Jigsaw Lovers

  ‘I assume this didn’t have any effect on him.’

  ‘Well it did, but it wasn’t the effect I had hoped for. He just laughed and told me I was a naïve fool. If I didn’t do it there were many others who would, that he was more than happy to work with. He wanted to work with me because we were friends and he wanted to see my business succeed, and for that to happen I must be realistic. He told me to think about it and come back to him in a few days.’

  ‘So you gave it some thought and decided that moral principles don’t pay bills,’ she laughed.

  ‘Something like that. Basically, the long and short of it was that if I didn’t do it, somebody else would, so why should I lose out? We started working together and the arrangement has been very beneficial to us both. I’m able to employ ten full-time and fifty casual staff, and make a reasonably good living without too much effort. He’s had the benefit of considerable amounts of cash, skiing holidays, Caribbean cruises and a house that would be way beyond what his salary could command.’

  ‘Sounds like you’ve both ended up with quite a good deal,’ she mused.

  ‘Oh yes, but there’s also another aspect which is interesting. He points my research in the direction he thinks it should go. In the early stages he even moderated his own focus groups.’

  ‘Focus groups?’ she asked.

  ‘You recruit a supposedly random selection of people who read the magazine, sit them around a table, give them free drinks to loosen them up a bit, and then have a group discussion about various aspects of the magazine and the advertisements in it. The advertisers are concealed behind a two-way mirror and observe what goes on. The moderator is meant to chair the discussion impartially, but he was able to lead it subtly in the direction he wanted them to go, to arrive at his predetermined position.’

  ‘I understand.’

  ‘Invariably, as far as his superiors and his advertisers are concerned, my independent analysis backs up a position he’s been advocating. Therefore he looks good to them and has gained rapid promotion within the company, and the advertisers go away thinking their budgets are being well spent targeting exactly the type of person they were aiming for. He’s now the youngest member on the board of directors.’

  ‘That’s very clever.’ she sounded impressed.

  ‘Of course everything’s above board.’ He was pleased with this assertion and honestly believed it. It justified his position to think that he was competing on equal terms. ‘I quote for every job along with a number of other competitors. The difference is they put their quotes in before I do, and my friend tells me what price I should come in at. Therefore I’m always competitive and always get the work.’

  ‘You seem to have it very well worked out. It seems foolproof,’ she smiled at him and finished her coffee.

  He sat back smugly, lit a cigarette and asked for the bill.

  As they left the restaurant Diana didn’t notice the man sitting at a side table twist the top of his pen and remove the hearing aid from his ear. The pen was a very sophisticated directional microphone that had picked up and recorded the entire conversation between Diana Johnston and Peter Knight.

  From a copy of Amalgamated Magazines’ annual report James learned that the youngest board member was called Colin Hurd. He was the marketing director, which would tie in with Knight, but to make absolutely certain that this was their man he had some additional checks made on him.

  It turned out that he lived in a house in Surrey, which even someone on twice his income would be hard put to afford. Every year he and his family would spend two weeks skiing in one of the more fashionable Swiss or American resorts, and had enjoyed several beach holidays on Antigua.

  Investigation of Knight’s travel accounts showed that his company had paid for similar trips each year, at the same time as these were taken. Coincidence maybe, but highly unlikely when coupled with the fact that Hurd and Knight had been at university together. James was convinced that this was the bribe taker.

  Due to the ineptness and lack of understanding of his managers Ian Hamilton was able to accomplish the work that was delegated to him for a week, in two, sometimes one day. This left him with a considerable amount of spare time which he used to good effect learning other aspects of programming, in particular aspects associated with the design and production of computer games software.

  One morning he was engrossed in rendering a three-dimensional room on his screen, when the telephone rang.

  ‘Is that Ian Hamilton?’ a voice he didn’t recognise asked.

  ‘Yes, it is.’

  ‘This is Michael Winder. I’m the manager who handles your personal bank account,’ he started.

  ‘I see. Is there a problem?’ Hamilton knew he had been a little overdrawn recently but his salary should have been paid in by now.

  ‘No, not at all. The opposite in fact.’ he continued. ‘We’ve been looking through our accounts recently and we see you only have a basic cheque account.’

  ‘Yes, that’s right. It’s about all I need at the moment.’

  ‘Well we also noticed that you earn quite a high salary, have a company car, and an annual bonus. These factors qualify you to take advantage of one of our special privilege accounts for people who are above average achievers.’

  ‘I see, and how much will it cost me for the privilege of having one of these accounts?’ In Hamilton’s experience banks were all thieves, trying to find new ways to siphon off their customers’ money, with numerous diverse service fees, exorbitant interest percentages, and many other commissions for things you wouldn’t normally expect to pay.

  ‘Nothing.’ he laughed. ‘In fact it will save you money in many ways. For instance we see you have a mortgage bond with us. If you have one of these accounts then the bond rate drops by half a percentage point for you. There’s no service fee if you keep a minimum of five hundred rand in the account, and your cheques are guaranteed to a thousand rand.’

  ‘Sounds too good to be true. Where’s the catch? Banks don’t give things away for nothing.’

