I
awoke to a jerk as the elevator resumed its ascent to the twenty-third floor. They were still expecting me. When the doors opened, the building superintendent and SEC investigators found me, purse in hand, crouching in the far corner of the elevator, still groggy from exhaustion and the shock of such an unprecedented torrent of emotion. Without moving I asked through a dry mouth, “Water, please?”
But the voice that responded was not one I was expecting.
“Sure, Vina. Sure you can. Let’s just get you out of here first.”
I turned and looked up into comforting brown eyes. It was Prakash, and he was reaching out a hand.
“What? What’s going on?” I attempted.
“We understand that you’ve retained Mr. Shah as your legal counsel in this matter, ma’am,” one of two sweaty, middle-aged men was telling me from outside the elevator.
“But we’re going to have to request that he remain silent during this deposition.”
I opened my mouth, confused.
“He
is
your legal counsel, isn’t he?” the investigator asked, once I had risen to my feet.
“Um, he…well, yes, I think?” I questioned in Prakash’s direction.
“I saw it in the paper this morning. It seemed like they had been investigating and gathering evidence secretly for months, so I assumed they would be bringing you in for your deposition immediately, before the press had the chance to get near you. I made some calls to a friend at the DA’s office to find out where they would be deposing you, and volunteered to act as your legal counsel,” Prakash explained, holding my arm. “I thought you might need the support.”
“Yes.” I cleared my throat, grateful for whatever made Prakash decide to be there for me. “Mr. Shah is my lawyer.”
“My name is Thomas Segal,” the older of the two SEC investigators stated, waving Prakash and me toward two stiff-backed chairs on one side of a conference table. “Do you know why we’ve summoned you here?”
I’m thinking it’s because they’ve gotten wind of the message that life had been trying to impress upon me—that I was wholly incapable of managing my own affairs, and should therefore not be allowed to play with the other children. Instead of sharing all this, I answered, “You’re investigating my firm. I’m here to cooperate. Completely.”
“Well, that will make things easier for everyone involved, ma’am.” The sweatier interrogator picked up where his partner had left off. “And your cooperation will cause the authorities to look more favorably upon you.”
“I’ve got nothing to hide,” I murmured, sinking a bit into my seat. Prakash pressed my hand reassuringly.
“Then let’s get started. You remember researching the possibility of an acquisition by Luxor Corporation in November of this year, I’m sure. What was your recommendation on that investment?” Sweaty asked.
“I…I recommended against making that investment. Nothing in the financials justified it.”
“And when your bosses made the investment anyway, what did you think?” Oldie, who also turned out to be Meaney, barked.
“I thought they were better at making investment decisions than I was.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Sweaty leafed through some papers theatrically. “And I’m sure you recall a former intern by the name of Wade Smith, whom you fired?”
“Yes.” I realized where this was headed, and began chewing on my bottom lip.
“It has been reported to us that you terminated his internship due to budgetary constraints. Is that true?”
“Well—” I began.
“In a year when your firm was doing so well—” Meaney cut me off “—it hardly seems reasonable that you would need to fire an intern to cut costs.”
All eyes were on me.
“I…I can explain. Alan and Steve—my bosses—told me that Wade was sexually harassing a secretary. I was instructed to fire him on these grounds, so I did.”
Sweaty and Oldie looked at each other, smirking in a way that made me more uncomfortable than an aging rock star in a room full of women his own age.
Sweaty turned toward me. “And did you tell Wade this?”
“No.” I looked down, averting my gaze from Prakash.
“Why not?” Meaney leaned in.
“Because they told me not to.”
“And did you investigate these claims of sexual harassment?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I trusted my bosses.”
They paused. Oldie rose to his feet, took a few paces and stared out the window. “That’s it?”
“That’s the truth.”
“Ms. Chopra, how long have you worked on Wall Street?”
“Almost five years.” I chewed on the rim of my almost empty paper cup.
“And have you felt, in general, over that period of time, that your compensation was commensurate with the value you provided?”
“Yes, I…I think so.”
“Ms. Chopra, is it true that your performance bonus is based in large part on the accuracy of your investment recommendations?”
I nodded.
“And how did the accuracy of your recommendations this year compare with those which you made in previous years?”
