Chapter 33
“You sorry bastard,” an inebriated Lady Cecilia hissed.
Cassie said, calmly, “Good evening, Lady Cecilia.”
Cecilia turned on Cassie. “It is not a good evening. It’s Frank’s fault that my mother is home crying her eyes out. The judge rescinded Father’s bail and he got marched back to jail today. All because he wanted to pick up a parcel in Ogdensburg. Homeland Security notified Border Services who asked them to detain him because they assumed he was fleeing the country. They turned him over to the OPP who put him back in jail for breaking his bail conditions.” She paused to look daggers at Frank. “If it wasn’t for you, he wouldn’t be in trouble in the first place.”
Cassie pasted on a smile and said, “Frank only reported his suspicions to Henry. It wasn’t Frank who advised him to steal from his employer. That was your father’s own decision.”
Cecilia turned back to Cassie. “Well, of course you’d take Frank’s side. You’re set for life now, but then you’re probably a whore, just like the papers say your mother was. I thought Frank had better taste.”
Cassie stiffened and Frank intervened. “Cecilia, I think you’ve had a bit too much to drink. Can I call you a cab?”
“It’s all right for you, you don’t have to work for a living. My father worked damned hard for everything he got. It’s not his fault Henry Menzies is such a cheap bastard.”
Frank said, “If he was that unhappy he should have moved on to a company that paid better.”
“My father added a lot of value to the company. He should have been given a proper share of the profits.”
Cassie said, “So he decided it was okay to just take his share?” Then she got a sly look. “Did you lose your job at the Hamilton subsidiary? Or was it a consulting contract in Halifax? Or both?”
Cecilia looked startled then said, “Do you know how much it costs to move in these circles? Dad was only looking out for us.”
Frank sighed. “If I were you, Cecilia, I would shut up about now. If you say anything more, I’ll have to ask the RCMP to talk to you again.”
“Officious bastards. I earned every penny of that money, unlike some of those greedy sons of bitches or those stupid women collecting a salary then staying home and fussing over their manicures. Do you know how difficult it is to smile when some drunken old man has his hands all over you? Alawen wouldn’t have landed a couple of those fat contracts without my help.”
Cassie said, “Cecilia. Shut up and go home. It wouldn’t be fair to your kids if they had to visit you behind bars. And your husband might finally divorce you, and then you won’t be Lady Cecilia anymore.”
A small group had edged closer, trying to hear something they could gossip about. Cecilia finally sobered up enough to realize she was in the foyer of the National Arts Centre with a dozen or more people edging closer. She stuck a finger under Frank’s nose. “You think you’ve won, but if you think corporate Canada will have anything to do with a self-righteous asshole like you, you have another think coming.”
Frank opened his mouth to respond but Cassie put a hand on his arm and said, “Thank you for sharing that with us, Lady Cecilia. Frank, we have some other people we need to speak with. Good evening.” Then she quickly hauled Frank away.
Frank asked, “Are you sure you’re okay? Maybe we should go home. The funeral was only three days ago.”
“No. I needed to be around people tonight. Even if half of them are asking nosy questions and mouthing false sympathy.”
Frank nodded. “Whatever you need, love.”
“What I need to do is calm down. Let’s get some tea or something.”
When they got to a quiet corner, Cassie blew out a long sigh. “Whew. That was close.”
Frank asked, in a puzzled tone, “What was?”
“I almost told Cecilia that she was a hypocrite. At least Mum was honest about being a whore and didn’t make excuses about it, like Baroness Entitlement does.”
Frank shook his head. “Everyone assumes that you need piles of money to move in our circle. But you belong by showing leadership or being responsible for making decisions that affect other people.” He shrugged. “Old money families like ours automatically belong because our investments or companies employ so many people and everyone assumes that we have some kind of influence. But over half of the people here tonight are leaders in arts or education or politics. I’m sure that Father Jean has worn that same cassock for the last eight years. The Clerk of the Privy Council didn’t buy his way in, either. They earned it through hard work and leadership.”
