On the Edge

by Michael Ridpath

  ‘There’s been a squad of people crawling all over the Derivatives Group. There are rumours that the Teton Fund has notched up huge unrealized losses.’

  ‘Don’t worry about that,’ said Martel. ‘Sidney Stahl himself is coming to visit me this afternoon with three hundred million bucks of new money. We’ll cover those losses.’

  ‘It’s a set-up.’

  ‘What’s a set-up?’

  ‘Stahl’s visit. He has no new money. He wants to ambush you into giving Bloomfield Weiss control of the Teton Fund. And, by the way, Alex Calder has found Perumal. Stahl is bringing him along too.’

  ‘Perumal’s alive?’

  ‘Alive and singing.’

  It took a few moments for Martel’s brain to begin to take in what Nils was saying.

  ‘You remember we discussed that up-front payment?’ Nils went on. ‘The signing-on bonus? I think I’d like that paid into my account now. Half a million dollars, we said, didn’t we? I deserve it, especially after everything I gave you about what Alex Calder has been up to. And that dodgy info I passed on to him about Perumal sending those e-mails to Bodinchuk.’

  Martel slumped against his desk.

  ‘Hello? Jean-Luc? Are you there?’

  Martel put down the phone.

  He was being set up. Of course it made sense: he had been a fool not to realize it. Why would Sidney Stahl come in person simply to introduce a new investor? No reason. But to take over the reins of the Teton Fund? Now that was something that would tempt Bloomfield Weiss’s chairman away from his Wall Street lair.

  If what Nils said was true, then it was all over. After the euphoria of the previous half hour, Martel found that very hard to accept. But slowly he felt the inevitability of failure rise up over him, like a man caught in quicksand as the tide came in.

  Like a drowning man, he struggled. His stomach howled in pain and fury, snapping something within him. He picked up his four-thousand-dollar leather chair and threw it across the room, cracking the whiteboard on the far wall. He slammed his head against the window. He turned to see his wife sneering down at him from her portrait on the wall. Searching for a sharp object he found a pen, and set about the canvas, slashing and stabbing until that knowing face of fake innocence was shredded into a dozen pieces. He launched himself into a flying drop-kick against one of her pieces of pottery, balancing on a plinth, and both he and the vase fell crashing to the floor. There he lay, sobbing.

  He was dimly aware of the door to his office opening, and then shutting hurriedly. They would leave him to the squalor of his defeat.

  As he lay there, tears running down his cheeks, a thought glimmered at the back of his brain somewhere, and then grew; This was the ultimate test. It would take a miracle for Martel to survive now. But Martel believed in miracles. They had served him well in the past, they would serve him in the future. He should trust to fate, or God, or the mountain, or whatever it was. Gain control. Be calm. Think.

  He pulled himself to his feet, picked up his chair and sat facing the window, and the snow falling steadily outside. Over there somewhere, through all that white, was the enormous mass of the Grand Teton, immobile, invulnerable, permanent.

  Think.

  Slowly at first, then more rapidly, an idea began to form. It was audacious. But what was Martel, if not audacious?

  37

  Jackson Hole airport was small but efficient. They were used to dealing with snowstorms and this one was not troubling them unduly. Calder had to wait twenty minutes while the Bloomfield Weiss jet circled in a holding pattern several thousand feet above the Rockies, but as soon as the airfield detected a small let-up in the snow, the aircraft came in. It was carrying Sidney Stahl, Tarek and a few others. Most of the army of accountants, lawyers, traders and general hangers-on would be arriving on scheduled flights from New York and Tokyo a couple of hours later.

  Through the window of the terminal building Calder saw the group of investment bankers scurry across the tarmac, hunching their shoulders deep into their raincoats against the snow, which had started again. Tarek gave Calder a broad smile when he saw him, and shook his friend’s hand warmly. Stahl dusted the snow off his raincoat and jammed an unlit cigar between his teeth. Stahl was in his sixties and tiny, but with energy bursting out of every pore. He moved quickly as his eyes darted around him, taking in the no-smoking sign and the airport security guard watching him closely.

  Calder had exchanged pleasantries with Sidney Stahl several times when he was working on the trading floor in New York, but that was a few years ago. He turned towards the little man tentatively to introduce himself, but Stahl had no trouble recognizing him.

  ‘Zero! How you doin’? You come by car?’

