Secret Prey

Bottom line was, Drake thinks he could kill somebody if he decided it was necessary. He said McDonald was a big guy, played a little high school football, and he and a couple of other guys stalked another kid for a couple of years, a little wimpy guy, beat him up a half-dozen times just because they knew they could make him cry in front of the girls . . .’’
    ‘‘Yeah, yeah,’’ Lucas said impatiently. ‘‘We can pick that up later.’’
    And as Black left, Sherrill, who’d been drifting away, said from down the hall, ‘‘You were gonna talk to O’Dell today . . .’’
    ‘‘No time now,’’ Lucas said. He remembered the phone call about Bone sleeping with Kresge, but pushed the memory away. ‘‘Let’s get out on the street.’’

ELEVEN

    THE POLARIS BANK TOWER WAS A RABBIT WARREN OF meeting, training, and conference rooms, but only one of them was The Room.
    The Room was on the fortieth floor, guarded by two thick oak doors.
    No Formica here, no commercial carpeting or stainless steel. The conference table was twenty feet long and made of page-cut walnut; the chairs were walnut and bronze and plush crimson cushions; the lighting was subtle and recessed. The floor was oak parquet, accented with Quashqa’i rugs.
    An alcove at one side of the room contained a refrigerator stocked with soft drinks and sparkling water. A small bar was tucked discreetly away under a countertop, and a coffeemaker kept fresh three flavors of hot coffee, as well as hot water for anyone who wanted to brew tea. A Limoges-style sugar bowl and creamer waited next to an array of delicate cups and small serving plates. On the countertop itself was a tray of sandwiches cut into equilateral triangles, cookies, and a freshly opened box of Godiva chocolates.
    Constance Rondeau probed the box of chocolates, her sharp nose moving up and down like a bird going after a worm. O’Dell watched her work over the box, and realized that she recognized individual types among the Godiva variety, and was picking out the good ones.
    O’Dell pulled herself back: she was drifting. Oakes was talking.
    ‘‘. . . do agree that somebody had to take the reins. We’ve got too much going on, and it’s too dangerous out there right now. And somebody’s got to work with Midland . . .’’ If Rondeau looked like a bird, Shelley Oakes looked like a porkpie—all puffy and round-faced.
    ‘‘But my point is,’’ said Loren Bunde, ‘‘we can’t take forever finding someone. We don’t have the time, with this merger going on. We probably ought to go over to Midland and get one of their mechanics, and just pull the thing together.’’
    ‘‘Where would his loyalty be?’’ asked Bone. ‘‘It’d have to be with Midland, because that’ll be the successor bank. He’d find a way to screw us: hell, that’d be his job. I definitely think we should go with the merger: but on our terms. They need us. We don’t really need them. We’ve got the fifty-dollar price in play, but if everything shakes out right, we’ll get seventy-five.’’
    ‘‘Nobody ever mentioned seventy-five,’’ said Rondeau, looking up from the Godiva chocolates with a light in her eye.
    ‘‘I think that would be a minimum. I don’t know what was going on between Midland and Dan Kresge, but something was going on,’’ Bone said. ‘‘Fifty dollars is ridiculous. One-for-one is ridiculous. We should get cash as well: I don’t think a hundred is out of the question.’’
    ‘‘I think it is,’’ O’Dell said bluntly. ‘‘I think seventy-five is on the outer edge of any sane possibility.’’
    ‘‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’’ Bone said.
    O’Dell ignored him, and looked around at the other board members: ‘‘Listen: We must reconsider the possibility of continuing as an independent,’’ she said. ‘‘An immediate merger on the proposed terms would turn some quick profits for all of us, myself included. But the merger talk alone has pushed the stock price, and we’ll keep most of that whether or not we merge. So that much is locked in. And the fact is, if the new management were to take what I think is a proper view of the board and its duties, and the top management and its duties, then additional compensation would be provided anyway. There are also benefits available to board members and top management that we will lose in a merger, no matter how much money we got right away.’’
    After a moment of silence, somebody