The Chairman (29 page)

So Strazzi had made certain Mason would be fired from Everest. He’d paid off Kathy Hays to set Mason up. Then Marcie had told Lefors at the reception that Kathy Hays was down in the basement with Mason, knowing Lefors would run to Gillette with the information, knowing Lefors would instantly see an opportunity to have Mason fired and be promoted to managing partner.

Strazzi wanted Mason because he knew all about Everest, and he wanted Mason bitter so he’d give up that information readily. It had all worked perfectly until Jose had shown up at Mason’s apartment and gotten the files. But, in the end, the widow had still agreed to sell out just because of Dominion.

Hopefully, there was still time to stop the transaction between Strazzi and the widow. Gillette was confident that if the widow understood what was really going on, she wouldn’t sell—if for no other reason than because she’d realize her stake was worth much more than what Strazzi was offering, and that, when the real story came out, Dominion’s stock price would climb back to where it had been before and the feds wouldn’t go after Everest.

As Gillette quickly printed out a copy of the e-mail, he heard a commotion outside, growing louder and louder from down the corridor. He recognized Marcie’s voice. She was yelling at someone.

He snatched the copy of the e-mail from the printer and headed through the doorway, remembering as he moved past the executive assistant’s desk outside Marcie’s office that he’d left her computer on. As he turned around to shut it off, she and Stiles appeared around the corner. Stiles was trying to restrain her gently, but it wasn’t working.

“Get your hands off of me,”
Marcie demanded. “I mean it.”

“Ma’am, I—”

“I’m going to my office!” she yelled at him. “I’m a goddamn managing partner here and you better not try to—” She stopped short when she saw Gillette by her executive assistant’s desk. “Hello, Christian.”

“Hello, Marcie,” he said calmly, folding the e-mail copy and sliding it into his pocket. “What’s the problem?”

“Your personal goon tried to keep me from coming in even after he searched me. He put his damn hands all over me.”

Gillette motioned for Stiles to move off. “When Lefors gets here, let him come in,” he called.

“Right.”

“Quentin was following my orders, Marcie,” Gillette explained when Stiles was gone. “He wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

“What’s going on around here?” she demanded, pushing her hair back over one ear. “Why all the CIA-headquarters-level security?”

Gillette hesitated. “There’ve been two more attempts on my life since the limousine explosion,” he answered.

Her eyes widened and she brought her hands to her mouth. “Oh, my God. What’s going on?”

She could have won an Oscar for the performance, but he wasn’t buying it. It was looking more and more like Cohen had been right. Strazzi was behind everything: the murder of Bill Donovan and the limousine explosion. Probably the other two attempts to kill him as well. And Marcie was working with Strazzi. As far as he was concerned, she was guilty by association. “I think someone’s trying to take over Everest.”

“Who?”

“I—”

“Hi, Christian,” Lefors called, appearing around the corner. He was holding a half-eaten Three Musketeers bar. “Hi, Marcie.”

Gillette nodded. Marcie looked away.

“Let’s go to the small conference room outside my office,” Gillette suggested, trying to understand what was going on between them. Was it petty rivalry—or something deeper? “We’ll talk there.”

“I’ll be down in a minute,” Marcie said, heading toward her office. “I’ve got to get something.”

Gillette watched her disappear through the doorway, wondering how he was going to explain her computer being on. He gestured to Lefors and they moved down the corridor to the conference room. “How do you feel about Coyote Oil?”

“Good,” Lefors answered. “I went through the information they sent and they look real.”

Gillette hadn’t had a chance to scan what Coyote had sent over. “Are you and Cohen going to call Switzerland?” he asked as they moved into the conference room.

“Yeah. Late tomorrow night, I think.”

“Ask the tough questions, Kyle.”

“I will.”

Marcie entered the conference room a few moments later. Gillette saw she was upset right away. Her cheeks were flushed and her lips were drawn tightly together. As she sat down, she crossed her arms over her chest. She’d seen the e-mail to Kathy Hays on the screen and knew someone had been spying on her. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she snapped, staring at the tabletop.

“Come on,” Gillette urged. This wasn’t going to end well for her, so they might as well get on with it. “Tell me.”

“I think you know.”

Gillette glanced at Lefors, who was studying Marcie intently. “Know what?”

