Best Kept Secret (The Clifton Chronicles, #3)(51)

He dashed into the chairman’s office and gave his sister a huge hug before shaking hands with Ray Compton, who’d been the company’s managing director for as long as he could remember.

The first thing that struck him as he shook hands with Ross Buchanan was how much younger he looked than his fifty-two years. But then he recalled the Financial Times pointing out that Buchanan didn’t smoke or drink, played squash three times a week, turned the lights out at 10.30 p.m. and rose at 6 o’clock every morning. Not a regime that would suit a politician.

‘It’s a pleasure to meet you at last, Sir Giles,’ said Buchanan.

‘The dock workers call me Giles, so perhaps the management should as well.’

The laughter broke any slight tension that Giles’s political antennae had picked up. He had assumed this was a casual get-together so he could finally meet Buchanan, but from the looks on their faces, something far more serious was on the agenda.

‘This doesn’t look good,’ said Giles as he slumped into a seat next to Emma.

‘I’m afraid it isn’t,’ said Buchanan, ‘and I wouldn’t have bothered you so close to the election if I hadn’t thought you ought to be briefed immediately. I’ll get straight to the point. You may have noticed that the company’s share price fell quite dramatically following my predecessor’s death.’

‘Yes, I did,’ said Giles. ‘But I assumed there was nothing unusual in that.’

‘In normal circumstances you’d be right, but what was unusual was how quickly the shares fell, and how far.’

‘But they seem to have fully recovered since you took over.’

‘They have,’ said the chairman, ‘but I don’t think I was the sole reason for that. And I wondered if there could be another explanation for the inexplicable downturn in the company’s share price after Sir William’s death, especially after Ray brought to my attention that it wasn’t the first time it had happened.’

‘That’s correct, chairman,’ said Compton. ‘The shares dropped just as suddenly when we announced our decision to go into the passenger liner business.’

‘But if I remember correctly,’ said Emma, ‘they also returned to a new high.’

‘They did indeed,’ said Buchanan. ‘But it took several months before they fully recovered, and it didn’t do the company’s reputation any good. While one can accept such an anomaly once, when it happens a second time, one starts to wonder if a pattern is emerging. I don’t have the time to be continually looking over my shoulder, wondering when it might happen again.’ Buchanan ran a hand through his thick, sandy hair. ‘I’m running a public company, not a casino.’

‘You’re going to tell me that both these incidents took place after Alex Fisher joined the board.’

‘You know Major Fisher?’

‘That’s far too involved a story to bore you with right now, Ross. That is, if I’m going to make the dock workers’ meeting before midnight.’

‘All the indications do seem to point in Fisher’s direction,’ said Buchanan. ‘On both occasions a trade of two hundred thousand shares was executed, which happens to be almost exactly the seven and a half per cent of the company he represents. The first was just hours before the AGM at which we announced our change of policy, and the second immediately followed Sir William’s untimely death.’

‘It’s too much of a coincidence,’ said Emma.

‘It gets worse,’ said Buchanan. ‘On each occasion, during the three-week window, after the share price had fallen so precipitously, the broker who sold them repurchased exactly the same amount, making his client a handsome profit.’

‘And you think that client was Fisher?’ asked Emma.

‘No, it’s too large a sum for him,’ said Giles.

‘I’m sure you’re right,’ said Buchanan. ‘He must have been acting on behalf of someone else.’

‘Lady Virginia Barrington would be my guess,’ said Giles.

‘That had crossed my mind,’ admitted Buchanan, ‘but I can prove that Fisher was behind it.’

‘How?’

‘I had the stock exchange records for both three-week periods checked,’ said Compton, ‘and both sales came out of Hong Kong, through a dealer called Benny Driscoll. It didn’t take a lot of research to discover that not so long ago Driscoll left Dublin only a few hours ahead of the Garda, and he certainly won’t be returning to the Emerald Isle in the near future.’

‘It’s thanks to your sister that we were able to get to the bottom of it,’ said Buchanan. Giles looked at Emma in surprise. ‘She recommended that we employ a Mr Derek Mitchell, who had assisted her in the past. Mr Mitchell flew to Hong Kong at our request, and once he located the one bar on the island that serves Guinness, it took him about a week and several emptied crates to find out the name of Benny Driscoll’s biggest client.’

‘So at last we can remove Fisher from the board,’ said Giles.

‘I wish it were that easy,’ said Buchanan. ‘He has the right to a place on the board, as long as he represents seven and a half per cent of the company’s stock. And the only proof we have of his duplicity is a drunken stockbroker living in Hong Kong.’