Echoes of Titanic (37 page)

“I believe you.”

“Well, I'm sure that's why Gloria thought to contact me a few weeks ago. She called to ask if we could speak confidentially. Once I assured her we could, she told me she was looking for a buyer for B & T and wondered if I was still interested.”

Kelsey blinked. “Gloria was looking for a buyer. For Brennan & Tate.”

“Yes.”

“She didn't have that kind of authority.”

“Oh, I know that. It wasn't an official inquiry. It was more like a testing of the waters, so to speak.”

Shifting in her seat, Kelsey leaned forward, placing her elbows on the arms of the chair and clasping her hands together. “What did she say to you? How did she put it, exactly?”

Still reluctant, Pamela took a deep breath before she spoke. “She said that given my interest in acquiring the company in the past, she wanted me to know that if I still wanted Brennan & Tate, now might be a good time to give it a shot. Actually, I believe her words were, ‘If you were to make a reasonable offer for the company at this time, I don't think it would be rebuffed.'”

Kelsey's mind raced. What on
earth
had compelled Gloria to say such a thing?

“Did she tell you why she thought the company might be for sale?”

“Not directly, no. But I had the impression that things have been in a bit of a slump since your father's health took a turn for the worse last year. She assured me that the company would rebound eventually, but that for the time being it was in dire need of, as she put it, ‘more resources and better
management.' She thought the two companies would make a good fit. As it happens, so do I.”

Kelsey sat up straight, trying to wrap her head around the idea of Gloria doing such a thing. “Did you promise her anything in return? Compensation for the tip-off? A guaranteed position after the merge?”

Pamela shook her head, bristling. “I did nothing of the kind.”

“Fine. So then what?”

“Well, after we had that conversation, I did some research into your company and really liked what I saw. So this past Monday, I contacted Walter Hallerman and said I'd like to speak with him and his management group about buying Brennan & Tate. Needless to say, the man was surprised to hear from me. Very surprised. He told me flat out that B & T was
not
for sale.”

“And?”

“We haggled a bit. I made a specific offer, he rejected it outright, I tried again at a higher price, but he said the answer was still no. Then I told him I wouldn't consider that ‘no' official until I'd heard it directly from the board. I had no doubt they would see things differently. After all, Gloria had told me this would fly if I came at them with a reasonable amount. Which I had.”

“Did you speak with Gloria after that?”

“No. At first I was waiting to hear back from the board. Their answer came the next morning, Tuesday. To my surprise, they also turned me down.”

Kelsey nodded, glad for that much at least.

“I tried to reach Gloria after that, to ask her what was going on, but she never returned my calls. To be honest, I had ulterior motives for coming to your ceremony, Kelsey—no offense, of course. I'm a busy woman, and I have to turn down invitations to things like that left and right.”

“None taken,” Kelsey replied, though she was a little hurt, if only for Adele's sake. When she'd first spotted Pamela from the podium, Kelsey had thought the woman was there in honor of her great-grandmother's memory and legacy.

“Anyway, even though I had no intentions of going to your little event, I changed my mind for two reasons. First, I decided it wouldn't hurt to establish a visible reminder for Walter Hallerman and the board of my intentions to pursue purchase of the company. Second, I was hoping to pull Gloria aside and find out what had gone wrong between the time she contacted me and the time I made my offer. I hadn't treated the matter as a priority, and my fear
was that I had taken too long to move on this and that B & T had managed to find some other source of funding in the meantime.”

“When was it that she first contacted you about it?”

Pamela thought for moment then rose and went to her desk. “I can tell you exactly. I keep a log of all my calls.”

Kelsey expected her to type something into the computer, but instead she opened the top drawer and pulled out what looked like an old-fashioned leather-bound ledger. She flipped through a few pages and then placed a finger on the page and ran it across the line as she read.

“Here we go. Gloria Poole, March ninth, two ten p.m.”

Kelsey thought about that for a moment. The letter to Rupert had been mailed eight days later, on March seventeenth. Surely, the call and the letter had been connected somehow. Could she believe this woman's denials of culpability?

Kelsey had trouble understanding why anyone in this business would wait that long to jump on a hot property. When she came across a good prospect for investment, she'd been known to go from square one to a full-on offer within twenty-four hours. At most she'd never gone more than a week. Yet Pamela expected her to believe that she'd received an invitation like that and hadn't moved on it for almost a
month?
Not likely. “So Gloria gave you this tip on March ninth,” she said, squinting her eyes, “and you didn't act on it until April first?”

“That's correct,” Pamela said, ignoring Kelsey's insinuation as she returned to her chair by the window. “As I said, I didn't see it as a priority. We were embroiled in a deal with a much bigger fish at the time. Between the research and the decision making on that matter, I got to it when I could.”

Kelsey felt a surge of anger. If Pamela was telling the truth, then Brennan & Tate—this business that was her family's heart and soul—was nothing but a little fish to these people, a side deal barely worth their time, a mere whim.

Wanting to stay on track, Kelsey took a deep breath and told herself to calm down. “Were you able to speak with Gloria after the event on Tuesday?” she asked evenly.

Pamela shook her head. “I looked for her but never spotted her anywhere, not during the ceremony nor afterward in the lobby. It was such a madhouse that I didn't stay for long. I assumed she would get around to calling me back the next day. Instead, I turned on the news later that night only to learn that she was dead.”

Both women were silent for a long moment after that.

“When did the situation turn into a hostile takeover?” Kelsey asked finally.