“You turned on my computer and went through my e-mails. Or
he
did,” she hissed, jabbing an outstretched finger at Lefors.

Lefors held up his hands.
“Moi?”

“Yeah,
you.
”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure you don’t.”

“Why would I do something like that?” Lefors asked innocently.

“Because you don’t want me to get promoted. You’re trying to find something to hurt me with, something bad to show Christian so that he won’t make me a managing partner, too.”

“That’s ridiculous. I think every private equity firm should have a token female partner.”

“You asshole!” she yelled, springing up from her chair.

“Enough,” Gillette ordered, silencing both of them. “I need a few minutes alone with Marcie,” he said to Lefors. “Wait for me in your office.”

“Okay,” Lefors replied, standing up and moving to the door, giving her a triumphant look as he headed out.

When Lefors was gone, Gillette motioned for Marcie to sit back down. “Is there anything you want to tell me?” he asked. She was twirling her hair.

Her eyes moved slowly to his. “That sounds ominous.”

“Take it however you want. Just answer me.”

She shook her head. “I’ve got nothing to say.”

Just like her, Gillette thought to himself. Deny, deny, deny. He was going to have to drag it out of her. “Have you been working with Paul Strazzi?”

“Paul Strazzi?” she asked, putting a hand on her chest. “Of course not. Why would I do that?”

“That’s a good question.”

“Then why would you think I was?”

“Because Senator Stockman says you have.”

“What?”

“Yeah. I was in Stockman’s office two hours ago, and he told me you were Strazzi’s hookup on this Dominion thing, the one here at Everest who directed someone at Dominion to cook the books and make it appear that there were billions in bad loans. So the stock price would tank when Congressman Allen made his announcement yesterday. Which it did.”

Marcie’s eyes widened and she stopped twirling her hair.

“Strazzi’s trying to take over Everest,” Gillette continued. “He’s convinced Ann Donovan to sell her stake in Everest to him. That stake has a 25 percent voting bloc that goes along with it, which would give him enough votes to kick me out and get himself elected chairman.” Gillette paused. “But I’m sure you already knew all that.”

Marcie shook her head. “No, I didn’t—”

“Marcie, don’t insult me.”

She gazed at him for a long time, then her shoulders sagged slightly.

“Tell me the truth,” Gillette pushed.

Still she didn’t answer. “If you were involved, you’ve got big problems with the feds,” he pointed out. “Criminal problems. If you come clean with me, I’ll do what I can to protect you.”

Her eyes darted to his.

“Who’s the person at Dominion you worked with?” he asked.

She hesitated.

“Don’t aggravate me, Marcie. I can—”

“Okay, okay. It’s a guy named Marty Reisner. He’s the chief information officer at Dominion. He knows everything about Dominion’s software systems. He’s a magician with data.”

Gillette nodded. “Why’d you do it, Marcie? Why’d you help Strazzi?”

“Come on, Christian. Donovan was never going to promote me, and Strazzi offered me a lot to join Apex. It wasn’t much of a decision.”

“But the bad loan reports were run
after
Donovan was killed. You must have known that I’d promote you, or at least thought I might. Why risk getting caught up in a scandal without finding out what I was offering?”

“Strazzi’s giving me a much better deal than you ever would. A lot of independence, too. I invest in whatever I want, and I get a huge chunk of the ups. That’s the bottom line. And I’m not worried about the feds. They won’t be able to link me to any of this Dominion stuff. In the end, it’s Reisner’s word against mine.”

“
And
Stockman and Strazzi’s word,” Gillette reminded her. “No, you’ve got a big problem. Did you know Strazzi was going to kill Bill Donovan,” he asked bluntly.

“
What? No.
Bill drowned.”

“He was murdered, and Strazzi was behind it. You must have known what was going on.”

“I didn’t know anything.”

“Sure you did. It fits perfectly. Donovan had to be out of the way for Strazzi to be able to buy the widow’s stake. And the whole thing would have worked if Stockman had shown just a little restraint. I never would have been able to figure out what was going on if he wasn’t having an affair with the Jones woman. I never could have gotten him to talk.”

“Affair?” Marcie asked hesitantly.

“Yeah. And I have photographs.”

