“Good. So tell me, how do you know him?”
“I worked with him for three years, side by side.”
“What kind of work?”
“We were on the investment side, mainly doing analysis — real drone work.”
“You’ve moved on since then, I imagine.”
“I’m a senior manager. I handle the energy sector.”
“You’re American?”
“A New Yorker.”
“Jeff, let’s talk about Jeremy Ashton. I need to understand him — professionally, personally, it makes no difference.”
There was a long pause. “Personally?”
“I’m assuming that Mr. Knox told you to be candid.”
“I didn’t actually speak to Mr. Knox. George Hall called me — he’s my boss. Mr. Knox called him. George didn’t say anything about personal. I thought this was more of a professional reference kind of thing.”
“So do I need to call my friend in China, so he can call Mr. Knox, so Mr. Knox can call Mr. Hall, and Mr. Hall can call you back to tell you to give me what I want?”
“No, you’ve made your point.”
“Good, and thank you. Now, what was Ashton like to work with?”
“Well, you never really worked with Jeremy. He was on a little island, looking after himself. When it came to the job, he was a loner, a one-man band.”
“Selfish, self-centred?”
“Yeah.”
“Secretive?”
“Absolutely.”
“Give me an example.”
“The job he ended up with is almost perfect for Jeremy. The guys behind that gaming site came to Whiteburn looking for funding. The first and only guy they talked to was him. He was still kind of junior but he was the first point of contact, and he saw an opportunity to get into something from the ground floor and leapt at it. The only reason we found out they had approached Whiteburn at all was because the IT staff cleaned up his computer after he left. There was a long email trail.”
“A conflict of interest, surely.”
“Yeah, but so what? In our business that’s called taking the initiative. No one cared. Besides, it was a fairly small placement.”
“Did he make many friends at Whiteburn?”
Galley snorted. “Hardly. Jeremy thought he was too good for us and he didn’t hesitate to let us know. I mean, he had the Oxford education, the fiancee connected to royalty, the big-shot future father-in-law. He was always harping on about how bush-league Whiteburn was. He came from Smyth’s Bank in London, and his girlfriend was still working there. Smyth’s is, I admit, the penthouse of investment banking but, I mean, we’re hardly the fucking basement.”
“He said he went to Oxford?” Ava said, looking at her notes that said otherwise.
“Every day.”
“And he’s engaged to Lily Simmons?”
“He wouldn’t shut up about her.”
“Mr. Galley, if Ashton was so secretive, tell me, why did he tell you about his fiancee?”
“That was one of the things that was weird about him. As secretive as he was about business, when it came to personal shit he was like the National Enquirer.”
“Like how?”
“The fiancee.”
“What do you mean?”
“He talked about her all the time, about how kinky and what a wack job she was.”
“Define kinky.”
Galley paused. “You sure you want to hear this?”
“I’m a big girl.”
He laughed nervously. It always surprised Ava how uncomfortable Americans were talking about sex. “She lives in London, he’s in New York. He went there once a month for a weekend and she came here once a month. On any Monday after a visit, Jeremy used to drag his ass into the office saying he could hardly walk.”
“Go on,” Ava said.
“He’d say they hardly left the bedroom for the entire weekend. She was like a fucking rabbit. As many times as he could get it up, she could take it. And when he couldn’t get it up, she’d find other ways to get off.”
“Like how?”
“Ms. Lee, really — ”
“It’s okay. Tell me.”
“She evidently liked being tied up. She liked being spanked. He said she’d play with herself while he was spanking her, and it would always end up giving him a boner. Then she’d suck him to death.”
“Did you ever meet her?”
“Once.”
“And?”
“She was absolutely crazy about him and kept telling me how fantastic he was and how lucky she was to have him… It was a bit bizarre, to tell you the truth. I mean, Jeremy was listening to her go on about him with this big, stupid grin on his face. He was high on something, and she was too, I think.”
“High on what?”
“I have no idea. I’m not into pharmaceuticals.”
“But, high or not, she was obviously strongly attached to him?”
“Given how ugly she is, it’s hard to blame her for being grateful.”
“What does she look like?”
“Tall, skinny, frizzy red hair, long, pointy face. No tits and no ass to speak of. She’s no beauty, that’s for sure.”
“What did Ashton think about her looks?”
“He used to joke about them, but he said anyone who could fuck like that had to be forgiven.”
“Charming.”
“That was Jeremy.”
“You said that was one of the things you found strange about him. What else?”
“Like I said, I’m not into pharmaceuticals and I’m not a doctor, but I think he was manic-depressive.”
“What made you think that?”
“Well, the normal Jeremy was very contained, a bit slow to react. Not stupid or anything, just deliberate, thoughtful, careful. Then once in a while this other Jeremy would appear in the office. He’d be jumpy, his eyes were off-centre, and he’d talk fast and get angry fast. One of the assistants said he must have gone off his meds. I asked her what she meant, and she said her brother was manic-depressive and that Jeremy had all the classic symptoms.”
Ava paused to review her notes.
Galley said, “You still there?”
“I’m here… Tell me, where did the money come from to fund The River? Did Ashton have it?”
“Not a fucking chance.”
“So from where?”
“I think the fiancee talked Smyth’s into putting up some of it. The rest, I heard, came from her family.”
“I saw the shareholder register, and Smyth’s isn’t listed.”
“That’s not unusual. They get into start-ups, and if they don’t work out real fast, they bail.”
“The family isn’t listed either.”
“They put their money in through a holding company.”
