The first Zachary or Jeannie knew about Leo was when he appeared at the end of the alley towards which they were running. So huge and threatening was he, he seemed to fill their path to freedom. The mere sight of the giant body-builder stopped the pair in their tracks and without wasting a moment they turned and started running back towards where Bill stood nursing his damaged nose. Clearly he presented the lesser threat. Even after so short a run, Zachary was already gasping for breath. Unused to running anywhere and at least three stones overweight, he was fading fast. And all the while they could hear Leo’s pounding feet gaining on them. So this is what it means to be between a rock and a hard place, Zachary thought. Part of him, at least, was still functioning, even as his body was failing.
He knew he could not last much longer and, desperate for any help he could find, he cast around for a weapon he might use to protect Jeannie and himself from the brute who, presently, was rapidly overhauling them. Anything would have done but what he spotted, propped up in a doorway, was a rusty old iron pipe. Letting go of Jeannie’s hand he grabbed it up and stopped to face the oncoming weightlifter, who was now closing very fast. Without thinking of the consequences, Zachary swung the pipe in Leo’s general direction. He reasoned that even if he failed to hit the man, the sight of the pipe might at least deter the fellow from doing anything too foolish. Unused to such activities, he miscalculated both the speed with which Leo was closing the gap between them as well as the weight of the pipe. In his untrained hands it felt far heavier than he expected and instead of swinging it out at head height, as he intended, he swung it clumsily at leg height catching Leo a fearful blow just below his knee. Indeed, had he hit Leo’s head, as had been his intention, he might well have killed the man. Instead, Leo fell howling to the ground.
‘Come on,’ Zachary gasped at Jeannie and together they stepped over Leo’s writhing body and staggered back down the alleyway again. Leo’s howls began to attract the attention of a few of the residents in the houses backing onto the alley and windows started rising and heads began peering out. Ignoring the commotion, Zachary struggled on with chest heaving and eyes streaming. For someone who regularly ran at least three miles each evening, he could not believe how unfit his new body was. He was in a very bad state and without the support of Jeannie it is doubtful if he would have made it out of that alley. She was a tower of strength. She pulled him and called out encouragement to him every step of the way and, eventually, after what seemed like an eternity of effort, they reached the street.
Like an exhausted runner who has just crossed the finishing line, Zachary wanted to stop and probably would have done had not Jeannie make him stagger on to the corner of the road where she managed to flag down a passing taxi into which they both almost fell. Jeannie asked for the Hammersmith underground station as Zachary, with chest heaving, slumped on the seat next to her. Craning her neck, she looked through the taxi’s rear window to see if they were being followed and gave a sigh of relief when she saw nothing suspicious.
‘You’ll kill yourself running like that, mate’ the driver said. ‘Hasn’t anyone ever told you it’s better to arrive late than dead?’
At the station, Jeannie bought tickets back to Victoria where they found a quiet café into which they disappeared while they tried to take stock. They both agreed that matters had escalated to ridiculously serious levels and that it was now far too dangerous for Jeannie even to contemplate returning to her home in Disraeli Street. They talked around the problem for quite some time but eventually Jeannie came up with the obvious solution.
‘If we can’t go back to our house, we’ll just have to sell it,’ she said. ‘It’s not much, I know, and most of what we get will have to be used to pay off the mortgage but there should still be enough left over to pay off what you owe to that dead couple’s family. That at least will get the police off your back, and when they catch up with us, you’ll just get a deferred sentence.
‘What about Sinclair?’ Zachary said.
‘I don’t want to give that bastard anything. He’s already got far too much from you as it is but I suppose it would be safer to pay him what he wants. That won’t leave us much but it might give us enough to start afresh somewhere else in the country.’
Zachary knew Jeannie was being unbelievably brave and generous and, not for the first time, his heart went out to this beautiful, gallant woman he was now lucky enough to call his wife. He wished there was some other alternative but he could think of none. Reluctantly he agreed to the suggestion and over coffee they mapped out a plan of action. Jeannie would ask her younger brother to keep an eye on the house for them until it was sold and, in the meantime, they would both drop out of sight. Reluctantly, Zachary agreed to make contact with Connolly and Sinclair to tell them what they proposed doing. That way, Jeannie said, they might be able to settle back into a reasonably civilized lifestyle. In any case, given half a chance, Zachary was very confident he would be able to provide a far better home and life style for his new wife than the other Zak had ever done.
Chapter 12
Zak
The kiss Zak saw his wife and Phil Williamson exchange in the doorway of the latter’s house was the sort of kiss normally reserved for lovers; it was certainly not the more common, nice-to-see-you-again, sort of peck on the cheek that friends use. When he drove passed the pair, Zak, who had been guilty of many cheap, even underhand, actions in his life, felt both hurt and indignant that the two people he thought he could trust in this new world had, all the time, been deceiving him. Indeed, much worse, they both must consider him both an incompetent and a fool. That much screamed out to him. For all his apparent solicitude and decency, Phil Williamson was a duplicitous, conniving heel; a heel who held his boss in very low esteem.
