go on to their after-hearing conference and assessment but that night Beckwith emerged alone to announce there wasn’t going to be one.
‘Why not?’ demanded Jordan.
‘Wolfson wants a meeting with Bob.’
‘What about?’
‘Bargaining’s my guess,’ said Beckwith. ‘That’s the usual reason for opposing lawyers to get together during a hearing.’
‘To whose benefit?’
‘It’s got to be Alyce’s. It’s Wolfson who’s come to Bob.’
‘You think the case is collapsing?’
‘Something’s shaking, at least.’
‘Did you notice Alyce was wearing her wedding and engagement rings?’
‘And kept them visible all the time,’ expanded Beckwith. ‘Oldest trick in the world in a divorce hearing. A constant reminder to the jury of what they’re there for and the punishment the wronged wife has suffered. And don’t tell me it’s cynical. I know it is. But if I’d been representing Alyce that’s exactly what I would have told her to do. Don’t forget…’
‘… The theatre,’ accepted Jordan. ‘Why the different, sometimes angled, symbols today?’
‘Yesterday Bob was brilliant. I wasn’t completely sure of the questioning tactics today, although unless there’s any reexamination I think Bob got away with it.’
‘Got away with what?’
‘Didn’t it strike you as curious how well Alyce stood up to everything, only showing the slightest weakness, a few tears, at the very end?’
‘Harding had given her something. She said so from the stand.’
‘She didn’t seem much under the influence of anything to me,’ said Beckwith.
‘She did her best in front of the jury for you.’
‘You think from the way it’s going it could all be over quicker than you imagined?’
‘Very little has come out the way I imagined, apart from our part. And that’s come out better than I imagined.’
Which was what Jordan thought until he turned on his computer.
Thirty
There were two more challenges, both from Manhattan brokers this time, both highlighting shortfalls, one on a $200,000 copper disposal, the other on an aluminium trade that should have resulted in a $130,000 profit. The combined deficit for which Jordan was responsible – both one of his early hits – was $3,400. As with the Chicago query, the approaches from both brokers imagined a miscalculation and the Appleton dealers’ replies promised immediate enquiries.
It was the internal email correspondence upon which Jordan concentrated.
In sequence they began between the two metal dealers but within the space of three messages grew to include John Popple, the dealer to whom the Chicago complaint had been made. Popple’s pick-up to his two colleagues was that the initial back office investigation had failed to discover the disparity in his sale, to which the copper broker, George Sutcliffe, replied suggesting the three of them immediately report the situation to their financial control division. The third man, Colin Nutbeam, warned against an overreaction before making their own essential enquiries. ‘We’ll look fools if there’s a simple explanation like a misplaced digit or a dropped decimal point, with no cause for panic.’
Popple countered that he was going to bring it before his section leader. ‘I’ve been trying to track it down for days and can’t. It’s time I made it official.’ Both the other traders asked Popple not to mention their problems until they’d had the chance to make their own checks. Popple wished them luck.
Still no cause for him to panic, Jordan judged. There was no way, short of a professional electronic sweep, of discovering his illegal presence within the Appleton and Drake computers. And when that eventually happened, weeks away from now, the embezzler’s name uncovered would be that of Alfred Appleton, not Harvey Jordan. But before that there would have to be a full scale and individual trader audit to establish the embezzlement in the first place and after that a criminal investigation mounted to trace its source to Appleton.
It was still moving faster than Jordan had expected. But then, although he knew his way through the labyrinth of computer hacking, he hadn’t actually worked such a complicated scam as this before. So he didn’t precisely know what to expect. Except, of course, to win. Which he would because he always did.
Jordan phished Appleton and Drake’s trades with the delicacy of an angler dancing a fly on a trout stream, taking his time, undecided between gold or silver, eventually choosing to split between the two. He raided three gold holdings and two silver, switching a total of $18,500 in bank transfers. The tranche brought him close to his self-imposed banked limit, making essential withdrawals from all the accounts into the unrecorded safe deposits. In which, including the $18,500, his profit currently stood at $195,000.
He hadn’t confirmed the possibility of their meeting that night but decided there was a need, suggesting by telephone to Beckwith that they go again to the out-of-town restaurant to get away from the incarceration of the hotel. Both stopped, momentarily startled, at the sight, already at a table although not yet eating, of Appleton and Bartle. Both, briefly, seemed equally surprised.
It was the bejeaned Beckwith who recovered first. He gave a stilted half wave, to which Bartle awkwardly responded, told the bell captain they needed their reserved table to be at the opposite side of the room and as they walked towards it said to Jordan, ‘It’s a free country and there ain’t any law against it.’
They ordered martinis in preference to the heavier Jack Daniels and a recovered Jordan said, ‘You know what baffles me? How someone as -’ he had to pause, for the word – ‘as delicate as Alyce could have shared the same bed with someone like him. I’ve never actually seen one, but with that funny hump of his he reminds me of that bison on your belt buckle.’
‘You’ve got the inside track to make that sort of comparison, which I guess makes you biased,’ said the lawyer and smiled. ‘But he sure as hell doesn’t give Tom Cruise any competition, does he? It make you uncomfortable, being in the same room?’
‘Not at all,’ said Jordan, meaning it. At that moment, he reflected, he knew more of the inside workings of Appleton’s business than Appleton himself.
‘Miserable looking son of a bitch as well,’ said Beckwith. ‘But then at the current state of play he’s got every reason to be. I’d still like to hear what they’re talking about.’
‘What Leanne’s going to say would be a good guess,’ suggested Jordan. Coming to the first reason for his invitation, he went on: ‘You heard from Bob, about what he and Wolfson talked about?’
Beckwith shook his head. ‘Didn’t expect to. We’re hugger-mugger about everything involving you and Alyce because of the obvious mutual interest. Anything concerning him and Wolfson – and Leanne, I guess – is outside the loop.’
‘What bargain has Wolfson got to offer Bob?’
Beckwith shrugged again. ‘Beats me. The only purpose of bargaining meetings is mutual co-operation and I can’t imagine what there is to co-operate about between Alyce and Leanne.’
‘Wouldn’t it also be…’ Jordan has to pause again, for the word. ‘Illegal, un-professional maybe, for them to talk like this?’
‘It’s coming pretty close to the fence,’ allowed the lawyer. ‘But it’s not forbidden. And if you can’t stop the express train coming at your client at 100 miles an hour – which Wolfson can’t – it doesn’t hurt to negotiate.’
‘About what?’
‘I just told you,’ said Beckwith, with a flare of impatience. ‘I don’t know! And can’t think of a reason.’ He looked across at the other table. ‘They’re really not very happy to see us.’
Jordan followed his lawyer’s concentration across to the other table, from which both Bartle and Appleton were looking at them and talking at the same time. Bartle took a cell phone from his pocket, dialled and abruptly slammed the lid shut. Appleton half rose but sat when Bartle held out a restraining hand.
