the animal-rights advocates up in arms.”
“They oppose your slaughtering dolphins.”
“Animals before people.” Mourning shrugged one shoulder contemptuously. “Personally, I think it’s more important to prevent
people from dying of AIDS. But, frankly, all this flap is so unnecessary. We don’t intend to harvest Delphol from dolphins
except for experimentation; the amount needed for one treatment would require too many to be cost-effective, and besides,
dolphins are protected under the Marine Mammal Act of ‘seventy-two. What we do intend is to synthesize the substance, and
one of our scientists has already come up with the basic process. All we need now is the funds to proceed with testing. But
try to tell that to these fringe groups. They don’t
want
to listen.”
“But now you’ve withdrawn the stock offering.”
“Yes, at exactly the time when we should be moving ahead rapidly. Do you follow the stock market, Ms. McCone?”
“No.” I’ve seldom had enough surplus cash to care what the stock market is doing, but I doubt I’d follow it closely, anyway.
Paper profits don’t confuse so much as bore me.
“In nineteen ninety-one, biotech IPOs raised over a billion dollars. Analysts were worried by the boom; the companies showed
very little in current earnings, but dazzled investors with promises of huge future profits. Dazzle lasts only so long before
disillusionment sets in, and many of the stock issues were by marginal firms to begin with. Last year the speculative bubble
burst. Recently there’s been a slight rally, but no one’s certain if it’ll hold or if the market will go into another blow-off
stage.”
“And now you’ve been forced to hold off because of the kidnapping.”
“No one is going to invest in a firm whose future leadership is in serious jeopardy.”
“Is that why you’ve been so adamant about not bringing in the police or the FBI? Because of the potential for adverse publicity?”
“Partly out of a fear of publicity and partly because I thought we had a security firm that knew what it was doing.” She shot
an icy glance at Renshaw.
Renshaw didn’t respond, but now his fingertips tapped on the arm of his chair.
I asked, “And you still don’t want to call in the authorities?”
“No. Timothy’s dead—I’m certain of it—and the authorities can’t change that. Besides, if they were called in, they’d take
over and hamper your investigation. Gage tells me you have inside information that may enable you to locate Mr. Ripinsky and
recover our missing L.C. The two million dollars that we can’t put our hands on will make our financial position unattractive
to potential investors—to say nothing of precarious for us.”
“The L.C. hasn’t been drawn on. Why can’t you put your hands on the money?”
“Because when an irrevocable L.C. is issued, the bank puts a lock on the funds, like an escrow account in a real-estate transaction.
When the terms of the L.C. are met by the recipient, the funds are released, but until then neither party can touch them.”
“What were the terms?”
“Merely upon presentation of the L.C.”
I said to Renshaw, “I’d like a copy of the L.C.”
“I’ll fax one to you in San Diego.”
I looked back at Diane Mourning, studying her more carefully. Was she actually as cold as she came across, or had she put
her emotions on hold? Was she focused on the financial issue to the exclusion of the larger, human issue, or had she used
it to divert her attention from the probability that her husband had suffered a horrible death?
Mourning was also studying me, her gaze skimming over my face as if she were speed-reading it. After a moment she leaned forward,
cupping her hands in front of her; her fingernails were bitten to the quick and made her look vulnerable, but I wondered if
the cause of the biting had been fear for her husband or for her company.
“I know what you’re thinking,”
“They oppose your slaughtering dolphins.”
“Animals before people.” Mourning shrugged one shoulder contemptuously. “Personally, I think it’s more important to prevent
people from dying of AIDS. But, frankly, all this flap is so unnecessary. We don’t intend to harvest Delphol from dolphins
except for experimentation; the amount needed for one treatment would require too many to be cost-effective, and besides,
dolphins are protected under the Marine Mammal Act of ‘seventy-two. What we do intend is to synthesize the substance, and
one of our scientists has already come up with the basic process. All we need now is the funds to proceed with testing. But
try to tell that to these fringe groups. They don’t
want
to listen.”
“But now you’ve withdrawn the stock offering.”
“Yes, at exactly the time when we should be moving ahead rapidly. Do you follow the stock market, Ms. McCone?”
“No.” I’ve seldom had enough surplus cash to care what the stock market is doing, but I doubt I’d follow it closely, anyway.
Paper profits don’t confuse so much as bore me.
“In nineteen ninety-one, biotech IPOs raised over a billion dollars. Analysts were worried by the boom; the companies showed
very little in current earnings, but dazzled investors with promises of huge future profits. Dazzle lasts only so long before
disillusionment sets in, and many of the stock issues were by marginal firms to begin with. Last year the speculative bubble
burst. Recently there’s been a slight rally, but no one’s certain if it’ll hold or if the market will go into another blow-off
stage.”
“And now you’ve been forced to hold off because of the kidnapping.”
“No one is going to invest in a firm whose future leadership is in serious jeopardy.”
“Is that why you’ve been so adamant about not bringing in the police or the FBI? Because of the potential for adverse publicity?”
“Partly out of a fear of publicity and partly because I thought we had a security firm that knew what it was doing.” She shot
an icy glance at Renshaw.
Renshaw didn’t respond, but now his fingertips tapped on the arm of his chair.
I asked, “And you still don’t want to call in the authorities?”
“No. Timothy’s dead—I’m certain of it—and the authorities can’t change that. Besides, if they were called in, they’d take
over and hamper your investigation. Gage tells me you have inside information that may enable you to locate Mr. Ripinsky and
recover our missing L.C. The two million dollars that we can’t put our hands on will make our financial position unattractive
to potential investors—to say nothing of precarious for us.”
“The L.C. hasn’t been drawn on. Why can’t you put your hands on the money?”
“Because when an irrevocable L.C. is issued, the bank puts a lock on the funds, like an escrow account in a real-estate transaction.
When the terms of the L.C. are met by the recipient, the funds are released, but until then neither party can touch them.”
“What were the terms?”
“Merely upon presentation of the L.C.”
I said to Renshaw, “I’d like a copy of the L.C.”
“I’ll fax one to you in San Diego.”
I looked back at Diane Mourning, studying her more carefully. Was she actually as cold as she came across, or had she put
her emotions on hold? Was she focused on the financial issue to the exclusion of the larger, human issue, or had she used
it to divert her attention from the probability that her husband had suffered a horrible death?
Mourning was also studying me, her gaze skimming over my face as if she were speed-reading it. After a moment she leaned forward,
cupping her hands in front of her; her fingernails were bitten to the quick and made her look vulnerable, but I wondered if
the cause of the biting had been fear for her husband or for her company.
“I know what you’re thinking,”
Similar Books