“This year I was wrong more than usual,” I begrudgingly admitted.
“Can you please tell us, for our records, what was the amount of your annual performance bonus this year?”
“Thirty thousand.” I struggled to get comfortable in my seat.
“You are no doubt aware that your coworkers have all reported significantly lower than expected bonuses this year. Did you think their bonuses were fair?”
“Well, no,” I hesitated, “I didn’t.”
They paused. “And how did you, in your own mind, account for that discrepancy?” Oldie asked.
“I guess I didn’t.”
Meaney sat back, satisfied. My stomach growled. Prakash continued squeezing my hand.
“You didn’t,” he repeated, as if he had heard about as much as he could take from me. “One last question before we get into the specifics. Are you familiar with a company called Globecom?”
Dear God, why me?
“Ms. Chopra?”
“Um, yes. Kind of. I mean I’ve never researched them, but I am familiar with them, in a way. I met one of their VPs socially once,” I said carefully. “At a bar.”
“Mmm-hmm. And would it surprise you to hear that your bosses made a sizeable investment in Globecom two weeks ago?”
“Yes…I mean, no,” I struggled. “I mean, we never researched them. I never researched them. This is the first I’m hearing of any investment in them.”
“And you say you knew one of their VPs personally?”
“No, not personally. Socially. I mean…not socially, either, really.”
Sweaty was starting to look more like Meaney, Meaney was starting to look a lot like a sadistic creep and I was starting to get more than a little bit sweaty.
“Well, which one is it, Miss Chopra? Did you know him or did you not know him?” he said, about five inches from my face.
“I
met
him. Once. At a bar. And he was bragging about being a VP at Globecom and having made a major acquisition and wanting to celebrate it. But…I mean, he didn’t know who I was or anything, and…Oh, my god!” I sat up straighter, as if I were actually witnessing the pieces of the puzzle falling into place. “I told Alan and Steve about that night. Are you telling me that they made the decision to invest based on what that jerk told me?”
Oldie replied, “From what we can gather, they recognized that any major acquisition deal would signal a huge jump in Globecom’s stock price the next morning. So they took the information you gave them, and decided to buy early and sell for a large profit a few hours later. In light of the firm’s abnormal profits on Luxor, we had been watching the trading activity closely, and noticed that the Globecom shares were purchased and unloaded abnormally quickly. Your bosses knew exactly what to do with the information you gave them.”
“But I didn’t
give them
that information,” I pleaded with everyone in the room. “I swear I wasn’t even thinking about it that way. I mentioned the jerk from Globecom in passing because Alan asked me why I was upset. I mean, that guy had been such a slime. He honestly expected me to go back to his hotel room because he was bragging about closing that acquisition deal. Alan acted like he was trying to console me. I can’t believe he would turn around and trade on that information.”
Sweaty McMeanington folded his arms across his chest, studying me for a while. “You expect us to believe that you had no idea.”
“No, I don’t expect you to. I can see how bad this looks, but…I need you to. I swear I had no idea. I swear it. You have to believe me.”
Eyes wide, I pushed across the table toward them, reaching out almost physically even as my head was spinning, recalling all the conversations I had with Alan and Steve, Denny and Wade, and Peter and everyone else at the firm. The pattern became so obvious. They had traded on the Luxor deal despite my recommendation because they
did
have an inside source in Taiwan. Wade must have discovered the truth, and really been fired for that reason. And then they bought Globecom stock with no regard for the rules of information. And my bonus was merely strategic because they wanted to make it look like I was an accomplice! I looked to Prakash for some sign that I was even the least bit believable, and to my surprise, he gave it to me. He nodded his head to encourage me to continue.
“Oh, you
swear? Cross your heart?
Are you kidding us with this?” Segal raised his voice, standing and planting both meaty hands down on the table so he could look down at me. “Do you expect me to believe that a woman like you, a woman who has managed to excel in a cutthroat world like Wall Street finance, where men normally control everything, a woman who is clearly as independent and aware of her surroundings as anyone, and a woman who got a bonus
three times
the size of any of her colleagues this year, after making more than one bad recommendation, would fire her own intern without investigating allegations of sexual misconduct, and take her bosses’ words for granted
entirely?