“But we don’t have that kind of responsibility.”
“Maybe not yet but we will, eventually. Because of our family’s social position, we’re expected to show leadership.” Frank looked at Cassie and saw her discomfort. “Hey. It’s a role we both still need to grow into. They really don’t expect us to do much except show up and look pretty at these kinds of events until our kids are old enough to take care of themselves. Everyone knows I’m the youngest Ellis and, by now, everyone knows that you’re seventeen, so we have plenty of time yet. The ones who’ve been gauche enough to comment on your age to our face are all very impressed with you, even if some of the nastier ones are waiting for you to mess up.”
“But what is my role?”
Frank turned and took her hands in his. “For now, it’s your role to support me in our work, to be a gracious hostess, and to be visible in the community, showing that we support various causes. We both have to learn how things work at this level. We have the privilege of wealth so we have the responsibility to lead. Some of my older cousins on the Murcheson side don’t get invited to these sorts of events anymore because they don’t take it seriously. They’re pretty put out about it but they just don’t get that there’s no free ride no matter how rich you are. Not everyone gets that.”
“Like Cecilia?”
Frank gave a wry grin. “Exactly. Fortunately, you and I have plenty of time to figure out where we can make a difference. You’ll eventually find something that suits your talents and interests.” He caught the worried look on Cassie’s face and said, gently, “It doesn’t have to be next week or even next decade.”
Cassie sighed and nodded. “Okay. So for now I’ll work on being a gracious hostess and supporting you.” She gave him a big smile. “But I don’t want any arguments from you when I choose what I want to support.”
“Oh, I think we’ll have lots of arguments. But they’ll be the good kind about where to focus our energy and who we need invite to dinner so we can lobby them and what tactics we should employ.” He lifted her chin to look into her beautiful grey eyes. “You are my strength and my refuge from the world. You are the only person I don’t have to be on guard with – the only person with whom I can truly be myself. I don’t have to pay attention to what mask I need to wear when it’s just the two of us. You’ve been a marvellous support and comfort to me so far and when you are ready to take up new challenges, all you need to do is ask. I hope I can be as good at supporting you as you are for me.”
Cassie reached up to draw his head down for an affirming kiss. “Thank you, Frank.”
A few of the matrons watching them sent an indulgent smile their way.
———
The phone rang as Cassie was putting the leftovers away. Frank looked a question at Cassie but she shrugged and Frank moved over to the phone on the wall and pressed the hands free button. “Frank Ellis.”
Dorothy’s voice came from the other end. “Francis? Do you have some time to speak with us? You’re the closest thing in the family to a lawyer.”
“Aren’t you forgetting about Supriya, Mother?”
Grant’s voice came on the line and said, “Supriya’s an expert in contract law and negotiations, not taxation and dealing with forensic investigators, so she thought you’d be a better source of advice. None of my in-house legal staff has that kind of experience either.”
Frank began to get angry and Cassie came over to tak
e his arm. She said, “Frank has consistently said he wouldn’t provide advice if you want to play fast and loose with the rules.”
Grant sighed. “I know that, Cassie. And I promised Dorothy that I would pay better attention to Francis and his advice. I’m sorry that I’ve been such a pain in the ass since Father died. His will put enormous pressure on the cash flow of the holding company because we had to deplete our cash reserves and borrow extra to set up the trusts just before the banking crisis hit. But I finally managed to sell off a couple of under-performing assets for a decent price, and that allowed me to float another bond issue so things have finally stabilized.” He sighed. “But I need your help, for real. By the way, your tax deferral strategy was exactly right. I should have told you about the full extent of the cash flow problems. But I was afraid I was going to lose control of the company and I didn’t handle things very well.”
Frank looked at Cassie with surprise and started to say something but Grant filled the silence. “I’m sorry I’ve caused you so many problems, Francis. I hope you can forgive me.”
