George also knew his mother, Jean, had money issues. She’d moved into a much smaller house in the same Baltimore neighborhood a few years before and still didn’t seem to have any extra cash. Jean had had the misfortune or lack of foresight to work in decaying industries after George’s father died. She had been a bookkeeper at the Bethlehem Steel works at Sparrows Point for a while, then she found and lost a job at the General Motors plant. She always said she was fine when he asked about her finances, and refused to let him look at her bank statements. Although George was on a full scholarship, she never failed to send him a twenty-dollar bill whenever she could.
“You’re a student, George,” she told him. “You concentrate on your education!”
When Sally had called it was five o’clock in the East, and she didn’t expect George to pick up his cell phone. Her intention was to leave him an encouraging message without taking up any of his precious time. She had an exaggerated sense of how busy George was every minute.
“Busy day?”
“Not too bad. They’re not killing us just yet. Actually it was a good time for you to call since I’m on a break. I’m taking a radiology elective, and they don’t work themselves to death like some other specialties. How is your day going?”
“Oh, you know. It’s pretty quiet around here these days. Have you spoken to your mother recently?”
“Not lately. What’s up?”
“Something interesting did happen yesterday. I sold your grandfather’s life insurance policy to a very nice gentleman. I’ll be paid in a few days. How are you doing money-wise? Are you okay? I could send you some.”
“I’m doing fine,” George said, even though he was constantly short of cash. He couldn’t wait for July 1, when he’d start his residency. Instead of money going out, he’d be getting a salary. It wasn’t going to be great, but anything was better than it was at the moment. Even with his scholarship, he’d assumed a sizable debt.
“If you need any money, let me know.”
“I will,” George said, although he had no intention of asking his grandmother for money. “I’ve never heard of someone selling a life insurance policy. Is that common?”
“Mr. Howard Essen, the man who bought it, said it’s very common.”
“Oh,” George said simply. He told himself he’d try to remember to investigate online such a scenario when he got back to his room. At that point he’d switched the conversation with his grandmother back to her health, which he knew was not good as she was being kept alive by kidney dialysis.
Later when George had looked up “Life Settlements” and read about the issue, he wasn’t happy. It seemed to him that it was one more way that the elderly could be victimized, this time by the financial world. He couldn’t help but worry that his ailing grandmother had been taken advantage of, and such a thought had helped rearrange his priorities.
Grabbing his jacket from the closet, George headed down to the elevators. Once there he briefly thought about Pia, and wondered if he should go up to her room to make sure she was awake. But he hit the down button. Hell, if she was going to be spending the day with Will, she could get herself up. Instead he decided to grab a coffee, rewarding himself with a more leisurely entry into the day than usual.
15.
STATISTICAL SOLUTIONS LLC CHELSEA, NEW YORK CITY MARCH 3, 2011, 9:17 A.M.
As was his habit, Edmund made sure he and Russell were fashionably late for their meeting at Statistical Solutions headquarters. They were greeted coolly by Henry Green and hustled directly into the same conference room as the previous day. The mood was somber, if not funereal. The room was occupied by a half-dozen people, including the slacker Tom dressed in a plaid shirt, wrinkled, low-riding Bermuda shorts, and flip-flops. Isabel was not to be seen. Two of the other people in the room-a young man and a woman-were dressed in a similar casual vein as Tom; two additional men who were a couple of years older wore dress shirts without jackets, pleated pants, and striped ties. Their haircuts were neat, conservative. The final man was dressed in a full dark suit and had an ostrich briefcase at his side.
Henry Green spoke first. In front of him were several copies of what looked like a bound report.
“Thank you, gentlemen, for coming in today. As I mentioned yesterday, Statistical Solutions LLC has decided to exercise its option to terminate its consultancy agreement with LifeDeals, Incorporated, as of close of business today, March third, 2011. In doing so, we are acting without prejudice, and we adhere to the articles of our initial agreement-”
“Yes, yes, blah, blah, blah,” Edmund said, interrupting Henry rudely. “We get it, Henry, you’re reading us the legal fine print so we think twice about suing you for incompetence. ‘If our information is useless, don’t blame us.’ Now, let’s play a game. Hands up, who in this room’s a lawyer? You?” Edmund asked, pointing quickly at Tom. Tom stared back at Edmund and didn’t flinch. “Don’t think so,” Edmund commented with a snicker. “How about you two?” Edmund gestured toward the two men dressed in shirts and ties. “Wrong again. Looks to me like a couple of accountants.”
“Mr. Mathews, I am trying to do this as painlessly and professionally as I can. Yes, I have asked our legal representation to join us, as you have so astutely observed-”
“He’s calling me Mr. Mathews now,” Edmund said, swinging around to address Russell. “He’s definitely been talking to his lawyers.”
“Okay, Edmund, that’s enough,” Russell mumbled. He was tired of making excuses for Edmund when he blew up in public like this. It was like traveling around town with a rebellious and obnoxious teenager.
In fact, Russell and Edmund had discussed whether they should bring their own lawyer to the meeting. Russell contended that if each side lawyered up, it was more than likely that the meeting would be aborted before it began. One lawyer would speak, the other would object, and LifeDeals and Statistical Solutions would be advised to leave the matter to their legal representation. What Russell had not anticipated was that Edmund saw red the moment he spotted Statistical Solutions’ legal counsel, who stood out from the others like a sore thumb. On edge from everything that was going on, Edmund took the man’s presence as a personal affront.
“If I may make a suggestion,” Russell said. “We came here this morning for the report that you promised. Let’s deal with the legal issues of our relationship after the fact.”
“Okay, Russell, thank you,” Henry said, glancing at Edmund, who appeared reasonably composed. Well, you won’t look so composed in five minutes, Henry thought. “We’ll proceed with our presentation. There’s a copy of our termination letter in the packets we’ll give you at the end of the meeting, as well as a completely nonprejudicial note from our legal department reiterating the reasonable scope of our services, which is what I was trying to do a few minutes ago. But I appreciate you’re eager to hear the results. I want to assure you that we had our best people working on this. Isabel Lee, whom you met and who is unable to join us today, put in a solid shift on this. So did Tom Graham, who graduated two years ago from MIT. . . .”
Edmund rolled his fists one over the other, like an umpire indicating for play to proceed. He wanted the facts, not the support behind the facts, and the longer it took getting the information implied that it wasn’t going to be to their liking.
“. . . and Paul, who had more than five years’ experience at the Department of Defense.” Edmund drummed his fingers on the desk.
“Okay. The work we did last night-all night, in fact-was to estimate how a shift to the right of the bell curves we previously created on the timing of the redemption of the life insurance policies LifeDeals holds would affect cash flow. We’ll have the formal report in a day or two but we can give you a preliminary one today. I have to say, we were surprised.”