Part 6 (1/2)
”I'm sorry, Angela,” Lawrence offered quietly. ”Perhaps I can a.s.sist you there.”
She glanced up. ”If you help me, I'll help you” had been Lawrence's words at the beginning of the meeting. ”How?”
”A man in my position can wield a certain amount of influence. And often these things come down to who's got the bigger gun.”
He didn't have to tell her that.
”Candidly,” Lawrence continued, ”there aren't many guns bigger than mine.”
”Mr. Lawrence . . . I mean, Jake,” Angela interrupted herself, turning to face him. ”That would mean a great deal to me,” she admitted, grasping the incredible opportunity that lay before her. ”I miss Hunter so badly sometimes.” She hated begging but, when it came to her son, pride ran a distant second.
”Let me talk to my people.” He patted her knee again and smiled.
This time she smiled back, and slipped her hand into his. She hated herself for what she was doing, but Hunter needed her. And she needed him. ”Thank you, Jake.”
”I can't promise anything. Just that I'll look into it.”
”I appreciate that so much.”
”There's another thing,” he said, sliding his hand up her leg a few inches.
”What's that?” She forced herself not to pull away.
”Why haven't you been promoted to director yet?”
”Excuse me?”
”You told me earlier that you were a vice president at Sumter Bank.”
”Yes?”
”Isn't director the next t.i.tle above vice president?”
”Director, yes. After that it's managing director, then senior managing director.”
”Well, I've taken a look at your personnel record at Sumter, and it's outstanding. You've generated a significant amount of business for the bank, and you've never been a discipline problem. Shouldn't a woman with that kind of record have been promoted to director by now? My aides tell me that several of your peers who haven't performed anywhere near as well as you have, including two women, are directors earning a good deal more income than you are.”
Angela shrugged, trying not to show emotion. That issue was a constant and bitter source of frustration.
”Did you know that human resources has put you up for that promotion twice?”
She glanced up.
”And,” Lawrence continued, ”your boss has stonewalled the process both times.”
Angela stared at Lawrence, trying not to show emotion.
”Why do you think that is?” Lawrence asked.
”I don't know,” she replied, her voice raspy. She'd always considered her boss, Ken Booker, a friend. He'd always blamed her not getting promoted on human resources. Now Lawrence was telling her it was the other way around.
”Could your background be a factor?” he asked directly.
”I suppose anything is possible.”
Lawrence hesitated, gently caressing her thigh. ”But that explanation doesn't seem entirely plausible. I mean, if you're performing well, wouldn't they be afraid to lose you to another bank?”
”They don't seem to be.”
”Could your not getting the promotion have anything to do with the fact that senior executives at Sumter Bank perceive you as a troublemaker? Even though there's nothing on your record to indicate that.”
Angela's eyes flashed to Lawrence's. ”What are you talking about?”
”Any possibility that they suspect you are a certain newspaper reporter's source of some very negative information regarding the bank's poor record of service to minorities in its market areas? In the last few months theRichmond Tribune has turned up the heat on Sumter Bank about that poor record.” Lawrence hesitated. ”There was one particularly damaging article written by a reporter named Olivia Jefferson that came out last week. That article led people to believe she might have a source inside Sumter.”
Angela said nothing.
”Do you know Ms. Jefferson?”
”I think I may know of her.”
”I'm not asking if you knowof her,” Lawrence said, his voice rising, ”I'm asking if youknow her.”
”I, um, yes. I've met her at a couple of business functions. She covers local business for theTribune , and Richmond is a pretty small city.”
Lawrence's eyes narrowed as he moved his hand higher on Angela's thigh. ”Those Wall Street investment bankers I mentioned do have one theory about the decline of Sumter's stock price.”
”Oh?”
”Yes. As you probably know, the entire banking industry has been going through a ma.s.sive consolidation over the past ten years. Small ones and big ones are gobbling each other up every day, making shareholders very wealthy in the process.”
”I do know that.”
”But what you may not know is that the Federal Reserve and other regulators closely monitor a bank's performance with respect to serving low-income and minority communities. That they review those records before approving any merger or acquisition, and that these regulators can hold up profitable mergers if they aren't satisfied with a bank's record regarding the issue. My investment bankers believe that might be the case with Sumter. They believe that all of this bad press about Sumter in theRichmond Trib may have made it less attractive as an acquisition target to the big boys in New York, North Carolina, and on the West Coast because those ent.i.ties fear that any bid they make would be held up by the regulators. My people think that the decline in Sumter's stock price is directly related to that nasty information, which, by the way, other newspapers seem to be picking up on. My sources tell me theWall Street Journal is considering the possibility of conducting its own investigation into what's going on at Sumter.”
Angela swallowed hard. In fact, she was intimately aware of how the government monitored the country's largest banks in terms of how well they were serving low-income people. Perhaps she and Lawrence were getting to the real reason he had flown her all the way out here. He'd spent almost $500 million on Sumter stock. Now it was worth forty million less. If theWall Street Journal decided to investigate Sumter and found anything negative, his investment might be worthfar less.
”Are you getting my drift, Angela?” he asked, reaching up and stroking her hair.
She closed her eyes tightly, managing not to flinch. ”I-”
”One more question.”
”Yes?”
”Who's Sally Chambers?”