28 comments/ 20052 views/ 12 favorites Don't Start Something By: Cromagnonman Have you ever had one of those days when you should never have got out of bed? Well I have and it happened about a week ago. It began as a perfectly normal day, I rolled over and kissed my wife on the cheek before slipping out and heading for the en-suite and my morning ablutions. These over, I quickly slipped into my suit and headed for the kitchen and breakfast. Rosa, our maid had this waiting for me, along with the morning paper for me to scan while eating. A quick glance at the business pages as I sipped my coffee, nothing unusual in it, our shares were holding steady on the strength of our profit announcement yesterday. All was looking good. I slipped into our bedroom and gave Emma, my wife of seven years, a good-bye kiss and told her 'I love you', getting the usual mumbled reply that I have given up trying to understand, and headed for the garage and my car. My work car was the latest Jaguar, and I eased it into the early morning traffic, nodding briefly to the regulars as I did so. It was all so polite in this part of the world, most of us were friends as well as business acquaintances, meeting on a regular basis at board meetings, social and sporting events. Nothing to get excited about yet. I arrived at the office to the usual buzz of the business at hand, heading straight for my part of the world. I was met by Peta, my P.A. and a cup of coffee. 'You'll need this, Mr Preston wants to see you and something is wrong." "Any ideas?" I asked as I sipped. "Rumours abound, but I pay no attention to them." She wasn't her usual bright and cheerful self this morning and I was beginning to worry. I grabbed the files that I had been working on and headed for the halls of power, the corner office. As I entered, Rhonda, his P.A. buzzed and then told me to go straight in. "Ah, Ewan, take a seat." I sat. There was a distinct pause. "This is hard for me son," He was my Father-in-Law and has called me that since I married his daughter. "This is difficult for me, but I'm afraid that I have to let you go." "What?" Wow, talk about a shock. I never saw this coming, not in a million years did I suspect this was about to happen. "What possible reason can you have for firing me? I was under the impression that you were perfectly satisfied with my work performance." "I am, and that's what has made this difficult for me. You see. . . . . . Oh fuck it, pardon the language, but I have no choice. The decision has been taken out of my hands, you see, Emma wants a divorce, and it would be most uncomfortable for you to stay in this company after that happens." "Why was I not aware of this little bit of news?" "I wasn't until yesterday. Ewan, I wish that I had the cojones to stand up to the women in my family, but being the coward that I am, I just can't. She who must be obeyed, that's my wife, has a controlling interest in this company that she inherited from her father, my former boss, and if I don't do as she tells me, I'll find myself in the same predicament as you're in. I enjoy the lifestyle too much to give up on it at this late stage in my life. If you must know, I have only a few more years before I'll be put out to pasture, and when that happens, they won't see me for dust. I'll have enough salted away to last me for the rest of my miserable life. It's times like this when I wish that I could piss off right now." "How long have I got?" I was thinking that I would be given at least two weeks' notice so that I could put feelers out for a new position. "You will have one hour to clear your desk. I gather that removalists are removing your things from your home as we speak. They are being taken to an apartment that the ladies have magnanimously given you. I have the keys here." He tossed them over the desk to me. "The address is on the tag." I looked at it, at least it was in a good location. "I feel that I should warn you that I will be seeking legal advice over this." "If it's money that you're worried about, I've been told that you are being handsomely compensated." He tossed an envelope over the desk. I opened it. I found a printed copy of an electronic fund transfer, and while I wouldn't call it a handsome compensation, it would suffice for the time being. "This should get me a good lawyer." I stood to leave. "Ewan, please, take some time to think this through. Don't start something that is only going to get you hurt. I should tell you that I am as pissed off as you are about this, you are a good man, you have qualities rare in this world, and I fought as hard as I could to keep you, even suggesting that a transfer overseas to one of our offshore locations would be a better outcome, but that was shot down in flames. I will tell you this though, if there is any way that I can help you without them knowing about it, I will. If you look inside the envelope you will see a pre-paid mobile number, of a phone that they don't know about." I was dismissed. I walked the 'green mile' to my office and a tearful reception from Peta. She followed me into my office and closed the blinds so that no-one could see us, and then she hugged me and kissed me. We had exchanged something a little more personal than air-kisses in the past, but nothing as personal as this. "I have handed in my notice." "There's no reason for you to give up work just because I've been given the flick." "There's every reason. It's despicable the way that they've treated you. Rumour has it that the bitch, sorry, Emma, and her mother have been wheeling and dealing behind the scenes, and that a general shake-up is on the cards. The rumours are suggesting that Mr Preston, will be next to go." "I have to clear my desk immediately, I guess that they won't let me take any files with me, so it will just be the few personal things. If you can find me a suitable carton to put them in, I can take them with me to the apartment that they have so generously provided for me." "I'll get two cartons. Are they letting you keep your laptop?" "I guess so, it's mine, bought with my money, they'll have a fight it they try to take it." "Good." She took a memory card and placed it in my laptop. "This isn't terribly legal, but as soon as the rumours began circulating I began copying stuff that we might be able to use. These are files that you have been working on, plus an evaluation of the company's share movements over the past six months. Maybe there's something in that lot that will give us an idea how we can shaft them." "I don't want you involved in anything illegal on my behalf." "Be quiet Ewan, you and I are not going to take this lying down, although lying down together has a certain ring to it." She saw the shocked expression on my face. "One thing that I have noticed about men is that, as long as everything seems to be going fine, they don't look for signs that they aren't. The signs have been there for months, that she has been making plans that don't involve your active participation. You are a good man Ewan, and don't deserve this, and I'm not going to let it happen if I can help it." There was that kiss again, and this time I saw the signs that it wasn't platonic. "I know that this is going to sound really, really weird, but Ewan, I love you, and have for years." This explains something that I had noticed. At no time, since we had begun working together, had she ever mentioned her personal life, no dates, and no boyfriends. I had noticed it, but felt that it was none of my business. Now she was making it my business. "Don't you think we should take a little time over this?" "Why, it's not as if we'll be doing anything in the office, after this that is, for people to talk about, and after this I don't care. Now, I'm off to find some cartons." She kissed me again and left. We had both offices cleared out in just under an hour. There were a few messages of commiseration as we left and walked to her car. My car was no longer mine and I hoped that my real car was waiting for me. If they tried to hang on to that they would have a real fight on their hands. Talk about a clinical amputation. There was a courier waiting for me to arrive at the apartment, to take my house keys from me and to give me the keys to my car, that was waiting for me in the car park underneath. My stuff was in removalist's cartons in a pile in the centre of the living room. The apartment had been furnished in good taste, I'll give her that, she had taste, after all she had chosen me. And there were the usual appliances for my comfort, such as an espresso machine. This was put to good use even before we began to unpack. I unpacked my clothes and hung in the closet what needed to be hung, and shoved in drawers, what needed to be shoved in drawers. Peta had put my toiletries in the