The Quick Brown Fox

by Stan Mason

  ‘It’s like Armageddon out there,’ Coleman told his son brusquely, very angry as to what was happening. ‘What are you going to do about it?’

  ‘We want our money back!’ claimed one of the other two men. ‘We’re not going until we get it.

  ‘Good Lord!’ uttered Coleman junior sharply. ‘All this fuss over a thousand pounds. I don’t know what the world’s coming to!’

  ‘A thousand!’ snapped the other man angrily. ‘I put twenty grand into the scheme. I bought twenty option!’

  ‘More fool you!’ came the response. ‘It serves you right. You shouldn’t have been so greedy!’

  The man came forward and pulled the young man by the front of his shirt, forcing him to get to his feet.

  ‘Now look here, you punk!’ he snarled like a ferocious animal getting at his prey. ‘That was my nest egg for the future. Because of you, I was persuaded to invest in the scheme and within a couple of weeks I find out it was a scam. You’re not going to get away with this.’

  ‘What if I tell you that the heating process is currently being tested and that it’s not failed as I told my contacts.’

  ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ demanded the first man suspiciously believing that he was simply being fobbed off.

  ‘I had to say it had failed because someone else has their eye on the project. They want it all for themselves. They threatened my life if I didn’t tell you it was all over. Look!’ He lifted the index finger of his right hand. ‘They even broke my finger because I refused to do what they said at first. There are people with a deep interest in the heating process and they don’t want us to interfere.’

  ‘Then we’re still in good nick with our investments,’ intervened the second man quickly. ‘Or are you telling porkies just to get rid of us?’

  ‘No... it’s the truth. You’re still in the scheme,’ declared Coleman although he wasn’t too sure he could make it stick. ‘We have the formula and the notes. Once the testing is over, we can go ahead and sell what we have to anyone in the world.’

  ‘Then why did you tell everyone the process had failed?’ asked the first man with an element of confusion.

  ‘I told you. My life was threatened but it didn’t make any difference in the end. We’re still on with the scheme. You’ll all make a fortune out of it after the testing’s over... providing it proves positive, and I’ve no reason to believe otherwise.’

  ‘Who are these people you’re talking about?’ enquired the second man with an element of disbelief in his voice.

  ‘I don’t know their names but there’s one senior man at the top of it all. Don’t ask me any more about him because I just don’t know.’

  The two men glanced at each other and the first man let go of Coleman’s shirt so that he slumped back on the settee.

  ‘Are you saying we’ve nothing to worry about... even though you told us that the process had failed?’ continued the second man.

  ‘Read my lips! Everything depends on the test. If it proves to be successful, we’re on to a winner. Tell everyone to go home and be patient. They’ll know the result very shortly. But if it fails, don’t come back to me. It’s not my fault if it all goes pear-shaped.’

  ‘Do you buy this?’ the first man asked his colleague.

  ‘Not for a second,’ came the reply. ‘Why should he tell everyone it was all over and now say it’s not the case? It seems like a blatant scam to me.’

  ‘What should we do?’

  ‘I’m not leaving until I get my money back,’ declared the second man. ‘One way or the other, I bought into five options. I want to get my five thousand pounds returned.’

  ‘Look!’ stated Roy Coleman firmly. ‘I have nothing to do with this and you’re in my house. I want you to leave these premises right away... all of you.’

  ‘I’m afraid there’s a bigger issue here,’ retorted the first man. ‘A lot of money’s at stake. Those people outside are baying for blood and your son’s the cause of it. I don’t know that I can control them.’

  ‘Right!’ said Roy Coleman with determination in his voice. ‘In that case I’m calling the police. I presume you have no objections.’

  The two men stared at him vacantly without trying to get him to change his mind. Subsequently, Coleman turned and went into the next room to make the call as the two men began to menace his son.

  ‘You’ve got to give us some of our money back!’ insisted the first man, ‘or that mob out there will tear you limb from limb. I’m not kidding you. They want their pound of flesh!’

  ‘I’ve no money,’ bleated David Coleman pitifully, trying to find the button which had come off his shirt in the altercation. ‘I can’t stress it strongly enough. The heating process is still being tested.’

  ‘Who are you trying to fool?’ demanded the second man irately.

  ‘It’s true. Let me explain it more clearly. I got my hands on the formula and notes relating to the heating process. Admittedly I stole them but that’s not the point. Possession is nine points of the law. Another person did exactly the same by one means or another. He wants it all for himself so he sent people round here to persuade me to contact all of you to say that the test had failed.’ He held the index finger of his right hand in the air. ‘They broke my finger. But there’s so much money to be made by the process we can all share in it.’

  ‘How do we know you’re telling us the truth?’ enquired the first man suspiciously.