You actually expect us to believe that you could have been so completely and conveniently ignorant of what was going on right in front of your pretty nose? Little girl, you can’t expect us to be that naive, and you can’t possibly be that naive yourself!”
I buried my face in my hands, and mumbled.
“What was that?”
“I said…” And felt the tears start to stream down my face. “Apparently…I
can.
”
A
fter the interrogation, Prakash and I stood facing each other outside the building, alone for the first time since we were in my parents’ kitchen.
I fixed my gaze intently on a gum wrapper on the sidewalk. “So, do you think I did okay in there?”
“Considering the circumstances,” he said, scratching the back of his neck, “yes.”
“Do you think,” I added, biting my lip, “do you think that I might have to go to jail?”
“No.” He looked me squarely in the eye. “I mean, not if you’re willing to cooperate and give them any additional information they might need concerning your bosses’ misconduct. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, Vina.”
“Thanks for saying
we.
I know you don’t owe me anything.”
Silence.
I had to ask, “Don’t you want to ask me if I did it?”
He smiled in that same reassuring way that let me know he wouldn’t drop me at the wedding. “I don’t have to ask you that. Deep down you’re a nice Indian girl from Long Island, one who would never do anything like this.”
“Listen, Prakash.” I held his arm. “I need to apologize to you for my behavior at the family dinner on Saturday night. It was unfair.”
Prakash shrugged. “No, Vina, you were right. About that, anyway. And I have to apologize for pulling you into my problems. The truth is that your outburst in the kitchen was the kick in the butt I needed. So in a way, I do owe you something. I came out of the closet to my parents the next day.”
“Oh, my gosh. I don’t know what to say. Look, it wasn’t fair for me to judge you. And I am happy for you that you managed to take that step with your parents, but that’s a separate issue. I shouldn’t have lashed out at you just because your friend Nick turned out to be a pornographer. I have to take responsibility for the choices I made that night, and one of them was going home with him.”
“What are you talking about?” He wrinkled his eyebrows, confused. “Nick really liked you. He told me you ran out the next morning without even thanking him.”
“Thanking him? For what?”
“Wait a minute, what are you talking about? Nick’s a lot of things, but he is not a pornographer. Where did you get that idea?”
“From the video cameras and videotapes I found aimed at the bed I woke up naked in that morning. But like I said, look, it’s not your problem. I’ve got too many other things to worry about right now, anyway.”
“No, I think it is my problem. And I think you misunderstood. Nick’s not that kind of guy. He’s using that video equipment to make a workout video that will be sold through a national distributor. It’s a business idea he’s been working on for a while.”
I blinked.
“Was that what you thought happened on Friday night?” he asked. “No. You’re way off. What happened was that your friend Christopher had left the club with me, and your girlfriends were nowhere to be found, so Nick didn’t want to leave you alone since you were so drunk and upset. And when he got you into a taxi to make sure you got home safe, you passed out before you could tell him where you lived. Your cell phone and wallet had disappeared, so he had no choice but to take you to his place. Didn’t you notice your wallet was missing the next morning?”
“Of course,” I said. “I canceled my credit cards the next day, and was just grateful that I had enough loose cash to get home.”
“Well, you regained consciousness in his apartment, saying you felt disgusting because you had vomited. So you showered to sober up, and then fell asleep in his bed. Nick slept on the couch. And he was insulted when you left without even thanking him in the morning. The thing is, he really liked you. So I was pissed off because I thought that you were blowing him off just because you were mad at me.”
“You mean we didn’t…”
“No, Vina. I’ve known Nick for a long time. He’s not that kind of guy. You were completely out of it, and that’s not something that he would find attractive. For god’s sake, he’s not some horny frat boy.”
“Prakash, I guess…I guess it looks like I made an honest mistake.”
“No, Vina. It looks like you made a snap judgment about a nice guy, and exercised no judgment when it came to your bosses.”
“But I…I didn’t know…and I didn’t remember…I had no idea,” I stuttered.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about Nick,” Prakash said. “And about a lot of other things, too.”
“Well, I’d like to apologize to him.”
Prakash shook his head. “I think it’s too late for that, Vina. You should probably move on. Try to work some of this stuff out on your own.”