Читаем A Dangerous Fortune (1994) полностью

On the following Monday morning Jonas Mulberry brought in the summary of the previous week's business that was handed to all the partners. Before the man had left the room Hugh noticed a discrepancy. "Just a minute, Mulberry," he said. "This can't be right." There was a huge fall in cash on deposit, well over a million pounds. "There hasn't been a big withdrawal, has there?"

"Not that I know of, Mr. Hugh," said Mulberry.

Hugh looked around the room. All the partners were there except Edward, who had not yet arrived. "Does anyone recall a big withdrawal last week?"

Nobody did.

Hugh stood up. "Let's check," he said to Mulberry.

They went up the stairs to the senior clerks' room. The item they were looking for was too big to have been a cash withdrawal. It had to be an interbank transaction. Hugh recalled from his days as a clerk that there was a journal of such transactions updated daily. He sat at a table and said to Mulberry: "Find me the interbank book, please."

Mulberry pulled a big ledger from a shelf and set it in front of him. Another clerk piped up: "Is there anything I can do to assist, Mr. Hugh? I keep that ledger." He had a worried look and Hugh realized he was afraid he might have made an error.

Hugh said: "You're Clemmow, aren't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"What big withdrawals were there last week--a million pounds or more?"

"Only one," the clerk said immediately. "The Santamaria Harbor Company withdrew one million, eight hundred thousand--the amount of the bond issue, less commission."

Hugh shot to his feet. "But they didn't have that much--they only raised four hundred thousand!"

Clemmow turned pale. "The issue was two million pounds' of bonds--"

"But it wasn't underwritten, it was a commission sale!"

"I checked their balance--it was a million eight."

"Damnation!" Hugh shouted. All the clerks in the room stared at him. "Show me the ledger!"

Another clerk on the other side of the room pulled down a huge book, brought it over to Hugh and opened it at a page marked: "Santamaria Harbor Board."

There were only three entries: a credit of two million pounds, a debit of two hundred thousand pounds commission to the bank, and a transfer to another bank of the balance.