Stone's Fall

Then I was dragged off by Wilf, who seemed properly agitated, and said – in a quite unprecedented display of emotion – that he needed a drink. I could not imagine him drinking at all, let alone needing one, but who was I to refuse?

'Well!' he said, when we were settled into our chairs in a pub round the corner, usually frequented by Schroder's people after hours but now empty. 'That was a battle to remember!'

I frowned, bemused. 'What was?'

'The meeting, boy! I've never witnessed anything like it!'

'Were we both in the same room?'

He stared. 'Did you not see what was going on?'

'I saw enough to make me drop off my chair with boredom, if that's what you mean.'

'Oh, for heaven's sake!'

'Well? What? What did I miss?'

'The ambush, man! The counter-attack! The routing of the forces of dissent! Didn't you understand anything?'

I shook my head.

Wilf sighed sorrowfully. 'You are really not up to this, you know.'

'Just tell me,' I snapped.

'Oh, very well. You noticed, I hope, that the board bought off the shareholders by bunging money at them?'

'The dividend?'

'Precisely. It was clear from the accounts that they should only really increase the pay-out by about 10 per cent. But they increased it by 25 per cent, and they will have to go heavily into reserves to do it. The idea, I'm sure, was to keep the shareholders quiet until the money is paid out in about six weeks' time. That dealt with some of them, and it was clever; cut the ground from under the enemy from the start. But they kept on coming.'

'Did they? How?'

'What do you think all those motions and proposals and questions were about?'

'I've no idea whatsoever.'

'A number of shareholders are suspicious, and others want to take control of the trust. They banded together; there must have been meetings all over the City for the last week. I'm sure they did a deal they thought would hold. Vote in new management, then have a good look at the books. Then, perhaps, dissolve the Trust and pay out the money. I don't know. It doesn't matter, because they were defeated.'

'Really?'

'Yes. They were. That Cardano is not daft; takes after his father, no doubt. But clearly there were other discussions going on as well. The 25 per cent he controls as executor, and other groups of votes, blocked every motion, and voted instead to postpone all decisions until the Ravenscliff estate is settled. Quite a lot of the shareholders were voting against their own best interests, if you ask me.'

'And you are going to tell me you don't know why. I know you are.'

'Precisely. But I will find out, so help me. And I can tell you who, or at least a bit of who. It was Barings, for one. I couldn't quite figure it out, but they seem to have amassed a stake of about 5 per cent. That's a guess, of course. I will be able to confirm that in a few days. I didn't know they had any. They handled the flotation but I assumed they had long since sold any shares.'

'They bought some the day after Ravenscliff died,' I said, feeling quite proud that I knew something Wilf did not. And gratified by his look of interest as a result.

'How do you know it was Barings?' I persisted.

'Oh, well, it was a show of strength, wasn't it? Tom Baring himself came along to cast the votes. So keep your noses out, you're wasting your time. That was the message.'

'Which one was he?'

'About seventy, receding hair, the one with an orchid in his buttonhole.'

'The retired major talking to Cort?'

'Who's Cort?'

'Nothing. It's not important. This Tom Baring, who is he, exactly?'

'One of the Baring clan. Extraordinary man. I know what you mean about being a retired major. He looks the part. But he is one of the country's great experts on Chinese porcelain. Not that I care about that, of course.'

'Of course. So he's a big cheese?'

'One of the directors; it's not a family partnership any more, of course. It's been a company ever since the disaster twenty years ago, but the family still has huge influence. The thing about Tom Baring is that he's lazy. Very good, very effective when he can be roused, but he can't be roused very often. For him to come here is a powerful message. Barings thinks this is important enough for him to abandon his porcelain, get up to London and appear. He only does that when it's really vital.'

'The stuff of dinner conversations for years,' I commented.

'It is. So don't be frivolous. People will be trying to figure all this out for a long time.'

'So what do you think it means?'

'I have no idea. Only that, for the time being, Barings is behind Rialto and wants everyone to know. But there is obviously more to it than that. Someone was trying to launch a coup. Much of the lead was taken by a man from Anderson's . . .'

'Who were also buying Rialto shares shortly after Ravenscliff died,' I put in. Again, Wilf looked impressed. I was rather pleased with myself.

'But who are Anderson's fronting for, eh?' he asked.

'What about the man they proposed as chairman?'