Taming Graeme (Taming the Billionaire) (33 page)

 
“I’m a very private person, Tim. I keep my private and professional lives totally separate.”

 
“Ah, so you must have a man in your bed. But you’re here and I’m here, and he’s there...and there’s no ring on your finger.”

 
“I don’t think you heard me, Tim. I’m a private person. And...Eh...I don’t wear my ring to work. It’s too valuable.”

 
“I’ll wear you down. You are beautiful, sexy. I can hardly wait to kiss you. All of you...find out if you’re blond all over.” he leered at her. “So how about dinner tonight? We can take a bottle of good Irish whiskey to your bedroom after, or mine if you don’t want your friends to know about us and I’ll show you how pleasurable Belfast can be...”

 
“That will never happen, Tim. Have you heard of sexual harassment?”

 
“Yeah, but here in Northern Ireland, nobody takes it seriously.”

 
“I highly doubt that. Graeme Browning takes it very seriously, Tim, especially where I am concerned. You and I will get on just fine as long as you show the respect I deserve.”

 
“I respect you, Olivia. I’ll still respect you the morning after the night before as well...” He laughed suggestively.

 
Olivia just gave him an icy stare. The waiter came to refresh their coffee.   “Could I have the check, please?” Olivia asked.

 
“Oh, you’re buying my lunch are you? I was going to put this on my expense account,” Tim smiled.

 
“The Bank
is
buying our lunch, Tim.”

 
She pulled out her credit card.

 
“A black American Express card. I never saw a woman with a black American Express card before, Olivia. You must be very wealthy indeed.” He went to pick it up. She put her hand over it.

 
The waiter brought the mobile card machine, and she deftly inserted the card, entered her P.I.N. and added a tip.

 
The waiter smiled broadly at the size of tip, and said, “Thank you, Mrs. Browning. Thank you very much.” It was the same restaurant that Graeme had taken the old owners of the Bank to for dinner, and it was the same waiter. He remembered the beautiful Mrs. Browning and her handsome husband who had left such a generous tip, his best tip for months.

 
Olivia somehow kept an impassive face. Of course, it was a companion card on Graeme’s personal account. She’d already figured out that was why it was issued to
Olivia Browning
. She’d been so nervous when they’d entertained the two old men, she didn’t recognize the waiter. She thought he’d seen her name on the credit card.

 
She smiled automatically at the waiter. “You’re welcome.”

 
“Your husband isn’t with you this trip, Mrs. Browning?”

 
“No, not this trip...”

 
Olivia had never had a credit card before, so she thought this must be normal procedure for a companion card. She wasn’t to know that Graeme had absentmindedly made the same mistake as he had on the Visa he’d ordered for her. Only difference was, he’d caught the mistake on the Visa and corrected it.

 
Tim went pale. “
Browning
, I thought your name was Stone.”

 
Olivia smiled. The power of Graeme’s name....

 
“I use Stone for business purposes. My personal life is nobody’s concern at the Bank, Tim, and I’ll thank you to be discreet.”

 
Tim nodded. A Browning was off limits, no matter how beautiful or tempting she was.

 
He had a nice little racket going and he wasn’t going to blow it by offending the new owner’s wife. She must be Graeme Browning’s wife. Sir David was much too old.

 
No wonder she could suggest a new computer system and have experts coming within two days. 

 
Computers
...yes, he’d better wipe that hard drive over the weekend, before the experts installed the new system and maybe saw something they shouldn’t....a magnet was supposed to do the job, wasn’t it? He’d ask Gavin. Gav knew a lot about computers.

 
They walked back to the Bank. Tim was remembering the gossip, that Graeme Browning owned an estate fifteen minutes outside the city. “You’ll be staying at your own house then, your country house here in Northern Ireland?”

 
She smiled at him. “Please keep that to yourself, Tim.”

 
“Oh, certainly, Olivia. I hope you’ll remember my discretion when it comes time to review my compensation package, and that you’re as generous as you were to Danny.”

 
Olivia couldn’t believe his audacity.

 
Oh, yes, she could believe his audacity.
“Well, I always make sure that our loyal employees are more than happy every payday, Tim. After all our business is built on such men, isn’t it? Danny’s new position warrants a better pay scale than your old owners allowed. I suspect the same might be true of your own compensation, Tim.”

 
How can I spout this drivel and sound so sincere? The stupid man is lapping it up!

 
Tim was called into the regular Wednesday Department Head meeting at three o’clock and Olivia took the opportunity to back up his computer and slip the information into her bag. Nobody noticed what she was doing.

 
She sat sipping her tea and thought about the fraud she had uncovered.   She couldn’t tell yet whether it was just Tim, or if all the traders were in on it. She found it hard to believe he’d come up with the scheme and was doing it by himself.

 
Tim came back about quarter to five, and she made a point of taking out her mobile and hitting speed dial. Graeme answered immediately. She could tell Tim was eavesdropping on her. She didn’t like the lascivious way he still looked at her, when he thought she wasn’t aware. He looked at her as if he was mentally undressing her. He probably
was
mentally undressing her.

 
“Hello, baby,” she said.

 
“Olivia?”

 
“I’m really missing you, darling. It’s hard being in our love nest without you.”

 
“Is this leading up to some more telephone sex, which I would love, or for O’Rourke? Is he trying to listen to this conversation?”

 
“Oh, darling, you’re right as usual. I’m just phoning with my daily report to you, sweetheart. Any excuse to hear your voice.”