  ‘Better still, how do you know we can still have our share of the proceeds if the testing proves positive and this other person has the formula,’ intervened the second man.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ explained young Coleman. ‘Once I get the okay on the test, it’ll depend on who we can sell it to. There’s no minefield to cross. Nations will be fighting to get their hands on the process.’

  At that point, Roy Coleman returned to the room. ‘The police are on their way,’ he told them.

  The first man looked out of the window at the mob outside. ‘I don’t know whether I can control them,’ he muttered slowly. ‘Most of them are extremely unimpressed with your son and they want their money back regardless. They don’t want to be in the scheme any longer.’

  ‘They can’t do that!’ bleated David Coleman. ‘Once you’ve taken an option and paid for it, you have to go through the whole process. You can’t just change your mind on a whim and demand you money back!’

  ‘On a whim,’ repeated the second man. ‘On a whim! I think the circumstances have changed, don’t you? They’ve certainly changed in this instance.’

  ‘No they haven’t,’ bleated the younger man.

  ‘Yes they have!’ exclaimed the first man. ‘You started the ball rolling and then turned round to say it had all collapsed and was over. Now you’re saying exactly the opposite. What do you expect people to think?’

  ‘I’m not sure I believe a word of what you say,’ stated the second man, turning to look at Roy Coleman. ‘And the jury’s out as to whether you had a hand in all this. I tell you we’re going to leave no stone unturned in this matter... one way or the other.’

  ‘Believe what you like but I’m solely a car salesman who had no idea what this was all about until very recently.’

  ‘That’s what you say but the jury’s out on you too,’ countered the second man staring at him sullenly.’

  ‘I suggest you tell your friends out there what my son has told you and clear off my premises.,’ suggested Roy Coleman. ‘You’re all trespassing. I hope you know it.’

  The first man looked directly at David Coleman ‘You’ll have to come outside to face the mob,’ he told him. ‘They’re not going to listen to what I have to tell them.’

  ‘I mean what can we say,’ forwarded the second man. ‘One minute you tell us that the process has failed. The next you tell us
that it’s still on. What’s the truth of the matter? No one’s going to believe you unless yu show the some proof.’

  ‘‘And I bet my bottom dollar that you can’t produce any,’ stated the first man.

  ‘Of course not,’ bleated Coleman irately. ‘How can I get you any proof until the formula’s been tested? When we do, if it proves positive, we’re in business.’

  ‘You say that but how can we believe you?’ complained the first man.

  ‘I think you need to come outside and face the investors. They need to hear it from the horse’s mouth.’

  ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ cut in Roy Coleman with concern for his son. He could envisage a violent mob doing his serious injury.

  At that moment, the sound of a police siren could be heard blaring out in the distance.

  The first man turned to his colleague. ‘What do you say we do?’ he asked uncertain as to the next step in the protest.

  ‘We tell the police what’s going on here and let them sort it out,’ came the reply.

  ‘I’m going to ask them to charge you with assault,’ claimed young Coleman still fumbling with the buttons on his shirt.

  Roy Coleman turned to his son with a serious expression on his face. ‘Do shut up, boy. You’re in a heap of serious trouble. I hope you realise you’ll have charges to face.’

  ‘Why do you say that?’ asked young Coleman naively.

  ‘You’ve committed crimes by stealing sensitive information from the company for whom you worked and you set up an illegal scheme defrauding people of their money. You’ll not get away with it this time. You’ll have to face the music.’

  ‘I’ll get a very good lawyer to defend me.’

  ‘Not with my money you won’t.’ The dam had finally been breached. Roy Coleman was now adamant that his son should face real life instead of hiding away behind his books. He turned to the two men unhappily. ‘I’m sorry for your plight. I truly feel for everyone who was drawn into the scheme. It’s sad to say but I fear that none of you will ever get any money back. As for my son, well he’ll probably go to prison for his crimes.’

  ‘That doesn’t help us at all!’ complained the first man disconsolately.

  ‘I’m afraid that’s all part of life,’ philosophised Roy Coleman sadly. ‘The people who lost money in this scheme were driven by their own greed. Sad to say, it’s inherent in all of us.’

  ‘He’s got to go out there to explain his version of events to everyone,’ pressed the first man strongly.

  ‘I’m not going to do any such thing,’ stated Coleman obstinately. ‘They won’t believe me any more than you do and they get ugly. I’m not putting myself in danger just to prove a point.’

  ‘You don’t have a choice’ insisted the second man. ‘You have to come out and face them.’

  ‘No way!’ uttered Coleman fearfully. ‘You’ll have to drag me out there’

  ‘We can easily do that,’ retorted the first man menacingly.

