The Moneychangers Read Online Free PDF

seniority. It always amused Edwina that quality of initial supported a caste system with attendant perks and privileges. In the Headquar ters credit policy unit, an as sistant loan inspector, whose authority was limited to a mere fifty thousand dollars, worked at an unimpressive desk alongside others in a large open office.. Next in the pecking order, a loan inspector whose initial was good for a quarter million dollars rated a larger desk in a glass - paneled cubicle.
    An honest-to-goodness office with door and window was the perquisite of an assistant loan supervisor whose quality of initial extended higher, to a half million dollars. He also rated a capacious desk, an oil painting on the wall and printed memo pads with his name, a free dail y copy of The Wall Street Journ al and a complimentary shoeshine every morning. He shared a secretary with another assistant supervisor.
    Finally, a loan officer-vice-president whose initial was good for a million dollars, worked in a corner office with two windows, two oil paintings, and a secretary of his own. His name memos were engraved. He, too, had a free shoeshine and newspaper, plus magazines and journals, the use of a company car when required for business, and access to the senior officers' dining for lunch.
    Edwina qualified for almost all the quality-of-initia l perks. She had never used the shoeshine.
    This morning, she studied two loan requests, approved one and penciled some queries on another. A third proposal stopped her short.
    Startled, and conscious of a bizarre coincidence after yesterday's experience, she read through the file again.
    The loan officer who had prepared the file answered Edwina's intercom buzz. "Castleman here." "Cliff, please come over."
    "Sure." The loan officer, only half a dozen desks away, looked directly at Edwina "And I'll bet I know why you want me."
    Moments later, as he seated himself beside her desk, he glanced at the open file. "I was right. We get some lulus, don't we?"
    Cliff Castleman was small and precise with a round pink face and soft smile. Bo rrowers liked him because he w as a good listener and sympathetic. But he was al so a seasoned loan man with soun d judgment.
    "I was hoping," Edwina said, "that this application is some kind of sick joke, even if a ghastly one."
    "Ghoulish would be more apt, Mrs. D'Orsey. And while the whole thing may be sick, I assure yo u it's real." Cas tleman motioned to the file. "I included all the facts because I knew you'd want them. Obviously you've read the report. And my recommendation."
    "Are you serious in proposing to lend this much money for this purpose?"
    "I'm deadly serious." The loan o fficer stopped abruptly. "Sorry that wasn't intended to be gallows humor. But I believe you should approve the loan."
    It was all there in the file. A forty-three-year-old pharmaceutical salesman named Gosburne, locally employed, was applying for a loan of twenty-five thousand dollars
    He was married a first marriage which had lasted seventeen years, and the Gosburnes owned their suburban home except for a small mortgage. They had had a joint account with FMA for eight years no problems. An earlier, though smaller, bank loan had been repai d. Gosburne's employment record and other financial history were good.
    The intended purpose of the new loan was to buy a large stainless steel capsule in which would be placed the body of the Gosburnes' child, Andrea. She had died six days ago, at age fifteen, from a kidney malignancy. At present Andrea's body was at a funeral home, stored in dry ice. Her blood had been drawn off immediately after death and replaced with a blood-like "anti-freeze" solution called dimethylsulfoxide.
    The steel capsule was specially designed to contain liquid nitrogen at a subzero temperature. The body, wrapped in aluminum foil, would be immersed in this solution.
    A capsule of the type sought a giant bottle, really, and known as a "cryo-crypt" was available in Los Angeles and would be flown