Hamilton kept quiet, waiting for Piper to say more. But Piper was not going to say any more, and refused to be pressured into it. The silence must have lasted a minute, with none of the rest of us daring to break it.
Finally, Hamilton asked another question. 'You don't have much experience of retailing as far as I'm aware, Mr Piper,' he began.
'Just call me Irwin,' interrupted Piper.
'Very well, Irwin,' said Hamilton reluctantly. 'As I was saying, you don't have much experience of this sector. How did you come across this opportunity?'
I shifted uneasily in my chair. We were on to dangerous ground here. This was one question we had not rehearsed.
Piper stood up, and walked over to the window to look out at the quiet street below. He's playing for time, I thought.
He turned round. 'My wife's family used to live in Japan, and she still has some Japanese friends. One of them is married to a senior executive in a Japanese retailing firm. She was over in America, and dropped in on us at the Tahiti. She was on her way to Florida to meet her husband, who was there on business. I checked out her husband's company. They had announced they were determined to make an acquisition in America this year. Mix N Match is the obvious target. I spoke to Cash, who got me some research on the company, and here we are.' Piper held out his arms and smiled. 'Of course I would rather you did not repeat any of that outside this room.'
Silence again as Hamilton weighed up Piper's answer. I found Hamilton's silence rude and intimidating, but Piper's urbanity seemed intact.
'So why should we work together?' Hamilton asked at last. 'Why shouldn't I just trot off and buy the bonds myself.'
'I would be disappointed if you did that,' said Piper, 'especially since the idea came indirectly from me via Cash.' Piper managed to imply with those words that what Hamilton had suggested was the lowest of the low ethically. He stood by the window, tall, sleek and in control, looking down on the still-seated Hamilton. I admired his ability to take the moral high ground in such murky circumstances. 'But there is a more pragmatic reason for joining forces. If we act with one voice, we will be much more effective in negotiating with the acquirer of Mix N Match once it has been taken over. We will do that much better if we all own the bonds at the same price. And, if we all rush out and buy every bond we can in competition with each other, then the price will shoot up and none of us will end up with anything. Much better to do it slowly and carefully, pooling all our interests through one vehicle.'
'I suppose I can see that,' said Hamilton.
'Well, are you with us?' Piper said. 'If we are going to move, we had better move quickly.'
'I will need to think about it,' said Hamilton.
Cash cleared his throat. 'Hey, I understand you got to think about this one. But if you do decide to go ahead, as Irwin says, we got to move quickly. The rumours are already around the street. I know some big holders of Mix N Match bonds who are keen to sell, but we will have to go to them in the next couple of days. That means we will have to be ready to set up the SPV at short notice. Why don't you go through the documentation now? Know what I'm saying?' Cash nodded towards the pile in front of Felicity. You had to admire Cash's salesmanship, I thought, a great close.
But Hamilton wriggled. 'I understand what you are saying, Cash. I agree we should check the documentation now. But don't take that as a sign of any commitment on my part.'
Piper moved towards the table. 'That's fine, I understand perfectly well. I hope you will excuse me. Mr Denny is aware of my views on the legal agreements. It's been a pleasure to meet you, Hamilton, and I hope we can do business together.'
Power and charm oozed from Piper as he held out his hand to Hamilton. For once, Hamilton had been made to seem surly and pedantic, and he clearly didn't like it. He stood up, shook Piper's hand quickly, and turned back to the table, and the pile of documents. 'Let's have a look through these, then.'
Cash made his excuses as well, taking Cathy with him, and Rob was not far behind. That left Denny, Felicity, Hamilton and me to discuss the documentation. Felicity had not had time to draw up a thorough agreement. She hadn't done a bad job, but there were a number of holes. We had agreed beforehand that if and when Hamilton picked anything up, Denny would bow to any points he had. We could not afford to spend hours negotiating legal issues that were going to prove irrelevant anyway. Hamilton did put forward several objections, but after brief protestations, Denny gave into them all. After two hours we had a document everyone was agreed upon. It was ready for Hamilton to sign, once he decided to join the consortium.
In the taxi back to the office Hamilton sat in silence. He stared out of the window at the flashes of red, black and grey as buses, taxis and suits milled back and forth. After five minutes he muttered something, which I didn't quite catch.
'Sorry?' I said.
'I don't like it,' said Hamilton.
I pondered his statement for a moment. 'What don't you like about it?'
'It's too easy. It doesn't smell right. And Piper was lying about how he heard about the deal. I don't know what his game is, but he is up to something.'
I didn't like the sound of this. Piper had seemed perfectly convincing to me, but he hadn't fooled Hamilton. I didn't want to seem too eager to persuade Hamilton to do the deal, but on the other hand, I desperately wanted him to commit. 'What can he do?' I asked. 'The documentation is watertight.' Indeed it was. There was virtually nothing that Piper or anyone else could do with the SPV without asking De Jong & Co. first. De Jong had a right to veto the transfer of any assets in or out.
'I don't know,' said Hamilton. 'I can't work out his angle.' He stroked his beard. 'There's not much downside from a credit point of view is there?' he asked, looking straight at me.
'No,' I said, holding his stare. 'Of course you can never be sure what is hiding in any company, but it looks to me that with the debt trading at twenty cents on the dollar, bankruptcy would be a good thing; the debt should trade up anyway.'
Hamilton looked at me and smiled, with what seemed to me to be genuine affection. 'I'm glad you are working with me on this. It's nice to work with someone I can trust.' The surprise must have registered on my face at such an unprecedented show of friendliness, as Hamilton, embarrassed, turned to look out of the window again. 'I'm sorry you can't work with me any more.'
Just for a moment I felt a surge of pride at this display. But only for a moment. I gently smiled to myself at the irony. Hamilton may think me the only person he could trust; I would soon show him how wrong he was.
We got back to the office and each went to our own desks. I rang Cash. 'Didn't Piper do a great job?' he said.
'Well that's what I thought, but Hamilton is suspicious.'
'Is he going to do it?'
'Not in his current frame of mind,' I said.
'What's wrong?'
'It all went fine to start with,' I said. 'He couldn't resist the temptation to make a smart buck. But he doesn't trust Piper and he doesn't trust you. He's sure you are up to something, but he doesn't know what. And I don't think he is about to risk real money to find out.'
'Damn,' said Cash. 'Look, I'm sure I can talk him into it.'
'It won't work. I'm afraid Hamilton is suspicious of you at the best of times. You will just confirm his worst fears about the deal.'
'Well, what if Piper has another chat to him? Or perhaps you could talk him into it?'
'He won't listen to Piper. And it would look odd if I came out in favour of the deal. Hamilton would think I had gone crazy.'
We were both silent, thinking.
'How did it go with Phoenix Prosperity?' I asked.
'Jack Salmon loved the idea,' said Cash. 'But he has to think about it. That means, check with Hamilton.'
'And we all know what he will say in his current frame of mind. Call me if you have any ideas,' I said, and put the phone down.
I was annoyed. We were so close to carrying out our plan, but it looked like it wouldn't work because of Hamilton's last-minute suspicions.
