by Brian Cain
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jodi stirred in her slumber; the recollection of difficult times loaded her mind.
Jodi wondered if the new feelings she battled with were akin to depression, she had never had to battle such feelings and mumbled to herself ‘where was john when you needed to ask him a leading question.’ Surely he’d know about depression and what to do with it, her resolve and vision had not been affected but she had fallen into a black hole and battled to climb out. Everything passed in slow motion, she felt sick and bland, her decisions were sound but she questioned them, she trusted no one and probed into the slightest misconception or misaligned fact. An endless queue of staff entered her office with information she demanded akin to the truth, she only hours before would have considered petty. Annoying to herself and the staff the new found approach began to bear fruit, indeed she felt drained but pushed on regardless determined to have enough evidence to convince her father when he arrived. Depression, was it merely something genetic or an apparition of reality, could she now see where previously she was blind.
Her father looked tired and gaunt; he slept on the plane but battled jet lag. He found his daughter in his office surrounded by paperwork in the early hours of the morning, he thought she looked grey and gaunt, their genetics meet with a clasped hand and warm smile. “What an earth is happening to us, I run to you when you asked, I felt the need just before you rang.” Jodi held her father as he crouched over her, after an embracing kiss on the cheek he guided him toward a leather office chair along side her, he put down his case and jacket beside him on the floor, then pulled the chair beside his daughter frowning at the masses of paper on his desk. “What have you found that would cause such a disturbance in our aura?”
“We’ve been shafted.”
Her father looked wide eyed at her holding his head back. “Jodi!”
“That’s what John would say,” she handed her father a document, he took it and began to read. “And he’d be dead right, I’d like to approach it in a more elegant matter but what we’re dealing with is hardly elegant or commendable.”
William Bradley Simpson lent on the desk with his elbows reading the summary document prepared by his daughter, his face turned from grey gaunt to red rage in the two minutes it took to read the brief note. He lent back in his chair screwing up the parchment in his fist, he looked into space with a grey bland look gazing aimlessly at the wall of his office. “Wilhelm Brewster sexually assaulted and murdered the child, my god, we supported him through the entire trial on the front page of all our papers.” He got up and walked slowly across the room turning and leaning up against the wall opposite facing his daughter. “Pike and Jackal,” he shook his head. “Does it get any worse?”
Jodi looked at him elbows on desk, her expression said nothing. “There must be a reason John allowed this to happen, he knew this was going on, how can I forgive him.”
Bill lent his head against the wall looking up at the light. “John has drawn them into the open,” he looked back down at this daughter and cracked a smile. “Had these events not been stopped this would still be going on, if he watched this happen he had a very good reason. Neither I nor you would have been convinced of any of this without judicial proof, journalists like to be convinced before passing opinion, or at least we do.”
Jodi managed a slight smile as they forged ahead. “You’ll have to deal with personnel first thing in the morning, someone is loading the ranks with the evil and misguided as John would say.”
“I was in the process of hearing voiced concerns about the same when you rang, the board in the States are having to deal with questions from the CIA, your call was a blessing in disguise. Would it be too much to ask John whom we should question?”
“I want out dad, the children, I want to go to Australia, it’s the furthest I can go without leaving the planet.”
Bill sat down in the chair on the opposite side of his desk looking at his daughter, he took her hand clasping it between his palms, he took a deep breath. “What about John.”
Jodi looked down at the desk. “The vixen will get her way, damn her.”
“I asked about John, to say he loves you totally is an understatement and you know it.”
“If I stay we will be destroyed forever, distance will leave the vixen with a formidable foe way beyond her reach.”
“John will never give you up.”
“Then I’ll draw him away to a level playing field beyond the reach MI and the vixen.”
“Gambling with your inner self and that of the children’s.”
“I hear it often, there’s a difference between a gamble and a calculated risk.”
Her father nodded and smiled. “I would put my family before my work and so should you. I think you’re right, John would no more leave you be than I. I can restore our honour but only John can protect you from the evil and misguided he so ardently despises. Was it god himself that placed him in your arms?”
“Possibly, but the devil bitch from the black mansion takes him from me.”
Her father held her hand tight. “Bella is no more from the devil than I, and you love her as I. I would rather she would vanish but life bears many challenges. John has taught you well but you know deep down inside there is nowhere on the planet that you can hide John from Bella.”
Jodi took her fathers hands within hers and held them tight. “But I can use my husband's weakness as strength, his love for me. I know he will follow me to the end of the earth and that’s where we may have to go for peace and tranquillity.”
Her father chuckled. “Peace and tranquillity in John Stanton’s life, delusions of grandeur my love, John Stanton may be our only hope and separating him from his power base may just create hope.” He could see his daughter looked puzzled, he changed the clasp of hands again holding hers within his palms. “Separating powers is important for all of us, you may just be the one to achieve it, and we better get some rest for tomorrow will be a big day for us. France my love.”
“France.”
“The south of France.”
Jodi looked puzzled and lent her head to one side. “What do you mean?”
“John can still protect you while you arrange to move, I’ll clean up this mess it is of my own doing, the first rule of management, I am responsible for everything. We have a paper in Newcastle New South Wales Australia. It’s a good place to bring up children.”
“Dad, are you being straight with me, you’re talking different all of a sudden.”
“Johns father Lance and I have been friends for a long time, things are not as they sometimes appear my love.”
Jodi blinked nervously and looked away. She focused and looked back at him. “Where in the south of France?”
“St Jean De Luz, as far south in France as you can go on the Bay of Biscay, Monaco is not far away, John will have you guarded day and night.”
“Dad,” Jodi stood up hands on hips looking inquisitive. “You're not telling me everything.”
“Things are on a need to know basis love.”
“Oh my god, I’ve heard that so many times.”
“Yes, Lance Belvedere Stanton use’s it on me on a regular basis, I got used to it as well.”
Jodi sat down, the wind drawn from her sails. “When do I leave, you arranged that as well.”
“The day after tomorrow, a power yacht will take you to Calais and dock. A double will leave the ship but you and the children will stay on board. The boat will then cruise south along the coast to St Jean De Luz.”
“Dad!”
“We attend to business here tomorrow as if nothing is wrong. You leave to go home but will be taken straight to the docks.”
“Dad!”
“John doesn’t know petal, when he finds out he’ll be very unstable. I just thought this up myself. You’ll find out how much he really loves you. He won’t come to you until he runs the show, hell come don’t you worry.”
Jodi threw a pen across the table close to her hand. “Don’t worry, god
, my Dad is worst than my husband.”
“You are all I have Jodi, John is the biggest insurance policy I can invest in, all it cost me was consenting to your marriage. Need is exchangeable, love is not.” Jodi got up and faced the wall her back to her father hands on hips. He got up walked round the table and put his hand on her shoulder. “Come on petal, without John we would have been gone long ago.” He held her round the shoulders hugging her from behind and whispered in her ear. “We can do nothing without him no matter how rich and powerful we become. Leave him for a while, he’ll come back if you let him and protect you far beyond my wildest dreams, that’s what I want, I can’t help anymore than this.”
Jodi turned and embraced her father, she wept on his shoulder.