OK Ch. 01-05

But after all that effort, why come to their table and ask for help from the Maurice of all people? Maurice understandably and predictably had given the job to John.

Why couldn't Liam do it? John couldn't recall what Liam said to Maurice, something about her not trusting the group she was with? Then it came to him. The whole thing was a setup. He got the girl drunk then got John via Maurice to take her to her bedroom.

Then John's thoughts came back to Tom's comment that Liam could not have known in advance that that particular scenario would happen.

He thought again. True, Liam couldn't have known John would be with Maurice all evening, so it had to be a spur of the moment idea. Did he know the girl had a room at the hotel? Then John remembered that the company insisted everyone stayed over for their own protection since they didn't want anyone done for drink-driving.

There was more to do. He had to find Danuta, her friend, and Ian Sinclair, whose names Georgina had given him, and get their stories. That would have to wait; he had a business to run, and a lot of settling in to do.

--

Chapter Four

On Monday Vicky went off to do her thing, while John made the journey back to the workplace where he had started so many years before. He arrived very early but Georgina was there before him. She was leaving the office for London that morning and then off to the USA the next day.

Her PA, Julie Jones, leapt to her feet when John entered the building and ran to hug him. He was impressed and touched as she welcomed him.

She was a mature woman of some forty-five years and knew everything there was to know about this division of the company. She knew each member of staff, their strengths and weaknesses, and a good deal about their private lives.

She had always been kind to him, and was not happy at his divorce. She was one of the few who would not believe he had let Carol down in any way.

"Are you going to be my PA?" John asked her, realising she would already know what he was there for.

"If you'll have me," she said, with just the slightest twinkle in her eye.

"The place couldn't work without you," he said. "In fact I'm sure you could do my job."

"Flatterer!" she shone. "Come on, let's get you some coffee, or is it tea so early?"

"Tea please," John said as she showed him into Georgina's, and now his, office.

Gina was a little wistful as she carried out her duties. Once eight thirty had passed they began by calling in the senior management tier, which included Tom. John didn't need much of an introduction since either they were there three years before or he had known them from London.

Mid-tier people next, when he said all the right things. He had noticed, when they trooped into the boardroom that Liam was among them. His face was a picture: he was not a happy bunny. He scowled before putting on a bland look, but his eyes were worried. He made no effort to come and shake John's hand after John's speech, but left immediately.

John made the rounds of the rest of the office staff and then took the car with Gina for the factory. Gina and John repeated the introductions there. Most seemed happy to see him.

The next fortnight was busy. John wanted to interview all the staff, and took each afternoon to do so. Then there were the accounts. It was the end of the second week before his appointment with Liam Malley.

It began formally enough. John covered all the areas he had covered with all the other folk. The only change he mentioned was that Liam was free to have his appraisal handled by any one of the senior team. Gina had handled all of them herself, which in John's opinion was too much like hard work when he could easily read the transcripts of the appraisal meetings. He wanted to have some free time to oversee what the company was doing and look ahead.

It was at the end when Liam launched into an attack on John.

"I'm not happy that you're back here. Carol is upset that you're raking over past issues. I'm telling you to keep away from her. You've already done enough damage, contacting her."

Liam sat upright and looked aggressively at John, who sat still, his face impassive. At length he spoke. He was quiet, formal but very firm.

"Mr Malley, this is a place of work. You will not bring your personal matters into work, and I certainly will not discuss such matters with you which are not germane to the work we do. If you need time off, you know how to apply."

"You can't dodge the issue that easy. What you're doing to Carol affects our working relationship."

"Are you saying that you are not able to work here under my leadership?"

"If you continue harassing her, yes."

"Then do I take it you will be looking for a post elsewhere? You know our policy. We will support any application you make. The company doesn't stand in the way of personnel who want to move or advance themselves."

"No, you bastard," he snarled. "You can't get rid of me that easy. I stay here."

"Fine." John said, still quiet and measured. "You have security of tenure and providing you keep working as you have been, there is no reason to change that."

"I'm warning you, Colshaw," Liam snapped, "Carol's brothers won't take kindly to you sniffing round her. Get it through your head that she's engaged to me. You have nothing to do with her."

