But where could he get that? Only from inside Louisiana Light itself. That kind of evidence would be buried deep under layers and layers of documents and camouflage. No one found out what had really been going on inside Enron until the company went bankrupt and its innards were exposed to outsiders. But the Leopard’s innards were tightly packed and sealed. The only way to get the evidence was to get inside them.
It was ironic. If it were the Buffalo, he could have gotten on a plane and walked into the data room in London and found whatever he wanted. There was exactly the same data room for the Leopard right here in New York, not more than forty blocks from where he was lying at that very moment, and yet he couldn’t go into it because it was open only for people on the other side of the deal. Yet it was only the fact that he didn’t have access that prevented him …
For a moment, Rob didn’t breathe. Louisiana Light was open. It was vulnerable. For the space of just a few days, no more, its belly was slit and its innards were on show. Whoever was examining them just needed to know which parts to look at.
It just needed the right kind of due diligence.
The Buffalo could do it. Its people were doing their due diligence. It could get inside the Leopard. If the Buffalo knew where to look, it would do the job for him. It would find the evidence he couldn’t get himself. It only had to be told where to start.
How? He had to be credible, otherwise they’d ignore him.
There was a way, but it would take time. How much time? Rob calculated. A day at least. Maybe a couple.
And in the meantime, he had to act as if the second scenario were true. He had to act as if Greg’s killers had been looking for him. As if they were still looking for him.
They had found where he lived. How long until they tracked him here? He had to assume they would. Maybe he had a head start. Maybe they didn’t know they’d gotten the wrong guy yet. But how much longer did he have?
He wasn’t safe here. More important, Emmy wasn’t safe, not while he was with her.
Rob turned to look at her. She lay, back toward him, dark hair streaming over the pillow, the blanket showing the curve of her body. Her breathing was even, regular.
He watched her form in the shadow. He’d die if anything happened to her.
He knew what he had to do. There was only one way to get to the Buffalo and keep Emmy safe at the same time.
He reached out to touch her cheek, but didn’t dare. Right now, he was Emmy’s worst enemy. As long as he was here, she was in danger.
For a moment longer, he watched her. He had never loved her so much as now, at the leaving of her.
He had to go. Right now. He eased himself out of bed and gathered up his clothes. Emmy stirred. He froze. She murmured something. Rob waited. Then he picked up his shoes and left the bedroom, silently closing the door behind him.
He went into the living room and turned on a lamp. He looked at his watch. It was a little after four. He dressed and checked that he had everything he needed. Cell phone. Credit card. Passport. Always have them with you. Cynthia was right. Good advice.
He sat down to write a note.
Em, he wrote. You’ll be safer without me. I’ve gone. I’m safe. I’ll come back.
He added another line.
I love you. Trust me.
He read it over. Then he suddenly thought: What if they come? What if they tracked him down here and he was gone and they turned up and found Emmy by herself?
The thought sent a shiver down his spine.
He didn’t want to wake her. She wouldn’t let him go.
But he couldn’t leave her here.
He went back into the bedroom. “Emmy,” he said quietly. He touched her shoulder. “Emmy, wake up.”
She stirred. He turned on a light. She blinked, her eyes adjusting. Then she stared at him.
“What time is it? Why are you dressed?”
“Emmy, we’ve got to leave. It’s not safe here. They can find us.”
She sat up in the bed. “Where are we going?”
“You need to go somewhere safe. Maybe go to your folks’.”
“My folks’?” She smiled, despite the situation. “You want to go to my folks’?”
“Not me. You.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going somewhere else.”
“Then I’m coming with you.”
Rob shook his head.
“Where are you going?” Emmy waited for a moment, then repeated the question.
“It’s better if you don’t know.”
“I am not going to my folks’ to sit around in Rochester not knowing what the hell’s going on with you. Now you tell me where you’re going!”
Rob glanced at his watch. They weren’t safe here, either of them. Every minute added to the risk.
Emmy folded her arms. “I’m not leaving unless you tell me where you’re going.”
“All right,” said Rob. He told her as briefly as he could, feeling the seconds ticking away.
“I’m coming with you.” She got out of bed.
“No, Emmy. This is something I’ve got to do. You don’t need to be involved.”
She stopped, standing in front of him in her T-shirt. “You don’t get it, do you, Rob? I am involved. If something’s happening to you, it’s happening to me. It doesn’t stop here, or here, or here. It’s everything. It’s the whole lot, the good and the bad. It’s all or nothing, Rob. All or nothing!”
No, thought Rob. Not now. Please don’t start now.
But she had no intention of starting. This wasn’t the time for it, and she knew it. She was immediately practical. “What do I need to bring?”
Rob shook his head. “Emmy, it’s too dangerous. They’re going to be looking for me. Doesn’t matter where I am, they’re still going to be looking for me.”
“Oh?” said Emmy. “And I hadn’t worked that out?” She pulled on a sweater over her T-shirt.
