Chapter 58

Jorgreman had deliberately arrived ten minutes early at the place where they had agreed to meet. He came ahead of time partly out of personal breeding, and partly because he did not wish to give Director Johnson any chance to take advantage of the situation.

He did not want to offend Director Johnson, but neither did he want to appear too close to him. The tax system had seen no small amount of trouble lately. If he could avoid Johnson, that would in fact be the best choice.

What he had not expected was that there would be another man here, and that the face looked vaguely familiar.

Jorgreman would never bother storing the face of a small figure in his mind. The confusion in his heart flashed by for a moment, and then a warm smile appeared on his face, as though he and Director Johnson, and that stranger too, were all close friends.

Only after the three of them had shaken hands did he finally understand who the man before him was, and that left him deeply surprised. He had thought those two ought to be at each other’s throats, yet from the look of things now, matters were clearly not so simple. In other words, behind the uproar of the current news, there might well be something else.

They began with the recent weather and the continuously weakening market mood as conversational opening lines. According to the original plan, Director Johnson was only supposed to introduce Jorgreman to William and then leave, but now he did not much want to go.

It was not that he felt there was anything between these two worth his attention. Rather, the slip of paper in his hand left him restless and unable to settle his mind. He wanted to wait until William and Jorgreman were done talking, and then have another word with William.

As he kept up the atmosphere, he gradually came to agree with some of what William had said. Michael’s wife had never worked a day in her life. His child would be released in the first half of next year. Then there was the house and everything else, there were places everywhere where money would be needed, and money was exactly what they lacked most at present. Once Michael was gone, the family would have no income at all.

Michael was likely facing no less than three years, according to the IRS Legal Advisory Panel. The fact that he had knowingly broken the law was one of the main reasons his sentence would be longer.

A household without income for such a long time simply could not hold up. The guilt in Johnson’s heart made him want to make amends somehow. That money thus began to seem valuable, and he managed to persuade himself of one thing, this was not bribery, because the money would not be used on himself.

While he was still thinking about this, William suddenly asked, “Director Johnson, didn’t you say just now that you still had some urgent business to take care of?”

Director Johnson came back to himself. He stared at William for several seconds before realizing what he had said. “Ah ... ah! Yes, I still have some matters...”