Read False Impression for Free Online Page B

been even a minute late,
he would have pointedly stared at his watch. Anna waited for an invitation to
enter, and was surprised when the door was immediately pulled open and she came
face to face with Karl Leapman. He was wearing an almost identical suit to the
one Fenston had on, even if it wasn’t of the same vintage.
    ‘Good morning,
Karl,’ she said brightly, but didn’t receive a response.
    The chairman
looked up from behind his desk and motioned Anna to take the seat opposite him.
He also didn’t offer any salutation, but then he rarely did. Leapman took his
place on the right of the chairman and slightly behind him, like a cardinal in
attendance on the Pope. Status clearly defined. Anna assumed that Tina would
appear at any moment with a cup of black coffee, but the secretary’s door
remained resolutely shut.
    Anna glanced up
at the Monet of Argenteuil that hung on the wall behind the chairman’s desk.
Although Monet had painted the peaceful riverbank scene on several occasions,
this was one of the finest examples. Anna had once asked Fenston where he’d
acquired the painting, but he’d been evasive, and she couldn’t find any
reference to the sale among past transactions.
    She looked
across at Leapman, whose lean and hungry look reminded her of Cassius. It
didn’t seem to matter what time of day it was, he always looked as if he needed
a shave. She turned her attention to Fenston, who was certainly no Brutus, and shifted uneasily in her chair, trying not to appear fazed by
the silence, which was suddenly broken, on Fenston’s nod.
    ‘Dr Petrescu,
some distressing information has been brought to the attention of the
chairman,’ Leapman began. ‘It would appear,’ he continued, ‘that you sent one of
the bank’s private and confidential documents to a client, before the chairman
had been given the chance to consider its implications.’
    For a moment
Anna was taken by surprise, but she quickly recovered and decided to respond in
kind. ‘If, Mr Leapman, you are referring to my report concerning the loan to
the Wentworth Estate, you are correct. I did send a copy to Lady Victoria
Wentworth.’
    ‘But the
chairman was not given enough time to read that report and make a considered
judgement before you forwarded it to the client,’ said Leapman, looking down at
some notes.
    ‘That is not the
case, Mr Leapman. Both you and the chairman were sent copies of my report on
September first, with a recommendation that Lady Victoria should be advised of
her position before the next quarterly payment was due.’
    ‘I never
received the report,’ said Fenston brusquely.
    ‘And indeed,’
said Anna, still looking at Leapman, ‘the chairman acknowledged such, when his
office returned the form I attached to that report.’
    ‘I never saw
it,’ repeated Fenston.
    Which he
initialled,’ said Anna, who opened her file, extracted the relevant form and
placed it on the desk in front of Fenston.
    He ignored it.
    ‘The least you
should have done was wait for my opinion,’ said
Fenston, ‘before allowing a copy of a report on such a sensitive subject to
leave this office.’
    Anna still
couldn’t work out why they were spoiling for a fight.
    They weren’t
even playing good cop, bad cop.
    ‘I waited for a
week, chairman,’ she replied, ‘during which time you made no comment on my
recommendations, despite the fact that I will be flying to London this evening
to keep an appointment with Lady Victoria tomorrow afternoon. However,’ Anna
continued before the chairman could respond, ‘I sent you a reminder two days
later.’ She opened her file again, and placed a second sheet of paper on the
chairman’s desk. Once again he ignored it.
    ‘But I hadn’t
read your report,’ Fenston said repeating himself, clearly unable to depart
from his script.
    Stay calm, girl,
stay calm, Anna could hear her father whispering in her ear.
    She took a deep
breath before continuing. ‘My report does no more, and certainly no