“What do you mean he’s right?” Graham demanded. “Fix it. That’s what I pay you for.”

“The debt was in default,” Harrison explained, his voice dropping. “Under the terms of the secondary loan agreement you signed last spring, the bank had the right to sell the note to any third party if the margin call wasn’t met within forty-eight hours.”

“I was going to meet it,” Graham said.

“With what?” I asked.

Graham glared at me.

“We had the funds coming in,” he said.

“From where?” I asked. “The pension fund you already emptied?”

The room went cold.

Even Harrison looked uncomfortable.

Elliot cleared his throat and stood up.

He walked over to the side table and poured himself a glass of water.

His hand shook slightly, the glass clinking against the pitcher.

“This is a disaster,” Elliot said, looking out the window. “If the press gets hold of this, the firm won’t survive the week.”

“It doesn’t have to get to the press,” I said.

Graham looked at me, his eyes narrowing.

“What do you want, Arden?” he asked.