The Power Broker: A Novel by Stephen Frey

Author:Stephen Frey
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 0345480619
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2006-07-25T05:00:00+00:00

“COME IN, COME IN,” Nigel beckoned, closing his apartment door as Christian moved past him into the living room. It was late, almost one in the morning. “Jesus, what happened to you?”

Christian had picked up Nigel’s message on his cell phone after he and Quentin made it out of the woods and back to the car. They’d spoken for a few minutes then, but Christian hadn’t wanted to go into the details about what Nigel had found out while they were talking on a cell phone. But he didn’t want to wait long to hear about it either. So after dropping off Quentin, he’d driven straight to Nigel’s Manhattan apartment, not bothering to go back to his place and change first. His clothes were still wet and muddy.

“I was . . . um . . . hell, it doesn’t matter,” Christian said curtly. He was too tired to make up an excuse. “What’s up?”

Nigel gave Christian another quick up and down. “I did what you wanted. Like I told you, I did that quick trip to Chicago and I got close to one of the assistant controllers at CST,” he explained. “She’s done some digging.” Nigel’s voice dropped. “The news isn’t great.”

“Tell me.” You couldn’t put your head in the sand. He’d learned that long ago.

“It’s like the woman at the SEC said. CST’s been overstating revenues. And therefore, income,” Nigel added quietly. “The earnings-per-share figures they’ve been releasing to the public are too high. Way too high.”

Christian felt his chest cinch. This was it, the nightmare scenario. He tried to stay calm, but it was tough.

“I’m sorry,” Nigel said, catching Christian’s anger—and disappointment.

“How did she find out so fast?”

“She got into the general ledger software somehow, went into her boss’s office late one night and snooped around until she found a couple of passwords or something. Anyway, they worked when she tried them and she saw a subsidiary on the list she’d never heard of before, did some more digging, and figured out it was a total sham. There’s nothing to the sub except about three hundred million dollars a year in completely bogus revenues with no associated expenses. Maybe more; she’s still checking.”

“So basically income’s overstated by three hundred million.”

Nigel nodded. “Basically.”

That hurt. The stock price would dive at least seventy-five percent, maybe more. Maybe to nothing. “How long has the sub been around?”

“Three years, just like the woman at the SEC said.”

“How could the accountants miss that?” Christian asked, his blood starting to boil. CST paid their independent auditors almost five million a year. This was ridiculous.

“She’s looking into that. Apparently, there’s some way she can figure out which one of the accountants’ teams was responsible for what. She’s going to get back to me in the next couple of days.” Nigel hesitated. “Her guess is that this thing involves just a few people. A couple at the company and a couple at the accounting firm.” Nigel patted Christian on the shoulder. “It’ll be clear that you weren’t involved, Chris.

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