bathroom and was just coming out when I stood and looked around me at the pile of empty cartons. A quick shove found me on my back on the bed with her on my front, kissing me. "Stop." I ordered between kisses, she of course ignored me so I tried again. "Peta, stop." I pushed her back from me far enough that she couldn't kiss me, or stop me speaking. "Let us just take a step back and consider what is happening here. I have only just found out that my wife doesn't want me anymore, and, if I am to be perfectly honest, I'm going to need some time to get my head around this news. Much as I'd love to have my mind taken off my misery, making love to you is not the way that I think I should be doing it." "I understand. Take this as a precursor to what could be, when and if, scrub the 'and if', you decide that you want this, want me." She kissed me again, just to let me know that she was serious, and got off me, and the bed. "I need to do some shopping, there's no food in this place." "I tell you what, we'll go to the shopping centre and hit the supermarket and any other food place we can find, and while we're there you can take me to a fancy restaurant for lunch. How does that sound?" "Very contrived and very domesticated. Let's do it." I led the way down to the garage under the building to find my real car, a very rare beast, a Citroen SM, a result of the marriage between Citroen and Maserati in the 70's, a marriage also of futuristic technology and Art Deco design. It had cost me a fortune to buy and another to keep it on the road, in some way it was like a human marriage, a fortune to begin with and another to maintain, one had to love it enough to want to make this investment. "Wow! I never thought that I would ever see one of these in the flesh!" Peta did a quick excited lap of the car before slipping in through the door that I held open for her and settling into the passenger's seat. "These seats are so comfortable. Let's forget about shopping and take her for a spin." "We can always stop and shop on the way back." "You're the boss, boss." Emma had never really liked the SM and couldn't understand my passion for this 40 year old car. What she did understand was that, like a rare painting, its value was in its rarity, she'd read that somewhere. It wasn't new enough for her, and it wasn't what everyone else was driving, and she had to have what everyone else had, to fit in with the 'In' crowd, hence the 'his and hers' Jaguars. This was something that I endured rather than enjoyed. I was not born into money, my parents were good, hard-working people, who impressed on me the value of hard work and loyalty. I worked harder than I needed to at school, and got good grades as a result. I worked hard at University and got a good degree with honours. I have only had one job in my entire life, beginning as a lower level graduate clerk, and had, by hard work and loyalty, worked my way steadily up the corporate ladder until I had attracted the attention of the CEO and his attractive daughter. Our marriage was one that pleased my boss and Father-in-Law more than his wife who had someone else lined up for Emma. The more that Mr Preston and I got on, the less she liked me, and it was this dislike that had morphed into hatred and her undermining of my life and career. I should have hated her, but didn't for two reasons, the first was that I was taught not to hate, and the second was that she was, after all, the mother of my wife. I was beginning to rethink my position in the light of today's efforts. Revenge was developing in my mind as an important emotion. I learned more about Peta on that drive than I had known in the whole five years that we had worked together. She, like me was from a lower socio-economic strata than the Prestons, and had worked hard to get where she was today, up until today. Loyalty was a big thing for her also, and it was this that prompted her to give notice the instant she had heard the news of my demise. She had no serious relationships in almost four years, since her feelings for me had taken over her life. She flattered me by telling me that she had not met anyone who came close to her idea of the perfect man, me. "You can't be serious." I said in response to that bit of news. "I'm far from perfect." "To some women, those of bad taste, you may appear to be less than perfect, but to me you are." "I have to admit that, up until now, I had looked on you as the perfect P.A., but that was it. For reasons that now appear redundant, I never looked at you in any other way. In time I feel that I will appreciate you differently." "I can't wait." She said softly from somewhere near my left shoulder. "I can't wait." (Note: This story is set in Australia, we sit on the right hand side to drive.) We shopped, we ate, and by mid-afternoon we were hard at work going over the files that Peta had 'borrowed' from work. There was nothing of any real importance in them, they were just normal, run of the mill records. But when we began to look at the company share movements we came across something interesting. There had been a two for one share offer from another company for our, I'm going to have to stop saying that, shares. It would appear that a merger was in the offing. I looked up the company in question on the Internet and a name leapt out at me. A man that I had seen having a private conversation with Emma at the Yacht Club a month ago. I pulled Mr Preston's card from my wallet and dialled his private mobile number. "Mr Preston, Ewan." "You can call me Martin now that we are in the process of a divorce." "Okay Martin. Tell me, what do you know of Beresford and Associates?" "Corporate raiders, wouldn't trust them with a forty foot barge pole. Why do you ask?" "It would appear that your lovely wife and my lovely soon to be ex, are looking at a merger with them. There have been private share movements between them that is shifting the balance of power to them. I don't know why this is happening, unless your wife is in need of funds for some reason. They have downgraded the value of our company in the process, it's worth much more than the share offer has placed on it." "I'll do a little research and see if I can find out what's happening." "Oh, and by the way, I don't normally listen to rumours, but there's one doing the rounds that you are about to get the shove." "Yeah, I heard a whisper to that effect. Say hello to Peta for me, you've got a good woman there, you could do worse my boy." He ended the call. "Martin says hello." "So it's Martin now, is it?" "Yes. Now where were we?" "I think that it's about time that we see if you're as good as you look. Come with me." She led the way to my bedroom. My clothes ended up in a pile on the floor alongside hers, and we ended up in a pile on the bed. She seemed to be satisfied with my performance. "Wow, I lost count of the number of times that I came, whatever is Emma thinking of, letting you go?" "I have to admit that sex hasn't been that good of late, she just didn't seem all that interested." "More fool her." She kissed me in a way that had me contemplating a long-term relationship with this woman that I've known for years, but who I'm only just getting to know. It would have been so tempting to stay in bed for the rest of the afternoon, having a bite of restoration food before falling back into this bed, but there was work to be done. Peta flogged the Internet to death all afternoon, making notes of things that needed following up on, while I made several phone calls to business contacts to see what information I could gather. One call was to the company's lawyers to see what they knew, which was next to nothing, it would appear as if she was using another lawyer for her machinations. "I think that you should speak with Martin Preston and arrange with him to find out what he wants to do. He will want to protect the company from this in whatever way that he can. Tell him to contact me after you've spoken, I may have some ideas by then." "What ideas?" Peta looked up from the screen. "Nothing concrete just yet, but I'm working on it. Do you have a copy of the Articles of Incorporation for the company?" "No, but I can get them, give me ten minutes." "Okay, I'll brew us some coffee in the mean-time." "Do you remember . .?" "Two shots of espresso, steamed milk, no sugar?" "You remembered." Coffee beside us, we read through the PDF file on the screen. "It would appear as if she can't do what she is doing without changing the articles. Her father must have thought that something like this would happen, otherwise why would he have had that clause inserted?" I said around a mouthful of sticky bun. "What do you know about her father?" Peta asked. "Not a lot. Martin is the man to ask." "Who holds the other shares, the ones that