Teddy changed into his Billy Barnett attire and dropped in on the Centurion Studios accountant. Kenny was, as usual, sitting at his desk with his nose buried deep in a ledger. Teddy waited for him to emerge. He didn’t.
“Hi, Kenny. How’s it going?”
He looked up then, startled. “Billy. I thought you were on vacation.” In order for Teddy to act in Peter’s new film as stuntman Mark Weldon, Billy Barnett had officially taken a long vacation.
“I am. Just thought I’d check in.”
“Oh?”
“I hear someone’s buying up Centurion stock. I can’t help wondering if it affects me.”
Kenny was surprised. “I wouldn’t think so. Aside from Stone and Ben and Peter, it hardly matters who the stockholders are.”
“But it is being bought.”
“In small amounts.”
“Who’s doing the buying?”
“Holding companies, largely. You don’t see individuals much anymore.”
“How largely?”
“You want me to add it up?”
“Please.”
“Well, let’s see. USB Corporation has nine percent, Venn Holding has eleven percent, Everest Holding has seven percent.”
“Who are they buying it for?”
“I can’t tell.”
“Okay, who are they buying it from?”
Kenny looked. “The last transfer on the books was yesterday. Ten thousand shares. That’s approximately one half of one percent.”
“Who sold them?”
“Ruth Goldstone.”
“Who is that?”
Kenny frowned. “Well, that is slightly odd. Ruth Goldstone is a little old lady. She’s retired, lives alone with her cats. Her husband owned the stock. He died and left it to her. She likes to call me up to see how it’s doing, but I guess she won’t be doing that anymore.”
“Does she need the money?”
“That’s hardly my business,” Kenny said, though he knew, and was happy to tell. “But her inheritance was not skimpy. She could afford to buy more stock, not sell it. Though she’d never make an investment of that type without her husband’s guidance.”
“Or a sale?”
“I was surprised,” Kenny admitted.
“Then let me ask you this, and consider it comes from a paranoid producer who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Could someone be attempting a hostile takeover of Centurion Pictures?”
Kenny shook his head. “Couldn’t happen.”
“Because the family has a controlling interest?”
“That’s one reason,” Kenny said. “But even if they didn’t, it couldn’t happen because there are some stockholders who simply would not sell.”
“For instance?”
“Vanessa Morgan, for one. She has a sizable chunk.” Kenny grinned. “That is a professional accounting number. ‘Sizable chunk.’ She wouldn’t sell under any circumstances. She was a classic movie star, you probably saw her in something. She was versatile—femme fatale, ingénue, comic relief, she’d play them all. She retired when she got older though, wanted people to remember her when she was young and beautiful. Since then she’s been basically a recluse. The public only gets to see her when they give her some award or other. She shows up for awards.”
“She’s the only one who might hold out?”
“What? Oh, the stock. No, there’re others. She’s the biggest and the best example. Anyway, rest assured, Vanessa Morgan isn’t going to sell.”