealt with it. What about the others?’
‘According to my tame analyst, the leaked information is being put about by a firm called Greentree Stanley City. I know a couple of their people and I nobbled one at lunchtime. He admitted it but didn’t give me the faintest hint of the source.’
‘Any chance of progress on that front?’ I asked, cryptically, because Fabricant was making no pretence of not listening to my end of the conversation.
‘I’d have to go through their entire client list, and when I did I’d still be guessing. I’ll try, though.’
‘You do that, and respond soonest.’
‘I will, but … there’s something else happening, Mrs Blackstone, and I don’t know what it is. The share price is heading south again; that tells me there’s new information out there, and it’s not good.’
‘Then get digging. Cheers.’ I pocketed my phone.
‘Not bad news, I hope,’ Fabricant oozed.
‘Only for whoever it is that’s trying to undermine me. I will find them, and I will get even. When that happens, mate, it will be cataclysmic.’
‘That may be,’ he said. ‘But I would suggest you do it quickly. From what I hear your tenure of office may be rather short.’
‘That’s been said at other times and in other places, but I’m still here.’ I started to rise. ‘I’ll give your principal forty-eight hours to authorise the release of our funds.’
‘Actually, I had the opposite in mind.’ There was something in his tone that made me sit down again, as he took a document from his desk and slid it across the desk. ‘This is a copy of the agreement signed by Mr Culshaw when we set up our joint venture. If you read it, you’ll see that it commits Gantry to providing funding of up to fifty million, not merely the twenty that’s been lodged so far.’
I scanned the document, then passed it to Wylie. He read it and winced. ‘What he says is the case, Mada … Primavera.’
‘And we’re calling for the balance to be subscribed immediately,’ Fabricant announced. That was Cress’s new information, I realised at once; it was out there in the public domain and it was screwing us already.
‘And I’m telling you to fuck off,’ I retorted. ‘Come on, Wylie, we’re out of here.’
As we stood, he stayed seated, grinning at my anger. ‘We’ll sue,’ he warned.
‘You do that,’ I snapped. ‘See if you can arrange for the case to be heard by Lord January. He’s my son’s uncle. I’ll be telling him all about you, Diego, and he’ll be telling all his friends.’
It was a crap threat and we both knew it, but it was all I had, other than the satisfaction of shaking his office door on its hinges as I closed it behind me. I’d expected to see Kim Coates beaming behind her desk, but she was gone.
I headed for the exit, then paused. I took out my phone and photographed Fabricant’s client board, then stepped into the corridor. Outside I sent the image to Cress Oldham, with a text message.
‘Check this against the enemy’s client list. See if it sets anything off. P.’
‘We’re in trouble, aren’t we?’ Wylie sighed as we stepped into the glass lift.
‘That’s a fair analysis,’ I chuckled.
‘You must be regretting letting yourself get involved in this.’
The chuckle became a full-out laugh. ‘Are you kidding?’ I exclaimed. ‘I haven’t felt so alive in years.’ He probably thought I was crazy, and if he did, quite possibly he was right.
Finally, I had to admit to the truth, that I’d been hiding from myself, and that, apart from watching Tom grow towards manhood, the challenge of risk and danger, be it financial or physical, is the only thing that really floats my boat.
Fourteen
Wylie and I had quite a bit to take in. I didn’t want to do it on the move, or in a pub, and so at his suggestion we went for afternoon tea in the Caley Hotel. Expensive yes, but compared with that taxi trip, good value for money.
‘What do we do, Mr Company Secretary?’ I asked him as we surveyed a three-tier stand laden with the kind of items that I’d been warning Tom since infancy were bad for his teeth.
He didn’t reply immediately. Instead he took Diego Fabricant’s document from the pocket to which he’d consigned it, and reread it, slowly and carefully.
When he was finished he passed it to me. ‘That’s watertight,’ he decreed. ‘Phil did have the authority to commit the company to providing that level of finance, when called upon by our partner. We are liable.’ He paused. ‘Look, you’d need to ask Gerry Meek to confirm this, but I don’t believe it would bankrupt the company. You could cover it, but it would mean selling assets in a down market for much less than their potential worth, or borrowing against them at rates that would make your eyes water. It won’t bust you, but it will devalue your shares.’
‘And that’s what’s happening already,’ I murmured.
‘So it appears. Did you mean it when you said that you wouldn’t meet your obligation?’ he asked.
‘Christ, Wylie!’ I exclaimed. ‘Don’t put it that way. You don’t need to be that blunt.’
‘I’m sorry, but Monsoon’s QC will be even more direct than that if this gets to court.’
I called Cress Oldham. ‘What’s happened since we spoke last?’ I asked her.