Due Diligence: A Thriller (34 page)

“You gave me your card,” said Rob.

“That’s right. I remember.”

Rob hesitated. He was about to cross a line, he knew. “This has to be strictly anonymous, all right? Do you understand that?”

“Yes,” said the journalist. “We do this all the time.”

“A journalist doesn’t reveal her source, right?”

“Never.”

“Do you promise me?”

“Yes.”

Rob hesitated again. He hadn’t crossed the line yet. “Can I trust you?”

“Yes. You can trust me.”

Rob took a deep breath. He looked around. A woman came toward the pay phone and glanced straight at him as she headed past. Rob turned away and put his hand up against his face, trying to shield himself from being seen.

“All right,” he said at last. “You were investigating Louisiana Light, weren’t you?”

“Yes.” On her notepad, Sandy wrote
Louisiana Light
and underlined it.

“For a long time?”

“For quite a while,” said Sandy.

“I have two names for you. You may already know them.”

“What are they?”

“Grogon and ExPar.”

“Can you spell those, please?”

Rob spelled them.

Sandy wrote.
Grogon. ExPar.

“I need to know everything you know about them,” she said.

“It isn’t much.”

“Tell me what you do know.”

Rob told her. It was so little, he felt foolish. He added a few of his own thoughts about how the companies might be used to park debt off Louisiana Light’s balance sheet.

“And you’re sure this is reliable?” asked Sandy.

“Yes. Very sure.”

“How do you know about it? Did someone tell you?”

“I can’t say. But I can tell you why this is coming out now.”

I should have asked that one, thought Sandy.

“They’re doing a deal.”

Rob waited, expecting to hear some kind of reaction. Nothing.

“Did you hear what I said?” he demanded.

“Yes,” said Sandy.
Doing a deal,
she wrote, wondering why that made such a difference.

Suddenly Rob had the sense he was wasting his time. “Do you understand what that means?”

“Of course I do!” snapped Sandy.

“Okay. I can’t tell you who they’re doing the deal with. It’s a foreign company. In Europe.”

Foreign company in Europe.

“Do you know where?”

“I can’t say. But I can tell you when.”

“When?”

“The announcement’s next week.”

“Next week!” said Sandy, sensing that she was supposed to be surprised.

“That’s right. Next Friday. So you’ll have to act fast.”

“Right,” said Sandy. “That is fast.”

“That’s all I can tell you.”

“Is there anything else? Anything else at all you can tell me?”

Rob thought.

“The more you tell me,” said Sandy, “the stronger the story I can write.”

“Isn’t that enough for a story?” said Rob.

“Yes,” replied Sandy hurriedly. “Excellent. It’s exactly the break we were looking for. This is just great.”

“You got those names I gave you, didn’t you?”

“I got them.”

“You going to use them?”

“Absolutely. If you get anything else, let me know. The more information I can get, the better.”

“I can trust you, can’t I?”

“Yes, you can trust me.”

“This is confidential, right?”

“Absolutely. Rob, I need some kind of data so I can verify who you are.”

“You’ve got my name.”

“I can’t just have a name.”

“You know where I work.”

“I need something else. It’s not me. Those are the rules. What about your address? What’s your address?”

Rob hesitated.

“This is all confidential, Rob. It’s for internal purposes. I can’t publish this story without it. If we get challenged on this, I can’t say to my editor that I got it from some guy with a name.”

“You sure about that?”

“I’m sure.”

Rob thought about it. If this leaked, it wouldn’t matter if the journalist had his address. His name alone would be enough to sink him. “One-oh-three West Thirty-ninth Street,” he said. “Apartment twelve.”

“Okay. Rob, you’ve got my number. Anything else you find out, you let me know. Call me right away.”

“Okay.”

Rob put the phone down. He looked around. People continued to walk past. He backed away from the phone. A moment later, he had mixed in with everyone else on the sidewalk.

In the
Herald
newsroom, Marvin Koller stopped on the way back to his desk. He ran his eyes over Sandy. She smiled.

“You tell me when you get anything, right?” he barked at her. “You get off your fat ass and get out there and find something.”

“Sure, Marvin,” said Sandy, edging her elbow forward to cover her notepad. “I’ll let you know the minute anything comes in.”

