Cherry Picking

by Tim Heath

  This was how things had worked out before Nigel Gamble came and met the thirty-year-old Brendan a full two years before his big break. Knowing all he knew of the man at the top of the BC Holdings Group, Nigel offered him the world in order to get him to work for him, which Brendan had accepted, as at that time, before the birth of his first child, he was still largely unmotivated and just passing the time. Nigel therefore got to him at the perfect moment, and while Brendan’s life, as it now was, had gone in a very different direction, he had still enjoyed much of the success that had gone with his first life. And Brendan, unable to be aware of how things could have been, only knowing how things now were, thought life was great. For Nigel it made life so much easier, having someone of Brendan’s capability within his own ranks, there to serve his every requirement, there to make him millions upon millions and act as his arms, legs and even face, without any danger to himself. The only cost was the healthy wage he needed to pay Brendan but that was an insignificant amount compared to what he could do for him. Brendan, ever the businessman, quickly grew at first to respect Nigel because as he saw it, everything his boss touched turned to gold. He recognised, or so he interpreted, the workings of a business genius and rarely did he even question something he was asked to do, and on those rare occasions when he did, he was quickly put in his place.

  So Nigel had effectively changed Brendan’s life for good. From someone who’d done things himself into someone who worked within a group very similar to what he would have produced on his own. The wealth was now with Nigel though. Brendan was always well rewarded and genuinely felt quite happy for many years, until those thoughts started to surface, almost his conscience deep within himself, telling him he could have done more, could have been more, not a number two but a number one — the man, the main man, the top dog.

  But it was too late for him now. While Nigel had taken something away from his life, though he knew not what, he wouldn’t take his family away which is why Brendan put up such a defensive barrier between work life and home life. This wasn’t missed, though, either by his children or wife, the fact that he’d worked with the Gamble Holdings Group for a long time, but not once had any of them met or seen his employer. These things however never got discussed. They didn’t matter. As things now were, this was always how it had been and Brendan believed there was no need to change such seemingly unimportant things anyway.

  **********

  Sir Tommy Lawrence, who had been knighted by the King on his second visit to Buckingham Palace, had become the greatest English manager of all time in a career spanning thirty plus years. From his humble beginnings at the boys’ club where he himself had played, he’d tried his hand out at management in his early thirties as his playing days were clearly coming to an end. It was at one of these games that a Manchester United scout was present, there to watch some of the lads who had been getting rave reviews under the leadership of Tommy. Not only did a number of the lads get signed up, but so did the man that the club realised was behind their success, Tommy Lawrence. He spent only a short time within the youth set up before joining the first team coaching staff once he’d got the required badges. The then current manager, struggling to live up to the successes of previous managers that included the great Sir Alex Ferguson, was suddenly admitted to hospital over the busy Christmas fixture period and Tommy was asked to fill in at short notice. He did such a good job that when the previous manager had recovered his health and had returned to guide the side once more, as soon as the team’s improved form started to slip again the old guy was out and Tommy, just turning thirty-five, was sensationally ushered in as the new manager. And though young, because of his character and successes so far with the club, he was a very popular choice and his career never looked back. Manchester United won the league title at the end of that season. The last time they had won had been ten years before and even that had been a one off, as the team then was nothing like the United of the decades either side of the Millennium when Sir Alex Ferguson had made his name building four complete teams. Much of the success had come from a group of young lads that Tommy had taken with him from that boys’ club when he’d first been signed by United.

  Tommy brought the glory days back to the Old Trafford outfit and his high profile life was even more in the spotlight when he was seen together with the world famous model turned Hollywood actress Jessica Ponter. The glossy magazines lapped up the story and were falling over themselves trying to outdo each other, the likes of which had not been seen since the early days of David Beckham and ‘Posh Spice’.

  They married within the year and there was not a television station or a newspaper that didn’t make some mention of the event. There was something about the couple that represented the very best of what it meant to be British, at a time when few people thought in that way. With political problems at home and abroad, as well as the worsening economic situations and the rising crime rates coupled with the worst teenage pregnancy rates anywhere in the world, it seemed that marriage as an institution was gone. But that appeared to change almost overnight. Suddenly the country had a couple that they would listen to, and being fully aware of their unique position, Tommy and Jessica did their best to unite a country that for too long had stood divided. Jessica took a break from her flourishing acting career to be the public face of the couple and she taught on marriage and raising children, though due to unknown complications the couple were never able to have children of their own. This only added to their public adoration, Jessica becoming very vocal and supportive to all those who were not able to have children themselves.