she doesn't own?" "Martin has some of them, and there is a bundle in some Trust. It's not her Family Trust either." "So, she has fifty-one percent, but needs seventy-five percent to do what she's doing. Martin has twenty percent and twenty-nine percent are in that Trust. What needs to happen is that we find who controls that and get them onside, so that we can block the transfer of ownership." "There should be a record of that in the probate documents, do you think that we can access these, or should we just ask Martin?" "Straight from the horse's mouth would be the easiest I think, don't you?" I was reaching for my phone as she spoke. "Martin, sorry to bother you again, but I think that it is time that the three of us hold a strategy meeting. We have a fair idea of what is going down, but we need to speak to you about an action plan to counter this. When can we meet?" "I don't think dinner at a restaurant is in order, the good ladies are too well known in them, and the three of us holding a meeting will get back to them." "How about you come here, we'll throw something edible together, and you can bring the wine." "Fair enough. I'll see you at seven." It was a short enough meeting, an agenda was drawn up and we stuck to it rigidly until we had an action plan. As meetings go, it was carried out with impressive professionalism, but any sense of pride had disappeared as the enormity of the situation sank in. "I've known all my professional life that she was a conniving bitch, but I never thought that she would sink as low as to go behind my back to separate me from what is rightfully mine. I worked hard to get where I am today, I put up with a lot of bullshit to get where I am today. I can't understand why she should do this." He was looking deep into the empty wine glass. "I think that we should look deeper into Emma's involvement in this. It could be that it was she that convinced her mother to do this, after all she's a spoilt little princess who is used to always getting her way, even when she chose to marry me." I said. "You wouldn't believe the tantrums that decision caused. It went on for weeks until the capitulation. There were two people very angry at that, her mother and the man she had chosen." Martin was deep in thought. Don't Start Something "You don't remember who that was, do you?" Peta asked. "Grant Beresford, he even rang me to see what influence I could bring to bear on the subject. I liked you too much to get involved, and that caused problems as well." "I think that we have the reason for this. For some reason unknown to me, my beautiful wife has become dis-satisfied with our marriage, and your wife has seized on the opportunity to inject Grant back into the equation." I was slowly getting my head around this. "Or Emma has been having a relationship with Grant and is using her mother to get you out of the picture." Peta said with a look of sheer hatred on her face. "Or Grant has decided that he wants both the company and Emma and has instigated this for his own end." Martin said. "One of the reasons that I didn't want Emma to marry him was that I didn't trust him. His father was a shady character and, as they say, 'the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.' This apple would appear to be a very rotten one." "Whatever the reason, we have to stop it. We need to get to the people running that Trust and tie up their shares and then force a board meeting to stop this in its tracks. Can you talk to the company lawyers and see if there have been any laws broken in this. If there has it could become the big stick that we can use to break this scheme wide open." "Will do. And now I'd better say goodnight to you two lovebirds before my lateness raises questions at home." I wondered how he'd come to the conclusion that there was something going on between Peta and me. And then I realised that we had sat side by side at the table and, as the evening progressed, our shoulders had become welded together and every time we looked at each other, the look was held longer than necessary. Martin smiled at us and, as I walked with him to the door, he had his hand on my shoulder in an act of familiarity that was new to me. It was as if he had come to realise that the future of both of us was now inextricably linked. "We have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it in." He looked at me. "If I were you I'd save my energy for the job at hand, you can catch up on the other later. Don't give Emma anything that she can use against you, and if you know anyone who can sweep this apartment for bugs, I would suggest that you do it, and check for a camera in your bedroom, I'd hate to see the smile on her face when she sees your arse bouncing up and down. If there's a camera there, find it and destroy it and hope that it doesn't have a Wi-Fi link to an outside device." "Do you mean this?" Peta was standing there with a small camera in her hand. "Whoever set this wasn't very creative, probably figured that you would be so shaken by the events of today that you wouldn't go looking for it. I don't know whether she would have been expecting anything to happen or she was just hedging her bets, she may even have spies in the place who had figured out that we were close enough that I might help you. Whatever, I think we should screw with her brain. I think that I might call my brother, he has talents that might just work for us." Her brother Michael did have talents. The camera had a memory card and this he took out and plugged into a porn web site and downloaded a whole bunch of the most degrading porn that I have ever seen, filling all the available space, it was a 16 GB card so that took some doing. I watched for a few minutes before giving up in disgust. There was no Wi-Fi connectivity on the camera so we figured that she would have to retrieve it to remove the memory card. Tomorrow we would arrange for a locksmith the change the locks, but only after she had paid her visit. Michael sat in his car, just up the road from my apartment the next morning, and watched as we left, Peta scrunched down so no-one could see her, to go nowhere in particular. Emma must also have been watching because she arrived some five minutes later and let herself in to my apartment. She was in there just long enough to remove the memory card and replace it with a fresh one, before leaving in something of a hurry, she couldn't wait to see what I had got up to. A fly on her wall would have been a fascinating place to be when she looked at what was on the card, she would be totally pissed off. My mobile rang while we were sitting in a café having a coffee and something disgustingly decadent to eat. "What the fuck do you think you're playing at?" "Whatever do you mean?" "You know exactly what I mean?" "Wouldn't have a clue. I have to thank you for fixing up that apartment for me, you always did have good taste." Peta was struggling to prevent herself from laughing out loud. "Since when have you been watching porn?" "Watching porn? Have you taken leave of your senses, I've never watched porn." This wasn't entirely true, but she's not to know that. "Ooh, you are going to pay for this." "Pay for what. Look Emma, I'm not overjoyed at what you and Mummy Dearest have done to me, but I'm not angry enough to do anything to hurt you. I'm just going to have to try and forget this whole sordid episode and get on with my life the best way that I can. I suggest that you do the same." I pushed the 'kill' button on my phone before she had a chance to reply. If she thought that I could be a bastard with the porn download, she would have that opinion confirmed tomorrow morning when she came around. Taped to the door, right above the shiny new dead bolt would be an envelope, written on which was the message; 'take me I'm useless' and inside the key to the previous lock. "You did what?" Emma's mother Eliza was angry as hell at her daughter. "When we were furnishing his apartment I had a camera installed in his bedroom hoping to catch him doing something that we could use. I suspect that he is having an affair with his P.A. and needed proof. The bastard found it and filled the memory card with porn." "You silly little bitch! Now he has something on you that he can use. You are going to have to remove that camera so that there is no trace, and soon." "I'll do it first thing in the morning, as soon as he leaves." "When he left this morning, was he on his own?" "Yes." "Hmm, he's up to something. We'll have to keep an eye on him. Now, we have to call a Board meeting as soon as possible so that I can get rid of your father before he has a chance to do anything. He's really upset about us getting rid of Ewan and he'll probably suspect that he's next. We have to act before he does." Martin was in