Who knows, an angst-ridden Zak thought, perhaps the other me never did anything to earn the man’s respect.
The more he considered it, however, the less likely that seemed. His other self had built up a highly successful motoring business so, at some stage he must have done something right. If he were guilty of anything, perhaps it was in delegating too much responsibility to his Financial Director, which the latter was now abusing.
Then there was Jenny. Zak had no idea what might have precipitated the initial breakdown in his marriage, so he had to assume he was partly, if not wholly, responsible. But whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation, it was still a nasty blow to his self-esteem to discover that his wife, while actively rejecting him, was happy to seek consolation in the arms of another.
His first reaction was to go up to the house and confront the pair in their deceit, but something stopped him. Perhaps it was an in-built instinct for self-preservation; perhaps it was nothing more than straightforward embarrassment. Whatever it was, he continued driving until he reached the far end of the street. When he reached that far junction, he pulled in to the kerb. He needed to compose himself and to think. An inner voice, it might have been his own or perhaps it was that of the other Zak, advised him to do nothing until he knew more fully what was going on. Forewarned is forearmed they say so it was probably more sensible to play a watching and waiting game. Hurt, confused and in a state of shock, he drove back to his suite in the Mount Plaza Hotel. For all his material signs of success, it seemed that even his highly organised, very successful other self had problems.
Considering the lowly position on the social scale he had occupied in his previous dimension, it had not taken Zak long to grow accustomed to the much more elevated status he now enjoyed. He was used to being insulted and ignored but it came as a surprise to discover that his pride could still so easily be hurt, even when the insult had nothing to do with him personally. Try as he might, he could not separate himself from his other self. In any case, what now affected his alter ego, definitely affected him as well.
Thinking about Jenny and his marriage, there was no denying he’d been clumsy and had not got off to the best start. Also, although he’d tried to disguise it, his ignorance of
business matters must have been glaringly obvious to Phil. That said, the situation in which he found himself could have had nothing to do with him personally, no matter what he might or might not have done during the past few days.
Naomi had indicated that the affair between his wife and Phil had started well before his arrival on the scene. He might not have been very smart when dealing with either person but, at least, he had tried to be honest with them – as far as his unique circumstances allowed. It might have salved his pride somewhat had he known that even the other Zachary was unaware of the long-standing affair between his wife and Phil Williamson.
The discovery was a blow, of course, but it was nowhere near the same as if he’d discovered Jeannie was being unfaithful. That, indeed, would have been devastating. As it was, at this early stage in his new relationship, his feelings towards his new wife were still somewhat ambivalent. While not being a patch on the love of his life, Jenny was still elegant, attractive and even desirable. He had also imagined she was sensitive and loyal but now reserved judgement on those latter two qualities. In any case, it was far too simplistic to imagine he could take over where the other Zak had left off and be in love with her. Naively perhaps, he had hoped, had even expected, that he and Jenny would eventually get together and, given time, that deeper feelings might have developed. That evening, in a doorway in south Edinburgh, his expectations had been completely shattered.
It was frustrating not knowing what the other Zak was like. Had he been playing the field? Did he treat Phil Williamson so badly the man had no compunction about stealing his boss’s wife? Had he brought the situation on himself? Had Jenny found out about his affair with Naomi? Was this her way of getting back at him? It was the thought of Naomi that made Zak realize she had been right when she suggested Jenny was having an affair. It was also clear why she had been too tired for anything but sleep when he’d made his advances on her that first evening.
There were many incidents in his life that he sometimes looked back on with shame; for example, those times when he had used his comparative poverty to excuse his bad behaviour. It was salutary now to discover that even when he’d had it all, he, or at least his other self had, he had behaved in just as shameful a manner. Nature, it seemed, had finally proved to be even more powerful than nurture.
Finding excuses for his wife’s conduct was one thing; accepting that his Financial Director might also have a valid reason for his actions was an entirely different matter. The man had been, and indeed, still was, playing him for a fool. If his involvement with Jenny was anything more than a casual dalliance and if he genuinely hoped to take her away from his boss, what did he expect Zak to do when he finally woke up to what was going on between the pair? After all, if the matter continued to its logical conclusion, their involvement with each other was bound, eventually, to be revealed. Did Phil naively hope Zak would turn the other cheek and give him a raise because the fellow was being so good to his wife? On the other hand, if he expected to lose his job at Galveston Ford without a reference, or least ways a very bad one if he had the gall to request one, how then did he expect to keep the woman he had stolen in the comfort and manner to which she was now accustomed? Indeed, how did Jenny expect her lover to support her so that she could continue to enjoy the many luxuries provided by her husband.
They say that love is blind but Zak reasoned that two, mature, obviously calculating adults, must have given some thought to the eventual consequences of their actions. What now concerned him was the thought that, when they were finally found out, they clearly had no fears for their future together. If they genuinely had no fears for what he might do when he found out about them, it was reasonable to assume they knew something he didn’t. That was when he began thinking about the take-over he was supposed to sign off the following day.
