Russell Andrews - Hades

"Can I just point out one thing?" Justin asked.

"Of course."

"You're in my office. You're the one who's actually got to make the graceful exit."

Silverbush laughed. It was almost an affectionate laugh-almost, but not quite. Justin handed him his preliminary report when the DA's laughter stopped. "You might want to read this sooner rather than later."

"I'm not big on reading. I'm big on action."

"Well," Justin said, "as you made clear, you're the boss." He nodded toward the report now in Silverbush's hand. "All I can do is tell you what I know and make my recommendation."

"Would you like my recommendation?" Silverbush asked. "Don't fuck up. Or I'll have your balls for breakfast."

"If the whole governor thing doesn't work out, try football coach," Justin said. "You've got that inspirational touch."

Silverbush laughed once more, this time with genuine good feeling, and left the East End Harbor mayor and chief of police alone in the office.

"Charmer, isn't he?" Leona said.

"You might want to read my report," Justin said, handing her another copy, "before Mr. Charm does."

"Something you didn't mention just now, Jay?"

"Hey," Justin said, "I'm not big on mentioning. I'm big on action." And then he said, "But read it."

The Rockworth and Williams offices were on the fifty-sixth floor of the World Financial Building. The expansive windows in the even more expansive lobby looked out, on this remarkably clear day, over what seemed to be the entire world. Directly east was Ground Zero, its presence still jarring. Looking north you could see almost all of Manhattan-Tribeca, midtown, Central Park, all the way up to Harlem, and even the distant specks of traffic inching along the Triborough Bridge. The view west took in the Hudson River and well into New Jersey. Looking south at the smooth expanse of the Upper Bay, you stared down at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Justin had the feeling that if he had a better sense of geography and knew which way to look, and if his vision were substantially better, he'd have a decent shot at viewing the jutting shores of Cornwall all the way across the ocean.

He was kept waiting for twenty-seven minutes, three minutes less than he'd expected. He could have barged in, flashing his badge, but he decided to keep this friendly. If the secretary had exceeded his thirty-minute waiting limit, however, his friendly demeanor would have gone out the fifty-sixth-floor window. Luckily for all concerned, she came in the nick of time to lead him back to Daniel French, the Rockworth executive who'd been picked to talk to him.

"I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to be able to tell you," French told Justin. They were sitting in a conference room, which Justin figured was roughly the square footage of his house in East End Harbor. French offered water-cold or room temperature, which Justin declined; coffee, which Justin accepted, black. French had water. Cold.

"I'm gathering any information that might be helpful in the investigation," Justin explained. "I'm looking for help so I can find out who killed Evan Harmon."

"I still can't believe this happened," French said. "You never think… well… It's just so shocking."

"Shocking because Evan didn't have any enemies?"

"Everybody in our business has enemies. I'm sure Evan had his share. No, I meant shocking because people go broke all the time in our business, or people wind up in prison because they embezzle funds. People don't get murdered."

"Sometimes murder can even reach such rarefied air," Justin said.

"I'm not being some kind of prima donna asshole," French said. "I know it happens. It's just never happened to anyone I know. Or anyone quite so rarefied as Evan."

"How well did you know him?"

"Fairly well. We were approximately the same age; we moved in somewhat the same circles, at least professionally."

"Not socially?"

"No, not really. I mean, I'd see him around. At clubs or at a tennis match or something like that. But mostly we knew each other through business."

"I'd like a list of the people here who dealt with him regularly."

"Almost everybody on a certain level dealt with Evan. He was a player. I can get you the list, but it'll be fairly long and I don't know how helpful."

"You don't have anyone who's primarily assigned to Ascension?"

"As I said, we have a few-"

"How about Ellis St. John?"

Dan French was good. He barely missed a beat. "Ellis certainly spends a lot of his time on the Ascension account. He probably could be-"

"He was Evan's primary broker, wasn't he?"

"He is Ascension's primary broker, not Evan's. He's been one of our main connections to people there for the past three or four years."

"One of?"

"Yes. Although I suppose he would be considered the main-"

"If he was the main contact, why did so many other people here need to be in touch with Evan? Or with other people at Ascension?"

"Because we have a lot of different departments, and sometimes it's easier for people to simply talk directly to the person who can best address a specific need. If Ascension wants some research done on a particular type of investment, they deal with someone in that department. Ellis might coordinate it but not always."

"Is that Ellis's main job, coordinating?"

"No. It's just a by-product of his link to Ascension. And to other companies, by the way. Ascension's hardly his only account."

"What exactly is his link to Ascension? Can you define it?"

"I suppose. It's not as if it's a unique job-it's fairly standard for any company of our size. As I said, R and W is the primary broker for quite a few funds."

"So let's go with the basics and explain to me what that really means."

French smiled broadly. Justin didn't know if he was smiling because he liked teaching people what he did or whether he just liked talking about how much money his company made. "The prime brokerage business is a direct beneficiary of the growth of the hedge fund business. And the hedge fund business has become, by far, the most-how shall I put this-active segment of the asset management business."

"Active meaning lucrative?"

"When it works," French said. "When it doesn't work, it results in the biggest losses."

"So it's the most unstable."

"We don't really use that word around here. Let's just say it's the most volatile."

"Okay. Keep going."

"Twenty years ago, money that was managed by hedge funds was probably somewhere around thirty, thirty-five billion dollars. Now it's substantially over a trillion. There's no other segment of the financial world with anywhere near that kind of growth and profitability. But, as a result, there's more and more competition. That's normal and it's probably healthy, but it also means you have to be more aggressive and you have to be good. You have to be better than your competitors, which means you need every edge you can get. So a lot of hedge funds hook up with companies like ours who can provide prime brokers, which helps give them the edge they need. We provide securities to cover short sales, make margin loans, clear trades, provide reporting services and custody assets, provide research. And we even help hedge funds raise money. As a prime broker, we probably execute twenty-five to thirty percent of a hedge fund client's transactions. We also provide a daily NAV-"

"Sorry," Justin said. "I'm a little rusty with my financial acronyms."

"Net asset value."

"That it? No free tennis lessons and shiatsu massage?"

"If need be. We provide whatever is necessary. We can set up a rudimentary risk management system for our clients; we'll find office space as a hedge fund company expands; we'll find someone an operations officer and traders; and, if necessary, we can even provide the accounting system."