Chapter 3: Microline.

Vanessa arrived in the office just before 6.30 am. She knew she would not be disturbed at this time because the only personnel in the office would be the overnight traders who would be ready to leave very soon and a few other staff who, just as she did, used the early arrival strategy to get themselves organized for the day. They certainly would not want to pass time with her. 

She entered through the front door, and immediately climbed the stairs to the executive suite on the second floor. The boardroom was just across the hall. It was never locked, but the small room behind it was. Luckily, Vanessa had a master key, required for accessing offices of absentees if required. She entered and locked the door behind her, just because it seemed the prudent thing to do.

The computer was there, running in background mode, but as soon as she touched the space bar, the screen jumped into life. As soon as she had entered her secret password and opened the email file, she realized this was not going to be a trivial task. The messages were sorted by date, and it was obvious that some two hundred and fifty had been received since the night of Jeremy’s attack. Remembering her Dbase training she quickly resorted the file by recipient and date of receipt in descending order, and presto, there was the block of messages that Jeremy had received in the twenty four hours before his computer was stolen.

After eliminating the spam and messages from clients who she recognized, Vanessa was left with four, and she proceeded to open them. The first and second were just buy/sell orders from clients Jeremy must have added in the past few months, and they therefore had not been immediately recognizable, and the fourth was a registration of a new account, therefore unlikely to be of consequence. So it had to be the third, if she was on the right track at all. Quickly she printed it out, and then clicked on properties to find as much detail on the message as she could, and printed that out too.

Without being sure she had anything, she reset the sort parameters on the file, closed it, then closed the cupboard in which the computer was stored, and returned to her office. The whole process had taken only twenty five minutes, so as the staff began to arrive, she was sitting at her desk as normal, and no one would suspect that she had been snooping.

The message she had printed was brief, just two lines. “ Brad, you must move that block of Microline stock. Mathis tells me they will miss their forecast. You have till four on Monday. Bill.” Microline was one of the highfliers on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, a stock whose IPO at nine dollars was only six months ago and the latest price was a hefty sixty three fifty. Vanessa thought she recalled the CFO of Microline was a Fred Mathis! If this was the case, the message clearly showed a case of insider trading, and it could be the reason for the attack on Jeremy. But who on earth was Brad. There was no one in the firm with that name. The whole thing had nothing to do with Jeremy, she was sure of that, even though the message was clearly addressed to him at Baird@Fraser&fraser.com. He was doing too well with his business to get involved in something as questionable as this, but something had drawn him into this net! Brad! That was the name the blond man had referred to the previous night. Perhaps the email was not intended for Jeremy at all. Perhaps it was all the result of a misheard name, or perhaps Bill, whoever he was, was dyslexic. Certainly Baird and Brad were close enough to be confused. If this was the case, the man who sent it certainly went to a lot of trouble to ensure that the wrong addressee never saw the message! A lot of trouble, which made the other big question, “Who is Bill?” an even bigger mystery.

 

When Vanessa had visited Jeremy in the hospital the previous night, she had found him still groggy from his surgery. His nose had been broken from a sharp blow to the face, and it had been reset. The deep purple bruises around his eyes, and the swelling of his cheeks made him almost unrecognizable. Added to that, his throat was very sore from the anesthetic, and his voice was hoarse, speaking being obviously difficult. She found herself surprisingly relieved that his injuries were not at all serious, and confined what little response she expected from him to trivialities. As a result, the questions on her mind had remained unvoiced.

This night, though, would be different. Almost before they had got through the usual “how are you feeling?” Vanessa blurted out, “Who is Bill, and who is Brad?” Not that she expected it, Jeremy showed no surprise, or evasiveness at the question, which confirmed to Vanessa that he was in this situation by mistake. “Well I know three Bill’s in Chicago, and a couple more in New York, and that doesn't include the two in my family. But Brad’s, I only know of one, and I have never met him, just spoken on the phone with him.”

“Ever emailed him or any of the Bills‘?” As Vanessa persisted, Jeremy held up his hand, “Whoa, what's all this about, sit down, and how about a kiss?” So Vanessa sat on the edge of the bed, gave him a quick peck on the cheek, being careful to avoid the still bruised and swollen parts of his face, and explained what she had discovered that morning.

“OK, now the question makes sense. Yes the Brad I was talking to had asked if we would be prepared to improve our large trade brokerage fees for some large blocks of shares they wanted to move between several in house funds. He works with Merkel Capital, who manage a bunch of mutuals, and they didn’t want to pay even reduced bulk rates for inter group sales. I emailed him a proposal last week. And one of the Bill’s is at Merkel, Bill Fernstine, actually William Fernstine Jr, who I believe married a Merkel daughter. The old man, Kobus Merkel, was, of course the founder of the Merkel group.

“I believe this Bill Fernstine only became active in the business after he married the daughter of Kobus and Laurie Merkel. When Kobus Merkel died in a questionable auto accident a few years ago, his wife inherited the bulk of the business and she brought in her son in law. Bit of a waster, they say, but who can argue with the son in law of the boss. The Merkel group has been very successful, and their new funds have been very aggressive, a distinct change from their policy under the old man.”  Jeremy was amazing in his ability to recall people and how they interfaced and intertwined. One key and he could usually recall every detail he had ever heard or read about an individual, his family, and his firm. Perhaps this was one secret to his success as a broker.

“I can assure you none of our discussions I had with Bill Fernstine were about Microline”

“I know that,” said Vanessa, “but it seems entirely possible that these two are the ones involved in you getting your nose broken. Maybe they did you a favor, and you will look a bit better when you recover.”  Jeremy interpreted the weak attempt a humor as a signal that the subject was changing and they moved on to work scandals, and hockey as subjects to while away the rest of the visiting hour.

As Vanessa drove home, she knew that the light hearted banter that the pair had engaged in did not disguise the concern they both shared that the affair they had been inadvertently drawn into was not going to go away, and would turn out to be bigger than either could imagine. She also knew that she was deeply relieved that Jeremy really was going to fully recover.