"Mr Malley," John said still calm and collected, "Is that a threat?"

"Take it how you want. You know what might happen."

"Fine. This interview is terminated. May I remind you that according to company policy, this interview was recorded, will be transcribed and a copy given to you.

"In this case the recording will also be kept. I should point out to you that your language to me as your superior and your attitude to me are already matters for immediate dismissal. The only reason you are still employed here is my concern for your fiancée.

"Since you have made unfounded and untrue statements about my actions. Let me ask you some questions. First. When you and your fiancée arrived at the Griffin Hotel, did I approach her?"

"No."

"Did she approach me?"

"Yes."

"To your knowledge have I attempted to contact your fiancée since I arrived here?"

"She had to phone you to tell you where you cheated on her."

"She 'had to'. Who made her do this?"

"No one," he said uncertainly. "She was unsettled by what you said in the pub."

"She never felt the need to tell me anything before?"

"No."

"So how am I 'sniffing round her' as you put it? I've made no attempt to contact her. I do not intend to do so in the immediate future."

"I think you said the interview is over?"

"Yes."

He got up and went.

John sat down and thought. The man was paranoid. Why? He was Carol's fiancé, they were planning to get married. John felt a pang of sorrow at the thought. If John's marriage was over, his feelings for Carol were clearly not.

He knew he still needed to make her see what she'd done. Hang it, he did still have feelings for her: seeing her at the Griffin proved that, though he could not clarify what those feelings were.

In any case, if she had divorced him to marry Liam, there was nothing to be done. Nevertheless he would still confront her with her actions, he promised himself that.

It spurred him on to find all the other people involved on that day.

He called Ian Sinclair immediately, pushing down his anger.

"Sinclair"

"Hello, Ian," John began. "John Colshaw here."

"Oh, John!" he almost shouted, "Congratulations. What can I do for you?"

"Nothing to do with work really," John said. "I need some information about something else."

"Fire away," said the Scottish voice at the other end.

"Have you any memories of the conference we went to, four years ago?"

"Strange question," he laughed. "Well, let me see. Conference so-so, party on the last night was a blast. It was also the last, so yes I remember."

"Ian," said John. "Do you mind if I record this? I need it for a private reason, nothing to do with work."

"Fine," he answered.

"All right," said John. "Thanks. Can you tell me frankly what happened at the party with you?"

Ian thought for a moment and then related dancing, fumbling with the girl he was with, and then a trip outside.

"Who was the girl?" asked John urgently.

"Oh, yes, Lucy - yes Lucy - we called her juicy Lucy because she was!" he giggled, and John at his end smiled.

"Surname?" John asked.

"Oh... Wait a minute. Now what was... John what's that cartoon on the box - lad with yellow spiky hair?"

"The Simpsons?"

"That's her!" he shouted triumphantly.

"Lucy Simpson? Wait a minute, isn't that one of the characters?" asked John.

"Yes, yes!" laughed Ian. "Everyone ragged her about that! They'd ask her if she played the saxophone!"

"I remember," John said with a smile. "Tell me the story. Try to remember every detail, who you saw, what they were doing, you know the sort of thing."

"Right!"

So he began his account of that night. When he had finished, John was smiling broadly. He thanked Ian profusely and rang off.

John knew that Lucy still worked in the London office as he had seen her there, though he never had any dealings with her. Now he needed to talk to her.

As luck would have it, after a fortnight there was a longtime arranged meeting of the MDs from the British Isles at Headquarters. Normally after so short a time in post he would have been excused. However, since the meeting was to discuss the piloting of a number of administrative changes to company practice which John had advocated to Maurice, he was required to attend.

After business, he asked Maurice as a favour to tell him what he remembered about the party and then asked about seeing Lucy.

Maurice as it happened remembered it well, since it was an informal interview with John that he was conducting that evening at the party! He got Paula to find John an office and to send Lucy to him.

The knock came to the door. On his invitation, she came into the room.

She was a pretty dark-haired woman. She had a delicate face with big eyes, a wide mouth (John's mind immediately got a picture of her giving Ian head), and a button nose. Her neck was long and slender and her body was an hour glass shape, breasts slightly over large and wide hips with a narrow waist between. Her legs were short for her body. John could see she would have no shortage of men lusting after her.