conversation with Morgan Alexander, the company lawyer, a tall, slim woman who still managed to look many years younger than her fifty years. "Your Father-in-Law was a shrewd man who knew his women well and made provisions for such a scenario. My first move will be to take out a court injunction preventing any further share transfers and revoking those that have already taken place. That will set a very hungry cat amongst the pigeons." "Can we do that?" "Under the terms of his Will, yes. When he died, his shares went to your Mother-in-Law, but it was to be held in a Trust Fund on which she could draw. Under those provisions, when she died her shares could not be transferred to anyone, but retained in that same Trust for the benefit of her children, of which there was only one, your wife, Eliza. Now, the shares are to remain in that Trust in perpetuity, no-one can sell them or transfer them to any other person or entity." "But there are other shares in a Trust, what are they?" "They are a failsafe bundle of shares. They are held in a separate Trust so that no changes can be made to the provisions of his Will without a 75 percent vote in favour. With your holdings and those in this Trust, you can effectively block any share transactions detrimental to the company. The Trustees are under instruction to block any transactions that will diminish the family holdings in the company." "But who are the Trustees, and shouldn't we speak with them to warn them of what is happening?" "They already know and have instigated this injunction." "But how?" "We, that is this Law firm, are the Trustees. We are merely obeying his instructions to the letter. There is one other thing." "What other thing?" "There is a clause in his Memorandum of Intent that covers this situation." "And that is?" "I can't reveal it at this time, but will if your wife and daughter persist with what they are doing. Tell me, your Son-in-Law Ewan, what is he like, I mean as a person?" "I can't speak too highly of him, I wish that I had him as a son and not my daughter." "Fair enough. It's as we thought." "So what happens now?" "We get the injunction this morning and then we wait for the shit to hit the fan." "What do we do about Grant Beresford?" "He's the guy that's working on Emma, right?" "Yeah, I don't like him and would love to see him get what's coming to him." "Don't start something that could get you hurt, leave him to us. We have this covered." "So what can I tell Ewan?" "Just tell him that everything's under control for the time being, but to expect some fireworks later today when they get the good news that they can do nothing with the shares." Peta and I were at her place with Michael. "You should have seen her when she read the note that you left her. Actually you can see her." He placed the card from his camcorder into Peta's computer and the screen was filled with a close-up of a very unhappy Emma. You didn't have to be an expert lip-reader to understand what she was saying and the F-bomb featured prominently. "Mother, the fucking bastard's changed the locks so that I can't get in and get the camera. What are we going to do?" "You have contacted the Conveyancer and checked the Title transfer has gone through?" Peta asked. "Yes, it went through yesterday. The apartment is in my name now. I bet they didn't think that I'd check on that." "They would have probably have counted on you not thinking of that, what with all of the dramas of yesterday." "She has a lot to learn about me, about us. I wonder what they'll do next." "In all probability try and push the share transfers through as quickly as possible. I think that we should contact Martin and see what he's found out from the Lawyers." My phone rang, I answered it and put it on speaker. "Ewan, it's Martin, we have taken out an injunction preventing further share transfers and rescinding those that have already been transferred. I thought that I should ring and warn you that things are likely to get a little messy." "We know they will. She had a camera planted in my bedroom. If we hadn't found it she might have been chuckling all the way to the bank by now, but we found it and gave her something to think about. We have also changed the locks on the doors, I don't know why she thought that we wouldn't think of that, or the camera, but you should have heard the language when she went around to get to the camera this morning after she'd seen what was on the memory card. 16GB's of really heavy porn." "I think that you and Peta should make yourselves scarce for a while, I know that I am. I'm off to Melbourne on a business trip. I'll call Eliza from there and tell her that I was called down there suddenly and would be back tomorrow. Then I'm jumping on a plane to London." "But what if they try something while you're gone?" "They can do nothing, legally that is, for the time being until there's a court hearing on that injunction. The company Lawyers will handle that, they seem to have an ace up their sleeve. In the meantime, a low profile is the name of the game, and I suggest somewhere other than your apartment or Peta's place. They are capable of putting two and two together and coming up with you and Peta." We decided that we needed to be devious in our departure. I retrieved the SM from my apartment garage and drove it to a mate's workshop where we stashed it in a back corner under a cover. We then drove Peta's car to a parking station near the airport that specialises in storage of cars for those people travelling for more than a day or two. It was from there that we caught a cab to a car rental agency and rented an inconspicuous hatch for the long drive to her grand-parents farm. We supposed that when we didn't surface for a couple of days they would start looking and set their nets far and wide. Eventually they would find us, but hopefully it wouldn't be before this had reached a satisfactory conclusion. There was a down side to this, we weren't around when it hit the fan. "What the fuck are you playing at?" Grant's voice was loud enough not to need a phone. "What do you mean? We've done nothing." "The share transfers have been cancelled." "What? That can't be, I signed the documents authorising them two weeks ago, and they can't be cancelled." "They not only can, but have been. I suggest that you speak to your husband and find out what's behind this, Ewan couldn't have done anything, he doesn't have the authority, or does he?" "Not anymore he doesn't." She rang Martin and caught him just as he left the arrivals hall at Tullamarine. "Martin, where are you, I need to speak to you." "I'm on my way to the Melbourne office for an emergency meeting. I'll be back tomorrow." "What do you know about the cancelling of share transfers?" "I didn't know that any shares were being transferred, who authorised that?" "I did. But there has been an injunction taken out by the company Lawyers cancelling the transactions." "I guess that they have a reason for doing that. Look, we'll discuss it when I get home." "I guess that I'll have to wait until then. 'Bye." The next drama happened when Martin never arrived home. There was little that Eliza could do about it until the next morning and, after a phone call, she had to add his name to the growing list of the disappeared personnel. She had already been informed by Grant that I hadn't been in my apartment all evening. "What about that bitch of a P.A, of his, Peta?" "She hasn't been home either." "Are you sure?" "Look, I've hired the best to watch their places and, if they say that neither of them were home last night, then neither of them were." "What about Ewan's car, is it still in the garage at his apartment?" "No, it wasn't there when my guys got there yesterday afternoon and they kept a watch for it arriving back, but it never did." "What about her car?" "Hasn't been seen." "It would appear that the two of them have gone to ground somewhere. Find them and quickly." Eliza then rang the office and spoke to Rhonda. "Has Martin called in this morning?" "No, why?" "He rang from Melbourne yesterday and said that he'd be home this morning, but I haven't seen him." "I don't know anything about that. He rang in yesterday morning and told me that he had meetings all morning and would be in sometime during the afternoon. It's not like him not to show up when he said that he would. I'm worried, he hasn't been himself lately, not since he had to fire Ewan. That really upset him." "Well, when you see him tell him to ring me straight away, it's important." Rhonda smiled to herself, she knew that something was going down with the company and that Martin had been to see the company Lawyers about it. She had got the impression that, whatever it was, it would lead to a confrontation between Martin and Eliza that would