35

The call had been scheduled two days earlier. Stanzy wanted an end-of-week review to cover off progress on a number of fronts. In reality, there was only one major area of concern, which was why John Golansky was sitting in Stanzy’s office when he dialed the number.

On the other end of the line, in Baton Rouge, Wilson was with Lyall Gelb.

“First of all,” said Stanzy, “I want to cover off the due diligence.”

“You guys happy at your end?” said Wilson.

“Yeah. So far, so good. Our team’s crunching the scenarios. We’ll have it ready for the review on Monday.”

“Nothing I’m going to have trouble with for the board?”

“No, as far as we can see, you’re fine, Mike. What about you? You hear anything yet from the lawyers?”

Wilson laughed. “They’re gonna be there all weekend. So far, they’re saying it looks all right. With about a thousand qualifications. They’re lawyers, right?”

Pete laughed. “Don’t worry. We’ll sort them out for you on Monday.”

“And you’ll have the report finalized Tuesday?”

“Absolutely. What about Buffalo’s due diligence? You hear anything?”

“Their guys are starting today,” said Wilson.

“They’re leaving it kind of late, aren’t they? That only gives them a few days.”

“I don’t think they’re going to be looking too hard,” said Wilson. “Lyall’s got four big rooms of files all ready for them, haven’t you, Lyall?”

“That’s right,” said Gelb.

Stanzy glanced at Golansky. Golansky rolled his eyes.

“Okay,” said Stanzy. “Now, we still okay for the announcement?”

“Yeah,” said Wilson. “You guys are writing the presentation, right? My people are going to want to see it. And the Buffalo’s going to want to see it as well.”

“Absolutely,” said Stanzy. “We’ll have a first draft to you Monday, Mike.”

The announcement was scheduled for Friday, exactly one week away. Louisiana Light was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and BritEnergy was listed in London, so the announcement would be made simultaneously in both places. It was timed for ten
A.M.
in New York and three
P.M.
in London. Mike Wilson and Andrew Bassett would start talking at their press conferences at precisely the same moment, using identical prepared scripts.

“Now what about PR? I was thinking—”

“I’m gonna let Mandy Bellinger know about it today,” said Wilson. “I’ve kept her in the dark till now. She’s gonna handle the PR for us.”

“I thought your corporate affairs department would do that,” said John Golansky.

“No, John.” Wilson laughed. “Hell, I wouldn’t trust them with something this big. We want to make a splash.”

Stanzy and Golansky glanced at each other.

“Mike,” said Stanzy, “when you say you want to make a splash, we wanted to talk to you about the kind of PR you want to do. There are pros and cons to—”

“Now, you just leave that to me and Mandy, Pete,” said Wilson, cutting right across him. “You know Mandy?”

“No.”

“Well, she knows what she’s doing. Let’s not waste any more time on this, huh? What about the loan?”

In New York, John and Pete simultaneously leaned closer to the table. From their perspective, this was what the call was really about.

“We do want to talk about that,” said Stanzy.

“At the moment,” said Golansky, “we’re looking at about four billion.”

“What was that?” said Mike. “Did I hear you say ‘four billion’?”

Pete glanced at John. John nodded. “That’s right, Mike. I said four. We’re at four-point-one, to be accurate. Which, incidentally, is more or less the amount of cash we originally agreed that you’d offer.”

“Well, that’s great!” said Wilson, either ignoring or not picking up on John’s sarcasm. “We only need six and a quarter. What’s that, another two-point-one? You’ve still got five days to find it.”

No one on the call knew whether Wilson was being serious or sarcastic. Not even Lyall Gelb, sitting across the table from him in Baton Rouge, could tell.

“Mike,” said John Golansky, “that’s a lot to find.”

“Two-point-one?” replied Wilson, as if he were in the habit of walking around and picking up a couple of billion dollars every day of the week.

John Golansky glanced at Pete.

“Two-point-one-five, Mike,” said Stanzy. “To be accurate.”

“Come on, John. You guys raised the Alesco loan in two days. What was it? Five billion or something? Isn’t that what you guys always say? Isn’t that your pitch?”

Yeah, thought Golansky. But people
wanted
to invest in Alesco.

“Lyall’s got something to say,” said Wilson. “Lyall?”

“Ah … yeah. I think I can find maybe three hundred and fifty million.”

Golansky and Stanzy glanced at each other.

