Free Due Diligence by Grant Sutherland Page B

look. It will look as if Daniel, Carltons’ Treasurer, was involved in a fraud. Overnight, Carltons could become a leper in the City.
    ‘You can’t want that.’
    ‘Of course we don’t want it.’
    ‘Then stop it,’ I say.
    There it is, what he must have been expecting to hear. Stop it. Don’t investigate. Help me defend my bank. In my grandfather's day this conversation would have gone no further; a handshake, my grandfather’s assurance, and there it would have ended. But my grandfather’s day is gone.
    Penfield rises, the worry-lines ploughed deep. ‘Not that easy, I’m afraid. You saw that bloody Commons Committee the other day. Half a dozen of the elect, and not a brain cell to share between them. There are noses being poked in here I didn’t even know existed.’
    ‘I could speak with my father.’
    ‘I wouldn’t encourage him to get too involved.’
    ‘He’s Carltons’ chairman.’
    ‘Keep him informed,’ Penfield demurs, ‘by all means. But for the time being an active involvement on his part might be’ — he searches for the word - ‘counterproductive?’
    I turn that one over. ‘Are we talking about Lyle’s testimony before that Committee?’
    ‘It’s been mentioned. Not an opportune moment for your father to be making waves on Carltons’ behalf, I shouldn’t think.’
    ‘You know what an investigation might do to Carlton Brothers?’
    ‘We won’t do anything foolish.’
    ‘A formal investigation over nothing? An unsigned note?’
    ‘I’ll make sure they move quickly. It won’t be a long-drawn-out business.’
    He looks a very worried man. And then I suddenly realize why, the real cause of his concern. Roger Penfield, as the whole City knows, wants the Governorship of the Bank when the current incumbent retires; and this note is an unwanted obstacle in his path. Either the note is true, in which case his Unit will uncover a fraud that’s been perpetrated during his stewardship of the banking system: a serious black mark against his name. Or the note is false, and his Unit’s public intervention will serve only to give Carltons’ enemies a stick with which to beat us. Given our current problems - Daniel’s murder, which he knows about, and our Corporate Finance staff problems which he’s no doubt heard about on the City grapevine — the last thing Penfield wants is to weaken us further. A banking crisis would finish him. He wants a public investigation as little as we do.
    ‘What choice is there?’ he says.
    ‘Roger, it doesn’t matter how long it goes on. The rumours’ll be in Tokyo before your lot have been in our office ten minutes. What good does that do?’
    ‘I can’t ignore this, Raef.’
    ‘Ignoring it’s not the issue. I’m talking about the best way to handle it.’
    He goes back to his chair and picks up the note and stares at it. Then he swears.
    ‘Give me a fortnight,’I say. ‘Whatever I find, you’1l get.’
    He seems to weigh this up. The Investigation Unit — immediate exposure to the public gaze, and possibly disastrous consequences for both Carltons and him — or my proposal: a private inquiry over a limited time-frame, and the chance of a discreet resolution.
    Finally he puts the note aside. ‘It’s specialist work. And a fortnight’s beyond the bounds of my discretion.’
    ‘What’s within the bounds of your discretion?’
    ‘It’s still specialist work.’
    ‘So I’ll get a specialist.’
    He looks at me curiously, and asks if I have someone in mind.
    ‘Hugh Morgan. Acceptable?’
    Penfield takes this on board. He knows the name. ‘Could you get him?’
    ‘He owes me a favour.’
    A partner in a small but expensive accountancy firm specializing in City fraud, and an old university acquaintance, Hugh Morgan is, depressingly, a very busy man. In his time he’s done work for every regulatory body in the City, including the Bank of England. I can tell by Penfield’s silence that my proposal appeals. Hugh, discreet and