see major changes to the company structure. She also hoped that Martin would come out on top, because she did not like Eliza at all. "What do you mean that they have disappeared?" Grant was getting desperate. "We have located her car in a parking station near the airport. We contacted our tame cop and he made enquiries with all of the airlines and they have not flown out on either domestic or international flights." "Which means that they are still in the country. Try the car rentals, start close to the airport and work out. If that fails try the bus station and the trains. There has to be some trace of them." Eliza and Emma were not happy, they didn't want me and Peta running around on the loose with the potential of causing trouble for them. "I don't need to tell you that they need to be found. I know that Ewan is behind this court injunction, and he's probably gotten Martin on his side. Between them they can fuck up this business totally. In the mean time I have spoken to my Lawyer and he has told me that the injunction should be lifted in the next day or two, and that we should be ready to move as quickly as possible to get this transaction through, or we stand to lose the lot. I don't know where he gets that idea from, but we have to assume that he knows what he's talking about." "Don't worry, we'll find them and put an end to this whole fiasco." "While you're looking for people, Martin seems to have gone missing. I want him found as well." "My men are stretched to their limits just looking for Ewan and Peta, they have no more men to bring in. You'll need to either cough up for us to hire additional men or hire another firm to chase Martin." "Do what you have to do, I don't care." It took time, several hours in fact, for the team to locate Ewan and Peta. They found the rental agency that had rented them a car. Armed with the registration number, they began a search, firstly of hotel car parks, and then other accommodation, until someone got the bright idea that they could be staying with relatives. A search of likely candidates settled on Peta's grandparents who ran a horse stud and Bed and Breakfast in the Hunter Valley. The use of high powered binoculars from the boundary fence located the rental car. "We've found them." Grant was told. "They are staying with her grandparents in the Hunter Valley." "Stay there, I'm on my way." It was just on dusk when he arrived where the agent was parked. "They haven't moved. They have been wandering around the property looking at the horses in the paddocks, and playing with the family dogs, all very domestic. It would seem that they are here for the duration." "How many other people are there?" "Just her grandparents, there are no guests in the B&B cabins, and the staff have all gone home." "Good. It's time for those two meddling people to cease to exist." He had taken a package from the boot of his car. "This should do the trick." It was a package of C4 complete with detonators and a remote trigger. "What the fuck are you doing? That'll blow them to kingdom come." "From there they can't harm us." "Count me out, I want no part in this." These were to be his last words, a muffled 'pop' and he fell to the ground. Grant tucked the silenced 9mm Glock into the waist band of his trousers. He waited until it was dark before opening the gate and heading down the long driveway towards the cabin where he had seen Ewan and Peta heading after dinner. He figured that they would be otherwise occupied and not hear his arrival. He was just placing the explosives under the cabin when he heard a low growl from behind him. He turned to face the noise to be confronted by a set of white teeth surrounded by a grey beard. It was a dog, and he knew enough about dogs to realise that a dog that bares its teeth and growls at you is not afraid of you. A dog that barks is defending his territory, but is probably more afraid of you than the other way round, and you can probably bluff it. You have no show of bluffing a dog that growls at you. He edged his hand slowly towards his waist band, trying not to make a sudden movement that would attract the attention of the dog. Slowly withdrawing the Glock from his belt he swung it towards the teeth. He never made it, a set of strong jaws clamped onto his wrist. His scream of pain was loud and, even if they had been in a deep sleep, would have woken Peta and I, as well as her grandparents. Don't Start Something The wash of light from the front door highlighted the scene. Grant was lying on the ground with one dog's jaws clamped onto his wrist, with the other dog's muzzle a couple of centimetres from his face, the growl still coming from it. I stooped to pick up the pistol. "Well look who's here, hi Grant." "Get them off me." "No, I don't think I'll do that, for a start, I can't give them commands that they will obey, they are not my dogs, and they're having too good a time for me to interrupt." I stooped to retrieve the package of explosives from under the cabin. "Planning to do a little percussion fishing in the creek were you?" I pulled the detonator from the package as torchlight announced the arrival of Peta's grandparents. "What's going on here?" Her grandfather asked. "It would appear that this man wants to harm us and Bruno and Fritz decided to join in the festivities." Bruno and Fritz were a pair of Standard Schnauzers. This breed are known for being fiercely protective and fearless in defence of their owners and property. "Bruno, let him go." Bruno released Grants wrist and there was a large amount of blood oozing from the wound. "Sit." Both dogs now sat centimetres from Grant, who now thought better of making any sudden movements. "The police are on their way. As soon as these two heard something and headed out to investigate I called them." "I'm glad that we made friends with them this afternoon, I wouldn't like to be on their wrong side." "We might as well make ourselves comfortable." He said to us. "You'd better keep pressure on that wrist, or you'll bleed to death." He said to Grant. "Stay." He said to Bruno and Fritz, who stayed. Twenty minutes later headlights and flashing red and blue lights announced the arrival of the police. Peta's grandfather went out with his torch and signalled for them to come over to the cottage. "What's happening here John?" Sergeant Ford asked as he climbed out of his car. "This man came here to plant an explosive device under this cabin, where my grand-daughter and her friend were staying. Bruno and Fritz decided not to allow him to blow them up." "Looks like I'd better call the Ambo's, he doesn't look like he'll bleed to death while we wait, so we'll let the dogs mind him until they get here. Let's go inside and have a coffee in the meantime." Sergeant Ford looked over the explosive device as we waited. "This guy was serious, there's more than enough here to wipe this cabin off the face of the earth and everyone in it." He picked up the pistol and turned it over in his hand. "Not the kind of weapon that a law-abiding citizen would carry, I would hazard a guess that it's not registered in the small arms registry. Do you know him?" He asked us. "Yes, his name is Grant Beresford and he's involved in some share transactions, along with my in-Laws that we're trying to prevent." "Ah, money, the love of which is the cause of a lot of our problems. If greed and lust didn't exist, I'd be doing nothing other than investigating car smashes and issuing speeding tickets." The ambulance arrived and John went out to call off the dogs so that they could treat Grant. Grant tried to sit up but Bruno growled at him and he put his hands up in surrender and slumped back to the ground. Sergeant Ford walked to the ambulance as Grant was loaded into it. "I'll get one of our guys to meet you at the hospital and babysit him until tomorrow, he has a lot of questions to answer." "Okay Sarge, see you back at the hospital." They didn't bother with the siren as they left, there was no-one out here to warn. "There's two cars parked up on the road, so maybe there's another guy around, we'll check on them on the way out. We'll need for you two to come into town tomorrow to make a statement. In the meantime I'll make a few enquiries of my own. Good night all." We watched as they drove off the property and stopped on the road to investigate the two cars. When they hadn't moved for some minutes I decided to go and investigate. There was a dead body beside one of the cars, it had a gunshot wound in its back. "Go back, we'll have to wait for the ambulance to come back, but there's nothing that you can do here." It was soon quiet. Peta and I sat on the sofa, each with a dog's head on our lap. These were nothing like the two dogs that had captured Grant and then stood guard over him, not allowing