Cassie prodded Frank to respond and he said, “I do. But it must be pretty serious for you to call. What’s the problem?”
“The RCMP and OPP made a joint raid on Elliott’s offices today and he’s been charged with influence peddling, extortion and insider trading. The Toronto Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission both had investigators on site, too. I had a major deal in the works with him, but I was dragging my feet because it seemed too good to be true. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was running a Ponzi scheme. But I’m afraid of being tarred with the same brush as Elliott.”
“Was that the dinner you went to the same evening as the premiere?” Cassie asked.
Dorothy responded. “That was one of three meetings in the past two months. I got suspicious when Grant told me that Elliott asked him to bring fifty thousand in cash to their scheduled meeting last Thursday.”
“Fortunately for me, I didn’t have that kind of cash available personally and when I asked Dorothy to consider lending it to me, she refused. Elliott was very annoyed and cancelled.”
Cassie asked, “Did he leave any messages or record of his demands? Emails, maybe?”
Grant made a huffing sound. “I thought I was asking Francis for advice.”
Frank sighed. “I’ve been hosting a team of forensic auditors at my firm and I use Cassie as a sounding board all the time. She’s very good at focusing on the essentials, better than both of my juniors, actually.” He paused, “So, did Elliott leave any trail?”
They heard some humming noises. “A phone message that I haven’t erased yet and a couple of cryptic emails. The rest of the information I have is just what we talked about in private.”
“Were there any witnesses to those conversations?”
More humming noises. “Not for most of them. There were a couple of group meetings but the discussions were fairly innocuous at those meetings. If you weren’t on the inside you wouldn’t necessarily know what Elliot was really talking about.”
Cassie asked, “Frank? Would a time line help? Like the one Joanne asked you to prepare for her?”
Frank nodded. “Probably.” He spoke louder. “Dad, do you have the times and dates of all the meetings and calls written down?”
He heard a sniff from the other end. “You know I don’t go anywhere without my day timer and my Blackberry. And I had to fly to Toronto for each of those meetings, so the accounting folks will have those records available to confirm dates and so on.”
“Are you really going to take my advice this time?”
They heard an unintelligible murmur from Dorothy. Grant spoke clearly, “Yes, Francis, I will.”
“Okay. In this case it will be far better if you go to the police first, rather than wait for them to visit you. I want you to call Kiera Barnes first thing tomorrow morning and explain that you are probably a material witness in the reported case and that you want to cooperate fully with the investigation. She may or may not want to represent you but she will know someone good in either Halifax or Toronto who can. But before you call, you should make a chronology of all of your meetings with Elliott and as much detail about what you discussed at each meeting as you can remember, including the names of any other participants at the group meetings. Get copies of any phone messages, emails or text messages that pertain to the case and any notes you took and bring them with you when you go talk to her.”
Grant sighed. “Why Kiera? You know how well I get along with her family.”
“Because she’s an excellent barrister and she isn’t scared of you, so she won’t put up with any of your nonsense.”
They heard a snort. “I suppose. But I don’t know how useful I’ll be to the investigation if there aren’t any other witnesses.”
Frank said, “Dad, I’m fairly certain that you haven’t done anything on the far side of legal, yet. You push the envelope really hard, much harder than I’m comfortable with and I don’t agree with all of your tactics, but you were so derisive when Conrad Black got caught…”
“Yes, but Conrad got too big for his britches. Like Mervish and Campeau did.”
“And you were in danger of that, too.”
A subdued sounding Grant said, “You’re right. But I did listen to you and stayed on the right side of the line. It helps that our public fight scuttled the really borderline deals that Elliott was brokering for me at the time.”
“Include those deals in your time line, as well. The Crown Prosecutor could use those as proof of a pattern of behaviour by Elliott. Kiera should be able to spin it to make you look like a responsible citizen for backing out of them.”
“Hmm. I see what you mean. Dorothy’s been warning me about Elliott for a number of years. I guess he knew I’d be tempted because of the cash flow problems at Ellis.”