  Calder nodded.

  ‘You mind if I smoke in it?’

  ‘No, Sidney. That’s fine.’

  ‘I’m goin’ with you then. Come on, Tarek. I’ll see you guys at the hotel.’

  Four lackeys of some height and seniority scurried off to find a taxi, while Stahl and Tarek followed Calder to his car. Over her protests, Calder had left Sandy behind at the hotel.

  Stahl was already puffing away as he and Tarek climbed into the back of the Bronco, and Calder pulled out of the airport parking lot. Within a minute there was nothing to see out of the car window but sagebrush sugar-coated with snow.

  ‘Great view,’ said Stahl. ‘They were right, this is a beautiful place. Reminds me of Chicago. Whenever I go to Chicago it’s either snowing or it’s foggy. Either way, it’s white.’

  ‘Everything ready?’ Calder asked.

  ‘Not quite,’ said Tarek, ‘but we’re getting there. The meeting with Martel is at three o’clock. The local cops are all prepared.’

  ‘Sheriff and his loyal deputies,’ said Stahl with a throaty chuckle. ‘Can you believe it? They got six-guns and horses as well?’

  ‘Haven’t seen any horses yet,’ Calder said. ‘But this is Wyoming, so you can bet they’ve got guns. And moustaches.’

  ‘Can’t be a cop without a moustache,’ said Stahl.

  ‘Actually, the sergeant I met seemed to know his stuff.’

  ‘Well, he’ll need to,’ said Stahl. ‘Because we got SEC, we got assistant district attorneys, we got FBI. All we need is Tarek’s bomber brother and we’ll have everyone coming to this party. Your guy Perumal will be there?’

  ‘His plane is due in in two hours,’ Calder said. Despite Sandy’s fears, Perumal had been happy to appear as the star witness to shock Martel into admitting his guilt, although he had insisted that he be promised immunity from prosecution for wasting the Teton County’s time. This had taken some doing. ‘Who’s going to be at the meeting with Martel? You can’t bring all those people in.’

  ‘Myself, Tarek, and Arnie Robach to start with. We’ll give Martel the bad news that we haven’t brought the Artsdalen Foundation. Then you come in with Perumal, a detective from the Sheriff’s Office, and the guy from the DA’s Office in New York. And we take it from there. The hope is Martel will roll over and tell us everything. Once he lets us at his traders we can stabilize the situation. They should cooperate when they realize what’s happening.’

  ‘Any news from London?’

  ‘Yeah, Simon Bibby’s on the case. Carr-Jones is being very helpful, apparently.’

  ‘I bet he is,’ Calder muttered.

  ‘The new reval shows the Teton Fund is down four hundred sixty million dollars on the JUSTICE notes. That means we need three hundred sixty-eight million of cash to cover our loan. They’ve sent off the demand to Martel.’

  ‘Any pressure from the other brokers?’

  ‘Actually, not that we know of,’ said Tarek. ‘We think that with the recent rally in the market the Teton Fund’s losses elsewhere will have fallen over the last week or so. That means the brokers will need less security for their loans, and they’ll be releasing cash.’

  ‘No one seems spooked yet,’ said Stahl. Then he chuckled. ‘At least, not till I spook them.’

/>   When are you going to do that?’

  ‘I’ll make some calls when we get in. The hotel’s gonna set up a conference room for us to use.’

  ‘Speaking of which, we’re nearly there.’

  They had driven through town and Calder pulled off the main road and up some switchbacks towards the Armangani, the most expensive hotel in Jackson Hole.

  Stahl puffed at his cigar, the smoke filling the enclosed space of the Bronco.

  ‘About my brother …’ Tarek said, a hint of nervousness in his voice.

  ‘Forget about it,’ Stahl said.

  ‘But–’

  ‘I said forget about it. My younger brother was busted for running a numbers racket when he was seventeen. Seriously. You can’t help your family. Don’t sweat it.’

  Calder manoeuvred his Bronco between the fleet of grey Lexus SUVs that guarded the entrance to the hotel. It was a spectacular building, made of red shards of stone and timber squatting on the side of a hill.

  ‘There’s a great view of the Tetons from here,’ Calder said.

  Stahl looked up around him at the shifting whiteness of falling snow. ‘Sure there is,’ he said. ‘I’ll just go up to my room, and then we’ll meet downstairs and see what they’ve got set up for us.’

