The Marketmaker

31

The first person I saw as I followed Luís into the Dekker Ward boardroom was Sidney Stahl, perched on a chair, a cigar in his mouth. ‘Hi, guys!’ he croaked, with a grin. A gloating grin. He thinks he’ll beat us, I thought instantly. Behind him was Dwight Godfrey, who avoided my eyes.

We walked further into the room. Kerton rose from behind the table to greet us, some envelopes in front of him. I ignored him. My attention was grabbed by the man sitting next to him, legs crossed, calmly smoking a cigarette.

Ricardo.

Kerton was making introductions, and fussing over Isabel, but I wasn’t listening. What the hell was Ricardo doing here? Then I glanced quickly at the envelopes in front of Lord Kerton. There were three.

Ricardo was speaking to me. ‘Good afternoon, Nick, Luís,’ he said. And then, when he saw Isabel, ‘I’m so pleased to see you. I didn’t know you’d been released.’

I didn’t say anything. I just collapsed into a seat next to Luís.

There were a number of other people there: lawyers, advisers, that sort of thing. We’d brought a lot of them with us. But I didn’t really take them in. The only person in the room for me was Ricardo. Even though he was an interloper, he had the air of someone in complete control, not just of himself but of all of us in the room.

‘Thank you for coming in person,’ Lord Kerton said. ‘It seemed the best way to do this. Then you would at least know that you were both being treated fairly,’ he addressed this to Stahl and Luís. ‘This morning I received a call from Ricardo, asking if he could put a bid in for the firm. I couldn’t really refuse, so I invited him along.’

Of course I wasn’t surprised that Ricardo had found out about the auction. And it was just like him to take the initiative, and not sit idly by while his firm was sold underneath him. But it was still a shock to see him there, competing with us for Dekker.

‘I object!’ said Stahl. ‘I admit I was kinda surprised to see Ricardo here. But I thought he was just here to watch, not to bid.’

‘Well, Sid, he’s put together a bid of his own,’ Kerton said. ‘A sort of management buy-out, you could call it. Or I think you would term it a leveraged buy-out.’

Kerton pronounced leveraged the British way, lee-vraged, to irritate Stahl. He succeeded.

‘Well, I don’t like it. You change the ground rules on me and I’m outa here!’

‘I don’t think I mentioned how many participants there would be when I invited you to bid. You just assumed that there would be two. Well, there are three. If you wish to withdraw your bid or change it, you are free to do so.’

Damn! If Stahl changed his bid because he knew Ricardo was there, then it would only be upwards, and leave us with even less chance of victory. Lord Kerton was being quite canny.

Stahl thought for a moment. He pulled on his cigar, and coughed. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Our bid stays as it is right there in that envelope. I’m not gonna let you ambush me into paying you more than I have to for this shit-heap.’

Kerton smiled politely. He turned to Luís. ‘It’s only fair to make you the same offer. Would you like to change your bid?’

Luís shook his head. He was paying as much as he could afford anyway. More.

‘OK. Well, without further ado, I shall open the bids.’

He picked up an envelope. I recognized the Banco Horizonte logo. ‘Taking them at random,’ he said, slitting it with an elegant brass paperknife. ‘I have the bid here from Banco Horizonte... Eighty million pounds.’ He spoke quietly and calmly, and handed it to the lawyer next to him to verify.

Ricardo took a drag of his cigarette. Stahl puffed his cigar. I chewed a pencil.

The next envelope was Bloomfield Weiss’s. I couldn’t read the words printed on it, but I recognized the distinctive typeface. Kerton attacked it with his fancy paperknife.

‘Bloomfield Weiss’s bid is...’ he scanned the letter quickly ‘... seventy-six million pounds.’

Yes! Stahl had cut it too fine. He had done the same calculations as Scott-Liddell, come up with the same numbers, and added a bit. Well, Luís had added a bit more.

I glanced across at Stahl. He was still chewing his cigar, not looking at anyone in particular. He was trying to put on a brave face, to let us know he’d get over it. But his face was reddening, and his jaws were clenched so tight on the cigar that I was surprised he hadn’t snapped the end off. Sidney Stahl was not happy.

But all eyes were now on the third envelope. As Kerton picked it up, I glanced at Ricardo. He was sitting in exactly the same posture of studied relaxation. His wedding ring was gliding gently over his fingers. The announcement of the two bids hadn’t prompted the slightest reaction. But just then I knew he’d won. In a sealed-bid auction involving Ricardo there could only ever be one winner. I suddenly knew why we hadn’t heard from him during this whole process. It was so that he could time his entrance into the struggle perfectly, so that he could snatch Dekker for himself before we or Bloomfield Weiss had time to respond to the threat.

