Beside her, Easterson nodded gravely. ‘Sad but true,’ he intoned. The woman by his side flashed him a brief look of annoyance at the interruption.
‘At Mr Easterson’s request,’ she continued, ‘I’ve been carrying out a complete review of all of the late Mr Whetstone’s business dealings and relationships.’ She turned to the general manager. ‘I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to run through this with you,’ she tapped the folder, ‘in advance of the meeting, Vernon.’ Steele formed the instant impression that she was not at all sorry. ‘To set this in context,’ she continued, ‘let me tell you a little bit about him. I have to admit at the outset that he was not someone I’d have gone out and recruited myself. He didn’t fit my profile of the ideal corporate banker: he was twenty years too old, for openers. .’ The GMCB shifted uncomfortably beside her. ‘. . and his background was restricted almost entirely to retail banking. However,’ she said firmly, ‘if I’d dug my heels in and flatly refused to have him, I’d have been wrong.’
A small smile of relieved satisfaction crossed Easterson’s face. ‘Ivor was the success of the team. I had a hunch about him and it turned out that my faith was well placed.’
‘Yes,’ Aurelia Middlemass agreed, ‘it turned out that Whetstone had built up something of a network in his time with the SFB’s predecessor, the Agricultural and Rural, and in the period after the demutualisation. He used it very shrewdly, and absolutely slaughtered his lending targets in his first year in post. As a result, he was given a promotion; he was also given a degree of extra autonomy on what he was doing.’
‘I thought that Mr Easterson said you were his line manager,’ Steele interrupted.
‘I was at the outset; but when Whetstone had his review he asked if he might report directly to Vernon rather than through me.’
‘Didn’t you object to that?’ asked Rose. ‘In our set-up, that would be a bit like DI Steele asking if he could report directly to the head of CID.’
‘Maybe it would, but maybe also we’re a more flexible organisation. I didn’t object because I reckoned it would be best for the bank. As I said, Whetstone wasn’t of my generation, and our thinking was completely different, but I couldn’t knock his performance. Frankly it seemed to me that having Vernon supervise him was an ideal arrangement all round.’
She paused and took a deep breath, drawing herself up in her chair. ‘Of course, I assumed that there would be supervision.’
It was Easterson’s turn to sit bolt upright. ‘I beg your pardon?’ he asked, his guests forgotten for that moment. ‘What do you mean by that?’
‘I mean, Vernon,’ she replied evenly, ‘that I understood that Whetstone really would be reporting to you, not doing his own thing.’
The little man’s face turned a colour that if not pure beetroot, certainly looked hazardous to his health. ‘I think we should continue this discussion in private, Aurelia,’ he hissed.
Rose intervened. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Easterson, if there’s a disagreement between you but if Ms Middlemass has something to say that might have a bearing on Mr Whetstone’s death, then we need to hear it.’ She looked at the woman. ‘Please, continue.’
The banker nodded. ‘When I said that I’ve been carrying out a review of Mr Whetstone’s business, I meant all of his business; not just the period when he was reporting to me, but the time since then. When I managed him, every lending transaction that he secured and every new business customer he brought to the bank was scrutinised by me and signed off by me, but only after I’d met the people involved and made my own risk assessment of each of them. It appears that hasn’t been happening since he left my orbit.’
‘Oh yes it has,’ Easterson protested. ‘Ivor brought every one of his deals to me for approval.’
Aurelia Middlemass turned towards him, her brown eyes seeming to drill into his head. ‘I hope not,’ she said icily. ‘If you’ve heard of the Bonspiel Partnership, the situation is even more unfortunate than I thought.’
‘What’s the Bonspiel Partnership?’ Steele asked. ‘Something to do with curling?’
‘Got it in one, Inspector,’ she replied. ‘Bonspiel’s application for a credit facility says that the partnership is involved in the manufacture of curling stones made from traditional Ailsa Craig granite. The business plan proposes a distribution network throughout Europe and North America. The application is fine as far as it goes. . only it doesn’t go far enough. In a situation such as this, the bank would always ask for personal guarantees from the borrowers. That wasn’t done in this case.’
‘Okay,’ said Rose, ‘but there has to be more than that.’
‘There is. The joint applicants are a couple called Alexander and Victoria Murray. Their business location is an industrial site in Stewarton, Ayrshire, and their home is listed as Galston. I’ve checked out both of those addresses; yes, they exist, but neither one has anything to do with the bank’s alleged customers, or their alleged business. The industrial unit is vacant and unlet, and the house in question belongs to a couple whose surname just happens to be Murray. He’s a teacher, she’s a nurse.’
‘Are the applications signed?’
‘The signatures are a joke. They’re just squiggles, that’s all; one in black ink and the other in blue.’
‘What’s the borrowing facility?’
‘One million pounds, all of which has been drawn down already.’
‘And of course,’ Steele anticipated, ‘it’s already been transferred. ’
‘Correct. The money was moved last week to an account in the Isle of Man. As it happens, I have a contact in the receiving bank. The account holder is a Mrs Victoria Murray. Incidentally, those two names bear a remarkable similarity to the forenames of Whetstone’s wife and son.’
‘That’s true,’ Rose conceded, ‘but it’s pretty tenuous as evidence. Is the money still there?’
‘Are you kidding?’ Aurelia Middlemass laughed. ‘It was moved on the day after it was lodged, to a numbered account in a Swiss bank, and you may be sure it’s been transferred out of that too.’
Vernon Easterson’s face had gone from bright red to pale yellow. ‘I knew nothing of this,’ he whispered. ‘How long have you been aware of it, Aurelia?’
‘Since yesterday.’
‘Have you told anyone else about it?’ asked Rose.
‘Absolutely not. Our chief executive, Proctor Fraser, has to be told, though. I’ve asked him to meet with Vernon and me once this meeting is over.’
‘I don’t believe it!’ the GMCB gasped. ‘How could Ivor ever have hoped to get away with it?’
‘Without adequate supervision,’ Aurelia Middlemass said slowly, ‘he could have expected to, for a period at least. Sure, the auditors or someone would have discovered eventually that the application was fraudulent. Whetstone might even have worked a double bluff and blown the whistle himself; I’ve known that to happen. He could have claimed to have been shown the industrial unit, and that he had simply been duped. The worst that would have happened to him would have been an enforced early retirement. He’d have got away with it.’
‘Not if the money was traced,’ Steele suggested.
‘The money’s untraceable already. The Swiss are still holding on to their banking secrecy laws, in spite of pressure from the EU. They do co-operate in cases of money-laundering, but we’ll need to go to court to prove it. But as I said earlier, the money won’t be in Switzerland any more. There are still plenty of shelters around the world.’
Rose leaned back in her chair, and looked at her colleague. ‘It could be, Stevie,’ she said. ‘Whetstone defrauds the bank, then panics and kills himself.’
‘Or he really was conned, and once the money was transferred, he was killed by the fraudsters to cover their trail,’ Steele suggested.