  Tommy continued to focus on his own career as well and the next fifteen years saw him outdo even the great Sir Alex in relation to the number of trophies he won for the club, breaking all previous records both at home and in Europe. Realising a dream, he took a break from domestic football and answered the call from the FA to become the highest paid international manager of all time, and in his ten years as the national team manager, he guided them to successive World Cup wins as well as one European Championship. It was after that first World Cup win that Tommy made his first trip to the Palace to pick up his CBE. Tommy Lawrence could have gone anywhere in the world of football, but he decided to call an end to his international days. Following the successful defence of the team’s World Cup triumph from four years earlier, this time on home soil, a packed Wembley stadium hosted one of its greatest games since its rebuilding. The nation watched, once again celebrating on the streets, parties uniting once torn communities and bringing people closer together than ever before. It seemed that the whole country was happy again, that the tough days were behind them and that bright things were to come.

  Tommy instead decided to take a break from football, intending to return once again to club management, to Manchester United, it was presumed, though the opportunity never came.

  While the couple were travelling around the world in various humanitarian roles, such was their world renown, the twin engined plane they were travelling in across a barren part of Africa crash landed, killing Tommy instantly and leaving Jessica in hospital for six painful months while they tried to mend her badly broken back, which they eventually managed, though she’d never be able to walk very far without pain again.

  She’d missed her husband’s funeral, his body flown back to England before receiving a state send off in the grandest of fashions, the country in mourning at the death of someone they’d seen as royalty.

  Jessica continued her work on the humanitarian side but her life was never the same and she never went a day without thinking about her Tommy. Life suddenly caught up with her, she seemed to age over night and before long she too was out of the spotlight, giving up on almost all her engagements in order to live out her remaining years effectively as a recluse.

  Such had been their mark on history, their impression that had set the standards in so many ways, like a Nelson Mandela or Princess Diana had done decades before. No one after them could grow up and not kn
ow about the couple that had lived their married life, it seemed, on the front pages and had done so much to change a nation that had before been slipping lower and lower, getting worse by the day. Therefore, when Nigel Gamble had come back it was all too tempting for him to break into their past and get to them before everything actually happened, which he did with the help of Brendan.

  Brendan had already befriended Jessica, as he’d been instructed, taking the place of her father who had been removed from the picture in such a ruthless fashion. Tommy and Jessica meeting as they did and then being broken up had disrupted things enough for history to have changed. Tommy had therefore not been at that training session when the United scouts came looking, though in fact a scout never came because without the leadership of Tommy training them for another year, the rave reviews that there had once been were never heard.

  Nigel didn’t really care what these changes would do to others. What he tried to tell himself was that he was saving the couple from the heartbreak of separation but in reality even he didn’t believe that for long and it just became a game — he could do it so he did. In his heart he was jealous of what they seemed to have with each other and the fame to go with it, the world changing potential was just too much to let go of without the chance to try and control it, to be on the inside of it all and have a piece of the pie.

  With Tommy stuck away working under Brendan, Nigel was amazed at how quickly, given the right circumstances, someone’s whole reality could change. Deep down though he knew in Tommy there was this ability to be a wonderful manager and because of his brief encounter with Jessica already they had the perfect way to control him, so that when the time came, as it had now done, he’d jumped at the chance to manage a club that they purchased and to do what they asked. For Nigel it was no gamble at all really. He’d cherry picked the very best manager the country had ever produced, having initially clipped his wings to tame him and control him, before giving him his big break, while at the same time, knowing the emerging players that would go on to be great footballers, bringing them in at a young age and putting them under Tommy’s guidance. It was all surely going to be a winning formula.

  In everything Nigel Gamble, and therefore Brendan Charles, had done, there were many skeletons in the closet, so much so that nothing could get discussed. Of course, Brendan was actually in the dark himself, but Nigel let him believe he was on the inside. One of the biggest skeletons though had been the way they had broken into the life of Jessica Ponter.

  A long time before she’d met Tommy Lawrence, she had had a name for herself. With her father’s business doing really well, and with her parents’ backing the whole way, Jessica had gone to an evening drama school in which she first started stepping out, her gifting clear from even the first lesson. She also started doing some modelling and she’d never felt happier. Her father backed her up the whole way, the strong loving man that she was so proud of, offering all the financial help he could, which was a lot because of the success of the business.

  Having modelled for eighteen months, the chance then came up to do some acting in a small part of a new film being made not far from her. It was while on set that she met an American director who immediately saw her potential and word spread. Before long she was in her first Hollywood film, not in a lead role but her talent was spotted and the offers came flooding in.

  So when she met Tommy Lawrence at one of her UK Premiers, it was Tommy who was dazzled by the presence of such fame and beauty.

  Therefore, for Nigel, the opening had almost presented itself by chance. With all the technology and computer equipment he had to offer, having just stolen the inventions of the future to package them as his own in the past, his firm, Ample Tech, had rapidly grown and it was this that had affected all other firms within the market, including that of Jessica’s father.

  With Brendan Charles heading up his firm within the insurance market, which was a sure fire winner if you only insured companies that you knew would not have a claim that year, it was all too natural to get him to approach Jessica about helping them out, Jessica now never having had the chance to pursue her acting career because of the unstable family business.