She smiled at him confidently. "Hello Mr Colshaw! Back so soon?".

"Yes, MD's meeting. And it's John," he said. "Lucy I need your help."

"Anything I can do John," she smiled that wide mischievous smile (that image again), which was almost an invitation to flirting.

"I wonder if you remember the company conference party four years ago?"

"Oh, the last one before we weren't allowed to have one any more?"

"That's the one."

She smiled knowingly. It was clear she remembered. "Yes. That party was a gas!"

"That's what you can help me with. Remember Ian?"

Her smile broadened. She nodded.

"Would you tell me exactly what happened that night, from the time you were with Ian outside? May I record what you say?"

She nodded again, and began to relate the story. He had to ask a few questions but her story was complete. He had to stop her from being too explicit about their sexual athletics.

"You were there!" she said triumphantly. "Of course! You were so good to Dannie. I'm glad I could help."

So now he had four stories.

"Lucy, I need to find Dannie," he ventured. "I know she was embarrassed by what happened, but her side of the story is important to me."

"Oh, yeah," she said. "She lives near me. We go clubbing together, or did until she got a boyfriend. I'll call her and we could see her tonight if you want."

So that's what she did. Danuta, or Dannie as she was now known, opened the door to her flat, where she lived with her boyfriend. As soon as she saw John, she threw her arms round him and hugged him, kissing him vigorously.

"Come through," she said.

She introduced her boyfriend who obligingly went out for an hour. She knew why John was there and they were able to get her story with relative ease. In fact she added details about Liam and the other men and one woman she was with. She mentioned a Glen Repton and Mitch Templar, whom Lucy knew. Mitch was still at central office.

Next morning, before his journey back to Manchester, he interviewed Mitch. Maurice gave him the same office as before.

"Mr Colshaw?" said the face peering round the door after a tentative knock.

"Come in, Mitch," John said, "Sit down. Weren't you in one of the departments I was assigned to before I went North?"

"Yes, sir," he answered, looking worried.

"I'm not your boss now, call me John. Now the reason I asked to see you relates to something that happened four years ago."

"Yes, you want to know about that party," he said, then looked embarrassed. "Lucy Simpson. She's been talking about it. It's about Dannie?"

"Indirectly. I wonder if you remember a man from the North office. He seemed to be part of your group."

"Ah!, a mate of Glen Repton's, can't remember his name, sounded Irish."

"Liam?"

"That's it! Liam O'Malley. He was with us all through the conference. Bit of a schemer. Had his eye on Kendra, you remember Kendra?"

"No," said John. "Should I?"

"She's a corker. You'd definitely remember her: as a visiting Head of Department she would have come onto you. Power turns her on apparently."

"In that case I don't remember meeting her at that conference, or indeed, at all!" John said with a grin. "Was she there?"

"Oh, yeah," he thought for a moment. "Liam got into her bed the first night, mind you, if she liked the look of you, she never refused."

"But she wasn't at the party."

"Yes, she was; she was with our group. There were so many at the party, and she didn't dance much, so there's no reason you would have seen her. Dannie was the one who made the impression!" and he laughed at the recollection.

John smiled. "Tell me more. Did Liam and she stay together?"

"Liam was muttering on the second night about someone he hated the guts of. He said he wanted to stitch him up. I remember the rest of the lads were chatting and Liam and Kendra were talking, heads together. I overheard her, she's quite loud!" he laughed again.

"So?"

"She wanted to know who the bloke was, and he told her. I couldn't hear the name. I remember her saying 'Head of Department', and she looked keen at that. Then she said she'd give it a go.

"Then she said something about Liam being there with a camera to get photo's of them, and Eddy getting involved if the bloke wouldn't play. She giggled a lot and said she was looking forward to getting him: he was fanciable."

"So when did this seduction take place?"

"Well, that's just it," he said, looking puzzled. "It never happened. Kendra got off with Eddy in the end, and Liam was going for Dannie - getting her stoned drunk."

"Why?"