him to move. "I have a horrible suspicion that things are going to get much worse before they get better." I was vocalising my thoughts. "What surprises me is how could Emma even think that Grant was better than you?" "There's no accounting for taste, is there?" "I think that I have very good taste." "I have no complaints on that score. I think that we're safe enough for the time being, what say we send the dogs back up to the house and go to bed, although I don't know that I'll be able to get to sleep after what has happened tonight." "You were thinking of sleeping were you?" "Eventually, yes." We walked the dogs to the door and they ran off up to the house. We called into the police station the next morning to be confronted by a barrage of questions and some explanations. "Who is Eliza Preston and Emma Macklin?" "Emma is my wife, and Eliza is her mother, why?" "Our little songbird over at the hospital is claiming that they hired him to kill you and even provided the wherewithal. You have a very strange family if the women can lay their hands on C4, let alone a silenced Glock." "I think that you'll find that they are all in this together, finding out who is responsible for what my take some doing. They'll blame each other, leaving you to prove who is innocent of each charge." "I've spoken to my bosses in town, they are going to arrest the ladies this morning by the way, but I think that they will jointly charge each of them with the whole lot." The direct threat having passed, Peta and I headed back into town to be met by an irate wife and Mother-in-Law. They had made a brief court appearance, nothing more than the charges being read and pleas taken. Bail was set at $500,000 each and they had to hand in their Passports to prevent them fleeing the country. Given their present situation, I'm sure that they could find a way to get out of the country. Martin was on his way back from London to join the fight to save the company. It began with a meeting attended by Morgan Alexander and Martin representing the company, and Brandon Phelps and Eliza Preston representing their interests. It was held before a Referee appointed by the court to mediate between the parties to see if a court hearing could be avoided. "It is our submission," Phelps began, "that the provisions of the Will of James Oliver could not possibly cover all business contingencies. While it may have been perfectly adequate at the time that it was drawn up, the rules governing the conduct of business has changed significantly. The course of action that Mrs Preston has proposed fall within the current rules." "That may be the case under normal circumstances, but the underlying reasons for the conditions that he placed on his Will remain the same, and that is the need to ensure that the business is run in a proper manner. For the past twenty years the company has been run efficiently by Mr Oliver's Son-in-Law, Mr Martin Preston, who he groomed for the job. His main aim was to ensure that the business was quarantined from outside influences that were detrimental to the smooth operation of the company. Mr Preston in turn, has been grooming his Son-in-Law, Mr Ewan Macklin, to take over his role as CEO, and that was until Mrs Preston used her influence and had Mr Macklin dismissed from his position. The company is facing litigation in that matter brought by Mr Macklin for wrongful dismissal. We, acting on behalf of the company, have advised the company to settle the matter out of court and pay Mr Macklin compensation commensurate with his worth to the company." "In this case before the courts, the transactions carried out by Mrs Preston were viewed to be detrimental to the company wellbeing by both Mr Preston and the other Trustee. The changes sought to be carried out by Mrs Preston, with no prior reference or knowledge to the company management, require a 75% vote of the shareholders to be approved. The combined shareholding of Mr Preston and the other Trustee is 49%, enough to block these transactions." "Mrs Preston holds a 51% majority and can make decisions on behalf of the company without seeking approval of the other shareholders." "Mrs Preston may have held 51% of shares before she embarked on this action, but this is no longer the case, if we withdraw our injunction and allow the transfer of shares to stand. Transfers, as it happens, to Grant Beresford, a man currently under arrest for the murder of a," She paused and glanced at her notes. "Mr Vance Holden, an investigator hired by Mr Beresford to locate her Son-in-Law, Ewan Macklin and his P.A. Ms Peta Shortland, and the attempted murder of those two persons. This man has implicated both Mrs Preston and her daughter, Emma Macklin, in the planning and execution of these offences. Both of them have been charged with attempted murder of Mr Macklin and Ms Shortland. We put it that, because of these charges, Mrs Preston is no longer a fit and proper person to be in control of this company." Phelps held a whispered conference with Eliza that went on for several minutes. "In addition," Morgan added, "If my learned colleague would obtain a copy of the Memorandum of Intent written by Mrs Preston's father, James Oliver, he will see that Mr Oliver had made provisions for just such an eventuality. He did not trust Mrs Preston to be able to resist the suggestions of a, let's not beat about the bush here, con-man interested only in getting his hands on a perfectly good company and stripping it of all its assets and goodwill. Mrs Preston had succumbed to this man's influence many years ago when he sought to marry her daughter. Who, it must be said, had the good sense to resist this and marry Mr Macklin." "This did not deter Mr Beresford, who had kept in touch over the intervening seven years and gradually insinuated himself into the life of Emma Macklin by means of untrue statements regarding Mr Macklin's fidelity. Having driven a wedge between the Macklin's he proceeded to implement his plans to obtain a substantial shareholding in the company. This is what this injunction is all about, the prevention of this scheme to wrest control of this company from its rightful owners and place it in the hands of a corporate manipulator who has the interests of only himself in mind. I move that this injunction should be upheld and that no further discussion or negotiation be entered into." "Mr Phelps?" The Referee asked. "We need time to peruse the documents referred to by my learned colleague, before agreeing to a ruling on this injunction." "I will set a time for one week from now for further discussion on this matter, in the meantime the injunction stands. All previous share transactions are to be rescinded and the shares returned to Mrs Preston. I have read briefly the Memorandum on Intent provided by Ms Alexander, and rule that the previsions therein are legal and binding. Mrs Preston is unable to trade any shares in this company." Eliza went immediately into damage control, and the first that I knew of it was a knock on my door. Peta answered it and came into the kitchen where I was busy preparing my specialty, Chinese takeaway. This required a run to the nearest Chinese, and then emptying the containers onto plates. "Emma is here to see you." Emma had followed her. She looked first at me and then Peta, and silently asked the question, 'are you two fucking?' "What can I do for you?" "It appears that Mother was a little overzealous when she had you fired. She has sent me to tell you that you can start back tomorrow, and I'm here to tell you that you can come home with me now." "What if I don't want to?" "Don't want to what?" "Both. What if I were to tell you that I have found a new job, with a little help from your father, and that I am in the process of moving on with my life?" "Then I'll just have to crawl back into my hole and try to forget all about this, about what a fool I've been listening to the bullshit that Grant told us about you. I don't usually beg, but I'm begging you to forgive me and come back." "Can I have time to think about this? After what I've been put through the past few days I want to be convinced that this will never happen again." "I can understand that, and I'm prepared to give you as much time as you need to make a decision. One thing before I go, you and Peta, are you?" "Are we what?" "Lovers." She was expecting the worst answer, so I thought that she needed to suffer a little. "I can only handle one phase of my life at a time, and I need to clear one before entering the next." She's not to know that I'd managed to clear her phase, and move on to the Peta phase, in a very short space of time. I needed to know more about what happened with the meeting today, before I fully commit myself one way or the other. Was she genuine, or was this