“Which ought to have made you suspicions because Eve hates her own company,” Charlie said.
“Quite. But what I don’t understand is why she’s so keen to cling and make me think the child’s mine?”
“Can’t help you there,” Charlie said. “I can only assume the father’s married, or doesn’t want to stand by her, or whatever.”
“Yes well,” Matt said, with a weary sigh. “I dare say I’ll find out the sordid truth sooner or later. Right now I have more serious issues to contend with.”
“Why didn’t you confront Eve about the baby? Surely you’re not prepared to put up with a cuckoo in the nest.” Charlie grinned. “Especially not if you thought it was mine.”
“Because I need her vote to swing the amalgamation.”
“You bloody idiot!” Charlie spoke almost affectionately. “You just assumed Peter and I would vote against you?”
“In a nutshell.” Matt paced the office, throwing his hands about in obvious agitation. “You were pretty adamant when I decided to approach Stevenson’s that you didn’t want to go down that route and wouldn’t support me. So was Peter.”
Charlie waved Matt’s words aside. “Peter’s a dinosaur. He doesn’t see why we can’t carry on the way we are. He won’t accept that market conditions have changed and only the strong survive in this jungle. That’s why he’s being so pedantic in these negotiations. Well—” He offered up a brief grin. “Even more pedantic than usual. I, however, do live in the twenty-first century and know we can’t go it alone anymore.”
Matt rolled his eyes. “You might have told me.”
“You might have asked.” He shrugged. “You know what I’m like. I enjoy playing devil’s advocate.”
“Sorry.” Matt offered Charlie his hand, and after a brief hesitation, Charlie took it in a firm grasp. “No hard feelings?”
“Let’s kiss and make up,” Charlie said, winking at Ashley.
Ashley, pleased to see the two men reconciled and glad that Matt could now have it out with Eve, was more concerned about the bogus claims.
“We’ve still got to get to the bottom of these damned claims,” Matt said, as though reading her mind. “I had a request for an interview from a reporter on The Echo.”
“Oh no!” Ashley raised a hand to cover her mouth. “What will you do?”
“I’ve put it off until next week, but if I don’t see him, I won’t know if he’s on to us.”
“You can bet that he is,” Charlie said. “Whoever fixed the claims would make sure of that.” He paused, clearly deep in thought. Neither Matt nor Ashley interrupted him. “What about this Claire Slattery? Can’t we put pressure on her to tell us who twisted her arm?”
“Well, I tried but—”
Ashley went on to explain about the baby.
“Well then, I guess we need to focus on that doctor. See if we can find out who’s pulling his strings.”
“I wonder if this has anything to do with Philip Roker?” Ashley mused.
Both men’s heads shot up. “No,” they said in unison.
“No,” said Matt again. “I know you don’t like him much, Ash, but that’s because you don’t really know him. He’s meticulous, pedantic, socially inept, but as honest as the day is long. Besides, he’s been connected with our family for years. He’d never do this to us.”
“But he had to step aside when you took over. Perhaps he’s bears a grudge.”
“A bloody long time to nurse a grudge,” Charlie commented.
“It’s been known. If he’s so meticulous, perhaps he was prepared to bide his time.”
“I don’t see it,” Matt said.
“Nor me,” agreed Charlie.
“Well,” Ashley said, flashing a wary smile. “At least you two have started agreeing about something, even if it’s at my expense.”
Charlie laughed. “Yeah, it’s a bit of a milestone, I guess.”
“Roker would know how the company operates internally,” Ashley pointed out, refusing to let it go.
“That was fifteen years ago,” Matt said. “We’re a different animal now.”
“But you still have some long term employees who knew Roker. Interactive has a reputation for keeping their staff forever.”
“True, but—”
Charlie’s intercom buzzed.
“What is it, Gloria?”
“Sorry to interrupt, but Paul Slattery’s in reception asking for Ashley. He says it’s urgent.”
Matt, Charlie, and Ashley looked at one another.
