“How’s, ah… How’s her mind holding up?” Robert tapped his temple.
Gregory bristled, though he didn’t know why. He kept his voice even as he answered. “Doing well. Despite the diagnosis, she’s doing very well.”
“Good. I’d love to pop up and see her, but I know your mother’s here, and that’s not a bear I want to poke.” Robert dropped into one of the chairs near the desk.
Gregory sat as well. “Please don’t. I’ll tell Gran you asked after her, and we’ll avoid my mother going nuclear.”
“For the best, I think.” Robert leaned back. “I admit, I didn’t think I’d see you before this weekend. We’re still planning to have that little board gathering at the party, aren’t we?”
“We are, but there’s questions I have that I’d rather ask you in private.” Gregory reached up to turn one of the monitors, attached to a swivel mount, around so Robert could look at the information it displayed. “I finally got around to going over the financials for the company in-depth.”
“What the hell did you do that for? That’s what the finance department is for.” Robert gave a chuckle that sounded just shy of condescending. “That was hard for me to learn, too. You can’t get involved in everything like you can with a department, or a smaller company. People have to do their jobs.”
“They do, but I wanted to get a baseline understanding of how the company functions, our revenue streams, our outputs, the like. My grandfather was a hands-on leader, and that’s an example I’d like to follow.”
Robert inclined his head. “I give you that. So, what am I looking at?”
If you read the screen, you would know.Gregory fought to keep his irritation out of his voice. “These are the ‘discretionary’ payments my grandfather seemed to handle himself. I found them in his private ledgers, but they come out of company funds monthly.”
He watched Robert’s expression carefully. The condescension faltered for a heartbeat, flickered before it eased into a studied neutrality. “Ah. The discretionary fund. It gets used for a lot of oddball expenditures. Your grandfather didn’t share them all with me.”
“Then talk me through the ones hedidshare with you.” Gregory gestured to the screen. “Most of these are not clearly labeled. ‘Consultant.’ ‘Services rendered.’ That one gets used a lot.”
Robert took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It gets used a lot in business as a whole. Look. Greg. I don’t want to tarnish your opinion of your grandfather, and I don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but he was a businessman. Corporate culture is cutthroat and ugly sometimes. It’s possible your grandfather was using that account for, ah, social lubricant.”
“Bribes.”
“It happens.” Robert spread his hands. “It happens in every company across the globe. Your grandfather is – was – the kind of man who wouldn’t have asked anyone else to do it for him. And he wouldn’t have paid bribes without reason. Some businessmen do it to make their lives easier. He would have done it when there was no other choice.”
Gregory tapped the screen. “I want to know where these are going, and what they are going for. Every one of them is paid into anonymous accounts that are noted only by account number, not by who they belong to. I have no idea who we are paying, and these are not small sums.”
“They’re not huge sums either, Greg. Not in the grand scheme of things.” Robert folded his hands in his lap. “I know you want to do your grandfather proud.”
“Not just my grandfather. Everyone who works for this company.”
“That’s noble. It is. Noble, and laudable. But remember what I just told you. Your grandfather wouldn’t have paid bribes if he didn’t feel they were a worthwhile expenditure of company funds.”
“He wouldn’t have when he ran the company. I won’t while I run it. That means I have to ensure these are worthwhile.” Greg tapped the screen again. “I’m not paying these until I know where they go.”
Robert frowned. “I think that’s a bad idea. We don’t know what will happen if we stop.”
“We will when we know who they’re going to and why.”
“And we may never know that. Your grandfather kept that information on the down-low, and we may have to respect that.” Seeing Greg about to argue again, Robert held up his hands. “I’ll look into it. All right? I’ll see what I can dig up. Until I have answers, don’t rock any boats. Pay what your grandfather was paying, when he was paying it, where he was paying it. Right now, it’s buying us time to find more information.”
Gregory listened to what Robert said. More, he listened to what Robert didn’t say.This set him on edge. I’d bet he knows more than he’s willing to say until he finds the way to spin it. I’m not going to get what I need from him.
“You’re probably right,” was what he said out loud. “I’ll do that.”
Robert smiled. “Good. I’ll work as fast as I can. I know it’s distasteful, but you have to do what you have to do.”
“I understand.”Now he’ll change the topic. Probably to one I won’t want to discuss, so I’ll either get drawn into another argument or end this meeting altogether.
“Of course you do.” Robert leaned back again. “Speaking of that little board gathering. You haven’t met with the board yet, have you?”
Here we go.“I spoke to them just after Grandfather died.”
“When they were on their best behavior out of respect. And before you all had time to get to know each other.” Robert clucked his tongue. “It’s going to be different this time.”