“Yes, I suppose that’s what you’d call it.”
“Sounds like loan-sharking or drugs. Nothing else could bring that kind of return on an investment.”
“It was working out to about ten percent a month,” Vance said.
“Sounds like a lot. Vance, but if Barone was loan-sharking, he’d be bringing in ten percent a week.”
“I was stupid, I know. After a few months, I put in another million dollars.”
“They were digging you in deep, then.”
“Yes, very deep. So when I told Oney I wouldn’t be his television spokesman and that I was resigning from the Safe Harbor board and moving all my accounts, Barone came to see me.”
“I can guess what’s coming next, I think.”
“Probably. I told him I was pulling out of his investment scheme, too. He told me that I couldn’t—that if I tried, I’d be in deep trouble with the IRS, that the publicity would destroy me. I got pretty angry. I—I believe the expression is cleaned Mr. Barone’s clock—and I threw him out of my office into the street. I was about to call my lawyer when I got a call from David Sturmack. He asked me to wait twenty-four hours while he tried to sort things out to everyone’s advantage. I agreed. That was around one o’clock. Late that afternoon, Arrington was kidnapped. I got the first phone call around six.”
“Let me guess,” Stone said. “In all this, Ippolito and Sturmack can’t be directly implicated; they could deny everything, and it would be your word against theirs.”
“I realized that when I got that phone call; that’s when I decided to take matters into my own hands.”
56
Stone listened to this with a sinking heart, having the strong feeling that a bad situation was about to get worse. “What did you do?” he asked Vance Calder.
“First, I talked with Lou Regenstein, and told him I planned to fight these people. He didn’t disagree with that, because he and his studio were under attack, and he was not inclined to just fold. He suggested we confide in Billy O’Hara, who is the head of security for Centurion.”
“I’ve heard of him,” Stone said.
“Billy was very sympathetic, and I was surprised, since he is a former police officer, that he didn’t insist that I go immediately to the police and FBI.”
“So am I,” Stone said.
“It was the first thing you said to me,” Vance said. “I expected the same from Billy, but he didn’t even mention doing that.”
“What did he suggest?”
“He suggested that I turn the whole thing over to him, that I let him deal with both the kidnappers and the business of the stock.”
“Is O’Hara a stockholder?”
“In a small way; he’s one of the valued employees who own small parcels.”
“Go on.”
“So the next time the kidnappers called, I told them that Billy would be dealing for me, and then negotiations began. Billy met with them, and brought me back a series of proposals. They included paying a ransom of a million dollars, which he knew I could well afford, selling my stock, keeping my money in Barone’s hands and giving him more, and…”
“Becoming a television spokesman for Safe Harbor and remaining on the board,” Stone said. “Now we’ve got them. That implicates Ippolito, though not necessarily Sturmack.”
“Yes, I suppose it does, under certain conditions.”
“What conditions?”
“That I become Ippolito’s chief accuser and testify against him in court. I should tell you right now that I will never do that. The only real leverage they had against me was Arrington’s safety, and now that she is safe, that is gone.”
“But, Vance…”
“No buts about it; I am not going to become publicly involved in this; there is simply too much at stake for me.”