Chapter 33
"Look, we made a lot of people a lot of money over the years,” Elias said.
“But we’ve got losses just like anybody else.
We try to cater our products to clients who have a wide range of risk tolerance.
Some investment strategies have had outsized gains, while others have lost considerable amounts.
I've seen plenty of boom and bust cycles.
You don't stay in this business that long without pissing off a few people. We have from time to time gotten death threats.”
"Any recent activity come to mind?" I asked.
Elias thought about it for a moment. "We did have a rather disgruntled fellow come up to the office a few weeks ago. I'm trying to think of the guy’s name." His face tightened as he struggled to remember.
"What was the issue?”
"Someone at the firemen's pension fund messed up.
They overallocated resources to a high-risk fund that underperformed.
They should never have been weighted that heavily in that particular investment.
As a result, I think they had to make a cut to certain benefits until the portfolio bounces back.
Cost-of-living adjustments were frozen. Healthcare benefits decreased.
That left a lot of people in the lurch. Which I totally understand.
" He paused for a second. "Frank Bledsoe.
That's his name. He came up here complaining, making threats.
I listened to him and let him vent. I told him there was nothing we could do.
That he would need to take it up with the trustees and the board of directors of the pension fund.
We can only counsel people on where to invest their money. I can't make people take my advice.”
"What happened with Frank?"
"Security escorted him out of the building, and that was the last I heard of him. Honestly, I doubt that guy has the technical ability to hack into a secure system at the cryo lab and cause a malfunction. And if Frank was responsible, why didn't he retaliate against me as well?”
"What makes you think the cryo lab was hacked?"
Elias shrugged. "How else could it have happened? Unless someone stormed the facility and sabotaged the units directly. But again, that seems like a stretch for a guy like Frank Bledsoe.”
"How would you do it?
Elias laughed. "I wouldn't. But if I were so inclined, I'd find the best hacker money could buy over the dark web, have him infiltrate the system through a number of proxy servers, masking his true IP. Then I’d leave breadcrumbs, sending you off in the wrong direction.”
"Did you do something like that?"
Elias laughed again. "That was not an admission of guilt.
You asked, and I told you. Stop playing games with me, Deputy.
I didn't kill my partner. I didn't pay anybody to kill my partner.
Despite our recent differences of opinion, I cared about Lance very much.
He was my friend. I want the best for his family.
He made sure that they would be taken care of, and I'll see to it that they will. What they do with their inheritance is up to them. In all these years, Lance wasn’t able to straighten Alex out, and I don't think I will be able to either.
That's not my burden to carry.” He paused.
"And as I think about this, I grow more and more certain Alex had some involvement. He always was a bright kid and a whiz with the computer.”
"I'd like to talk to some of your employees," I said.
"Knock yourself out. We run a pretty lean operation. We have three senior portfolio managers, five junior analysts and quant researchers. Really smart guys. They build models, backtest, analyze balance sheets, and hunt for alpha. And they find plenty of it. We’ve got a risk manager and a compliance officer, plus our CFO and operations manager.
We outsource legal and IT.” Elias paused.
"These guys are extremely busy, so I would appreciate it if you don't take up too much of their time.
I'm not really sure how they're going to be able to help your investigation. But I've got nothing to hide.”
I dug into my pocket and pulled out a card. I placed it on the glass desk and told him to get in touch if he thought of anything that might be helpful.
JD and I meandered through the office, talking to the employees, trying to get a sense of the culture and atmosphere. Elias and Lance built a strong organization, and the employees were generally happy to be part of the team. They were all making a ton of money.
The writing was on the wall. Everyone knew that Elias would ultimately be their boss. Not one of them would step out and say something against him. They all expressed sadness over the loss of Lance and his wife, but remained optimistic about the future.
Edward said, "Elias has a bold vision for the future of the company, and I think we will be in good hands. But I need to go on record and say that Vanessa has been doing an outstanding job in the limited amount of time she's been here.” The way he talked about her, I suspected he might have had a small crush. Maybe not so small. He was a handsome, yet slightly nerdy guy in his late 20s with curly dark hair, brown eyes, and a trim figure. He stood about 5’11” and wore a light gray suit and navy tie.
I asked Edward about the confrontation with Frank Bledsoe.
His eyes flared, and he made a face. "That guy was pissed. For a moment, I thought he was gonna pull out a gun and start shooting. You never know these days. I felt bad for the guy. I think he just lost his wife or something. I don’t know.
I'm not sure what the board was thinking, putting so much of their fund in a high-risk investment strategy, but people get greedy. They do stupid things.”
"You manage a lot of portfolios for pension funds around here?"
Edward nodded. “Pension funds, university endowments, other institutions, nonprofits, sovereign wealth funds, high net worth investors, you name it.”
"Was there a lot of tension between Elias and Lance?"
Edward hesitated, then glanced around to make sure no one was listening. He had his own office, but that didn't mean his office wasn't bugged. In a place like this, upper management might want to know everything everyone is doing.
"I think there were disagreements about strategy at times. But nothing major. We all have differing opinions, and we’re all passionate about our views. At the end of the day, we come together as a team to make the best investment decisions for our clients."
"What was the tone around here when Lance decided to go into stasis and handed the business over to Vanessa?”
Edward hesitated again. "Anytime there's a change, it brings uncertainty."
It was a canned response. I didn't expect anything else.
"Can you elaborate?"
He shrugged and held his breath for a second. "I think that's all I should say."
I had given each of the employees a card. I gave one to Edward and told him to get in touch if anything else came to mind. I figured the employees might be more open to talking outside of the workplace.
We said goodbye to the cute receptionist as we left, then took the elevator down to the lobby. As soon as the doors closed, Jack said, "What do you think about Elias?"
"I think he’s getting exactly what he wanted.”