  Calder and Tarek waited in the lobby: wood-panelling, square log-and-leather chairs, granite tables, roaring fires and Indian artefacts casually strewn around the place – a canoe here, some snowshoes there – as if left by a tribe of Sioux who happened to be passing through the week before. A stone-rimmed pool lurked just outside some glass doors, steam rising up from it to do battle with the snowflakes falling from above. A family consisting of a youngish bespectacled investment banker, blonde wife and two yellow-haired small girls padded through in bathrobes, heading for the heat and snow.

  ‘I’m sorry, Zero,’ Tarek said.

  ‘For what?’

  ‘You know. For everything. For not backing you up over Jen. For not fighting harder to keep you on at Bloomfield Weiss. For not taking you seriously over Perumal.’

  Calder shrugged.

  ‘I admire you, you know,’ Tarek said. ‘Being able to walk away from a good career at Bloomfield Weiss. All those millions you would have made.’

  ‘I can assure you, it’s not that difficult.’

  ‘Oh, I know it is,’ said Tarek. ‘Believe me, I know it is. For people as ambitious as you and me, it’s very difficult to walk away.’

  Calder looked closely at his friend. ‘You’ll do well at Bloomfield Weiss, Tarek.’

  Tarek shrugged. ‘Maybe. Sometimes I wonder whether I want to.’

  ‘What was that about your brother?’

  Tarek sighed. ‘I don’t exactly know. I haven’t seen Omar for years. He was always a bit of a wild man. He’s got involved with some lunatics.’

  ‘And Carr-Jones found out?’

  Tarek smiled ruefully. ‘And threatened to tell Sidney. Sounds like he did, as well.’

  ‘Bastard,’ Calder muttered.

  Stahl’s helpers arrived in one of the grey Lexuses and set off to prepare the conference room.

  ‘You know,’ Tarek said, ‘I’ve met Martel before.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yeah. Freddie Langhauser tried to get my family to invest in the Teton Fund. Actually, my father was enthusiastic – he liked all that “Man Who Broke the Euro” crap. Fortunately, he asked me to look at it with him. We met Martel in Geneva a few weeks ago. It was clear to me right away he didn’t have a clue what he was doing, although he gave no indication he was in quite such a hole. I’m not at all surprised he’s blown himself up.’

  ‘So you didn’t invest?’

  ‘No way. I was pretty firm with my father. He listens to me.’

  ‘Does Sidney know about this?’

  ‘Yes. I told him on the flight here.’ Tarek checked his watch. ‘He’s taking his time.’

  Then the elevator arrived in the lobby with a ping and as he and Calder turned towards it, out stepped a tall figure Calder was not expecting.

  Jean-Luc Martel.

  He was smiling, his bulging eyes shining. He raised his eyebrows when he saw Calder, and the smile broadened to a manic grin. Still here, Alex? I am surprised. Won’t be long now.’ A strangled laugh emerged from his lips as he strode towards the exit.

  Calder felt a chill run through him. He knew what Martel meant. But before he could say anything, the Frenchman had gone.

  ‘Come on,’ said Calder, rushing to the elevator. Tarek followed him.

  Stahl was on the first floor. Calder hammered on the door. It took a full minute before Stahl answered it. He looked dazed.

  ‘Martel was here,’ Calder said.

  Stahl nodded.

  ‘Did he do anything to you?’

  ‘He didn’t touch me.’ Stahl sounded detached.

  ‘But he threatened you, didn’t he? He threatened you with something?’

  Stahl’s eyes rested on his cigar, half-smoked, lying in an ashtray. He picked it up, examined it, put it in his mouth and relit it. His hands were trembling. Calder had never seen Sidney Stahl anything but full of confidence before. The little man’s ebullience had evaporated, leaving him small, thin and frail. Stahl puffed hard at the cigar. The smoke seemed to give him some strength. He glanced at Tarek and Calder and spoke. ‘Martel said unless I do what he asks he’ll kill either my wife or one of my daughters or one of my grandchildren.’

  ‘He’s bluffing,’ said Tarek.

  ‘He says he’s good friends with the Ukrainian guy Zero mentioned, Mykhailo Bodinchuk. This guy is a big investor in the Teton Fund. He arranges things. He arranged Jennifer Tan’s death. This morning, he arranged for one of Martel’s own people to die. Vikram, his derivatives guy. Someone else you talked about. He says finding my grandchildren will be no problem.’

