Due Diligence Read Online Free PDF Page A

was shot.’ He pauses. ‘You did know he was shot?’
    ‘Yes, I spoke with his wife.’
    Ryan takes out a notepad. Pencil poised, he asks, ‘When did you last see him?’
    ‘At the party, on the boat.’
    He" jots this down. ‘Didn’t say or do anything out of the ordinary? Didn’t seem worried?’ He glances up. ‘This isn’t a statement, Mr Carlton. Just a few notes to aid a bad memory. Don't let it put you off.' He repeats his questions.
    ‘I'm not sure,’ I tell him. ‘I didn’t get much chance to speak with him.’
    ‘Was he drunk?’
    ‘He’d had a few, but he wasn’t drunk. Who said he was?’
    The Inspector smiles. ‘It was just a question. I understand his position here was quite important.’
    ‘He was Head of Treasury.’
    ‘Which entails what?’
    ‘Haven’t you got this already?’
    He taps his pencil on his notepad. ‘Bear with me,’ he says.
    I want this over with, so I give the Inspector a brief description of Daniel’s responsibilities as Treasurer. He was in charge of Carltons’ whole trading operation, responsible for a daily turnover of several hundred million pounds. Foreign exchange, gilts, bonds and equities, he oversaw them all, both interbank and on the international exchanges. A major position at the bank. Ryan listens, but writes none of it down.
    ‘And he answered to you,’ he says when I finish.
    'That’s right.’
    ‘His position was likely to make him enemies, I understand.’
    I remark that any position is likely to make a man enemies. Ryan takes a moment with that. ‘Not just here,’ he says. ‘Among the other banks. And your clients, possibly?’
    ‘Nobody’s in this business to make friends, Inspector.’
    He looks at me very directly. ‘How did he get on with the Meyers?’ The Meyer brothers? Where do they come into this?
    ‘They’re Vance’s clients,’ I say.
    ‘Some takeover, I’m told. The Meyer Group for Parnells?’ Ryan flicks back through his notebook but can’t seem to find what he wants. ‘That’s the biggest piece of business you’re involved with just now, isn’t it?’
    ‘Probably.’ In fact this bid is the biggest deal the bank has been involved with for almost two years. I rest my forearms on the table. ‘That bid’s in the balance, Inspector. I don’t think the Meyers would appreciate being drawn into this without good reason.’
    He glances at his notepad. ‘They’ve been quite cooperative, actually.’
    ‘You’ve spoken to them?’
    ‘An hour ago.’
    Christ Almighty. I'll have to take Vance over there to reassure them. Soon. And this Ryan, I've read him completely wrong. The heavy moustache and the prop-forward’s build give the impression of lumbering slowness; a false impression, I realize now. Sitting up, I start to pay a good deal more attention.
    ‘Cast your mind back over the past year, Mr Carlton. Any particular deal went badly wrong? No major dispute Stewart was involved with?’
    ‘Dozens.’
    ‘No particular one?’
    I shake my head. I ask if he’d like a tea or coffee, but he politely declines. He rises and studies my grandfather’s portrait again. ‘More like you than your father,’ he remarks. Surprised, I ask if he knows my father. Telly,’ he explains. ‘Rather out of my class, Lord Belmont.’ This comment lands like a fly on a still pool of water. I let it drift by. ‘Sir John tells me he might be retiring soon,’ he says, turning. ‘You’ll replace him?’
    ‘That’s the board’s decision.’
    Ryan looks sceptical.
    ‘It’s likely,’ I concede. He asks what the change would have meant to Daniel. ‘I don’t follow.’
    ‘Well presumably your own position would become vacant. Could Stewart have expected to replace you?’
    ‘He would have been considered.’
    ‘Who else was in the running?’
    And then I see what he’s getting at. ‘Are you serious?’
    He looks at me, waiting for an answer.
    So I hold up three fingers and tick them off one by one. ‘Treasury, Funds