“You don’t understand—”
“No, you don’t understand.” Emmy’s head came out through the top of the sweater, her face covered in hair. “You do not have the right to do this.” She brushed her hair away, trembling with anger. “Do you understand me? You do not have the right! Just reverse the tables. Imagine me saying this to you. Imagine me saying, ‘Go to your folks’, Rob, and I’m going to go out and do what I have to do.’ Imagine it! What would you do?”
“It’s different.”
“No, it’s not different! You always think you need to protect me, don’t you? Well, you don’t. Not if I can’t protect you.”
“Emmy,” said Rob, shaking his head, “you’re the most precious thing I’ve got.”
“And you’re the most precious thing I’ve got! Think about it, Rob. What if the tables were turned and I said the same thing to you? Think about how it would feel. Tell me. Would you do it? Would you just leave me and go off quietly to your folks’?”
Rob was silent.
“No. Never.” Emmy shook her head. “You don’t need to do everything by yourself. It doesn’t always have to be Rob against the world. You’re allowed to have some help.” She paused. “Even if it’s only from a book editor.”
Rob gazed at her. “Book editors can be quite fearsome, I see.”
“You’re damn right we can.” Emmy turned to the wardrobe and pulled on a pair of jeans. “I say: Fuck ’em! Fuck ’em! If they get one of us, they get us both.”
Rob couldn’t help smiling. Emmy put out her fist. Rob bumped it.
Emmy put on a pair of sneakers. Then she looked back at him. Her gaze was serious. “All right?”
Rob nodded. He couldn’t do anything but. She was amazing, a force of nature.
“Good. What else do I need?”
“Not much,” said Rob. “Have you got your passport?”
45
Phil Menendez sat across the table from Pete Stanzy, marking up Stanzy’s changes to the due diligence report. They couldn’t touch the final drafts of the legal and accou
nting sections, only the executive summary and the financials they had produced themselves. But Stanzy was happy.
“I’d buy this fucking company,” he said, closing his copy of the report.
“For twelve-point-five billion?” said Menendez.
Stanzy laughed. He was feeling pretty good. The loan pledges were coming together. Wilson didn’t seem to care what premium they were paying anymore. Suddenly, junk was okay. Golansky, who had used every contact he had on the Street, was beginning to say it might fall into place.
“Go,” he said. “Fax it once you do the changes. We don’t want Mike Wilson doing anything tricky with an electronic copy.” Stanzy paused. “By the way, Phil, what happened to the analyst?”
Menendez’s face darkened. “Holding? He’s still not there.”
“What do you mean?”
“He hasn’t shown. Pete, we gotta fire that little fuck.”
“Hasn’t anyone called him?”
“No. Like a million times.” Menendez had worked all night with Sammy Weiss and Cynthia Holloway to get the draft of the report in final shape, spending half the time on the phone yelling at Grayson Arpel lawyers and DeGrave Peterhouse accountants, who had been up all night themselves, sending over reworked drafts of their own sections.
“So he’s just disappeared?” Stanzy frowned. “What did you say happened? His friend got murdered, right?”
“Yeah. And my gerbil died when I was in the fourth grade, but do you see me crying?”
Phil Menendez couldn’t remember an analyst going AWOL. Simply disappearing without even trying some pathetic excuse about being sick. He took it personally. It was an affront to his dignity. It was insulting. People were going to laugh at him behind his back. This you didn’t do to the Shark. Menendez could hardly wait for Rob to show up so he could give him what he had coming.
“I’d better talk to him when he comes in,” said Stanzy. “Let me know.”
“What?”
“When he comes in, Phil.”
Menendez snorted.
“All right,” said Stanzy. “Go and make the changes. Send it to Wilson’s private fax. Wait till I call you before you start.”
“Right.”
“I want to be absolutely sure Wilson’s there to receive it himself. Don’t fax before you hear from me, right?”
Menendez rolled his eyes.
“Get out of here,” said Stanzy.
Menendez left.
Stanzy got Wilson on the phone.
“Mike,” he said, “the due diligence report’s done. We’re about to fax you a copy. We’ll send the finance document as well. Can you be by your private fax? That’s the eighty-two twenty-eight extension, right?”
“It’s right here in my office, Pete. I’m looking right at her.”
“Okay. We’re going to start sending in a few minutes. When you’ve had a look at it, call me back and we’ll talk through anything you want to change.”
“Am I looking for anything?”
“Absolutely not. She’s clean, Mike. This is about the best due diligence I’ve ever seen. I was just saying to my VP, I’d buy this company myself.”
“Find your own one, Mr. Stanzy!”
Pete laughed.
“You know, Pete, I really appreciate all this,” said Wilson.
“You’re paying for it, Mike.”
“Still, your guys are putting in. I’m guessing they didn’t get too much sleep last night.”
“All part of the service.”
“Hell of a job. How are they holding up?”
“Fine,” said Pete.
“Sure?”
“Yeah.”
“No problems?”
“No.”
“Really? Nothing?”
Stanzy didn’t answer right away. Mike Wilson had never shown any interest in the team before. Suddenly he had a feeling that Wilson wasn’t asking now purely out of concern for them. He wondered if Wilson had heard something. Clients always get spooked if they think there’s trouble with the team, but if they find out you’ve been holding out on them, it’s even worse.