"I thought he'd decided on bedding Dannie; he'd already had Kendra, and they seemed to have abandoned the plan, whatever it was. It was queer, now he kept egging Dannie on to dance with him then have another drink, and things got really wild.

"She was blitzed, and we knew what would happen. We'd been joking about it the night before. At parties, when Dannie gets really blasted, she does a striptease. She loves getting her kit off! Someone usually stops her before she gets totally naked, and takes her off to bed. She's a real exhibitionist!"

"What was queer?"

"Well, as soon as she started to strip, Liam lost interest in her and went to the Chief Exec., of all people, and then the bloke who was with the Chief... Bloody hell, that was you, wasn't it?"

"That was me."

"Well, you know what happened next, Valilee, she'd been looking daggers at Dannie all night, and you, both stopped Dannie and you took her away."

There was a pause, then a look of discomfort. "Oh God! It was you, the bloke Liam wanted to stitch up, Liam laughed and said, 'Got 'im!' and followed you out with his camera."

John thought for a moment. "They hadn't abandoned the plan," he said. "Liam saw me with Maurice and thought of a better plan. He did it too. Cost me my marriage."

"Fucking hell!"

"I agree. I couldn't work out why Liam suddenly decided to frame me with Dannie out of the blue, but it's clear to me now. He had a previous plan using Kendra and then saw a better one."

"The first plan?"

"I suppose in the party spirit I was to fall for Kendra's undoubted charms when she came on to me, and he would take incriminating photos of me with her. Tell me, is Eddy anything like me to look at?"

Recognition dawned. "Substitute!"

"He had it covered if I remained faithful to my wife and put Kendra off. Remembering Kendra, he would have thought it likely that I would fall for her, but all he needed was me dancing with her and then getting compromising photos of her with Eddy, keeping his face out of shot. Since I was trapped with the CEO, I wouldn't be dancing with anyone, let alone Kendra, so that plan was falling through anyway."

"I'm sorry," said Mitch, now rather chastened, "What a bastard!"

That ended the interview. John was grateful that the party in question was the last one held, since as a result, everyone seemed to remember details so well, there being no more after that one to confuse people. The picture was now clear.

With a muffled curse he realised he had not recorded the interview. Then he thought he had enough evidence and that Mitch's contribution had simply clarified to him how Liam had come to frame him.

Once back in Manchester, he began transcribing the tapes. At least he started to do it until Julie caught him at it, and took the work out of his hands. It took her the whole of the following week, fitting in in between her normal work. Then she made him five copies, collated them and bound them into booklets. John remembered what a star she was.

Meanwhile John edited the audio material onto a CD and in turn made another five copies.

Now he felt ready to talk with Carol, if she would talk with him.

--

Chapter Five

Vicky had found him a house. It was in the same area, a detached five bedroomed house with a large enclosed garden and intimidating gates. It was really a beautiful house, and needed little attention. The owners wanted a quick sale in February, one of the worst months for selling houses, especially since that February was a very grey, wet one.

With the business of getting to know his new rôle as Managing Director, to say nothing of every aspect of the work they were doing, then the negotiations concerning the house, John had little time to concentrate on disabusing Carol of her misconceptions, or perhaps confronting her with her own deception. He knew that this would take all his concentration and skill, and that he needed to wait until he had the time.

It was with a sense of guilt that John realised that over a month had passed since he had returned, and he had not visited his parents. He had phoned weekly, but his mother wanted to see him and Vicky as well before she went home to Canada. So on the Saturday the pair went to spend the weekend with his parents.

The main news was that his parents wold be leaving in their mobile home in early May. Both were retired and usually spent the summer touring somewhere in Britain or on the European mainland.

The days lengthened but the negotiations over the house dragged on. It was the beginning of April two months later, before he could move into the house. Immediately after he took possession, Vicky's work came to an end and she went back to Canada.

Now he was alone. He spent a weekend buying furniture and another taking delivery. He furnished one room downstairs quite simply to be a living room, then equipped and stocked the kitchen, the master bedroom, and the best guest room. He moved his malt whisky collection then emptied the flat and took his possessions, clothing and music system in a number of journeys to his new home. Then he went to shop for food, and bought some more malts to celebrate his new life.