I raised my eyebrows. 'Maybe.'
'Jesus, maybe he did,' Cash said. 'But I am not so sure that Joe was acting completely alone in all of this.'
'Why is that?' I asked.
'Well, he had to get the information from somewhere. I mean a German company taking over an American target. How would a bond trader in London hear about that?'
'Careless talk?'
'Maybe. Maybe not.'
I thought for a second. 'What about Irwin Piper? He specialises in just that sort of thing, doesn't he? Did Joe know him?'
'I was just thinking along those lines,' said Cash. 'Yes, he did. I'm not sure how they met, but somehow or other they had gotten to know each other pretty well.'
I rubbed my chin and thought about it some more. 'It is possible. But how can we find out?'
'We may be able to work out something from his trading tickets!' said Cathy. 'They should still be around somewhere. I'll have a look tomorrow.'
'It's worth a try,' I said.
'Well, I am glad we are getting somewhere,' said Cathy. 'Now there is something else we wanted to talk to you about, Cash.'
I looked sharply at Cathy. I was prepared to believe Cash had nothing to do with the Gypsum insider trading, but that did not mean I trusted him on everything else.
'Paul, I think we should tell him,' she said. 'Trust me.'
I hesitated. I was tempted to accept Cathy's plea to trust her. I found it difficult myself to believe that Cash was the brains behind the Tremont operation. What the hell, I thought. Why not confront him with it? I had been dodging around for weeks trying to get answers from people without alerting them. I was getting impatient. I wanted to know. Now.
'OK,' I nodded my head. 'Let me get you another drink, Cash. You'll need it with what I am about to tell you.'
So I bought Cash another drink, and told him more or less everything that had happened from Debbie's death on. It was the first time I had ever seen Cash at a loss for words. His jaw literally dropped as I went through my story. When I finished it, I looked him straight in the eye, 'Well?' I said.
It took a while for Cash to collect his thoughts. 'Christ!' he said. Then, 'Jesus!'
'Do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?' I asked.
'No, sure, go ahead,' said Cash absently, his mind still going over the implications of what I had just told him.
'Did you know that the Honshu Bank guarantee on the Tremont Capital bonds never existed?'
'No, I didn't,' he said. Then his eyes flared up with anger. 'You think I'm involved with this, don't you?'
Cash's response seemed genuine enough, but his ability to bend the truth was legendary. I didn't know whether he was lying now or not. 'The thought had crossed my mind,' I said.
In a moment the anger was gone. 'Yeah, I suppose it would,' he said. He paused. 'Look, you've had a rough time and I like you.' He saw my eyebrows move up at this but held up his hand, 'No, honestly I do. Some of my customers are jerks, and some of them are smart, and I rate you as one of the smartest. I'm not schmoozing you; after all, you are hardly my top client right now, are you?' I had to agree with that last statement.
'Anyway, I'd like to help you in any way I can. I wasn't involved in any of this. I know you don't believe me, but that doesn't matter for now. Between the two of us we ought to be able to figure out who is really behind all this. Until we do that, you can keep me on your list of prime suspects if you like.'
I could feel myself wanting to believe Cash. It was difficult not to. His offer certainly seemed worth a try at least.
'OK,' I said. 'Let's start with the launch of the Tremont Capital bond.'
Cash smiled. 'Good. Let me think. It was Waigel's deal through and through. He had the relationship with the issuer, and he was the only one working on it in New York. He gave me a call one day, described the deal, and asked me whether I could place it. I remember he said it had to be done quickly.'
'How did you decide who to approach?'
'Come to think of it, Waigel suggested I should try the Harzweiger Bank. De Jong seemed a natural as well. This sort of thing is right up Hamilton's alley. A little complicated, a little obscure, a nice yield if you are smart enough to get it.' I nodded, it was the kind of bond Hamilton would like to buy. 'In fact, the week before, Hamilton had asked me to look about for high-yielding triple-A deals for him. In the end the deal was easy. All placed in a morning. No need for anyone else on the sales desk to get involved. Sweet deal.'
'And very convenient for Waigel. The fewer clients and salesmen involved, the less chance of discovery.'
Cash sighed. 'I guess you are right.'
'Now, what about Phoenix Prosperity? Did you know that it was owned by Tremont Capital?'
'No. I had no idea who owned it. But something very strange was going on there. Come to think of it, it all started quite soon after we placed Tremont Capital.'
Cash took a sip of his beer. 'I had been doing great business with Jack Salmon. He would buy and sell bonds all day, taking a profit whenever he made an eighth of a point and sitting on big losses whenever he got it wrong. A salesman's dream. Big-buck commissions.
'Then, suddenly, things changed. He was still active, so I was happy, but he started to make money. He would put on these large, very risky trades. You know, junk bonds, derivatives, CMO strips, reverse floaters, all kinds of complicated stuff. Some went badly wrong, but he was certainly making more than he was losing.'
'It seems a bit odd that Jack Salmon made money out of those things,' I said.
'It certainly does,' said Cash. 'But it wasn't him. He never took any major decisions himself. Of course he pretended it was him deciding what to do, and I went along with it, but I always made sure he had time to put the phone down and consult with whoever he needed to before coming back to buy my bonds.'
'That makes sense,' I said. I told Cash how I had seen Jack consult someone before buying the Fairways.
We were silent for a bit.
'I knew Dick was a bastard, but I didn't know he was that much of a bastard,' Cash said, mostly to himself.
'You knew him when you were a kid?'
Cash sighed. 'Yeah, I did. We weren't real close. I guess I was a bit more popular than Ricky. He didn't call himself Dick until much later. He looked like a nerd, and acted a bit like one. He used to get a hard time from the other kids until…' Cash tailed off.
'Until?' I said.
'Until he started selling drugs. He teamed up with two big mean apes, and supplied all the drugs to the kids in our neighbourhood. Oh, Ricky never sold the stuff personally. He was too smart for that. But he was behind it all.
'I remember there was another kid who tried to muscle into Ricky's territory. He ended up with a knife in his kidneys. Everyone knew it was one of Ricky's guys. I guess Ricky must have been behind it.'
'But you are still a friend of his.'
'Oh yes. I mean, Ricky was smart. He realised there wasn't a great future in peddling drugs in the Bronx. So he got himself into Columbia and then Harvard Business School, and a top job in investment banking. It doesn't take just brains to do that. It takes a lot of dedication.
'I told you how I was proud of putting guys on to Wall Street. Well, Ricky was one of the most successful of us, and I guess I kind of admired him. Sure, I knew he sailed close to the wind, but you have to get things done somehow. And we did some sweet deals together, so I could overlook the odd misdemeanour. But killing Debbie Chater, and Greg Shoffman?' Cash shook his head.
'We don't know who killed Debbie,' I pointed out. 'It looks like it wasn't you, and Waigel was in America. But the police think they know.'
Cathy and Cash looked at me enquiringly.
'Inspector Powell is convinced that I killed her,' I continued. 'He says he has a witness.'
Cathy looked horrified. 'That's ridiculous. He's not serious, is he?'
'He's very serious.'