Dorothy spoke, “But that’s in the past, so you won’t have to skirt the law again, right?”
Grant’s voice softened, “Right, my love.”
Dorothy then spoke, “Thank you for the advice, Francis. I’ll make sure to call Kiera tomorrow. And I’ll prepare a similar time line Elliott’s leaned on me a few times to try to influence Grant. He threatened to have me removed the board of the Art Gallery of Ontario if I didn’t play ball with him. When I ignored him, he started the gossip campaign that got me dropped. He was stupid enough to tell me what he’d done the next time I refused to go along with him and threatened to get me dropped from the Neptune, too. I told him he didn’t want me as an enemy and he backed off.”
“That’s why you were so mad at him. You should have told me.” Grant sounded surprised.
“I’ll have my revenge on him, eventually.”
“He threatened you. And he carried it out?” Grant began to sound angry.
“He’s not worth getting angry with.”
“No.” Grant’s voice turned cold. “But he is worth getting even with.”
Dorothy said, in a satisfied tone, “As you wish, my love.” Then her voice brightened. “So, will we see you for Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday at the summer home? It’s Bonnie’s birthday.”
Frank indicated that Cassie should answer. “That sounds like it should be fun. We’ll be heading home Sunday evening, though. We’ve invited a few friends over on Monday. The women are going to have a gossip fest while the men watch other men chase a football around a field.”
Dorothy said, “Excellent. We’ll see you Saturday, then.” Then she asked, quietly, “Are you really up for it?”
Cassie glanced at Frank and shrugged. “I am. I’m mostly cried out, to be honest. Losing Mum was easier than losing Granny in a lot of ways.”
Dorothy said, “We can talk on Saturday, if you need to. Thank you for the advice, Francis.”
Grant echoed, “Thank you for your help, Francis.”
“You’re welcome, Dad. I love you both.”
Frank ended the call and Cassie said, “That was a surprise.”
“I had wondered if Dad was implicated when I heard the radio reports about Elliott’s arrest on the drive home this afternoon.”
“It sounds like he may have dodged a bullet.”
“Probably.” He leaned back against the counter. “I wondered about the cash flow situation at Ellis. I guess Grandfather’s will wasn’t written correctly and Ellis got badly squeezed when the mortgage bubble burst in the US.”
Cassie came over to stand next to him. “It sounds like things are starting to settle out. But I hope he doesn’t revert to his old bad habits.”
“He sounded more relaxed than I’ve heard in years. He didn’t sound at all scared about Elliott’s arrest. He sounded angry.”
“And he didn’t sound like he’d been drinking, either.”
“Maybe he’ll take this seriously for a change.”
“I think Mother finally read him the riot act.”
“So, what does your homework look like tonight?”
“I’m all caught up. I’ll have to bring some reading with me on the plane but there’s nothing due until next week. Why?”
“Because I need your advice about what to get Bonnie for her birthday. We always celebrate it as part of Thanksgiving but this Saturday is actually her real birthday for a change. And she’s turning forty.”
“That could be fun.” Cassie got a mischievous glint in her eye. “Is she dreading this birthday?”
Frank rolled his eyes. “She’s been fussing about it since before Christmas. Gray is highly amused.”
“I need to get to the cake supply store on Wellington.”
Frank looked with trepidation at the sly expression on Cassie’s face. “What are you plotting?”
“What’s her favourite cake?”
Frank narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Chocolate pound cake. She raved about yours this summer. Why?”
“How about a cake with a top like a freshly dug grave and a tombstone that reads, ‘RIP Thirties’? We could add forty black candles.” Cassie snickered.
Frank laughed at the image. “She’ll kill you.”
“She’d have to catch me first. I’m faster than she is and I’ll have a head start ‘cause she’ll have to get up out of her chair.”
Frank raised an eyebrow. “You’ll have to convince Geraldine to let you use the kitchen.”
Cassie grinned. “Leave Geraldine to me.”