  ‘Vikram’s dead?’ said Calder.

  ‘That’s what he says.’

  Calder shuddered. He remembered Martel’s comment only a few minutes before. ‘It will be me next,’ he said.

  ‘Martel said that too,’ said Stahl. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘What did he want?’ asked Tarek.

  ‘He knows we didn’t come here with an investor. He wants me to agree to waive the requirement for the Teton Fund to provide collateral for the JUSTICE notes. Just for a week. He figures the Japanese stock market will have rallied enough by then.’

  ‘Is he crazy?’ Tarek said. ‘What does he think will happen then? We’ll all just go away and forget about him threatening you?’

  ‘I don’t think he’s thinking that far ahead,’ said Stahl. ‘He knows about Perumal. But he says he’s willing to take his chances on a murder rap. Pay for a squad of top lawyers and keep his mouth shut. It’s worked before. I think he is crazy. But I do think he means what he says.’

  ‘He’s lost it,’ Calder said. ‘He’s just going one day at a time, hoping something will turn up. What are you going to do?’

  Stahl turned to face him, his expression, usually so forceful, now hesitant, uncertain. ‘I don’t know. I really don’t know. I mean, if it was just me, I’d take the risk. But I got three daughters. And five grandchildren. I can’t protect all of those. And these Russian nuts would happily blow away a whole family.’

  A drop of moisture appeared in one of Stahl’s eyes. He quickly touched it with a finger.

  ‘It’s difficult,’ said Tarek.

  What would you do?’ Stahl asked Calder.

  ‘Me?’

  ‘Yes, you. You’re a brave man, I can see that. You’ve risked a lot just to come this far. What would you do?’

  Calder moved over to the window and stared out at the white nothingness. Was he brave? Or was he just foolish? Someone was out there somewhere looking for him. He would be lucky to survive until the end of the day.

  But he wasn’t a father and grandfather. He wasn’t innocent, either; he had come looking for trouble.

  He turned to Stahl. ‘People are always telling me I
take too many risks,’ he said. ‘But I’d listen to Martel. He may be bluffing, or he may not, we have no way of being certain. But if he’s telling the truth then I’ve no doubt this man Bodinchuk will be able to get someone killed, someone who shouldn’t die. Anyway, three hundred and sixty million bucks is only money. It’s a hell of a lot of money, but it is only money.’

  Stahl smiled. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘What about all those people out there?’ Tarek said. ‘The police, the lawyers? Are you going to tell them all to turn round and go home?’

  ‘I’ll figure something out,’ said Stahl. ‘Give me a few minutes. I’ll figure it out.’ Then he looked at the two men in front of him. ‘Can I rely on you not to mention this to anyone?’

  ‘Of course,’ said Calder. Tarek nodded.

  ‘You should forget we ever had this conversation, especially you, Tarek. As soon as this is all over, I’ll resign from Bloomfield Weiss. It would be a shame if you had to go too.’ He sighed. ‘Tarek, can you tell the others I’ll be with them in twenty minutes?’

  Tarek left the room. Calder was just about to follow when he was brought up short. ‘Zero?’

  Calder turned.

  ‘Thanks,’ said Sidney Stahl. ‘It’s not too late for you to go to the airport and take the first plane out of here. That way you might stay alive.’

  Calder was about to reject the idea when something stopped him. ‘I’ll think about it,’ he said.

  As he took the elevator down to the lobby, he thought about it. Seeing a great conqueror like Stahl so scared had shaken him. Stahl was right, he could leave now, drive straight back to the hotel, pick up Sandy and go directly to the airport. Get a flight to anywhere. Stay alive.

  But he had come so far. He had almost trapped Martel, but now Martel was fighting back; he was proving dangerous when cornered. Even so, Calder hated, hated the idea of letting him go.

  The elevator reached the lobby and Calder stepped out. Something else was fighting for Calder’s attention, some other piece of information. What was it? He frowned, thinking through Martel’s conversation with Stahl. Martel had known that Stahl’s trip was a set-up. He had known that Perumal had been discovered alive. That was why he had broken or bribed his way into Stahl’s hotel room. Someone must have told him. Who?