“Where’s this coming from, Lyall?” asked Pete, writing
350 million
on his pad.

“Umm … we had a couple of disposals we were looking at. I’ve been seeing what I can do and I think we may be able to bring them forward.”

“That’d be good,” said Stanzy encouragingly.

Golansky raised an eyebrow.

“Lyall’s being modest,” said Wilson. “We’ll have four.”

“Lyall?”

“Yeah, Pete. Call it four.”

“That’s four hundred million?” said John Golansky.

“Yes, John.”

“Does Buffalo know about these disposals?”

“It’s all in the due diligence documentation,” replied Wilson. “These aren’t new disposals. We’ve planned them for a while now. We’ll just be bringing them forward so they’re done before the deal’s complete.”

“It’s not … we’ll still be operating the assets,” said Lyall. “It’s just the ownership, which—”

“It’s complicated,” interjected Wilson. “Right, Lyall?”

“Yes. Fairly complicated.”

Wilson laughed. “Boys, when Lyall says something’s fairly complicated, there’s no one else in the world who can understand it!”

John and Pete were supposed to laugh, they knew, but neither of them did.

“Where are these assets?” asked Stanzy, trying to ignore the look John Golanksy was giving him.

“Hungary,” said Wilson. “We have a number of assets in Hungary. You ever been there?”

“No,” said Stanzy.

“You should. Great little place. World of opportunity.”

Pete looked at Golansky. He shrugged. If Mike Wilson said they had assets to dispose of in Hungary, they had to take him at his word.

“Pete? John? You guys still there?”

“Yeah. We’re still here,” said Golansky. He shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose for a second. “Okay. Look, four hundred million will help. Can I definitely count on that?”

“Yeah,” said Wilson’s voice. “You got it.”

“Lyall? Is it definite?”

“Yes,” said Gelb.

“You sure?”

“Lyall,” said Wilson. “We’re sure, aren’t we?”

“Yes.” There was a pause. “I’m sure.”

“So that makes the total loan we need to raise five-point-eight-five billion? Is that what you’re saying? I need to be absolutely sure.”

“Yes,” said Wilson impatiently. “Hell, how many different ways do you want us to say it?”

“Okay,” said Golansky. “We’ve got four-point-one, so that leaves our shortfall at one-point-seven-five.”

“So, how are we looking?” asked Wilson.

“Well,” said Golansky, “looks like we’re looking for one-point-seven-five.”

Wilson laughed. “Come on, John. You know what I’m saying.”

Golansky turned to Pete. He moved each hand up and down a little, as if it were an even money bet whether they could get the rest of the cash.

“I think we’re looking pretty good,” said Pete.

“John?”

“I’m not saying we’re there, Mike.”

“You two, you’re like Laurel and Hardy.” Wilson laughed. “What do I have to do to get a straight answer?”

Pete left it to John.

“We’re not there,” said Golanksy. “All right? I’ve gone to the majors, and Citi and Bank of America are giving me four-point-one between them. From here, I don’t know. I could go down a tier or two, but you’re gonna be paying a premium, Mike. We’re talking two, three percent minimum.”

“How about a little help from you guys?”

John Golansky frowned. “What was that?”

“Come on, John,” said Wilson. “We just put in another four hundred million. I raised, you match.”

Golansky stared at Pete in disbelief.

“How about it?”

“Mike,” began Pete, “I don’t know if that’s—”

“Where’s the commitment?” There was no humor in Wilson’s tone now. “Huh? We’re having trouble getting over the line. You telling me you guys aren’t gonna push a little?”

“Mike, we’re not that kind of bank. We don’t have the kind of balance sheet that allows us to provide loans from our own funds. That’s why John’s gone to—”

“Pete, don’t give me that crap! Now tell me, how much are you guys putting in?”

“Now, Mike, you really have got the wrong idea about—”

“Whatever it is,” said Wilson, “double it!”

Pete didn’t respond to that. On the other side of the table, John Golansky was getting angry.

“How much is it?” persisted Wilson. “Come on, how much are you guys putting in. Two hundred? Three?”

“Mr. Wilson,” said John Golansky quietly, “I’m not sure we can take this business further.”

“What?” demanded Wilson.

Pete stared at Golansky.

“I don’t know whether we have anything further to talk about,” said Golanksy.