Chapter 24: What the Pen Signed
Pryce's office was quiet after the committee room.
"Sit down, please," Pryce said.
Nora sat. Angela Torres set her folder on the desk, unopened.
"You have made your presentation," Pryce said. "Tell me what happens now without destroying this bank."
"The audit continues," Nora said. "Regulators are notified. The trust is repaid."
"That can be arranged quietly," Pryce said.
"It was arranged quietly for nine years," Nora said. "That is how it happened."
Nora opened her document case. She took out her grandfather's brass fountain pen and laid it on the desk.
Pryce frowned. "What is that?"
"It signed the charter of this bank in 1938," Nora said. "Arthur Wexford signed at a table in the lobby, not upstairs, because he said a bank is a promise you keep in public."
"My father carried it after him," Nora said. "He used it for trust papers, including the document he signed in 2011."
Two enlargements lay side by side.
"This is Michael Wexford's genuine signature," Angela said. "From a trust document dated 2011. Authenticated, witnessed, undisputed."
"And this is the signature on the lease renewal option dated 2019," Angela said.
Pryce leaned forward. "They look the same."
"They are the same," Angela said. "That is the problem."
"Explain it plainly," Pryce said.
"The renewal signature is a traced copy of the 2011 signature," Angela said. "It matches stroke for stroke, loop for loop, lift for lift. Natural signatures vary. These do not."
Angela set a third sheet beside them, smaller signatures in a row.
"These are genuine signatures from 2016, 2017, and 2018," she said. "Every one carries the tremor he developed after 2015. His physicians recorded it."
"A man signing in 2019 could not have signed exactly as he signed in 2011, before that tremor existed," Angela said. "A genuine 2019 signature would show it. This one shows only 2011, copied perfectly. Our examiner calls it a tracing. So do I."
"You are saying Pierce forged it," Pryce said.
"I am saying it was forged," Angela said. "And Betty Kaminski remembers who ordered the original file brought upstairs in 2011, the week Michael was in hospital."
"Jonathan," Nora said. "Call him in."
Pryce pressed the button. "Send Mr. Pierce in, please. Now."
Pierce entered smiling, then saw the pages, then the pen.
"Gordon," Pryce said. "Sit down."
"I prefer to stand," Pierce said. "If this is another presentation, my counsel should be present."
"You may call counsel afterward," Pryce said. "Look."
Pierce looked. His smile did not return.
"This is an allegation dressed as science," he said. "Signatures resemble each other. That is rather their purpose."
"Resemblance is not identity," Angela said. "Tracing is."
"You arranged fees for nine years," Nora said. "Eleven point three million dollars. You needed the building secure for the merger, so you manufactured a renewal my father never signed."
"You cannot prove I held the pen," Pierce said.
"No one needs you to have held it," Angela said. "The file went to your office. The codes were yours. The benefit was yours."
Pierce turned to Pryce. "Jonathan. Say something useful."
"I have a board chair who has heard a teller, an analyst, and your own associate," Pryce said. "The merger partner will hear this from us or from a regulator."
"You knew the fees were aggressive," Pierce said quietly.
"I knew nothing I can defend hearing repeated," Pryce said. "Do not look to me."
Nora watched Pierce understand, at last, that he was alone.
"I want your resignation," Pryce said. "Effective immediately."
"And if I decline?" Pierce asked.
"Then the board removes you tonight and refers everything," Pryce said.
Pierce straightened his cuffs, a small precise movement.
"Then I resign," he said. "Effective immediately. I admit nothing. I reserve all my rights, and I will be advised before answering further questions."
"Personal reasons will not be the wording," Nora said.
"The record will show why," Nora said. "Not retirement. Not health. It will show this resignation was demanded and given after the audit committee saw evidence of unauthorized trust fees and a forged lease renewal dated 2019."
"The bank will issue a careful statement," Pryce said.
"Careful is welcome," Nora said. "False is not. Write the reason, Jonathan. Margaret Voss will see it before anyone files it under courtesy."
Pryce took a pad and wrote in full view. Resignation demanded. Audit committee evidence. Forged renewal. Unauthorized fees.
"There," he said.
Pierce looked at the pen. "Your father would have negotiated," he said. "He understood institutions."
"He understood promises," Nora said. "That is why you needed his hand and could not ask for it."
Pierce left without another word. The door closed softly.
Nora picked up the brass pen and returned it to her case.
"It signed a charter," she said. "It never signed that renewal."