“He won’t be here to tell me about the baby,” Ashley said. “I intimated to Claire, before our conversation was so rudely interrupted, that if she told me the truth, we might be able to do something for Paul.”
“Would you take him back?” Matt asked Charlie.
“I guess I have no choice, given the circumstances. He is a damned good salesman, and I dare say he’s learned his lesson.”
“Okay, then let’s get him up here.”
“Bring him up, Gloria,” Charlie said. “We’ll see him in here.”
They waited in silence. If nothing else, there was a lessening of tension between Matt and Charlie, for which Ashley was grateful. But far from relieving Matt’s anxiety, knowing that Charlie wasn’t the villain of the piece appeared to have thrown him into an even deeper funk. Ashley was grateful when the door opened and Gloria ushered Paul in.
“Hey,” he said, looking alarmed when he saw Matt and Charlie there. “I just wanted to have a word with Ashley.”
“Three for the price of one,” Charlie said cheerfully.
“How’s the baby?” Ashley asked.
Paul’s suspicious scowl gave way to a broad grin. “He’s a great little chap, thanks. Claire and James are doing fine.”
“That’s good.” Ashley paused, taking a moment to assimilate her thoughts. It was important that she didn’t frighten him off. “You know why I went to see Claire?” she said quietly.
Paul nodded. “I think so, yeah.”
“Listen, Paul, I know she didn’t want to do what she did. I suspect she only did it because she was desperate for money. I’m guessing that it was supposed to be just the once. Am I right?” Paul was sitting forward, elbows planted on splayed thighs, head bowed. He nodded just once. “But blackmailers never stop at once, do they?”
“Apparently not.”
“Tell me what you know.” When he didn’t speak, she pushed him. “That’s what you came here to do, isn’t it? Your conscience, and Claire’s, won’t let you do anything less.”
“If I hadn’t lost my bloody job—”
“It’s yours again,” Charlie said. “I’ll reinstate you and there will be no repercussions on Claire if you tell us who’s trying to wreck our company.”
His head shot up, and he looked directly at Matt. “I thought you must already know.”
“Me?” Matt looked genuinely surprised.
“Someone we know well at Stevenson’s presumably,” Charlie said. “Philip Roker, perhaps?”
“No.” Paul shook his head decisively. He paused, looking directly at Matt for an age before he spoke again. “It’s your wife.”
Chapter Sixteen
“My wife!”
Matt looked as shell-shocked as Ashley herself felt. So, too, did Charlie. The three of them exchanged glances and then turned as one toward Paul.
“Are you sure about that?” Matt asked, shaking his head.
“Absolutely certain.”
“What happened?”
“Well, it was just after I’d been sacked. Mrs. Templeton bumped into Claire in the deli where she goes to lunch. It was a chance meeting, apparently.”
Like hell it was!
“They knew one another by sight, so Mrs. Templeton asked if she could join Claire. They just chatted about the baby. Claire said she was really friendly, interested in her plans for her new family, like women tend to be. Apparently, she sensed that Claire had something on her mind and prized it out of her about me
getting the push at the worst possible time.”
“You should have thought of that before you—”
Ashley held up a hand to prevent Charlie from defending himself. It was more important to keep Paul talking. “Go on,” she said, with an encouraging smile.
“Well, Mrs. Templeton rang Claire a few days later and suggested they meet for lunch again because she had a proposition for her.” Paul nodded toward Matt. “She said she was having a difference of opinion with you, Mr. Templeton, about how secure the death claim process was against anyone who wanted to derail it.”
“And she believed that?” Matt asked sceptically.
“No, not really, but as your wife pointed out, she is a director of the company, albeit a sleeping one, and she was worried about the safeguards that were supposedly in place to prevent fraudulent claims.” Paul took a deep breath, looking everywhere except at his captive audience. “She offered Claire a financial incentive to alter our records in respect of a claim that was pending.”
“If it was to test the system, why offer money?” Ashley asked.