damage control? If she was genuine, I would have a problem, were my feelings for her strong enough for me to forego what I knew deep inside life with Peta would bring? The short answer was no, but she could make life difficult for me, for us, that is Peta and me, if she was genuine. Emma left, she had aimed a kiss at my lips but got my cheek instead, and this worried her. "See you." I said as she stood searching my face for some sort of confirmation that she was in there with a chance. "So what happens now?" Peta asked. "As far as I'm concerned right now, there is just you and me against the world, she can chuck as big a hissy fit as she wants, but I'm not going there again. Before I've come to know you I might have been tempted, but now, no. Having said that, I won't tell her that just yet, I want to see what lengths she and her conniving mother go to, to hang on to what they had." The next knock on the door came some three hours later and interrupted a tender moment between me and Peta. It was Martin, fresh off the plane from London. "I suppose you've heard the news, hi Peta, that the court has ordered the transfer of shares to stop and, those already transferred to be returned." "I know, I know that something has happened because Emma called by to try and patch up our marriage and tell me that I could go back to work. She seemed a little put out when I didn't fall on her neck and pack my bags to go home." "Does that mean that you and Peta are thinking of a long term relationship?" "Yes. While I still have feelings for Emma, they are not strong enough for me to want to go back to what my life was like with her, it was going downhill, even before this happened." "Good. There have been some very interesting developments." "Such as?" "There is a clause in the original Memorandum of Intent made out by my Father that means that, if Eliza, or Emma when she inherits, make any attempt to shift shares out of the family Trust, they forfeit their rights to income from those shares and that the income reverts to a nominee, in this case me, and when I die or retire, to my nominee, in this case you, given that you are the person that I am grooming to assume that role. This could cause problems if you and Emma are no longer married, but if she is found to have been knowingly involved in the share transfer attempt, she forfeits all claims to any benefits from this Trust." "This is really a complicated scenario." "Tell me about it, if I hadn't had it explained to me by the Lawyers, I wouldn't have understood it either. By the way, the other Trust is administered by the company Lawyers." "So, where do we stand?" "It's business as usual, I expect you and Peta back on the job tomorrow, and in the mean time I'll have Morgan look into pressing ahead with the injunction blocking the transfer of the Trust documents and invoking that clause so that Eliza is removed from ownership and receiving benefit." "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" "You'd better believe it. You wouldn't know how much it hurt working my butt off for the company, and seeing the earnings disappearing down the gaping maw of Eliza's shopping extravagances." "Morgan, who is Morgan?" "Morgan is the Lawyer who handles the company's legal matters, it was she who told me about the Memorandum of Intent that made this all possible." "Oh. Okay, we'll see you in the morning then." "What was that all about?" Peta asked. "It would appear that Eliza and Emma, because of their involvement in this, will lose any benefit that was due them from the company profits." "Ouch, they're not going to be happy, and they'll not take it lying down if I know them." "There's not a lot that they can do according to Martin, who has had legal advice that they forfeited any rights when they attempted to transfer the shares." Peta kissed me. "Are you going to let me show you why you can never go back to Emma?" "And how do you intend doing that?" "Like this." They tell us that actions speak louder than words, well let me tell you, her actions positively shouted at me, and by the time exhaustion took over, I was ready for sleep. But sleep didn't come easily. There was something bothering me about this whole mess, and it kept me awake for hours. I sat at my desk looking at the carton that Peta had placed there, trying to get the motivation to take my stuff out. She was off somewhere getting stuff and I was still trying to get my head around the past few days. To keep my mind occupied I cranked up my computer and began a search of the company the Beresford worked for, or should I say companies, there were dozens of them, mostly holding companies. Way down in the depths of the list was one that caught my attention. I scrolled down to the information page and began to read. What I was reading filled me with horror. I was being used and I didn't like it. I heard Peta come back into her office. "Peta, could you come in please?" "Yes." She came in and sat down on my desk. "What is it?" "Take a look at this." I pointed to my screen. "Fuck, Ewan, do you know what this means?" "Yes, it means that you and I are going to begin digging before it's too late. I can't believe that I could fall for something like this." "Don't knock yourself out over this, it would seem to be an almost foolproof plan to gain control of this company." "Can you do a search for a Lawyer who specialises in company law? Don't try the bigger firms, the legal profession are an incestuous bunch, and piss in each other's pockets all the time." "Will do. What are you going to do?" "Apart from act as if there's nothing wrong, I'm going to try to find out as much as I can about Company Law and Trusts." "Good luck with that, not many people can understand it. I think that it was deliberately written in such a way that the only way that you can get your head around it is to hire a Lawyer." "I studied some Business Law as part of my degree, so I'm not starting from scratch." "I still say good luck." She did a quick look around and saw that no-one was watching, and kissed me before going back to her office. It turned out to be a busy day and a busy night for us. The offices were empty of personnel long before we left, our heads spinning with what we had discovered. "Who are we able to trust, I don't know anymore?" I asked as we pulled out of the car park. "I'm not the person to ask. I would have thought that Martin at least was trustworthy, but now, I'm not so sure." "I'm leaning heavily towards not trusting him. I don't think that we're the only ones getting shafted here." Don't Start Something "You think that Eliza and Emma aren't involved then?" "Without seeing the documentation involved in these share transfers, I can't be sure. But it looks as if Martin and his Lawyer, who he's probably shagging, and I can't blame him if the photo in the Law firm's Web site are anything to go by, are in collusion with Grant Beresford to gain control. But how do we prove it?" "I've located a Lawyer who just might be both interested and interesting. He has just set up his own practise but has several years' experience in Company Law. We should speak with him as soon as possible." "Okay, can you ring him first thing and arrange that? I think that if we can lean on Grant he might cough up a different story about who is responsible for all of this. We might need to speak to Eliza and Emma as well." I caught the look on her face. "Don't worry, even if she has had nothing to do with any of this, I'm not going back to her." Even after a prolonged session of lovemaking and Peta in super close proximity, I couldn't sleep. My mind was going backwards and forwards over the recent events and what we had discovered today, and it didn't make for a calm night's rest. I got out of bed at around 1:00 in the morning and was busy scribbling notes and drawing flow charts so that I could get the sequence of events right in my head, when a bleary eyed Peta walked into the kitchen. "What are you doing? You should be sleeping." "I would if I could, believe me. I'm still trying to work out what has happened and what we have to do, and it's no clearer." "You're just about dead to the world, I'll make you a hot milk and then you and I are going back to bed and, without making love, we are going back to sleep. You need to have your wits about you in the morning." Peta was a calming influence, holding me close and whispering her love to me until I drifted off. The clock radio blaring the morning news theme music woke me from a deep, dream free sleep. I was alone. Then I heard noises from the direction of the kitchen and the aroma of fresh coffee and toast. Time to get up, and I felt more awake than I had felt for days. I was met by a pair of lips, a pair of arms, and a body pressed hard against mine. The lips