Wilson seemed pretty happy, thought Pete. Everything was falling into place. He could take the chance.
“One of our young guys, Mike, one of the junior guys on the team … he’s had a bit of a personal problem.”
“What’s that?” asked Wilson.
“One of his friends was found dead yesterday.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
“Murdered, apparently.”
“Hell, that sounds pretty horrible. How is he?”
“He’s okay.”
“Sure?”
“I think so.”
“Is he at work?”
“Mike, don’t worry about him. He’s a very junior guy. The main thing is, everything’s going to run smoothly from your perspective. Whatever resource we have to put in, we’ll put in. If we need to bring someone else onto the team, that’s what we’ll do. Whatever it takes. This deal is our number-one priority. No question. That doesn’t just go for me and John Golansky, it goes for the whole firm. Now, when you’ve had a chance to have a look at the—”
“Your analyst,” interjected Wilson, “is in possession of very sensitive information.”
Stanzy stopped, pulled up short by the sudden change in Mike Wilson’s tone. The amiability had gone right out of it.
“This deal is not done, Pete. It’s not close to being done.” Wilson paused. “Let’s remember where we are. Until we announce, Bassett isn’t locked in in any shape or form. He can walk away from the table and you know what? No one will even know he was there. And if this thing leaks … all bets are off. Now, I’m sorry about what happened to your analyst, I really am, but I need to know if this guy’s okay. Have you talked to him?”
“Mike…”
“I want to know where this guy is. Have you talked to him, Pete? Yourself?”
“No. Not myself.”
“Why not? Don’t you think you should?”
Stanzy shook his head, wondering what to say.
“Pete? Level with me.”
“Mike, we do have a problem with this analyst. He’s … look, we don’t actually know where he is.”
“Jesus Christ, Pete! What’s his name?”
“Rob Holding.”
“Is he stable? How long has he been with you? What do you know about him?”
“Mike, calm down. This thing … this incident … has obviously upset him. I assume he’s just needing time to work through it. Look, it’s not ideal, I know. When I talk to him, we’re going to have to have a serious look at the way he’s behaved. But it’s got nothing to do with the deal. It’s a personal issue. There’s absolutely no reason he should tell anyone anything. The deal is safe, Mike. That’s what matters.”
“Are you telling me,” said Wilson slowly, “that you have absolutely no idea where he is? I want you to be straight with me, Pete. You have no idea at all?”
Pete Stanzy took a deep breath. “We don’t. I’m not going to try to kid you. We don’t know. He’s not answering his phone.”
“When was the last time anyone saw him?”
“Sometime yesterday, I believe.”
“And you have no idea where he is? Absolutely none?”
“No.”
There was silence.
“I’m sorry, Mike. It’s not ideal, I know. But … what can I say? I’m as unhappy about it as you are. And believe me, I’m doing everything I can to deal with it.”
“Okay. Okay, I understand. I’m glad you leveled with me.”
“I really don’t think there’s an issue with the deal, Mike. This is a personal problem our guy’s got.”
“Yes. I’m sorry for him. Listen, it must be hard on the rest of your team, making up for someone like that. Let them know I appreciate it.”
“I will,” said Stanzy. “They’ll appreciate that. They’re a great bunch of guys.”
“Let them know there’ll be a little something extr
a for them when it’s all done.”
“No, Mike. That’s not necessary. Everything we have to do for this deal, we’ll do it. I guarantee that. Whatever it takes. We’re two hundred percent committed. Mike, we’re going to send that fax down in a couple of minutes. Give me a call when you’ve checked it over. I’ll be right here.”
“Okay. Pete, when your guy does turn up, as soon as you know where he is, I want to know. I want to know when you’ve found him and I want to know where he is. You call me, right?”
“Sure,” said Stanzy.
“All right.” Wilson’s tone was peremptory. “Make sure you do. As soon as you know.”
* * *
Mike Wilson watched the pages coming out of the fax machine as he dialed the number. He waited as the phone rang. Then he heard the familiar, nasal voice on the line. It was too familiar, like something you’ve carried with you for too long and just wished you could get rid of.
“I just spoke to someone at Dyson Whitney,” said Wilson. “Apparently he hasn’t turned up for work. They don’t know where he is. I thought I should let you know.”
“Thank you, Michael.”
“He’s not answering his phone. They’ve got no idea at all what’s happened to him.” Wilson paused. “Tony, it sounds to me like he’s figured out someone’s after him. Sounds to me like—”
“Michael, we’ll find him.”
“What if he talks to the police?”
“What will he say?”
Wilson didn’t want to imagine. He had no idea how much Holding knew.
“Michael, you ask me, I don’t think you need to worry that he talks to the police.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he would have done it already. Let’s be calm. We’ll find him. I told you, there are not so many places a person goes. And if we don’t find him there, we find someone who can tell us where he is. It’s very simple.”
“Have you found her? His girlfriend?”
“It’s in hand.”
Wilson closed his eyes.
“Michael?”
“What?”
“Thank you for this call. You’ll let me know if you hear anything else, yes?”
Due Diligence: A Thriller Page 35