“Because Claire had opened up to her about how hard up we were, what with the baby on the way and me not able to get another decent job.”
“But presumably Claire didn’t think she was offering a backhander out of the goodness of her own heart?” Charlie said. “Besides, we as a company wouldn’t be worried about bona fide claims being turned down. If they were kosher, then they’d get settled at appeals stage. We’d be a lot more concerned about illegitimate ones slipping through the net and getting paid.”
“No, of course we didn’t think she was being philanthropic by offering cash. We just figured that there was something else going on that we didn’t know about. I guess desperation made us less keen to know the truth. That way we could hide behind Mrs. Templeton being a director.” He ran a hand across his head, briefly ruffling his close-cropped hair, and addressed his next comment to the floor. “You see, I’ve been a right idiot. The reason why I was inventive with my expenses was that I’d boxed myself into a corner. I had a bit of a gambling habit, our credit cards were maxed out, the bills were piling up—”
“And Claire told Eve that?” Matt asked.
“Yeah, your wife is very good at getting people to open up.”
“How much was she offering?”
“A thousand pounds cash, no questions asked.”
“Not much of an incentive when the downside could be the loss of her job as well,” Charlie remarked.
“I don’t expect you to understand the sort of desperation we felt.” Paul finally raised his gaze from the floor. “She told Claire that no harm would be done and that the claims would be paid out without anyone being any the wiser once the experiment was over and she’d made her point. Claire didn’t want to know at first, but your wife made her promise to think about it. Obviously, she came home and told me, and we eventually decided that if it was just a one-off, and since a director was asking, what harm could there be? It would get us out of a hole and get Mrs. Templeton off Claire’s back.” He shrugged. “We figured that the supporting paperwork at the doctor’s office, plus the rated premiums, would ensure the claim was eventually paid.”
“But it wasn’t a one-off, was it?” Matt said. “She had Claire hooked, and there was no way out for her.”
“Exactly. She came back twice more. Claire was miserable but knew she’d lose her job as well if what she’d done came to light. Not just her job, mind, but her right to paid maternity leave as well.” Ashley and Matt shared a glance, both thinking that Eve had chosen her target well. “And Mrs. Templeton threatened to reveal her part in it if she didn’t cooperate.” Paul shook his head, looking desolate. “All because I couldn’t resist the thrill of the chase.”
“Are you off gambling now?” Ashley asked.
“Yes, losing my job brought me to my senses. I’m sorry I took a swing at you, Mr. Templeton,” he said to Charlie. “I was out of order, but so sickened by what I’d become that I tried to transfer the blame to you. Anyway, for what it’s worth, becoming a father has made a world of difference. I’m attending gamblers’ anonymous and taking my responsibilities seriously.”
“That’s good to know.”
“Are you absolutely sure that it only happened the three times?” Matt asked.
“Yes, I’m certain.”
“Okay, Paul,” Charlie said. “You’re back on the payroll if you want your old job back.”
“What!” His incredulous look made Ashley smile. “You’d take me back after what Claire and I have both done?” He shook his head. “Is this a windup?”
“Just make sure your expenses are one hundred percent legit.”
“Don’t worry about that.” He still looked bemused. “You can count on me. I won’t let you down again.”
“I know you won’t,” Charlie said, clapping him on the back and leading him to the door. “Gloria,” he said. “We’re re-employing Paul. Can you take him up to Human Resources and get the paperwork sorted out?”
“Sure,” she said, smiling. “Come on, Paul, and you can tell me all about your gorgeous new son on the way up.”
Charlie closed the door again and all but fell into his seat.
“Well,” he said into the heavy silence. “I didn’t see that one coming.”
“Nor me,” Matt said, looking as though he badly needed a drink.
“It explains a hell of a lot,” Ashley said. “For a start, her close friendship with Philip Roker. The two of them must be in it together.”
Matt nodded. “It looks that way.”