In the week that Zak had known him, Phil had always been extraordinarily positive about the take-over deal; something that Zak, with no previous knowledge of such matters, had simply assumed to be normal in such circumstances. Now, as he thought about it, he recalled what little opportunity he’d been given to examine in any detail the more important documents pertaining to the purchase, not that he would have been able to understand them even given the chance. Each time he had wanted to see one of them, Phil had needed it for some other far more urgent purpose. He also remembered his concern, a concern he still had, that events were moving far too quickly for him. By putting all his faith in his Financial Director and trusting him to provide the very best advice, he had pushed all his worries to the background, believing them to be the natural concerns of someone innocent to the ways of business. When he reflected on the events of the past week, and with the evidence of his employee’s duplicity fresh in his mind, Zak became convinced that he was being given, the infamous ‘bum’s rush’.
It was not credible that Phil had the least inkling about what had happened to both Zaks. In which case, Phil must still believe he was dealing with the other Zachary. So, what made him so confident he could treat his boss with such contempt? Had the other Zachary taken no interest in the financial operation of his empire? More likely, Phil had managed to weave his magic on the other Zachary just as the man, so quickly and easily, had worked it on the present one. He gave a shudder of disgust with himself when he remembered how close he had come to revealing everything to Phil. Why had he thought he could trust the man with such a secret? Then again, if Phil could win him over in a few short days, perhaps it was no surprise that the other Zak, as well as the other Zak’s wife, had been unable to resist the man’s obvious charms. The question remained, what game was Phil playing? Unable to resolve the problem, he decided to give Naomi a ring. Perhaps she could fill in some of the many gaps in his knowledge.
Zak was pleased to hear her lilting Scottish voice once again. She was free that evening, she told him, and seemed eager to accept his invitation to meet for a drink. He was grateful she had the sense not to ask complicated questions over the telephone; there would be time enough for that later. Because Naomi did not have a car, they agreed to meet in a bar near to where she was staying and thirty minutes later Zak brought her Campari and soda, and his whisky and water back to the quiet corner table where she sat waiting.
‘Cheers!’ Zak said, lifting his glass.
‘Slàinte!’ she replied, using the Gaelic version of the toast.
She looked tired and much paler than he remembered and he began cautiously with a compliment. ‘You’re looking very nice, Naomi. How have you been?’
‘It’s nice of you to say so, Zachary, but I know I must look a fright. I’ve been thoroughly miserable this past week and I didn’t sleep a wink last night thinking about what you said to me. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you rang but what made you change your mind?’
Zak looked furtively around the room lest anyone should hear what he was about to reveal.
‘I decided to listen to your warning, luv and I followed Jenny when she went out earlier tonight.’
Immediately, Naomi looked attentive but said nothing, waiting for him to go on.
‘It seems you were right. She isn’t playing Bridge tonight, or l don’t think she is because she met a man and it didn’t look like they were thinking about Bridge when they kissed each other.’
Naomi let out a low breath and nodded knowingly. ‘I knew it,’ she said.
‘Do you know the name of the bloke she’s seeing?’ He was hoping for final confirmation that Phil was his wife’s lover.
‘No, I don’t. I just guessed she was seeing someone but I’ve no idea who he is because I’ve never seen him.’
‘Did whoever-it-is ring Jenny at home when I wasn’t around?’
‘If he did, I never took the call.’
‘In that case, how on earth could you be so certain she was up to something?’ Zak was genuinely mystified.
‘Call it female intuition if you like but I think it’s just having an eye for detail. If nothing else, I guessed your wife was seei
ng someone because of the way she’s been treating you.’
‘What do you mean? What’s she been doing?’
‘Honestly, Zachary, I sometimes wonder how you ever became so successful in business. You’re far too trusting. Why do you think she never seemed to worry that something might be going on between us?’
‘Perhaps she’s too trusting as well, or perhaps we were so careful, she never noticed.’
‘Come on. Having kicked you out of her bedroom over a year ago, and then throwing the two of us together as she did – remember, she always insisted I should stay at home with you every Thursday in case you needed something, she must have realized what might happen. And don’t you remember, when I first came to work for you, I asked to have Thursday evenings off so I could go out with my friends but she wouldn’t hear of it. I could take any other evening off but not Thursday, she said. No, treating you as she’s been doing she’d have to be very stupid not to suspect that something would develop between us.’
There was certainly something in what Naomi said and it was now clear why Jenny had not cared.
Naomi took another sip of her drink before continuing. ‘I remember after that first time we made love, I was so sure she’d see in my eyes what we’d done, I couldn’t look her in the face the next day. I’m a hopeless actor and she had to be very unobservant not to notice how embarrassed I was but she never said a word. I think that was when I began to suspect she was up to something as well. Then, as the weeks went by, I became more and more convinced she was being unfaithful to you. It was almost as if I’d been provided as a consolation prize. I should have been annoyed, I suppose, except that, by that time, I’d fallen in love with you. I’ve been dropping hints to you for months but you wouldn’t listen. What made you change your mind?’
SWITCHED: The man who lost his body but kept his mind. Page 21