Mia tucked it in her briefcase, then said, “Now I think it’s time to hear from Jack what you’re buying.”

30

Jack opened with a smiling invitation. “Feel free to interrupt anytime you like. Do you have any questions to start?”

“Plenty,” Harper fired back, unamused. “But let’s hear your tale first.”

“Sure. As Mia mentioned, I was a partner at a private equity firm in New York. About twelve months ago, I met Perry Arvan. He was hunting for capital to get his company through a rough patch. A midsize chemical company bleeding cash didn’t fit our investment profile and my firm wasn’t interested. Neither was anyone else Perry approached. I spoke with him after his pitch. He was quite dispirited, facing the prospect of bankruptcy at that point. I offered to find a buyer or a major investor willing to stake cash for a slice of ownership. A fairly common arrangement on Wall Street.”

“And that’s what brought you to the Capitol Group?” one of the DCIS aides asked.

“That and my good-faith belief that Arvan Chemicals fit squarely into CG’s portfolio of turnaround prospects. A few months later I approached the Capitol Group, but from the beginning CG was most interested in the polymer Perry invented. Actually, that was all that seemed to interest them. To be frank, I did little to discourage that interest. Why should I? My job was to represent the interests of my client Perry Arvan. So I shared the results of a study completed a year before that put the polymer in the best light.”

Harper pointed an accusatory finger at Jack. “You mean you deceived them?”

“I meant what I said,” Jack answered and seemed to smile. “Understand, ladies and gentlemen, the Capitol Group is in the takeover business. They’re not novices. They’re one of the most experienced firms in that line of business. They make their fortunes gobbling up companies and chewing them up. They had time and more than enough opportunity to conduct a thorough due diligence before they moved in.” Jack paused, then said, “Had they ever asked me if there was another report on the polymer, I certainly would’ve shared the final report with them.”

Yeah, yeah, right, Jack, the looks from across the table were saying.

“Why didn’t they?” another aide asked.

“Greed, fear, impatience. They were afraid another big firm might get interested. They didn’t want to lose Arvan, and I suppose they didn’t want a bidding war that drove up the price. So Mitch Walters and a few others decided to launch a quick, dirty, very unfriendly takeover.”

Jack paused and looked around for more questions. None, not yet, though there were plenty of skeptical expressions across the table.

“I was very opposed to this and told them so,” Jack explained with a sad look. “Then Mitch Walters called me. He had a tape, the fruits of an illegal wiretap, of Perry making a phone call and discussing plans to call some private investors and sell off partial ownership of the polymer in exchange for cash. Perry was looking for a white knight to fend off CG’s takeover, Mitch told me. It was an opportunity, and he didn’t want to let it go by.”

“An opportunity?” Harper asked.

“As a public company, this would be a serious violation of various securities laws. It was Mitch’s intention to, in his words, grab Perry’s balls and force a quick, nonnegotiable sell.”

“You’re saying it was extortion?”

“Yes, and I strongly advised him not to do it. I wore a wire, incidentally, and have that conversation on tape. He invited me to a private meeting with Perry where he dropped the hammer. He gave Perry no choice-prison or sell-and Perry caved in to every demand immediately. He sold the company and the polymer for a hundred million.”

“Then he fled,” Harper mentioned to anybody in the room not in the loop on this story, which frankly was nobody. “He took the money, rented a big boat, and went into hiding in the Caribbean.”

Jack immediately corrected her. “That’s not exactly right.”

“Then where is he?”

“Nowhere near the Caribbean. Never was. Try New Mexico with his wife, in a beautiful rented lodge in Taos. Perry’s wife gets seasick. He hates the sun, loves the mountains. He’s living under a false identity until this gets cleared up.”

“Oh, spare me. An innocent man has nothing to fear,” Harper insisted, shooting Jack another condemning expression. All these evasions and double-talk, she wasn’t buying a word of it. Jack and his coconspirator, Perry Arvan, had committed serious crimes and were now trying to squirm out of it. “And innocent men don’t hide behind false names,” she threw in, lowering her bifocals and looking down her nose at Jack.

Jack looked amused. “Something I failed to mention. A few weeks before that meeting my house was broken into. While I was down in D.C. being wined and dined and courted by CG, a group of hired thugs picked the locks, entered, spent three hours searching, and left a few gifts in their wake. All this is on film. They left bugs in my phones and hid about five pounds of marijuana they could use to blackmail me in the event I didn’t hand CG the sale.”

The faces across the table showed their surprise. Suddenly this was more than a simple case of graft. It was burglary and blackmail, and Lord knew what else.

Jack shrugged and continued, “My private security firm discovered all of this, thank goodness. You can imagine my surprise, so of course I contacted my client and warned him there was a chance his phone and home might also be bugged.”

The Fibbies at the end of the table broke into loud chortles of laughter. Jack gave them an innocent look and the laughter grew louder. The sound bounced around the room a moment. They already knew the broad outline of the story. The details, though, were priceless. It was impossible to keep a straight face.

“You’re saying Arvan never called any private investors?” Harper asked when the laughter died down.

“I’m saying Perry might’ve discussed a vague intention to do so, but he never had the slightest intention to follow through.”

“But-”

“Forget the buts. If someone was illegally eavesdropping on his private phone calls and was misled, then committed an illegal act based on this information, where is Perry’s crime?”

Mia, ever the helpful lawyer, noted, “I’ve researched the statutes, so I’ll save you the trouble. No laws were violated, none.”

“Arvan still committed fraud.”

“How?” Jack asked, still with that pleasant smile.

“He withheld the final report. He deliberately misled CG about the polymer.”

“He was never asked about the final report. Nor was he ever given the opportunity to provide it. Once CG forced him to sell, he was goose-stepped off the premises and barred from ever returning.”

It was dawning on everyone in the room what an amazing tale they were listening to. It further dawned on them that Jack here was a very clever boy. So far, he had confessed to no wrongdoing, but he had certainly shadow-danced right up to the line.

“You see,” Jack continued, “CG jumped into the sale more or less without looking.” He held up his arms and shook his head from side to side as if it had been painful for him to witness. “They were so greedy and arrogant, no serious due diligence was done. They fired most of the workers, booted out the executives, and immediately kicked the polymer into production.”

Mia helpfully added, “Perry set aside thirty million of his cut to pay bonuses to the fired workers after the Capitol Group promised them severance but reneged.”

“And what did you get out of it?” Harper asked, looking at Jack.

“I was a limited partner. I got twenty million in cash as a finder’s fee, and twenty-five percent ownership of the company that produced the polymer.” He proudly waved a paper in the air they all assumed was the contract he had signed with the Capitol Group.