  Winder ignored the hint of sarcasm and cynicism in his client’s voice, and carried on as if he hadn’t been interrupted.

  ‘We’ll also give you a new loan account, for three times your monthly salary, and a credit card with a ten thousand rand minimum limit.’ So that was the catch. Put temptation in the form of easy loans in the way, and people would spend money they didn’t have, and the bank would make money from the high rates of interest they charged. It was institutional mugging. The customer was being relieved of his money just as surely as if he had been hit over the head on some darkened street, by a thief in the night. The only difference was that the thief in the street was probably more honest about it.

  ‘And what do I have to do to take advantage of these benefits?’ He had to admit it was a tempting package and it seemed stupid to pay more for his bond than he need. If he managed the credit card and the loan option in a disciplined fashion then they shouldn’t prove to be too costly.

  ‘Just come in, sign a few forms, and it takes about a week to process. I’ll notify home loans to give you the reduced bond rate from today.’

  He went into the Bank at lunchtime and signed the forms, and found that Michael Winder was in fact a very accommodating and pleasant bank manager. He seemed to be able to grasp the whole picture and not get stuck with little technicalities. Over the next three years Hamilton and Winder developed a very good working relationship.

  When Hamilton started doing freelance consulting, in the evenings and at weekends, he needed to purchase a computer and software. Winder arranged a loan for these expenses and offered valuable advice concerning the setting-up of a small business.

  A marketing director’s job, as any incumbent will be more than happy to testify to at great length, is by its very nature an extremely busy and pressurised position. In order to maintain this image of overburdened non-stop work, it is normally necessary to make an appointment weeks in advance, but such was the reputatio
n and prestige of Ackermann Public Relations that James was able to arrange a meeting with Colin Hurd within twenty-four hours of his call.

  He arrived promptly at eight in the morning and was impressed by the number of staff who were already working at that early hour. Although he hadn’t specified the nature of his business over the telephone when he had spoken to Colin Hurd, it was obvious from the beginnings of their conversation that he thought James was there in order to discuss their advertising requirements.

  James had formed an opinion of Hurd prior to the meeting. From the information he had in his possession he thought Hurd to be highly intelligent, quick thinking and concerned with his own well-being. The manner in which he had conducted business with Knight over the years exemplified this. Therefore he had decided to adopt an approach of initial intimidation, and then, once he had sufficiently scared the man, change to the role of saviour, and offer him a way out of the impending doom-laden predicament in which he suddenly found himself.

  ‘Thank you for seeing me at such short notice,’ said James as he walked into Hurd’s office, and placed his briefcase squarely on the man’s desk. Without waiting to be asked he turned to the secretary and said, ‘Please bring me a glass of iced water,’ and sat down.

  She went to a side cabinet and attended to his request. As she placed it in front of James, Hurd thanked and dismissed her.

  James flipped open his briefcase and withdrew a spiral-bound document consisting of five pages. He handed it to Hurd.

  ‘I’ll be brief. This is a transcript of a conversation that has come into our possession. Please read it.’

  Hurd, sensing that all was not as it should be, picked up the document and began to read. The contents came as no surprise to him. In fact he was surprised that this had not happened earlier. Peter, although he was a good friend could never resist talking about himself, especially if he thought it might help his chances of impressing a gullible girl. He read the first page and then flicked through the others, casually closing and spinning the document back across the desk to James with an attitude of bored contempt.

  ‘I don’t see what this has to do with me,’ he said without emotion.

  Before he could go further James stood up, lit a cigarette, and said, ‘Then let me explain, very simply, pal. My company is thinking of buying Knight Market Research. Our analysts looked at their figures in detail. On the surface everything seemed fine.’ He inhaled deeply, letting the pause in his speech create its tension. ‘Then they noticed a repetitive trend of payments for travel expenses and accommodation in places like Antigua, Aspen, Klosters, most of which were linked to your name. Quite a highly paid consultant, considering you were, and still are working for the company which provides Knight with eighty per cent of its turnover. Rather careless on their part as well, and certainly unethical on yours.’

  Hurd feigned boredom. ‘I have no idea what it is you’re trying to imply, but I do have more pressing engagements, so if you’ll excuse me.’

  ‘I’m not implying,’ cut in James, ‘I’m stating facts. You were and still are taking bribes from Knight. Over the years you’ve benefited to the tune of approximately two million plus, that we can easily prove.’ He threw another folder across the desk. ‘These are copies of airline tickets in your name, hotel bills, and cash deposits. Large cash deposits in accounts here and abroad. They all correlate to withdrawals that were made against Knight’s accounts.’

  ‘This is all circumstantial. The transcript of this conversation with Knight was obviously gained without his knowledge or consent. The receipts and tickets could reasonably be argued as coincidental. None of what you have would ever stand up in a court of law,’ he smiled facetiously knowing he was on strong ground. ‘Besides, how many successful prosecutions for large-scale city fraud have there been recently? Virtually none. Good day.’ Hurd sat back in his chair and reached for his newspaper.

  ‘I have no intention of trying to secure a prosecution in the courts, Mr Hurd.’

  ‘Then I’m even less interested in listening to you any further. Good day.’