  ‘Now hold on a minute!’ intervened Roy Coleman urgently. ‘This is getting us nowhere. You can’t take him out to face that mob. They’ll crucify him!’

  ‘Why not?’ responded the first man He leaned forward and lifted up the young man by the lapels of his jacket. ‘It should be simple enough to settle this matter once and for all.’

  ‘Hurting my son is not going to get your money back Why don’t you give him the benefit of the doubt. He says that if the test proves positive, you’ll all be wealthy.’

  At that moment, the police car stopped outside. Two police officers in uniform emerged and the crowd of noisy protestors gradually fell silent.

  ‘Clear the way please!’ ordered the first police officer as he tried to move through them.

  Roy Coleman came out of the house to greet them ‘Thanks for coming so quickly,’ he told them. ‘I was getting a bit worried.’ He turned and led them into the house.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ demanded the first police officer in a stentorian voice as he faced the two men and David Coleman.

  ‘We have a problem of fraud,’ returned the first man. ‘It also seems that this man, David Coleman, stole a formula of a heating process from his employer and set up an illegal pyramid system whereby options were sold to hundreds of people. Now he’s terminated the scheme and we’ve lost all our money. We’ve asked him to repay it but he refuses to do so.’

  The first police officer looked at young Coleman. ‘Is this true?’ he demanded fiercely.

  ‘Let me explain officer,’ returned Coleman before running out of words so that silence prevailed in the room.

  ‘I’m listening,’ continued the police officer patiently. ‘Is it true?’

  ‘Of course it’s true,’ cut in the second man. ‘Look at his face! He’s as guilty as sin!’

  ‘I take it that you’re Roy Coleman... the one who called us,’ said the police officer turning to the home owner.

  That’s right,’ came the response. ‘I was getting concerned about the mob outside. They’re trespassing and they’ve threatened my son.’

  The police officer turned to David Coleman sternly. ‘If all this is true,’ he went on, ‘you’d better come down to the police station so that we can investigate the matter further.’ He turned to the two men sharply. ‘And you’d better tell everyone to disperse or some of them may be arrested.’

  Reluctantly, having failed to achieve their aim, the two men went outside to face the mob. A roar went up from the protestors before the first man held his hands up for silence.

  ‘I’m afraid there’s no joy,’ he declared solemnly ‘David Coleman’s going to be taken away by the police for interrogation. I’m afraid there’s no chance of any money being returned unless you litigate personally against the person who contacted you to invite you to join the scheme. That’s the only way you can retrieve your investment. The police have asked us to disperse or they will arrest us. I suggest that you follow their advice. This is not over... not by a long chalk. We shall meet again in a few week’s time.’

  There were moans of complaint from the investors but, realising that there was no point in continuing to protest, coupled with the fear of arrest, they left the premises quickly. The police led David Coleman outside and drove him away to the police station watched bitterly by his father. He was subsequently charged with theft and fraud and, after three months had passed, he was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison. As far as his father was concerned, he recognised that once his son was released from prison he would have him on his hands for the rest of his life completely dependent on him. The problem was that some people never matured to life... they never learned!

  Chapter Nineteen

  The scene was set for a perfect evening in Don’s bedsit that evening. He had bought a small table which he covered with a pure white tablecloth. In the centre was a candle and there were place mats for two people with all the appropriate cutlery in evidence for a fine meal.

  The bedsit was extremely small which meant that practically all the space in the room had been Mai Wan’s good advice, he removed a CD from its container and placed it into a music machine ready to set a romantic tone to the evening. He was full of confidence with sensuous feelings such as those he had felt for Zelda but this time it was real and he was ready for it. There was no point in dwelling on a ghost from the past; it had to be put behind him. He could not imagine why he should become involved with a divorced woman with a growing child. It was not a part of his agenda. The world was filled with voluptuous single women seeking a relationship with a male, many of whom would be delighted to allow him to court them even for a short while. So many people had boasted that the world was their oyster, well now it was his turn to say it. It would be ridiculous for him to burden himself with a woman such as Zelda who carried so much emotional baggage. His mind drifted to Anya.
She had looked so beautiful standing in the doorway in her gorgeous red dress and high-heeled stilettos when he was her without her mask. He laughed to himself when he thought about the situation. Neither of them recognised the other. How odd was that? Two people who worked together on a daily basis suddenly failed to recognise each other. Her image framed itself on his mind. She was so elegant, with such a fantastic hairstyle and a wonderful figure. He failed to understand why he hand’t noticed anything about her before. She had just been a working colleague until that moment... nothing more. He had spent three months wondering what her face looked like, sometimes itching to tear off her mask, and now he knew. It didn’t matter to him what she looked like before her motor vehicle accident. It was how she appeared to him now.