Frederick Ramsay_Botswana Mystery 01 Read Online Free PDF

confidential lawyer-client information,” he protested. “Now wait a minute, Brenda…” He clenched his jaw, his face turned a bright, first-day-at-the-beach red. “Okay, okay, I hear you, but this has got to stop. Remember, you may embarrass me, but, if I have to, I can destroy you. What happened at that club is history and don’t forget, I didn’t interfere with you and Robert when I could have, so we should be even.”
    He held the phone away from his ear and sighed. “No need to use that kind of language. Very well, but I can only give you a rough outline—only what concerns your husband. That will have to do for now. Is that clear? Good.” He ran his fingers through his still thick hair. It had once been red but with the years had turned muddy, the red fading into gray.
    “This is the last will Mr. Painter executed as far as I know. Since I am his attorney, you may assume it is definitive. There is a 25 percent share in the company’s stock that is held in trust by Leo until Robert turns thirty-three. What?…I don’t know. Leo must have been genuinely fond of Robert’s mother, Brenda. That fondness doesn’t extend to Robert, by the way. Anyway, if Leo dies before Robert turns thirty-three, he inherits it immediately.”
    Farrah wasn’t sure how much of what he related would register with the woman whom he’d first encountered in the Golden Cage night club. Just another gold-digger who, he believed, would milk whatever assets Griswold had and then dump him.
    “The what?” Farrah’s expression switched from condescension to alarm. “How did you hear about the public offering? It’s supposed to be a secret…Bobby told you? I, we, the company, that is, could get into big trouble with the SEC if they find out…Okay, but don’t say anything to anyone else, you hear? I mean it. If it comes out, the wrong people know the sale could be canceled.”
    A new problem to aggravate his ulcer. He reached into a desk drawer and retrieved a package of antacids, shelled one out and placed it on his tongue.
    “No, if the offering goes through, Bobby’s stock converts to preferred stock. Since he is not top management, it confers no stock options to him.”
    This conversation had drifted into areas the woman could not possibly grasp, he thought, and wished he had never begun.
    “What?…Well, it means that combined with his mother’s share he received at her death he’d have a very nice income stream. Preferred stock is paid dividends before common stock. That’s pretty much it.”
    Farrah listened as Brenda summarized her understanding of what he’d said. To his surprise, she had it right. When she’d finished, he acknowledged it as correct and hung up. With the news about the possibility of the IPO leak, he had a full day ahead. It had used up all his favors, and then some, to convince the board to force an IPO on Leo. This leak could ruin everything. The SEC needed to be queried—discreetly. He had contacts there. And the firms he’d contacted needed to be warned that there might be other parties in play when the offering was announced, if it made it that far.
    ***
    While Henry Farrah fenced with Brenda Griswold and fed his ulcer antacids, Travis also placed a phone call. He’d used Dalton Inquiries frequently in the past. His continued climb in the corporate world required that he know as much as possible about his rivals, subordinates, and employer. Andrew Dalton supplied that information for a price. A high price, in fact, but one Travis paid without question. Dalton’s data was always reliable.
    “Andy, I have an assignment for you and I need a report by Thursday.”
    “That’s not much time, Mr. Parizzi.”
    “I know, I’ll pay—”
    “Of course you will. What is it you need?”
    “Everything you can find out about a man named Yuri Greshenko. It’s important.”
    “Hell, Mr. Parizzi. I don’t need to wait until Thursday, I can give that to you right now. The word on the street is Yuri