“Well, once Walter and the board had turned me down, we had to decide whether to proceed regardless. In spite of Tuesday's mess, we still want your company—though, of course, it's worth far less now than it was on Monday. The board should have jumped when they had the chance. Now we're getting an even better price, and there's nothing they can do to stop it.”

“So you're definitely proceeding.”

Pamela nodded. “I'm sorry it had to come to this, Kelsey, but I'm sure you'll see in the end that this is the best-case scenario for everyone. Your company has the B & T name—which is still an asset, once we're past this current issue—and some talented people. We have the cash to take you to the next level and the personnel to fill the shoes left empty by your father and others.”

Pamela leaned forward and fixed her steely gaze on Kelsey. “You can be part of this acquisition too, you know. I feel sure we could find a place for someone of your talents in the new organization.”

Kelsey gritted her teeth, eyes narrowing. “Yeah, right. And people call you guys ‘Clean Sweep' because you keep your offices so tidy.”

Pamela threw her head back and laughed. “You really are a feisty thing, aren't you?” She stood, as if to say their time was up.

“I can be when my back's against a wall,” Kelsey replied, also standing.

“Well,” Pamela said, leading her out of her office and back through the two outer chambers, “if you change your mind about that position, let me know. I like you, Kelsey. I think you and I could accomplish great things together.”

After that they were silent until they reached the elevator and Pamela pushed the button to summon it. Then Kelsey turned and fixed her gaze on the woman, ready to make one last appeal.

“Please, Pamela, won't you reconsider and drop this whole thing?”

“Sorry, but no.” She shrugged, holding out both hands, palms upward. “
Les jeux sont faits.
” The die is cast.

Kelsey's eyes narrowed. “Then why on earth would I want to work for someone who would steal my family's company out from under me? You're taking advantage of a difficult situation to give a lowball offer to a bunch of nervous stockholders who don't even understand what a bad move this would be. It's just wrong.”

Pamela looked back at her, eyes sparkling, as if she were somehow amused.

“Kelsey, darling,” she said, shaking her head from side to side. “Welcome to the real world. This is how business is done. It's nothing personal. It's just how it is.”

With that, the elevator arrived and their meeting was over.

Kelsey left the building and began walking off her frustration. She realized she was less than a mile from her parents' house, so she decided to go there by foot rather than grab the subway. The day was getting chillier and she had no jacket, but soon she was moving briskly enough that she managed to warm up anyway.

As she went, Pamela's final words kept ringing in her ears: “
Welcome to the real world. This is how business is done.
”

Though she hated to admit it, in a sense Pamela was right. For many, many people, this was exactly how business was done. Never mind if others got hurt. Never mind if lives were destroyed by the decisions made in the upper echelons. Business was business.

But if that was the case, why did it feel so wrong? Why was this whole thing so utterly distasteful? She thought about that, and after a moment she decided it was because it deviated far from the business model established long ago by Adele Brennan Tate.

Adele had been an incredibly keen businesswoman, but she would never have pursued a deal that would bring such grief to so many, much less one that was capitalizing on another's misfortune. She hadn't been about tearing things down. Her focus had been on the building up—of people, of ideas, of businesses.

Kelsey thought again of the “Accomplishment Walks” with her great-grandmother all those years ago. At the time they had made her feel so close to the woman, so connected. But thinking back to the memory of it now, Kelsey wondered if she'd ever really known her at all.

“Were you really who you said you were?” she whispered aloud, wishing that somehow Adele could send her a reply from heaven. Instead, that was the one question in all of this that Kelsey was afraid she might not be able to answer.

By the time she turned onto her parents' street, she was thoroughly depressed, ravenously hungry, and angry with herself for not having thought to bring a pair of flats with her today. She had in fact worn some of her highest high heels as a part of the overall “eat your heart out” package she'd wanted to present to Cole earlier. Now she knew exactly what such vanity had wrought, at least five or six blisters and two terribly sore feet.

When Kelsey reached her parents' brownstone, she was excited to see a familiar blue bicycle chained to the railing out front. Despite the pain in her feet, she mounted the steps quickly and rapped on the door. After a moment it swung open to reveal none other than her brother.

Fifteen minutes later, Kelsey's comfort level had risen considerably. She was in her stocking feet, clad in a cozy fleece sweat suit borrowed from her mother, and sitting at the kitchen table feasting on a giant chef salad topped with Yvette's famous homemade dressing. To her right was Matt, digging into a bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce, and to her left was their mother, describing the long and futile search Kelsey had assigned to her of digging through all of the various family papers and mementos for Adele's handwritten diary or some sign of the bonds. She had found neither, but she didn't seem all that upset about it, saying at least she had taken the opportunity to get the stuff better organized. Only her mother could find a silver lining in a cloud this dark.

The phone rang and Doreen went to answer it, leaving Kelsey alone in the kitchen with her brother. She was glad. Though she'd kept her mother generally apprised of the overall situation, she hadn't given her the full details or spelled out exactly how bleak the outcome was looking. Matt, on the other hand, wanted to know everything, so while Doreen was gone, Kelsey lowered her voice and told him what she could, omitting only her meeting with Cole and her investigative jaunt planned for later in the evening.

“Did you get your stockholder letter yet?” she asked, wishing Pamela had volunteered the time frame for the takeover.

He shook his head. “I've been watching the mailbox for it, but so far I haven't seen a thing.”

“Me neither, though it's only a matter of time.”

Matt finished his ice cream and placed his empty bowl and spoon into the sink. “Is there anything I can do to help?”