withdrew just enough for her voice to emerge. "Good morning Darling, did you sleep well?" "Better than I expected, and I have you to thank for that." Our lips collided and stayed locked together for what seemed like forever. Breakfast was over in minutes and Peta went off to shower. "Do you want me to scrub your back?" I asked hopefully. "I want it but I'm going to have to deny myself the pleasure, we have work to do, so there must be no distractions, they can come later, when this is all over." "I won't hide my disappointment, but you're right, we have to head-butt the world." Our appointment with the Lawyer proved most enlightening. When Peta made the appointment she had given him details of our reasons for contacting him. He was able to get hold of a copy of the original Probate documents and compare them with those that Martin had given me, and surprise, surprise, the forfeiture clauses were a more recent inclusion. It had been generated using a computer while the original was typed on an electric typewriter, probably an IBM golf ball, there was a minute flaw on the left leg of the 'W'. It was time for a visit to the police. "So what you are telling me is that the charges relating to Grant Beresford's involvement in this share transfer scam, have been trumped up?" Inspector Morris of the Fraud Squad regarded us across the desk. "No, they're real enough, but his partners in crime are not who he has told you were involved." "Why would he lie about that?" "He's probably cut a deal with his accomplices where they'll post bail for him and help him skip the country with enough cash and a guaranteed income from those shares, at least for a short while, but I wouldn't be surprised if that is cut off once he's out of the country." "What proof do you have?" "We have proof that the forfeiture clauses that have been used to cut off the returns to Eliza Preston and my wife Emma, were a later inclusion, and not in the original Probate documents. We suspect my boss and Father-in-Law, Martin Preston and the company Lawyer, Morgan Alexander, they have the most to gain, he gets the majority holding in the company, and she has control of the Trust share-holding. Between them they have a hundred percent of the shares in a very successful company." "But why did Eliza Preston transfer the shares to Grant Beresford in the first place?" "Martin needed a reason to file the injunction. The devaluation of the shares as a result of the transactions gave him that." "Was the plan to detonate that explosive device Beresford's alone or were the other two involved in that as well?" "That I don't know. I have a suspicion that if the other two are charged over the shares, and are facing a gaol sentence, he'll change his story and implicate them." Peta and I spent the afternoon back at work going over the monthly returns for the next board meeting. Just before we left for the day Martin came into my office. Peta had just given me the breakdown to check. "How are the figures looking Ewan?" "Good, slightly up on last months and a modest increase on seasonally adjusted figures. I'll have the complete report on your desk by noon tomorrow." "Good, I'll see you tomorrow." I was beginning to love being with Peta, she was a lot more affectionate than Emma ever was. I walked into the kitchen from the bathroom and as I walked by her I put my arm around her. She immediately stopped what she was doing and spun around. Within seconds we were lip-locked once more. "Mmm, I'm glad I waited for you." She whispered to me. "I do believe that I am too." More lip-locking and some caressing followed. Do you want me to cook for you or will we go out to dinner?" I asked, hoping that she would refuse my offer to provide the meal. "Let's go out." The beauty of dining out was that we didn't have to prepare the meal, and didn't have to clear up after it, the downside being that we had to limit how much wine we consumed, at least at the restaurant. It was after 10:00 when we got home, and we sat and chatted for a while over a glass of good red before heading to bed. The next morning was full of major dramas. The police arrived at around 11:00 just as I was giving Martin the reports. "Mr Preston, we would like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind?" "What about?" "The share transactions." I left them to it and went back to my office to watch from a distance. There was a lot of shouting coming from Martin and this brought the office to a standstill, the staff wondering what was going on. "This is fucking bullshit!" "We have evidence that implicates you in fraud against this company." "There is no fraud, at least I have committed no fraud. I need to speak to my Lawyer." "You'll have all the time in the world to speak to her, we have arrested her as well." "What? What the fuck are you on about?" "She has been arrested for knowingly falsifying legal documents with the aim of perpetrating a fraud." "What are you on? If you think that I or my Lawyer have done anything wrong I would suggest that you have been on something illegal." "You can suggest what you want sir, but the facts of the matter are that we have a warrant for your arrest and we intend to execute that warrant. You'd do well to come quietly." He went quietly, reluctantly but quietly, leaving the staff to wonder what was going to happen next. What happened next was that Eliza and Emma arrived for the board meeting. "Where's Martin?" Eliza asked Rhonda. "He's been arrested and taken off by the police." "What? What was he arrested for?" "Apparently the police have come up with evidence that implicates him in fraud." "Get Ewan, maybe he knows something about this." Peta's phone rang and she switched it through to me. "Ewan, can you come in to Martin's office please?" "Sure, I'll come straight in." I walked out to Peta's office. "It's on." I told her. "Good luck Darling." She smiled as I left. "Ewan, do you know anything about Martin being arrested?" "Yes, as a matter of fact I do. It seems as if the clause in the Memorandum of Intent that his Lawyer used to block the share transactions was not in the original document. This got the police interested in this whole Grant Beresford shambles, his arrest for murder and attempted murder are only a part of this whole deal. It would appear as if Grant's initial approach to you to arrange for the share transfer was instigated by the two of them. They were going to use that to get the shares transferred to a nominee, in this case Martin, that would remove you from any sort of benefit from the company, and they would have it all for themselves. I managed to stumble across the scheme and went to the police with the evidence and they took it from there." "So I don't lose control of the shares?" "No, the status quo has been preserved, you and Emma will still get the benefit from the shares, and they will still remain under the control of the family Trust. You may be able to gain control of Martin's shares if he is found guilty of fraud, that's for the Lawyers to sort out." "What happens between you and Emma?" Emma was watching my reaction closely. "I'm afraid that I won't be coming back to her. Look, things were strained even before this happened, and it wouldn't have lasted. I would hope that she will agree to an amicable divorce and move on with her life. I know that there are any number of eligible young men who would be only too happy to oblige." "And I suppose that you and Peta will want to stay together?" Emma asked. "Yes that is my intent. My being with her, even though it's only been a short time, has been the happiest and most serene time that I've had for a long time. I want to move on, and I want to be with her. I ask that you allow me to have that." "I'm not happy, but I do understand. I've hurt you, and I realise that the trust that is necessary between two people is not there right now. I was hoping that we could regain that trust, but I'm realistic enough to know that this is not now possible. In twelve months you can have your divorce, I will not oppose it." "I don't suppose that you'd be interested in taking over Martin's position in the company." Eliza asked. "I know that he had high hopes for you, and it will go some way towards compensating you for the hurt that we've put you through" "I'll think about it, and talk it over with Peta. But I can't make any decision until we find out what happens to Martin, you never know, he just might get off." "I don't care if he does, he's finished as far as the company is concerned, as is that scheming Lawyer. He's probably been fucking her." "I wouldn't know about that. What I do know is, and this was advice that he gave me when I was angry at getting the sack. 'Don't start something that is going to get you hurt.' He should have heeded his own advice."