“Jesus,” she whispered. “Look, Christian, I didn’t know anything about Donovan being murdered. I swear. Strazzi approached me a few months ago and offered me a deal. Help him find a way to take Donovan down, and I get to run all that money myself. As far as I know, Strazzi was just being opportunistic with this Dominion thing. He just wanted the widow’s stake so he could kick you out. I don’t believe he had anything to do with Donovan’s death.”

Gillette leaned back. No way to know yet if she was lying. “I was the one who turned on your computer this afternoon, Marcie,” he said. “Not Kyle. I went through your e-mails looking for things about Dominion.” He watched her closely, but she didn’t react. Just started twirling her hair again. “I didn’t find anything. Which didn’t surprise me. I was sure you wouldn’t send anything incriminating by e-mail. There would always be a record on the server.”

“Right,” she said quietly. “I’m not stupid.”

“But I did find this,” he said, pulling the Kathy Hays e-mail from his pocket and sliding it across the table toward her. “This came from your sent items folder. What it shows is that Strazzi set Troy Mason up with this woman, Kathy Hays. Through you,” he added.

Her hand moved slowly across the polished tabletop to the paper. She opened it and gazed at the words. “I didn’t write this.”

“Come on, Marcie,” Gillette pushed angrily. “Tell me the truth.”

“I mean it. I didn’t write it.” She checked the top of the e-mail to make certain it was from her computer. “Someone got on my computer while I was out.”

“Marcie, you’re in a lot of trouble with this Dominion thing. You must know that. Like I said, if you work with me, I’ll do everything I can to help you. I know people down at 26 Federal Plaza. I can’t promise anything, but I’ll do my best.”

“No one can prove anything,” she said defiantly.

“Admit that Strazzi set Mason up,” Gillette demanded.

“Maybe he did, but I didn’t know about it. I did not write that e-mail,” she repeated firmly.

“Kyle said he knew the woman was in the basement with Mason at the funeral reception because you told him.”

“He’s lying,” she said tersely.

“But what about this e-mail?”

“I didn’t write it!”

Gillette held up his hands. “Okay, fine.” This was going nowhere. “I want you out of here right now,” he said calmly. “I’ll call you tomorrow to tell you where we go from here.”

“Does this mean I’m fired?” she asked, rising from her chair.

“Yeah. You’re done.”

“Fine,” she said, stalking toward the door. “Don’t bother calling me.”

Gillette watched her disappear, then picked up the phone quickly and dialed the lobby. “Quentin.”

“Yeah?”

“Find Marcie and get her out of here right now. Don’t let her take anything. Tell her we’ll box up her personal crap and send it to her. Got it?”

“Yup.”

Gillette put the phone down and headed to Lefors office.

He was reading a newspaper, feet up on the desk, a bag of Fritos in his lap.

“Hey.” Lefors tossed the paper on the desk when he saw Gillette and dropped his feet to the floor. “What the hell’s going on with Marcie?”

Gillette shook his head. “Nothing.” He wasn’t going to tell Lefors anything at this point. Something told him Lefors knew a lot more about what had happened over the last week than he was letting on.

“Did you want to talk about the companies I’ll be taking over?” Lefors asked expectantly.

“We’ll do that later. Right now I need you to answer one question.”

“Okay, what?”

“How did you know Kathy Hays was in the basement with Troy Mason at the funeral reception?”

Lefors gave Gillette a strange look. “You already asked me that.”

“I’m asking again.”

“Marcie told me.”

“You sure you want to stick to that story?”

“Yes,” he answered after a few seconds.

Gillette stood in the doorway for several moments, staring at Lefors. Then he turned away and headed toward his office.

“It’s true. I agreed to sell my Everest stake to Paul Strazzi,” Ann Donovan confirmed. “I’m sorry, Christian. Both of us know what that means. Paul intends to remove you as chairman. You’re a nice young man and I’m sure that it’s a terrible disappointment but I had no choice. You’ll find something else.”

“Could I just say—”

“I had to do what I had to do,” she interrupted. “I had to protect myself. This Dominion thing was very scary to me. I lost something like $50 million. I don’t come from a wealthy family. I still worry about money. Paul’s paying me over $2 billion and most of it’s in cash. Given everything that was going on, I had to take his offer.”