 
“Olivia, are you feeling alright?”

 
“Yes, now that I’m talking to you, Graeme. Now, I’ve reviewed most of the items on my list, and oh, my, I think we’re making rapid headway. I’m impressed with Tim. He’s being so helpful this afternoon. I think the old owners underestimated his ingenuity on the trading desk...”

 
“You mean it’s worse than we thought?”

 
“Exactly. Old men sometimes underestimate the ingenuity of smart young men, don’t they, baby? Why, he reminds me so much of Robert Stone.”

 
“Robert Stone? Is that your rotten thieving grandfather?”

 
“Exactly.”

 
“That bad, eh? You think he‘s dangerous, don‘t you?”

 
“Yes, so I’d like to sit in on Tim’s salary evaluation if I might? I have a very good idea as to the appropriate compensation we should offer him. I mean, John Taylor is being paid three times as much as Tim...Or more.”

 
“You mean it’s three times as bad as John estimated, or more?”

 
“I’m so glad you agree with me, dearest. Yes, I’ll make sure he doesn’t take another offer before you can sit down and negotiate a new deal with him” Olivia turned away, as if she didn’t want Tim to listen, but kept her voice at a level she knew he would hear, “...no I don’t think he’s aware we know that the Imperial Bank is looking for a new Head Trader in Ireland and is going to approach him.

 
“Oh, look at the time, darling. James will be waiting for me downstairs. Call me later, baby, after you get back from that boring dinner...”

 
Tim smiled at her. “I didn’t know the Imperial Bank is looking for a new Head Trader.”

 
“Graeme just heard. So of course we want to keep you, if you want to stay, that is. I think you’ll find he’s very amenable to a suitable new compensation package for you...He recognizes as I do, that the Bank is only as strong as its key employees. So I do hope you won’t accept another offer, before Graeme has a chance to meet you and review everything. I’m going to suggest that we double your current compensation package, Tim. I think it would take that to keep you with us.”

 
“Well, the other bank hasn’t approached me yet. Perhaps they’re waiting for you to leave…I would in their position. Wouldn’t want someone on hand who could up the offer, would you? When is your husband coming over?”

 
The total conceit of this slimy man! He believed the malarkey!
Olivia had thought for a minute she’d overplayed her hand, but no, the wanker was swallowing it hook, line and sinker. All she wanted to do was lull him into a sense of security, so he didn’t destroy too many records. Hmmm...thinking of records, she’d get all those old records for the last three years anyway into a filing box and take them home with her, or they might disappear overnight...She wouldn’t be asking Danny to review them for a while yet, and they could reappear when she was sure it was safe.

 
“He’s not sure, but as soon as he can get away. The weekend, probably, but who knows? I’d better get downstairs. Some of Graeme’s Irish cousins are coming for dinner...”

 
As soon as James pulled away from the curb, Olivia pulled her telephone out and pressed redial.

 
“Hello, Graeme?”

 
“I think I understood you. The fraud is at least three times more than we thought. But why did you telephone from the office? Was he listening in?”

 
“He’s hit on me several times, even though I’ve been very abrupt and unfriendly. I just wanted him to know he had no chance.”

 
“Wait until I’m there, ‘Livi. I’ll take great delight in setting him straight.”

 
“I know you will, but I’m also shocked at the extent of the stealing, Graeme!”

 
“Worse than you thought originally?”

 
“Yes. I think they take all the profit from one in every five or six trades, and some of the profit from one in five or six trades. I can’t see where the money goes...but it isn’t back to us! I backed up his computer when he was in a meeting this afternoon. I don’t know if there will be anything on it, but I have the backup in my handbag. I had lunch with him yesterday and I guess because the American Express card is a companion to yours it was issued as
Olivia Browning
not Stone the waiter called me Mrs. Browning and Tim immediately stopped hitting on me for sex and started hitting on me for a substantial raise. But he’s still mentally undressing me, and the only man allowed to do that is you, Sir!”

 
“He won’t be doing that for very long, kitten.”

 
“Thank you, Sir. So I let him think I am Mrs. Browning. I played up to him on that score, the raise he asked for, and now he thinks we’re great mates.

 
“But, Graeme, if the numbers I suspect are correct, at least one and maybe all of the other traders have to be in on the scam. Tim will be in a meeting tomorrow morning, so I’ll get a chance to chat with the others and see if anybody says anything suspicious. He’s been keeping me quite far away from them as if he’s afraid of me talking to them.”

 
“The audit team will be there in the morning, Olivia. There is a forensic accountant heading the group, and two of our security department are posing as accountants as well. The cover story is they are assessing the accounting systems in preparation for integration, and they’re going to make a lot of noise about this Bank being understaffed for my expansion plans so nobody starts worrying about their jobs. We don’t want any of the crooks doing too much to cover their tracks, if anybody else in another department is doing what Tim has orchestrated in Currency Trading. Do you think this Danny is involved in the fraud?”

 
“No.”

 
“Do you trust him?”

 
“No, because he’s friendly with Tim. I think he’s straight, but I wouldn’t say a word to anyone.
We’re
the outsiders here. Danny might spill something inadvertently if I had him do any investigating. He’s sharp, and he’d catch on immediately to what I’m looking for.

 
“Oh, Graeme, I want to box up all the reporting information for the previous three or four years and get it to your house. I feel very sure that it will show us when this scam started, and if I leave it there, it will all disappear.”