‘My God, you mean you aren’t even in possession of the will yet, nor all those other papers?’ interrupted Martins.
He sounded as desperate as Bella was beginning to feel. But, on a kind of autopilot, she behaved as she always did, doing her best both to sound assertive and to conceal her own feelings.
‘Everything is in hand, Jimmy,’ she said, knowing only too well how far that was from the truth.
‘We don’t have much time,’ replied Martins. ‘The bank is a mirage. And the news is clearly out. The shares are going through the floor. Look, Bella, your father died in a fire. How long will it be before he is officially declared dead, before a death certificate is issued? It could be weeks. Months even. I don’t know if we can hold on that long.’
‘Of course, we can. Fairbrother’s has gone through worse than this in three centuries of trading. You just have to hold your nerve, Jimmy.’
‘You sound disconcertingly like your father at times,’ responded Martins. ‘Look, there’s more. There are all sorts of irregularities in the figures. Particularly concerning pensions. I’ve been looking into not only the Fairbrother International pension funds, but also those of some of the subsidiaries. All too often the sums just don’t add up. Did you know about this, Bella?’
‘Of course not. I came off the board of Fairbrother’s over a year ago, remember, Jimmy...’
‘If I’m right about this, something has been going on for a lot longer than a year, Bella. These funds have been tampered with, I’m almost sure of it.’
‘Jimmy, you must be mistaken,’ said Bella, hoping she sounded more convincing than she felt. ‘My father would never countenance anything untoward concerning pension funds. Apart from the terrible betrayal of trust, he would have known just how catastrophic it could prove, not just for the bank but right across all the Fairbrother business interests. I think everyone involved with administering pensions learned that from the Robert Maxwell debacle.’
‘It depends how desperate someone is, and I am beginning to suspect that your father was very desperate indeed,’ said Martins.
Bella leaned back against the pillows, and briefly closed her eyes, so wishing that the entire scenario in which she had, she now realised, so unwisely allowed herself to become embroiled, would just disappear. And that included, at that moment, Jimmy Martins, who had absolutely no idea of the true extent of her father’s desperation. For a moment, she had no words. Neither did he have any idea that the whole lot of them, including the board, might be indirectly involved in crimes far greater than embezzlement.
Mercifully she didn’t have to say anything. Martins was continuing to speak.
‘Look, to be frank, all of us on the board knew things weren’t quite how they should be, and obviously it was public knowledge that our share prices were well below par. But that is the case with many big companies nowadays, and I think we all believed that your father would find a way through, as he always had. I suppose we could be accused of having had our heads in the sand. But Sir John was a brilliant businessman, of course. Quite exceptional. Even after he became ill, and ultimately ceased to come into the offices, he continued to run the show. Well, you know what he was like.’
‘I certainly do,’ said Bella, with more than a little feeling.
‘Yes. Of course, you do.’
He paused, and Bella thought she could hear him taking a deep breath before he spoke again.
‘The thing is, Bella, and I’ve been considering this all night, in view of everything I have now learned, I do not feel I can continue as acting chairman of Fairbrother’s. I intend to offer my resignation to the board later today. Out of respect for both you and your father, I wanted you to be the first to know—’
Bella sat bolt upright in bed. She no longer felt sleepy.
‘For God’s sake, Jimmy, you mustn’t do that,’ she said, aware that her voice was much louder than she had intended, but unable to do anything about it. ‘You can’t do that. You really can’t. It was only two days ago that you accepted the appointment. Nothing has changed since then.’
‘Actually Bella, everything has changed. I now know so much more about the dire state the business is in, and also, I have a fair idea of the extent of highly dubious business practice which has led to this. There are other concerns too, of course, the fire which killed your father could be arson, and the man the police were looking for in connection with it has died in suspicious circumstances. I really cannot continue—’
Bella interrupted there, deliberately ignoring the last part of what Jimmy Martins had been trying to say.
‘Jimmy, look, once the trust funds have been realised we should be able to effectively settle any financial irregularities,’ she began. ‘I can assure you that would always be my intention. And there are billions involved here.’
‘I’m not prepared to wait, Bella. The risk is too great. As chairman, albeit recently elected acting chairman, I am technically responsible for the whole awful mess. But it was not of my doing, and I am not prepared to carry that responsibility now that I have learned the extent of the—’
Bella tried again. ‘All right, Jimmy,’ she said. ‘I do understand. But will you at least wait until I have collated all the information I have gathered over the last couple of days, and until we can have a face-to-face meeting.’
‘Well, I don’t know...’
‘Jimmy, I am sure you don’t wish to be seen to have presided over the fall of Fairbrother’s. Look, I’m planning to come back to London today. Can we meet early tomorrow morning?’
‘I’m not sure I can afford to wait that long. Can’t you make it this afternoon?’
‘Well, late afternoon perhaps. I could come to the office at, say, five? I have other meetings first which could have a really positive bearing on the situation.’
‘I just don’t know, Bella—’ responded Jimmy.
‘Yes, you do,’ Bella interrupted. ‘Please trust me. You owe it to this family, surely, after all these years.’
Jimmy Martins seemed to take a very long time to answer. ‘All right,’ he said eventually. ‘Five p.m. this afternoon it is. But I have to tell you, Bella, I really do not think there is anything you could possibly say that might make me change my mind.’
‘Look, at this stage I just want to thank you for the opportunity to attempt to do so,’ said Bella, before ending the call.
She climbed out of bed, reached for her hotel issue towelling dressing gown, and sat down on the couch by the window, holding her aching head in both hands.
She had once read some words of wisdom that would stay with her always, and indeed had often comforted her in bad times. If you feel like committing suicide, wait until tomorrow.
Part of the thinking behind that, she’d always assumed, was that tomorrow never came.
Her tomorrow, however, had arrived with a vengeance. She was in a corner she could see no way out of. The events of the previous night had shocked her to the core.
She hadn’t exactly lied to Jimmy Martins. There were no meetings in her diary for that day, but she was seriously considering arranging at least one. Although that certainly was unlikely to have the positive influence she had promised the acting chairman. She’d merely said the first thing that came into her head in order to stall the man — perhaps only delaying the inevitable, but at least giving herself time to think. If she took the course of action she was considering, it would be she who would prematurely pull the plug on Fairbrother’s, not Jimmy Martins.
Bella was no saint, nor had she ever been. She was probably one of the toughest businesswomen in the world, certainly one of the toughest in international banking.