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Rusty died not long after Pettit got home.

When Pettit returned, he was able to watch the ascension of the man who had played a

large part in forcing him out: Joe Gregory.

Fuld moved Gregory out of fixed income by the end of the year and asked him to head up

equities following a presentation by Paul Williams to the new frontline committee that

was considered "disastrous." Williams was fired. Gregory would be taking over for him

at the start of 1997.

In less than a year, Gregory had changed from Pettit's acolyte to his Brutus. One person

involved with the ousting says, "It's like the old lion and the young lions. Joe Gregory

sees a weakness in Chris Pettit, something that he can grab hold of. He goes to Dick, and

they push Chris out. He's killed a guy who was his boss, his mentor, his buddy. That

speaks to Joe Gregory's character. It doesn't speak to Chris Pettit's at all."

Gregory was now a formidable force in the firm. Everyone knew that they were part of

that "one firm" only as long as they followed the directives of Joe Gregory. His new

nickname was "Joe the Wedge." Cross him, even on the smallest thing, and you were

dead.

Bob Genirs, the chief administrative officer (CAO), on the verge of retiring, recalls

walking into Fuld's office and seeing his CEO sitting there with John Cecil on one side

and Tom Russo, Lehman's legal counsel, on the other. They were looking over Pettit's

severance deal one last time. Russo and Cecil had both been hired by Pettit, and Genirs

says he was suddenly infuriated.

It was an unusually generous agreement and allowed Pettit access to stock that wasn't

fully vested. Genirs, who had drafted it, says he felt he'd done well by both Lehman and

Pettit. But Cecil and Russo, according to Genirs, were trying to convince Fuld to scale it

back.

"I had to say, right in front of Cecil and Russo--'Dick, these two guys want your position.

And I'm telling you that's what's generating all of these comments,' " Genirs recalls.

"I said, 'So Dick, you' re either going to believe what I' m saying, and go and sign this

piece of paper, or you' re going to believe these guys.' And he believed me, and he

signed."

(Cecil says he doesn't remember this scene, though he does recall disputes over Pettit's

severance package because of the fear that if Pettit gained access to stock that had not

fully vested, others would want it too.) Genirs recalls, that Fuld phoned him at home that

night. "Genirs, you've done a lot of things for me over the years. But how you got Pettit

out, and what you did here, is beyond whatever I could do to thank you. This is the

greatest thing you ever did for Lehman Brothers."

On November 26, 1996, Chris Pettit finally walked out of Lehman Brothers, the firm he

could rightfully claim to have built into a behemoth with his brains and his indomitable

spirit. He would not speak to Dick Fuld, Tom Tucker, Joe Gregory, or Steve Lessing--his

old friends--ever again.

Chapter 10

Eulogies

Do I think that my father was so dispirited by what had happened that he was deliberately

reckless? Not at all. He still had so much to live for. Martha wanted me to tell you: He

was one of three people who died on the lake that night.

--Lara Pettit

On the evening after Chris Pettit 's last day of work, Lara Pettit and her boyfriend, Bill

Gilchrist, went to Brooklyn Heights to take him out to dinner. He'd been living there with

Martha Dillman since 1994. Lara wanted to "take his mind off" of everything, as if that

were possible. But when they got there, Martha asked that they all spend the evening with

her children: John, 10, Sophie, 7, and Tom, 3.

The children were curious to know what the "special occasion" was. Chris Pettit looked

drawn and embarrassed as he told them he wasn't going to be working anymore.

After dinner, Martha took the kids upstairs to bed and Lara and her father sat downstairs,

not saying much of anything, and not needing to.

Over the next few weeks, Lara saw her father