  The father-daughter relationship had been a harder one to work into but little by little Brendan had dropped in bits and pieces that would widen the cracks. Always having been pushed on by Nigel, Brendan had got to a place where he was causing arguments between Jessica and her father, who accused Brendan of having only sexual motives with his daughter. That had, of course, not been the case and only added to Jessica’s protection of and affection for Brendan.

  But Brendan knew Nigel had overstepped the mark when it was arranged that Jessica would find her father hanging on a rope in the garden of their family home. While Brendan had had nothing to do with actually putting the rope around his neck, he knew only too well that it hadn’t been a suicide at all but he was now already in way too deep to even try to do anything about it. Instead, he carried on looking out for Jessica and it was indeed easier to get her on board after her fathers’ death. She never would go on to become an actress though, the chance and desire all but gone, not that Brendan knew anything of it anyway. What Nigel now had the girl, bruised by life but every bit as beautiful, within his empire. He knew of her natural affection for Tommy which he’d tested before breaking them up. Brendan had done a good job, as always, for Nigel in that regard.

  Chapter 18

  Robert Sandle sat at his large dining room table mulling over his morning, a mug of semi-warm coffee sitting to the right of his laptop computer. The latest change in life back at what once had been home had confirmed that the man he was looking for was indeed the man inside and at the top of the company that called itself the Gamble Holdings Group.

  Robert had spent a productive four hours since waking early that morning scanning through the internet, pulling everything and anything he could find on the man calling himself Nigel Gamble. At first it had been very hard to find much on him but after some detailed research he found an archive picture taken some years before of an ageing, smart but fragile old man, the caption at the bottom seemingly confirming that it was indeed Mr Gamble. Robert looked closely into the face of the man, studying those same cold eyes he’d first come across in his office, in his old life that not longer existed, when the Agency had been handed a university photo of Mark Smith. The face Robert was now looking at was bearded, hair seemingly gone white with old age, glasses in place on the end of the wrinkled nose, but Robert knew it was indeed the man he was after. And if his estimations were correct, he could only be in about his mid-forties.

  Robert stood up to stretch, his long arms reaching for the ceiling though not coming close to touching it, such was the grandeur of what had been the Wentworth’s family home. He paced up and down the room restlessly, trying to think through his next move but it wasn’t any good. He’d been looking at the computer screen for too long and his mind was tired. What he needed was some fresh air and so he picked up a sweater, grabbed his keys and went out into the garden.

  The country air instantly refreshed him as he strolled down to a patch of vegetables that grew in the sunlight at the far right end, runner beans ready for harvest hanging on the tall bamboo canes he’d constructed. It was so quiet where he was, this was one of the main advantages in staying there. Since his picture had appeared on the television he’d not dared to even go out around the village, though he doubted there’d be any problems. He was now starting to run low on supplies so he’d have to venture out before too long. The reality was that you rarely got any outsiders in the village, and if anyone was going to recognise him it would already have happened because it would most likely have been one of the villagers. Quite how many of them had cable television he didn’t know. There were still many rural communities seemingly completely cut off from the outside world, following the ending of the analogue signal, and they probably wouldn’t even have seen the false news articles about him.

  At that moment a plan
e high in the sky broke the silence, the only reminder to those living there that there was life on the outside, planes now coming over that part of the country on their final run into the new sixth terminal at London’s Heathrow Airport.

  Robert went back inside, the short break in the morning having done him the world of good. He already knew what he needed to do, having known all morning but searching his mind for any other possible options, and finding none. He knew that with all that had already happened, he would now have to make contact with Nigel Gamble himself and start what would become surely the most dangerous cat-and-mouse game in the history of all chases. The idea slightly scared him at first but as he thought about what he would say, he felt encouraged and ready for the challenge ahead.

  **********

  Mary Ingham relaxed in the hotel lounge on the South coast, a favourite destination of hers and where she’d stayed a week already, following the events at work and subsequent doctor’s visits where she’d been signed off for a month and told to get away and relax. This she had reluctantly done, but was now enjoying it immensely. The break was doing her the world of good, though how she could face going back to all that she’d left behind she didn’t yet know. She’d worked with Simon Allen for years, and was very fond of him, not in a form of attraction but in a natural and genuine way that had meant they were good friends. Simon Allen had come to her wedding, her husband having known him for several years before she met him. He was the one who suggested that Simon be considered for the job that opened up and Mary was more than happy for Simon to be interviewed for it.

  Mary had come to the hotel by herself, her husband away on business again somewhere in the Middle East, the firm he worked for getting him to travel more and more nowadays so that she often didn’t see him for weeks on end. But they had a good marriage and three happy but lively young children. The youngest two were twins which was a bit of a surprise at the time. Not until being told she was expecting twins and then studying her family tree, did she realise that twins ran on her side of the family, missing out every two or three generations along the way, which is why she was a little surprised, as her mother, grandmother and great grandmother all were only children.