This was the hidden backdrop to Robert Ashby’s recall to London and how he found himself sitting in the Plantation board room opposite men unknown to him and in the absence of his father.
The news of Plantation’s imminent insolvency came as a double blow. It was all the more surreal because his father hadn’t mentioned anything about Plantation having problems. The truth was that Jim Ashby didn’t want to worry his son about it and wanted to avoid alerting the Texans to the true position.
Even so, Rob Ashby knew that his father always kept a close eye on the company’s cash flow – its life-blood. It was strange now to hear of this sudden reversal of fortunes. For the moment, he decided to hear the others out before reaching any conclusions.
Grenville could see that Robert Ashby had no real knowledge about the merger. This gave him the opportunity to describe quite falsely the reasons why Plantation had got into difficulties. According to Grenville, the original board decided the company could only be saved by an infusion of capital. Stirling came to the rescue with lots of clients and new ideas and re-established the business. Things went swimmingly until Ashby senior’s death and the discovery of the mega-claims which Jim Ashby had handled personally.
The thinly-veiled accusation from the description of events was that two years earlier, Jim Ashby had almost sunk Plantation ; he’d brought in Stirling to bail out his mistakes ; Stirling had saved the company ; a cluster of enormous claims had been unearthed in Ashby senior’s office ; these were lethal to Plantation ; the situation now looked irretrievable ; Jim Ashby had tried to hide the claims which were now spinning out of control ; in all likelihood, they’d caused his death.
None of the directors gave any sign of dissent. While this compounded the distress felt by Robert Ashby and his amazement at what had apparently gone on while he was in America, he had no reason to disbelieve what he’d heard.
“The reason why George Waring asked you to come back to London was that you personally would be affected if the company went into administration,” said Grenville as he rummaged around in a file of papers. “You must excuse us for having approached your father’s solicitor to find out if he’d made a will. We needed to know this because at the time of his death, he was Plantation’s largest shareholder. And because we are facing a crisis – indeed, the company’s survival is on the line – we had to ask his solicitor to divulge a copy of the will to us as a matter of urgency. It is, after all, a public document which anyone can get.”
Again, the true events were different. Jim Ashby’s majority shareholding didn’t matter : if the company was liquidated, the shareholders would get nothing. Whatever assets and funds were left would pay off the creditors, mostly those with secured debts. But until Plantation was given the last rites, Grenville and Black had to know exactly what Ashby’s will had said. Having found that out, they then had to decide how to deal with his son as a new and unknown quantity. They would have to ensure that he didn’t cause trouble when the boom was lowered.