L. Z. Drake, Black said. Went to school with McDonald.
Call when you get done.
Yeah. Hey, you know about Weather?
Yeah. Howd you hear?
They had some pictures of the house in a news brief… Markham had his TV on the whole time I was talking to him. They said she was okay.
Yeah, yeah…
You think theres any chance its another comeback from LaChaise?
I dont know what to think.
All right, said Black. Ill call you after I talk to Drake.
SLOAN AND FRANKLIN WERE WAITING OUTSIDE LUCAS'S office when Lucas got back. Both of them had been involved in the shoot-out that killed the two LaChaise women the winter before, though Sloan hadnt fired his weapon and hadnt been a direct target of the reprisal attacks. Franklin, on the other hand, had been shot in his own driveway.
Weve been talking, man, Franklin said in his booming voice. Lucas was large; Franklin dwarfed him. We gotta look into this, unless theres some motive for somebody hittin Weather.
Howd you hear about it?
Its all over the department, its been on TV, Sloan said.
You think I oughta call my folks, get them out of the house? Franklin asked.
I dont know, Lucas said. They were milling in the hall, and he saw Sherrill starting down toward them. I dont know whats going on. Nobodys got a motive that I can figure, and theres a possibility that it was a pro job.
Why a pro job? Sloan asked. As Sherrill came up, Franklin said to her, Couldve been a pro job.
Youre sure? Sherrill asked.
Lucas told them about the scored bottle. Thats it, Franklin said. Im putting the old lady in a motel.
Black arrived as they were talking about it, stood on the edge of the discussion: he hadnt been in the shoot-out, hadnt been a target.
I think what we need to do before we panic, is we need to get everybody we got out on the street, Lucas said. Ill talk to Intelligence and Narcotics and the gang people, Ill talk to St. Paul, and every one of us has got people… Lets get out there and dig for a few hours. If this is a group, somebodyll know.
Lorings got the good biker contacts, Franklin said. Hes been working nights, hes probably home asleep. You want me to roust him?
Get him moving, Lucas said.
Ill find Del, get him started, Sloan said.
Im outa here, said Franklin.
As the group started to break up, Black said, Lucas, I talked to this guy Drake about McDonald.
Oh, yeah. Old news; he wasnt thinking about McDonald anymore.
Black continued: I had to push him, but he says heknew McDonald all the way through school, and he has a real violent streak. Bottom line was, Drake thinks he could kill somebody if he decided it was necessary. He said McDonald was a big guy, played a little high school football, and he and a couple of other guys stalked another kid for a couple of years, a little wimpy guy, beat him up a half-dozen times just because they knew they could make him cry in front of the girls. ..
Yeah, yeah, Lucas said impatiently. We can pick that up later.
And as Black left, Sherrill, whod been drifting away, said from down the hall, You were gonna talk to ODell today…
No time now, Lucas said. He remembered the phone call about Bone sleeping with Kresge, but pushed the memory away. Lets get out on the street.
ELEVEN
THE POLARIS BANK TOWER WAS A RABBIT WARREN OF meeting, training, and conference rooms, but only one of them was The Room.
The Room was on the fortieth floor, guarded by two thick oak doors.
No Formica here, no commercial carpeting or stainless steel. The conference table was twenty feet long and made of page-cut walnut; the chairs were walnut and bronze and plush crimson cushions; the lighting was subtle and recessed. The floor was oak parquet, accented with Quashqai rugs.
An alcove at one side of the room contained a refrigerator stocked with soft drinks and sparkling water. A small bar was tucked discreetly away under a countertop, and a coffeemaker kept fresh three flavors of hot coffee, as well as hot water for anyone who wanted to brew tea. A Limoges-style sugar bowl and creamer waited next to an array of delicate cups and small serving plates. On the countertop itself was a tray of sandwiches cut into equilateral triangles, cookies, and a freshly opened box of Godiva chocolates.
Constance Rondeau probed the box of chocolates, her sharp nose moving up and down like a bird going after aworm. ODell watched her work over the box, and realized that she recognized individual types among the Godiva variety, and was picking out the good ones.
ODell pulled herself back: she was drifting. Oakes was talking.
… do agree that somebody had to take the reins. Weve got too much going on, and its too dangerous out there right now. And somebodys got to work with Midland… If Rondeau looked like a bird, Shelley Oakes looked like a porkpieall puffy and round-faced.
But my point is, said Loren Bunde, we cant take forever finding someone. We dont have the time, with this merger going on. We probably ought to go over to Midland and get one of their mechanics, and just pull the thing together.
Where would his loyalty be? asked Bone. Itd have to be with Midland, because thatll be the successor bank. Hed find a way to screw us: hell, thatd be his job. I definitely think we should go with the merger: but on our terms. They need us. We dont really need them. Weve got the fifty-dollar price in play, but if everything shakes out right, well get seventy-five.
Nobody ever mentioned seventy-five, said Rondeau, looking up from the Godiva chocolates with a light in her eye.
I think that would be a minimum. I dont know what was going on between Midland and Dan Kresge, but something was going on, Bone said. Fifty dollars is ridiculous. One-for-one is ridiculous. We should get cash as welclass="underline" I dont think a hundred is out of the question.
I think it is, ODell said bluntly. I think seventy-five is on the outer edge of any sane possibility.
You dont know what youre talking about, Bone said.
ODell ignored him, and looked around at the other board members: Listen: Wemustreconsider the possibility of continuing as an independent, she said. An immediate merger on the proposed terms would turn somequick profits for all of us, myself included. But the merger talk alone has pushed the stock price, and well keep most of that whether or not we merge. So that much is locked in. And the fact is, if the new management were to take what I think is a proper view of the board and its duties, and the top management and its duties, then additional compensation would be provided anyway. There are also benefits available to board members and top management that we will lose in a merger, no matter how much money we got right away.
After a moment of silence, somebody asked, Like what?
ODell smiled and said, Theres quite a wide range of possibilities
… A little research on what other boards get as compensation could point to some interesting alternatives. Tax-free alternatives, I might add.
McDonald sat at the far end of the table, where Kresge had always sat, watching the talk, struggling to keep up with it. Bone and ODell were clearly at odds, Bone pushing for the proposed merger, ODell resisting.
All these possibilities should be explored, he ventured ponderously. But I do think that we should consider Polariss position as a major community asset. Weve been here for a hundred years and more, and a lot of us wouldnt be where we are today if we hadnt had the ear of some friendly people at Polaris…
He droned on, losing most of the board immediately. John Goff had the right to buy almost forty thousand shares of Polaris at prices ranging from twelve dollars a share to forty-one dollars, most of it at the lower end. Using a scratch pad and a pocket calculator, he began running all the option prices against Bones suggestion that they might get a hundred.
Dafne Bose was drawing an airplane on her scratch pad. The bank had a small twin-prop, mostly used for flying audit and management teams to small banks out in the countryside. But what if the bank were to buy something really nicea small jetand what if it were available tothe board? It probably should be, anyway. A plane like that would be worth tens of thousands of dollars a year, none of it visible to the IRS. ODell said there were other possibilities. Bose underlined the plane and looked up at ODell, who smiled back.