One thing was clear. They all wanted her to get out, to let them sell their stock, and bring in outsiders to take over Roffe and Sons. Elizabeth knew that the moment she did that, her chances of finding out who was behind this were finished. As long as she stayed here, on the inside, there was the possibility that she could learn who was sabotaging the company. She would stay only as long as she had to. She had not spent the last three years with Sam without learning something about the business. With the help of the experienced staff he had built up, she would continue to carry out her father’s policies. The insistence from all the board members that she get out now only made her more stubbornly determined to remain.
She decided it was time to end the meeting.
“I’ve made my decision,” Elizabeth said. “I don’t plan to run this company alone. I’m aware of how much I have to learn. I know I can count on all of you to help me. We’ll deal with the problems one by one.”
She sat at the head of the table, still pale from her accident, looking small and defenseless.
Ivo threw up his hands helplessly. “Can’t anyone talk logic into her?”
Rhys turned to Elizabeth and smiled. “I think everyone’s going to have to go along with whatever the lady wants to do.
“Thank you, Rhys.” Elizabeth looked at the others. “There’s one thing more. Since I’m taking my father’s place, I think it would be best to make it official.”
Charles stared at her. “You mean—you want to become president?”
“In effect,” Alec reminded him dryly, “Elizabeth is already president. She’s merely showing us the courtesy of letting us handle the situation gracefully.”
Charles hesitated, then said, “All right. I move that Elizabeth Roffe be nominated president of Roffe and Sons.”
“I second the motion.” Walther.
The motion was carried.
It was such a bad time for presidents, he thought sadly. So many were being assassinated.
CHAPTER 21
No one was more aware than Elizabeth of the enormous responsibility she had assumed. As long as she was running the company, the jobs of thousands of people depended upon her. She needed help, but she had no idea whom she could trust Alec and Rhys and Ivo were the ones she most wanted to confide in, but she was not ready yet. It was too soon. She sent for Kate Erling.
“Yes, Miss Roffe?”
Elizabeth hesitated, wondering how to begin. Kate Erling had worked for Elizabeth’s father for many years. She would have a sense of the undercurrents that flowed beneath the deceptively calm surface. She would know about the inner workings of the company, about Sam Roffe’s feelings, his plans. Kate Erling would make a strong ally.
Elizabeth said, “My father was having some kind of confidential report drawn up for him, Kate. Do you know anything about it?”
Kate Erling frowned in concentration, then shook her head. “He never discussed it with me, Miss Roffe.”
Elizabeth tried another approach. “If my father had wanted a confidential investigation, to whom would he have gone?”
This time the answer was unhesitating. “Our security division.”
The last place Sam would have gone. “Thank you,” Elizabeth said.
There was no one she could talk to.
There was a current financial report on her desk. Elizabeth read it with growing dismay, and then sent for the company comptroller. His name was Wilton Kraus. He was younger than Elizabeth had expected. Bright, eager, an air of faint superiority. The Wharton School, she decided, or perhaps Harvard.
Elizabeth began without preamble. “How can a company like Roffe and Sons be in financial difficulty?”
Kraus looked at her and shrugged. He was obviously not used to reporting to a woman. He said condescendingly, “Well, putting it in words of one syllable—”
“Let’s begin with the fact,” Elizabeth said curtly, “that up until two years ago Roffe and Sons had always done its own capital financing.”
She watched his expression change, trying to adjust “Well—yes, ma’am.”
“Then why are we so heavily indebted to banks now?”
He swallowed and said, “A few years ago, we went through a period of unusually heavy expansion. Your father and the other members of the board felt that it would be wise to raise that money by borrowing from banks on short-term loans. We have current net commitments to various banks for six hundred and fifty million dollars. Some of those loans are now due.”