KERRI'S WAR (Volume 3 of The King Trilogy)

CHAPTER 28

        New York. Friday, November 16. Nine, A.M.

The smell of fresh paint pervasive, the noise of workers hammering, drilling, sawing and shouting distracting, but to Kerri, the smells and sounds of progress was exhilarating,. Modern furniture had replaced the bargain basement table and chairs in her office. The walls had received a white primer coat of paint and wires hung from gaps in her drop ceiling.

"This place has come a long way," Louise Markel-Townes said with a warm smile as she entered Kerri's office. "It's actually beginning to look like an office."

"Nice of you to say that," Kerri replied. "Finally, we're getting somewhere. I was getting tired of dreaming and visualizing."

Louise placed a huge stack of mail on Kerri's desk, then handed her a large thick white envelope. "Fedex just delivered this," she said, then turned and returned to her office.

Kerri inspected the envelope and saw that it was addressed to her and the sender was USBC Securities, Inc., Investment Bankers. PRIVATE and CONFIDENTIAL was printed under her name and Iacardi address. Curious, she opened it. Before she had removed the envelope's contents she had concluded that it was the formal written Enerco offer to purchase Iacardi, the one to which Peter Tavaris had referred on September twenty-fourth. She speed read the legalese and noted that while the three billion dollar offer was generous, it still did not contain the clause so crucial to her acceptance.

She remembered her statement to Tavaris and Walter Deaks. "I will accept the offer if all of the shareholders accept it, and it includes a provision to commit to the estates a fixed and acceptable amount of cash, or twenty-five percent of Iacardi's pre-tax profit for ten years, whichever is greater. I want that money designated for income continuance and for medical insurance premiums."

"Never!" she vowed. Disappointed and angered, she threw the offer in the general direction of the black plastic garbage can she was using for trash. She missed.

She picked up her telephone receiver and dialed the private number of Wilhelm Lentz, anxious to know why he had failed to contact her.

"May I ask who is calling, please?" a female asked.

"My name is Kerri King. I'm calling from New York."

"One moment, please, Miss King."

Kerri waited for thirty seconds, then a man spoke. "Miss King, my name is Julien Geisinger. I am the president of Liechtensteinische Comco. May I ask the reason for your call?"

"You may. I had a meeting with Wilhelm Lentz in his office on Friday, October twentieth. I instigated that meeting to arrange for certain changes to be made to my account with your bank."

"Would you be kind enough to disclose the details of your conversation with Wilhelm?"

"Why are you asking me? Why don't you just ask him?"

"I regret to inform you that he has disappeared. No one has seen or heard from him since he left his office on the day of your meeting. Even his car has disappeared. We have informed the police, but so far they have come up with nothing."

Geisinger's news ignited a deep sense of foreboding in Kerri. She had no tangible evidence to connect Lentz's disappearance to her meeting with him, but something deep in her heart told there was a connection. The coincidence was frightening. She was brutally reminded that Dan Turner had told her that she was dealing with a very dangerous amount of money.