“It also explains why she wanted to cling to you, Matt, and tried to frighten me off.” Ashley paused, nibbling at her lower lip as she reasoned things through. “I reckon that Philip Roker recognized what was going on with us, Matt. Perhaps at that dinner, or maybe even before then. Eve must have known you were seeing someone else but didn’t particularly care because she obviously was, too. She and Roker put their plan into action when the amalgamation talks started in earnest, which is when she needed to be sure that you weren’t on the point of leaving her for someone else.”
“I hate to say it, babe, but when you’re right, you’re right.”
“Roker probably had you followed to my place. You spent enough nights there to bear out their suspicions, which is probably why I felt Roker always looked at me as though he knew stuff about me that he shouldn’t.” Ashley shook her head. “No wonder he made me so uncomfortable.”
“My car being in your garage would fool a casual observer,” Matt agreed. “Which is all we thought we were up against. We couldn’t risk someone from the office seeing it parked outside on the street and recognising it.”
“If she no longer cares about you, why would Eve be bothered if you were having an affair, Matt?” Charlie asked, shaking his head. “She’d still have her shares in Interactive and could just openly ally herself with Roker.”
“I suppose,” Ashley responded, “because she’s picking up the information about pending claims from Matt’s laptop when he’s at home.”
“Yes, that’s what I just figured out, too,” Matt said. “I’m always on the system when at home, chasing up something or other.”
“Would she know her way round it, though?” Ashley asked.
“Oh yes. Eve’s very bright, and she knows a hell of a lot more about computers than I do.” Matt thumped his thigh. “I’m paranoid about Internet security, but it never occurred to me that I needed to protect myself against my own wife.”
“For their plan to work, Eve needed to be the inside person at Interactive, getting the information about claims, and presumably, it’s Roker who has something on that doctor and got him to do their bidding.” Ashley shook her head. “But I can’t see him breaking into the policyholders’ houses to destroy their paperwork.”
“So there must be someone else in on it,” Charlie said.
“Right,” agreed Matt. “But I’d give a lot to know why Eve got invo
lved.”
“Who do you think fathered her baby?” Charlie put into words the question that had been plaguing Ashley.
“Presumably the third member of their little tribe,” Matt said.
“It must have come as a hell of a shock,” Ashley mused. “I can’t imagine she intended it to happen. Not if she wanted to keep you close, Matt. She must have realized you’d know the baby isn’t yours. She might not know about the vasectomy, but she sure as hell knows you haven’t slept together for months.”
“Perhaps that’s what that charade was about at my place,” Charlie suggested.
“You did say that she pretended you’d had sex that night, Matt,” Ashley reminded him.
“Yes, but I knew we hadn’t. I wasn’t capable.”
“Why the hell is she doing this to us?” Charlie asked plaintively. “What does she expect to get out of it?”
“Hell if I know,” Matt said. “Presumably Eve and the mystery third person would benefit financially and perhaps get board positions with Stevenson’s when they become the senior partner in the amalgamation, which they almost certainly will if it becomes public knowledge that we tamped with genuine claims.”
“Eve is a board member here.”
“Yes, but she has no power.”
“She’s never shown the slightest inclination to become involved,” Charlie pointed out.
“I’ve no idea what’s motivated her,” Matt said, sighing. “But at least one thing has happened in our favour.”
“What’s that?” Charlie and Ashley asked in unison.
“Well, I think they were hoping to do it one more time. They’ve done three trial runs, got a journalist sniffing round, sown the seeds of doubt about our integrity. Then, just as the amalgamation talks reach their pinnacle, the journalist would print what he’d been fed and another dodgy claim would show up.”
“How could they engineer another claim involving a patient of Dr. Andrews?” Ashley asked. “It’s too much to just hope another of his patients, with a policy with us, would conveniently die to order.”
“They wouldn’t need to. They could just alter the records on a suitable claim, get rid of the paperwork from the policyholder’s house, which they appear adept at managing, and raise the alarm.”
Soliman, Wendy - The Name of the Game (BookStrand Publishing Romance) Page 18