‘And Ricardo Ross’s bid is eighty-eight million pounds.’ Kerton put down the final plain white envelope. Ricardo allowed himself a faint smile. ‘Congratulations,’ Kerton said to him. ‘I accept your bid.’

They shook hands.

‘Wait a minute!’ exclaimed Stahl. ‘How d’you know this guy has the money?’

Kerton raised an eyebrow to Ricardo. It was a fair question, but anyone who knew Ricardo knew that if he said he would pay a certain sum for something he would always be able to get hold of the money. The employee trusts would be an obvious place to start.

‘I’ll have the cash in an escrow account tomorrow morning, Andrew. If it’s not there, then you can ignore my bid.’

‘Fair enough,’ said Kerton. ‘And that, gentlemen, is all.’

Stahl was angry. He muttered furiously to Godfrey, while throwing dark glances towards Kerton and Ricardo. He glowered as he stalked out, not even pausing to say goodbye to anyone.

I had problems controlling my own temper. I had difficulty in believing what I had just witnessed. After all the trouble I’d gone to to engineer the sale of Dekker Ward, only to see Ricardo steal it from under our noses! Now he would have complete control of Dekker. I had hoped that by this afternoon he would have lost his job. More than hoped, I was confident that one way or another someone would soon be firing Ricardo Ross. But he had outwitted me. He had outwitted us all.

Luís caught my eye, shrugged and said, ‘Let’s just say goodbye to Kerton and go.’

Lord Kerton stood very upright as he held out his hand. The three of us shook it. Then Luís spoke to him quietly. ‘Why did you do it? You know Ricardo almost ruined you. Why did you sell to him?’

Kerton looked uncomfortable, but he answered Luís honestly. ‘A week ago this firm was worth ten million pounds. It’s now worth eighty-eight. There comes a time when one should just take one’s money and run. And I think this is the time.’

And so we left, ignoring the new owner of Dekker Ward.

Sergio joined us for a subdued dinner that evening. Luís was disappointed by the defeat. But I couldn’t help noticing the way he kept glancing at Isabel. She was alive, and that was all that really mattered.

I still had nowhere to go, and Luís insisted on putting me up in the Savoy for another couple of nights, to give me time to find somewhere. I didn’t complain. I knew I had a lot to worry about and plan, but with Isabel beside me I just wanted to think about the present.

When we arrived back at our rooms there was a message that someone was waiting to see Isabel and me in the American Bar downstairs.

It was Ricardo. He was sitting in the furthest corner of the bar, nursing a glass of fizzy water. He fitted in well with these surroundings, immaculate in his suit, monogrammed shirt, silk tie, wealthy Latin appearance.

Isabel and I both stopped dead when we saw him. ‘What does he want?’ she said.

‘I don’t know. Let’s find out.’

Ricardo rose to his feet when we approached but didn’t extend his hand. I hardly felt welcoming, and Isabel’s look was as cold as ice.

‘Nick, Isabel, thank you for seeing me,’ he began.

‘We didn’t know it was you,’ said Isabel.

‘No. You didn’t, did you?’ he said, as though it was an unfortunate omission on someone else’s part. ‘But I’d be grateful if you could give me a few minutes. I’d like to continue the conversation Nick and I had a couple of weeks ago.’

It was a good way of winning my attention. ‘OK,’ I said, and sat down. Isabel followed my lead. Ricardo beckoned to a waiter and ordered a beer for me and a glass of white wine for Isabel. We waited for him to talk.

‘I’m so pleased you were released unharmed, Isabel,’ he began. ‘You must have been through a terrible ordeal. And I’d like you to know that I had no part in your kidnapping.’

He paused and looked at us both with his clear blue eyes. Leaning slightly forward, his hands towards us, his handsome face open and steady, he looked as though he was telling the truth. But Isabel and I just stared back at him. He would need to do better than that.

Ricardo let the pause go on for an uncomfortably long time before continuing. ‘I know you don’t believe me, and I suppose I’m not surprised. But listen to me. I think we can help each other.’

Still no response from us.

‘You told me a lot I didn’t know that day, Nick. That Isabel was still alive, and that her kidnappers were demanding that the takeover be pulled.’

‘You didn’t seem surprised to hear it,’ I said.

