He pulled his gaze off him in a dismissive manner and invited other suggestions but the room stayed quiet: no one else wanted to walk into one of his booby traps; mines were laid everywhere, beneath every word.

Farrer’s stare hardened. ‘It goes without saying what this potentially means for us. Mendoza is one of our biggest investors and with the shareholder meeting coming up in September and sterling weak against the euro right now, the timing could not be worse. Unfortunately, it is fully within Mendoza’s gift to part with whatever he likes, during his lifetime and if his money leaves the family—’ He stopped, giving everyone a sombre stare. ‘Then it may well leave this bank too.’

The tension in the room ratcheted up a notch.

‘Having said that, Carlos’s lack of time might swing to our advantage – merely delaying the transfer may be all that’s needed to make this problem go away.’

Charlotte felt a flicker of dislike twitch her eye. That he was actually suggesting Carlos Mendoza might oblige them all by conveniently dying whilst they placed just enough obstacles in his path to prevent him from fulfilling his dying wish . . . ? It was just another Monday morning at the bank but she shifted in her seat, glad her meetings here were infrequent. She always came away feeling grubby.

Farrer looked at the guy sitting to Charlotte’s right, the head of legal. ‘Paul, get your team on to the small print now, they need to find something, anything, we can use to stall: agreements, tie-ins . . . We need to find a way to spin this out: if he dies before the donation can be signed off, then the wills will stand.’

‘Sure,’ Paul said brusquely but looking charged by the directive.

Farrer looked back at Milton again. ‘Milton, I want a full work-up on the Mendoza trusts and assets. In the event we can’t block, what can we lock down and safeguard? We need to see what we can move, diversify, bury – now.’

‘On it,’ Dan nodded.

‘Ms Fairfax.’

She looked up to find Farrer’s gaze on her.

‘Thank you for coming in at such short notice.’

‘My pleasure,’ she murmured.

‘Mateo Mendoza is going to feed back to us on this woman’s identity by the end of the day – which means I need you in Madrid.’

Shit. ‘Okay.’ She kept her face impassive; this wasn’t going to go down well with her mother.

‘I need you to make contact with her, sound her out, bring her onside. It’s not yet clear what exactly she knows – no one knew what the old guy was up to. Although it seems unlikely, it may be she doesn’t know about the gift either, in which case make no mention of it while we spin things out this end and find out more. On the other hand, she probably knows exactly what she’s in line for and she’s sitting there with her hand out. Either way, we need you to be our eyes and ears on this.’