  ‘I have duplicated this information which I’ve shown you, and if I don’t have your co-operation in the next five minutes this is what will happen.’ James lit another cigarette.

  ‘Please tell me, and then get out before I have you thrown out.’

  ‘Sixty per cent of the display advertising in Amalgamated Magazines is bought by three main supermarket chains. You commission supposedly independent research, exit polls outside their shops, for them which states that advertising in your magazines is very beneficial to them. That way they keep advertising with you.’

  ‘Yes, so what?’ Hurd wasn’t quite so belligerent any more.

  ‘I will send this information to each of those advertisers. I shouldn’t imagine they’ll be overjoyed to find out that they’ve been fed concocted figures for the last few years, from a company that’s paying you kickbacks. The first thing they’ll do is stop placing ads in your magazines. You obviously know how much lost revenue that will mean. I doubt whether you would remain in this job for very long.’

  Hurd was looking very worried for the first time.

  ‘I will also send copies to your main rival over on the Isle of Dogs. I’m sure they would love the opportunity to print an exposé on Amalgamated. Word will get around very quickly, and I imagine you won’t be able to give advertising space away. And just to finish things off, I’m sure the Inland Revenue would be very interested in looking over these figures, which if you’ve declared this additional income shouldn’t present any problems to you. However if you haven’t … .’ He left the sentence unfinished.

  James stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, and then walked around behind Hurd’s chair, and spoke quietly, almost gently, in his ear.

  ‘From what I’ve found out about you you’re not stupid, although you may put too much trust in the discretion of others. I think you realise from our brief conversation here that I have the means to totally and absolutely fuck you up. I also think you’re sensible enough to want to co-operate with us.’

  ‘What do you suggest?’ Hurd had learnt long ago that, sometimes, there was more to be gained by agreeing than to continue to try resisting futilely. James had assessed his victim correctly.

  ‘I want you to phone Knight now and tell him that all your future research work is going to be put out to tender. Tell him that if he still wants to be considered then he must put his quotes in, in exactly the same way and at the same time as everyone else; that he can no longer expect preferential treatment.’

  ‘Is that all?’ Hurd couldn’t believe he was getting off so lightly.

  ‘For the time being. That’s not too difficult now, is it?’

  Hurd picked up the telephone, and with a sense of relief dialed Knight’s number.

  ‘Put it on the speaker phone. I’d like to hear his reaction,’ grinned James.

  Hamilton had been working for the company for almost four years, when he finally decided enough was enough. He had fallen into the habit of only doing what was asked of him and no more. He no longer said what he thought or volunteered information. He watched in silence as they bumbled along, taking far longer to do things than was necessary, if only they were to use the technology they had at their disposal correctly.

  It happened at one of the weekly progress meetings. They were discussing replacing their old computers. Hamilton had been asked to prepare costings on various options.

  ‘You’ve only given us prices for one new option,’ Annabel whined nasally. ‘I thought I asked you for three.’

  ‘That’s right, you did.’ he answered.

  ‘I don’t seem to have them here. Do you have a copy for me?’

  ‘No, I didn’t bother with them,’ he answered casually.

  ‘Why not? I specifically asked for them.’

  ‘It would have been a waste of my time. This is the only option for our entry-level computer.’

  ‘I’ll make that decis
ion.’ she snapped. ‘In future I’d appreciate it if you did exactly what I told you.’ She was tapping her foot in frustration, and getting annoyed by the grin on his face.

  ‘We would benefit by the extra speed and power of this one. There’s no point in buying outdated equipment.’

  ‘My computer is more than fast enough for everything I do.’ He laughed inwardly at the thought that a few months ago he had loaded a piece of software on her computer that actually slowed down its processing speed. She hadn’t noticed.

  ‘I’m sure it is, but for the real work that we do, we need more power.’

  ‘What are you implying?’

  ‘Well, you don’t exactly do very much apart from take the credit for our efforts. And, now you won’t sanction some extra expenditure because you’re too concerned about keeping departmental costs down, so you get a bigger bonus and a bigger pat on the back.’

  He noticed her face was all screwed up as though she had bitten on the whole lemon, not just a wedge.

  ‘I demand an apology. That’s not true. I work very hard,’ she shrieked, her face red and contorted.

  ‘It is true and I won’t apologise. You don’t know the first thing about what you should be doing, and I and the rest of us carry you. If you weren’t here things would work a lot more efficiently and smoothly.’ He was enjoying himself immensely and noticed that the others around the table were finding it difficult not to laugh. He knew they all agreed with him, but he doubted they’d actually have the resolve to support him openly.

  ‘Maybe it’s you that shouldn’t be here.’

  ‘My dear Annabel, that’s the first sensible thing I think I’ve ever heard you say. You’ll have my resignation just as soon as its printed.’ With that he stood up, lit a cigarette, nonchalantly flicked the match in the rubbish bin and walked out. The others sat in silence.

  Hamilton worked his month’s notice without speaking once to Annabel. Apparently after the fateful meeting she had had to go home with a migraine, which lasted until the following week. He used his time to tell all his freelance clients that he would now be available full-time, and was pleased by the amount of support they offered him.