‘I didn’t know how to react.’ He looked up, grabbing my eye again. ‘I didn’t know whether you were telling me the truth. You have to admit you were quite a devious opponent. You could have been putting pressure on me to give in to Bloomfield Weiss. But then when you mentioned Eduardo’s name, it occurred to me that you might have something. Maybe Eduardo was doing things without my knowledge. It wouldn’t have been the first time.’

‘And was he?’

‘No. I spoke to him, and he denied it.’

‘Of course he did.’

‘Nick, I can tell with my brother. I know when he’s hiding something, even if I can’t always tell what it is. And I can tell when he hasn’t got a clue. Believe me, he didn’t have a clue.’

‘But he did get some heavies to beat me up and wreck my flat, didn’t he?’

Ricardo shrugged. ‘I’m sorry about that. He gets over-enthusiastic sometimes.’

‘And you nobbled Russell Church to make sure I wouldn’t work at the School of Russian Studies again.’

Ricardo nodded. ‘That’s true. I’ve always been tough on people who walk out on the team. As you know, I was disappointed in you. I felt you’d let me down.’

I could feel the anger boiling up inside me. ‘I’d let you down!’ I almost shouted. ‘And what about Martin Beldecos? Was his death a result of over-enthusiasm? Or was it just disappointment?’

‘No, no, it wasn’t. I thought he was the victim of a hotel burglary gone wrong. And when you were stabbed on Ipanema beach, I thought that was just a mugging.’

‘I know it wasn’t just a mugging,’ I said.

‘Well, now I suspect it wasn’t too,’ said Ricardo. ‘In fact, I suspect you know quite a lot about what’s going on that I don’t. That’s why I’m here. Tell me what happened in Brazil.’

‘Do you know Francisco Aragão?’

‘Ah.’ Ricardo raised his eyebrows. ‘Of course I do. He’s Luciana’s brother. Does he have something to do with this?’

‘He certainly does.’ I wasn’t sure whether Ricardo really had no idea of Francisco’s involvement, but I saw no harm in telling Ricardo all I knew. Isabel joined in when she described what had happened to her after she had been kidnapped.

Ricardo listened to every word, weighing each new piece of information, putting it in its proper place. When I had finally finished, he didn’t say anything, he just looked up and stared unfocused towards the door. Thinking.

‘Well?’ I said, hoping to provoke a response.

‘Hm?’

‘Well? Does Francisco invest drug money with Dekker Ward?’

Ricardo’s eyes focused. ‘Not that we know of. We have no record of him investing with us. Every investor is known personally by one of us, and we don’t deal with anyone who has known links to drugs. In my book, Francisco definitely has drugs links, and I’ve spent most of my career trying to avoid dealing with him. I thought I’d succeeded.’

‘But someone at Dekker must have dealt with him.’

Ricardo shrugged. ‘You may be right. I don’t know. It’s all very mysterious, isn’t it?’ He paused for a moment. ‘Of course, if I did discover that Francisco had somehow been laundering drug money through Dekker Ward without my knowledge, I’d be quite concerned. I’d certainly let the proper authorities know.’

Suddenly, he gulped his fizzy water, stood up and reached into his wallet for a ten-pound note for the drinks. ‘I’ve got to go back to the office now. Whether you believe me or not, Isabel, I’m very glad to see you alive. And, of course, you still work for Dekker Ward. You’re welcome back in the office any time.’

Isabel shook her head, but allowed herself a small smile. ‘No, thank you. I think you’ll be receiving my resignation letter soon.’

‘That, too, I can understand.’ He leant over and kissed her on both cheeks. ‘Good luck,’ he said. ‘And, Nick, I’m sorry it didn’t work out at Dekker. You’ve been a difficult opponent. I would have liked to have kept you on my side.’

I couldn’t help smiling as I shook his hand.

‘Now, I really have to be going. We’ve got a little crisis on. One of our clients has started to sell all his bonds. You probably remember him, Nick. Alejo? One of Jamie’s. Jamie, I’m afraid has gone home in disgust. Sometimes things get to you in this business. Oh, well. Goodbye.’

I watched him walk out of the bar, stunned. Suddenly, I knew Ricardo had been telling the truth.

‘Nick? Nick?’ I heard Isabel next to me.

‘Oh, um, Isabel. I’m sorry. I’ve got to go somewhere.’

‘Nick, what do you mean? It’s late.’

‘I’ll try to get back tonight, if I can. If not, I’ll see you tomorrow morning.’ I kissed her quickly, and I was off.